Who is Mother India

The question, ‘Who is Mother India’ is, in a sense, simple to answer; since it flows from my heart. In another sense it is difficult to answer, since the Mother is deep and unfathomable. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his great work, ‘The Discovery of India’ has spoken of his search for Bharat Mata, Mother India, and has brought to us vividly the problem of understanding Mother India. He writes, “I was... on a great voyage of discovery… of India… India with all her infinite charm and variety began to grow upon me more and more, and yet the more I saw her, the more I realized how very difficult it was for me or for anyone else to grasp the ideas she had embodied. It was not her wide spaces that eluded me, or even her diversity, but some depth of soul which I could not fathom…It was an emotional experience which had overpowered me… It was absurd to think of India or any country as a kind of anthropomorphic entity… I think that a country with a long cultural background… develops a spirit that is peculiar to it.”[1] Here is a key that Nehru gives us. Mother India is not land. It is not even its people. It is a spirit and that spirit is what Pandit Nehru called Bharat Mata.   

This is what we call Mother India and to truly understand her we must be able to perceive a larger universal view, not only of Mother India, but of the Mother power that we have behind the whole universe.

In the beginning, it is said, there was an immeasurable silence. There was a timeless and a space-less Presence. From this timeless and space-less Presence wheeled out, as it were, an ever- expanding space-time, millions of galaxies, our galaxy, our solar-system, our planets and our earth.

This earth looks so material and so obscure; but it seems so, only in appearance. There seems to be in the forgetful revolutions of the earth, a search for glory and a secret destiny. It is vibrant and pulsating with Life Force and it is pensive with the Mind of Thought. And yet this is not all. This Life Force and this Mind are supported by the breath of the Spirit.

This Spirit is intangible, yet it can be experienced, and experienced palpably. It is mighty, yet tender. It has an immense heart that nurses and protects. It has a far-reaching vision, which awakens us to strive to attain our destiny. This Spirit is the Divine Mother, the Universal Mother, in whose nest we are nestled. That Divine Mother was discovered long ago in this great country of ours. She was given the name, Aditi, a name pregnant with its meaning; the Supreme and the First Mother. In the vast breast of her being are the continents and countries of which we are one.

Surrounded by the great Himalayas in the North and the oceans that wash the farthest borders of our land is our united and vibrating earth, that we call Bharat. As behind every country, so behind our country is the same Aditi, Universal Mother. As in every country, so in our country, that Divine Mother is vibrating with her unique pulsations. When we feel her distinctiveness and her special attributes, we recognize the Mother who presides over our Country, and that is Mother India, Bharat Mata.

Mother India has three distinctive attributes; namely spirituality, creativity and intellectuality. We can argue that spirituality, creativity and intellectuality are present in all cultures. How is India unique then? Well, to judge any culture truly, we must be able to perceive what is central in that culture? What are the subordinate elements? What is peripheral? How are the subordinate and peripheral elements intertwined with that which is central? And how does the central element rule over the others?

In India, spirituality is the back bone, the driving force. Creativity and Intellectuality are the subordinate elements and materiality has sometimes been subordinate, and sometimes been peripheral. India is unique because spirituality is both the power of inspiration and the power of culminating achievement. This kind of centrality of spirituality does not obtain in other cultures. In this lies India’s uniqueness.

The first distinctive mark of the vibration of Bharat Mata is her spontaneous turn to spirituality. Spirituality is her driving force. She dwells inherently in Infinity and Eternity. A spontaneous leap of fire burns constantly at the altar of God. Mother India inspired her children to see that there are other powers, invisible to the superficial sight, surrounding man, behind him, within him. Mother India led her Rishis to see the Supreme in His essence and called Him Brahman or Atman, the Supreme as the originator and dweller in what He originates and called Him the Purusha, and the Supreme as the Lord and Master and called Him Ishwara.

In every nook and corner of the life of India, the lamp of spirituality burns, that aspires for illumination, liberation, perfection; jnana, mukti, sampurti. It is true that in every country, there is a turn for spirituality, but in no other country is spirituality so central to life and so multiply luminous. In no other country, the lamp of spirituality influences physical, vital, mental life so integrally, as is evidenced in the long history of this country. In no other country, the highest truths of the spirit, discovered by the most illumined leaders have reached the homes and hearths in cities, villages and in far-off hamlets as in this country. Indeed, to be born in India, is to be born in Yoga. For in India, all life is Yoga.

The second distinctive mark by which Bharat Mata is distinguishable is her inexhaustible creativity. This creativity, this vitality, is exuberant and untiring. She labours and labours, and labours with repeated joy. Her architecture abounds with this creativity. Even a glance at the gopurams of the southern temples gives the proof of this inexhaustible vitality. Every inch is filled with figures and one feels an endless procession of figures, mounting on figures. It is this power of creation and pulsation that has given birth to numerous modern languages, precisely at a point when Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha were reaching a downward curve of decline. These were replaced by new sounds, new vocables and new rhythms of beautiful & sweet languages and the literature in these languages has reached a high maturity in our day. Poetry, music, dance and drama have flourished throughout our long history. But, these are only a few illustrations. The greatest proof of Indian vitality or creativity is her immortality. Hardly any culture in the world has retained its roots alive, its branches spreading wide, and its fruits so ripe and so sweet. Many great cultures have been born but after reaching a climax have declined, fallen and perished. Indian culture, on the other hand, has something so unique, so vitalizing, that Iqbal was led to sing, “Kuch baat aisee hai, ki hasti mitatee nahin hamari”.

Robust intellectuality and a prolific intellectual prowess is the third attribute of the Mother. Her main impulse was first to find the inner truth, the dharma of each human or cosmic activity. Once discovered, she laboured to cast this knowledge into detailed law of arrangement, until this knowledge became a science, a shastra. There is no parallel of this intellectuality in the history of the world until the invention of the printing press.

This enormous abundance of knowledge developed into sciences, ranges from philosophy, theology, religion, rituals and yoga to logic, rhetoric, grammar and linguistics, to metallurgy, medicine, astronomy and the sciences, to politics, economics and society. Even the art of breeding and training of animals was developed into a copious science. From the most important to the most trivial aspects of human and cosmic life, all were dealt with a minute, complete and an all-encompassing intellectuality. Nothing was left out from the purview of Mother India’s grand intellectual proficiency.

The concept of zero, without which modern computer technology would have been non-existent, was mentioned in the Yajurveda, thousands of years ago. Acharya Kanada, classified creation into nine elements and his study of atoms and molecules ushered in the Atomic Theory in 600 BCE. Acharya Charak, 600 BCE, in his work, Charak Samhita has described the medicinal qualities of 100,000 herbal plants and has made landmark contributions to Ayurveda. Will Durant in ‘The Story of Civilization’ writes about Ayurveda, “Many of its Diagnoses and cures are still used in India, with a success that is sometimes the envy of Western physicians.”[2] Acharya Sushrut, in 600 BCE, in his ‘Sushrut Samhita’ has detailed the first ever surgery procedures. He was the father of plastic surgery and anesthesia.

The list is endless.

Even before the facility of the printing press; only with the help of sheer memory and the simple, perishable palm-leaf, this plethora of knowledge was recorded for posterity. 

Indeed, every country has intellectuality, in every country brain power has been developed, but, in no other country has the brain power reached the summits of revelations, intuitions and inspirations, so widely and profusely, as is evidenced in the intellectual philosophies developed in India. In no country has this intellectuality been as synthetic as in our country. The Vedic message “Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” has constantly guided this great movement towards synthesis, which permits various formulations and even antagonistic formulations to accept the truth of the other and yet maintain their distinctiveness. Even the most specialized and extreme system of thought recognizes that which is different from it, even antagonistic to it and attempts to embrace it in its own way.

We have so far dealt with the essential characteristics of Mother India. But, let us admit that there was a sinking of this super-abundant creativity, a slumber of her intellectual activity and a sharp toning down of the flame of spirituality in her periods of decline. In fact, in the history of Mother India, there have been severe periods of decline of her unique characteristics. In such periods, waves of invasions swept over India. True to her soul characteristic, she absorbed all that was poured into her. Even when we Indians confusedly imitated all that was foreign, almost to the brink of losing our own identity, fortunately, the spirit of Mother India was not sleeping and had not perished. Even when we had developed sloth, laziness and torpor, the spirit of Mother India utilized these external invasions to shake us out of our slumber and inertia. These foreign impacts were made to serve, to revive the dormant intellectual and creative impulse in us. It was utilized to awaken the desire for a new creation, a creation which would synthesize the external influence with our own Spirit and its unique characteristics and thus to enrich it. And it is because of this trait of synthesis, that despite so many invasions, India has rejuvenated herself with amazing vitality.

We celebrated this year, 73 years of Independence. It is at this time that we have to prepare for the journey ahead. There are many directions in which we have to move forward. But whatever direction we take, it seems inevitable that India has to retain its basic spirit and its soul characteristic, namely, its spiritual impulse and allow this spirituality to permeate its creativity and intellectuality and let them flourish again. This is a vast subject.

At this juncture, I would only like to bring to light two misconceptions, which if not controverted, would impede our journey, in this direction.   

It is believed by some, that spirituality means renunciation of the world. They believe that spirituality means living inactively in a state of meditation.

This is a misconception.

It is not true that spirituality can best flourish in an impoverished land. Such spirituality will only be morbid and can lead to dangerous results. It can be noted that only when a race has lived in splendour and wealth, has thought profoundly and deeply, that progress reaches new heights. India’s spirituality did not flourish on dreamy mountain-tops. In fact, India’s spirituality cast its roots on the material plane of existence. It may be remembered that in the long history of India, starting from the Vedic and Upanishadic period, the period of the Gita, and right up till India’s golden period, we notice that she was steeped in the highest profundity of spiritual thought, was endowed with riches and prosperous trade and produced detailed texts on almost every human and cosmic activity, that could be thought of.

Surely, when we speak of spirituality, we must be careful to understand that the true application of spirituality is in the unification of Spirit and Matter. Spirit and Matter are the two poles, which have remained far apart from each other, in almost all the cultures of the world. Bharat Mata has given the unique message of unification of these two.

Sri Aurobindo has captured lucidly, this unique message of Mother India. I quote,

“The application of spiritual light in material life is the only sustaining force of durable prosperity”[3]

The second misconception also relates to spirituality. A notion prevails in the country in many quarters, according to which, it is our spirituality that has been the cause of the downfall of India. It is therefore contended that if India is to progress, she should put her spirituality behind in her past and walk freely without it, on the path of economic prosperity and greatness.

Take, for instance, the Indian scene of the 18th century, which was perhaps one of the darkest periods. This was the time of the Nawabs, Peshwas and warring princes. We had reduced our religion to what Swami Vivekanand called “kitchen morality”. Our spiritual light had become so dim that immorality, treachery and disabling sloth had begun to rule in every domain of life. The records of that period will demonstrate these facts in their stark nakedness. This deplorable state of being, we must note, was not because of too much religion and spirituality. On the contrary, this was the time when our spiritual impulse had eclipsed and hence our values had depleted. Foreign powers were struggling to occupy India, and as a result of our own spiritual weaknesses, we allowed the British to triumph and allowed ourselves to be enslaved.

And, let us add that if India rose again, the first words of strength came from our spiritual masters. The mighty Dayananda Saraswati filled new vigour into the veins of India. The great saint of Dakshineshwar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa reawakened India not only in terms of spirituality, but also in terms of awakened nationalism, as is witnessed in the robust life and works of his disciple Swami Vivekananda. And, which Indian political leader, at the turn of the twentieth century, had not derived undying inspiration from the potent words of Sri Krishna to Arjuna? Tilak wrote The Great Gita Rahasya and that is symbolic enough, since it was he who declared those mighty words: Freedom is my birth right and I shall have it. Sri Aurobindo, who had turned his term in the jail as a term of sadhana of the Gita, in the living presence of Sri Krishna, had electrified the whole of India with blazing nationalism, through his messages penned for the daily paper, Vande Mataram. It was spiritual force that gave new strength to leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Ranade, Gokhale, Bipin Chandra Pal, Chitranjan Das, Lala Lajpat Rai and Dadabhai Naoroji. It is not our economic prosperity, nor the lack of it; rather, it is our spirituality, which has awakened us, poured new strength into us and made us alive again.

And if today, we are moving again, towards economic prosperity, it is because the new spiritual message of India is not of a dwelling inactively in the Infinite alone, but is also simultaneously, of an invasion of spirituality into the life of earth.

I would like to end my paper with Rishi Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s anthem of Mother India, which celebrates India. He calls all of us to bow down to Mother India, Vande Mataram. He calls the Mother, “suhasineem, sumadhur bhashineem,” sweet of laughter, sweet of speech. He calls her, “sukhadaam, varadaam mataram,” O Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss.

Vande Mataram

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[1] Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India

[2] Will Durant, (1963), The Story of Civilization, Volume I, page 530.

[3] Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture