Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Promilla Kapur, The Principle of Fundamental Oneness, Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2000, bahai-library.com.
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CHAPTER 1

The Principle of
Fundamental
Oneness
Promilla Kapur

THE CONTEXT
Does development divide or unite humanity?
As I look at society today, this is what I see: many worlds and many
peoples struggling to find a place for themselves, their traditions, and
their ways of life while their realities change around them at an ever-
increasing pace. And I see marks of nobility in these struggles:
generosity when people have little or nothing themselves, expressions of
kindness toward others, and untiring dedication in working for equal-
ity, unity of purpose, peace, and harmony with the natural environment.
These are good people doing the best they can to manifest the good life
that their traditions, myths, religions, and conscience tell them is pos-
sible. They work hard to move toward solidarity and cooperation and
resist tendencies toward separation, selfishness, and conflict.
But it is impossible to ignore the strength of the forces pulling in
the other direction: gender imbalances; gross inequities in the distribu-
tion of wealth; the distortion of religion into fundamentalist postures

nb: This text would have been impossible without the support, research, and insight-
ful contributions of Tribhuwan Kapur, Associate Professor of the Sociology of Religion at


the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India, and author of nine books. 7
KAPUR

and actions; periodic communal violence; disregard for the principles of
moral sexuality; crassly hedonistic consumerism (that is, the production
and consumption of goods and items that have little relevance to the
real quality of life but provide sensation for the sake of sensation);
nonparticipatory development initiatives that rarely profit the beneficiary
population; and confusion over culture, religion, and spirituality (for
example, how one religion can relate harmoniously and noncompeti-
tively with other religions) — all this occurring within the context of
the ever-pervasive and increasingly ominous pollution and destruction
of our natural resources. The problems are certainly more than I can list
here, but it seems to me that all of them find their roots somewhere in
the divided nature of the world.
Given the recent emergence of many of these problems, it is hard


8 to identify holistic technological and social solutions to address them.
Each “fix” has its own consequences, both good and bad, and it is diffi-
cult to see at the moment of its application the ultimate impact of each
new “solution.” Solutions, without an adequate moral or spiritual
grounding, often become problems themselves. For example, although
science undoubtedly has made immense and positive contributions to
human well-being, it has also been used to build nuclear weapons; com-
puter technology is used to facilitate communications, but it is also used
to target “enemy” sites. And behind all these scientific applications
gone awry, I again see the marks of a world lacking unity and cohesive-
ness. It is this insight, I believe, that needs to be brought to an analysis
of the prevalent paradigm of development.
In the issues before us, three important areas interplay — modern
science, religion and values, and development (broadly defined in eco-
nomic, social, and psychological terms). I explore their interfaces in this
paper from my own perspective as a practicing Hindu woman and social
scientist. In these introductory remarks, I elucidate the details of this
perspective. In the second section of the paper, “Hinduism: the back-
drop,” I explain my understanding of Hinduism and Vedanta and some
of their cardinal principles, such as dharma and “self–Self.” In the third
section, “Self, society, and development,” I explore the approach that
Hinduism takes, moving from an inward, personal development to an
outward, social development. In the section entitled “Modern science
and the Hindu religion,” I look at the striking similarities between new
discoveries in science and very old wisdom from Hindu scriptures. In
the penultimate section, “Devotion, knowledge, and action,” I turn to a
historical description of religious movements and leaders in India who
have spearheaded action for social reform and development, leading us
finally into a discussion (in the section “Conclusion: an integrated par-
adigm”) of what resources religion, and Hinduism in particular, can
offer to the field of development.
The dilemmas to which I have alluded seem to be so inherent to
the modern lifestyle that to reverse them would be no small
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

accomplishment. It would require a great and persistent effort over an
appreciable period. The present generation, I think, can do little more
than lay the groundwork of an ultimately “united” world. It is exactly
in this process that the Hindu religion, for me, offers such valuable
resources: its syncretic and pluralistic history and its concept of an ulti-
mate Oneness provide an alternative outlook and an important balance
to the divisive effect of modern systems and materialist mind-sets.

A personal perspective
At the outset, I would like to reflect on how I first encountered the prin-
ciples of science, religion, and development (srd), how I use these in my
personal life and work, and how I became interested in this project of


the International Development Research Centre (idrc). 9
I feel that it was my parents, especially my mother, who intro-
duced me to the religious ethos and the Almighty — or Supreme Power
— when I was a child. My mother came from an Arya Samaj family
background and conveyed, in her own loving way, her understanding
that the Supreme Power is One and the Creator of the whole universe.
We are all children of that Almighty. She inculcated in me — and my
brothers and sisters — the habit of praying to God on getting up in the
morning and before going to sleep, to give thanks for God’s blessings,
to ask for protection from evil, and to impart to us the good sense and
positive attitude needed to love, respect, and take care of ourselves and
others. Thus, I received these core religious beliefs as part of my social-
ization in a liberal home, school, and community atmosphere.
I continue these practices even today. I do yogic exercises and pray
regularly on waking and again before retiring, to thank the Supreme
Power for his blessings and to internalize the divine qualities by link-
ing my personal soul with the Supreme Soul through meditation. I
make efforts to put into practice some of the cardinal principles of the
Hindu religion (sanatana dharma). For example, I have faith in an Ultimate
Reality and in the Oneness of that power from which, and in which, all
creation lives. I firmly believe that I am a soul (atman), as are others, and
that the soul is basically and fundamentally divine. I am conscious of
the potential divinity inherent in me and in everyone. On these
grounds, I try not to distinguish or discriminate between people on the
basis of sex, class, religion, region, or nationality, and I work to allevi-
ate discrimination. I make every effort to live out the values of love,
understanding, compassion, caring, sharing, nonviolence, and interfaith
understanding.
I am a believer in the law of karma, a principle that inspires me
and gives me the inner strength to carry out my responsibilities and
duties to serve humanity to the best of my ability. I work to accumulate
good karma for a better future in this life and in the lives I believe will
come (from my belief in the immortality of the soul and in reincarnation).
KAPUR

My effort (karma) is to maximize the good I can do in the world and
minimize the evil. I work and pray not only for my family’s welfare but
also for the well-being of others and society. I endeavour to serve and
help others — those who are troubled, poor, weak, and underprivileged
— to help themselves. This gives me a great deal of satisfaction when
compared with pursuits that centre on economic gain at the cost of val-
ues and principles. I try to share my material and nonmaterial achieve-
ments — that is, knowledge, education, and training — with others. At
the same time, the principle of karma gives me strength to bear what-
ever misfortunes befall me and the courage to face all my problems
without blaming anyone else for them.
Throughout my life, my curiosity has led me to learn more, both
scientifically and empirically, about religion, exploring such questions


10 as Who is the Creator? and What is the purpose of life? I have read the
scriptures of various faiths in translation. I have listened to the religious
and spiritual discourses of knowledgeable individuals from diverse
belief systems, including the Bahá’í Faith, the Brahma Kumaries, the
Ramakrishan Mission, the Sri Aurobindo Society, and the Arya Samaj. I
have even tried various kinds of meditation. This has widened my
knowledge and appreciation of other religions and the revelations that
they each have to offer. I have found that, in essence, the core religious
beliefs and values are universal, and this makes me feel very close to peo-
ple of different faiths.
When I was a student of social science (psychology, counseling,
sociology, and religion), I was interested in the debate on whether
science and religion contradicted each other. I read literature on science
and spirituality, for example, the works of Chander (1988) and Kanal
(1991), the writings of Indian scientists such as physics professor
D.S. Kothari (1977, 1980, 1997), and texts by spiritualists like Swami
Vivekananda (1937, 1968); (see also Swami Bhajanananda 1976–77) and
Swami Ranganathananda (1978, 1983, 1987), who argued that there is
no clash between science and religion: the two are interrelated and are
in harmony with one another.1 These readings whetted my curiosity to
learn more about the interrelationships between these two seemingly
unrelated discourses.
Throughout my higher education, I was interested in observing
and systematically studying the changes taking place in the socio-
psycho-cultural realms and in the political-economic situations of people
from diverse societies. I was particularly interested in such changes in
relation to the situation of women, especially the women of India. I was
keen to study the problems women face and to understand their chang-
ing attitudes and feelings. I wanted to investigate how they were being
This might be termed the “new approach,” the understanding that it is counter-
productive to human well-being when people rely on religion or science to the exclusion
of the other. When the two are combined, they strengthen one another and bring a holis-
tic expression of human genius and total fulfillment (Ranganathananda 1978).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

treated within and outside the family, both now and in ancient India
(based on our scriptures). I asked myself what factors had contributed to
bringing about these changes. This interest led me to do research on
gender issues and women’s development for my doctoral and post-
doctoral studies. Thus, I was introduced to the concept of development
and the social sciences quite a while ago, but I have had less exposure to
the physical sciences.
As a social scientist, I have observed developments in science and
technology (s&t) and how these affect people’s lives — women’s
lifestyles and well-being in particular. I was also strongly interested in
laying out the constitutive elements of women’s development in the
context of sustainable development. I observed that India, after inde-
pendence, has seen spectacular progress in s&t, increasing economic


growth, industrial development, and self-sufficiency in terms of food 11
and clothing. I found that governments and nongovernmental organi-
zations (ngos) were taking countless measures to improve the situation
of women and bring about overall development. I have been trying to
analyze why, despite the vast resources poured into these initiatives, we
see increasing problems of communal violence (for example, between
Hindu and Muslim groups), a rising incidence of violence generally,
widespread corruption, rampant illiteracy, casteism, unemployment,
abject poverty, overpopulation, malnutrition, and degradation of the
environment. Why do we see so much socioeconomic and gender
inequality and injustice? What is the origin of the growing emphasis on
the values of materialism and consumerism and the want in quality in
public leadership? Why do we see so much crime and violence, espe-
cially against women, even in the “developed” countries of the world?
In my studies (Kapur 1991a, 1991b, 1992, 1994a, 1994b, 1995), I
started exploring whether part of the answer could be found in the cri-
sis of human and spiritual values caused by a decline in attention to
these important questions and a lack of education on these subjects.
My efforts in this area have centred on counseling, generating
awareness of human and spiritual values, and healing marriage, family,
and other interpersonal relationships. As a counselor I try to help people
to become cognizant of their strengths and potentialities and thereby
help them solve their problems, resolve conflicts, understand themselves
and others more fully, and manage their stress. I try to help them help
themselves to grow in self-esteem (by helping them find their own
positive directions), improve their strong points, and overcome their
limitations. Accepting those in trouble as complete individuals, with all
their talents and weaknesses, enables me to provide this support.
While working as a counselor, trying to encourage religious and
spiritual values, I was continually troubled by certain questions: What
is science? What is religion — Hindu as well as other faiths? What have
science and religion contributed to development? How have science and
religion interacted?
KAPUR

It was at this point that one fine morning, as a pleasant surprise, I
learned of idrc’s project in srd. After some discussion, idrc invited me
to participate in this research, asking me to explore the relevant issues
as a believer in the Hindu religion. I was thrilled. Deep in my heart I
felt that this opportunity came to me because of God’s blessings and
will.
I knew that this research would require intensive study and hard
work. But I had been keen to do further research in these areas, so I was
at once drawn toward the project. I accepted the invitation with great
enthusiasm and began the work with the help of my research assistant,
Tribhuwan Kapur, who has a doctorate in the sociology of religion. We
have found it fascinating and satisfying to work on this research with
the knowledgeable, understanding, and friendly idrc group; the distin-


12 guished research team leader, Farzam Arbab; and the other eminent
members of the team. I hope that my practical experience with the very
intricate motivations and problems of human life (as seen from the eyes
of a sociologist and counselor), my experience of India, and my lifelong
immersion in a Hindu perspective provide a useful complement to the
expertise and knowledge of the other participants in the project.

HINDUISM: THE BACKDROP
The individual and society become one
It may be appropriate to clarify at the outset what is meant by the terms
Hindu, Hindu religion, and Hinduism. According to Ranganathananda
(1987) and Badrinath (1993), the words Hindu and Hinduism were not
coined by the people of India to refer to themselves or their religion;
these words are not found in any of the ancient or medieval Indian texts.
Instead, they suggest that invading Arabs in the 8th century ad or
ancient Persians or Iranians used these terms to designate the people
living east of the river “Sindhu” (the modern river Indus). Because
Persians pronounced s as h, the word Sindhu of Sanskrit became Hindu,
and the territory became known as Hindustan (Ranganathananda
1987). The Greeks pronounced it as “Indos,” from which came the word
India. Thus, the term Hinduism originally meant the religion of the
people of Hindustan.
In fact, Hinduism would be hard to define as any one set of beliefs.
It has always been a syncretic religion, incorporating several indigenous
belief systems in addition to the religions that came to India through
war and migration. The Indian thinkers themselves called their religion
by the significant term sanatana dharma, which can be translated as
“Eternal Religion.” Dharma is the Sanskrit word for “religion,” and it is
a philosophical concept focused on unity. “The aim of dharma,” as Badrinath
(1993, p. 27) explained, is “to create and sustain individual and social
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

conditions where each individual, in his or her own being and in rela-
tionship with others, is able to explore the potential of his or her life and
bring it to fruition in such ways that he or she can.” He explained the
centrality of the concept as follows:
The one concern from which everything in Indian thought flowed
and on which every movement of life ultimately depended, was the
idea of dharma, order, which was not any positive order but the
order that was inherent in all life. Derived from the Sanskrit root
word dhr, which is “to support,” “to sustain,” dharma means that
whereby whatever lives is sustained, upheld, supported.
Badrinath (1993, p. 22)
Badrinath further explained the five elements of the order, or dharma, in
which our being is firmly grounded: nonviolence; an attitude of equal-


ity; peace and tranquility; a lack of aggression and cruelty; and an 13
absence of envy.
While each individual has a relation to himself, he has relationships
with others. In the dharmic view the two are not separate. It is only
when our relationship with ourselves is right, that our relationship
with the other can be right: and it is not until we achieve a right
relation with the other, that our relation with ourselves can be
right.
Badrinath (1993, p. 23)
Swami Vivekananda, a monk in the Ramakrishna order and the
most famous disciple of the Bengali mystic, Ramakrishna Paramahans,
placed great emphasis on the merging of the scientific attitude with the
spiritual dimension. He defined religion as “the manifestation of the
divinity already in man” (Ranganathananda 1987, p. 218). By the word
divinity he meant Brahman (Almighty), a concept in which divinity is
inseparable from the individual self, or atman (soul). As he further
stated,
Religion is realization, not talk nor doctrine, nor theories, however
beautiful they might be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or
acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it
believes. … All religions are so many stages. Each one of them
represents a stage through which the human soul passes to realize
God.
Bhajanananda (1976–77, p. 9)
I think Vivekananda used the word religion in the special sense of
spirituality. For him it meant “the realization of God” and “not just a
means of personal salvation but a great creative force in shaping history”
(Bhajanananda 1976–77, p. 4). I see echoes of Swami Vivekananda’s
teaching in the work of Western social scientists like Pitirim Sorokin, a
sociologist, who also emphasized that spiritual training is essential to
the integration and growth of individuals, society, and culture, which in
turn form an indivisible trinity (Sorokin 1958).
KAPUR

Swami Muktinathananda, a scientist, resided in Canada for many
years, but ultimately he renounced the world and became a monk with
the Ramakrishna Mission. In answer to a question about the nature of
the Hindu religion, he responded that it asks the following fundamen-
tal questions:
(i) Who am I? (ii) What is this world? (iii) Who is God? (iv) What
is my relation to this world and God? The Hindu concept for a
human being is that a person is trichotomous: there is a body, a
mind, and the self or atman. The aim of every being is to know who
exactly he or she is: is it the body, or the mind, or the self. In fact,
the Hindu religion begins with this question of knowing myself
and my relation to God and my World.


14 Muktinathananda (personal communication, 19982)

The notion of the self in Hinduism, classical and modern, differs
from that in social science. Whereas social science tends to equate the
self with the ego, or the total personality that is presented to society in
interaction, in Hinduism the self is equated with the soul (or atman)
within each living being. Yet, Self also stands for the Supreme Reality
(or Brahman). The self is seen as a small particle of the Self, and the real-
ization of the oneness of the self with the Self (or the soul with the
Supreme Reality) is the goal of human life. Thus, the movement of
Creation is a play between self and Self.3
Through reincarnation, the self is engaged in virtually endless
transmigrations (samsara) in order to come to a realization of the oneness
of the self with the Self. The doctrine of samsara or transmigration holds
that atman is immortal but deluded with all kinds of desires. According
to its karma (deeds, totality of action and interaction), the atman incar-
nates in diverse bodies until it is completely purified and finally merges
with Brahman and attains moksha (or spiritual liberation). As the
Bhagavad Gita puts it, “Just as a man casts off worn out cloths and puts
on others which are new, so the embodied [self] casts off worn out bodies
and enters others which are new” (Sastry 1977, p. 49). The karma
accumulated by a particular atman in previous lifetimes determines the
situation into which a person is reborn.
Another complementary guide to action found in Hinduism is
embedded in the varnaashram scheme, a socioreligious framework that
Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal
communication, 1998.
The Bhagavad Gita, the most popular Hindu scripture, states the following: “They
say that the senses are superior; superior to the senses is mind; superior to mind is reason;
one who is even superior to reason is He [the Self] … . Then knowing Him who is supe-
rior to reason, subduing the self by the Self, slay thou, O mighty armed, the enemy in the
form of desire, hard to conquer” (Sastry 1977, p. 117).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

divides human life into four distinct stages, each with concomitant
privileges and duties:


Bharmacharya — studenthood and celibacy;

Grihastya — responsible householdership;

Vanaprastha— renunciation of all societal attachments; and

on spiritual
Sanyasa — contemplation of Ultimate Reality (that is, taking
pursuits on a full-time basis) and retirement from all
social links.
This pattern of life, however, is ideal; it is typical that the last stage,
which requires separation from the family at a time when a person or
couple is most likely to require help, is very hard to achieve. In modern

India, the framework of society allows us to aspire only to the first two
stages.
Nevertheless, many aged people do turn to a form of renunciation
and contemplation by daily reading of the Ramayana, Mahabharata,
Bhagavad Gita, and other spiritual texts. They spend money to hold or
attend religious gatherings where there are recitations of various prayers
and discussions on the teachings of various gurus (or spiritual masters),
preachers, and teachers. Hindus continue, by and large, to be ritualistic
and to spend conspicuous sums on ceremonies. We can say then that
although Hinduism has evolved over the millennia, this evolution has
been more in the form than in the content.

Vedanta: the essence of Hinduism
Hindu religion is not based on a single personal founder or group of
founders; rather, it is based on revelations of the authentic inner experi-
ences of sages and seers deeply involved in the search for Truth. The
Veda, Puranas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita form the basic spiritual
literature of Hinduism. The Veda is the accumulated treasury of spiri-
tual knowledge discovered by various seers and sages — perfected
beings — at various points in history. “The term Veda, according to
Sankaracharya, primarily means knowledge, beginningless and endless,
capable of leading to liberation, and verifiable by one and all”
(Ranganathananda 1987, p. 40). That is why the Veda is the outcome
of an inquiry into Truth, very similar in nature and process to modern
scientific inquiry.4
Joshi, a great scholar of the Veda, points out that by studying the Veda one finds
that it presents “a dynamic interpretation of the world and assigns to activities in the
world a profound meaning and significance. It enjoins upon man to act rather than to
renounce his actions. It places before man a method of action which has been discovered
after a long and intense search by the vedic seers,” who were themselves true scientists and
experimenters (Joshi 1991, p. 19).
KAPUR

The Puranas are epics, the ideas and the teachings of the Veda told
in story and parable form. The Upanishads collect the concluding and
philosophical portions of the vast and varied Vedic literature and con-
tain the quintessence of the Veda. The Gita summarizes the essential
teachings of the Upanishads dealing with metaphysical reality, the
nature of self, and the need for knowledge of self and presents them in
a popular manner. The Gita addresses not only Upanishadic philosophy
but also its ethical implications; thus, it both explains the highest real-
ity and provides guidance for everyday life. This is why it has become
the scripture of the masses in India.
But the essence of Hinduism is Vedanta, the philosophical and
metaphysical part of the Hindu scriptures. Swami Vivekananda could
see clearly that Hinduism had a core of sound spiritual principles based


16 on the Upanishads and the Gita and that these principles, when applied
in practical life, could solve many of the nation’s problems
(Bhajanananda 1976–77). I would agree with Vivekananda and suggest
that India’s contemporary state of decline is not the result of religion
but of a failure to apply the principles of Vedanta to solve the social and
national problems (Bhajanananda 1976–77). In a lecture entitled
“Vedanta Today,” Karan Singh, an eminent diplomat, politician, and
scholar of Vedanta and interfaith dialogue, explained the central features
of sanatana dharma as formulated in the five cardinal principles of
Vedanta (Singh 1988):
1. Unity of existence — Vedantic theory suggests that an all-pervading
existence, or single force, permeates the whole universe. Every-
thing that exists — whatever it is and wherever it exists — is illu-
minated by the same Light that promotes the happiness and
welfare of all beings.
2. Divinity inherent in all existence (includes the potential divinity of
human souls) — In Vedanta, human beings are children of immor-
tality, with the capacity for spiritual realization. In explaining the
concept of religion, Vivekananda stated this well-known article of
Vedantic faith:
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this
divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal.
Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or phi-
losophy — by one or more or all of these — and be free. This
is the whole religion. Doctrine or dogmas, or rituals, or books,
or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
Ranganathananda (1987, p. 45)
Vedanta is the realization of the divinity within oneself and in
each one of us. The crowning idea of Vedanta is the unity of the
divine within us and the divine beyond us. Vedanta describes
Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, as Sat-cit-Ananda (existence,
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

knowledge, and bliss). If bliss is a constituent of the Ultimate
Reality of the universe, it is also a constituent of the individual
(Ranganathananda 1987, p. 23).
To manifest one’s inherent potential for divinity, one follows
the three paths to self-realization offered in Vedanta through
which the individual soul finds a link with the Supreme Soul:
bhakti yoga, or the path of devotion to the Supreme Reality or Soul;
jnana yoga, the path of knowledge; and karma yoga, the path of
action and work. As Gangrade (1995) pointed out, no one of these
paths can alone suffice or permanently stand isolated from the
other two. A person must follow jnana, karma, and bhakti together
to completely develop his or her character and personality.
3. The entire human race like one extended family (vasudhaiva

kutumbhkam — The bond of spirituality binds people belonging
to various parts of the human race, despite all their differences.
Ideally, all the members of an extended family care and share,
demonstrate mutual love and respect, and take responsibility for
and cooperate in maintaining and furthering the welfare of the
family; these ideals can be extended to provide models of behav-
iour for each individual toward the rest of the human race.
4. Essential unity of all religions — The perception of the spiritual
unity of all existence in Hinduism and the emphasis on spiritual
realization as the goal of religion foster interreligious harmony
(Ranganathananda 1987). In Hinduism, various paths lead to the
Divine: one can worship a female or male deity, trees, plants,
herbs, the sun, the moon, stars, fire, the incorporeal God, the
Supreme Soul–Reality, or an idol. This pluralism is apparent in
Swami Vivekananda’s idea of the harmony of the religions of the
world and in that of a universal religion providing for the coexis-
tence of all religions, each accepting the best elements in the oth-
ers. I feel that people today very much need the pluralism of
Vedanta and the interfaith understanding it espouses.
5. The welfare, progress, development, and happiness of all — Vedanta pro-
motes not only the fulfillment and liberation of the self but also the
welfare and development of all beings. This is indicated by a pop-
ular Vedic prayer that all may be happy and healthy and participate
in and be the recipient of welfare, progress, and prosperity and that
none may be unhealthy, unhappy, or ignorant. This prayer is recited
in Sanskrit during various religious ceremonies; similar prayers are
found in the Bahá’í Faith and in other religions.5

Swami Jitatmananda (1992) has brought out the five concepts, or cardinal princi-
ples, of the Upanishads (Vedanta) very effectively in the book Modern Physics and Vedanta,
which offers an alternative to the current, primarily materialistic, paradigm.
KAPUR

Vedanta is both a philosophy and a religion, but it has no set
dogma or method:
While asserting the truth as one, and its mystic vision as the
only means, [Vedanta] accords recognition to multiple
approaches to this vision … . Each generation has felt free to
interpret the basic truth in the language and cultural mores of
his own generation … though strictly adhering and following
the original texts. … Thus Vedanta is the science of Reality
rather than a dogma, religious or philosophical.
Giri (1985, pp. 34–35)
Today, people are engaged in a tremendous search for new
approaches and broader understandings to guide their actions. And for
me, it is this search that makes Vedanta so relevant. Vivekananda


18 pointed out that the Vedantic principles are applicable not only in India
but throughout the world (Bhajanananda 1976–77) and that Vedanta
has an important part to play in the life of modern humans. It provides
them with, among other values, a philosophy of social service so lacking
in modern society (Bhajanananda 1976–77). Vivekananda believed, as I
do, that religion properly understood can be applied to help solve both
the mundane and the existential problems of humanity.

SELF, SOCIETY, AND DEVELOPMENT

Science is discovering the Truth. Religion is the manifestation of
Truth. Spirituality is Truth itself. Morality is holding on to Truth.
Ethics is application of Truth in social life.
Muktinathananda (personal communication, 1998 6)
The concept of development according to sanatana dharma is the
“unfoldment of Truth.” It embraces the development of the self (body,
mind, and spirit), others, and the entire universe (that is, the well-being
of all living beings, including the environment7). Real development

Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal
communication, 1998.
Hinduism lays stress on the psychophysical environment as a cocoon for the growth
of goodness and harmony. The Veda devotes a great deal of attention to agriculture, live-
stock, rains, and harvests (Balasubramanian 1999). An entire branch of medicine —
Ayurveda — has its base in various herbal remedies: Vrkshayurveda, classical Indian plant
science, is highly advanced (Balasubramanian 1999). Hindus greatly venerate several plants,
including tulsi (basil) and neem, and use them medicinally. The ashrams of the Vedic rishis
(seers), which taught young disciples the Veda and the way of dharma, were forest retreats.
The vivid descriptions of forest and fauna in the Ramayana and Mahabharata indicate quite
clearly that there was then no environmental crisis of the sort witnessed in the 20th cen-
tury. These accounts and indicators suggest that living according to the principles of dharma
includes, and results in, an understanding and appreciation for the natural world and a
“right” relationship with the natural environment, as well as with others in society.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

from a Hindu perspective is the development of one and all in terms of
both the inner and the outer environment. As Swami Muktinathananda
said,
According to Hinduism, real development in any area consists in
removal of all imperfections and bringing about perfection. Thus,
the essential elements of real development are helping in the
removal of everything that is unreal, false or imperfect, providing
education to remove ignorance, and helping one and all to under-
stand the necessity and implications of development.
Muktinathananda (personal communication, 19988)

Self and development


That man attains peace, who, abandoning all desires, moves about
without attachment, without selfishness, without vanity.
Sastry (1977, p. 80)

He who hates no single being, who is friendly and compassionate to
all, who is free from attachment and egoism, to whom pain and
pleasure are equal, who is enduring, ever-content and balanced in
mind, self controlled, and possessed of firm conviction, whose
thought and reason are directed to Me, he who is (thus) devoted to
Me is dear to Me.
Sastry (1977, p. 311)

He by whom the world is not afflicted and who is not afflicted by
the world, who is free from joy, envy, fear and sorrow, he is dear to
Me.
Sastry (1977, p. 312)

Those who ever contemplate the Imperishable, the Indefinable, the
Eternal, having restrained all the senses, always equanimous, intent
on the welfare of all beings, — they reach Myself.
Sastry (1977, p. 304)9
Whereas we know that the concept of the self is related to an immortal
spark of inner consciousness, the word I or me (aham) refers to the accre-
tions that cloud the pure perception of the immortal soul within every
being. The purpose then of sanatana dharma is to evolve a way of deal-
ing with society that removes the accretions of doubt, vanity, anger, and
misery and brings the atman within every member of society ever closer
to the realization of total fusion (moksha) with the Brahman. This fusion
Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal com-
munication, 1998.
Sastry (1977) contains an English translation of Sri Sankaracharya’s original Sanskrit
commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
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is the goal of pursuing good karma in everyday life, and in India it pro-
vides a raison d’être for human existence.
The scriptural injunctions of the purusarthas (the doctrine of the
four goals of life) convey the four ways to fulfill one’s inner being:


Dharma — moral code of conduct, rightful action;

Artha — economic pursuits for self-sufficiency;

Kama — satisfaction of desires (physical or other); and

Moksha — total liberation, release from delusion.
Of these, the most significant is moksha. Our discussion of this
path of the purusarthas, however, must be couched in the basic premise
of Hinduism that the soul within a human is immortal: “Him weapons

cut not, Him fire burns not, and Him water wets not; Him wind dries
not. He cannot be cut, burnt, nor wetted, nor dried up. He is everlast-
ing, all pervading, stable, firm, eternal” (Sastry 1977, pp. 49–50). Thus,
the quest for moksha is a quest for a sort of immortality.
Dharma is neither a doctrine nor a dogma. In practical terms,
dharma is the overarching principle guiding a dutiful and responsible
life. It relies on reason no less than on intuition (the inner feeling and
apprehension of any situation). As one of the fundamental ideals of
human life it aims at life’s fullest manifestation and upholds and sus-
tains the individual and universal life principles, including spiritual and
social values. Dharma is the urge to grow.
Rama in the Ramayana is often cited as a mythological example of
a man–god who followed the path of dharma, even though it led him to
abdicate his right to the throne of his father, Dasratha, and go into exile
for 14 years in the forest as a result of the selfish wish of one of
Dasratha’s wives, Kaikeyi. This story demonstrates that the path of
dharma is not always pleasurable but also involves duty, even that which
is unpleasant. Following the path of dharma leads to the accumulation
of good karma, which itself leads to a better rebirth in a family that pur-
sues the path of the sanatana dharma. This is the beginning of the
process toward the goal of moksha or liberation from samsara. The
Bhagavad Gita (ch. iii 19) emphasizes this: “Therefore, without attach-
ment, constantly perform the action which should be done; for,
performing action without attachment, man reaches the Supreme”
(Sastry 1977, p. 104).
The fulfillment of kama, which is the principle of lawful desire
(including sexual desire within marriage) is also part of the purusarthas.
For Hindus, the fulfillment of desire within the limits of their under-
standing is also part of the sanatana dharma. Thus, it is clear that people
in society should be moral and not obsessed by the sensual to the extent
that it damages their psychological and physical health, or the fabric of
society, through extramarital sexuality.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The purusarthas also enjoin the principle of artha, or economic
independence. This is considered to be one of the pillars of a moral life,
as economic dependence creates a flaw in all aspects of life, including
that of morality. Thus, in making kama and artha some of the cardinal
points of human fulfillment, along with spiritual and social goals, the
purusarthas encourage a sane and balanced approach to living in society;
in the case of artha, one balances the support of oneself and one’s family
(materialistic achievements and comfort) with the pursuit of other
equally important aims in human life. In Hindu and Indian society,
however, the drive for economic independence as a means to a life of
plenty is evident everywhere — in all aspects of the media and in con-
versation with college students, as well as with corporate executives.
Rural people who derive much of their income from agriculture or crafts


are far closer to the life of the purusarthas and might therefore be con- 21
sidered more exemplary of the Hindu moral system.
The purusarthas provided a path of life that applied to both men
and women. In Hindu society, societal, physical, and mental hygiene
depended on living up to the purusarthas’ high standards, and these
basic notions enjoyed wide currency in India. Yet, although the ideals
remain the same, modern Indians are unlikely to adhere fully to the
purusartha system as a guide to personal growth or social interaction.

Society and development
One might ask whether the diversity of India and Hinduism has led to
division and conflicts and whether such controversies have been in
themselves detrimental to overall development, including economic
progress. Has the emphasis on spiritual development, evident right
from the era of the Veda, come at the cost of economic development,
perhaps even itself fostering self-centredness and apathy?
How widely are the Hindu beliefs and schemes of life accepted by
the general population in India? This question is extremely important
for gauging the effect of religion on economic development. The reality
of Hinduism on the ground, both in urban centres and in villages, is
that there is a vast proliferation of sects — the two main cults being the
Viashnavite and the Saivite — which have their own local variations and
imagery, chants, bhajans (hymns), and mantras (spiritually uplifting
words, phrases, and concepts, usually derived from traditional scripture
and musically intoned to purify the mind, elevate one’s understanding
of the self, and realize the divine Oneness). Yet, the sects all have in
common their belief in God, known as Bhagwan, Ishwara, or Parmatma,
and they all claim allegiance to sanatana dharma.
Religious messages are widely disseminated. Although a sizable
proportion of Hindus may be illiterate in the sense of modern educa-
tion, they certainly are well informed regarding the precepts of the
Bhagavad Gita and the moral and ethical questions raised by the
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epics — the Ramayana and the Mahabharata — enacted in whole and
in part each year throughout India. In modern India, radio, television,
and cinema reinforce this educational process; programs frequently
include discourses on religion or religious stories. These modes of com-
munication serve to popularize and reinforce the values of sanatana
dharma: the honour and dignity of women, tolerance, forgiveness,
patience, humility, and obedience to the will of one’s parents.
Hindu social life is life within the community. One’s immediate
family and the wider network of kin and friends, as well as the whole
community, participate in all life-cycle rituals (weddings, funerals, etc.),
festivals, and special ceremonies. These ceremonial and ritualistic occa-
sions regenerate the religious life and bring harmony to those who take
part in them. During these ceremonies, priests recite various holy books


22 and scriptures and give discourses on many scriptures, including the
epics and the Gita. Local customs make a unique contribution to these
events in each region but never go against the tenor of the Veda.10
From India’s inception, its history has been one of invasions and
conquests, commencing with the Aryans and culminating with the
British colonization. Many diverse ideologies have gone into making
Hinduism what it is today. An outstanding consequence of Hinduism’s
eclectic origins is that it has sufficient tolerance and patience to forge
new syntheses without totally losing its direction and basic spiritual
content. In the medieval era, for example, when the Moguls dominated
India, Hinduism survived by incorporating some of the better aspects of
other faiths. This is true also of India’s response to the Christian rulers
and missionaries under British colonization.
Hinduism’s acceptance and assimilation of such varieties and
polarities of faiths emerged from an underlying truth, eloquently
expressed by the Vedic seers in the phrase “Truth is one, Sages call it by
various names” (Ekam Sat vipra bahudha vadanti). This is one of the
greatest pronouncements in the Rig Veda and provides the foundational
philosophy of the Hindu faith. Swami Vivekananda considered this
statement the Magna Carta of religion (Ranganathananda 1987).
Enlightened Hindus have a deep faith in syncretism, that is, in the
practice of incorporating the best principles and elements of all reli-
gions. Thus, Hinduism displays an understanding of an underlying and
overarching unity, a hard-earned tolerance for all aspects of truth, and a
willingness to incorporate the truths of other faiths. As such,
Even in contemporary India, 47.5% of the population is still more or less illiter-
ate. The main sources of people’s knowledge of Hinduism are in the oral tradition, passed
down from parents to children; sermons delivered by itinerant preachers; discourses given
by priests on a daily basis at the temple or at the numerous religious festivals, rituals, and
ceremonies; the daily prayers to male or female deities in temples or at the home altar
(which most Hindu households have, no matter how affluent or poor); and interchanges
during pilgrimages to holy shrines at the four cardinal points of India. On these pilgrim-
ages, people exchange and absorb religious ideas from other pilgrims, especially the
legends and myths connected with the shrines.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

philosophically, it is not prone to intra- or interreligious conflict. This
is not to deny that conflicts have ensued but to suggest that they are not
in accord with the fundamental tenets of Hinduism. Given the hetero-
geneity of Indian society, one might ask whether these conflicts would
have been much worse without this philosophical and spiritual under-
pinning.
Related to Hinduism’s syncretic tendencies is the Indian under-
standing of the term secularism. India’s society is pluralistic, with a vari-
ety of cultures, ethnicities, races, languages, and religions. Although
Hinduism is the majority religion in India and a large proportion of the
Indian population is Hindu, the milieu of Hinduism contains several
other religions, like Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, the
Bahá’í Faith, and Jainism. One of the major issues that occupied Gandhi


and Nehru was determining what position on this multiplicity of reli- 23
gions would best suit an independent India. This position would have
to define “clearly the relation between religion and politics and between
religion and the nation-state” (Joshi 1995, p. 3). Secularism was the
approach chosen, but a secularism with a politically convenient and dis-
tinctly Indian interpretation. “Secularism is defined as ‘equal respect for
all faiths’ and a call for cultivation of religious tolerance and harmony”
(Kanal 1988, p. 1). Mahatma Gandhi summed up the secular approach
of India as follows:
Hindustan belongs to all those who are born and bred here and who
have no other country to look to. Therefore it belongs to Parsis,
Beni Israelis, to Indian Christians, Muslims and other non Hindus
as much as to Hindus … . Religion is a personal matter, which
should have no place in politics.
Gandhi (1992 [1947], pp. 277–278)
Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India (and
Gandhi’s chosen disciple), had a similar appreciation of the question of
secularism and felt that it was not merely a question of tolerating other
religions — it was a question of social and political justice, of creating
an equitable society (Joshi 1995). Thus, the preamble to the new
Constitution of India declared the country “a sovereign secular, democ-
ratic republic.” The state was not to interfere with people’s freedom to
practice or believe in any faith.
If this idea had been truly accepted, it would have laid the foun-
dations for an integrated development, because it would have created
the conditions for subcontinental harmony. But of all the various types
of socialization and conditioning, the religiocentric bias yields least to
any kind of pressure to change. It is very difficult to let go of the cen-
tral tenet of each religion that makes believers claim, “our religion is the
best!” I would say that this is mainly a result of paranoia and the absence
of knowledge and understanding of one’s own religion and, more so, of
other religions. If India is to realize its goal of interfaith harmony, then
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Hindus must use the syncretism of Hinduism to take the lead in this
process.
India’s experiment in “secularism” is now about 50 years old and
bears many scars; it has not managed to avoid carnage and violence,
including the great strife during the partition of India into India and
Pakistan. On numerous occasions, communal violence has occurred
between Hindus and Muslims. These events indicate that the ethos of
secularism has not percolated into the psyche of the common person in
India. The experiment, however, goes on, and perhaps with deep knowl-
edge, understanding, appreciation, and respect for one’s own religion, as
well as for the religions of others, India’s secularism will fully succeed.
Outside India, interfaith understanding and interfaith movements are
also growing in every corner of the world; these beliefs, I feel, will form


24 the basis of global unity and integrated development.
In examining the question of Hinduism’s role in economic devel-
opment, I take as an example an argument put forward in the early part
of the 20th century by the sociologist Max Weber. For Weber (1958),
the caste system and the Hindu religious beliefs of karma, samsara, and
kismet (Urdu for fate) meant that Hindu society was otherworldly in ori-
entation and not geared to respond to new economic challenges. Weber,
however, did not seriously consider other factors — colonialism and
repeated invasions — that led to the conditions he observed in India.
Moreover, Hinduism is a lived and in many respects still oral tradition:
it is very difficult to understand from texts. Thus, although Weber’s
viewpoint is scholarly, it is not holistic. A number of social scientists
have, in fact, rejected his perspective. On the basis of research among
entrepreneurs, Singer et al. (1966) found that the “stagnant economy”
of India could not be related to otherworldly religious values; they
observed that the family orientation of these entrepreneurs, as opposed
to Western-style individualism, was an asset in capitalist development
(see also Brzezinski 1997). Singer et al. also found that Indians used
adaptive strategies — such as compartmentalization, ritual neutraliza-
tion of the work sphere, and vicarious ritualization — to successfully
combine the economic and religious spheres (Singer 1972). Moreover,
the economist Arvind Sharma (1980) suggested that the basis for a
strong work ethic can be gleaned from Hindu scriptural tradition
(Brzezinski 1997).
The reason why India has seen little economic development might
be found in the nonparticipatory policies and practices that have always
governed its primarily agricultural economy. Farmers, especially those
with small holdings, have been exploited by the landowners, bureau-
crats, and rulers; for the landless, the situation is still worse. As a result,
in most parts of India the benefits of agricultural production have
accrued only to those who exploited both the people and the resources
and refused to share these benefits with those who worked for them or
with the general population. The most recent spate of economic
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

development in India began with the unification of the various pre-
existing nation-states into a single sovereign Republic of India on
15 August 1947; at that time, India’s leaders confronted a host of
historical problems but failed, for various reasons, to fully enlist the pro-
gressive and reformist ethos of that period, including its participatory,
indigenous methodologies. I will return to this issue when I discuss
Gandhi’s sarvodaya (or welfare of all) model of village-based economic
development and Nehru’s preference for the heavy-industrialization
model.

Issues for Hinduism and development
Westerners raise some pertinent questions when they encounter Hindu-


based social action and development strategies: Does belief in reincarnation, 25
karma, and samsara have a deleterious effect on people’s awareness of, or
their action on, social problems, such as poverty and the denial of
women’s rights? Further, to what extent is “fatalism” a major influence
in people’s daily life, and is it based on Hindu religious belief? Does the
caste system create and reinforce inequity?
The concepts of reincarnation, karma, and samsara are closely inter-
related and convey the belief in the “cycle of birth and rebirth,” the
immortality of the soul, and the idea that “as you sow, so shall you
reap.” It would be incorrect to assess the Hindu attitude as fatalistic, for
this would imply the existence of a large Hindu community without
any intellection or direction. Fatalism is the attitude of people who
believe and act as if their efforts, whether great or small, will make no
difference to the ultimate outcome of plans or actions. This attitude
would result in utter indifference to efforts to bring about development.
Yet, karma (in Hindi) and bhagayavad (in Sanskrit) do not carry the neg-
ative connotations of fatalistic passivity and laziness; rather, they carry
the positive connotation of reconciliation after the event. This is the
approach, in practice, of a vast section of Hindu society; these people use
it to accept gracefully and with great courage, calmness, and strength
the outcome of adverse economic and social situations. Karma suggests
that such circumstances must stem from people’s own deeds, yet karma
also imparts confidence that people have the strength and capacity to
shape their own future in this life and in subsequent ones. I feel that this
understanding of karma has, on balance, a positive rather than negative
effect on poverty alleviation, women’s rights, and developmental activi-
ties in general because it allows people to sustain their hope during
inevitable setbacks and to believe that their endeavours will yield fruit.
Besides, the existing socioeconomic system adequately inculcates
norms of competition, individuality, and ceaseless striving to better the
situation in one’s family, business, or career. This has removed all but a
token recognition of the passive side of fate and fatalism. Even though
Hindus refer to “fate” whenever they encounter a life event they cannot
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control or even understand, they exert strenuous efforts to follow their
desires and achieve their goals. This dual approach is consistent with
passages in the Gita that clearly refute Weber’s argument. The Gita
preaches constant action in all that one does and deep meditation as
part of action. One is instructed not only to strive in all spheres of life
but also to do this in a cool and detached manner, keeping all the con-
sequences of action in view. Hinduism is therefore not a religion that
teaches passivity; rather, it is both outward and inward looking, with a
logical connection between these dimensions.
The caste system also causes great comment and consternation.
Each caste is related to a varna, of which there are four: brahmin, kshatriya,
vaisya, and shudra. Each of these has a role to play in society:



Brahmins are in charge of ritual and religious matters;

Kshatriyas are warriors and allied to the defence of society;

Vaisyas are the merchants and given to commercial pursuits;
and


Shudras serve all people belonging to the other varnas.
Another group of people, who live outside the caste system, were
once known as the “untouchables” and then as dalits11; contact with an
untouchable was considered polluting by caste Hindus.
Many Hindus believe that the varna into which one is born is due
to fate or karma, because varna is immutable. Although the practical
effect of this system has often been inequality — with rural, illiterate,
and often destitute people bearing the brunt of exploitation by higher
castes — it can be argued that this was not the intention of the varna
system as set out in ancient Hinduism. The functional, rather than hier-
archical, nature of the varna system is manifest in Balinese Hinduism:
In the history of Hinduism, the doctrine of varnas appears before the
doctrine of karma. This raises the suspicion that the doctrine of
karma may have provided a post facto rationalization for a birth-
oriented division of society that was already in place when the
doctrine of karma became widespread. … It is possible though that
Balinese Hinduism represents the original concept of varnas … .
“In Bali varna is simply occupation. A businessman is a vaisya, a
teacher a brahmin, an employee a sudra and so on. No inferior or
superior stature is attached, and if one switches profession — say
from teacher to shopkeeper — one changes caste from brahmin to
vaisya.”
Sharma (1993, p. 25, emphasis in the original)

In 1937 Dr Ambedkar coined this term for untouchables, but it later came to refer
to people of all oppressed classes.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The exploitation of lower castes and untouchables was condemned
by the Bhakti mystics and by numerous modern Hindu activists, such
as Gandhi. In more concrete terms, certain provisions in the Indian
Constitution also combat the discrimination caused by this system, and
the Indian people are changing their attitudes and behaviour toward
these classes. The history of the caste system in India leads me to think
that all human systems carry the potential for abuse when material and
status considerations are foremost in our minds and we ignore spiritual
and human values.

MODERN SCIENCE AND THE HINDU RELIGION


Scientific knowledge is built upon facts. The medical side is fairly
well developed, though the causes and cures of certain ailments are
yet to be discovered. But what science does know, it is more or less
sure about, because the various factors concerned have been tested:
theories have been tried and proven. In religion it is different. Peo-
ple are given certain facts or truths and told to believe them. After
a little while when their belief is not fulfilled, doubt creeps in; and
then they go from religion to religion in trying to find proof. You
hear about God in churches and temples; you can read about Him
in books; but you can experience God only through Self-realisation
attained by practicing definite scientific techniques. In India, reli-
gion is based upon such scientific methods. By experimentation,
India has proved the truths in religion. In the future, religion every-
where will be a matter of experimentation; it will not be based
solely on belief.
Yogananda (1944, p. 35)

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Einstein (1950)
Turning to the nexus between science and religion, I should state that I
believe that as objects of study, external phenomena and the inner
dimensions of human existence are equally significant. Thus, inasmuch
as science is a search for truth, religion is also a search for Truth. The
physical sciences are an inquiry into matter and the nature of the exter-
nal world. Religion, in contrast, is an inquiry into consciousness, spiri-
tuality, and the nature of the inner world. In the final analysis, however,
one may find no separation between the external and internal dimen-
sions, but a continuum between these states. Science inquires through
experiment, and religion inquires through inner experience. In this
sense, religion is scientific.
One of the most noticeable trends in science and religion in India
is that spiritual savants are recognizing the great significance of science;
they have begun to acknowledge that contemporary humans are living
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in an age dominated by science. They do not see religion as opposed to
science but as having much to learn from the methods and temper of
science. Thus, Ranganathananda recorded the following statement of
Yogananda:
Pure science needs to cover a wider ground than the external phys-
ical world constituting only the external physical environment of
human life. Science has to study the inner world of man as well,
besides the outer world of nature. But in the modern context, unfor-
tunately the sciences of physical nature have far outstripped the
sciences of man … . If the physical sciences have lifted man from
many fears and uncertainties of his primitive past, it has landed him
also in new fears and uncertainties arising from ignorance of his own
inner nature. The modern man has to realise that such a study of the
“within” of nature, as revealed in nature’s evolutionary product, that


28 is man, is also a science like the other study by the physical sciences,
of the “without” of nature.
Ranganathananda (1983, p. 3, emphasis in the original)
I find this statement important because people often assume that mod-
ern science alone has verifiable methods, experimentation, and testing.
But, as Yogananda suggested in the epigram that began this section,
spiritual aspirants can internally verify and replicate specific stages in
spiritual progress as set out in Hinduism and Buddhism. We can then
say we have a “science” of religion, which, apart from the sociological
side of it — as represented in ceremony and ritual observances — is
quite capable of providing a topography of the “within” of humans.
In answer to the question of whether the Hindu religion is scien-
tific, Swami Muktinathananda (personal communication, 199812) gave
the following response: “If we define the scientific in this way that to be
practical is to be scientific, then Hinduism is perfectly scientific.”
In his lecture on religion and science, Vivekananda said, “Religion
deals with the truth of the metaphysical world just as chemistry and
other natural sciences deal with the truth of the physical world”
(Ranganathananda 1987, p. 175). Vivekananda also taught that “reli-
gion is the science which learns the transcendental in nature through
the transcendental in man” (Jitatmananda 1992, p. 68). In Swami
Vivekananda’s view, the physicist and the mystic reach the truth of
unity by following different approaches. As he noted, “physics today is
relating itself increasingly to philosophy and drawing closer to Vedanta
philosophy” (Jitatmananda 1992, p. 70). “What the Vedic sages discov-
ered through mystic intuition, modern scientists are confirming with
the help of sophisticated instruments” (Jitatmananda 1992, p. 86).
American physicist, Fritjof Capra, also supported this view:
Thus the mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusions;
one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world.
Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal
communication, 1998.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The harmony of their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom
that brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman,
the reality within.
(Capra 1983, p. 338)
Another trend in Hindu religion is the discovery of various paral-
lels in religion and science where the two seem increasingly to be speak-
ing the same language, that is, language that points toward the unity of
all existing phenomena:
Modern particle physics shows the folly of trying to search for a
single object, a sub-atomic particle or electron as a separate inde-
pendent reality. Such a thing does not exist. The very experience of
the independent existence of one thing is unreal. Vedanta terms it


mithya. The right vision is to perceive the whole in the so-called iso- 29
lated entity. This is what the Vedantist means by the statement
“brahman alone is real.”
Jitatmananda (1992, p. 27)
As mentioned before, the Ultimate Reality for the ancient Indian
seers was Brahman (or the Self), from which all atmans (or selves)
emanate. The realization of the preexisting oneness with Brahman was
the goal of all life, but to describe Brahman, or the Supreme Reality, was
considered beyond the capacities of human language or even human
conception. For example, Yajnavalkya, a Vedic seer, attempted the
following description of Supreme Reality for his wife, Maitreyi, many
centuries ago:
For where there is duality as it were, there one sees the other, one smells
the other, one tastes the other, one speaks to the other, one hears the
other, one thinks of the other, one touches the other, one knows the
other. But where everything has become just one’s own self, by what
and whom should one know? By what should one know Him by
whom all this is known? He is indestructible for He cannot be
destroyed. He is unattached for He does not attach himself. He is
unfettered, He does not suffer, He is not injured. Indeed by what
would one know the knower?
Radhakrishnan (1974, p. 286)
A well-known mystic from medieval India, Kabir, also preached
the merging of selfhood with the nirguna (beyond any attributes), which
is clearly a linguistic reformulation of the “not this, not this” (neti, neti)
of the Upanishads’ description of Brahman.13

See Pande (1989, p. 122): “Kabir’s object of devotion is qualityless (nirguna). This
reality cannot be identified by any creator. Kabir, in fact, identifies the creator with the
created world. In this notion of transcendent immanent unity he is reminiscent of
Upanishadic or Kasmira Saiva monism as also of Madhyamika absolutism.”
KAPUR

Thus, two features frequently characterize the Hindu perception of
the nature of reality:


or atUltimate Reality exists, but it cannot be adequately described,
least it cannot be described with a great deal of precision; and


of theTheselfUltimate Reality can be experienced in the consciousness
by the latter’s merging with the consciousness of the
ultimate Self.
Further, certain other subfeatures emerge from this characterization:


any The experience of an Ultimate Reality is not the monopoly of
single religious tradition. Buddhism, for instance, speaks of
the “void” into which everything returns and from which every-

thing emerges.


fact Itthisis linguistic
not possible to quantify the “voidic experience,” and in
awkwardness indicates the difficulty.
Modern physics suffers from similar difficulties when it attempts to
describe or predict the behaviour of quantum particles, which physicists
have described as forms of energy “dancing” without any cause or pur-
pose, a field of energy existing for and in itself.
Hindu scientists, religionists, social scientists, and medical practi-
tioners have noted other base-level similarities between the findings of
modern science and the experiential discoveries of Hindu mystics; they
have also tried to conceive of new paradigms in which the scientific and
religious understandings converge. For example, Mukhopadhyay (a
pathologist) developed the Akhanda (“unbreakable” or “whole”) para-
digm that treats the entire universe as a living organism. He pointed
out that the “evolution or involution of species is intimately related to
evolution or involution of its environment” (Mukhopadhyay 1995). He
felt that the question of morality is intimately related to the evolution
of consciousness, and this is clear from the wisdom of the sage and
savant Sri Aurobindo, whom Mukhopadhyay acknowledged as a semi-
nal influence on his work. In the following quotation, Mukhopadhyay
expressed, in modern language, the ancient insight of the Vedas that
Brahman created the “multiverse,” to use Mukhopadhyay’s language, as
a form of play, where the self would lose consciousness of Self, and the
entire purpose of Creation would be the drama of mind, body, and
spirit, in which the self would once again merge with the Self:
The “self” within the brain understands its imprisonment within
five overlapping concentric spheres. Who am I? What am I sup-
posed to do? Where from I have come? Where shall I be doomed, if
proper precautions are not taken before hand? It is “self”, seeking
the “Self”, through “self”, for “Self”. If “self” is successful in this
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

mission, then inside is out and outside is in. There is inversion of
the neuraxis.
Mukhopadhyay (1995, p. 171)
Mukhopadhyay’s seminal work was thus a transformation of the ancient
religious insights of India into the modern scientific language of pathol-
ogy and biology.
Certain scientific discoveries — such as the theory of evolution,
the law of conservation of matter, and the theory of relativity — bear
striking similarities to Vedantic concepts of the universe. Sri Ramakrishna
used the concept of the nonduality of consciousness (Advaita) to build
his theory of the harmony of religions (Bhajanananda 1976–77), and
Vivekananda saw nonduality as the basis for the underlying similarities
of art, science, and religion.14 Likewise, Einstein, in his special theory of


relativity, used the constancy of the velocity of light to formulate the 31
principle of invariance (Bhajanananda 1976–77, p. 23). The close agree-
ment between Vedantic principles and those of the modern scientific
discoveries, despite the difference in their expression, is noteworthy
(Bhajanananda 1976–77). As Jitatmananda pointed out,
The entire world of modern physics is moving toward a knowledge
of final unity in the universe. The Vedanta, the philosophical and
the metaphysical portions of the Vedas, affirmed this unity as the
very basis of all existence and the ultimate goal of all knowledge.
Jitatmananda (1992, pp. 6–7)
Another commonality of science and religion is the idea that the
mind, or subjective consciousness, plays a great role in creating the
world and lays down the laws of perception. When mystics go “inward,”
their consciousness alters and they can perceive worlds not possible if
consciousness were not capable of altering dimensions and adapting
itself to new perceptions. Social-science researchers have recognized this
link between subject and object, in terms of the continuum of con-
sciousness, and suggest that each person “creates” a particular perception
of the world, both mental and sociophysical. Similarly, as Jitatmananda
remarked,
Unless we know the Knower we cannot also know that the known
is only the projection of the Knower. This Knower is our Pure
Consciousness, which is the only seer, the one all-pervading Exis-
tence, the one all-inclusive knowledge. This Pure Consciousness
projects the entire universe just as a spider projects its web. The
external and a separate universe is, therefore, only a superimposi-
tion, due to our desires and will, on the Pure Consciousness which
knows everything as One.
Jitatmananda (1991, p. 50)
According to Vivekananda, “Art, science and religion are but three different ways
of expressing the single truth. But in order to understand this we must have the theory of
Advaita” (that is, nonduality of consciousness) (Bhajanananda 1976–77, p. 26).
KAPUR

The importance of the observer has, by now, also been recognized in the
physical sciences.
Backed by these eminent thinkers and with these comments on the
similarities between scientific and religious inquiry, I subscribe to, and try
to manifest in my work, the following statement by Ranganathananda:
There is no conflict between science and religion, between the phys-
ical sciences and the science of spirituality. Both have the identical
aim of discovering truth and helping man to grow physically, men-
tally and spiritually, and achieve fulfillment. But each by itself is
insufficient and helpless.

DEVOTION, KNOWLEDGE, AND ACTION

The origins of the Hindu social ethic
Between the 12th and 16th centuries ad, Hinduism experienced an
extraordinary efflorescence. This medieval spiritual renaissance indicates
that Hinduism not only survived but prospered under the foreign rule
of the Moguls. Some of the better known mystics of this age were
Jnanadeva (d. 1296), Namadeva (d. 1346), Kabir (15th century), Nanak
(1469–1539), Mira (16th century), Tulsidas (1532–1623), and Eknath
(1533–99). Together, they are referred to as the Bhakti gurus. They
were spiritual masters–preceptors, who imparted knowledge to their
disciples, dispelling ignorance from their minds.
The concept of a living spiritual master has been of extreme
importance in Hinduism, and even today many cults and sects with liv-
ing gurus flourish in India and in other parts of the world where
Hinduism has spread. The guru mediates between the disciple and
Brahman, bringing the disciple closer to Brahman through counsel,
discourse, exercise, and example. In due course, perhaps after several
lifetimes, the disciple is freed from the bonds of delusion and the ongo-
ing cycle of transmigration; then the disciple can merge with Brahman.
There were a number of commonalities among the Bhakti mystics
and saints, several of whom, like Kabir, came from the lowest caste. The
medieval Indian spiritual preceptors, like the Vedic seers, enjoined hard
work in the form of service to the spiritual preceptor, community, and
society. Devotion to Brahman by means of devotion to the guru was
another common aspect of their teachings. Most advocated that caste
“untouchability” was an age-old evil and that the exploitation of the
lower castes and outcastes was a reprehensible practice that must be
reversed. They therefore made no distinctions of caste or gender in their
ashrams and attempted to influence society by their example. They ini-
tiated men and women of all castes into their faith and promised them
that they, too, could aspire to and fulfill the desire of spiritual liberation.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

Mira stands out as a mystical luminary who was regarded as a saint, even
as a woman living in medieval times.
Kabir, for example,
refused to acknowledge caste distinctions or to recognise the
authority of the six schools of philosophy. He did not set any store
by the four divisions of life (ashramas) prescribed for Bhramanas. He
held that religion (dharma) without devotion (bhakti) was no reli-
gion at all (adharma), and that asceticism, fasting, and alms giving
had no value if not accompanied by adoration (bhajana — the
singing of devotional songs).
Pande (1989, p. 102)
Kabir taught the worship of a Reality that cannot be described. He felt
deeply that the guru was the only route to salvation.


There was a great deal of cross-pollination among the religions of 33
the region during this time: Islam15 and Sufism (mystical Islam) had a
strong influence on the Bhakti gurus. In the case of Nanak, the synthe-
sis between Hinduism and Sufism was seminal in the creation of
Sikhism.16 A description of the medieval renaissance would be incom-
plete without a reference to the insights of Nanak. He was a spiritual
teacher who came from a Hindu family, founded Sikhism, and set in
motion a lineage of 10 spiritual masters. Nanak believed that the
Creator is a single principle from which all things evolve. Although he
believed that the Creator is beyond any specific description, he felt that
God is capable of forming a pervasive personal relationship with
humans. Nanak described God as a “pure light” that pervades every-
thing; in this sense, everything exists in God and the world is his play
(lila) (Pande 1989). Humans, according to Nanak, emanate from the
light of God and are born as a result of the desires of the mind. Humans,
by following the will (hukum) of God, can evolve in stages and realize
spiritual salvation. In this process, nothing is achievable in the spiritual
realm without the presence and guidance of the guru. In terms of action,
humans must be balanced and objective and live in the world with love
and dedication. Nanak said, “Truth is higher than everything, but the
living of Truth is higher than everything else.” Clear Upanishadic
strains appear in Nanak’s insights, and he, too, worked against idolatry,
ritualism, the caste system, and exploitative relationships.
The medieval Indian saints had a very pronounced impact on the
evolution of Hindu ideas. Almost every reformer or mystic after Kabir
and Nanak denounced casteism and tried to purge Hinduism of the per-
nicious practices that had crept into it, including discrimination against
See Pande (1989, p. 121): “A pervasive influence of Islam on the medieval Bhakti
movement has been asserted and even Sankaracharya is said to have been influenced by
Islamic monotheism.”
In Sikhism, the “Holy Book” (Guru Granth Sahib) is treated as a living guru and
given every consideration that a living master would be given. For its recitations and
interpretation there are Sikh priests called “granthies.”
KAPUR

women. Some of the 18th- and 19th-century reformers were outright in
their condemnation of such discrimination; they praised the role of
women as mothers — as representative of the Divine Principle. Others,
like Dayanand, campaigned to abolish ghastly ritualistic customs, such
as sati (the self-immolation of widows on the funeral pyres of their hus-
bands) and the then-prevalent custom of child marriage, in which even
prepubescent children were married. He was also firmly opposed to
social restrictions against the remarriage of widows, which went so far
as to prevent a widow from remarrying even if she was only a child when
her husband died. This first recrudescence of devotion, knowledge, and
action, in medieval times, paved the way for the second Hindu renais-
sance, the effects of which are still evident. The various sects and cults
of the 20th century owe allegiance to, and freely quote, the teachings of


34 Kabir, Nanak, Namdeva, Jnanadeva, Mira, and others.

The second Hindu renaissance
By the 18th and 19th centuries, despite the teachings of the mystics of
the Bhakti Renaissance, many social problems remained unresolved. In
fact, these conditions and practices — sati, obstruction of widow remar-
riages, caste exploitation, untouchability, and poverty — remained
intact under both Mogul and colonial rule. Nevertheless, certain exem-
plary movements in the fields of srd emerged and significantly
improved the economic and social conditions of marginalized people. I
will now turn to a brief examination of these movements, with a view
to outlining their ethical guiding principles and how their principles
inform their developmental activities.
Arya Samaj movements
Founded near the turn of the century (1875) by Swami Dayanand
Saraswati, under the slogan “back to the Vedas,” the Arya Samaj was
characterized by the development of an elaborate monotheistic system
of beliefs. Swami Dayanand had an acute sense of social awareness and
was active in the field of women’s rights, women’s education, and gen-
der equality. The Arya Samaj started movements for India’s freedom, the
education of girls and women, the care of orphan children and the poor,
and the revival of religious studies and debate. Through these move-
ments, Dayanand attempted to eradicate superstition, obsessive ritual-
ism, and blind faith; caste, class, and sex discrimination; and the social
evils of dowry and untouchability. He started a movement to revive the
dignity of hard work and individual virtues. He propagated regular
prayers and “Havens” (recitations of Vedic verses while herbs, incense,
or cereals are burned to purify the inner and outer environment). He
encouraged the concept of the oneness of the incorporeal God and gave
impetus to economic development through education, vocational
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

training, creation of jobs and small-scale industry, and publications. The
Arya Samaj has generated an enormous amount of literature on social,
religious, scientific, and literary topics (Gupta 1998).
Dayanand acted to change society through the classical system of
education (gurukul) in which knowledge about dharma, as well as human
and spiritual values, was imparted and the ideal of equality practiced. In
Satyarth Prakash, a book that provides the fundamental principles of
Arya Samaj, Dayanand proposed education for young boys and girls in
a three-language formula — Sanskrit, Hindi, and a foreign language.
He propounded continence for students and opposed child marriage.
The Arya Samaj has founded many Dayanand Anglo Vedic (dav)
schools, especially in the Punjab; the dav schools provide modern edu-
cation with a traditional and Vedic tinge. The Arya Samaj runs a large


number of Vyayam Shalas–Akharas (gymnasiums and sports centres) for 35
physical health. It was involved to some extent in the anticolonial
movement, supporting the production and consumption of indigenous
goods (swadeshi) and the use of Hindi as a national language, and it
remains active in contemporary India, especially in the northern belt
(Jordens 1978).17
Ramakrishna Mission
The Ramakrishna Mission was founded at the end of the 19th century and
named after the Bengali mystic, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahans. Its founder,
Swami Vivekananda, was one of Ramakrishna’s chief disciples. The Mission
teaches the principles of Vedanta and also provides concrete service to com-
munities with its schools, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages.
Sri Ramakrishna emphasized, among other principles, “the equal
validity of all religions, the potential divinity of man, and service to
man as a way of worshipping God.”18 Ramakrishna was basically a devo-
tee of Kali, the Divine Mother. As a mystic, Ramakrishna emphasized
the spiritual side of life and the limitation of human wants. One of his
most urgent dictums was that humans should avoid the trap of sensual-
ity and obsession with material things. He also emphasized people’s
need for the spiritual and cultural traditions of the past to help them
move meaningfully into the future.
Today, the Mission addresses the question of spirituality and
science and is now preaching that science has begun to validate the
Vedantic viewpoint of the oneness of the universe — nothing can exist
outside of the Spirit. The Mission’s ideal is freedom of the self and ser-
vice to humankind. Its aim is to practice and preach the sanatana dharma
as embodied in the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami
Vivekananda, who undertook their spiritual quest through social action
For more information, consult the Arya Samaj website (www.whereisgod.com),
which, at the time of writing, was still under construction.
See the Ramakrishna Mission website (www.sriramakrishna.org).
KAPUR

and the gospel of love. The motto of the Mission is “renunciation, ser-
vice, and harmony of religions”; its method is work and worship — reli-
gious preaching and training of monastic aspirants. The preachers are all
monks in the Mission and have specific regulations governing their
clothing and food. The two components of the Ramakrishna Mission are
the math (or monastic order) for contemplative activities, such as medi-
tation and preaching the Vedanta, and the Mission per se, which has
ashrams and institutions all over the country. The activities of these
bodies include the following (Gambhirananda 1957):


Religious teaching and discourses;

eral Operation of schools at all educational levels, including gen-
technical education, language training, and character building


36 from an ethical–spiritual perspective;


Creation of libraries;

Social work among marginalized peoples;

sanitoriums
Medical service (creation of hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, and
and distribution of medicines to those unable to afford
them);


Projects for poverty alleviation and income generation;

Relief projects; and

Agricultural and scientific research.
These organizations work closely with local communities on problems
the communities have themselves deemed relevant. They infuse their
actions with the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna.
Sri Aurobindo Society
The life, message, and teachings of Sri Aurobindo inspired the creation
of the Sri Aurobindo Society:
Sri Aurobindo’s teaching starts with the ancient perception of the
seers of the Vedanta that there is a supreme reality that is absolute,
eternal, and indeterminable. This is Brahman, the one Truth, Sole
and Entire … . All this is a manifestation of Brahman, by Brahman,
and in Brahman.
Pandit (1959, pp. 3–4)
The integral truth of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings is corroborated by the
hymns of Veda, the Upanishads, and the Gita. The basic aim of the Sri
Aurobindo Society is to work toward “individual perfection, social
transformation, and human unity based on a spiritual foundation.”19
See the Sri Aurobindo Society’s website (www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The Society has established a number of research centres to inves-
tigate ways to integrate spirituality into various aspects of human life,
such as the social sciences, health, management, commerce and business,
and applied scientific research.20 One of the developmental activities of
the Society and the Sri Aurobindo ashram is to promote “integral edu-
cation” to balance and integrate the four aspects of the individual: the
physical, the vital (dynamic energy, passions, will), the mental (think-
ing and reasoning), and the psychic and spiritual (the seat of the high-
est truths of existence). The Sri Aurobindo Society promulgates this
education through various means (children’s books, educational games
and toys, teacher-training programs, and distance and digital education)
and institutions (an institute of vocational training and mass communi-
cation; study and youth camps; and health centres, with yoga and


“nature-cure” wings). Through its Women’s Council, the Sri Aurobindo 37
Society also focuses on women’s development premised on the full
development of the spirituality of the individual woman and an inher-
ent equality based in the divine source of all humanity. Through lec-
tures, seminars, and publications, the Sri Aurobindo Society promotes
prenatal and parental education, equal opportunity for women to work
and be of service to humanity, and economic independence for women.
World Spiritual University
Seeing illiteracy, ignorance, superstition, and blind faith and realizing
the grave erosion of India’s moral values and national character, Prajapita
Brahma (later known as Brahma Baba) started the World Spiritual
University (Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya) to
cultivate the seeds of knowledge, wisdom, and virtuous behaviour.
The World Spiritual University is an international organization
with 450 000 members or students. It has more than 3 000 educational
centres teaching Rajyoga meditation and moral and spiritual values in
more than 60 countries. It is administered primarily by women. It is
dedicated to education for all-round development, and it focuses on
spiritual growth through contemplation, development of higher values,
and service to community. Education in moral and spiritual values is
emphasized to bring about transformation in attitudes and behaviour,
build human character, and develop an integrated personality. Enroll-
ment in the university is free and open to individuals who wish to

The Sri Aurobindo Institute for Applied Scientific Research focuses on innovations
in alternative energy sources and appropriate technology to solve worker-identified prob-
lems while consciously emphasizing deeper psychological and spiritual values. In its lit-
erature, the institute suggests that, “while it is important to reach and work at the
frontiers of science, it is equally important to develop a technology which will be appro-
priate for rural and semi-urban India and other developing countries. The need is for a
technology which will have the least side effects and touch immediately a large number
of people directly in their lives. It will help them do their work more efficiently, faster,
with less health hazards and at a lower cost” (sas n.d.).
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engage in an active change process through personal growth and
meditation.21
Prajapita Brahma’s vision for the world was grounded in truth,
justice, and equality, an equality based on a foundation of harmony and
balance between the sexes. At the time of the university’s inception,
Prajapita Brahma, a respected 60-year-old diamond merchant, surren-
dered all his property and assets to a trust administered by eight young
women. Women and young girls have been chosen as administrators
and spiritual teachers. The university is based on principles of equality
of the sexes and teaches that “any form of discrimination and prejudice
is destructive to a world which depends on the strategic balance of a full
and equal partnership between women and men” (bkwso 1995b).
The university has general consultative status with the Economic


38 and Social Council of the United Nations, has consultative status with
the United Nations Children’s Fund, and is associated with the United
Nations Peace University. The World Spiritual University works pri-
marily in the areas of environmental improvement (for example, a
project to demonstrate solar–wind–battery hybrid systems technology
in India22), health awareness and medicine, world unity and peace, and
the eradication of poverty. It has participated in a number of United
Nations conferences, published position papers taking value-based
approaches to various development problems,23 and received seven
United Nations Peace Messenger Awards.
Swadhyaya
Another spiritual movement engaged in development activities is the
Swadhyaya movement (a Sanskrit word meaning “self-study”), which
works primarily in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Using the Bhagavad Gita
and the traditional Indian worldview as its philosophical basis,
Pandurang Shastri Athavale, its founder, asked people to recognize the
self as a manifestation of divine being and thus to acknowledge the
divinity of all individuals. The followers of this movement — the
“swadhyayees” — consider service to God their main purpose and
See the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University website (www.bkwsu.com).
The project is summarized on a web page of the International Centre for the Appli-
cation of Solar Energy (www.case.gov.au/complete3.htm) (case n.d.).
For example, the World Spiritual University explored a spiritual response to
poverty in its statement for the 1996 International Year for the Eradication of Poverty,
which emphasized that the interconnected root causes of poverty go beyond material con-
siderations and advised careful consideration of poverty in relationships, spiritual bank-
ruptcy, spiritual causes of poverty, the greed factor, and conditioning and poverty
consciousness. It recommended that solutions to poverty emphasize self-worth, simplic-
ity, creativity, and self-reliance. It saw its role in poverty eradication as planting the seeds
for long-term changes in attitudes, behaviours, and lifestyles through positive-thinking
programs, developing and sharing values, inculcating abilities and responsibilities,
promoting self-reliance–empowerment of the self and community, and encouraging
intellectual development and inner knowledge (www.bkwsu.com/bkun/wit/wit6.html)
(bkwso 1995a).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

translate this purpose into initiatives to improve the socioeconomic
conditions in swadhyayee villages. Swadhyayees, for example, tend com-
munal farms and regard the wealth thus generated as belonging to God,
to be distributed to those in need or to villagers to support their efforts
to become more productive. Any individual, however, only works a few
days a year on any one plot and does this as a form of devotion. The
principle has also been expanded to fruit-tree planting and fishing.
Swadhyaya is credited with teaching equal treatment of individuals,
regardless of sex, caste, class, or faith. It has no formal hierarchy or paid
workers. It does not attempt to convert people away from their pro-
fessed religion; instead, Athavale recommended that the wisdom of
swadhyaya be shared through example and by heart-to-heart or mind-to-
mind discussion (Ekins 1992; Ramashray Roy 1993).


Gandhi and the Sarvodaya Order
The developmental nexus is most pronounced in Mahatma Gandhi’s
ideas espousing “welfare of all” (sarvodaya). This concept–movement
represents a stream of thought developing from the beginning of the
20th century until Gandhi’s assassination in 1948. It propounds a
model of sustainable development as an alternative to the capital-
intensive, industrial paradigm of the West and to the nonparticipatory
communist model, which also set store in expeditious economic growth.
Gandhi preached the participation of people in decision-making and the
decentralization of power to the many villages of India. Gandhi, in his
struggle for a Sarvodaya Order, linked his economic agenda with a non-
violent (ahimsa) struggle for Indian political independence (swaraj). He
made swadeshi (indigenous production and consumption) part of his
overall developmental philosophy.
Gandhi was a self-confessed Hindu, who regularly read the
Bhagavad Gita; as such, he represents a continuity in the Hindu tradi-
tion. He injected the spirit of religion into politics and everything he
did. In Gandhi, the voice of ancient Hinduism found an interpreter who
envisioned the development of India from the bottom up, rather than
from the top down as in conventional development paradigms (Khoshoo
1997b). In fact, his entire approach to development differed from pre-
vailing methodologies that pay no attention to the depletion of the
resource base, ecological imbalances, or the needs of future generations.
Gandhi said, “The earth provides enough for every man’s needs, but not
for every man’s greed” (Khoshoo 1997a, p. 6).
Perhaps it was his adherence to the precepts of Hinduism that led
Gandhi to comprehend and articulate the inextricable link between
social transformation and self-transformation:
This method of self-transformation [Gandhi] called “satyagraha”
and it was characterized by an earnest desire and effort to make
truth, non-violence and justice pervade every aspect of one’s
personality as well as inter-personal transactions. He founded
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ashrams, communities where these principles could be deliberately
practised.
Palshikar (1998, p. 15)
Gandhi was also aware of social marginalization and its effects; he
fought, for example, against untouchability and for the liberation of
women, saying
I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is
their country, in whose making they have an effective voice, an
India in which there is no high class or low class of people, and an
India in which all communities will live in harmony. Women will
enjoy the same rights as men. This is the India of my dreams.
Chowdhry (1994, p. 19)


40 For Gandhi, the charkah (spinning wheel) was symbolic of a proper
perspective on economic development — it should provide a minimum
income and employment to the people at large (Mashruwala 1971). In
that early era of Indian development, theories were not obsessed with
stimulating materialistic wants. The population of India was just one-
third of what it is now, allowing for sustainable levels of economic con-
sumption. Gandhi could envision a good and simple life for the people
of his country.
The Sarvodaya Order proposes that economics be based on renew-
able resources and that power be decentralized to independent, but
interlinked, villages, where employment would be generated through
agriculture and simple crafts. Kamla Chowdhry, in her Mahatma
Gandhi: Lessons for Sustainable Development (1994, p. 19), observed that
“Gandhi’s priorities for development were village development and
village industries. Development to Gandhi was abolition of poverty,
misery and fear.” Gandhi visualized a village society in India in which
all the basic amenities would be available and people would be eco-
nomically self-sufficient but mutually dependent. He saw cities as
“clearinghouses” for village products. Gandhi also believed in making
use of all human waste to produce gas or manure to replenish the Earth
for agriculture.
Gandhi was highly critical of Western-style industrialization,
writing
God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the
manner of the west. The economic imperialism of a single tiny
Island Kingdom is today keeping the world in chains … .
Industrialism is, I am afraid, going to be a curse of mankind.
Industrialism depends entirely on your capacity to exploit.
Khoshoo (1995, p. 33)
Yet, Gandhi was not against machinery per se, only against machinery
designed for the exploitation of people.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

Gandhi wanted to decentralize the state structure and create “fully
participatory village ‘republics’ founded on a non-violent revolution, in
which landlords would voluntarily transfer their property to the people”
(Annan, cited in Starcevic 1998). Gandhi also wrote that “independence
must begin at the bottom … . It follows, therefore, that every village
has to be self sustained and capable of managing its affairs. The
Government of the village will be conducted by the Panchayat (Village
Council)” (Khoshoo 1995, p. 40).
One could say that the special features of the sarvodaya approach
are the following:


National governance accountable to local governance;

Self-sustaining local economies;

Decentralized production system; 


Industry in trusteeship of, and accountable to, the community; and

Secularism as a confluence of all religions.
The desire of Gandhi’s heart was “to wipe every tear from every
eye” by encouraging India to follow its own path of development, tak-
ing into account its own realities, its own people, and its own culture.
Although Nehru agreed with Gandhi that certain objectives, like
sufficient food, clothing, housing, and education, were the minimum
requirements for the country and all its citizens, he wanted to attain
these objectives “speedily.” “Speedily to Nehru meant modernization,
industrialization, building of big dams, establishing institutional infra-
structure for science and technology. In other words catching up with
the West, for, according to Nehru there was no way out but to have
them” (Chowdhry 1994, p. 19). After Gandhi’s death, therefore, India
embarked on a development strategy very different from the one he had
envisaged.
Nehru’s approach to development has been the credo for more than
five decades in India. His development strategy undoubtedly brought
about very impressive progress in many directions, but it also led to
many failures. Chowdhry (1994, p. 23) pointed out that these strategies
neglected issues such as “rural poverty, primary education and illiteracy,
unemployment, increasing inequalities and women’s drudgery.” She
went on to explain that widening disparities in income and consumption
were causing social and political unrest, widespread corruption, and the
decay of the social fabric. We cannot say with certainty that Gandhi’s
approach would have played itself out more positively and successfully,
but we can see certain results of the Gandhian approach, such as the
effects on the 8 600 villages adopted by the well-respected Sri Lankan
Sarvodaya Shramadana movement. Moreover, his thinking has influenced
some of the most important social-justice and environmental movements
in India. Some examples of these movements are described below.
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The contemporary environmental movement in India
The contemporary environmental movement in India started with the
Chipko Andolan in April 1973. From the Chipko Andolan to the
Narmada Bachao Andolan, environmental activists have relied heavily
on Gandhian techniques of nonviolent protest and sarvodaya philosophy,
as well as drawing abundantly on Gandhi’s polemic against heavy indus-
trialization. Some of the movement’s better known figures — for
example, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Baba Amte, and
Medha Patkar — have repeatedly emphasized their debt to Gandhi
(Guha 1993). Other influences on the Indian environmental movement
include Marxism (in Kerala), socialism, liberation theology, and the self-
help traditions.


42 The organizations participating in the environmental movement
in India demonstrate an interesting amalgamation of modern scientific
technique and traditional motivation. Take, for example, the Sankat
Mochan Foundation. The head of this Varanasi-based institution is Pro-
fessor Veer Bhadra Mishra, a priest of the Sankat Mochan Temple and a
professor of hydraulic engineering at Benares University. He is con-
vinced that science and religion have to mesh if India is to clean and
save the river Ganges. He says, “Life is like a stream. One bank is the
‘Vedas’ and the other bank is the contemporary world, including its sci-
ence and technology. If both banks are not firm the water will scatter. If
both banks are firm the river will run its course” (Chowdhry 1998).
Other participants in this movement also seem to display a firm
awareness of the interconnection of spiritual, environmental, social-
justice, and economic concerns and their solutions. Ramchandra Guha
is a professor, sociologist, and historian; his work has focused on histor-
ical and present-day interactions between humans and the natural envi-
ronment. In a lecture on Gandhi and the environmental movement
(Guha 1993), he commented on Gandhi’s approaches and those of two
well-known followers — Kumarappa and Mira Behn — who had
applied Gandhi’s ideas to environmental questions. Guha (1993, p. 9)
noted that “at the level of the individual, Gandhi’s code of voluntary
simplicity offers a sustainable alternative to modern life styles.” Guha
also commented that Behn’s primary concern, like that of Gandhi and
Kumarappa,24 “was with rehabilitating the village economy of India.”
And Kumarappa himself stated that “forest management should be
guided not by considerations of revenue but by the needs of the people”
(Guha 1993, pp. 11–13).

See The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence
(Kumarappa 1984 [1948]).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The women’s movement
In India, the women’s movement started in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Unlike the women’s liberation movement in the West, which
adopted a militant stance and often took an adversarial posture toward
the opposite sex, in India the women’s movement was the creation of
social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwarchandra Vidya Sagar,
Keshav Chandra Sen, Dayanand Sarasvati, and Maharishi Karve —
almost all of them men. It started as a fight against social injustice suf-
fered by women, the dominant-male–inferior-female mind-set, and
social customs such as sati, the ill-treatment of widows, the custom of
demanding a dowry, and female infanticide. Lord William Bentick,
Anne Besant, and Margaret Cousins were some of the foreigners who


actively supported the first phase of the women’s movement in India. 43
The relevant issues were also taken up by pioneer women’s organiza-
tions, like the All India Women’s Conference. This phase was marked
by an overall, middle-class urban leadership.
In the preindependence period, the drive for women’s rights was
very much a part of the nationalist movement. Mahatma Gandhi
brought masses of women from behind the four walls of their homes to
take part in the struggle for freedom. He encouraged them to be part-
ners in the endeavour to gain India’s independence. He supported
women’s equality and recognized their potential to advance the coun-
try’s development.
After independence, the Indian Constitution guaranteed women’s
equality, and India established autonomous bodies like the Social Wel-
fare Board. It was felt that welfare-oriented programs for women would
ensure gender equality. The emphasis in government policies was on
women’s welfare: women were to be the passive beneficiaries of this sup-
port. And for almost two decades, the women’s movement was inactive.
These decades were marked by apathy toward women’s issues and a gen-
eral attitude of acquiescence (Desai 1988).
During the 1960s, women did not become involved in the politi-
cal arena for women’s issues specifically, yet they participated in large
numbers in the general struggle to improve the conditions of the rural
poor and indigenous peoples, as well as participating in other mass
movements, like the Chipko Andolin. This participation definitely pro-
vided a backdrop for later struggles focused on women’s issues. The
declaration of International Women’s Year and of the Decade of
Women, the creation of the National Committee on the Status of
Women in India, and the submission of its report in 1974 provided
leverage to the women’s movement in India. These factors also
contributed to the emergence of some autonomous organizations (for
example, the Self-employed Women’s Association, in 1972; the Rural
Development Society, in 1976; and the Centre for Women’s
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Development Studies, in 1980) and the revitalization of some main-
stream organizations.
With the National Committee on the Status of Women in the
1970s and the propagation of the government’s sixth five-year plan
(1980–85), the focus of the movement shifted from social welfare to the
developmental activities of women. Many women’s organizations con-
centrated on issues in education, economic independence, and health,
emphasizing women’s participation in all these developmental activi-
ties. The first three World Conferences on Women addressed the themes
of equality, development, and peace, respectively. At the Fourth World
Conference on Women, in Beijing in 1995, the emphasis was on
women’s rights as human rights and on the introduction of the concept
of a “partnership” of men and women in development. The Fourth


44 World Conference on Women chalked out a Plan of Action for achiev-
ing the goals of women’s equality, development, and peace and for
ensuring that all participating nations would be committed to this plan.
The focus of the women’s movement then shifted to women’s empower-
ment and women’s equal participation in all decision-making and
developmental activities. Yet, despite national- and international-level
efforts to achieve the goals of women’s equality and development, these
goals are far from being achieved.
Women’s development and empowerment are imperative for
nationally and globally integrated development. I feel that to make this
a reality, we must collectively work for the transformation of the psyche
and consciousness of men, women, and society, which would involve
awakening the spiritual powers for the conversion of the heart and
mind. As suggested in the book A Global Ethic (Kung and Kuschel
1993), all men and women need to make a commitment to a culture of
equal human rights and obligations, a culture based on human, spiri-
tual, and religious ethical principles and a common ethic of mutual
understanding, peace, and Earth-friendly ways of life.

Hindu resources for an integrated development
Religion can help development by encouraging the spirit of service
and sacrifice; by showing ways to attain the Truth … and by
improving the quality of life for all. The Hindu religion gives the
exalted ideals of Atman — self — to everyone and that through the
awakening and realisation of the self, one could achieve success and
development in every field.
Muktinathananda (personal communication, 199825)
Hinduism brings a holistic approach to development, because it does
not concentrate simply on the question of economic well-being but also
incorporates ideals of spiritual and sociopsychological satisfaction. In
Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal
communication, 1998.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

the book Bhagavad Gita and Contemporary Crisis, the great Vedic scholar
Kireet Joshi (1996) pointed out how our modern culture looks on a
person first and foremost as an economic agent. Even attitudes are
conditioned by the demands and needs of the economic imperative.
Modern culture has developed the science of material life but neglected
the science of self-control and self-discipline and, as a result, cannot pre-
sent remedies for the crises of violence affecting individuals, societies,
and nations from time to time. We are gradually becoming dehuman-
ized because we do not have the leisure to grow inwardly (Joshi 1996).
As Joshi (1996, p. 8) further emphasized, “We need the knowl-
edge of what is within us, beyond our economic being, beyond our
physical, vital, mental and intellectual faculties. We need to know if
there is a source of peace and tranquility … free from turbulence of hur-


ried struggle [and competition].” The Gita, in a practical manner, 45
unites knowledge, action, and the third crowning element in the soul’s
completeness, divine love and devotion;26 the jnana, karma, and bhakti
yogas provide interrelated paths to this self-realization. Wisdom such as
this can solve the contemporary crisis of personal, and socioeconomic,
and spiritual development (Joshi 1996).
Thus, life for a Hindu is basically meant to be a spiritual journey.
When development becomes merely a means to fight off hunger and
disease, without encompassing the spiritual dimension, then to that
extent it fails to provide the essential fuel of enthusiasm and hope. The
contemporary discourse of development is geared toward the physical,
without incorporating any idea of what lies beyond the attainment of
plenty. The notion of sustainability has gained credence, to my mind,
because it addresses this imbalance.
This spiritual dimension is most evident in the fourth of life’s aims
in Hinduism — moksha. Ultimately, all life action and development
activities must lead to spiritual liberation, even as they create better
economic conditions and release us from physical pain and disease.
Development efforts must create, or at least not suppress, conditions
that provide intellectual and spiritual satisfaction; “development”
should not be thankless toil — in the sense of working under compul-
sion — for one’s own material gains. Yet, despite Hinduism’s spiritual
orientation, it is not entirely otherworldly. Hinduism acknowledges the
need for people to appropriately enjoy the mind, spirit, body, and
senses, in its idea of kama; and economic accomplishment, in its idea of
artha — both kama and artha are included in life’s goals. As Danesh
Joshi (1991, p. 20) pointed out that “in practical terms the veda prescribes that
every action of man should be sacrifice offered by him to higher and higher forces and
beings, to the devas and ultimately to the Supreme Being itself. … It is, in fact, in the
Gita that we find a comprehensive and abundant exposition of the principle of sacrifice
[not ritualistic sacrifice] and of the method of performing actions as a sacrifice to the
Divine.” It is this approach that is needed for self-development and holistic socioeconomic
and ecological development.
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(1993) stated in his examination of the psychology of spirituality, the
living person requires this integration, because the true nature of a
human being is in the total unity of the two distinctive expressions of
reality — the material and the spiritual. To achieve individual self-
transformation or self-development — and this must precede the trans-
formation or development of others and broader society — it is essential
that the individual work simultaneously at both levels of reality
(Danesh 1993).
Looking at the situation in India today, I see that uninhibited
materialism has certainly increased among the affluent classes since
economic globalization made its recent appearance. In addition to pro-
moting a consumeristic paradigm of economic development, globaliza-
tion has been lopsided: it caters to those who are already privileged,


46 making them richer. Moreover, it marginalizes the poor, the weak, and
the underprivileged, categories that often include a disproportionate
number of women. Although globalization “reduces” the geographic
distance through efficient communication technologies and trade net-
works, it concurrently increases socioeconomic distance and disparity. In
India, it is felt that globalization adversely affects people’s human rights
and lures them away from their culture.
According to Hassija (1991, 1998), unless people retain the abil-
ity to look inward, globalization will unleash bitter competition, stark
materialism, commercialism, and the disintegration of the human and
spiritual values of world unity, compassion, and cooperation. These
effects of globalization would not only destabilize financial markets but
also create disharmony in social and human relations. As such, global-
ization in business and trade without globalization of spiritual values
will create imbalance and tension in the world order. Hassija (1998,
p. 2) suggested that “a happy blend of economics and spirituality —
both based on values — is necessary.”
Hindu beliefs and religion certainly caution against uninhibited
consumerism and materialism. I feel that a greater emphasis on limit-
ing human wants and on the ideology of simple living and high think-
ing could counterbalance today’s consumerist ideology. The approach
and concept of the Sarvodaya Order, for example — which provides an
outline of the voluntary limitation of human wants — can certainly
help temper unmitigated consumerism, materialism, and hedonism. I
feel that Gandhi could become an important symbol in the fight against
the present-day consumer ideology and the violence it nurtures.
Gandhi’s principles also provide us with another important
resource for integrated development: ahimsa (nonviolence), an ancient
Hindu principle that mandates noninjury of others in thought, word,
and deed. One of the central principles of Mahatma Gandhi in his move-
ment against the colonial British powers was nonviolence, which he
adopted as a personal credo and preached to the Indian people. A truly
nonviolent person will not retaliate with violence, even in self-defence.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

The concept of nonviolence is found throughout Indian religious tradi-
tions, and it is especially emphasized in Buddhism and Jainism.
Hinduism also brings to the paradigm of development the idea
that all life in the cosmos is interrelated and interwoven — a firm spir-
itual basis for ecological balance and protection of the environment. In
the Isho Upanishad, for example, we read the following:
The whole universe with its creatures belongs to the Lord (Nature).
No creature is superior to any other, and the human being should
not have absolute power over Nature. Let no species encroach upon
the rights and privileges of other species. However one can enjoy
the bounties of Nature by giving up greed.
Khoshoo (1995, p. 13)
Kumar (1997) remarked that at the centre of the Vedic vision is


the human–nature relationship, as articulated in sacred incantations and 47
rituals that repeatedly remind us of the need to sustain the ecological
balance of nature. The “Bhumisukta” of the Atharvaveda (12.1.35 is one
of the most important sources of information on the relationship of
humans to their environment and their duty to preserve it. In this
hymn, the seer Atharvan presents a beautiful picture of Mother Earth as
the basis of our sustenance and a symbol for the entire environment:
Whatever I dig from thee, O Mother Earth
May it have quick growth again!
Purifier, We may not injure thy vitals or thy heart.
Quoted in Kumar (1997, p. 6)
The holism practiced in Hinduism has other ramifications for the
environment. The current paradigm defines sustainable development as
development that meets the current generation’s needs without com-
promising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
(wced 1987). The problem is that one nation’s sustainability very often
comes at the cost of another’s resources. We have no “world sustainable-
growth model” that takes into account even the poorest nation. With
Gandhi’s sarvodaya approach, the notion of sustainability would involve
all the nations of the world, not just the countries of the North in iso-
lation from those of the South. In an increasingly individualistic world,
this all-encompassing concept of sustainable development could be very
difficult to comprehend, accept, and act on.
But the chief influence of Hindu belief in promoting integrated
development, I believe, would be a deep-rooted belief in God and in the
notion that we are all children of the same father, in the Oneness of the
universe, in the potential divinity and immortality of the soul, and in
spiritual values. The approach of the Hindus is to insist that develop-
ment have a conscience. This is encoded in the idea of dharma, wherein
all action, including development interventions, must be weighed
carefully in terms of an altruistic concern for village, region, nation, and
all other countries on the globe; all actions must be weighed holistically.
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According to Hindu belief, developmental efforts must incorporate the
spiritual welfare of the entire beneficiary population and, indeed, any-
one who would be affected by it. Development should not come at the
cost of exploiting the resources in other countries at cheap rates, dis-
placing marginalized populations, and living extravagantly at the ulti-
mate expense of others, for Hinduism conceives of the world as a global
family. The idea of a global family is essentially a religious one, found
in Hinduism and other traditions. The percolation of this idea into the
psyche of development practitioners might change the insidiously
exploitative bent of 20th-century development.27

Where today’s Hinduism and development meet:


48 the promise reappraised
I now turn to the question of how today’s Hinduism can be incorporated
into the idea of sustainable development. Agreeing with Einstein’s
observation about how peace can be brought to the world, Chowdhry
(1994, p. 33) wrote that “the problem of peace, as well as that of sus-
tainable development and environmental concerns, will only be solved
by employing Gandhi’s method on a large scale.” Echoes of Gandhi’s
voice seem to be emerging even from institutions such as the World
Bank. After visiting some 25 countries, the World Bank’s president,
James Wolfensohn, said these visits had brought home to him that the
“World Bank’s central mission is to weld economic assistance with spir-
itual, ethical and moral development” (Chowdhry 1996, p. 10). Some
recent World Bank initiatives (known as the World Faiths and Devel-
opment Dialogue), in which the Bank met with leaders of nine world
faiths to broaden opportunities for a base of common understanding and
action in tackling global poverty, may raise suspicions among Bank crit-
ics, but they suggest that the Bank is at least trying to make good on
Wolfensohn’s insight.
Development experts, like Kamla Chowdhry, Ashok Khosla, and
S.K. Sharma, and religious leaders, like Swami Muktinathananda,28
It must be admitted, however, that many religions and many religious leaders talk
about love, compassion, and altruism; they say there should be equity, cooperation, and
the absence of force and violence. Yet, for centuries and centuries this message, which is
both simple and profound, does not seem to have percolated very deeply into the human
psyche. Instead of Ram Rajya (Rule of Virtue and Truth) and the Kingdom of Heaven, we
have seen endless wars backed by religious jingoism. It would be safe to say that love and
compassion, though widely preached, are concepts not widely understood or practiced in
their truest sense.
Swami Muktinathananda observed that science can help development in the fol-
lowing ways: (1) by providing adequate knowledge to remove ignorance and superstition;
(2) by adding to the happiness of human beings through the removal of disease, poverty,
and want; (3) by providing technological means to enhance lifestyles; and (4) by reducing
destructive items and by not adding to the already existing ones (Swami Mukti-
nathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal communication, 1998).
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

agree that sustainable development needs technology and science to
solve its problems. Yet, they also feel that this relationship should be
subject, in Chowdhry’s words, to the condition that it also be accompa-
nied by public awareness, political action, and a way to ignite the moral
and ethical values of the Indian heritage and psyche. Chowdhry further
suggested that we should start with a new paradigm of development,
which she described as “a people-led development, an alternative devel-
opment, a development which is ‘pro-poor, pro-nature and pro-women’,
not borrowed development” (Chowdhry 1994, p. 37). She also summed
up the elements involved in sustainable development:
Eradication of hunger and poverty is not merely an intellectual
exercise of science, technology or economics, but also involves an
inner change. To alter the system, it is necessary to alter the para-


digm of development, and to take cognisance of the spiritual, of the 49
inner voice, of the ethics and values that promote sustainable
development.
Chowdhry (1996, p. 11)
Khosla, founder of the ngo called Development Alternatives, and
Sharma, founder of the ngo called People First, observed that technol-
ogy can change lifestyles but does not usually change the quality of
human existence.29 The goal, they emphasized, should be to realize a
sustainable society in which people work toward attaining a high level
of human and spiritual development. In their opinion, this society could
be achieved by combining Gandhian ideology (based on the Indian
ethos and tradition of grass-roots democracy) and contemporary West-
ern democratic experience.
The experience of 50 years of independence in India has shown us
that borrowed models of development do not work. The mindless imi-
tation of Western models by developing nations has led to all kinds of
environmental disasters (Siddhartha 1998) and social malaise. When
formulating and implementing an indigenous paradigm of develop-
ment based on the Gandhian model, we have to understand and take
into account the social, cultural, ethical, and spiritual background and
values of the people concerned. Khoshoo (1997a) stated that this model
of development aims at building local self-reliance and self-respect in
villagers, alleviating poverty, and striving for social justice. He wrote
that the need for a “creative synthesis” of the Gandhian and Nehruvian
(or Western) models is imperative because the Gandhian model leads to
decentralized economic planning — an economy of permanence —
whereas the Nehruvian model of industrial economy runs the danger of
making the rich richer and the poor poorer (Khoshoo 1997a). We need
to appropriately blend tradition and modernity, religion and science in

More information about Development Alternatives can be found at www.ecouncil.ac.cr
/devalt/damain.htm; and about People First, at www.ecouncil.ac.cr/devalt/peoplef.htm.
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such a way that human-made capital does not become destructive of the
natural capital needed for development (Khoshoo 1997a).
These realizations are also manifesting themselves outside India as
international development agencies like the United Nations Develop-
ment Programme (undp) discard or revamp many of their old concepts
of development. Chowdhry (1994) felt that their focus on participatory
approaches in the last decade means that these organizations are moving
more toward a Gandhian-like focus on people. She pointed to undp ’s
use of phrases like “men, women and children must be the centre of
attention,” development strategies are “to be woven around people and
not people around development,” and “the durable solution to today’s
problems of poverty, unemployment, social disintegration and environ-


mental deterioration cannot be achieved through just more develop-
ment of the past kind” (Chowdhry 1994, p. 23).
Chowdhry’s point is well-taken. The undp’s Human Development
Report 1993 offers some indications of this change in approach. The
report calls for
new models of sustainable human development [to] invest in
human potential and to create an enabling environment for the full
use of human capabilities. … The purpose of development is to
widen the range of people’s choices. Income is one of those choices —
but it is not the sum-total of human life. Human development is
development of the people for the people by the people.
undp (1993, p. 3, emphasis in the original)

At the end of the overview, the report notes,
The implications of placing people at the centre of political and eco-
nomic change are profound. They challenge traditional concepts of
security, old models of development, ideological debates on the role
of the market and outmoded forms of international cooperation.
They call for nothing less than a revolution in our thinking.
undp (1993, p. 8)

These words give me hope that international agencies are open to
new ideas, that is, to hearing what experience has been telling them, but
I am left to wonder how this emphasis on “people centredness” will
manifest itself without a more explicit focus on spiritual principles. Are
the challenges of tapping into creativity, distributing benefits justly,
and providing equal access to opportunities (undp 1993) not, in the
final analysis, asking what motivates people to act and (perhaps more
important) to act compassionately? And does that question not require
us to ask what is at the centre of ourselves?
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

CONCLUSION: AN INTEGRATED PARADIGM

The Hindu religion stands for the good of humanity — social, cul-
tural, moral and spiritual. Development and science are related to
Hinduism in this sense: the ideal of benefiting humanity in all ways
possible.
Thus it is the paradigm of development in which there is a
synthesis of the two complementary disciplines — science and reli-
gion — being used for the well being of self and society, that will
produce fully integrated and developed human beings, and would
bring about holistic development — physical, economic, social,
environmental, moral, and spiritual.
Muktinathananda (personal communication, 199830)


Tremendous confusion surrounds the question of whether science and
religion have a meeting point and, if so, what its precise nature is.31 The
general perception in the Hindu world, today, apart from some of the
intelligentsia, is that there is no connection, or at best a tenuous one.
The relationship between science and development is well accepted, but
the nexus between religion, economic development, and the role of
science seems to many very vague.
The way forward for the Hindu world as it faces the next century
is, I believe, to integrate science and religion, broadly speaking, in all
spheres of life; development is a process that seeks to sustain and
improve human life and well-being and, as such, needs to understand,
incorporate, and implement the strengths of both discourses. Religion
provides, for example, access to the inner being — human hopes, goals,
and motivations — the place from whence all action stems. It provides
insight into thousands of years of experience and experiment with how
to live a fulfilling and balanced human life. Equally important, science
Swami Muktinathananda, Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Calcutta, India, personal
communication, 1998.
Among the religionists and the scientists in India, one encounters various per-
spectives on the convergence of science and religion. An informal survey based on struc-
tured conversations with a cross-section of employees at various levels at a New Delhi
university indicates that many Hindus approach the question from the perspective that
both science and religion are made by God (expressed as Bhagwan, Ishwara, Sri Krishna,
or Ram). Nothing God made can be bad, but humankind has made use of both science
and religion in negative ways. I found that many informants thought of science in terms
of the help it can provide in enhancing daily life, whereas the role of religion was to incul-
cate faith in God and encourage people to do good deeds to improve present and future
lives and to accept one’s conditions in the present life. Some pointed out that science
would ultimately “prove” the findings of religion, and people had a strong bias in favour
of religion as the primary source of any lasting spiritual benefits. For many Hindus,
science is “Godless” and “atheistic,” whereas religion has the concept of a transcendent
Ultimate Reality. Certain knowledgeable persons among the sample insisted that the
world could advance only if science recognized the validity of religion, rather than treat-
ing it as an aberration or an elaborate superstition.
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provides both insight into the workings of the outer world and the
means to effect change in that world.
One way to bring about such integration at the personal, commu-
nity, national, and international levels is to provide for a much broader
dissemination and much better understanding of the spiritual compo-
nent of the scriptures and holy texts so as to help make them relevant to
today’s issues. We should gradually reduce obsessive rituals, ceremonies,
and festivals. We should work to do away with the misuse of science and
religion for selfish gains, along with the obsession with economic and
political power for personal aggrandizement and ill-gotten fame. With
the help of modern s&t and the media, the cardinal principles of Vedanta
can, through proper understanding, practice, and dissemination, change
the attitudes and behaviour of the masses of people and revive the human


52 and spiritual values of mutual love, respect, and sharing and caring.
Above, I discussed the problems of the unequal division of wealth
and distribution of resources. In India, however, one cannot ignore pop-
ulation growth as one of the biggest problems standing in the way of
socioeconomic development. Every year, the population of India grows
at almost the same rate as the economy, thus negating whatever positive
effect new economic growth might have on poverty, unemployment, or
related problems. Indian demographers and economists have been work-
ing on population control with considerable success in some states, such
as Kerala, but with little success in others. The varnaashram system
(described earlier) divides human life into four stages and prescribes
celibacy before marriage, moderate sexual indulgence within marriage,
and complete marital fidelity. I feel that reviving the varnaashram
scheme might provide guidance and part of a solution to the population
problem, as well as to the problem of hiv–aids. In addition, education
for girls and women, as well as for boys and men, with the consequent
employment potential that it creates, would be one of the key factors in
controlling population growth.
Along with education and awareness, what is acutely needed is
change, through formal and informal mass media, in the attitudes of all
members of society toward girls and women. In this way, Indian society
can work (as so many societies need to work) to become female positive
and egalitarian, that is, to empower women and girls and to improve
their status.
I strongly feel that we cannot pursue and achieve development
without the integrated development of women, who after all constitute
half the world’s population. We must, for this reason, increase, imple-
ment, and realize the measures already being undertaken all over the
world for women’s development and empowerment. For these efforts,
we can take inspiration and guidance from the spiritual texts of other
faiths, such as those of the Bahá’í Faith, in which one can find the fol-
lowing: “The world of humanity has two wings — one is woman and
the other man. Not until both wings are equally developed can the Bird
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

fly. Should one wing remain weak, flight is impossible” (bpt 1994,
p. 11). Here again, I feel that regenerating ancient Vedic values of
gender equality and equity would be of great help in improving the
situation of women.32 Metaphors for an approach to equality could be
derived from the depiction of the gods and their consorts together in
Indian religious culture. The consorts are worshipped along with the
gods, and, during rituals, prayers, and devotional songs, the names of
the consorts are often used first (for example, Radha–Krishna,
Sita–Ram, Parvati–Shankar, and Lakshmi–Narayan). The symbol of
Ardhnareshwar — the god Shiva as half male and half female — also
indicates that men and women should have the same status in society.
The most important task for the Hindu community (and for the
other great faiths) is to evolve a national syllabus for education that


includes spiritual factors. In presenting Vivekananda’s ideas about edu- 53
cation and religion, Bhajanananda wrote that the purpose of education
is to make humans. With that purpose, religion and spirituality sit at
the innermost core of education and should be a core subject.
Vivekananda strongly felt that the purpose of education is not merely to
provide information but also to impart knowledge and wisdom, “by
which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is
expanding, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet” and face the
problems of life (Bhajanananda 1976–77, p.39). Of course, education
should also take up internationally important issues in science, religion,
spirituality, and development and add lessons on the nexus among
them. Education has the twin responsibility of equipping people with
the latest technical skills to enable them to become economically inde-
pendent and providing them with the relevant spiritual and moral
strengths to enable them to improve the world in which they live (for
example, by making them aware of the thoughts and insights of spiri-
tual masters, scientists, and philosophers).
Education should build capacity and character, self-confidence,
and the ability to manifest for self- and social transformation the poten-
tial divinity that is in each of us. Educators can accomplish these goals
by conveying to students the principles and elements of religion (along
with its inherent human and spiritual values) through stories, parables,
and the life stories of religious masters and divine messengers. Accom-
panying this should be instruction in the scientific techniques of
concentration and yogic meditation. These ideas have been in circula-
tion for some time now, variously articulated by scholars such as Kireet
Certain contemporary Hindu sects also provide inspiration for female equality and
equity. Take, for instance, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, which is run
by and caters mainly to women and provides knowledge about the Creator and creation.
It asks questions such as, Who am I? Who is God? What is the world? It preaches spiri-
tuality, promotes universal values of life, and teaches Rajyoga meditation for the better-
ment of self, others, and the universe. It also preaches celibacy and purity of mind, body,
and soul.
KAPUR

Joshi and institutions like Aurobindo Ashram. But until these ideas
gain currency in the formal and informal education systems, they will
have little therapeutic effect on the psyche of humankind or do little to
bring about the needed development. I feel it is important to go back
and remember that source of guidance — God — and have religious
faith, because that is what ultimately empowers people.
After all, in the final analysis, development involves changing
people’s psyche and behaviour, for it is people who are behind all the
planning and execution of development paradigms and it is people who
are intended to benefit from them. And I believe that people cannot be
fundamentally changed unless they receive divine guidance or wisdom,
whether through holy scriptures or through the writings of divine mes-
sengers, such as Bahá’u’lláh, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammad, or


54 Guru Nanak. Global unity begins with a global mind; the best way to
think globally is to at least have a working knowledge of religions, East-
ern and Western. Only religion and spirituality — as approaches that
strive after the ultimate realization of truth — will provide the guid-
ance and inspiration human beings require to rise above the instincts of
retaliation and unmitigated self-interest and to solve their problems
with dignity and nonviolence, recognizing contributions from all cul-
tures, particularly indigenous ones. Obviously, this is easier said than
done, as vested interests support the current system and many people
wish to live for themselves, even at the cost of future generations. Thus,
science and religion have to create a more balanced development in
which people seriously consider the consequences of their lifestyles for
future generations.
I would like to conclude this piece with the words of Swami
Jitatmananda (1997, p. 11): “Truth Unites. Newton’s laws of motion or
Einstein’s Relativity is common to all humanity. Universal truths of all
religions, compatible with reason, will unite humanity.” Jitatmananda
(1997, p. 10) draws his model for a new society, based on practical
Vedanta, from Vivekananda’s words to European scholar Jules Bios: “[It
will be] a successful “Superior Fusion” of Brahmin’s spiritual culture
with Kshtriya’s administrative efficiency, Vaisaya’s wealth-generating
capacity, and Shudra’s dignified dedication to all labour, as service to
mankind.” Jitatmananda also clarified the changes that could be made
at an individual level:
Acceptance of the spiritual and holistic values by today’s high-tech
econo-socio experts like scientists, technicians, industrialists, man-
agers or state leaders will help us to create complete human beings
equally enriched with the higher excellence of Western science,
technology, the Western dynamism, and organisation, along with
Eastern spiritual vision of the infinite capacity and excellence hid-
den within each individual. The ultimate success, and wealth, as the
Bhagavad Gita asserts, are available through a holistic living for all.
Jitatmananda (1997, pp. 10–11)
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

I strongly feel that the existing development paradigm, with its
overemphasis on economic development and scientific–technological
achievement, should be balanced with the critically examined concepts
and values of religion. Thus, the empowerment of marginalized peoples
and the creation of a just society, which should be the goals of any inte-
grated development paradigm, could be brought about through educa-
tion and individual and societal synthesis of science and religion, the
cardinal elements of which are universal in nature.

ANNEX 1:
SELECTED ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF


HINDUISM-INSPIRED MOVEMENTS FOR DEVELOPMENT 55

The ethical guiding principles of the movements discussed in the text
can be synthesized into some basic premises that help to elucidate the
principles of ethical action in Hinduism:
1. God is incorporeal, eternal, omnipotent, all intelligent, all compas-
sionate, all truth, love, beauty, and bliss, the creator of the universe.
2. The ancient scriptures of India — the Vedas, the Upanishads, and
the Bhagavad Gita — are sources of the true knowledge, the high-
est truth, and a guide to living. They should be studied, lived, and
taught to all.
3. The power of love and necessity of world unity are paramount,
because we are all children of the same Supreme Power.
4. The principles of a good life include work, worship, and selfless
service to humanity — including physical, mental, social, moral,
and spiritual improvement — especially for the benefit of women
and the weaker segments of society.
5. Humans should cultivate a constant remembrance of God.
6. Humans should inculcate in themselves divine qualities by acquir-
ing wisdom through spiritual–religious study, education, and
prayer.
7. Humans should work to improve and care for both their inner and
their outer environments.
8. Humans should work to bring about communal and interfaith
harmony.
9. Humans should practice nondiscrimination, refusing to discrimi-
nate on the basis of caste, class, sex, race, creed, or religion.
KAPUR

10. Humans should accept the concept of the world as one family and
live and practice in accordance with this principle.
11. Humans should work for the welfare and well-being of all.
Humans should live at peace with themselves and their fellow
beings.
12. Humans should work to bring aid and solace to less-privileged
people in an altruistic spirit.
13. Humans should act according to the idea that an inherent divin-
ity exists in all life and within each one of us. We are all equally
worthy human beings. There is a fundamental unity in diversity.
14. Humans should not cause suffering to anyone.


15. Humans should devote themselves to truth and nonviolence in
thoughts, words, and action.
16. Humans should proceed with their actions without expecting spe-
cific fruits or benefits from them.
17. Humans should carry out their duties toward themselves and oth-
ers; it is through duty that a human reaches perfection.
18. Humans should be guided by the principle that our present life is
the result of our good or bad actions in the past and that our pre-
sent conduct moulds our future lives.
19. Humans should know their human rights and responsibilities and
respect those of others, treating others as they would like to be
treated themselves.
20. Humans should be guided in their conduct by the principles of
love, respect, righteousness, justice, equity, equality, and service
toward one and all.
21. Humans should limit their wants and needs and thereby live a
simple life without exaggerated materialistic desires.
22. Humans should work constantly and seek wealth but share it with
those in need; riches are but the means to do good and should not
become the goal of life.
23. Humans should pursue the aims of becoming good human beings
and help others in their efforts to do the same.
T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U N D A M E N TA L O N E N E S S

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APPENDIX 1

Contributing
Authors

Farzam Arbab
Farzam Arbab’s doctorate in theoretical particle physics led him to
Colombia to work with the University Development Program of the
Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen the Department of Physics at the
Universidad del Valle. While there he began to study the relationship
between science, technology, and educational policy and their effects on
development, which led him and a group of colleagues to form the Fun-
dación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias (Foundation for
the Application and Teaching of Science). This organization still func-
tions as a successful development program in Colombia and has earned
an international reputation for its application of spiritual principles in
education and development. In 1993, Dr Arbab was elected to the inter-
national governing body of the Bahá’í Faith, on which he currently
serves.
Azizan Baharuddin
Dr Baharuddin’s degrees in biology and the history and philosophy of
science allowed her to pursue her interest in the relationship between
Islam and science. Her research interests and teaching areas include the
history and philosophy of science; science and religion; ethics, environ-
mental ethics, and bioethics; gender studies and human development;
and futures studies. She has written various publications on the issues of
science and faith and ethics and the environment. Dr Baharuddin is an
associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology Stud-


ies at the University of Malaya. 247
APPENDIX 1

Gregory Baum
With degrees in mathematics, sociology, and Catholic theology,
Dr Baum has for 40 years been a professor of theology and religious
studies. He currently teaches religious studies at McGill University in
Montréal, Quebec. He has written more than 20 books on ethics and
economics, solidarity, and various approaches to social justice within the
Christian churches. He is a member of the Karl Polanyi Institute at
Concordia University and was a member of a research team on environ-
mental ethics at Université du Québec à Montréal. He is also an officer
of the Order of Canada.
Pierre Beemans
Pierre Beemans has degrees in education and philosophy and has worked
in the field of international development for more than 30 years, includ-

ing living and working for extensive periods in Latin America and
Africa. He has held both field and management positions with cuso and
the Canadian International Development Agency and was for 3 years a
policy adviser in the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada.
Since 1992, he has been Vice-President, Corporate Services Branch, of
the International Development Research Centre.
Sharon Harper
Her degrees in journalism, law, and theology led Sharon Harper to seek
a position that would allow her to explore the scriptures and practice of
the world’s religions and their manifestations, roles, and effects in the
public sphere. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School, she
became the project officer for the International Development Research
Centre’s Science, Religion, and Development project. She is a lawyer
and legal researcher with experience in human-rights and discrimina-
tion issues, both domestic and international; an experienced writer and
editor; and a program manager who is knowledgeable about mediation
and arbitration techniques, issues of gender and research for develop-
ment, and feminist ethics and epistemologies.
Promilla Kapur
With degrees in psychology and sociology, Dr Kapur has worked as a
researcher, teacher of sociology, and counselor–therapist for more than
30 years. She specializes in the sociology of women, family, and mar-
riage and has done extensive empirical research on women, adolescents
and girl children, working women, family violence, and sex workers.
She has published extensively in these areas, with books in English,
Hindi, and Japanese. She has been a student of Indian culture, Hinduism,
interfaith dialogue, and integrated human development. Since 1984 she
has been the director of the Integrated Human Development Services
Foundation, a charitable organization providing counseling and crisis
intervention based on the principle of whole health, which includes
human and spiritual values. She has been honoured by the British
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

International Biographical Centre, the American Biographical Institute,
and the All India Conference of Intellectuals.
William Ryan, S.J.
Dr Ryan entered the Jesuit Order in 1944 and was ordained into the
priesthood in 1957. He has an ma in labour relations and a PhD in eco-
nomics from Harvard University and has been very active in Canada and
the United States thinking, writing, and organizing around social-
justice, ethics, and economic issues. He was the founding director of the
Center of Concern (Washington, dc) and has been a senior research fel-
low at the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security and
held the chair in Social Faith and Justice at St Paul University in
Ottawa. He is the director of the Jesuit Project on Ethics in Politics in
Ottawa and was recently appointed coordinator of the Jesuit Centre for

Social Faith and Justice. Dr Ryan is the author of many articles and lec-
tures on multinational corporations and the new international economic
order, the poor, the relationships between faith and social justice and
between faith and culture, and the role of religious people in socioeco-
nomic change. He has been working with the Science, Religion, and
Development project since its inception in 1993.
APPENDIX 2

Acronyms and
Abbreviations

cswr Center for the Study of World Religions
dav Dayanand Anglo Vedic
fundaec Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las
Ciencias (Foundation for the Application and Teaching
of the Sciences) [Colombia]
idrc International Development Research Centre
iiit International Institute of Islamic Thought
imf International Monetary Fund
mais Malaysian Academy of Islamic Science
minds Malaysian Institute for Development Studies
ngo nongovernmental organization
s&t science and technology
sap structural-adjustment policy
srd science, religion, and development
tnc transnational corporation
undp United Nations Development Programme



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