1. Influence of Indian Culture on South – East Asia
The Indian culture began to influence Ceylon during the early period of 5th century B.C. A few Indian merchants found their way to Malaya and some other nearby countries and some of them settled there. Then some Brahmans and the Buddha monks went there and spread Buddhism. Some Indians such as Paramhans Ram Krishna, his disciple Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi influenced the West. Especially Gandhi’s principle of non-violence, sincerity and energy influenced the West greater. Besides that Indian philosophy and religion also had a very great impact on western thinking. The great western philosophers like Schopenhauer were much indebted to Buddhism. Even American philosophers like Emerson and Thoreau studied much of Indian philosophy and thus their thoughts too had much likeness with Indian thought and philosophy.
2. Indian Art and Human Form
Art is very integral to life. Life of Indian people can not be seen without art. Indian life is a fusion of many cultures. There is nothing personal in Indian art. Indian art is not devoid of life There is no exaggeration to say that Indian life is full of different forms of art. Temples of ancient India are adorned with sculpture and painting. They all give glimpses of Indian Life. But the main interest of the Indian artist is to be noticed in the human form. This shows an intimate relationship of Indian life and art. The picture of the men and women are painted in every possible angle. Plentiful figures in Indian art are displayed to show the various moods of them. This shows an intimate relationship of art with Indian life.
3. The Mahabharata,
Our Greatest Epic The Mahabharata is considered a great story telling book. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two great epics on which ancient Indian culture stands. Of the two great epics, the Mahabharata occupies a pride of place. It was written by Ved Vyas, a great Rishi. It contained 24000 verses in Sanskrit. It tells the story of Bharat dynasty. It is said that the battle of Mahabharata had been fought in about 1100 B.C. It was originally a heroic poem but later on acquired a religions orientation. Long after it became a theistic treatise in which Lord Krishna is thought to be the Supreme Being. The religion of Mahabharata is Vedic. Indra, Vishnu, Agni, Surya, Vayu, and Varun were important gods of the Vedic period. According to the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna is Supreme God. The Bhagavad-Gita was written in battle field of Kurukshetra. When Arjun, a brave warrior, became stationary and expressed his doubt to kill his relatives in the battle, Lord Krishna, his charioteer, gave him some teachings which form the Bhagavad-Gita. Lord Krishna tells Arjun to perform actions which are allotted to him. He must fight battle to get salvation which comes through devotion to Krishna. The battle continued for eighteen days and five Pandvas who remained alive with Krishna, won the battle. Thus the epic Mahabharata shows the victory of good over evil.
4. Fundamental Duties
Rights and duties are the two sides of the same coin. They are correlative and imply obligations. One can not exist without the other. In our Constitutions we had adopted almost all the principles of the Universal Declaration of human rights, but there was no provision of the Declaration which says: “Everyone has duties to the country in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible”. To fulfill this, a section of Fundamental Duties was incorporated in the Indian Constitution by an amendment of the Article 52-A. There are ten Fundamental Duties which are enumerated in the Indian Constitution. The prime duty of the Indian citizen is to respect the ideals and institutions like the National Flag and the National Anthem. Moreover, people of India should follow the noble ideals, protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, and defend the country. They should promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood, preserve our rich heritage, protect the natural environment, develop the scientific temper and humanism, abjure violence, and strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement. These duties are in nature of Ten Commandments. The significance of these duties is to create a climate in which the people will feel that their obligations to society are as important as their rights.
5. Life Mirrored in Vedic Literature
Vedic literature has influenced the life of Indian people to a great extent. The people of the Vedic age were a great devotee to God. They lead a very simple life. They were full of joy and happiness. They used to worship Nature and Gods. Primarily they worshipped one God, the Supreme, but later on they started worshipping Trinity. People praised God in the form of prayers and hymns. They admired Him and his creation the universe. With the passage of time along with Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh they also worshipped Indra, Agni Varun, Kuber, Surya, and Chandra. They showed their great faith in these Gods. Brahma was the God of creation and Vishnu supported the world. Mahesh was God of Sanhar. Indra was king of Dewas, Varun was the God of sea. Not only that they had faith in worshipping rivers and cows. Rivers gave them water and calves of cows helped them in agriculture. Some people of those days used to live in the forest for the sake of contemplation and meditation which augmented their philosophical thinking. Their various experiences and thoughts were included in some treatises on Vedas which became an integral part of their life. Thus the people of the Vedic age led a spiritual life with calm and quiet.
6. Importance of Tree
Trees play a very important role in life of every living creature. No life can be imagined or experienced without trees. They keep a balance in nature. If trees are cut down ruthlessly, the rivers will be over flooded and this will cause soil erosion which will lead to poor yield of crops and food grains. Trees give us fresh air. They absorb Carbon Dioxide and release oxygen which is very essential for human life. So it is our sacred duty to save trees. More and more trees should be planted. It should be remembered that they not only refreshes the body and mind but they give also food and shelter. That is why after realizing the importance of trees the Government of India has started a festival of growing plants which is celebrated as Van Mahotsava in the months of July and August. Hence, No one can deny the importance of trees.
7. Where there is a Will there is a Way
There is always a way to complete a task if there is a will. We know that great souls have strong will while weak ones only build castles in the air. Napoleon once said, “The Word ‘Impossible’ exists only in the dictionary of the fools.” Mountains can be moved by patience, determination and strong will. A successful man rises from the lowest position to the highest. It is because he possesses a strong will and determination. The unsuccessful man, on the other hand, lacks strong will and determination. He wavers and hesitates in doing a work. He can never do anything great in his life. We can find many examples of great men of strong will power in our history. Mahatma Gandhi is one of them who with his firm, bold and fearless strong will overcame all the difficulties come in his way and his efforts were crowned with success. Livingstone who explored the dark region of Africa, Garibaldi who united Italy, Bismarck who made Germany a strong nation and Lenin who made Russian free from the tyrannies of the Czars were some examples of great men of success. They all had a very strong will. So they found a way of achieving their heart’s desire.
