What Makes India a Great Spiritual Land?

What Makes India a Great Spiritual Land?

Since times immemorial, India has been the spiritual leader of the world.
Four major religions—Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism—were
born here. Thousands of seers and saints have walked the length and
breadth of this holy land and preached spirituality. Even today, when man’s
journey to the moon is a thing of the past and new boundaries in all fields
are set and exceeded with impressive speed and confidence, the West looks
towards India for inner peace. A natural question that comes up is: What
makes India so great that economically advanced nations take spiritual
refuge in India? Is it a mere coincidence that India has been the spiritual
guru of the world or are there some veritable factors that make this
subcontinent so sought after?
Great sages tell us that the foremost factor that contributes to India’s
spiritual greatness is its unique geo-location on this planet. India’s natural
locale is such that she receives certain exclusive divine vibrations and
radiations together with the gravitational vim from Jupiter and the sun.
Astrologically, both these heavenly bodies are vital for the spiritual progress
of human beings, and have played a significant role in the life of the people
of India in making them spiritual in their outlook.
During ancient days, India was a land so serene and pure that Mother
Nature was in perfect harmony here. The five principal elements or the
panchabhootas—earth, water, air, fire and ether—of which human beings
are made, were fully balanced with the forces of nature, whose clock moved
with perfect precision. The duration of each season was consistent, and the
transition from one season to the other was smooth and timely. Life was
simple and peaceful, without any stress or strain.

In addition, two mountain ranges, the Aravallis (the oldest) and the
Himalayas (the youngest), both in India—a divine design rather than a
coincidence—also impacted India’s spiritual strength. Spiritually speaking,
the Aravallis represent the agni tatwa or the fire element while the
Himalayas the jala tatwa or the water element of Mother Nature. Most
rishis and munis had their abode in the Himalayas and the Aravallis owing
to the pull between the longitudes and latitudes of the two ranges, which is
such that the agni tatwa and the jala tatwa are conducive for the spiritual
growth of mankind.
The rivers of India—Ganga, Godavari, Yamuna, Sindhu, Saraswati,
Kaveri and Narmada—have enhanced its spiritual growth as well. Each of
these rivers is associated with a particular divine force. The Ganga is
associated with Shiva, Godavari with Rama, Yamuna with Krishna, Sindhu
with Hanuman, Saraswati with Ganesha, Kaveri with Dattatreya and
Narmada with Durga. India’s culture developed and flourished mostly along
the banks of these rivers upon which most of the ancient rishis and munis
meditated, and unfolded divine and natural secrets. Of these rivers, the
Ganga is the most important. The water of this river is so spiritually charged
that if consumed with faith, it can redeem one from one’s sins of several
previous births.
The Ganga, in the strict sense of the word ‘river’, is not a natural river. A
natural river is that which originates at some source or point and then
follows its own course. In the case of the Ganga, the source is not natural
but preconceived and determined by a human being—King Bhagirath of the
Suryavamsa dynasty, and one of the forefathers of Rama.
According to legend, Bhagirath had undertaken severe penance to bring
Ganga to earth from the heavens, to redeem the souls of his uncles by
having it flow over their ashes. He had also searched for a source that was
divine at its very roots. His father, King Dilip, and grandfather, King Sagar,
had both been unsuccessful in their attempts to do so. After having
identified the origin of the Ganga at Gomukh, in the Gangotri glacier in the
Himalayas, Bhagirath charted Ganga’s course, and thus purified the remains
of his ancestors—the 60,000 sons of King Sagar—who had been reduced to
ashes by Kapil Muni near the present-day Ganga Sagar, in the Bay of
Bengal. It is evident from this legend that the chief objective of bringing
down the Ganga to the plains was purely religious and spiritual, apart from
the river serving as a great source for the socio-economic growth of India.
While charting the course of the Ganga, Bhagirath ensured that it passed
through certain other vital geo-locations such as Haridwar and Triveni so
that on the occasion of the Kumbh—a mass pilgrimage in which Hindus
gather at the banks of the river in Allahabad—a large number of people
would receive spiritual strength. The holy locale of Gomukh is such that it
receives specific radiations from heavenly bodies, particularly from the
planet Jupiter.
In 1896, M.E. Hankin, a British bacteriologist who analysed the waters of
all the major rivers of the world and that of Ganga concluded that the water
of the Ganga was unique. It was the purest in addition to being a
disinfectant. Later, a French doctor, Hairal, asserted that the waters of the
Ganga were potent enough to destroy the germs of several diseases. In
1947, Kohiman, a water analyst from Germany, visited India and analysed a
sample of water taken from the Ganga at Varanasi. He submitted a detailed
report and affirmed that the waters of the river had a unique and great
potency for killing germs and bacteria of many diseases. It is for these
reasons that the Hindus immerse the ashes of their deceased into the Ganga,
and believe that a dip into the holy waters will wash away their sins.
Apart from what modern scientists have found in the waters of the
Ganga, our rishis and munis have always maintained that regular intake of
the water helped them in attaining their spiritual sojourn. It is unfortunate
that the present state of the Ganga is repelling. This great river is being
polluted along its course from Haridwar onwards. There are reports that the
Ganga is being polluted even at Gangotri. Every year, nearly a lakh of
kavariyas (devotees of Shiva) reach Gangotri, putting immense pressure on
the holy region. The government needs to take firm steps to check this
menace if the divinity of the Ganga is to be maintained.

The natives of India are by nature vegetarians—satvik and non-voilent—
which helps them to be less tamasik—aggressive and lethargic. Tolerance is
the hallmark of Indian culture and it is for this reason that the endless
hordes of invaders who came to India eventually settled down here and
made it their home. No wonder that India is one of the oldest surviving
cultures of the world, while many other contemporary ones have perished
with time.
It may surprise many to know that there are as many as six seasons in a
year in India. Most countries in the world have three to four seasons. With
the coming of each new season, human chemistry changes too, bringing
about certain variations in the human psyche and body. Rishis and munis
have studied these transformations in man and have prescribed the
consumption of specific seasonal fruits and vegetables while imposing
restrictions on some. They advised people to observe a fast on particular
days during the change of season, specifically on amavasyas or new moon
nights, purnimas or full moon nights, and ekadashi or the eleventh day of
each month. The human body releases certain bile juices on ekadashi, and if
one allows these to be fully absorbed in the body, one is greatly benefited
both physically and spiritually. It is for this reason that it is recommended
that a fast be observed on this day. This speaks for the longevity of people
in the past.

Certain plants and trees like the tulsi, neem and peepal have an important
place in Hinduism. The tulsi plant is an integral part of a Hindu household.
It has now been scientifically accepted that it is very sensitive to its
surroundings. If there is any negativity in its immediate environs, it will
wither away. Thus, it serves as a spiritual barometer of a household.
Likewise, the neem tree too helps in warding off negativity from its vicinity.
No wonder neem trees were grown around and within courtyards of houses
in the old days. The peepal was an equally important tree and formed an
inseparable part of old Hindu society. It is a perpetual source of oxygen,
which, of course, is imperative for a healthy environment. Regularly sitting
under a peepal tree invigorates the mind. For this reason, education was
imparted under the shade of this tree in the old days. The air under the
peepal carries great pranik (vital) value which is conducive to spiritual
growth. The peepal and neem both are natural anti-pollutants.
In a nutshell, India’s special geo-location on the planet, the two mountain
ranges, i.e., the Aravallis and the Himalayas, the rivers with their spiritual
sources of origin, the six seasons, and certain flora and fauna greatly
attribute to its spiritual character. It is for these reasons that India has a
divine aura around it and gave birth to four major religions of the world—
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.