Hinduism was decaying and getting mired in deep muck mostly occasioned by a powerful, influential Brahmanic culture rotting in morally degenerate practices such as untouchability, child marriage, and forbidden status of re-marriage for widows. Especially in South India the Namboothiri Brahmins acquired considerable socio-economic power from the continuous wars between Cheras and Cholas, and used their powerful positions to carry out their oppressive social and religious dictates. When struggle for political independence from Western colonialism, that was equally rotting if not more, gathered momentum, enlightened intellectuals and reformers were forced to look into their own evil structures and systems. They knew political freedom from colonizers aboard could not be divorced from individual and moral freedom at home. Ram Mohan Roy initiated socio-religious reforms speaking against sati, caste rigidity, polygamy, and child marriage. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa inaugurated a new era sowing seeds of change for harmony of religions and service of humanity. Dayananda Saraswati, who inspired many reformers and freedom fighters who shaped modern India, renounced his comfortable life at home; he ran away from home to escape the will of his father who was determined to keep him at home in traditional roles; he spared no trouble in search of the soul of Hinduism in the centers of Hinduism. Putting his own life at risk he visited far away places like Kashi and Badrinath, studied Vedas, experienced firsthand the appalling condition of Hinduism, and gave a clarion call for socio-political-religious reform. He was the first one to give the call for swarajya (self-governance) in 1876 saying “India for Indians” thus sounding the first death knell for British colonialism. His definition of dharma and adharma and the ten principles of Arya Samaj he founded conveyed the sound message that all actions should be performed with the prime object of benefiting humankind. He was highly critical of Christianity and Islam. Rather than discrediting Christian scriptures through his amateurish, uninformed discourses on them he could have done even better if he had confined himself to pointing out the hypocrisy and disconnect of a Christian colonial regime while the Christian missionaries attempted to spread the message of love through education, service, and conversion.

           Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Narayana Guru stand out as the three socio-spiritual-political reformers and architects of modern India who unstintingly built on their predecessors, and extricated Hinduism while it was choking on its own vomit, and restored it to its own pristine, Vedic purity and glory. While I high-light some I by no means want to discount the contributions and sacrifices of persons like Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Pyne, Ramanna Maharshi, Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Gosh and many others in the realm of the spirit.

           Vivekananda built on Ramakrishna Paramahansa and his concept of harmony of religions and service of humanity. He taught us that a true Hindu can be a true Christian and vice versa. Gandhi, who was ostracized by his Hindu community, for crossing the ocean to study in England, refused to divorce religion, non-violence, truth-force (satyagraha) and purity of intention from politics and day-to-day practical living. Henry David Thoreau with his essay on Civil Disobedience was a precursor of Gandhi. Gandhi was profoundly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, a Christian anarchist, whom Gandhi described as “the greatest apostle of non-violence the present age has produced”. Christian anarchism was a movement in political theology that held that Christians ultimately should be answerable only to the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Christ, especially the Sermon on the Mount. Tolstoy rejected all violence and convinced Gandhi to espouse non-violent resistance to drive out the British from India. Gandhi deepened the meaning of tolerance in the Indian and world psyche. He envisioned that the world of the future, our current world, has to be one of tolerance and compassion for survival. He provided the world with an effective spiritual as well as practical tool for conflict resolution. Through non-violence that is ultimate love he taught the world that it is better to suffer than inflict suffering on others. He gave the confidence that reasonable persons in the world will gradually change when they become aware of the pain they cause others. Martin Luther King Jr., in the USA and Nelson Mandela in South Africa effectively used non-violent agitations to secure civil rights and freedom. Gandhi, a non-Christian, was able to more eloquently teach the message of Christ than most Christians. Narayana Guru has not yet received the attention and recognition he truly deserves. He through his heroic, symbolic gestures struck an effective blow to varnashrama (caste hierarchy), the basis of traditional occupation. He clearly understood the scriptural saying: Janmana jayate shoodra; Karmana dvija uchyate [All are shoodra (low caste) by birth; twice-born (high caste) by deeds]. Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Narayana Guru are truly representatives of a spirituality beyond all religions. In this connection it may be of interest to remember Kabir who advocated simply following sahaja path (simple, natural way to oneness) in God, setting aside scriptures (Vedas and Quran). The presupposition is that humans having a yearning for completion through union with God will be naturally guided to this union by his/her own svabhava (inborn self or essence).

           The Hindu and the Christian sages, seers, and saints also saw some kind of unity of humanity and divinity whether they saw it as dissolution of the individual being into the Supreme Being or an Ultimate Eternal Presence of one to the other in terms of Beatific Vision. Here then all form themselves into the one City of God. The early sages and seers (both Hindus and Christians) abandoned this world of appearances and went to the forests and mountain caves and deserts and desolate places as sanyasis (renunciates) and hermits (dwellers of deserts or secluded retreats) in search of themselves and their God. They did the best they could at the time. Their sacrifices, their search and findings, their wisdom and insights throw a floodlight on life and the world of maya, immensely enrich us, guide us, and give us courage and strength to do our own search. Looking at spirituality and holiness as something positive that all are called to, and viewing life in its here and now as something that needs to be celebrated and not escaped from, we can and we should, because of the yearning for union imprinted within us, live in every situation or state of life and search for the Ultimate even as we are surrounded by appearances, phoniness, and hypocricy.