Social Activism
What is Social Activism to me?
Before I go in to the aspect of Activism, let me take a step aside and introduce the term Entrepreneurship in the conversation.
To me, (any) Entrepreneurship is a 3 step process:
1. Identifying a problem
2. Identifying possible solutions to the above problem and then
3. Taking risks to act on those possible solutions
There is no guarantee of success or failure. It can go either way. And thats the inherent risk any Entrepreneur worth their salt must assume. Entrepreneurship and Risk taking are intimately connected. Entrepreneurship can be for profit (mostly) and sometimes non-profit (eg for social causes).
Entrepreneurship aimed at social causes and typically nonprofit in nature are the same as Social Activism to me.
Its just the terminology or words, use what you like, in essence they are the same.
Now in my specific case, and by the above standards, the work I have chosen to do through this website and other related actitivies is 'social' in nature. That is why I consider myself a Social Activist.
I have identified the problem and its possible solution. I'm now on stage 3 (risk taking and action).
Having said that let me describe #1 and #2 first.
#1 - The Problem:
(Lack of Vedic Knowledge in India's current Education system)
Having spent a long part of my lifetime in India (27 years), I had the opportunity to observe and analyze up-close the various aspects of India's socio - economic situation. Current day India is a mish mash of ideas. And in this its own originality is obscured. For instance, it is ancient (culture) but also its a young (population). Its developing yet there are parts which are underdeveloped. In this process of development and modernizing, part of it wants to blindly emulate the west and in this process do away with the older time tested customs and values which are originally from India and essential to its identity -- this erosion of past in my opinion is causing a lot of hap-hazard development, strife and chaos.
Socio-Economically there are huge numbers of problems - poverty, economic disparity, religious misunderstandings, condition of women, children's education and nutrition etc..I dont need to describe it. Just pick a news paper you will know the problem.
Now, as you can imagine, these are huge, complex problems with many aspects and areas to consider -- its not something one individual, one organization or even one government can accomplish without uniting the efforts with others; nor without breaking it down to simple manageable parts.
Given the size and scale of all of the above, the one problem area that I am specifically targeting to address in my efforts is to play an active role in fixing the inefficiencies in Education System in India
It should be underlined, the term Education system is very vast and can mean many different things depending on who you ask. Here specifically, through the word the Education I dont mean the system of school, colleges or universities that impart material academic knowledge. Nor do I mean that I will singlehandedly fix the inefficiencies of the entire Education System in India. Rather by the term 'Education' I mean the general body of thinking of Indian society -- how it 'thinks', how it 'behaves', how it 'sees' things in the modern time..And my part -- my mission through my social activism is to simply play my little part to help shape the thinking of the society positively by infusing the solution that I have come to understand as a possible solution to the problem..I hope to do my little part in the big picture & I hope this inspires others to join me one day. Well even if I start alone, I must start. In other words, doing nothing is not an option. I have to do my part however insignificant relative to the problem.
#2 - The Solution:
(Yoga as part of Education and life in general)
Based on my own life experience, study and analysis of the above situation, I come to understand that the solution of India's problems also exists with India itself. We have a vast and rich tradition of Spiritual knowledge the foundations of which are based on the search for Truth. Our ancestors were the one who were the first in entire human civilization to identify Spirituality and Truth seeking as the essential core of ANY human activity. Not just that they realized that this Spiritual Truth seeking is THE one goal of the human birth. In other words, if the human life is not spent in this Spiritual pursuit then its simply a waste of human birth. The Bhagavad Gita and various other scriptures are an excellent source of this quest to find the Spiritual Truths in every human activity. This is a priceless realization and contribution of Indian Vedic civilization and most importantly this is universal so that it will positively impact entire world. For that reason it must be preserved and passed on to next generations.
Unfortunately that Spiritual knowledge is missing in India's current society. To reverse this is the goal here. In other words the solution I see for the various socio-economic problems -- in the bodymass of Indian mind -- is the revival of its own vedic spiritual culture and knowledge. This is because if you take the spiritual core away, what remains is a dead matter. All of India's Socio-Economic problems I talked about earlier, can be traced to the fact that through centuries, successive generations lost the Spiritual core of our existence and THAT is the reason why India declined. We did NOT follow our own scriptures properly. We did not practice what we preached. A good example is the horrendous way the caste system (which is actually a very good social order meant to be based on "Merit") was distorted and monopolized for centuries (by making it "birth" based instead of "merit" based). Just read a little bit of Swami Vivekananda's complete works especially the commentary on India, you will understand.
We lost our Vedic core. We lost our Yogic core. Mind you Vedas and Yoga are not two disparately oriented ideas. They complement each other. If you want to be Vedic -- by which I mean the Spiritual seeking as the one goal of human birth -- then the prescription is through the discipline of Yoga. This is clearly described in the Bhagavad Gita in several places.
Again, referring to the point I made above about the loss of vedic spiritual knowledge in our education system, which is an obvious and established fact, the result is that the society in this vedic land of Bharat has became weak, leading to centuries of invasions, and ultimately to a place where foreigners imposed 'their' systems on us. Be it muslim invaders or Europeans..result was the same -- a medicine that made the patient sicker because it was the wrong medicine.
#3 - The Social Activism:
(Doing our part to spread the message of Yoga)
We talked at great length about the problem, whats its genesis and how it affects India and thus why its important to address it. Now lets talk about what we can do about it. This is where the rubber meets the road..
We know from above discussion, why India declined, why it lost its sight from its spiritual foundations and so on.
Now if we can simply reverse this process by going back to the basics -- ie simply follow what our great vedic teachers taught us through the vedic scriptures most notably the Bhagavad Gita, then we have taken the first corrective step, in the right direction. After that crucial first step, its all about a discipline of serious lifelong study and practice of active Bhagavad Gita living and results will follow..Thats the key.
In brief, my social activism is to do my part to
Spread the message of Yoga as taught in Bhagvad Gita
to play my role in positively changing the mindset of Indian Society
The same when stated in the context of Yoga as illustrated in Bhagavad Gita, gives rise to our stated Mission of this website and core foundation of our social activism project. Perhaps you would agree that any Social change begins with oneself so I have taken this up on my part. If I can through my part, positively impact my own life, my own being and inspire others to do the same I would consider it a blessing. Well, I hope you find my ideas and experiences of good use and if they are something you like and agree with, then please spread them around in your own capacity by sharing with your friends, family, social network, etc. You can even consider joining me in this effort..I would be very glad to have more like minded people join me..
So in a nutshell, thats the Social Activism through this platform.
सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो यथा कुर्वन्ति भारत ।
कुर्याद्विद्वांस्तथासक्तश्चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्ग्रहम् ॥ 3.25 ॥
Just as the unwise work for material results, the wise must work selflessly for welfare of all.
अफलाकाङ्क्षिभिर्यज्ञो विधिदिष्टो य इज्यते ।
यष्टव्यमेवेति मन: समाधाय स सात्त्विक: ॥ 17.11 ॥
Work done without desire, with fixed mind and per scriptures is work in mode of goodness.
[Bhagavad Gita verses 3.25 & 17.11]
JaiBharat
Haribol
