|| A WONDER THAT WAS BHAARAT ||

To reach WISDOM, one needs to begin in WONDER.

Today, on auspicious Gudi Padwa, I am going to write briefly about a WONDER called INDIA

Oops.. not India, which has a history of just Hundreds of Years. Rather, I would call it  'The wonder that was BHAARAT' which has a rich history of Thousands of years.

For Centuries, the world had an outlook of 'mystery' or ' 'curiosity' or even 'greed' for India.

If we are to understand why it was like this we will need to travel back to that era i.e. Vedic Era which roughly started around 5000 years back.

Imagine this great motherland BHAARAT as a big PALACE and yourself as a little curious Kid who wonders about this palace's size, interiors and everything it has hidden.

With the Energy of that kid, we will have to visit each and every corner of this palace to realize the magnanimity of our Country's philosophical, natural and cultural wealth.

This Blog Seris will be a humble yet firm attempt to take readers as travelers to many such nook and corners of BHAARAT like:-

- Philosophies, Six Darshanas of Indian Philosophy
- Our Ancient History, Wisdom of Scriptures and various Epics.
- Great Personalities who shaped our Present.
- Some of the Vedic Women who are not known to us who were truly empowered.
- Interesting Customs and Traditions and demystifying them to remove Myths and misunderstanding surrounding them
- Unknown Communities, Cults, and Beliefs which bring Unity in Diversity.
- Sages, Saints, Acharyas, Reformers, Revolutionaries and so many others.

and WHY to do that?

Because Humankind's progress depends on two factors. The QUALITY OF PEOPLE and the ENVIRONMENT.

- PEOPLE of this Nation over the years have got inspired by dedicated efforts of many great Avatars, Sages, Saints, Warriors and Teachers. They need to be recognized and their Life-Work and Ideas need to be passed on to generations.

- HISTORY always repeats itself so we need to find connecting dots of our today's challenges and see whether we can get any clues from the past.

- Lastly, if we wish to APPLY Vedic Philosophy and Way of Life in Modern Times, we must know the context or the ENVIRONMENT in which it thrived for years.

Firstly, do we know how we got name BHAARAT? INDIA and HINDUSTAN are names given by outsiders external to this nation's glory and so can not reflect it.

However, the insiders of India had always called it, BHAARAT.

BHAARAT refers to 'Agni' or 'Fire' which is one of the Vedic God.

BHAA means 'bright light/light of fire' and RAT refers to 'engrossed/engaged/devoted'.

This land has always been a land of SEEKERS. Seekers of truth. The truth behind our existence.

One can say that BHAARAT as a nation or a place was full of knowledgeable and firebrand people in its ancient times.

The main pursuit of people of Bhaarat was to engage in a search of True Knowledge which would take them to highest Truth Power of the Universe. Those original residents of BHAARAT founded and developed their own indigenous Way of Life, Thinking and Worshipping. Mind it, it was not a religion as that word was even not coined then.

In the hindsight, they achieved everything else, right from civilization to culture to kingdom to nation. Their GOAL was always only ONE - Reach the ULTIMATE, the Truth, the Creator of the Universe.

They must be so bright and impressive that the nation also must have been able to have a create a leadership position in the world. That is not only my belief but different types of research suggests the same be it archaeological, linguistic or of literary nature.

The testimony to this prosperity is given by Marco Polo, a Venetian visitor to India in 1290 CE. He described India in his writings as “the most prosperous of all, in the world he had seen.”

Mark Twain, an American Author's famous remark in 1896 highlighted this point:-

"India is
    the cradle of the human race,
       the birthplace of human speech,
           the mother of history,
              the grandmother of legend, and
                   the great grand mother of tradition.
Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."

BHARAT, an Emporer who founded 'BHAARAT VARSHA'

Interestingly, Bharat was a 1st  Emporer of this nation. He was the son of King Dushyant and Shakuntala thus a descendant of the Lunar dynasty of the Kshatriya Varna. He is an ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas.

He was brave to the Core and could count the teeth of the Lion without any fear during his childhood.

Our Scriptures describe ancient India as 'Bharat Varsha' with its geographic location as of today.

The reason to point out this is 

The first such pearl is a declaration in our scripture..  दुर्लभं भारते जन्म । which means 'Every Bharatiya must believe that to get birth in this country is a rare and precious event'.

This is now just a thought.

Thousand years back it was a strong belief with which great sages declared to the world that...

Bhaarat is a place where 

   Gods reside (Himalayas) 

      Humans speak God's language (Sanskrit) and
        Sanatana Dharma as a system helps a human being to elevate himself/herself to the highest point of self-actualization.

You may or may not believe in any of the word written above. 

I request you to take it as a GIVEN as of now.
May be at the end of the series, you may slightly agree to some of the points which I will put forth.

Hope you are ready to be my co-traveller in this Journey to Unknown. A known Unknown about our own greatness.

If yes, watch this space for more.

My next Post will be about

- Principles of  Ṛta and  Ṛna (Ruta and Runa) in Vedic Philosophy

While what I will present may appear as one side of the coin, you can very well be the other side of that coin.

Please share your thoughts, questions, views and opinions and also suggestions in comment section.

Jai Bhaarat.