Thus Spake the Divine - Can We Deprive Our Future Generations?

Thus Spake the Divine

Can We Deprive Our Future Generations?

Poojyasri Maha Periyava is the Epitome of Compassion. He does not want future generations to be deprived of the knowledge and benefit of our Vedas and Shastras. In this chapter, Maha Periyava underlines our responsibilities in helping preserve Vedas and Shastras for the benefit of future generations.

India is no inferior in different streams of sciences or arts as compared to western countries. King Bhoja Rajan has given a detailed description of making different kinds of machines in his book Samarangana Sutradhara. He has also written about an aeroplane in that book. I took the help of some engineers and went through the theory of this aeroplane in which King Bhoja Rajan has talked about balloons, Jordan engine etc., as early as thousands of years ago, which are still relevant.

In olden days, for each stream of art and science, there were exclusive books. It was Varahamihirar, who compiled all these books into one short form of a Digest about 1,500 years ago. This Digest contains matters relating to many Shastras viz. Bird Shastra, Plant Shastra, Animal Shastra, Mineral Shastra etc. People of today are awe-struck with such zoological, biological and engineering skills and intelligence of our ancient people.

There also exist original books, which are the source of all these arts, science and engineering skills. They have been protected for thousands and thousands of years, generations after generations and handed over to us. In the period, when there were no printing machines, our ancestors took efforts to protect these books, so that they could be given to us, their future generations. But it is we, who have the ‘honour’ of delinking this thread, by our sheer indifference towards these books.

Once, a blind man was carrying a lantern in his hands while walking. Another person passing by asked him, “You are blind. What is the use of carrying a lantern?” The blind man answered, “I don’t have eye sight, whereas you have one. I am bringing this for you because you might slip down and fall on me in this dark night”. Similarly, we may not be competent to understand our old Shastras. But someone else in our future generations might understand them. At least with that goal in mind, we should preserve the books on our Shastras. We should never let our future generations blame us for betraying them. That we have deprived them of the opportunity to read these books despite us having all the means to preserve them.

In olden days, the job of preserving Shastras was vested with Kings who were ruling the country at that time. But now, there are no Kings. We only have State and Central Governments. But there is absolutely no harmony between the two. On the one hand, they clash on the language issue, while on the other there is turbulence on our borders. There is corruption all across. There are clashes among different groups of people, different political parties etc.

Therefore, it is of no use to hold the Government responsible for preservation of Shastras. We ourselves should take the responsibility of that task. We keep complaining about our personal and office problems. Then, how can we concentrate on these matters of importance? Look at the forest; lion kills tiger and tiger kills deer; but still the young ones of lion, tiger and deer all play together. We should also learn to lead our life in a similar manner. We have to realise our responsibilities towards our future generations and preserve the Shastras for their well being. We cannot deprive them of their right to acquire knowledge related to these ancient manuscripts.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

GIRI is Also the Humble Recipient of "The BEST TOURIST FRIENDLY SHOPPING CENTER in Tamil Nadu" Award For The Year 2019.