Art Of Teaching

THE PHILOSOPHY:

(“Vasudha” means the earth; “iva”, is; and “kutumbakam”, family) is a Sanskrit phrase that means that the whole world is one single family. According to the Vedic sages the entire world is actually just one family. The world is like a trivial, tightly interwoven, atomic family.

Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam is not just a viewpoint. It is the truth rather than being a fact. The human race thinks that they are isolated but actually they are not. We need to understand the fact that humankind, fundamentally, have come out of the similar interstellar cosmic off spring. It needs to be stated that though the homo sapiens have established in numerous forms and have molded societies based on castes etc., but that separation is only physical in nature.  The internal spark, the innermost vigour which is the foundation of our existence had always been and will remain the same.

We are a part of one single interplanetary liveliness, there cannot be detached.  The distinct individual energy, the arrangements get altered according to the topographical or social situations but all the forms are reinforced by one energy which we refer to as the ‘Cosmic Energy’. This energy is the only basis from where we all get our lives. The outward diversity is only artificial in nature Actually, we all are one and that embraces all presence on this planet and  all the other planets also.

The Advaitavad ( Advaita Vedanta is a Hindu Sadhana , a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu School Vedanta ) theory was shaped to make the mankind comprehend this. To make mankind move towards this understanding, the expression Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam was coined. It carries out the meaning that till we appreciate that we are one, till we regard the whole humanity as a single family, we cannot prosper nor bring harmony in this sphere.

How to implement “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam” for good of the human race?

If the phrase is only on paper and not put into exercise, then, it will become infructuous and meaningless and be just a sterile unrealistic hypothetical notion.

Now the question is whether this philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam” can  be really implemented?

 Well, it should be. Yet it shall never be! At least not by most of us because we are a divided world. We nurture and cherish many differences

It is the summing up of the complete Indian philosophy.

The origin of this verse seems lies in the eternal ancient gnostic astute text, in the MAHA UPANISHAD.

The fuller text is as follows:

“The world is a family”

अयं बन्धुरयं नेति गणना लघुचेतसां उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकं
(Ayam bandhurayam neti ganana laghuchetasam udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam)

“Only small men discriminate saying: One is a relative; the other is a stranger. For those who live magnanimously, the entire world constitutes but a family.”

~ Maha Upanishad

This idea of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam” is also found in other manuscripts such as Hitopadesha, Panchtantra etc. It is also cited in the writings of the political Sage Chanakya and Sage Bhartrihari. It is also expressed in the works of Kashmiraka poet Bhatta Udbhata. We also find it in the arguments of the Tamil poet, Kanian Poongundrana, who had stated 2500 years ago that –

Yathum Oore Yavarum Kelir

“Every place is my home town; everyone my kith and kin.”

This verse, “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam”, is engraved at the entrance hall of the Parliament of India.

Many may wonder that just because we are positioned on this planet how does it make us all a family? We are geographically born different; we look different and we are different in our way of living and thinking. We are differentiated by color, creed, caste, region, race and most important by religion.

The metaphysics of “vasudhaiva kutumbakam” is not something that every individual will comprehend unless he or she delves into the knowledge of understanding. If people are fettered to outdated theories or archaic belief systems or are imprisoned in their religious ideologies and selfish motives they can never fathom the depth of its meaning.

Our ordinary duplexity-subsistence makes us unconscious to the abstract fact that we are all one. But this phrase is the need of the hour. So, to implement this we need to educate ourselves scientifically and spiritually as only this phrase may help the world to survive in today’s complex situations.

We need to understand scientifically, that at the rudimentary root-quantum level we are made up of similar identical atoms. All existence is therefore, a continuous unbroken completeness.

At the spiritual level, the advanced abstract “perceptive” of the primeval free mystics of the world hypothesizes – there is nothing that is not One, and the Whole.

The whole crux of the matter is that the whole of existence is one in spirit and substance – in shadow, soul and sameness. Whether any body acknowledges this reality or not does not change its reality.

I summarize as follows:

A person can identify that the biosphere has imposed on us a very minor but truly intangible meaning of accomplishment and self-worth. This is measured by a overall accord of people around us that we are prosperous and laudable. Substantial attainment and social position are instances of possessions supposed to bring the deference and approval of others but it is strict obedience to socially admired norms of thought and attitudes. All over the world all are competing for this. We tend to choose different arenas in which to compete, but we all are engaged in the rat race of this competition.

Here comes the important phrase of vasudhaiva kutumbakam where I believe a person’s worth is independent of his social standings, and is independent of anything or anyone in this world.

 It is my belief that to surpass the world is to live as though our value is guaranteed, making choices and having attitudes that are not indebted to the demands of this world. To encircle it, is to fully love the people in it, not trying to enforce on them the very stresses one has chosen to exit.