| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| THE IMPORTANCE OF KSHATRIYA DHARMA | |
| Even
today many Hindus think that India's poverty or lack of social order
contributes to its spirituality and they use this idea to excuse the
poor state of the country or themselves not making any effort to
change it. These Hindus should make a serious examination of their
own history. Certainly Gandhi's loin cloth image contributes to
their view, but it is quite different than the image of traditional
Hindu kings and their royal affluence while at the same time
surrounded by sages and spiritual advisors, as in the case of King
Janaka.
The same people like to think in terms of extremes, preferring India's poverty to Western commercialism, or a passive Hinduism to aggressive Western religions, not realizing that a Hindu affluence or military self-sufficiency need not follow Western materialism, religious exclusivism, or military aggression. It can be part of a more wholesome spirituality that does not neglect the state of society, which is the field that produces the individuals to follow the spiritual life, as well as providing protection and support for those who choose to do so. A situation arose in time in which the people of India, predominantly Hindu, would accept the rule of foreigners or antagonistic religions with little resistance. They were ready to accept an outside Kshatriya, and may have had to do so, because they failed to produce a sufficient Kshatriya of their own. Perhaps they eventually felt that an unjust or foreign rule was better than no rule at all. |
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