Indian Contribution in Globalization

India finds a slot in this "global cultural exchange" through its strength from the knowledge of Upanishads. The major contribution of India, in the world to day, would be in the sphere of spirituality. The rich spiritual heritage of India, as expounded by the Seers in Vedanta and recently in the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, is the only 'thing' which India can offer for global prosperity and welfare.

In the global division of labour this work has come to her lot, and re-evaluation of attitudes, values, belief systems in the light of the development of this spiritual knowledge will bring the needed uniformity and universality to the meaning of modernity.

One hundred years back, Swami Vivekananda initiated the process when he said: "Here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone, the life-centre is religion and religion alone. Let others talk of politics, of glory of acquisition of immense wealth poured in by trade, of the power and spread of commercialism, of the glorious fountain of physical liberty; but these the Hindu mind does not understand and does not want to understand. Touch him on spirituality, on religion, on God, on the soul, on the Infinite, on spiritual freedom, and I assure you, the lowest peasant in India is better informed on these subjects than many a so-called philosopher in other lands. We have yet something to teach to the world. This the very reason, the raison d'etre, that this nation has lived on, in spite of hundreds of years of persecution, in spite of nearly a thousand years of foreign rule and foreign oppression. This nation still lives; the raison d'etre is, it still holds to God, to the treasure house of religion and spirituality."

He maintained that for humanity to survive and progress, it is essential that rishi culture of yesteryears be re-established in India and thence in the whole world. True religion forms the backbone of Indian culture and ethos, and if that is broken it will cause immense loss to India as well as the global civilization.

That every person should be able to put Vedanta in the practice was the sole purpose of Swami Vivekananda's teaching. He realized the Vedantic principles of divinity of each soul and maintained that religion consists in manifestation of this divinity in every aspect of one's life. He was worried that this universal ideal might gradually get diluted under the barbaric onslaught of combined materialism and 'science without spiritual content'. He clearly saw the West 'as almost borne down, half-killed, and degraded by political ambitions and social scheming.'

Swamiji's plan for educating the masses, emancipation of women, removing the 'blot of untouchability', etc. are a few examples of his love for India so that it could play this role with dignity and poise. There-fore, revival of Indian masses by education, spread of knowledge of physical sciences, and projection of Vedanta as scientific universal religion were a few thoughts uppermost in his mind.

As Swami Ashokananda had said, "Behind all his (Swami Vivekananda's) patriotism, deep down there was the spiritual motive. For him India was synonymous with the spirit of religion. 'If India is to die,' he said, 're-ligion will be wiped off from the face of the earth, and with it the Truth.' He did not want see India as a replica of a Western country. His dream of future India was that along with material prosperity, which would be hers, she would, as the Queen of Nations, extend the hand of peace and blessedness to all peo-ples of the world."

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