India has always been the land of Āchāryās, sages, saints, yogis and Masters. Some of them have stuck to a paramparā, sampradāyā, Mathā while others haven’t been bound by any traditional restriction. Adhering to a sampradāyā meant restricting oneself to a group of traditional seekers. One may, with all humility, call it ‘guiding an already interested echo-chamber’.
But what happened when a non-Hindu, catholic by birth sought Diksha to practice Hinduism? The traditional Mathas gave no solution apart from chanting Rama-nama to such a seeker. The seeker however genuine, couldn’t be initiated into any sampradāyās officially by the Mathāthipathīs. A limitation which would have been a plushy quicksand to the expansion of Hinduism.
A similar issue was faced by Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami (fondly called as Kanchi Mahaperiyava) when he was requested by a Catholic born, devout seeker Paul Brunton to be initiated into Hinduism. Mahaperiyava expressed the limitation he’s bound by the traditions and asked him to seek Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s blessings in Tiruvannamalai. Here’s what happens next: Paul Brunton becomes a key member of Ramanasramam, starts writing extensively about Ramana Maharshi in his books and introduces Him to the West. The whole world knows about Tiruvannamalai now.
The traditions also placed a restriction on the Āchāryā’s travel habits meaning : they can’t travel overseas. Propagating Hindu-spirituality to the West is the best thing that has happened to India, the fruits of which we are reaping now. Spirituality has become a soft power for us, which no other country on this planet has. The credits of this whole movement must be given to non-traditional sages like Paramahansa Yogananda, Ramana Maharishi and “modern philosophers” like Osho, Jidu Krishnamurti etc to name a few.
A spiritual guru who influences the youth to shun atheism is understandably hated by the Lefts. He’s the roadblock to their pursuit to hold the mind space of an average youngster. The venom spewed on Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev by the Left is obvious, but the “schooling” by the non-Left Trads is misplaced and born out of shortsightedness.
Trads or the Hindu Traditionalists are trying to judge Sadhguru by fitting him into the framework of a Mathāthipathī (Head of religious institution). When his views contradict the traditional practices, they tend to go berserk with an arsenal of “Traditional schooling” on him.
Here’s what the Trads must keep in mind when they look at Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (or even Sri Sri Ravishankar) :
- He isn’t trying to win a Trad to his side.
- He isn’t trying to dilute the Puranas by establishing a new form of Hinduism.
- His teachings stop an uninitiated, ignorant, non-practicing Hindu from picking up Devdutt Patnaik’s books.
- For a novice who knows nothing about Hinduism, traditional philosophical works would be very heavy to fathom. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s simplified works play a key role in pushing them onto the right path.
- From creating a narrative that the urban youth now uses to defend Ram, logically defending Hindu traditions like child marriage, taking the Leftists from JNU & Nalsar headon, Sadhguru has not shyed away from taking the battle to the enemy (ideologically) territory.
The lack of traditional limitations placed on Jaggi Vasudev helps him to reach out to crowds that are inaccessible by the traditional Mathas. The sophistication and the clarity with which he presents the ideas wins the urban youth from the Marxist anti-Hindu propagandas.
Just like there was a need for our spiritual gurus to go to the West to propagate Hinduism back then, there has come a need to propagate Hindu-spirituality to the uninitiated seeker who’s ignorant about Dharma. If not, these minds would fall to the communist propaganda and you’d lose them forever.
And most importantly, we must keep in mind that only the ones who are creating a disruption are attacked heavily by the Lefts.
