INTEGRAL HINDUISM: AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME
By S.P. Attri (USA)

1. Every scripture has two messages: One "timely" which is time-dependentor occasion-dependent and is, therefore, temporary or perishable, belonging to the ideas or conditions of the people of the period & the country in which it is produced, and the other "timeless" which is occasion-independent, restricted to no time, transcending time, eternal, imperishable & applicable to all ages.

2. The commentators of these scriptures speak to us from their experience & express in a new form that is relevent to their age & responsive to its needs. When we come to our own times, we find that our times are different, our habits of thought & our mental backgrounds are not the same as those of ancient commentators. Therefore, if we restate old principles in new ways, it is not because we want to (just for the heck of it), but because we must in order to keep on learning & learning is the key to our survival. Therefore, we must be flexible enough to be willing to learn to deal with the challenges of the changed environment & make proper adjustments. We cannot recreate the environment & the conditions of Gita's times but our searching minds & bursts of new knowledge can re-arrange old principles to fit the changed conditions, thereby giving older truths greater glow in the new environment. Thus most knowledge is related to & is a function of time.

3. Change is the law of life & systems even more advanced than ours aresure to follow because our life is a mixture of necessity, chance, & reaction to conditions in the environment & the determinism of nature. Man has to do the work of the world & he has to exercise his intelligent will. If he acts blindly, he acts more like an animal than a man. This action is controlled by the Law of Karma, which is the natural order of Deed & Consequence, is transcendental & timeless and is covered in abundant detail in the fascinating & extraordinary world of Gita with its profundity & infinite treasure of truth. But we need to keep an open mind on the "timely" as well as the "timeless" aspect of Gita's messages. What we don't know we may be afraid of or it may be uninteresting or it may be exciting, sublime, & beautiful. When a glimpse is taken into the sacred pages of the Gita, it is seen that emphasis is on the Karma Yoga or the Method Of Work. Karma rather than Janama is emphasized in Gita. When struggle between Right & Wrong is on, he who abstains from it out of false sentimentality, weakness or cowardice, would becommitting a sin. This is the Karma Yoga message of the Gita in its simplest form.

4. The Four-Fold order of society was created according to the division of labor & work and is described in the Song Celestial (The Bhagwad Gita). Two things should be noted about this social ordering model of the Gita. First, Gita's caste model is timely, need-based, & occasion-dependent. Second, emphasis in the Gita is on the Guna (Aptitude) and Karma (Function) and not on Jati (Birth). According to the Mahabharata, the whole world wasinitially of one class but later it became divided into four divisions on account of needs of SPECIFIC DUTIES. Thus the four-fold order was the result of human evolution & was strictly occasion-dependent. There is nothing static, ultimate, or absolute about the caste system which has changed its character in the process of history. Today it cannot be regarded as anything more than an insistence on a variety of ways in which social purpose & work can be carried out. Functional grouping of society always has & always will continue to be evolved according to the needs of the time. This is because it is need-based, occasion-dependent, and ever-evolving.

5. The present morbid & divisive condition of the Hindu society into castes, sub-castes, & sub-subcastes, is opposed to the unity taught in the Gita which stands for an organic as against an atomised or compart mentalised concept of society. Gita, therefore, does not support the existing present social order or castes with its birth rigidity & confusion. Gita confronts the theory of four-fold order head-on & enlarges it scope and meaning by showing that man's outward life must reflect his inward being; the surface must reflect thedepth & profundity. Each individual has his inborn nature, Svabhava, and to make it effective in his life is his duty, Svadharma. Each individual is a focus ofthe Supreme, a Fragment of the Divine. So long as our work is done in accordance with our inner nature, we are righteous, & if we dedicate it to God, our work becomes a means of Spiritual Perfection. This emphasis of Gita on Svabhava, absolutely & explicity demonstrates that human beings are tobe treated as individuals & not as types or stereotypes. The individual Svabhava& Freedom Of Choice emphasized in the Gita counsels mankind against Stereotypy but does not compell them. Society needs & has to have a functional organization & all functions are equally important & essential for the health of the society & are socially equal. Evolution of life through history & environment alters many pre-existing identities & categories. Nothing inthe Gita generally or specifically prohibits this evolution or alteration. Thus what was a reasonable Social Model in Gita's times may not be a reasonable model today & vast changes may be needed in our social system.

6. The number & types of work & functions that need to be performed now-a-days run into thousands. Existing jobs are changing & evolving into new ones all the time. As against the four job descriptions of Gita's times, we now have thousands & all are important & need-based. The old & simple caste labels,four only in number & belonging to to an era long past, no longer suffice and are now an achronistic & archaic and have lost their meaning. In the present environment, labels go with the job to be performed and not with the person. Because of this, an individual must seek rational experimentation & justification for his beliefs. Further, the basic nature of Individual Svabhava & Freedom Of Choice emphasized in the Gita does not seem or attempt uniformity which is impossible but seeks an Integrated Variety.

7. Modern requirements of work mandate that we use Job Descriptions rather than the old archaic caste labels which are not Job-Descriptive any more. To use caste-labels (hereditary or non-hereditary) now, is meaningless at best & cruel & evil at worst. It leads to intolerance, hatred, & untouchability and at social level sets one section of society against the other, by dividing them into upper & lower castes, into elites & subjected classes. This division is totally incompatible with Hindu Spirituality which is inspired through the eons by the mighty scriptures of the Vedas, the Upnishads, Gita, and various other out pourings of our Rishis, Sages & Seers & with the long tradition of Hindu Compassion & Hindu Dharma. Without a shadow of doubt, it is totally Un-Hindu and against the teachings of Gita. Thus untouchability is being practised not because of Hinduism but inspite of Hinduism. It is totally Un-Hindu. The concepts of Elite & Subjected classes came with the Semitic Religions of Exclusivty that have divided mankind into two opposing groupsof Believers & Kafirs (Infidels.. who must not be tolerated & must be eliminated in the name of their "Only True God"). The historic record of these Exclusivity Religions (Islam & Christianity) is stinking with class oppression in all forms and with mass-slaughter & unmitigated terror inflicted upon non-Moslems & non-Christians for centuries. These two Semitic Religions have also been the largest traffickers in slavery but tout themselves as "Religions of Brotherhood." This lie conceals the true character of these barbaric creeds and provides a subterfuge for their violent imperialist actions. Many evils crept into the Hindu Society because of the atrocious system that the Moslems & Christians brought with them & practised their barbaric cruelties upon the defeated Hindus who were reduced to the status of untouchables forcenturies by the Moslem invaders & rulers. The mental pain & inner convulsions of the Hindu people from the implementation of these diabolical Islamic plans shook the Hindu society to its very core. There are many examples of revolting anti-Hindu customs that crept into the Hindu society from the revolting rule of the Moslem kings. Among these are the Female Child Infanticide, Female Child Marriage, & Widow-Burning (Sati). These gruesome anti-Hindu customs crept into Hinduism as it tried to adapt itself for survival under the brutality ridden Moslem tyrants & to prevent their Hindu girls from becoming the victims of the lusty, lecherous, fornication-prone Jihadi soldiers of All-Merciful Allah. The custom of Purdah (a variation of Islamic Burqa or Veil)practised by some Hindus was picked by the Hindus during the Islamic domination of the Hindu society during the rule of Moslem kings. Defecation in private (Moslems did not like to defecate in the jungle as the Hindus did, that was considered a practice of the Kafir Hindus and, therefore, against the teaching of the Koran) & the carrying of their night soil was required to be done by the hateful Kafir Hindu prisoners and this is an example of Islam's ignoble oppression of Hindus at the hands of their Moslem rulers & its subsequent addition to Hindu customs is an example of the terrible social damage to Hindu social system done by the oppressive & barbaric systems that Moslems brought with them to India & corrupted the Hindu System.

A section ofHindus adopted the idea of this kind of untouchability from its alien Moslem aggressors & started practising it among themselves. It has to be painfully recognized that these Hindu adaptations were occasion-dependent & need-based brought about by the survival needs of the time. We have no need for this Islam-induced garbage into our Hindu system & specific female adaptationsto save Hindu girls from from Moslem loot, raid, plunder, & inhuman rape arenot needed anymore. We, therefore, can do scum removal & get rid of Islamic Barbaric Garbage from our Hindu System now. And it behooves us Hindus to get rid of this Un-Hindu system of Untouchability as fast as possible.

8. At this time, our objective should be to treat all Hindus as children ofone Common Mother Hindu, which is the idea behind INTEGRAL HINDUISM whichdoes away with the injustices of the caste system & with the system ofUntouchability which is a relic of the Barbaric Islamic Rule over India inerstwhile centuries. INTEGRAL HINDUISM fits in perfectely with another important Hinduism Principle of ALL IN ONE & ONE IN ALL. Integral Hinduism does not remove anything essential from Hinduism, it is additive rather than deductive and only provides an alternate structure forHinduism. Everything else of the Hindu system & the essence of its philosophy stay the same. Hinduism loses nothing except its chains & its good-for-nothing hereditary caste-labels. Integral Hinduism replaces divisive/differential/fractional/fragmented structure of Hinduism with anOrganic structure of Hinduism which is another name for Integral Hinduism. The synthesis of the caste-free Integral Hinduism with the postulate of All In One & One In All multiplies the Multi-Splendor Of Hinduism. It violates no Hindu principles, it only restates old truths in a new form and fully complies with the teachings of Gita.

9. For sometime, Hinduism has had difficulty in giving expression to its elegant & exalted, noble & sublime principles of the Vedas, the Gita, & other scriptures because of a perverted caste system which crept into the Hindu system during the rule of the Oppressive Moslem kings in India. The abolition of the Caste System & its ugly cousin of Untouchability would speed up the march of Hinduism towards its Destiny of Greatness.

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