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| Monday, 12 April 2004 |
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The American 'Rishis' by Selvi Sachithanandam When I was in Delhi last, browsing through bookshops was a rewarding experience. Knowing how ill-stocked our bookshops are in Colombo I had hoped to bring home with me some of the precious books that I had wanted to read and to later adorn my shelves with. It was quite a different experience looking out for books in Foyles or Dillons in London where, it is a mammoth task to go through the books on several shelves and several floors without a warm human presence around to help you wade through this a sea of books. When I spoke to the man behind the counter in one of the book shops in Delhi about my specific preferences in authors, he said "Oh you will find them in the 'Newage' bookshop right across the street". I had not heard the word before: Does it signify a type of writing or is it a name? I had heard of the New Age music. May be it is linked to it in some way I thought. When I reached across the street, my first question to this very agile woman behind the counter was "What does Newage mean?" She simply said, "It is not Newage. Actually it is New Age - a modern movement articulating a new philosophy. There are several proponents of this philosophy and most of them are in this list that you have given me." After having enlightened me so she just went about in her quiet but efficient way to locate and collect the books I had listed out. My list held the names such as Richard Bach, Edgar Kayce, Brian Weiss, J. Krishnamoorty, Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, Fritijof Capra, and Shakthi Gawain. The modern 'Rishis' My subsequent internet search for Newage Literature gave me a very illuminating account. First of all, it had an extensive range of literature spanning over centuries. The first twenty matches included a section on Vedic Literature. This was quite startling. Did the Vedas have anything to do with this Newage movement? In fact it did. New Age appears to be the re-emergence of the Vedic truths and the eternal values spelt out by the ancient rishis of India: This time the voice is different, the language is different, the geographical location from which it is springing from is different and even the accents are different. This time the literature is emerging largely from USA and through the American 'Rishis' some of whom claim that their knowledge is directly from God and that "it is heard" - like the 'Shruti' in Indian Vedas. Not only does New Age reinterpret the essence of the Vedas but also identifies the same medium and source. The latest revival in a popularized form springs from the New Age movement in the late sixties. New Age ideas believe in Karma and Rebirth: Stresses the importance of good action, words and most of all good thought (positive thinking). Advocates the freedom of spirit and the need to being touch with one's inner self through introspection, drawing strands from the philosophy rooted in ancient Indian spiritual traditions, often based on mystical experiences. The modern 'Gurus', beheld a spiritual reality in their mystical experiences, which could sometimes hardly be reconciled with the ideas espoused by the churches or sciences. However the renewed interest in these spiritual, and religious traditions has had a tremendous impact on the minds of men and women, in particular of the Western culture. New Age in Sciences Fritjof Capra, a quantum physicist, after a series of mystical experiences which prompted him to write the 'Tao of Physics', reviewed his world view completely, to the dismay of many traditional physicists. He found similarities between a phenomenon in particle physics and that of the concept of 'Dance of Shiva'. When we acknowledge that science and related philosophical notions, have their impact on our culture, the changed world view, of not only Capra's but of many others who have had similar experiences, have shaped the current culture from which the New Age philosophy is emerging. Collective intelligence The ideas or concepts that a culture is based upon is a metaphysical principle and vice versa: Our collective intelligence are also a product of this metaphysical principle. As the consciousness change so does the principle: The collective intelligence of men and women who emerged in the Industrial Revolution (Newton, Mendeleef, Archimedes) defined the metaphysical principle of the time. That culture defined by 'Gurus' of sciences revolved around the metaphysics of materialism and had its mechanistic linear models. Science reigned as God until numerous contradictions surfaced. Science could not deal with the relationship between the Observer and the Observed but only analyze the observed: And that too in a limited way. The crisis which was brewing within the sciences, indicated a change in consciousness and was first underlined by Einstein when he put forward his theory of relativity, which threw up new thoughts and ideas, which in turn transformed consciousness. Metaphysical principle of the New Age Sixties onwards has seen dramatic change in consciousness, a shift of the collective consciousness in art, in science, in music, in medicine, in psychology and in various other fields. If Capra had influenced the field of Science, Brian Weiss explored an avenue in Psychology, Deepak Chopra in holistic medicine and Neale Donald Walsch in defining an individual's role in the universe. The change in collective consciousness owes its debt among others to Richard Bach the flier of airplanes, Satre the existentialist, the ever popular Beatles and many more. They all have their nuances in expressing these new ideas but in essence, they all converge on one point. The new culture, defined by these New Age 'Gurus', is a holistic or integral culture and it is obvious that there is a widespread trend towards wholeness, toward a dynamic view, toward a participatory universe. The holistic culture expresses itself in the ecology movement, the peace movement, even the women's liberation movement, that has become part of our everyday life, emphasis on capacity building, bottom-up planning, people centered development and rights based approach are all expressions of a vital principle. The principle that views life as precious: The principle which dictates that respect for life, the awe of life, the honouring of life should be the fundamental reference point for our politics, our science, our technology, and our society. Selvi Sachithanandam is an Architect, Town Planner and an Urban Designer. She is a disciple of Swami Shanthananda Saraswathi of Malaysia and an active member of the weekly study sessions organised by the Chinmaya Mission in Sri Lanka on 'Vedanta'. She is currently engaged in humanitarian work and works for the United Nations World Food Programme. |
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