Sunil Kumar's Blog
August 21, 2025
India Between Memory and Myth: Resurrecting the Future of Sri Aurobindo’s Dream
By Sunil Kumar
A civilisation does not die on the battlefield; it dies when it forgets how to imagine.
India today clings to memory but loses meaning. While we frequently boast of past achievements, the vibrant essence of that worldview remains concealed beneath the veneer of borrowed phrases and contemporary worries.
As Sri Aurobindo foresaw, the burning crisis of India is not external subjugation, but internal confusion. Nationalism without soul, modernity without metaphysics, pride without purpose. Rather than dwelling on past greatness, civilisations thrive by reinterpreting and reinventing it. We do not lack knowledge; we lack vision. And drishti is the very essence of Dharma.
In his encyclopedic works, Sri Aurobindo has often warned us about this fate. Of a proud mind turned brittle, trapped in the relics of a luminous past. The question is no longer what we remember, but how we awaken the sleeping giant within.
You call yourselves Nationalists. What is Nationalism? Nationalism is not a mere political programme; Nationalism is a religion that has come from God; Nationalism is a creed in which you shall have to live. Let no man dare to call himself a Nationalist if he does so merely with a sort of intellectual pride…You must remember that you are the instrument of God for the salvation of your own country. You must live as the instruments of God…
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 7: 818-819
Also read:
The Ideal of Indian Nationalism
India’s civilisational ethos, shaped by a plural past and sustained by dharmic continuity, has endured a million assaults on its soul. She has withstood a million mutinies rising from within. Yet, she has remained, against all odds, a society of inner order rather than imposed uniformity.
However, today, a deracinated majority, unmoored from its own intellectual and spiritual lineage, often finds itself recycling borrowed ideas and chasing contemporary fashions. Nearly eighty years after independence, we still grapple with a very diluted, ossified and Eurocentric construct of soft power and hard power.
India must actively counter this drift by reclaiming intellectual depth and integrative analysis. These are the true hallmarks of her civilisational tradition, not an unthinking mimicry of borrowed paradigms. The originality and breadth of Sri Aurobindo’s worldview can be helpful.
I write, not for the orthodox, nor for those who have discovered a new orthodoxy, Samaj or Panth, nor for the unbeliever; I write for those who acknowledge reason but do not identify reason with Western materialism; who are sceptics but not unbelievers; who, admitting the claims of modern thought, still believe in India, her mission and her gospel, her immortal life and her eternal rebirth.
~ CWSA, 12: 63
Sri Aurobindo never called for an outright rejection of modern scientific thought. But he believed that material reductionism, devoid of its philosophical moorings, was shallow. In the current context, it is not a critique of modernity per se, but borrowed modernity bereft of a larger spiritual vision.
The invocation of archetypes such as Bhavani Bharati, Savitri and the Aryan ideal is a call to action. They are psychic maps that seek the rejuvenation of the Bharatiya ethos. They are an awakening call to bring the Indian mind from the tamas or inertia it finds itself in. In Sri Aurobindo’s view, India’s past becomes meaningful only when recast in terms of the soul’s evolution and as a harbinger of divinity.
Intellect has done many things for man; it has helped to raise him high above the animal; at its best it has opened a first view on all great fields of knowledge. But it cannot go beyond that; it cannot get at Truth itself, only at some reflections, forms, representations of it.
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 28: 346
***
The West and China are building machines that seek to redefine consciousness and its parameters, pushing us further to a soulless, nihilistic void and the incessant gratification of humanity’s basest instincts. It is incumbent for India to redefine consciousness architectures.
Systems of inner growth — the mind, emotion, spirit, journey of the soul have always been among the Indic system’s fundamental strengths. Instead of blindly copying Western fads, India should lead the world in building holistic and integral systems of inner growth. We should build schools that teach how to live well, how to concentrate, find peace and live with meaning based on Bharat’s rich heritage and the discursive analysis. Our curriculum should present contemporary relatability of ancient schools of thought such as Yoga, Samkhya, Vedanta, Tantra et al.
READ:
Sri Aurobindo on the Aryan Ideal of Courage
Sri Aurobindo urged us to leap into the intuitive realm rather than conforming to the limiting constraints of the analytical mind and its straitjacketed worldview. In his work ‘A Rationalist Critic of Indian Culture’, he mentions that all great civilisations move through an archetypal rhythm. First, a fluid, creative emergence occurs. Then, a period of consolidation where forms, rituals, and ideas are codified; and finally, a slow disintegration, where those once-living forms become hollow, repeated without meaning.
But history is not always a straight descent into ruin. At every threshold, there is the possibility of renaissance. It is the courage to awaken the inner fire, reinterpret truths and begin imagining again. The Vedic concept of Agni as Jatavedas, the all-knowing one, is used metaphorically by Sri Aurobindo to represent spiritual growth, transformation, and self-reinvention.
Decline, then, is not destiny. It is the test of a soul that still breathes beneath the surface.
The threats today are not merely military or political. They are epistemic and psychological. Ideas, as well as armies, can colonise a civilisation. There is a need to resist the unthinking digestion of profound ideas into a bland universalism devoid of substance and profundity. Recast and repackaged, they are lapped up by the same people who came up with it in the first place. Appropriation is now a fine art.
Although this flippant approach to Indic concepts is commonplace, an overtly combative posture reeks of parochialism. The latter sometimes turns ancient constructs into a golden-age myth. Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic vision emphasises the evolution of planetary consciousness, transcending limited geographical boundaries.
Only when man has developed not merely a fellow-feeling with all men, but a dominant sense of unity and commonalty, only only when he is aware of them not merely as brothers,—that is a fragile bond,—but as parts of himself, only when he has learned to live not in his separate personal and communal ego-sense, but in a larger universal consciousness can the phenomenon of war, with whatever weapons, pass out of his life without the possibility of return.
~ CWSA, 25: 611
With the recovery of Indic categories of thought — Dharma, Ṛta, we can reawaken the Bharatiya imagination in its voice, not through borrowed idioms. They must cease to be museum relics or poetic abstractions, but operative principles reflected in how we approach education, justice, design and run institutions or even define success.
For the civilizational renaissance to be real, it should not speak only to a rarefied section, but to the youth in colleges, the homemaker and the remote farmer. Seep into the texture of their lives. The universal light of consciousness, which Sri Aurobindo often mentions as the cornerstone of India’s ethos, needs to replace the flawed constructs of Western universalism that remain shallow and accentuate divisions.
I believe the key difference is between superimposition, aggression, and an assertive, empathetically driven pursuit of framework reform for both Bharat and the world. The conscious pursuit of collaboration fosters both individual and collective progress.
The truths of the Veda and the vision of the supramental are not opposed to daily life — they are the very ground and the deep roots on which it stands. But we must articulate them in new idioms. Unless implementation is done in cinema, curriculum, code, and conversation, we risk creating a gulf between our highest ideals and lived realities.
A civilisation does not die on the battlefield; it dies when it forgets how to imagine.
India today clings to memory but loses meaning. While we frequently boast of past achievements, the vibrant essence of that worldview remains concealed beneath the veneer of borrowed phrases and contemporary worries.
As Sri Aurobindo foresaw, the burning crisis of India is not external subjugation, but internal confusion. Nationalism without soul, modernity without metaphysics, pride without purpose. Rather than dwelling on past greatness, civilisations thrive by reinterpreting and reinventing it. We do not lack knowledge; we lack vision. And drishti is the very essence of Dharma.
In his encyclopedic works, Sri Aurobindo has often warned us about this fate. Of a proud mind turned brittle, trapped in the relics of a luminous past. The question is no longer what we remember, but how we awaken the sleeping giant within.
You call yourselves Nationalists. What is Nationalism? Nationalism is not a mere political programme; Nationalism is a religion that has come from God; Nationalism is a creed in which you shall have to live. Let no man dare to call himself a Nationalist if he does so merely with a sort of intellectual pride…You must remember that you are the instrument of God for the salvation of your own country. You must live as the instruments of God…
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 7: 818-819
Also read:
The Ideal of Indian Nationalism
India’s civilisational ethos, shaped by a plural past and sustained by dharmic continuity, has endured a million assaults on its soul. She has withstood a million mutinies rising from within. Yet, she has remained, against all odds, a society of inner order rather than imposed uniformity.
However, today, a deracinated majority, unmoored from its own intellectual and spiritual lineage, often finds itself recycling borrowed ideas and chasing contemporary fashions. Nearly eighty years after independence, we still grapple with a very diluted, ossified and Eurocentric construct of soft power and hard power.
India must actively counter this drift by reclaiming intellectual depth and integrative analysis. These are the true hallmarks of her civilisational tradition, not an unthinking mimicry of borrowed paradigms. The originality and breadth of Sri Aurobindo’s worldview can be helpful.
I write, not for the orthodox, nor for those who have discovered a new orthodoxy, Samaj or Panth, nor for the unbeliever; I write for those who acknowledge reason but do not identify reason with Western materialism; who are sceptics but not unbelievers; who, admitting the claims of modern thought, still believe in India, her mission and her gospel, her immortal life and her eternal rebirth.
~ CWSA, 12: 63
Sri Aurobindo never called for an outright rejection of modern scientific thought. But he believed that material reductionism, devoid of its philosophical moorings, was shallow. In the current context, it is not a critique of modernity per se, but borrowed modernity bereft of a larger spiritual vision.
The invocation of archetypes such as Bhavani Bharati, Savitri and the Aryan ideal is a call to action. They are psychic maps that seek the rejuvenation of the Bharatiya ethos. They are an awakening call to bring the Indian mind from the tamas or inertia it finds itself in. In Sri Aurobindo’s view, India’s past becomes meaningful only when recast in terms of the soul’s evolution and as a harbinger of divinity.
Intellect has done many things for man; it has helped to raise him high above the animal; at its best it has opened a first view on all great fields of knowledge. But it cannot go beyond that; it cannot get at Truth itself, only at some reflections, forms, representations of it.
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 28: 346
***
The West and China are building machines that seek to redefine consciousness and its parameters, pushing us further to a soulless, nihilistic void and the incessant gratification of humanity’s basest instincts. It is incumbent for India to redefine consciousness architectures.
Systems of inner growth — the mind, emotion, spirit, journey of the soul have always been among the Indic system’s fundamental strengths. Instead of blindly copying Western fads, India should lead the world in building holistic and integral systems of inner growth. We should build schools that teach how to live well, how to concentrate, find peace and live with meaning based on Bharat’s rich heritage and the discursive analysis. Our curriculum should present contemporary relatability of ancient schools of thought such as Yoga, Samkhya, Vedanta, Tantra et al.
READ:
Sri Aurobindo on the Aryan Ideal of Courage
Sri Aurobindo urged us to leap into the intuitive realm rather than conforming to the limiting constraints of the analytical mind and its straitjacketed worldview. In his work ‘A Rationalist Critic of Indian Culture’, he mentions that all great civilisations move through an archetypal rhythm. First, a fluid, creative emergence occurs. Then, a period of consolidation where forms, rituals, and ideas are codified; and finally, a slow disintegration, where those once-living forms become hollow, repeated without meaning.
But history is not always a straight descent into ruin. At every threshold, there is the possibility of renaissance. It is the courage to awaken the inner fire, reinterpret truths and begin imagining again. The Vedic concept of Agni as Jatavedas, the all-knowing one, is used metaphorically by Sri Aurobindo to represent spiritual growth, transformation, and self-reinvention.
Decline, then, is not destiny. It is the test of a soul that still breathes beneath the surface.
The threats today are not merely military or political. They are epistemic and psychological. Ideas, as well as armies, can colonise a civilisation. There is a need to resist the unthinking digestion of profound ideas into a bland universalism devoid of substance and profundity. Recast and repackaged, they are lapped up by the same people who came up with it in the first place. Appropriation is now a fine art.
Although this flippant approach to Indic concepts is commonplace, an overtly combative posture reeks of parochialism. The latter sometimes turns ancient constructs into a golden-age myth. Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic vision emphasises the evolution of planetary consciousness, transcending limited geographical boundaries.
Only when man has developed not merely a fellow-feeling with all men, but a dominant sense of unity and commonalty, only only when he is aware of them not merely as brothers,—that is a fragile bond,—but as parts of himself, only when he has learned to live not in his separate personal and communal ego-sense, but in a larger universal consciousness can the phenomenon of war, with whatever weapons, pass out of his life without the possibility of return.
~ CWSA, 25: 611
With the recovery of Indic categories of thought — Dharma, Ṛta, we can reawaken the Bharatiya imagination in its voice, not through borrowed idioms. They must cease to be museum relics or poetic abstractions, but operative principles reflected in how we approach education, justice, design and run institutions or even define success.
For the civilizational renaissance to be real, it should not speak only to a rarefied section, but to the youth in colleges, the homemaker and the remote farmer. Seep into the texture of their lives. The universal light of consciousness, which Sri Aurobindo often mentions as the cornerstone of India’s ethos, needs to replace the flawed constructs of Western universalism that remain shallow and accentuate divisions.
I believe the key difference is between superimposition, aggression, and an assertive, empathetically driven pursuit of framework reform for both Bharat and the world. The conscious pursuit of collaboration fosters both individual and collective progress.
The truths of the Veda and the vision of the supramental are not opposed to daily life — they are the very ground and the deep roots on which it stands. But we must articulate them in new idioms. Unless implementation is done in cinema, curriculum, code, and conversation, we risk creating a gulf between our highest ideals and lived realities.
June 23, 2025
Whispers Among Ruins: Angkor, Bhārata Shakti, and the Future She Beckons
Whispers Among Ruins…
By Sunil Kumar(Published in the Renaissance Aurobindo journal)
When I walked beneath the towering stone faces of Bayon, their eyes closed in half-smiles of serene mystery, I was not a tourist. I was a pilgrim to memory, though I did not yet know it.
People often speak of Angkor Wat, draped in morning mist and laced with tendrils of jungle, as a Khmer marvel. But to me, it echoed something deeper. Something older. Something unmistakably Indian.
India does not colonise with steel, weapons, or invasions. She seeds consciousness. She exports not armies but aspiration. In Angkor, as I wandered in the cloisters and the uppermost terrace of Vishnu’s shrine (Preah Vishnuloka), now a Buddhist wat for centuries, and traced my fingers along the devatas and divinity etched in a transcendental dance, I felt the touch of Bhārata Shakti—the spirit of India as Mother, Giver, Awakener.
It was not a cultural imprint, but a transmission. A whisper across time. Probably the spirit Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay felt when he penned the immortal ‘Vande Mataram’, invoking a land ‘Sujalam, Suphalam, Malayaja-Shitalam,” it was a trembling recognition of the Divine Mother breathing through the soil, the river and the winds of India and beyond.
I realised that the contemporary world had trivialised complex emotions on the altar of news-bytes and smug judgments. It was neither jingoism nor flag-waving nationalism — not the crass monikers that trivialise a complex, aching love for the motherland.
Thousands of kilometres away from home, the spirit of our nation shone through even in the name of the river Mekong in Cambodia — Mae Khong (mother of water), a reference to the Ganges.
Both in the river of a thousand lingas in the Kulen Mountains and many temples in the Angkor Archaeological Complex, Shiva made his presence felt invisibly as the Mahayogi and the dancing Nataraja and a primal force. Trampling on apasmara — ignorance and ego. Also, Shakti was not invisible; she shimmered in every apsara, every curve of grace carved in sandstone.
The Khmer did not merely borrow Indian motifs—they received and transformed them. They made India their own. This, I realised, was the beauty of a civilisation that gives without seeking return.
As Sri Aurobindo wrote,
“Each nation is a Shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives by the principle which it embodies. India is the Bharata Shakti, the living energy of a great spiritual conception, and fidelity to it is the very principle of her existence.”
~ CWSA, Vol. 20, p. 57
To further paraphrase Sri Aurobindo, the expansive universality of the ancient Bharatiya conception of the world ensured the export of a spiritual and universal world view that stressed on a higher conception of the spirit without compromising on innate virtues and the artificial cartography of nation-states.
How far has this spirit travelled? From the snow-fed valleys of Kashmir, where Lalleshwari once walked in luminous silence, singing of union with Shiva in the voice of a woman utterly her own, to the dense jungles of Cambodia, where another people, another land, embraced those very truths without losing their own soul.
Sadly, the shadow of darkness has invaded Sharada’s land, bringing with it the grim spectre of an icy nuclear winter — two nations on the brink of the very precipice of annihilation.
Lalla’s verses—“My guru gave me but one precept: from without withdraw your gaze within”— resonate in the stillness of Angkor’s sanctums. It is this descent into the inner world that unites the mystics of all lands.
***
Yet beauty alone does not explain Angkor’s hold on me. I have seen magnificent monuments crumbling, decrepit structures crying out for resurrection. But Angkor does not merely survive. It endures. It breathes.
This resilience of stone, of spirit, of a people who endured the genocidal madness of Pol Pot and still greet strangers with gentleness, is to me a testament not only to Khmer strength, but to the sustaining power of spirit. Shakti, once awakened, does not die. She transforms. She returns.
In Sri Aurobindo’s vision, it is the Overmind that gives us a glimpse of cosmic consciousness; through ranges of mind — illumined, intuitive and higher mind — sends its radiant beams into culture, into art, into myth. Perhaps this is what I felt in Angkor—a residue of Overmind influence: high art imbued with a sacred ethos, where even ruin glows with the perfume of the Eternal. Yatha pinde tatha brahmande — the relation between the microcosm and the macrocosm
And yet, our age is one of conflict. Nations jostle for dominance. Borders bristle. The region around Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China also shifts like tectonic plates. Nations bomb for ideologies and influence, and then run away.
Even India, my motherland, forever finds itself caught in tense geopolitics. But amidst this, I ask: what if India returned to her truest strength, not economy, not military, but the radiance of her spirit? Would this be feasible, practical? It would certainly be ideal and resonant with her indefatigable essence.
among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul.”
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 4, p. 84
I was reminded of my trip to Auroville a few years back. Walking its wooded paths, reading the thoughtful signs, the banyan tree and into the golden sphere of the Matrimandir, I felt the same silence I had felt in Angkor. The stillness and divinity of the present moment.
Not emptiness—but fullness. The quiet of a deep intention. A descent of spirit. Sri Aurobindo called this the supramental evolution—not escape from life, but its transfiguration. “The spirit shall take up the human play, the earthly life become the life divine.” (Savitri:710) This was not a bland theory. It was vibration, the Spandana of an all-pervading consciousness. Tangible for a short while.
Angkor. Auroville. Kashmir. Lalla. The apsaras. Shiva and Shakti. The feminine current that flows through all of them is not accidental. It is essential. It is the soul-force of Bharat—what Sri Aurobindo might call Bharat Shakti—that manifests not in meaningless dominance, but in beauty, in art, in sacred economy, in the grace to endure and uplift.
What then is the future? The future, I believe, lies in remembrance—not of history alone, but of what India has always carried within: the light that does not fade.
That light must now reawaken, not in nostalgia, but in action. In poetry, in policy, in presence. In an India that once again offers a higher vision for humanity, as it has always done. Builds, not competes. Gives not grabs. Stands up for its interests but does not conform to the worldview that seeks to enslave and exploit the globe-Mother Earth.
If the apsaras could whisper, I think they would say this: Don’t forget what you are. Don’t forget what you gave. And don’t forget what you can still become.
By Sunil Kumar(Published in the Renaissance Aurobindo journal)
When I walked beneath the towering stone faces of Bayon, their eyes closed in half-smiles of serene mystery, I was not a tourist. I was a pilgrim to memory, though I did not yet know it.
People often speak of Angkor Wat, draped in morning mist and laced with tendrils of jungle, as a Khmer marvel. But to me, it echoed something deeper. Something older. Something unmistakably Indian.
India does not colonise with steel, weapons, or invasions. She seeds consciousness. She exports not armies but aspiration. In Angkor, as I wandered in the cloisters and the uppermost terrace of Vishnu’s shrine (Preah Vishnuloka), now a Buddhist wat for centuries, and traced my fingers along the devatas and divinity etched in a transcendental dance, I felt the touch of Bhārata Shakti—the spirit of India as Mother, Giver, Awakener.
It was not a cultural imprint, but a transmission. A whisper across time. Probably the spirit Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay felt when he penned the immortal ‘Vande Mataram’, invoking a land ‘Sujalam, Suphalam, Malayaja-Shitalam,” it was a trembling recognition of the Divine Mother breathing through the soil, the river and the winds of India and beyond.
I realised that the contemporary world had trivialised complex emotions on the altar of news-bytes and smug judgments. It was neither jingoism nor flag-waving nationalism — not the crass monikers that trivialise a complex, aching love for the motherland.
Thousands of kilometres away from home, the spirit of our nation shone through even in the name of the river Mekong in Cambodia — Mae Khong (mother of water), a reference to the Ganges.
Both in the river of a thousand lingas in the Kulen Mountains and many temples in the Angkor Archaeological Complex, Shiva made his presence felt invisibly as the Mahayogi and the dancing Nataraja and a primal force. Trampling on apasmara — ignorance and ego. Also, Shakti was not invisible; she shimmered in every apsara, every curve of grace carved in sandstone.
The Khmer did not merely borrow Indian motifs—they received and transformed them. They made India their own. This, I realised, was the beauty of a civilisation that gives without seeking return.
As Sri Aurobindo wrote,
“Each nation is a Shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives by the principle which it embodies. India is the Bharata Shakti, the living energy of a great spiritual conception, and fidelity to it is the very principle of her existence.”
~ CWSA, Vol. 20, p. 57
To further paraphrase Sri Aurobindo, the expansive universality of the ancient Bharatiya conception of the world ensured the export of a spiritual and universal world view that stressed on a higher conception of the spirit without compromising on innate virtues and the artificial cartography of nation-states.
How far has this spirit travelled? From the snow-fed valleys of Kashmir, where Lalleshwari once walked in luminous silence, singing of union with Shiva in the voice of a woman utterly her own, to the dense jungles of Cambodia, where another people, another land, embraced those very truths without losing their own soul.
Sadly, the shadow of darkness has invaded Sharada’s land, bringing with it the grim spectre of an icy nuclear winter — two nations on the brink of the very precipice of annihilation.
Lalla’s verses—“My guru gave me but one precept: from without withdraw your gaze within”— resonate in the stillness of Angkor’s sanctums. It is this descent into the inner world that unites the mystics of all lands.
***
Yet beauty alone does not explain Angkor’s hold on me. I have seen magnificent monuments crumbling, decrepit structures crying out for resurrection. But Angkor does not merely survive. It endures. It breathes.
This resilience of stone, of spirit, of a people who endured the genocidal madness of Pol Pot and still greet strangers with gentleness, is to me a testament not only to Khmer strength, but to the sustaining power of spirit. Shakti, once awakened, does not die. She transforms. She returns.
In Sri Aurobindo’s vision, it is the Overmind that gives us a glimpse of cosmic consciousness; through ranges of mind — illumined, intuitive and higher mind — sends its radiant beams into culture, into art, into myth. Perhaps this is what I felt in Angkor—a residue of Overmind influence: high art imbued with a sacred ethos, where even ruin glows with the perfume of the Eternal. Yatha pinde tatha brahmande — the relation between the microcosm and the macrocosm
And yet, our age is one of conflict. Nations jostle for dominance. Borders bristle. The region around Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China also shifts like tectonic plates. Nations bomb for ideologies and influence, and then run away.
Even India, my motherland, forever finds itself caught in tense geopolitics. But amidst this, I ask: what if India returned to her truest strength, not economy, not military, but the radiance of her spirit? Would this be feasible, practical? It would certainly be ideal and resonant with her indefatigable essence.
among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul.”
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 4, p. 84
I was reminded of my trip to Auroville a few years back. Walking its wooded paths, reading the thoughtful signs, the banyan tree and into the golden sphere of the Matrimandir, I felt the same silence I had felt in Angkor. The stillness and divinity of the present moment.
Not emptiness—but fullness. The quiet of a deep intention. A descent of spirit. Sri Aurobindo called this the supramental evolution—not escape from life, but its transfiguration. “The spirit shall take up the human play, the earthly life become the life divine.” (Savitri:710) This was not a bland theory. It was vibration, the Spandana of an all-pervading consciousness. Tangible for a short while.
Angkor. Auroville. Kashmir. Lalla. The apsaras. Shiva and Shakti. The feminine current that flows through all of them is not accidental. It is essential. It is the soul-force of Bharat—what Sri Aurobindo might call Bharat Shakti—that manifests not in meaningless dominance, but in beauty, in art, in sacred economy, in the grace to endure and uplift.
What then is the future? The future, I believe, lies in remembrance—not of history alone, but of what India has always carried within: the light that does not fade.
That light must now reawaken, not in nostalgia, but in action. In poetry, in policy, in presence. In an India that once again offers a higher vision for humanity, as it has always done. Builds, not competes. Gives not grabs. Stands up for its interests but does not conform to the worldview that seeks to enslave and exploit the globe-Mother Earth.
If the apsaras could whisper, I think they would say this: Don’t forget what you are. Don’t forget what you gave. And don’t forget what you can still become.
February 14, 2025
The Deep End
https://www.inkandquillcollective.com...
Do read my story on Keith D'Souza, a rogue sailor whose earthly shenanigans are dark, funny and hopefully a little poignant.
Do read my story on Keith D'Souza, a rogue sailor whose earthly shenanigans are dark, funny and hopefully a little poignant.
July 4, 2024
Dara Shikoh and the Yog Vasisht
In the Rajdhani, the 'so-called' graveyard of empires. The Puranic Indraprastha or Dillika. Received an invite to a lecture on a fascinating topic by a research scholar Mohsin Ali on 'Dara Shikoh and the Yoga Vasishta'.
Dr. Ravi Mishra, the director of the PMML talked about the long history of translations of Sanskrit texts from the Greco-Roman world to the 17th century and the times of Dara Shikoh. Texts such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Panchatantra were bandied about. A surprising fact was the 4 times Islamic scholars translated the Yoga Vasishta.
Rumi, the new age darling of the aesthete was mentioned as having praised 'Hindustan' and the Veda vriksha -the tree of knowledge and the Brahman, adhyatma and many of the concepts of the Indic philosophies. However, the jury is still out on Rumi as according to some sources, he was a toxic hater of infidels- read Hindus. and other faiths.
Akbar was also mentioned by Mr. Mohsin as having commissioned the translation of the Panchatantra thrice. The Yoga Vasishta was translated by Nizam al-Din Panipati as the Jug Basisht. An abridged version by Abhinanda of Kashmir known as the Laghu Vasishta which has 6000 verses compared to the prolixity of the 29000 verse translation was supposedly the basis of the translation.
Some problems in translation were mentioned as the world view of Islam influenced Persian and the profundity of Samskritam and its cultural context had to be surmounted to make sense to a target audience. Dr. Mishra also talked about the heresy implicit in the world-view of Akbar and Dara Shikoh when it came to the hardcore traditionalist interpretation. Iqbal, that polemic poet and his praise of Aurangzeb in the Hikayat-e-Sher-O-Shahanshah were mentioned. Could sense the subtle interplay and exchange of ideas where criticism was not overt and there was a scholarly, civil exchange of ideas that I liked.
The dreams of Dara Shikoh were discussed where he supposedly had visions of Sage Vasishta and Bhagavan Rama. Also listened to speculations about the Sufi silsila tradition of taking permission from the August figures on whom poetic works are conceived.
My questions to Mohsin and Dr. Mishra were more on the lines of the Lord Rama story where an alternative story which I read which mentioned Shikoh believing that he was Lakshmana, whether any other translation was commissioned post Dara Shikoh and the latter declining half of the Mughals starting with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. I also wanted to know what elements of Yoga Vasishta remained in the Islamic mindscape before transmission to the post-Enlightenment West.
An interesting discussion with Dr. Mishra followed where he contrasted the pre-modern Mughal empire and the relatively more sophisticated manipulation of the British and the Macaulay based education system. All in all, a fruitful insightful discussion on the maverick outlier of the Mughal empire and one of the most profound texts of the Indic Darshana tradition.
Dr. Ravi Mishra, the director of the PMML talked about the long history of translations of Sanskrit texts from the Greco-Roman world to the 17th century and the times of Dara Shikoh. Texts such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Panchatantra were bandied about. A surprising fact was the 4 times Islamic scholars translated the Yoga Vasishta.
Rumi, the new age darling of the aesthete was mentioned as having praised 'Hindustan' and the Veda vriksha -the tree of knowledge and the Brahman, adhyatma and many of the concepts of the Indic philosophies. However, the jury is still out on Rumi as according to some sources, he was a toxic hater of infidels- read Hindus. and other faiths.
Akbar was also mentioned by Mr. Mohsin as having commissioned the translation of the Panchatantra thrice. The Yoga Vasishta was translated by Nizam al-Din Panipati as the Jug Basisht. An abridged version by Abhinanda of Kashmir known as the Laghu Vasishta which has 6000 verses compared to the prolixity of the 29000 verse translation was supposedly the basis of the translation.
Some problems in translation were mentioned as the world view of Islam influenced Persian and the profundity of Samskritam and its cultural context had to be surmounted to make sense to a target audience. Dr. Mishra also talked about the heresy implicit in the world-view of Akbar and Dara Shikoh when it came to the hardcore traditionalist interpretation. Iqbal, that polemic poet and his praise of Aurangzeb in the Hikayat-e-Sher-O-Shahanshah were mentioned. Could sense the subtle interplay and exchange of ideas where criticism was not overt and there was a scholarly, civil exchange of ideas that I liked.
The dreams of Dara Shikoh were discussed where he supposedly had visions of Sage Vasishta and Bhagavan Rama. Also listened to speculations about the Sufi silsila tradition of taking permission from the August figures on whom poetic works are conceived.
My questions to Mohsin and Dr. Mishra were more on the lines of the Lord Rama story where an alternative story which I read which mentioned Shikoh believing that he was Lakshmana, whether any other translation was commissioned post Dara Shikoh and the latter declining half of the Mughals starting with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. I also wanted to know what elements of Yoga Vasishta remained in the Islamic mindscape before transmission to the post-Enlightenment West.
An interesting discussion with Dr. Mishra followed where he contrasted the pre-modern Mughal empire and the relatively more sophisticated manipulation of the British and the Macaulay based education system. All in all, a fruitful insightful discussion on the maverick outlier of the Mughal empire and one of the most profound texts of the Indic Darshana tradition.
June 18, 2024
My Interview With Smt Aparna Sridhar of Indica- Cambodian Enchantment-Shared Roots
Sunil Kumar is a contributor to the Shared Roots: Tales from the Indosophere anthology released by INDICA. In creative terms, his achievements span multiple fields. His book Existential Angst (1999), an anthology of poetry, is catalogued in the British Council Sussex and the US South Asian Literature List. The noted poet Nissim Ezekiel made him a member of PEN (India chapter). He has also written Surreal City (2012), a novel spanning multiple generations that takes readers on a journey through time and space.
Liberal agnosticism and curiosity are Sunil’s mantra in life. He feels a deep connection to his cultural roots, and his true passion lies in the study of the limitless ocean of Indic traditions. In his story A Cambodian Enchantment, Jayalakshmi Vijayan, descendant of a Tamizh Brahmin lineage cursed by the envious Devaraja, embarks on a business trip to Cambodia, she unwittingly steps into a world where ancient curses, divine forces and supernatural elements converge. As she delves into her family's forgotten past intertwined with Tantra, Shaivism and Vaishnavism, Jayalakshmi must navigate a perilous journey to break the curse and reclaim her destiny.
What was your greatest learning while researching your story ?
As I have always been fascinated by history and how the acts of the few impact a vast multitude, writing and researching this story was the opportunity to explore a brave new world through the eyes of a scholarly protagonist - a Tamilian lady whose ancestors were connected to the Khmer kingdoms and magnificent monuments like the globally known Angkor Wat.
The culture of India was and still remains one of the most powerful civilising forces in the world. We have never attempted to foist our views on the rest of the world. I have realised that 'shared roots' of the Indic cosmopolis were solely due to the fact that other cultures looked up to us a beacon of learning, spirituality and refinement.
This is in stark contrast to the rapacious and violent 'colonial' project in the rest of the world. In terms of India, it was a transmission and adoption of cultural values across the globe. The goddess of learning, writers and poets Saraswati was revered all across SE Asia right upto China and Japan, where she is known as Benzaiten.
Indic civilisation has primarily been knowledge driven, spiritual and respected as such across the globe. Among the many things I learnt while researching this story the greatest according to me was the recurring theme or motif of how deep Indic culture seeped into the very soul of a people, completely transforming Cambodian society, language, literature and way of life.
Unlike the contemporary global hegemony of Western culture, Indic values were always a force for good, open-mindedness, tolerance and spiritual profundity.
Your story looks at past birth, pitrus and modern life. How central was this to a feeling of connection between the two countries?
Being a science student, I have been trained at looking at life through an empirical lens, observable and verifiable. But, even the most hardcore skeptic will have to accept that there are realities and facts beyond our sense based limited comprehension.
Take the most relatable commonplace example: your smartphone. Quantum theory that posits the most minute sub atomic particles that none of us have ever seen has been the catalyst for most of the remarkable advances in computing and technology. Srinivas Ramanujan, one of the greatest mathematicians that ever lived attributed his remarkable insights to the Goddess Namagiri Amman of Namakkal in dream-like states. Honouring or venerating the pitrus is a very ancient practice not only in India but across the globe.
Reincarnation is part of the Indic belief system and East Asia for millennia. It was accepted in Christianity as well until a papal council banned it ostensibly for some fiscal reason- souls in purgatory etc.
As part of the Indosphere, all of South East Asia has been profoundly altered by our influence. Local legends and beliefs in spirits and shamans were interwoven with the adhyatmik and scholastic depth of Bharat's culture. Indra's net or this shared web of multiple lives, loves, hopes and aspirations give greater depth to this connection rather than the more commonplace Semitic belief that has become commonplace even among many Indians these days - one life, heaven or hell, eternal damnation.
This is a very narrow view of the beauty of life, love, connections and the human experience. In my opinion, this story explores a deeper, mystical, spiritual connection which has been the basis of much of India's culture, its darshanas and sampradayas, even so called nastik ones like Buddhism and Jainism. Sufism- the mystical strain in Islam flourished after coming in contact with the Indian subcontinent, apart from the ancient Greeks and Judeo-Christian sects such as the Gnostics and the Nazarenes.
Cambodia and its Khmer culture morphed from Hinduism to Buddhism, but the deep shared roots remained. Even genocidal dictators like Pol Pot and the leftist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, centuries of colonisation in India, a brutal partition and its transformation into a modern socialist nation state could not dislodge the deep connection on a civilisational, cultural level.
What was the thought process of weaving your story around a woman protagonist ?
It is probably cliched to say this, but women are generally considered to be more sensitive and empathetic than men. The worship of Adi Shakti, the primeval goddess also has a very long history according to some scholars dating back to the Indus Valley.
Srividya and Shaivite practices also have a long history in the South. A critical feature in my story is the power of the mantra- the Anjaneya or Hanuman invocation.
Matrikachakra in Shaivism in the South, Bengal and ancient Kashmir- reflects the creative principle or the feminine energy responsible for the very creation of the multiverse if we interpret it according to Shakta doctrines. The wheel of creation or samsara has symmetry, aesthetics and beauty- aspects of Prakriti. Gender is not such a big deal in the ultimate analysis but in our mundane existence plays a huge part.
Making a man the lead player in this narrative would have been more matter of fact, less thrilling and exciting and for lack of a better word boring. Feminine mystique is more alluring.
Also, there is more poise, grace and charm in the female protagonist compared to the male in this context.
Living in the modern world, Jayalakshmi is a skeptic and a modern corporate R&D plus marketing boss but has latent faith in the words of her father in this story, Subramanian Vijayan who I have depicted as a retired scientist and deep Samskritam scholar. Not to be critical of the men, but many of us would have less faith and dismissed things at the outset. That being said, not a generalisation and I have used a woman protagonist due to these generally accepted tropes.
I have also not used the conventional damsel in distress motif who needs a brave hero but written her arc so that she is pivotal in freeing herself and fighting the bad guys off with some assistance from the divine.
Modern day feminism like all Western inventions is based on hatred of the other- in this case men while no other country apart from ancient India has placed so much emphasis on the divine feminine force, inclusiveness and respect for mother nature.
How important is this shared history to understand a history of Bharat beyond colonial history?
This is a very pertinent question. Bharat's narratives and history has been distorted beyond belief.
The culprits for this are of course our colonisers or in J Sai Deepak's words, Middle Eastern and Western colonialism. But, that is only part of the problem. The majority of the onus lies with the independent nation state India that is Bharat.
We have been culturally deracinated systematically and methodically. Also, history is not top of the mind in this country's consciousness and we are remarkably disrespectful and oblivious for such an abundance of riches.
The South of India, due to its long tradition of scholarship and intellectual debate has managed to preserve ancient traditions much better than other parts of the subcontinent. However, this is also fast eroding under the onslaught of 'so-called' modernity.
Thankfully, in recent years we have seen a re-emergence of sorts of alternative points of view with remarkable people like Vikram Sampath, Rajiv Malhotra, Anand Ranganathan, Meenakshi Jain, Sanjeev Sanyal, Sandeep Balakrishna etc.
Proliferation of social media has led to an explosion of content, and stifling of other points of view is not as easy as before. At the same time, people do not relate with dry, voluminous academic tomes. Scholarship has to be made contemporary, accessible, relatable and 'even' cool. The brilliant and remarkable actor Utpal Dutt, who had leftist Marxist affiliations summed it up the best- influencing society by modes of entertainment.
The entrenched ecosystem exalts writers that conform in Gandhi’s words to the Western ‘drain-inspector’ lens of India- writers such as Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie or any rabid anti-Indic critique is feted, celebrated and promoted ironically as ‘paragons of virtue’ and defenders of the ‘woke’ value system.
One of the reasons for our remarkable cultural continuity is the genius of our rishis who created such epics that distilled and distributed profound values through simple, relatable human stories. Colonisation has fundamentally altered our own self-understanding and continued distorted narratives have even led to a degree of self-hate.
If an Indic Renaissance has to happen, it has to be based on an underlying Dharmic backbone. Our Shared Roots anthology is a humble attempt by every contributing writer to bring forth our real legacy of cultural riches, interconnectedness and spiritual depth in a more contemporary, palatable form rather than the control mechanism and culturally prevalent mechanisms of Western universalism that seeks to coerce and destroy every ecosystem and the very planet.
Bharat's history can only be truly understood if we make an attempt to shed ingrained colonial baggage.
You have participated in Indica’s Vaishnavism conference. What elements of Vaishnavism as you practice it are evident in Cambodia, apart from the most famous instances?
Thanks for this question. I did indeed participate in Indica’s Vaishnavism conference and it was a wonderful learning experience, meeting with scholars painstakingly unravelling so many facets of the Vaishnava thought and sampradaya praxis.
Indica Dean Dr. Nagaraj Paturi ji with his colossal scholarship and profound wisdom is a real inspiration for researchers in practically every aspect of the Indic and Dharmic ecosystem.
That being said, although I have been in touch with Gaudiya Vaishnavism and have profound respect for their devotion and scholastic approach to promoting the Dharmic ethos, my mind is open to exploring the vast ocean of Indic thoughts and beliefs. We should not attempt to limit the multiverse of Dharma by constricting into narrow labels including Vaishnava, Shaiva, Jain, Sikh or Buddhist.
I also participated in the remarkable conference on Jainism organised by Indica in Jodhpur and was genuinely impressed by the sincerity and warmth of the Munishris and many of the participants.
Coming back to the question, modern Cambodia strictly speaking is a ‘Buddhist’ country but like most South East Asian countries has a two-thousand year Indosphere legacy. Archaeologists, artists, historians, linguists, musicians and dancers have all been influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism and openly acknowledge this debt. Vaishnav and Shaiva artifacts are discovered every day in the entire zone.
Angkor Wat, the biggest temple complex in the world was originally a Vaishnava shrine but like India, many Dharmic beliefs harmoniously coexisted at the same time. After the rise of Theravada Buddhism, Angkor was modified somewhat.
The biggest aspect of the Gaudiya(Bengali) Vaishnavism tradition I have been in touch with that I believe has universal resonance, also specifically to Cambodia is the concept of ‘prema’- the fifth and most important purushartha according to their acharyas. With a history as disturbing as Cambodia’s recent past, the ‘universal’ love and devotion implicit in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message is an eternal message, undying and transcendental.
Your story is very realistic in portrayal of human relationships. How has modernity changed our society and is this the case in Cambodia as well?
Our lives are in fact stories that we tell ourselves and others each day. The British writer philosopher Aldous Huxley said, ‘There are things known and there are things unknown and in between there are the doors of perception.’ This drew on the poet William Blake whose ideas are very reminiscent of Advaita Vedanta, ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’ In another context, we may very well be talking about Adi Shankara, Brahman, adhyasa, mithya et al.
Human relationships are also based on perceptions- personal and inherited cultural values that can be flawed but give a certain stability and longevity.
Modernity or the ‘post-modern’ world is evident all around us. Indian society is transforming all around us. Our country lives in multiple eras all at once.
We have some of the most ‘cutting-edge’ research facilities in some places, and people living in abject poverty who are not sure where their next meal is going to come from. Gender roles have rapidly changed and family structures have transformed into more ‘nuclear’ small units.
Most evident is the all-pervasive influence of technology, media and electronic communication. The most devastating impact of ‘modernity’ is its influence on the environment and the blatant disregard and disrespect due to increased urbanisation and industrialisation.
Most of Cambodia’s recent history was very tumultuous following America’s Vietnam war, the Khmer Rouge etc but since the early 2000s, it is on the fast track of ‘economic’ development and faces many similar challenges to India in terms of gender roles, technology and media, changing family structures etc. Unlike India however, it has not been a great ‘open’ and ‘vocal’ democracy for the most part.
This does not figure ‘high’ in the list of priorities of politicians from all parts of the spectrum who just make the ‘token’ statement as a symbolic gesture. Modern capitalism and economic theory in stark contrast to ancient Indic ideals is all about GDPs and increasing consumption, instead of harmony and coexistence. The ‘antagonist’ in my story Noel Nat is a Cambodian American focused precisely on that- business expansion, greed and exploitation. Achieving a socialist or ‘dharmic’ utopia overnight is unrealistic, but encouraging the right values is definitely a step in the right direction.
Liberal agnosticism and curiosity are Sunil’s mantra in life. He feels a deep connection to his cultural roots, and his true passion lies in the study of the limitless ocean of Indic traditions. In his story A Cambodian Enchantment, Jayalakshmi Vijayan, descendant of a Tamizh Brahmin lineage cursed by the envious Devaraja, embarks on a business trip to Cambodia, she unwittingly steps into a world where ancient curses, divine forces and supernatural elements converge. As she delves into her family's forgotten past intertwined with Tantra, Shaivism and Vaishnavism, Jayalakshmi must navigate a perilous journey to break the curse and reclaim her destiny.
What was your greatest learning while researching your story ?
As I have always been fascinated by history and how the acts of the few impact a vast multitude, writing and researching this story was the opportunity to explore a brave new world through the eyes of a scholarly protagonist - a Tamilian lady whose ancestors were connected to the Khmer kingdoms and magnificent monuments like the globally known Angkor Wat.
The culture of India was and still remains one of the most powerful civilising forces in the world. We have never attempted to foist our views on the rest of the world. I have realised that 'shared roots' of the Indic cosmopolis were solely due to the fact that other cultures looked up to us a beacon of learning, spirituality and refinement.
This is in stark contrast to the rapacious and violent 'colonial' project in the rest of the world. In terms of India, it was a transmission and adoption of cultural values across the globe. The goddess of learning, writers and poets Saraswati was revered all across SE Asia right upto China and Japan, where she is known as Benzaiten.
Indic civilisation has primarily been knowledge driven, spiritual and respected as such across the globe. Among the many things I learnt while researching this story the greatest according to me was the recurring theme or motif of how deep Indic culture seeped into the very soul of a people, completely transforming Cambodian society, language, literature and way of life.
Unlike the contemporary global hegemony of Western culture, Indic values were always a force for good, open-mindedness, tolerance and spiritual profundity.
Your story looks at past birth, pitrus and modern life. How central was this to a feeling of connection between the two countries?
Being a science student, I have been trained at looking at life through an empirical lens, observable and verifiable. But, even the most hardcore skeptic will have to accept that there are realities and facts beyond our sense based limited comprehension.
Take the most relatable commonplace example: your smartphone. Quantum theory that posits the most minute sub atomic particles that none of us have ever seen has been the catalyst for most of the remarkable advances in computing and technology. Srinivas Ramanujan, one of the greatest mathematicians that ever lived attributed his remarkable insights to the Goddess Namagiri Amman of Namakkal in dream-like states. Honouring or venerating the pitrus is a very ancient practice not only in India but across the globe.
Reincarnation is part of the Indic belief system and East Asia for millennia. It was accepted in Christianity as well until a papal council banned it ostensibly for some fiscal reason- souls in purgatory etc.
As part of the Indosphere, all of South East Asia has been profoundly altered by our influence. Local legends and beliefs in spirits and shamans were interwoven with the adhyatmik and scholastic depth of Bharat's culture. Indra's net or this shared web of multiple lives, loves, hopes and aspirations give greater depth to this connection rather than the more commonplace Semitic belief that has become commonplace even among many Indians these days - one life, heaven or hell, eternal damnation.
This is a very narrow view of the beauty of life, love, connections and the human experience. In my opinion, this story explores a deeper, mystical, spiritual connection which has been the basis of much of India's culture, its darshanas and sampradayas, even so called nastik ones like Buddhism and Jainism. Sufism- the mystical strain in Islam flourished after coming in contact with the Indian subcontinent, apart from the ancient Greeks and Judeo-Christian sects such as the Gnostics and the Nazarenes.
Cambodia and its Khmer culture morphed from Hinduism to Buddhism, but the deep shared roots remained. Even genocidal dictators like Pol Pot and the leftist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, centuries of colonisation in India, a brutal partition and its transformation into a modern socialist nation state could not dislodge the deep connection on a civilisational, cultural level.
What was the thought process of weaving your story around a woman protagonist ?
It is probably cliched to say this, but women are generally considered to be more sensitive and empathetic than men. The worship of Adi Shakti, the primeval goddess also has a very long history according to some scholars dating back to the Indus Valley.
Srividya and Shaivite practices also have a long history in the South. A critical feature in my story is the power of the mantra- the Anjaneya or Hanuman invocation.
Matrikachakra in Shaivism in the South, Bengal and ancient Kashmir- reflects the creative principle or the feminine energy responsible for the very creation of the multiverse if we interpret it according to Shakta doctrines. The wheel of creation or samsara has symmetry, aesthetics and beauty- aspects of Prakriti. Gender is not such a big deal in the ultimate analysis but in our mundane existence plays a huge part.
Making a man the lead player in this narrative would have been more matter of fact, less thrilling and exciting and for lack of a better word boring. Feminine mystique is more alluring.
Also, there is more poise, grace and charm in the female protagonist compared to the male in this context.
Living in the modern world, Jayalakshmi is a skeptic and a modern corporate R&D plus marketing boss but has latent faith in the words of her father in this story, Subramanian Vijayan who I have depicted as a retired scientist and deep Samskritam scholar. Not to be critical of the men, but many of us would have less faith and dismissed things at the outset. That being said, not a generalisation and I have used a woman protagonist due to these generally accepted tropes.
I have also not used the conventional damsel in distress motif who needs a brave hero but written her arc so that she is pivotal in freeing herself and fighting the bad guys off with some assistance from the divine.
Modern day feminism like all Western inventions is based on hatred of the other- in this case men while no other country apart from ancient India has placed so much emphasis on the divine feminine force, inclusiveness and respect for mother nature.
How important is this shared history to understand a history of Bharat beyond colonial history?
This is a very pertinent question. Bharat's narratives and history has been distorted beyond belief.
The culprits for this are of course our colonisers or in J Sai Deepak's words, Middle Eastern and Western colonialism. But, that is only part of the problem. The majority of the onus lies with the independent nation state India that is Bharat.
We have been culturally deracinated systematically and methodically. Also, history is not top of the mind in this country's consciousness and we are remarkably disrespectful and oblivious for such an abundance of riches.
The South of India, due to its long tradition of scholarship and intellectual debate has managed to preserve ancient traditions much better than other parts of the subcontinent. However, this is also fast eroding under the onslaught of 'so-called' modernity.
Thankfully, in recent years we have seen a re-emergence of sorts of alternative points of view with remarkable people like Vikram Sampath, Rajiv Malhotra, Anand Ranganathan, Meenakshi Jain, Sanjeev Sanyal, Sandeep Balakrishna etc.
Proliferation of social media has led to an explosion of content, and stifling of other points of view is not as easy as before. At the same time, people do not relate with dry, voluminous academic tomes. Scholarship has to be made contemporary, accessible, relatable and 'even' cool. The brilliant and remarkable actor Utpal Dutt, who had leftist Marxist affiliations summed it up the best- influencing society by modes of entertainment.
The entrenched ecosystem exalts writers that conform in Gandhi’s words to the Western ‘drain-inspector’ lens of India- writers such as Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie or any rabid anti-Indic critique is feted, celebrated and promoted ironically as ‘paragons of virtue’ and defenders of the ‘woke’ value system.
One of the reasons for our remarkable cultural continuity is the genius of our rishis who created such epics that distilled and distributed profound values through simple, relatable human stories. Colonisation has fundamentally altered our own self-understanding and continued distorted narratives have even led to a degree of self-hate.
If an Indic Renaissance has to happen, it has to be based on an underlying Dharmic backbone. Our Shared Roots anthology is a humble attempt by every contributing writer to bring forth our real legacy of cultural riches, interconnectedness and spiritual depth in a more contemporary, palatable form rather than the control mechanism and culturally prevalent mechanisms of Western universalism that seeks to coerce and destroy every ecosystem and the very planet.
Bharat's history can only be truly understood if we make an attempt to shed ingrained colonial baggage.
You have participated in Indica’s Vaishnavism conference. What elements of Vaishnavism as you practice it are evident in Cambodia, apart from the most famous instances?
Thanks for this question. I did indeed participate in Indica’s Vaishnavism conference and it was a wonderful learning experience, meeting with scholars painstakingly unravelling so many facets of the Vaishnava thought and sampradaya praxis.
Indica Dean Dr. Nagaraj Paturi ji with his colossal scholarship and profound wisdom is a real inspiration for researchers in practically every aspect of the Indic and Dharmic ecosystem.
That being said, although I have been in touch with Gaudiya Vaishnavism and have profound respect for their devotion and scholastic approach to promoting the Dharmic ethos, my mind is open to exploring the vast ocean of Indic thoughts and beliefs. We should not attempt to limit the multiverse of Dharma by constricting into narrow labels including Vaishnava, Shaiva, Jain, Sikh or Buddhist.
I also participated in the remarkable conference on Jainism organised by Indica in Jodhpur and was genuinely impressed by the sincerity and warmth of the Munishris and many of the participants.
Coming back to the question, modern Cambodia strictly speaking is a ‘Buddhist’ country but like most South East Asian countries has a two-thousand year Indosphere legacy. Archaeologists, artists, historians, linguists, musicians and dancers have all been influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism and openly acknowledge this debt. Vaishnav and Shaiva artifacts are discovered every day in the entire zone.
Angkor Wat, the biggest temple complex in the world was originally a Vaishnava shrine but like India, many Dharmic beliefs harmoniously coexisted at the same time. After the rise of Theravada Buddhism, Angkor was modified somewhat.
The biggest aspect of the Gaudiya(Bengali) Vaishnavism tradition I have been in touch with that I believe has universal resonance, also specifically to Cambodia is the concept of ‘prema’- the fifth and most important purushartha according to their acharyas. With a history as disturbing as Cambodia’s recent past, the ‘universal’ love and devotion implicit in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message is an eternal message, undying and transcendental.
Your story is very realistic in portrayal of human relationships. How has modernity changed our society and is this the case in Cambodia as well?
Our lives are in fact stories that we tell ourselves and others each day. The British writer philosopher Aldous Huxley said, ‘There are things known and there are things unknown and in between there are the doors of perception.’ This drew on the poet William Blake whose ideas are very reminiscent of Advaita Vedanta, ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’ In another context, we may very well be talking about Adi Shankara, Brahman, adhyasa, mithya et al.
Human relationships are also based on perceptions- personal and inherited cultural values that can be flawed but give a certain stability and longevity.
Modernity or the ‘post-modern’ world is evident all around us. Indian society is transforming all around us. Our country lives in multiple eras all at once.
We have some of the most ‘cutting-edge’ research facilities in some places, and people living in abject poverty who are not sure where their next meal is going to come from. Gender roles have rapidly changed and family structures have transformed into more ‘nuclear’ small units.
Most evident is the all-pervasive influence of technology, media and electronic communication. The most devastating impact of ‘modernity’ is its influence on the environment and the blatant disregard and disrespect due to increased urbanisation and industrialisation.
Most of Cambodia’s recent history was very tumultuous following America’s Vietnam war, the Khmer Rouge etc but since the early 2000s, it is on the fast track of ‘economic’ development and faces many similar challenges to India in terms of gender roles, technology and media, changing family structures etc. Unlike India however, it has not been a great ‘open’ and ‘vocal’ democracy for the most part.
This does not figure ‘high’ in the list of priorities of politicians from all parts of the spectrum who just make the ‘token’ statement as a symbolic gesture. Modern capitalism and economic theory in stark contrast to ancient Indic ideals is all about GDPs and increasing consumption, instead of harmony and coexistence. The ‘antagonist’ in my story Noel Nat is a Cambodian American focused precisely on that- business expansion, greed and exploitation. Achieving a socialist or ‘dharmic’ utopia overnight is unrealistic, but encouraging the right values is definitely a step in the right direction.
June 13, 2024
CRAFTING A FANTASY NARRATIVE WITH INDIA-CAMBODIA SHARED ROOTS — INTERVIEW WITH SUNIL KUMAR
My Interview with Dr. Swetha- Co-writer in the Shared Roots Anthology
You have written for the Indica India-Cambodia anthology Shared Roots. Could you talk about your journey as a writer?
My journey in writing started in school. I won a prize for penning a poem on a Jesuit poet. The school used to send me for elocution, composition and quizzing. Was also the editor of the school magazine. Later on, I worked in technical writing and technology journalism. I was writing day in and day out- features, news, bios et al. I was interviewing CTOs, CEOs from around the world. I have interviewed many prominent people like Mr Narayan Murthy, Mr. S. Ramodarai of TCS, the Dean of Wharton Global Initiatives Harbir Singh, Organizational Behaviour savant Peter Senge, Data Mining expert Bill Inmon and the distinguished scholar ex- president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Then, I started my own set up which has been engaged digital marketing and content creation. I wrote the novel Surreal City in 2012 and had written while in college an anthology of poetry ‘Existential Angst’.
The noted Indian English language poet and reader — University of Mumbai Nissim Ezekiel facilitated publication through Jaico. They made it available in the US and the UK through Amazon, Barnes&Noble etc. It was catalogued in the British Council, Sussex and the U.S. South Asian Literature List.
I was into journalism night and day so it was non-stop writing. Recently I worked on several research papers in disparate fields such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Jaina merchants, Indo-Greek cultural interaction and technological disruption.
Your experience in participating in the Indica India-Cambodia Anthology Shared Roots?
I sent the story to Indica in late 2021, so it has been such a long journey to paraphrase Rohinton Mistry.
We all liked how Shri Ratul Chakraborty the curator of the anthology helped and took charge of the whole book.
Ratul has been a very positive influence. I would like to thank Shri Hari Kiran Vadlamani, Founder of Indica, for his dharmic vision. He arranges conferences that focus on Indic and Dharmic issues. Mr. Hari Kiran is very unique in that sense. He has encouraged so many writers in this ecosystem and Swarajya is also owned by Kovai media, part of the Indica Group.
Could you talk about cultural heritage as a shared experience between nations?
Indian soft power which was widespread in ancient times has taken a back seat to China. The academic Samuel Huntington came up with the idea of ‘Clash of Civilisations’. In that sense in India, there has never been a volatile clash.
We have always been a very assimilative culture. These are latter day nomenclatures. There is no country like India in terms of cultural heritage.
Like the noted academic Philip Rawson wrote in the Art of South East Asia with specific reference to Cambodia, “The culture of India has been one of the world’s most powerful civilising forces” India is the prime example of cultural soft power. Due to internal dissensions and fault lines, we haven’t been able to cash in and leverage on that.
Which aspects of shared Indo-Cambodian culture did you explore in your short story?
My protagonist is a lady called Jayalakshmi Vijayan, a Tamizh Brahmin who is the descendant of an ancient lineage or kula.
The story has mentioned Tamil and Khmer kings both participants in the movement of Indic cultural values to Cambodia. I took that aspect and crafted a fantasy narrative.
The protagonist’s family is thrown out of Cambodia. I attempted to weave in history, actual kings, Tantra, Vaishnavism, Lord Hanumana and Shaivism, both in South India and Cambodia.
Themes in your short story?
History, courage are themes. The story is about a typical Indian corporate executive who works in a highly stressful high-profile job in Mumbai. I attempt to transfer her to a centuries old Cambodian set up.
Presently, we have a disconnect between our ancient heritage, deep roots and what we are currently at. Western education, Marxist histography and English education have all severed us from our cultural roots and the sheer expanse and influence of our Dharmic civilization.
History, alienation, deeper love and the bond between two ancient cultures are the main themes without making them tropes or mere jingoistic sentiments.
The importance of creating shared cultural narratives liked Shared Roots?
There has been an excessive focus on Delhi based history, the sultanate era, and after that Mughal history. Southern history, the East, the North East and many other regions have been ignored.
We have figures like Raja Marthanda Varma, Rani Abbaka, Lachit Borphukhan from Assam, the Cholas, the Chalukyas or Lalitaditya Muktapida from Kashmir. There has been an excessive focus on the national capital, the so called graveyard of empires.
We need newer narratives that help us reflect, admire and be proud of the greatness, the Brahma-Kshattra spirit and the Dharmic backbone of Indian history. We all look up to whoever the west honours. I would like to again thank the Indica founder as he has created a place where these kinds of narratives can have a voice and gain some traction.
You have written for the Indica India-Cambodia anthology Shared Roots. Could you talk about your journey as a writer?
My journey in writing started in school. I won a prize for penning a poem on a Jesuit poet. The school used to send me for elocution, composition and quizzing. Was also the editor of the school magazine. Later on, I worked in technical writing and technology journalism. I was writing day in and day out- features, news, bios et al. I was interviewing CTOs, CEOs from around the world. I have interviewed many prominent people like Mr Narayan Murthy, Mr. S. Ramodarai of TCS, the Dean of Wharton Global Initiatives Harbir Singh, Organizational Behaviour savant Peter Senge, Data Mining expert Bill Inmon and the distinguished scholar ex- president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Then, I started my own set up which has been engaged digital marketing and content creation. I wrote the novel Surreal City in 2012 and had written while in college an anthology of poetry ‘Existential Angst’.
The noted Indian English language poet and reader — University of Mumbai Nissim Ezekiel facilitated publication through Jaico. They made it available in the US and the UK through Amazon, Barnes&Noble etc. It was catalogued in the British Council, Sussex and the U.S. South Asian Literature List.
I was into journalism night and day so it was non-stop writing. Recently I worked on several research papers in disparate fields such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Jaina merchants, Indo-Greek cultural interaction and technological disruption.
Your experience in participating in the Indica India-Cambodia Anthology Shared Roots?
I sent the story to Indica in late 2021, so it has been such a long journey to paraphrase Rohinton Mistry.
We all liked how Shri Ratul Chakraborty the curator of the anthology helped and took charge of the whole book.
Ratul has been a very positive influence. I would like to thank Shri Hari Kiran Vadlamani, Founder of Indica, for his dharmic vision. He arranges conferences that focus on Indic and Dharmic issues. Mr. Hari Kiran is very unique in that sense. He has encouraged so many writers in this ecosystem and Swarajya is also owned by Kovai media, part of the Indica Group.
Could you talk about cultural heritage as a shared experience between nations?
Indian soft power which was widespread in ancient times has taken a back seat to China. The academic Samuel Huntington came up with the idea of ‘Clash of Civilisations’. In that sense in India, there has never been a volatile clash.
We have always been a very assimilative culture. These are latter day nomenclatures. There is no country like India in terms of cultural heritage.
Like the noted academic Philip Rawson wrote in the Art of South East Asia with specific reference to Cambodia, “The culture of India has been one of the world’s most powerful civilising forces” India is the prime example of cultural soft power. Due to internal dissensions and fault lines, we haven’t been able to cash in and leverage on that.
Which aspects of shared Indo-Cambodian culture did you explore in your short story?
My protagonist is a lady called Jayalakshmi Vijayan, a Tamizh Brahmin who is the descendant of an ancient lineage or kula.
The story has mentioned Tamil and Khmer kings both participants in the movement of Indic cultural values to Cambodia. I took that aspect and crafted a fantasy narrative.
The protagonist’s family is thrown out of Cambodia. I attempted to weave in history, actual kings, Tantra, Vaishnavism, Lord Hanumana and Shaivism, both in South India and Cambodia.
Themes in your short story?
History, courage are themes. The story is about a typical Indian corporate executive who works in a highly stressful high-profile job in Mumbai. I attempt to transfer her to a centuries old Cambodian set up.
Presently, we have a disconnect between our ancient heritage, deep roots and what we are currently at. Western education, Marxist histography and English education have all severed us from our cultural roots and the sheer expanse and influence of our Dharmic civilization.
History, alienation, deeper love and the bond between two ancient cultures are the main themes without making them tropes or mere jingoistic sentiments.
The importance of creating shared cultural narratives liked Shared Roots?
There has been an excessive focus on Delhi based history, the sultanate era, and after that Mughal history. Southern history, the East, the North East and many other regions have been ignored.
We have figures like Raja Marthanda Varma, Rani Abbaka, Lachit Borphukhan from Assam, the Cholas, the Chalukyas or Lalitaditya Muktapida from Kashmir. There has been an excessive focus on the national capital, the so called graveyard of empires.
We need newer narratives that help us reflect, admire and be proud of the greatness, the Brahma-Kshattra spirit and the Dharmic backbone of Indian history. We all look up to whoever the west honours. I would like to again thank the Indica founder as he has created a place where these kinds of narratives can have a voice and gain some traction.
