The relevance of integral humanism in present times

Prof Rasal Singh

rasal_singh@yahoo.co.in

India and Indianness is the only and only one sphere that covers the life and thought of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. Pandit ji, who was devoted to the society with the spirit of 'nation first' throughout his life, deeply influenced Indian politics and social life with his innovative fundamental thoughts 'Ekatma Manav-Darshan', 'Antyodaya' and 'Vikendrikaran'. Apart from the founding organising general secretary and President of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Deen Dayal ji, who was the inspiration for nationalist magazines like Rashtra Dharma, Panchajanya, Dainik Swadesh and Tarun Bharat, enriched Indian politics with his alternative vision. He gave a completely new interpretation of politics by describing the nation as the eternal whole of religion, spirituality and culture. He was deeply inspired and influenced by the ideas of Mahatma Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Jyotiba Phule, Rabindranath Tagore, Maharishi Arvind, Mahamana Madanmohan Malviya, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.

In his concise philosophy, the essence of Vedic Vangmay and Indian thought-tradition noteworthy. His aim was the politics of social change and nation building in the barks of the competitive electoral politics of power. This is possible only with a wise view of seeing and understanding India from the point of view of India itself. He rejected non-Indian ideologies like socialism, Marxism and capitalism as completely contrary to Indian tradition, Indian outlook and Indian lifestyle. The integral humanism suggests a way to make human life balanced, happy, prosperous and joyful in its entirety. His thinking, inspired by the belief of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', 'Sarve Bhavantu Sukhin:' is the pinnacle of Bhav-Sadhana. He proposed political democracy as well as social and economic democracy, said that these are interdependent and complementary. He was in favor of increase in production, restraint in consumption and equality in distribution. The unity of the individual, the whole, creation and the concern for the upliftment of body, mind and soul is the base of his thinking. In non-Indian ideologies, the method of seeing the human being into pieces and fragmented has been adopted and followed. Therefore, there is no time for holistic and all round evaluation. Deendayal ji has a clear opinion that the tradition of being single-sided and seeing man as a biological or economic creature is absolutely non-Indian. This cannot achieve the goals of the development of human-civility, which help a nation reach the 'Param Vaibhav'. In his view, man should be considered as 'human' first. Keeping in mind all its needs, the social, political, cultural and economic dimensions of its life, one should continue to move forward on the path of sustainable and balanced development.

Deendayal ji has considered Indian culture not as a 'fragmented culture', but an 'integralist culture'. The first characteristic of Indian culture is that it considers and takes care of the whole of life, the whole of creation. His approach is unitary. It may be good for an intellectual or specialist to think piece by piece and suggest piecemeal solutions, but not practically appropriate. The main reason for the problem of the West is to think about life and then try to connect them all.

The centrality of decentralized ideas is the philosophy of ease of public life. In order to make human life easy and enjoyable, it is necessary to expand one's self. Only by expanding our self can we be omnipresent and omniscient. When the feeling of compassion becomes the essence of man's life, only then can he be freed from the bondage of mamasya and parasya and experience happiness and bliss. It is in such a situation that he converts the existence of his 'ego' into the power of 'ego'.

Deendayal ji's sanskar-making was done by following Vedic knowledge tradition. In his contemplation, he emphasizes the balance and harmony between desire, knowledge and action; body, mind, intellect and soul. He explains the formula of all-round development of the individual and says that a person is a set of body, mind, intellect and soul. All four have to be taken care of in the all-round development of the person. Both material and spiritual progress is necessary. Along with this, these four efforts have been imagined for the purpose of achieving the development of the individual and the society by giving importance to the efforts of both. Dharma, Artha, Kaam and Moksha ie Purusharth Chatushtaya complement and host each other. In the Upanishads, it is said in clear words that 'Nayamatma Balhinen Labhya:'.

Similarly, 'Sharimadyam Khalu Dharmasadhanam' i.e. the body is only the main means of Dharma. The crisis of contemporary society is that today physical comforts have become extreme priority. In the Indian tradition of thought, the 'nation' is not just a geographical entity or a physical entity based on physical boundaries. It is related to collective equality based on empathy. This is the reason why 'geo-cultural nationalism' has been given importance while envisioning such a 'nation'. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Kamrup, every Indian is connected to each other by 'unity-likeness'. Even though his language, food, dress, living, sect are different, but he considers the particles of the entire India-land sacred. By identifying the soul of the nation as 'Chiti' and the physical body as 'Virat', we are able to establish a close relationship with it.

Giving importance to the one-sided development of the individual is problematic because Western ideologies are fundamentally based and focused on 'consumerism'. By implementing such ideologies, the immense natural resources available in India have been consumed unbalanced and uncontrainedly. Due to this, there has certainly been some material growth, but at the same time, many types of problems are endangering the life of the man kind. Environmental imbalance and ecological crisis is the most serious of these. Perhaps 'consumption-centric' ideologies have pushed society into a state of anarchy. Society is constantly falling apart. The disintegration of socio-cultural values is at its peak. Traditional and important social institutions like 'family' and 'marriage' are breaking up. Children are forced to live in the 'cretch', then the elderly parents are forced to live in the 'Vridha Ashram'. There is a constant inherent anxiety and agitation and dissatisfaction in the conscience of mankind. It has become the nature of people to achieve success and material prosperity as soon as possible by hook or crook. Deendayal ji could foresee many of such problems. He was wary of such ailments and distortions arising in social life. That is why there can be no other option better than the integral humanism inspired by Indian 'visions' and 'life conditions' for the evaluation and solution of the problems of Indian society.

(The writer is a Professor at Kirorimal College, University of Delhi.)