1) Dr. Karan Singh discusses the erosion of moral and spiritual values in India and sees it as a tragedy, as Indian civilization has historically been based on these principles. 2) He argues that to remedy this, India must reestablish these values, as India's ancient philosophical teachings could help address the modern crisis between science and wisdom. 3) He proposes that the Virat Hindu Samaj work to promote these values through public discourse, mass gatherings, and by introducing spiritual texts and traditions into India's educational curriculum to provide moral guidance to youth.

1. MORAL & SPIRITUAL VALUES IN NEWS INDIA
By
Dr Karan Singh
The erosion of values in our country now is something that has been virtually accepted, and I say
this with a sense of sorrow; because wherever one goes, not only is corruption virtually accepted
as a way of life, it has virtually become a philosophy of life. It is rampant in all spheres of
activity, not just in politics. May be in politics it is a little worse than most, for obvious reasons.
But in all spheres of activity there has been this widespread erosion of moral and spiritual values.
To some extent this is true the world over, but it is specially tragic for a country like India, which
has from the beginning of its civilization sought to base itself upon certain spiritual and moral
values.
I do not claim that India has always lived up to these values. I do not claim that Indians are
necessarily more moral than any other people. But I do claim that the conceptual and ideological
foundations of Indian culture have been on the basis of certain moral and spiritual principles. I
think this is undeniable, and this, in fact, is the reason why, despite tremendous upheavals and
long centuries of foreign aggression and subjugation, India has retained some vitality and
dynamism. If it had not been based upon certain fundamental principles, I do not think that
Indian civilization could have withstood the sort of repression, it had had to undergo.
Our freedom movement also sought to base itself upon certain ideals. Whether it was the
beginning of the Hindu renaissance with reformers such as Raja Rammohun Roy with the
Brahmo Samaj and Devendra Nath Tagore with the Adi Brahmo Samaj, or R. K. Bhandarkar and
M. G. Ranade in Maharashtra with the Prarthana Samaj, or Swami Dayanand Saraswati with the
Arya Samaj, or whether it were great men in the mainstream of the Hindu tradition like Sri
Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Lokmanya Tilak who enthused the
Indian National movement, in each of these cases you will find a clear attempt to re-establish and
recreate the spiritual foundation of India. And then Gandhiji came on the scene. His whole life is
clear evidence of his attempt to re-establish dharma in India, dharma in the broadest sense of
term, not excluding anybody, in fact including everybody.
Gandhiji was very clear about this in his mind, and said that people who say that there is no
relationship between politics and religion understand neither. And his whole life - his talks, his
prayer meetings, his entire thrust - was based upon certain values. Apart from the freedom
movement, the major and the outstanding contribution of Gandhiji was in the sphere of Harijans,
that terrible karmic burden that Hindu Society has been carrying for so many centuries. When we
became free, we adopted as our national motto these words from the Mundaka Upanisad: Satyam
eva jayate (Truth alone triumphs).
That a country based upon this should today be sinking in a morass of corruption is a tragedy too
deep for tears, not only for India but also for humanity, because India has always claimed to have
a message for humanity. I was in South-East Asia recently. If you go to Java or to Bali, or to
Bangkok or Cambodia, you will see there the influence of Indian culture. The story of Sri Rama

2. is probably better known in Indonesia, which is eighty-five per cent Muslim, than even in parts
of India. And we carried the message not through conquest, not through atomic bombs, not
through force of arms, but through moral and spiritual power. Therefore, the claim that India has
some message for the world is not simply a chauvinistic claim; it is based upon our achievements
over the last three thousand years and more.
Today mankind needs this message more than ever before. Sri Aurobindo wrote that India is
rising, not only so that it itself should be free but so that it can bring the message of spiritual
realization and spiritual power to the whole of humanity. Today there is this tremendous crisis of
technology and science of divergence between knowledge and wisdom. Science is one of the
great achievements of the human race, perhaps unparalleled in human history. And yet that very
science has given us the means of destruction, not only of the human race but also perhaps of all
life on this planet.
How are we going to bridge the gap between science and philosophy? I think it can now be done,
because in post-Einsteinian science, with the development of quantum mechanics and
extragalactic physics, the old rigidities of Newtonian science have collapsed and many of the
approaches inherent in the mystical tradition are again becoming relevant. Science and religion
started together; whether it was with Ayur-Veda in India or with Alchemy in the West. Then
there was this tremendous divergence. Now, I think, we have come full circle, and the salvation
of the human race lies in the possibility of a convergence of science and philosophy. India is the
only country that can bring this about, because we alone, of all the nations of the world, have a
philosophical background as well as a scientific necessary to accomplish this. Now there is a
fledgling 'new consciousness' movement throughout the world, with which I am in touch, where
great scientists and philosophers are trying to get together.
So the point I am making is that the tragedy of our erosion of values is much larger than simply
an Indian tragedy. It is a tragedy for humanity, because if India does not show humanity the way
to achieve spiritual realization, no other nation or body can show it. But how can India bring any
light to the world, if it is itself sinking in a morass of corruption? Therefore, the re-establishment
of moral and spiritual values in India is now not only an imperative for India but for the human
race. There have been some welcome indications recently that the silent majority in India is
beginning to assert itself, that the widespread revulsion against corruption is beginning to come
to the surface, that people are no longer prepared to tolerate this nonsense that is going on in the
name of politics. But that is a political process which will take some time to come to maturity.
Meanwhile, the question is what can we in the Virat Hindu Samaj do?
The whole philosophy of the Virat Hindu Samaj revolves around what may be called the neo-
Vedanta, the reinterpretation of Vedantic principles for the twentieth and the twenty-first
century. There is a sharp divergence between the sort of fundamentalism that is going on in Iran
and the sort of movement that we are trying to develop here. Ours is not a revivalist movement;
it is a renaissance. There is a very important difference between these two words. A revivalist
movement would be, for example, if one were to demand scrapping of the Indian Constitution
and going back to the Manu-Smrti where different castes have different types of punishment. But
we are interpreting the great concepts and principles of Vedanta for the twenty-first century?
Swami Vivekananda did the same thing at the end of the nineteenth century when he

3. reinterpreted religion for the need of that time. Almost hundred years have elapsed since then
and, I think, the time has come when there must be a fresh reinterpretation on the basis of our
spiritual and intellectual structure, which lies in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanisads.
The Virat Hindu Samaj is functioning on two levels. On one level, we are trying to create public
opinion with regard to the importance of social reform within Hinduism, and of solidarity and of
a reassertion of our spiritual principles. For that purpose, we had a series of sammelanas,
beginning with the historic Virat Hindu Sammelana in Delhi in October 1981, which was
attended by a million people. But apart from the mass sammelanas, what we need is something
substantial in the educational system.
Unfortunately, as a result of a wrong interpretation of secularism, our education today has
become totally devoid of values. Is it not a tragedy that in the land of the Vedanta the study of
Upanisads and the Bhagavad-Gita have been virtually banned in our schools? I do not understand
what sort of secularism this is in which we deprive millions of children in India of their right to
be acquainted with their own cultural heritage. We have, in effect, thrown the baby out along
with the bath water. Perhaps it was the result of an overreaction to partition. The country was
partitioned in the name of religion, and the leaders at that time were so shocked by the
development that they over-reacted. Whatever may be the reason, today, four decades after
independence, the time has come when we must sit down and think about this problem.
What sort of cultural and spiritual ideals are we giving to our younger generation? The joint
family is breaking up because of socioeconomic causes. So the major value-inculcating
instrument is no longer in operation. The other major instrument is the school, where, because of
our wrong interpretation of secularism, we are not allowed to teach any values. The third is
example. The sort of example that our leaders are giving, the less said the better. So the three
ways in which the younger generation can be influenced have all collapsed. Where, then, is the
value orientation going to come from? Is this not a matter of the greatest concern for all Indian
intellectuals, whether they are Hindus or Muslims, Sikhs or Buddhists?
I would like to stress a few points that need careful consideration. First, there is the problem of
the educational curriculum. Can something be done to introduce textbooks, which have some
spiritual basis for the primary, secondary, and higher classes that reflect to some extent our
spiritual and cultural heritage? The second point is supplementary literature.
Apart from textbooks, there must be an adequate flow of tastefully produced supplementary
literature, so that the students feel like reading it. At present, the only religious education our
children are getting is through comics (Amar Chitra Kathas), and they deserve all our thanks.
Finally, there is the possibility of setting up schools in India based upon our spiritual tradition.
There are certain schools already functioning - Guru Shikha, Vidya Bharati the Krishnamurti
schools, Ramakrishna Mission and Chinmaya Mission schools, and so on. The Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan is setting up three international schools, one in Kodaikanal, one in London and one in the
USA. These are the sort of institutions, which could specifically be utilized as models for the
development of this new education that we want. The Virat Hindu Samaj is a platform upon
which we want to bring together various elements of Hindu society. That is what we did in our

4. Virat Hindu Sammelans that is what we now want to do in the educational field. We could set up
a working group where people who have this experience can act and interact upon each other.
We can also take advantage of the experience of Christian Missionaries, who have done a lot of
educational work and have made a major contribution.
Jawaharlal Nehru used to often quote from Alice in Wonderland: 'We have to run as fast as we
can to stay where we are.' Unfortunately, we are not staying where we are; we are going
backwards in many spheres. And, therefore, let there be a sense of urgency, let there be a sense
of commitment. I am sure that, if people apply their minds in this direction, something concrete
can emerge which would conduce to the welfare not only of Hindu society but also of the whole
of India and even of mankind.