The Only Useful Wisdom of Hinduism

All Hindus I know take great pride in their Faith. When I ask them, “Can you tell me what is the essential wisdom of Hinduism?” all of them look up and down and sideward.

Three sacred texts: The three most sacred texts of Hinduism are the Vedas, the Vedanta (containing some Upanishadic stuff) and the Bhagavad Gita.

The Only Wisdom: The fact is the ONLY WISDOM, which can be distilled from all of them that is useful in our daily life in the 21^st century, is in the form of a caveat:

When man becomes obsessed with people, wealth, power and status, his Manas (Mind) becomes disconnected from his Buddhi (Wisdom), -the seat of memory of his duty and lessons learned, knowledge of the world, insight into his own and other’s behavior, judgment about a situation and right course of action, moral values regarding right and wrong, and noble virtues such as generosity, kindness, honesty, integrity, fearlessness, and righteousness. Thus deprived of wisdom, his actions become destructive to him and others.

Upanishadic origin: Upanishadic seers, the intellectuals of ancient India, developed this wisdom in response to obsession of the upper classes with money, power, land, and people (just as the modern day politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen in India do). In order to gain these, they corrupted the selfless Yajnas into selfish Yajnas. This resulted in the steady decay of Sanatana Dharma and rise of heterodox Dharmas such as Jainism, Buddhism, Ajivika and Lokayata.

Suppression: The vested interests suppressed this Upanishadic wisdom and continued their nefarious activities. Several centuries later an Upanishadic poet restated this wisdom once again, though somewhat awkwardly, in the Bhagavad Gita shlokas 2:62-63.

Grain versus Chaff: This is truly the only timeless grain of wisdom in the huge pile of Hindu texts. The rest is just useless chaff consisting of mindless rituals. Unfortunately, most staunch Hindus practice only the ritualistic part of Hinduism.

Stomach dictates all actions: Why do Hindu Swamis and Gurus not teach Hindus the only timeless wisdom of Hinduism? Well, you know the answer:

1. They themselves have become obsessed with wealth, power, land and people, and thus have become ignorant themselves.

2. There is no money in teaching people wisdom.  

The fact is the stomach, not the brain, dictates all actions. Kanaka Daasa put is succinctly: Ellaroo maaduvudu hottegaagi!