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The Missing Link between
Philosophy, Religion and Culture
Dr.Sri Jagannatha Swami Ph.D.
Flipping the pages of history one can discover the truth about the missing link
between philosophy, religion and culture. Thousands of years ago there were
Indus Valley civilization, Egyptian Civilization, Palestine, Mesopotamia and
Chinese civilization. In those days, there was no discrimination like that of today
among philosophy, religion and culture and they existed as one. That was a
time when man led a life of harmony with his society and nature. There was
absolutely no distance between the individual man and his society. The nature
was the first great divine order of worship. Rest of the Gods and Goddesses
were identified as the manifestations of Nature and Universe.
Ancient Egyptians believed God’s existence as unchanged and permanent.
They never thought death as the end of human life. They believed an after life
and built Pyramids. Babylonian’s aspect of life was dialectical and they never
believed after death life and they saw only the earthly life. Greeks records
reveal magical religions with polytheism. Over evolution of time, they
reconstructed its philosophical base from their own “ mythical tradition ”. In
general in the age old civilization there was convergence of devotion and
meaningful contemplation and they were merged. The abode of God and the
earth in which human civilizations exist were not differentiated as two separate
and different entities. Taoism, which captured an important place in Chinese
culture, highlighted the ethics of human life. The Confucianism also urged for a
highly esteemed life of morality.
Dating back Indus Valley Civilization, religions played a major role in socio
economical uplift. The Vedic culture of India was polytheistic. But Upanishads
never appreciated rituals. The doctrines of Barman, Atman and Maya rose only
at this time. The period of Idikasa is considered as the important one in the
history of religions in India. The epics of Ramayana and Mahabaratha included
the then prevailing traditions, philosophical thoughts, ideals and morals of life.
The Bagavad Gita showed the paths of Bhakthi, Karma and Gnana.
Deviating from the religious traditions Buddhism (B.C. 563-483) dawns
leaving the ideology of God. More over it remained as a neutral path for
realization. Mahavir (B.C 599-527) found Jainism. Both religions created a
controversial ideology of reformation against the ritualistic Vedic tradition. Both
Buddha and Mahavir were the heirs of kings and entered renunciation. They
rejected the fire rituals and other customs. According to them ritual religion was
not the path for salvation. They organized their religious fundamentals in ‘
logical and experimental ’ methods. Jainism says that every soul possess its own
individuality and confirms the existence of many souls. It compels for penance
and strict fasting to get rid of the earthly sorrows. Buddhism narrates that every
thing in this physical world is liable for change. This expression leads to
nothingness. Buddha condemned unscrupulous religious practices and
confirmed that right knowledge is the direct path to break the bonds of earthly
sorrows. These two religions that denied the existence of God created
remarkable waves in the Indian history. Excluding these two religions all others
are based on the Vedas and considered Veda as their fundamental base.
Socrates and Plato hold major role in the religious history of Greek.
According to Socrates man has intuition and inner meaning. He had seen the
inner meaning with highly respected ethical values. Plato explained
metaphysically a divinity beyond the material world. He condemned the
philosophers of materialism who explained the world as a mechanical one. He
upraised a great reason for the creation of the world, as supreme
consciousness and incomparable wisdom. His thoughtful contributions were a
pioneering effort to developed Western theology. The orthodox, magical and
polytheistic Olympian religion was opposed and was intercepted by
“philosophy”. This reformation of religion became a beacon light.
Two notable later Cynics include the satirist Menippus and Crates.
Crates was a teacher of Zeno, who founded the Stoic school of philosophy.
Stoicism incorporated many of the Cynic ethical ideals in a much more
systematic and sophisticated philosophical framework, while toning down the
Cynics' anti-conventionalism. It is via the Stoics that the Cynics had their
greatest impact on the history of philosophy.
Aristotelian philosophy viewed the God as a pure, rich source for
reasoning knowledge and as the appealing ethical value. Cynics played a
major role in creating the concepts of renunciation. Stoics opposed Cynics for
their extremist activities. The faith of Jew who practice a religion based on the
Old Testament and the Talmud (the sacred writings of Orthodox Judaism) is
called Judaism., is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths in the history of
4000 years. This history and tenets of Judaism are the major part of the
foundation of other religions, including Christianity and Islam. Judaism is not
monolithic in practice and has no centralized authority or leading principles.
Judaism in all variations has a number of religious principles like Conservative,
Orthodox and Reform Judaism. The most important concept of which is the
belief in a single, omniscient, omnipotent and transcendent God who created
the Universe and continuous to be involved in its governance. But Judaism does
not easily fit into any conventional categories. It is true that unknowingly these
contradictions paved the path for the rise and entry of the Christianity.
Medieval history of philosophy and religion begins with the life and
messages of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Augustine called the
Idealistic World of Plato as the God’s Holy World. He named the day old Gods
as Satanic. He opposed Astrology and insisted Free Will. He denied the culture
of worshipping the religious heads. The importance of medieval religious history
is that the religions dominated politics and state. The center of Thomas
Aquinas’ philosophy is God and not man. He appraised God as above all. The
Catholic Assembly had accepted his philosophy of Universe even now, as it
states that search of prime factor is not possible without the thirst of Godliness.
Differing from Christianity Islam rose as monotheistic religion.
The advaitic philosophy of Sankara is the greatest gift of consciousness to
the entire world. It deals with an intelligent approach in finding the in-depth
philosophical truth. Advaita comes forward to improve humanity. An adavite is a
person who understands through experience that the reality is one and we see
it as many and follows in his day-to-day life. Hence he will not show any
discrimination towards the world and treat all beings as his own life. Advaita
philosophy is that man and all natural beings are one. It leads to the oneness
of the Universe. Advaita does not confront with other theories and practices that
deny the core. Sankara argued that the common sense, empirical world as we
know is an illusion, or maya. Plurality of objects and persons are ultimately false.
It is true that the developments of Hindu philosophy related with
medieval period had not been investigated properly. Hinduism simultaneously
had developments in Vaishnavism, Saivism and Saktism. Ramanuja also
improved the application of Vedantic doctrine like Sankara. His theory of total
surrender is praised as prabathi, which was enlivened directly through Guru-
sishya sampradaya. Visishtadwaita is the theological philosophy or Darsana
contributed by Ramanuja. According to his doctrine God, soul and material are
the end truths.
The Bakti movement arose against the orthodox ritualistic Hindu religion.
In bakti cult and literature the contributions of twelve Azhwars and sixty-three
Nayanmars are very important. Bakti path does not insist any rituals; but
imparts the way of worship with concentration. The total surrender leads to
emancipation. Every creation in this world takes birth only to give and take
compassion, as it is the inborn law of nature. Devotion or worship flows from
heart. It is the expression of pure excited love and compassion beyond all
intellectual reasoning and this idea is the base of bakti movement.
Bagavad Gita showed the paths of Karma Yoga as a way of life and
insisted the duty without expecting any results. The esoteric meaning of this
concept is that one should do his duty for selfish reasons but for the total well
being of his society.
Madva’s philosophy is an anti thesis to Sankara. His doctrine of dualism
is known as Dvaita and as per his derivation the soul is different from Braman
and at the same time it never exist independently.
Pathy, Pasu and Pasa are the technical terms of Saivism. Siva who
dwells beyond the limitations of time, space and material is the pathy. There are
three kinds of obstacles that hinder our way to God and they are Aahamkara,
Karma and Maya. Pasu represents the tied soul into the worldly affairs. All
branches of Saivism are reposed on the basis of four Vedas and 24 Agamas.
According to Kashmir Saivism, Soul is similar to God, which involves in
creation, protection and destruction. The most of the research scholars opine
that the Kashmir Saivism is the amalgamation of the Dravidian and Aryan
culture. Saivism considers both the consistent and inconsistent existence of
barman where as Kashmir Saivism considers the braman as inconsistent.
The progressive chronological classification of Indian philosophy and
religion can be divided into two as pre-medieval and post-medieval period. In
the pre medieval period, the Bakti movement as a turning point overrode the
theory of renunciation propagated by Jainism and Buddhism. Later, the entry of
Islam introduced the monotheist religious ideology to Indian thought. Sikhism
reasserted the brotherhood through the concepts of Kalsa to Indian spirituality.
By all means we can trace out that slowly the religion came out of the clutches
of orthodoxy, fear of God, mysticism, magic and was rescued to spirituality,
humanism and socio – ethical codes. We can call this as the first phase of the
renaissance.
The Neo-European religions denied the possibilities of realizing the
existence of God by reasoning. If there is a chance to say “God Exists” and the
same chance prevails for saying, “ God does not exist”, opined Davit Hume.
Kant considered religion as expressions of inner experience. He declared that
all virtuous people should lead a happy life and believed, moral living will
establish a peaceful and happy life in the heaven. Hegel accepted the being of
a complete truth or soul.
The so far studied facts of earlier, medieval and modern religious,
philosophical and cultural developments clearly confirms an important point of
reference as those three had been always combined and never deviated. In the
Western culture philosophy and religion stand either dependant or criticized
each other. The words, religion, philosophy and culture have in depth meaning
and self-standards independently but they always act together. Every religion
has undergone many changes during various periods. But recently this unity
has been disturbed by selfish minds and rulers and politicians are using religion
for their vote banks or selfish motivations. Fundamentalism is the challenge
against the global unity and peace. Today religions have become the major
cause for communal disharmony and wars. Due to this cataclysm rationalists
ignore religion and try find a place in the museum as a monument with a label
stating “Religion dead-Not suitable for scientific age”. They suggest science and
rationality as the methods to attain truth. Because of this Karl Marx viewed
everything including the religion in the eyes of economy and Sigmund Freud
with a view of sexuality alone.
The present day science has touched the sky limit for its growth and leads
the world from a mechanical life to structural life. The world has seen many
religions from the time immemorial but never seen peace through them. The
comparative study of religion and philosophy reveals that religion cannot stand
without philosophy but philosophy can exist without religion. At this juncture one
may raise his or her eyebrows by asking a question towards religion - “ Is the
deviation of religion from the philosophy, reason for today’s chaos?” Terror,
Aids, Diabetes, Robbery, Hypocrisy, Quarrel? Yes. It is true and the
responsibility is in the hands of philosophers to rescue religion from the ties of
fundamentalists. It is the paramount duty of philosophers to enlighten others
and give crystal clear understanding on religion and spirituality. Moreover we
should remove the misconception that religion is a barrier to development. It is
big fraud and folly to negate religion in the name of secularism and give undue
edge to Western modern science for pretty comfort. There are many branches
for the great river called religion. As per their attitude, geographical conditions,
climate and socio-economical situations people call a same God in different
names. Ekam sat Vipra bhahutha vadanti is a Vedic hymn, which confirms the
omnipresence and oneness of God reveals the core concept of Hinduism.
Every religion has a scripture written in a specific language. Translation to
other languages is not able to transmit the original essence and true purport to
other languages and other societies. Hence language remains as a barrier to
fathom the original content as in the revealed form (Hinduism-Sanskrit,
Christianity-Hebrew, Islam-Arabic, Judaism-Hebrew, Buddhism-Bali, Jainism-
Prakrit, Zoroastrianism-Persian, Egyptian-Greek, Sikhism-Punjabi, Saivism-
Tamil). But when we have faith and accept the existence and grace of God, all
entities and movements will glitter divinely. Even the debate that denies the
existence of the God in one way speaks about him in an abstract manner. God
can be realized as a material form and as well as subtle form. Man sees God in
various forms as he regards; but the Godliness cannot be varied from man to
man.
As there are many religions there are many scriptures differing among
them. Every religion claims for pertinence of its own philosophy and literature
and demands for a right to claim that there is no substitute besides them as
their philosophy is the end of all divine revelations. But a real religious
philosophy is that one that gives equal and great respect to all religions. A holy
scripture is that one which appraises the ideals of its own and understands the
spiritual quest of other religious thinking to help all the global mass.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who initiated the reform of Hinduism said
that religion is nothing but realizing God and experiencing God. He attained the
same by following different kinds of religious methods and attained the bliss. He
also said out of his own realization that there are as many ways as there are
many religions. This conclusion is the need of the time. Sri Ramakrishna viewed
social service as a part of worship. He believed that ethical values are the base
of a society.
Vallalar’s knowledge of world religions made him to realize that only love
and service will form a righteous path of Sanmarga. His religious philosophy
gave a determined outlook for the universal brotherhood and equanimity.
A culture of a nation is identified through various phenomena like
customs, produces, habits, education, entertainments, food, dress, family, life
style, intelligence, language, arts and literature. Religion as a part of culture
takes a major responsibility of developing social and ethical values and there by
enriches the culture. Religion played a vital role to shape culture and civilization
even before modern science then was not a separate field of knowledge but
was the part of religion.
It is now being increasingly recognized that the ancient Indian tradition
contains profound wisdom of physical and meta-physical knowledge. Even
before the human society in the rest of the world did not begin chronicling its
early intelligence, India had unfolded the secrets of wisdom and presented the
superior contents of it to the mankind. Vedas are the rich source of knowledge,
which flourished herewith all disciplines like social, ethical, psychological,
scientific, aesthetical, philosophical and spiritual need of the world. Thousands
of years ago, when the world civilizations were not in existence the Indians were
aware of the ultimate Reality, known as Braman. The highest humanism was
expressed as "vasudeva kutumba" means the whole world is one family.
Righteousness is the bedrock of Indian culture which is called Dharma . It is
taught by sruti which contains four branches viz, Veda,upaveda,vedanga and
upanisad.
In the ancient Indian tradition this highest knowledge was called as sastra.
Science and sastra are not two different fields and they are synonymous in
nature. Sastra was divided into two parts as sasana sastra and samsana sastra.
The first part, sasana sastra dealt with Vedas and mundane sciences, and the
second, samsana sastra speaks about astronomy, astrology, mathematics,
botany, medicine, geology, physics, chemistry and others.
The need for a nation to contact the other culture arises in view of trade.
As transportation and information technology started to develop increased
interaction between various cultures these relationships improve due to the
needs of commerce, procurement of raw materials and security. At this stage
necessarily language and culture cross the boundaries and step into the
different territory. Every religion stands of its own social and cultural barriers as
an inbuilt programme. Hence it happens to face many hurdles of contradiction
when it stretches its legs into a different cultural realm.
Human values may differ from a society to another. A value of a culture
may seem to be a de - value to the other one. Moreover in the same society the
values of a community or class may differ from the other. Because of this Nitzhe
was able to claim that God is dead and the values ought to be revalued for
creating an independent super man. In the same way, attempts of Periyar E.V.
Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu, in view of giving a full stop to religious dogmas
created a tide in the Indian culture. He struggled to establish a casteless and
classless society. He proved that culture could exist without religions by way of
introducing inter caste and widow marriages denying all religious rituals. He
declared that self-respect and equanimity are the only social justice. It was at
the time when women were treated as secondary citizens, Periyar raised his
voice proclaiming the women liberation and equal status. Due to the self-less
service and hard work of Periyar a new updating for Tamil scripts had been
accepted, later which was applicable to computers. But from the very beginning
Periyar practiced a harsh method that wounded the innocent religious people.
The in-depth philosophies of all religions confirm that the only aim of
religion is nothing but co-operation for peace, love, living together and service
to the society.
Let us discuss the common pros and cons of any religion:
1. All religions speak about the creation and creator of the world.
2. Religious heads try to establish the faith on God to a common man.
3. All religions have holy scripts and they are written in a particular
language.
4. All religions have rituals and methods of worship.
5. All religions insist code of conducts and ethical values.
6. All religions argue about heaven or hell, last judgment and rebirth.
7. All religions attempt to safe guard the roots of origination.
8. Every religion declares its concept as final and end of all knowledge.
9. Every religion wishes to change the entire population of the world to
follow only their religion.
World religions are confronting for the above said nine reasons.
At this juncture let us finally note that the aim of religion is only two: one
is to develop man from the exoteric status to esoteric status and the second is
to impart ethical values to change man’s nature and make him to live in
togetherness. No one could deny this statement. Hinduism declares “Loka
Samasta Sukino Bavantu” meaning let the whole world dwell in happiness and
“Santi, Santi, Santi” meaning let the whole world live in peace. Christianity says
that let us bring eternal peace to this world in the name of Jesus. Islam prays
that let us obey Allah and attain peace. One might wonder that why there is a
great threatening to this globe in the name of religion, in spite of all these
declarations. The answer is hidden in the missing link between philosophy,
culture and religion.
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