An alliance between India and America would be of great benefit to humanity and the planet at both spiritual and material levels, with the fusion of the wisdom of India and the practical insight of the United States. This opportunity is slowly dawning but not yet certain.
Many people in the United States through its history of several centuries have shown an interest in spiritual teachings, as part of its freedom of religion and immigrants from many different countries. Note the Freemason background of its founding fathers like George Washington and their mystical interests, and late nineteenth century Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau who studied India’s teachings like the Bhagavad Gita.
Most notable was the overwhelming response to Swami Vivekananda in the United States in 1893 in Chicago and the global Yoga movement that developed from him. Yoga became widespread in the United States after the Nineteen Sixties, when many gurus from India visited and set up centers.
Along with Yoga followed related teachings and practices like Ayurveda, Mantra, Kirtan, Indian dance, Sanskrit and Pujas. Now there is also a flourishing and successful Hindu diaspora in the country with Hindu temples in most major US cities, as well as many Indian contributions in medicine, science and technology.
AMERICANS YET TO UNDERSTAND INDIA
Yet few Americans understand India at a national and civilizational level, or the social, cultural and political influences involved.They try to interpret India according to recent political trends in the West, not seeing India in its own light but in their own shadows.
We must remember that the USA has long been a strong proponent of missionary efforts to convert Hindus to Christianity. Anti-Hindu prejudices have been part of American cultural superiority, and continue in academia.In terms of foreign policy, the United States has supporteddictatorial Pakistan and trained and supplied its military, knowing Pakistan to be a staunch enemy of India.
The shadow of India’s support of the Soviet Union during the Cold War aided in this American suspicion of India. Yet India has not been anti-American in its views, particularly in recent years, seeking to improve relations with the United States on diplomatic, economic and cultural levels.
INDIA AND THE ECONOMICS OF LAKSHMI
At the level of civilizational values, the United States remains a commercial culture of materialistic values. It can appear to form a strong contrast to India where the physical is sought to be transcended. The American Yoga movement has been mainly a physical exercise movement, though the spiritual and transcendent aura also remains.
Yet in this context, we must remember that India historically was never against material and cultural abundance but was well known for it.
India honored the “economics of Lakshmi” over its long history and was noted for both its wealth and dharmic spirituality. It did not glorify poverty but had a culture of beauty, affluence and learning. India’s great wealth was used to promote the spiritual life, great temples, spiritual and yogic art forms and a vast and diverse culture, not to conquer or convert the world.
SRI AUROBINDO’S VIEW OF INDIA
Sri Aurobindo emphasized this role of Lakshmi and economic development for modern India. He was opposed to Nehruvian socialism and related communist influences with their state control of the economy that suppressed innovation and private enterprise. He was also critical of the Gandhian image of poverty for the country.Lakshmi must be given her rightful place for Vishnu to manifest. Bharat Mata should be clothed in light and splendor.
Sri Aurobindo wanted India to become economically prosperous like the United States, emphasizing new technologies and a creative inspiration that America could inspire. India failed to develop economically after Independence because of its Nehruvian Socialist approach that inhibited economic growth. Now that India is reclaiming its Bharatiya ethos, Lakshmi is returning.
Economically, the United States has had much to teach India in terms of efficiency and innovation, but not by taking up consumerism as the goal of life. Otherwise, outer wealth holds an inner poverty, not a higher civilizational aspiration.
SCIENCE AND YOGIC SPIRITUALITY
Swami Vivekananda gave a clarion call to unite modern science and ancient experiential spirituality for the true and enduring upliftment of humanity, with Yoga and Vedanta representing a transformative spiritual science of consciousness. His call echoed worldwide and has influenced many modern scientists and physicists.
The United States can help India with high tech sciences and cutting edge research, which is why many Indians have gone there to study, and India can give the United States an inner science of consciousness for the benefit of physics, cosmology, psychology and higher education, emphasizing meditation, which many Americans have begun to explore.
Without a higher consciousness to master and guide our new technology, which India can offer, this complicated and invasive technology may end up ruling over us and make us more materialistic, trapped in outer pursuits, and subject to greater social control and psychological unrest.
NARENDRA MODI’S INFLUENCE
Today in 2023, as India is rising economically and diplomatically, it poses a new opportunity and a challenge to the United States. Both sides of the American view of India spoke out during PM Narendra Modi’s remarkable and influential US visit, his talk before the American Congress, meetings with President Biden, American thinkers and business leaders. While they all might not have agreed with Modi, they could not ignore him. His stature was such that they had to go after his shadow. He represented an India they could no longer ignore.
America has been a civilization of the future, emphasizing new experiments and productions which makes it open to new ideas on the outer world, yet spiritually immature, lacking an inner vision. Yet it is also looking for an enduring spiritual basis as we all want to stand for something that is not merely transient but endures through history.
The New India under Narendra Modi is also a futuristic civilization but with deep ancient roots, promoting a global and planetary vision, not just human politics. It is open to scientific and technological advances and now contributing in those fields as well. Its associations with America at various levels have aided in this outer transformation.
The deeper questionis whether humanity can integrate experiential spirituality along with modern science and technology and its material gains. That is the greater global challenge for which the America and India relationship holds a pivotal role which is important for the entire world, and the two countries can together provide the solution. But it requires not only a focused outer expertise but also a vast inner vision, and the ability to integrate the two.
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