Why does India have such a lofty philosophy and a filthy living conditions?
Answer Podcast:
Transcriber: Dr Suresh Gupta
Edited by: Sharan Shetty
Question: Why does India have such a lofty philosophy and filthy living conditions?
Answer: There are two main reasons for the decline of India’s prosperity –
(i) Fall of the kshatriyas.
(ii) brahmanas becoming too self-righteous.
Repeated attacks on India by foreigners led to collapse of the kshatriya (warrior class) structure who were responsible for managing the country. Also, over a period of time and during medieval ages, most of the kshatriyas had become decadent. They had some nominal notion of dharma but were engaged in sense enjoyment and were not really dedicated to their citizens. Also they were under continuous attack from others and were fighting continuous wars because of which they were not taking much care of society. Thus, the decline in morality and integrity of the kshatriyas was one reason which led to a societal collapse.
The second reason was due to the brahmanas (priestly class) becoming too self-righteous. Based on their birth in a brahmana family, they started considering themselves much higher and purer than the lower class. When many Hindus converted to Christianity, the brahmanas did not preach them to not convert, thinking them to be low class out of self-righteousness. They preserved the knowledge of shastras (Vedic scriptures) for themselves and maintained their own external purity but did not care for others. All this led to the disconnection of these two elite centres of power – brahmanas being the spiritual power and kshatriyas being the political power – from the rest of the society.
Beyond all this, India was plundered heavily and repeatedly by infiltrators and invaders generation after generation which led to poverty and disorder. Even under the Mughal rule when the plundering was going on, India was attacked by Islamic invaders from Turkey and various other places. Although they could not reach the capital, Delhi, yet they heavily raided other parts. Later, India came under the British rule who although brought some organisation (in the form of railways and other things) but at the same time looted India off its riches and also broke its spiritual backbone.
That is why, Srila Prabhupada said that we need brahmanas with a kshatriya spirit because if devotees are only brahmanas then they will be satisfied only with shastras and will not be really concerned about the society. Similarly, if they are only kshatriyas, then the transformation that they will bring will be based only on material systems; there will be no spiritual component to it. Without spiritual connection, even the best material system is not an ultimate solution. This is what we see in the Western world who are although very good materially but lack spiritual substance. In India, we lack material system, but we can still find genuine spiritual substance. Although there are a lot of spiritual counterfeit things, but still there genuine and bonafide spirituality can be found.
End of transcription.