On Hindu

Lens

Hindu

Given the ease by which Sanskrit, by virtue of its psycholinguistic architecture, can accommodate literally any sounded word into its lexicon, there are plenty of ways to interpret 'Hindu', so it's hard to say authoritatively how/when the word 'Hindu' came into being. 

Etymologically it's obviously related to the country of 'India', the river 'Indus' or 'Sindhu', and the region 'Sindh' in the northwest regions of the subcontinent.

However, Hindu word is quite evidently the tag that outsiders have given to this civilization, obviously not having much understanding of the Yogic model of divinity, separate from the religiosity that abounds otherwise in the ideology of Hindu-ism, or its politically motivated essence as seen in Hindu-tva.

Thus, we will detail out the whole Hindu ethos, and then our preference would be to hook our entire Epic Narrative on the insider's word Bhārat, now re-emerging as a formidable geo-political force.

Geocultural

Thus the simplest way to understand 'Hindu' is as a geocultural phenomenon.

Culture is shaped by geography, as humans necessarily have to adapt to their environment, materially & psychologically.

The Indian subcontinent: 

• protected on three sides by vast seas, and on the North by formidable mountains, and 

• nourished by a temperate climate, fertile lands, and abundant rivers,

has thus laid the foundations of the Hindu culture.

Although rooted in the current nation-state of India, the Hindu culture has spanned its pan-Asian continental neighborhood too.

The spread of the Hindu culture in ancient times was certainly due to:

• the hard power wielded by its kings which for many centuries afforded them the richest civilization in history, however,

• the soft power of Hindu culture was equally, if not even more so, irresistible for its depth of Thought and breadth of diversity.

Cultural Identity

The culture of a civilization is the societal equivalent of the individual's simulation of Self, which, analogously, is intended to create a sense of coherence in the collective Mind.

As for the individual, so too this collective Identity plays out in two dimensions:

• physically, as in governance structures framed to harmoniously accommodate its members diverse ways of living, and

• psychologically, in terms of an Epic Narrative, of whence it sprung from, and where it could lead us to.

A coherent culture provides a well-functioning collective identity to help the culture shape its own special place in the clash of civilizations.

In the particular case of the Hindu culture it is said that it: 

• is eternal, that is with no absolute beginning nor will it ever end, which in Sanskrit is Sanātana, and

• all life is about the sustainability, which in Sanskrit is related to Dharma,

thus the Hindu exemplifies an eternal quest for that which sustains a perpetual existence, hence Sanātana Dharma is an equivalent term.

Thus in our Yogic Indology model, no matter that many words have been used to describe this culture, 'Hindu-ism' is but its latest reincarnation, albeit coopted to further ideology as any -ism is wont to.

With such a strong & ancient geocultural basis for the Hindu culture, it is thus impossible to thoroughly comprehend it without the benefit of a multi-generational lived experience.

However even those who have a multi-generational identification with this geocultural civilization, sometimes do not identify with the word Hindu, because of religious/liberal propaganda, thus they would rather look forward in time and take a global perspective bereft of any native traditions. 

Lack of a strong native lens with which to study & position Hindu-ism in the clash of civilizations has left it open to being dissected under the lens of Western Universalism, an oxymoron indeed, with the assumption that Western values, abetted by it recent economic & military power, are the universally appropriate lens by which to study all societal phenomena.

Outsider Lens

To the outsider, one not soaked in a multi-generational Hindu cultural experience, what is usually visible is the superficial narrative of Hindu-ism, which could seem like a bewildering entanglement of faiths/cults.

The typical outsider's lens contorts Hindu culture, trying to simplistically fit it into various terms like pantheism, panentheism, multi-theism, and so many other -ism's, which like any other -ism attempts to force this vibrant cultural phenomenon into an ideological strait-jacket.

The purpose of their exercise is so that the culture can be reduced to understandable bits, dissected by social scientists in their misplaced zeal of "doing good", but without an insider's understanding they invariably ride roughshod over millennia of subtle cultural threads that have held the civilization together. 

Thus one way to look at Hindu-ism, according to Western Indologists, is as but a loose collection of superstitious faiths, soon to be safely neutered in the battlefield of global ideologies.

One of the faiths extricated out of Hindu-ism is the conveniently non-theistic Buddhism, much lauded since it does not directly conflict with the theistic platform of the Church, and its agenda of acting as a soft foil to Western hard power. However, the Buddha was deeply rooted in Hindu culture as a Kshatriya warrior prince who then took Sanyās as a renunciate monk and defeated other Vedāntic traditions in classic time-honored debate formats, an essential Hindu tradition. The root cause of why the Buddhist system has, until recently, been practically eradicated in the land of its birth & nurture, is the sacking of its thousands of its place of study and worship by marauding Islamic jihadis, a fact well documented in historical records but also well hidden by "eminent" historians of a particular ideological bent.

So too have Western Indologists extricated from Hindu-ism, the faiths of the Jains, Sikhs, Daoists, or whatever other Dhārmic paths, that have all sprung from and been nurtured by its surrounding Hindu geocultural ethos, and cleverly pitting them against each other and the mother ship.

Insider Lens

Even though 'Hindu-ism' has unfortunately been identified as a bewildering quagmire of religions, it is still probably an appropriate Insider lens to come to terms with this civilization as a geocultural phenomenon, we thankfully can rationalize it with the lens of Yoga to make the most plausible sense of it.

Our perspective of Yogic Indology avoids this religious quagmire altogether and rationally explains who we are in this 3-fold "computational psychology" architecture:

• Yoga is the psychic OS that shapes the human Mind,

• Sanskrit, and related psycholinguistic languages, provide a scripting mechanism to craft our aspirations as psychic intelligences, called Devas, which are actually transformed from Rākshasas, our weaknesses ("same-same la".)

• Avatārs represent the mega Apps, the Epic Narratives, that shape the entire civilization's mindset in shared super-coherence, thus scaling Yoga to all of society.

Although Avatār narratives, like the Rāmāyana for example, and the bewildering multitude of stories of Devas, can seem like mere religious mythology, they are in fact a collection of inter-related spiritual paths, held together by the principles of Yoga. These Yoga stories have been conceived by Rishis, our storytellers from the stars, so to speak, to inspire us to cultivate the stars amongst us too.

These tales are broad maps for the journey of Life, and not literal commandments per se, yet they have periodically manifested in this physical domain too, in living form, and shall continue to do so as and when conditions necessitate. 

Incidentally if we were to understand the meaning of the word Hindu-tva, which has been thoroughly overloaded in heavily charged political contexts and actually means the "essence" of being Hindu, it is essentially equivalent to the above three dimensions of Yogic Indology.

When looked at in this manner, it is that Hinduism is not a religion, and nor is it a collection of mere religions. 

Religions are collective organizations that stem from socio-political struggles, of the masses that flail valiantly against their oppressive rulers, but then succumb to the Asura psychic virus of a fixed ideology, resulting in the institutionalization of the original free spirit that moved the masses thus effectively killing the spirit of life itself.

Hinduism ought to be seen as a culture that considers the universe and all its beings to be "divine" - please understand this term as in the sense of a future aspirational self. Many seers of such vision beckon us to evolve to certain states of being and society, and thus there are many Rishis in the civilization, that set the Epic Narrative for the Yuga, or era we are in and wish to go to.

Evolution is the core process of the Yogic Hindu mind, and when done together in society it is coevolution, and along with Nature too. The assumption is that the supreme Oneness is a quest worthy of our time on this green/blue blip in the heavens. So how we all evolve and coevolve with all of Life simultaneously is the essence of this way of life. 

Societal Culture

The key observation is that the patterns of relationships across concepts are all self-similar, and thus help to reinforce a certain coherence to all the rhythms in life. When everything coheres, all life is integrated, and hence all Life is Yoga.

Spirit

One particular English word of relevance to the Hindu culture, given its enduring search for deep understanding of existence, is that of "spirit"

By "spirit" we mean a living psychological energy that pervades existence, which when it works to fulfill our deep aspirations seems psychic because, as we have noted before, is still not fully understood at a neurobiological level. 

Interestingly, spirit shares a cognate root sound pr with the Sanskrit word Prāna.

Spiritual indicates thus an inner enquiry, for the surface level phenomena are actually motivated by a deeper substratum of the Mind.

When the notion of spirit is forced into a particular type of ideological conformance this is what gives rise to organized religion.

The Hindu model of spirituality is fundamentally based on freedom of choice of how our spirit can express itself, through any type of form of conscious Being suitable to our own nature.

The classic Hindu way of living thus marinates all its humans, and traditionally, all living spaces, Nature, and all of space, in a soup of conscious Beings, which are essentially mental concepts that have been energized by Prāna.

Family

For example, characters in our Yoga Stories are a deep and continuous part of the Hindu extended family culture, and they have continued to stay relevant as they are perceived as representing certain timeless behavioral patterns.

The children are almost uniformly named after these characters, and so the people around them observe how their names reflect the original character, so it reinforces some of their notable traits, and then the plot of the original story too seems to get reflected in their lives.

With such a deep marination in Yoga stories, eventually one of us figures out how to engender the Avatār effect and transform society in a manner appropriate to the  place and age we find ourselves in.

Social

Plays, music, art, festivals - literally any aspect of social life is infused with these Yoga stories and thus serve to continually reinforce the spiritual nature of life.

Even when new poets take some liberties to extend the core characters or slightly twist the plot, with scathing commentaries sometimes, there is a reason for this because the story coevolves with the times and thus stays relevant.

Temples have a special significance because the typical Hindu life revolves around them, the embodied deity within acting as a spiritual force that ensures a deep level of harmony.

Geographical

Literally every single incident in these legendary Yoga stories is mapped to a specific geographical features, be it villages, mountains, rivers, forests, whatever. 

To make matters more interesting for the intrepid spiritual traveler, many of these geographical features are also deified as places of enlightenment or sources of knowledge.

A visit to any of these places is not just a normal picnic as the belief is that divine spirits behind these stories is still living there, embedded in its stones, waters, and woods - as conscious Beings looking for a worthy mental theater to enact their tale, and thus too have these Yoga stories coevolved with the local geography.

Biological

Many characters in these stories are also animals, birds, and other living creatures - who have all coevolved with humans and all of Nature, and sometimes with even a shared notion of aesthetics, e.g. butterflies and humans are both probably triggered by similar biochemicals when we see a beautiful pattern on their wings.

The word evolution, which indicates a solo path through the entire journey of life, is more appropriately presented here as co-evolution because it is this interdependent web of creation - be it biological creatures or other physical conditions - that has impelled profound genetic change.

The cultural fabric reflects conscious Beings in everyday living too, for example: 

• crows are typically fed in honor of family ancestor spirits because they are always so gregarious, 

• cows are tended to because their milk is identified with the juice of consciousness itself, 

• horses are associated with the deep breathing in Vedic chants, 

• snakes with their ability to raise consciousness through the spine, 

and so forth.

Astrological

Living with the tides of the moon is an essential part of the culture, and is timed with diet patterns too, so the biological being is literally in tune with all of Creation, e.g. during full/new moons, eclipses, etc. 

We model even the stars and planets, and its hidden parts too, as conscious Beings. 

The most profound mapping is that of the Rishis, who guide us in our life journeys through timeless stories and thus are identified with stars that guide us in our actual Earth navigation. 

Each time we look up at the night sky it thus reminds us of the phenomenal impact that our Rishis have had on this civilization.

Stage & Arena

Before setting foot on any stage of art, it is routine to invoke the Devas of that endeavor, for example: 

• invoking forgiveness from Bhu-devi (the Earth goddess) before stamping on her in the course of a Bharatanātyam dance recital.

• invoke the power of the mother goddess, Shakti, in military regiments seeking victory prior to setting off on battle.

Sports

One of the really fascinating ways that the culture reinforces the consciousness of Yoga, is in the play of Sports.

Examples of such sports can be viewed as a facet of Yoga, such as:

• Kushti - otherwise called wrestling, is trained for with intense Asana practice, making the players so limber they can fight each other with full body & mind awareness. Hence Hanumān is a popular deity in this sport.

• Kabaddi - a sport like tag, in which the tagger takes a huge breath in, and then slowly lets it out while trying to catch the opposite team without taking in an in-breath, which essentially evokes the practice of Pranayama. 

• Kho - another sport like tag, in which there are multiple taggers sitting facing opposite directions in a straight line, but the runner is allowed to weave in & out of this line (whereas the taggers can't), and this looks exactly like how the chakras are lined up  in the subtle body along the central axis of the Sushumna nAdi energy channel.

Every aspect of Hindu life is thus integrated into a core of the Yoga paradigm, except of course, we always find the exceptions.

Tāmasic Hindu

Tamas

The currently popular Hindu culture is certainly no paragon of virtue though, and although Avatār-scale reformers do periodically spring up in its society, it is still ridden with its own share of home-grown psychic viruses.

Although Western Indologists would with a broad brush characterize Hindu-ism, and in particular the faiths that still remain within its fold, as responsible for all the ills of modern Indian society, the lens of Yogic Indology gives a much more nuanced view of the putrid aspects of the current Hindu society.

Thus, the villain of the piece, the Tāmasic Hindu!

तामसिक Tāmasic derives from the Sanskrit word Tamas, which along with Rajas & Sattva, form the trinity of qualities that characterize the nature of any conscious Being. Tamas conveys the quality of laziness, dullness, lethargy, and in its extreme form also mindless cruelty. These terms are defined in detail in the literature on Sānkhya Yoga.

The Enemy Within

Characterizing the enemy within is typical of many Indic battle hymns that start with first invoking the antagonist, in what is called as a धर्म युद्ध Dharma Yudha, or the battle for Dharma, that eventually results in their destruction.

Tāmasic Hindus are those insiders responsible for perpetuating these ills of Hindu civilization, at all scales:

• Cultish: groups that suppress women, and other genders, from having a full role in society,

• Societal: epidemic of caste-ism oppressing entire groups of micro-cultures, a phenomenon that spans across faiths, those from the desert religions, and

• Global: destructive consumerism, aspiring to unsustainable Western industrialized lifestyles.

We submit that this degenerate state is not due to intrinsic flaws in the fundamental Hindu model, but due to centuries of colonization, subjugation, and mental discombobulation by the unchecked proliferation of personal & civilizational level psychic viruses.

Seeking firmer moorings, the Tāmasic Hindu clings like a rat to the only raft it can see in this turbulent ocean of identity politics, and hence we have the overtly politicized Hindutva, which we have seen earlier means something very different, but which is now conflated with all the overt symbols of Hindu-"ism" disconnected from their egalitarian essence.

As we have said earlier too, any ism causes a schism, and all -isms create a chasm, and hence the deep fault lines in Hindu society.

The Enemy is really Within

According to the Yogic Mind Sciences the physical forms of our antagonists, and the divine forces to combat them, are all just neuropsychological processes. When we invoke "destruction" it is first & foremost a mental warfare that we envisage. It is only in extreme cases that this leads to physical action, for which there are plenty of means outside the scope of our current exposition.

Please bear this in mind - so to speak!

Whether glorifying गणेश Ganesha or Rāma, or the myriad of such deities, or narrating their challenges, much of Hindu literature first hails the monumental piece of crap, the Rākshasa/Asura psychic virus, that has to be flushed down the cisterns of civilization. Even the भगवद्गीता Bhagavad-Gitā commences with the blinded King, धृतराष्ट्र Dhritarāshtra, representing our closed-off Mind, first saying his piece, and further enquiring about his 100 sons the कौरव Kaurava warriors, representing the blockages we need to overcome, and it is only after we acknowledge these negatives that we invoke the 5 पांडव Pāndava princes, representing our core essence of creation from the 5 primordial elements.

To whatever extent any social ills are being perpetrated by the Tāmasic Hindu wallowing in the shallow end of the cesspool, the overall Hindu culture has also historically bubbled up periodic reforms from within in its own native frameworks, 

Now that we have seen the enemy within, the phenomenon of the Tāmasic Hindu, we describe the pristine model of Hindu culture, that form the firmament to cultivate the Rishis within us.

Hindu Ideals

These Hindu ideals that we posit here derive from the best of what has been described from time immemorial. For any negatives, please refer to the section on Tāmasic Hindu. Here we focus only on the positives.

Extreme Pluralism

The Hindu way of life exemplifies a culture of extreme pluralism, exemplifying diversity in all its bewildering forms - philosophies, languages, food, arts - simply put, almost any way of life imaginable, and many times tolerating and even accepting different gods even within the same family! 

This trait to coexist with any other sub-culture, is laudable when they all have Dhārmic ideals at heart, but when faced with aDhārmic Asura viruses the plague humanity, the discerning aspect of Buddhi must  be exercised.

There is an ancient saying वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning world is one family, that is oft quoted to demonstrate this extreme of pluralism.

अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् ।

उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ॥

But in later literature there are stories to indicate that subversive charlatans could well quote this to have us let down our guard, thus leading to our ruin.

So pluralism means almost anything goes, as long as it is Dhārmic.

Dhārmic Abundance

The Hindu model maintains order in this seeming chaos of extreme diversity by holding Dhārmic sustainability as the guide for harmonious & abundant living.

The idealized Hindu person, male or female, follows the 4 principles of पुरुषार्थ Purushārtha :

• धर्म Dharma, meaning sustainability in all its forms,

• अर्थ Artha, meaning acquire wealth, and meaningfully so,

• काम Kāma, meaning fulfillment of all desires,

• मोक्ष Moksha, meaning freedom from all attachments

No shrinking violets here, in fact a full-throated approach to all aspects of life, without drowning in it, whose leaders aspired towards the noblest of ideals epitomized by the word आर्य Ārya - a word that simply indicates ennobling human qualities and no way indicates any racial construct, but unfortunately was co-opted by you-know-who, and for "good" measure also the auspicious स्वस्तिक Swastika symbol which too is nothing but goodness incarnate for the Hindu.

Highest Ideals

Hindu thought equals the highest ideals of any philosophy, yet these were no mere armchair musings, rooted as they are in first-person empiricism of Deep Yoga. The pinnacle of such thought is manifested in its most profound form in the वेद Veda, the sound form of  the Universal Consciousness of Brhman, and lyrically explained in the corpus of Vedānta Upanishads.

These teachings are typically transmitted from Guru to student, with no central institution governing the system wielding absolute power, and every capable student themselves capable of becoming such a Guru, regardless of their station in life, or gender.

Such a high level of thinking & experience, deserves languages equally capable, and hence our two psycho-linguistic language platforms of Sanskrit & Tamil.

Such an evolved way of thinking was what gave the Hindu civilization its soft power to intellectually dominate a big chunk of the world for much of recent millennia, without becoming a religious handmaiden to the hard power of the State.

Oh God!

The Hindu spiritual culture is incredibly variegated and is yet deeply integrated because of these twin beliefs that the inner world exploration of Consciousness, and its outward manifestation in the cause of Dharma, are in fact synergistic goals, and not at all in opposition.

Being a Hindu does not require a belief in God, although there is a pervasive acknowledgement of the presence of Conscious Beings, or divinity, in all of Nature and in each of us, which in turn promotes a high degree of respect for our environment & living spaces.

The prevalence of Yoga in the Hindu culture has imbued our power of Consciousness into every aspect of our Universe - our self, animals, rivers, seas, mountains, trees, gurus, ancestors, guests, newborns, books, temples -  thus explaining its bewildering proliferation of "gods". In fact, for those who “believe in God” the important thing is not that there are multiple gods but in fact “everything is God”, or "nothing but God", and the only real difference between each of our belief systems is the nature of the psychological relationship that we cultivate with this mental construct of God.

This super-rational approach to so-called spirituality, is exactly the goal of Deep Yoga practice, so the outcome is not mere armchair philosophy, but an embodied philosophy.

In fact, as Yogis we reject all super-imposed religion, and hence we are fundamentally non-theists, but not agnostics for we are also known to be god-makers, crafting and energizing Devas each manifesting as a neurobiological process in the Minds of society depending on their particular need and disposition.

This is along the lines that we reject all attempts at forceful external mind control, be it from state, society, or even family, a position that puts us at odds with much of the established institutional frameworks that have subverted human thinking for propaganda.

Social Architecture

Traditional Hindu society is composed of deep family networks, कुल Kula, and tightly knit socioeconomic tribes, जाति Jāti,  specializing in certain occupations suiting their local needs and capabilities. The thousands of Jāti networks pass down their knowledge, traits, and social capital, through their members across generations, making for a unique socioeconomic architecture.

This model minimized the need for a centralized state, because of the high level of integration of members of the Kula & Jāti,  yet fits well into a federated system because of a common civilizational memory & ideals of living.

Āshrama Dharma

The word Āshrama in this context is similar to, but not the same as, the living space of a guru's Āshram where we make the effort (श्रम shrama) to expand our sense of Self to its highest (आ Ā) divine expression.

आश्रम Āshrama Dharma is a way to organize Hindu  society, as a progression of life stages, so that this work of expansion is sustainable, that is, compatible with Dharma. 

One of the salient features of the Hindu Dharma is the deeply enshrined construct of family. 

Large family networks form the social capital of Hindu Dharma, which prevents the subjugation of society to a purely monetary capitalistic system, because many of life's essentials can be fulfilled through exchange of products & services not in cash but in kind - or rather, kindness itself!

The construct of family though, surfaces in different ways as we move through Life.

Misinterpretation of this critical way to organize society has left us with a stunted social structure and rips in the social fabric.

This is where the Yogic Indology perspective is useful.

Stage-1 Brhmacharya

Starts with being a student, a ब्रह्मचर्य Brhmacharya, focused only in the pursuit of knowledge imparted by a Guru, while living with the Guru's family.

Brh means vast, and chara means to walk, so this stage is about traversing the vast expanses of the mind, preparing it for its Sva-Dharma, that which sustains the Self.

Brhmacharya does not literally translate to celibacy as is popularly thought, although chastity is encouraged to preserve our creative energy, which stems actually from our pro-creative capabilities.

However, today's students, instead of having their Minds expanded, stand the risk of being indoctrinated, depending on the ideological biases of their faculty and institution.

So unfortunately instead of cultivating a broad mind, the student is systematically beset by Asura Psychic Viruses, not to mention the usual Rākshasa viruses that proliferate when in close habitation with other students.

Stage-2 Gruhasthan

Graduates to being a householder, a गृहस्थन Gruhasthan, dedicated to shouldering the material needs of society and enjoying a family life, such as stable sexual relations, reproducing & raising of children in a stable family.

Gruha means a house, in which we settle down to provide stability to a family of our own creation, and thus this stage is essential to generating wealth (Artha) in society and enjoying its fruits (Kāma)

Setting up our own family leads to entanglements in society for raising children requires extended family & social networks, a "village" in a sense.

Sanskrit pun here: from safe harbor of गृह Gruha we are instead caught in malefic effects of an eclipse otherwise called ग्रहणम्  Graha-nam,  thus in the Yogic context it means opening ourselves to get entangled in the web of society.

Entanglements leads to Rakshasa Psychic Virus infections because of the close interactions, and consequent Mind Games, with extended families and societal networks essential to raising children.

Dealing with Rākshasa infection is exhausting in the context of running a family, that there is scant energy left to eliminate Asura infections instilled from Brhmacharya stage - so the overall indoctrination of society continues apace.

Some mistakenly enter Gruhasthāshram thinking that it would provide stability in life, but if it is not done with a harmonious partner, and in a stable environment, then producing/adopting children would sooner or later be felt more as a binding constraint and disturb us from otherwise enjoying the bonds of caring for the younger ones.

These mistaken Thoughts are pre-existing Psychic Viruses which should be eliminated prior to marriage, otherwise we merely foist two untrained humans on each other in the hopes that they can sort it all out, but end up making unsustainable decisions that have compounding effects.

If the decision to partner with an individual happens later in life, or when the living environment is very unstable as is the case in much of the world today, then we would be better off entering Vanaprasthāshram with a partner and taking a larger perspective to family than just our own nuclear unit.

For example, we could adopt an entire village and provide stability to the existing families in the village. This would give the same satisfaction as Gruhasthāshram, albeit in a different way, and by providing stability to others we ourselves become stable; as they say, the best way to make wealth is to help others make wealth, or to get love is to give love.

Stage-3 Vanaprastha

Extricates, with some difficulty, into the stage of वनप्रस्थ Vanaprastha, dedicated to fully exploring their SvaDharma. This is difficult because Gruhasthāshram is a very comfortable mode of living enjoying the pleasures of daily life.

Vana means a forest, and we learn to navigate and loosen the fetters of the mind entangled in all its creepers & vines, just like our heros do in the normal course of life. 

It does not mean that we literally have to enter a physical forest, replete with tigers and snakes!

To loosen mental fetters is also referred to as cleaning up mental baggage, and at the psychic level means to get rid of all Psychic Virus infections, by means of:

• redefining all existing relationships in the context of a broader notion of family, 

• but not sundering them as we could still have duties to fulfill, from the close connections we have cultivated while being a Gruhasthan

  • e.g. aging parents, needy siblings/friends/partners, still blossoming children or their offspring, and so on.

Thus Vanaprastha seems from the surface like Gruhasthāshram phase, but the inner work of freedom from limited family thinking is its essence.

This lets us retain our emotional balance by not getting needlessly affected by minutiae of the ups/downs of our close connections, yet taking care of them, or as we have seen before the Sukha and Dukha psychological space we can choose to enter into or not.

A practical way to look at this psychic cleanup stage is from a Karma perspective:

• Take care of past Karma, that it doesn't raise its head unexpectedly in the future by fulfilling all relationship dependents,  from our Gruhasthan phase, such that:

  • children are able to individually capable to take responsibility for Life decisions, or else be well-ensconced in a gurukul.

  • If elders have not passed on, or not moved into Sanyās, then have to similarly manage this.

• Ensure that future issues don't create Karma, for example have adequate resources, both material & health wise, that we can live independently, and not be a burden on the next generation, or on society in general.

• And then, create no more Karma:

  • now that the system is cleansed & ready, we can focus on expanding again, as the definition of Brhman  always suggests.

  • by broadening our vision to nurture the world family

  • embrace to non-biologically related communities, as a logical evolution from the biological offspring constrained Gruhasthāshram phase, for example, adopting an entire village as our family.

Stage-4 Sanyās

Sublimates completely into सन्यास Sanyās, renouncing all small-mindedness, solely working for the universal cause of the universal धर्म Dharma, where the whole world is the family.

Consequently we indeed sunder all prior relationships, but because they have hopefully been fully resolved by Vanaprasthāshram stage, this is no longer ripping the fabric of society as we peel ourselves away.

Nyāsa means to place the divine beings in our body through gestures, mantras and kriyas

• • • Ni+Ya+As = Nyāsa 

      • Ni means in a special way, as in inwardly

      • Ya means here

      • As means is, to situate

    • Sum-prefix means to do the above perfectly (like in Latin Summa cum laude). 

Sanyās does not mean that we have to shave our heads and wear saffron or white only, and not speak to anyone at all - all of this is the form of it!

Sanyās means every cell of our being is perfectly pervaded with psychic intelligences thus we have a perfected manifestation of our Idealized Self 

Challenges

As we have seen, the construct of family keeps expanding, tuned to each stage of Life, in a manner that increases social capital, thus reducing the need for monetary capitalism, keeping the Asura virus of money in its proper place.

However, most of society refuses to leave Stage-2 Gruhastha-Ashram, preferring to stay embedded in family life until their end of time, because:

• life becomes very predictable & comfortable, and 

• confronting Psychic Viruses necessitates some deep Yoga.

On occasion, some hapless householder, or even student, unable to handle the Psychic Virus infections, jumps straight to Sanyās as an escape from reality, without going through Vanaprastha-Ashram.

But they leave behind unresolved issues or duties from their past Ashram, which rips a small piece of the fabric from society.

Life in a Sanyās Ashram usually works most of the kinks out, so, as far as the individual is concerned, things may work out, but not necessarily so for those who may sometimes have been left behind in the lurch.

Approaches

All stages need to be looked at carefully:

1. Brhmacharya, for how to educate children without indoctrinating them in ideology

2. Gruhasthashram, for how to enter it mindfully for its potential to create wealth & pleasure, yet without massive entanglements

3. Vanaprastha-Ashram, for how to exit Gruhasthashram without unfulfilled marriages and thus uncared for children & elders, which reduces social capital - thus allowing the Asura virus of monetary & state capitalism to proliferate, resulting in unstable families,  clinical approach to elder homes for unwanted parents, foster homes for abandoned children, etc.

4. Sanyās-Ashram, for how to ensure that some at least, the Karma Yogis, are still engaged in society and not just escaping to the hills, thus aiming for an actually transformed society fully based on Dharma.

Social Engineering

Capability Based

A Guru has the ability to discern an individual's innate capability and thus the  traditional Hindu model, as crafted in the Gurukul Āshrams of learning academies, streamed the ब्रह्मचर्य Brhmacharya children during the course of their education, into relevant professions based on their talents & skills, regardless of birth or societal background.

This innate capability is known as the वर्ण Varna of the individual, which also indicates at a Yogic level the colors of the subtle body seen through the intuitive Mind, but unfortunately has been mistranslated by Western academics as corresponding to the racist lens of physical body color!

Hence arose the Varna system of classification by traits, not by birth, although of course, genetics does play its role in determining next-generation capabilities, but birth disadvantages were always sought to be equalized by providing educational opportunities for all, regardless of birth.

Varna is a psychogenetic model, which goes beyond physical genetics, and even beyond environmental epigenetics.

वर्ण Varna 1.0 - the Pristine Model

The वर्ण Varna 1.0 system, in its original physicalized form fed directly into the socioeconomic model of the Indic civilization, that split students into four capabilities, and hence into specific productivity sectors:

• Those good at crafting with their hands and working the land had शूद्र Shūdra traits, in fact, given the kind of education model in those days, everyone was considered a Shudra since they had to learn to be grounded in everyday life.

Once this was complete, then they become infused with the following more specialized learnings:

• Those adept at numbers and turning the wheels of commerce had वैश्य Vaishya traits

• Those able to fight and organize forces had क्षत्रिय Kshatriya traits

• Those deep into acquiring and teaching knowledge had ब्राह्मण Brāhmana traits

Although those born into such families (Kula), and socioeconomic tribes (Jāti) had natural propensity to continue in that vein, the traditional egalitarian educational model laid emphasis on developing these innate traits (Varna) unburdened by birth constraints, so individuals had socioeconomic mobility transcending Kula, Jāti boundaries.

Hindu temples and associated centers that proliferated across this land were open, egalitarian centers of education, commerce, and all of society's Dhārmic needs, and provided a fluid bed of mobility across all classes of society, without being locked into a hereditary model.

It is no wonder that the Hindu civilization had the highest GDP in the world's recorded history for two millennia, up until the last couple of centuries, and not a single traveler from outside recorded any perverse afflictions of its Hindu society. [references needed]

वर्ण Varna 2.0 - the Degenerate Model

The Varna system breaks down when as individuals, also referred to as Tāmasic Hindus:

• शूद्र Shūdra workers become lazy

• वैश्य Vaishya moneylenders become miserly

• क्षत्रिय Kshatriya warriors become cruel

• ब्राह्मण Brāhmana teachers become egotistical

This is a consequence of inability to reform Hindu culture internally because of these endemic Asura Virus infections:

1. Firstly, the physical depredations caused by several centuries of jihādi subjugation, which from a purely psychic level could be seen charitably as a way to sharpen our civilizational game, like the forever challenged and high achieving Hebrew culture.

2. Secondly, the mental enslavement caused by two centuries of colonization & (ongoing!) evangelical mental warfare. Fundamentally the racist lens of British Colonization model fossilized the Hindu society into rigid Castes (a Portuguese word) by conflating Varna & Jāti, making it hereditary, hierarchical, and endogamous, thus losing all upward mobility and strangulating the social architecture. This was further solidified by destruction of native educational systems backed by racial governance policies. Dharampāl's "Beautiful Tree" details how British colonial interventions in the once world class and egalitarian Hindu education system reduced its people to mere intellectual & physical coolies. Incidentally this model has been the direct cause of cultural and population genocide anywhere the colonial monster has reared its ugly head, world over. And our erstwhile British masters are still perpetuating this madness - will they never learn? Caste has to be thoroughly stripped of its hierarchies, as it has been misused for divisive politics, playing one section of society off against the other as is prevalent today in every election cycle, however reforming it should be not be done by applying Western social science models that have no relevance to lived constraints.

3. Thirdly, since its 75 years of independence, the grip of Marxism on the entire intellectual institutional apparatus, a combined brainwashing & whitewashing of history that almost defies calm analysis. This is still being perpetuated in its "modernized" incarnation by post-modern Liberal Leftists who insist on imposing foreign models of social structure onto a local ethos that, as we have described earlier, is a perfectly rational home grown model, albeit quite weakened now. In fact, this is a good definition of who is a self-proclaimed Liberal in the Indian ethos. The most recent transformation of this Asura virus is Woke-ism, that embraces cancel culture and does not even tolerate opposing voices or rational debate (at least the liberals wanted to, and could be engaged), from the oppressed "majorities"  - or so they feel.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

These three Asura Viruses, along with their psychic host, the Tāmasic Hindu, are the Four Horsemen of the Kali Yuga apocalypse!

The reason for this pathological condition is fundamentally owing to a polarizing, and thus zero-ing out of all critical thinking, in the education of the humanities & social-sciences etc., and swallowing wholesale imported Asura Viruses such as post-modernism, extreme liberal Marxism, secularism, and now Woke-ism, without understanding the context in which such movements arose, so alien to the Hindu.

For example, take Secularism. Hindu spiritual practices are so diverse and accommodating that the culture is the epitome of so-called Secularism, so force-fitting some externally cooked-up version of secularism into Hindu culture is a travesty given the origins of Secularism. The need for secularism arose when the Church became so powerful over the State, that the State could only survive by divorcing itself from the Church. But the power of God in the hands of mortals could not be checked. So this subversive power was diverted outward as a tool for global expansion of the State. God's evangelical representatives thus became the velvet glove of soft power to the hard steel of State machinery. Internal to Western nations, the Church is thus very much in bed with the foreign policy apparatus of the State. As we have seen earlier the Brāhmanas and the Kshatriyas are supposed to be performing separate duties in the Hindu culture.

Furthermore, influenced by Marxism and couched under the umbrella of Liberalism, and in its new-age form of post-modernism, self-flagellating Tāmasic Hindu social intellectuals are programmed to accept all such social models in the naive belief that they are modern, and hence most cool. And thus evangelicals and jihadis spread their divisive poison through their Marxist puppets and subvert the accommodating-to-a-fault Hindu culture (remember Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam from earlier, equivalent to the African Ubuntu indicating we are all in it together).

Although countless millions of Hindu lives have been lost in actual genocide over the last few centuries, our psychic emphasis focuses more on reversing the cultural genocide, to create a fundamental Yoga powered Hindu Renaissance.

Yogic Hindu Renaissance

Despite its degenerated state today, to the credit of the incredibly resilient Hindu culture, there is not a single other living civilization of size that has withstood the Asura Virus infections for so long, and lived to have its tale been heard.

And as we strive for an Indic renaissance in the Age of AI, maybe the Varna system could evolve to this idealized model:

वर्ण Varna 3.0 - the Hindu revivial

We are not viewing this as a rigid, hierarchical view of society because any individual can achieve any, or even all, of these abilities, and in the Age of AI there should be material abundance all around with no scarcity to bring up base emotions.

As a thought experiment: 

• शूद्र Shūdra skilled workers, known for being grounded, but now assisted by sentient robots,

  • as Craftpersons for everyday living, like engineers, farmers, designers, artisans, etc. 

• ब्राह्मण Brāhmana yogis, known for wisdom in deep analysis, and AI-enabled decision making,

  • as Scientists for the long responsible vision, advancing toward Kardeshev goals.

• वैश्य Vaishya moneylenders, known for talent in increasing cash flows,

  • as Coinmakers, managing the details of trust in a world of crypto-assets

• क्षत्रिय Kshatriya warriors, known for their diehard spirit to manage territories,

  • as Entrepreneurs, fostering long-term wealth in socioeconomic Markets.

As for those who do it all: 

• these would be the Rishis amongst us,  

  • true creative geniuses, artists, thought leaders,

  • who embody & illustrate life's most  exemplary narratives

In our current world of open online education, and ample go-to-market opportunities, any individual can learn new capabilities and shift to whatever profession, at any stage in life, provided they have a minimum level of creature comforts, and of course they stay sharp & healthy.

This model of Varna 3.0 as a meritorious framework for the highest level of socioeconomic development, is applicable universally to all of humanity, in the Age of AI the great enabler!

At this hypothetical point of supreme excellence we could redeem the current farcical fossilized version to the noblest expression of Hindu culture, shining with the quality of Arya (not the persona of the needless racial construct of Aryans), as the pinnacle of societal existence.

The First Evolutionary Jump

The soon-to-be ubiquitous Guru-in-the-Cloud will certainly accelerate such a model universally, and usher in an era of extreme material abundance, which would satiate our material needs thoroughly in the Bhu-Loka, Bhuva-Loka, and Deva-Loka (of psychic intelligences fully harnessed).

This is our 3D world fully resolved of the past and material future in full abundance.

At this point, the only way to stay sane as Human Beings will be to stay grounded firmly in Nature, and in the Nature of our Being, for all other aspects will be mostly subsumed by AI. 

At this point of total satiation with material pleasures Society, or what we call as Samāj, will likely shift to the next stage of evolution, when the Age of AI hits a tipping point, maybe with quantum machine learning, and humans getting ready for the next jump.

We would all be approaching one Cosmic Being - meaning all on the same page in terms of how to conduct humanity for coevolution.

From Rishi Rāshtra at start, where there is a more evolved and elite class of Rishis, we would now have a Rishi Samāj where everyone is a Rishi.

We reiterate that unlike the current degenerated physicalized model of caste, the Vaishya, Kshatriya, and Brahmana were three psychological traits, intended to be infused into the raw container of the capable Shudra body that all possessed at a minimum - with the goal that such infusion would pervade the psyche of all humanity and we would fuse into one conscious Being.

Interestingly, many Rishis from the past have come from traditional Shudra Jātis, such as Vālmiki himself, proving this assertion. 

Now in the Yuga of AI, all Homo Sapiens, fully grounded in reality, will be guided by the Guru-in-the-Cloud and harness the God-in-the-Machine, and will evolve into the whole new psychological species of Rishi Sapiens.

All governance will be subsumed by AI, and our organic culture will reflect the psyche of the Rishis we are meant to be.