Untitled - Heritage Foundation

The Culture of a RaceEvery race or people have a Cultureof whatever form it might be. Cultureforms the very character of the Raceand it is through it that the Raceexpresses itself. If the Race has a Soulthen Culture is its body. Culture isbasically the product of the Past; it isthe one we have inherited from ourforefathers, and which has become ourHeritage and which ha flowed down fromone generation into another and downinto us to make us what we are. It isthe one in which we grow and webreathe and from it we draw our lifeprinciplesand life-governing ideas andthrough it we identify and maintainourselves as a Race. We are itsproducts and the blood of ourforefathers is right here inside us tobecome our Heritage to build us andto steer us as a Race. We are whatwe are because of out Past and wecan never leave it behind. On the rockof cur Heritage we are to buildourselves and if we are to remould itwe are to do so with an insight into allprofundities and with an awareness ofthe demands of our age.Culture has both Form andSubstance. The Substance is theessence of the Race and it consistsof the lift-principles and life-ideaswhich determine the life-forces and lifeenergiesand which represent the innercharacter of the Race. The Form is anoutward expression which externallyreflects what the Race is, what itthinks, what it feels and what its aimsare. The Form is but a partial image ofthe Substance. The Race is judgednormally by this outward Form ofCulture and therefore it is the boundedduty of every race to see that itsactions and activities are in conformitywith the cultural values it cherishes.The Race must therefore make a propernote of what it shows itself into theWorld. Culture is not a cloak or a robethat one can put on and off as onewishes. It is not the one that can beimposed from without, nor a thing thatcan be bought or borrowed; it is theTHE EASTERN CONCEPT VIS-A-VlSTHE WESTERN CONCEPT OF CULTUREthing that grows from within to form thecharacter of the Race.The Culture of a Race is not justskin-deep, hut it lies deeper than werealise and mud deeper than we canexplain. As an example: it is only aNaga and lie alone that can feel ‘Naga’,think ‘Nasa’ and be ‘Naga’ and it i quitean impossible thing for a Khasi to feelNaga, think Naga and be Naga nor isit possible for a Khasi or a Naga tofeel English, think English and beEnglish and so on and so forth. Cultureis one’s birthright and therefore we cannot exchange it for another. Gone arethe days when we are made to thinkthat we can take over other people’scultures and that we can throw awaycur cultures as easily as we can takeoff our cloak or robe. The World itselfhas now come to realise that thingsare not as easy as that and that if anyrace should throw away its culture itwould destroy part of itself to becomemorally, socially and psychologicallydisillusioned and disintegrated.Imitators are there in every race butthey are not the one to decide thedestiny of the Race; they are there toremind us that, as Rabindranath Tagoresays, “Imitators are but rag- pickersin other people’s dustbins” to makethemselves the mockery of the Raceor Nation.The Triangle of Three LifeForcesThe Eastern Thought in general andthe Indian Thought in particular have itthat Religion and Philosophy ate theSoul ‘of Culture and it is they that feedand nourish it for the Race, and thesetwo ate therefore inseparable fromeach other but are rather correlativeand interpenetrative. They are like ahorse and carriage which you cannothave one without the ether and theyare also like the two faces of the samecoin which when one side is effaced,the whole thing is destroyed. In thewords of Sri. Arobindo - “Religion isenlightened by Philosophy andPhilosophy is made demonic byReligion” and one draws inspiration- H. Onderson Mawriefrom the other. That is exactly the partplayed by the Hindu Philosophy in ourCountry which assigns a reason toevery thought and action. The IndianReligious draw all their characteristicvalues from the spiritual Philosophy tomould the life of their followers and toshape their cultural heritageaccordingly. It is all one with Buddhismthat is there to spiritualise everyBuddhist basic teaching and so it iswith other religions.As per Indian Thought, the wholeobjective of Religious Philosophy is“The Knowledge of the Spirit” and otherthings are made secondary. It is theknowledge of the spirit that forms thehighest significance of Religion. Thusaccording to the Indian Thought, theTHREE namely Religion, Culture andPhilosophy form a ‘Compact Trio’which may be termed “The Triangle ofThree Lift-forces” and it is these Threethat make the Race what it is. Life—forces” and it is these Three that makethe Race what it is. A Hindu is a Hindubecause of his Culture and should hechange his religion to be a Muslim hebecomes religiously and culturally aMuslim and he would no longer cherishthe thought of being a Hindu. A Khasiis a Khasi because of his Culture andshould he change his religion tobecome a Christian, in the name of thereligion he has adopted he would betoo, happy to throw away his Cultureand his Heritage and lie would be tooglad to parade himself as a member ofa new people, the Church people.Christianity has no Culture of itsownThere is no such thing as ChristianCulture. Of all major religions of theWorld, Christianity is one religion thathas no culture. Some of the modes nBible Scholars are of the opinion thatChristianity is more an ideology thana religion. If at all it s a religion, it ispure and simple a religion where allother things are made subordinate intoit. This has been so circumstantiallyand the reason is not far to seek. Wecan never create anything out ofHeritage Explorer 2 January 2013