Having gone through the articles on ‘Jnana Yoga’ by N.Krishnamoortiji published regularly in Yuvabharti, we are confident that by this time, the readers must be well aware of all the three philosophical systems: Adwaita, Visishtadwaita and Dwaita. The saints Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya have established and expounded these systems respectively through their practical work and by their untired pilgrimages throughout Bharata Varsha for cultural and national integration.
In fact, Shankaracharya has reconciled these systems during his period by accepting all the three systems at different levels of human philosophical understanding in their path of attaining Mukti (the final liberation, eternal bliss). This month we are celebrating the Shankara Jayanti and Ramanuja Jayanti both on the same day, 22nd April. Kanchi Paramacharya insists us to celebrate the birthdays of these saints in a grand manner. For, he says ‘Without saints like Adi Shankara, we would not have been in a position to start celebrating any of the other festivals like Deepavali, Makarasankranti,
Navaratri, Akshaya Tritya etc.’. Let us see how these systems and these great saints have helped us, helping us and will help us in following this Sanatana Dharma. During the Past During their period, the country was infested with lot of factions, each having its own champions, quarrelling incessantly with all other factions.
By their pilgrimages and teachings, these saints have enumerated more than 8 / April 2026 / Yuva Bharati seventy of such sects. They have reformed them and awakened the people to the higher vision of Unity as proclaimed in the Upanishads.
One of the great tasks under taken by both Adi sankara and Ramanuja in their lifetime was to renovate the old and dilapidated temples throughout the country, streamline the age-old worship practices there without violating the given Agamic traditions.
The followers of Ramanujacharya established lot of resting places for the pilgrims and distributed Prasad to them. As Swami Vivekananda rightly observes, one cannot preach religion to hungry stomachs.These saints have established various mutts all around India to pass down the eternal wisdom of the scriptures to next generations. After their period came the foreign invasions.
Though we were severely affected culturally, we stood as one and were able to follow our dharma to this day. Because, it was the teaching of the saints and their shishyas through these mutts, that gave strength to all of us to annihilate the forces of ignorance and disruption, of establishment of the unifying forces of universal brotherhood and mutual understanding, culminating in the intimate experience of theeternal bliss; and ultimately gave us freedom in 1947 as predicted by Swami Vivekananda even 50 years before freedom. In a lecture in 1897 at Madras (Chennai) he urged his fellow countrymen to wake up and live for the nation for the next fifty years and India became free exactly after fifty years in 1947. "Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct," proclaimed Swami Vivekananda, asserting that India's survival is essential for the world’s spiritual and moral health.
Present scenario
Coming back to today’s world, let us see how these saints are helping us. Today we can see the global war situation because of which all the countries are struggling to meet even their basic needs like gas, petrol etc. But, as Bharatavarsha believes the concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The whole world under one roof) and universal brotherhood, we always propagate the message of unity, peace and happiness throughout the world and act according to it with all the countries through the foreign policies based on this Oneness. The effect of which is well seen by the release of Indian ships in the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ by Iran, though it threatened most of the other countries not to pass through the strait. Adi Shankara has also done a lot of work for Sarvadharmamaitri, i.e., for the fostering of a spirit of friendship between the followers of different religions. That is why he is called “Loka Shankara”. “Sham karoti iti Shankarah”, it means one who does well to the world. In fact, our dharma gave space for atheism also. But, when terrorist attacks took place in the name of religion, India stood firmly against them through its operations following Gita verse “Yudhyasva vigata-jvaraḥ” - "fight without mental fever/agitation".
So, we also tell to the world very clearly that we cannot be taken granted for such attacks. Even if it is our own body, we do operation by losing certain amount of blood, at sometimes even parts. Coming to the sustainable economy and developments, though the family culture is slowly vanishing in all other countries, mother Bharat is following the family values to this day from time immemorial. We can see this in the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata for which lot of saints have written commentary. This has given rise to the home savings and India ranks amongst the highest in the world.
When a child is born, we save. When parents are getting old, we save. It is only that society, which takes care of its relationships, that saves. That is the reason why we were able to survive during Y2K problems. That is the reason why we are able to have a stable economy and we are the fifth largest economy in the world. Soon we will become third. “No one size fit all” (each country will have its own cultural background) policy only made this possible. We compete with the world in AI also, which is shown in the recent summit held in India.
Future scope
Unlike old days, where our saints had to walk on foot to all the places to preach, we have lot of communication, media and travel facilities now. Along with that, these days, our country is beset with certain problems like terrorism, religious conversions, following western culture though we all took irth in this great country that follows Sanatana Dharma from time immemorial. Though we are talking about Universal brotherhood, we see discrimination of high and low, here and there. But the reason for all this might have been the long invasion that took place in the recent 1000 years and divide and rule policies of foreign rulers.
The foremost aspect is to do away with this discrimination of high and low. We have to develop the Indian method of studying and understanding civilizational issues. We have to work to remove distortions at thought level, to support and serve the vulnerable parts of our society which are targeted by anti-cultural forces, to strengthen our traditional systems of life in the context of given challenges, to further the work of great visionaries like Shankara, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda and others to rouse the national consciousness and make the nation aware of its mission, to develop our family and social life with great balance between the spiritual and the mundane, between individual and social freedom.
Creative response is required not only for the protection of our culture but also for the evolution of humanity. Hence, we all have to take a sankalpa that we will insist people of Bharatavarsha to propagate the message of unity, peace and happiness throughout the world as preached by these great saints and philosophers. If there is any country in the world which can be a Spiritual Guru, it can only be our country.
Let us pray to these great Saints and Supreme Lord to shower Their blessings for success in this endeavor. Swami Vivekananda said, “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi; to be the land, to which all souls on this earth must come to account for Karma; the land, to which every soul, that is wending its way Godward, must come to attain its last home; the land, where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness; above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality — it is India.”
A.P. Sundar
YB-ET
