What is culture?

Chitvish · May 25, 2006

What is culture ?

I wish to make a mention that my inspiration is mainly drawn from the books by Chinmayananda ,Dayananda and ofcourse, Vivekananda. I respect their schools of teaching very much.

Man’s control of external nature is called civilization.

His control of internal nature is called culture.

Our culture is deep and beautiful. We must learn to admire and respect the same.

Instead of mechanically following the customs, if we try to understand their significance we learn there is logic, science, social as well as spiritual significance in many of them.

We must make an effort to follow the practical aspects which are suitable for the modern, technological age, at the same time remembering that we must not lose our roots completely. Our culture is highly adaptable and rejuvenates itself.

An individual’s nature is called “ samskara “. The same nature when applied to a community living for a long time in a particular geographical area can be, in a broad term, called culture of that community. Hence culture differs from one country to the other.

By culture, we also mean a kind of refinement in words, thought and action. This cannot be taught, but has to be imbibed ! The inner beauty of a person cannot be judged by his or her external appearance or educational qualifications. It is best judged by the refinement of character which we can call the person'sculture. We need both spiritual culture and materialistic culture in our life.

There are people who think that religion is a matter of faith and we are accepting what we do not see. We also think that science and religion are contradictory. Dr. Radhakrishnan, the great philosopher has said “ A little science takes you away from religion but more of it brings you nearer religion.”

Let us not take philosophy to an extreme, but learn to analyse keeping it in balance.

Love & regards,

Chithra.

safa · May 25, 2006

The inner beauty of a person cannot be judged by his external appearance or educational qualifications. It is best judged by the refinement of character which we can call his culture!

dear chitvish,
well done!
some words catch our hearts without making more efforts to understand, which is simple and easy to accept...

Expect more in this way.....

prathi · May 25, 2006

enlightening!

Dear Mrs.Chithra,

That was a very insightful post on culture. Your words :
"Man’s control of external nature is called civilization.
His control of internal nature is called culture" , will remain with me for good. Looking forward to learn more from you! Each and every word of yours carries weight!! Thanks for starting this thread. It will help us all to a great extent!

Chitvish · May 25, 2006

Thankyou, Safa & Prathi !

You have welcome my thread on a very encouraging note ! Please remember to send
me regular feedbacks, essential to keep me going !
Also remember, I am borrowing heavily from my Gurus. I am just presenting in a nutshell, whatever I have tried to understand over the years from their teaching.
I reiterate, I am still a student. This is just sharing the limited points which I have grasped so far. I may not be able to answer all the queries and doubts, that you raise.
I am very happy with your " welcome messages".
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Vidya24 · May 25, 2006

welcome thread

Dear Mrs Chithra,

You have addressed a vital need and gap in this forum with your write -up on culture. For persons like me who do not have ready access to spiritual courses and discourses, you are providing much needed knowledge. Looking forward to learning a lot from you (again) thru this column as well. Thank you.

love
Vidya

Chitvish · May 25, 2006

Dear Vidya !

As usual, you are the personification of encouragement for me.
I mainly plan to write about, " why we do some things."
I do hope we will all benefit mutually through this thread.
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Varloo · May 25, 2006

A much needed explanation

dear Chivish,
it is very thoughtful of you to start this thread. When I was young, I always used to ask my mother why we follow what we follow. But she was never able to answer me and she used to get very angry with me for questioning elders. She expected absolute obedience from me. As I grew up, I found answers for my questions from many other elders. And some I derived from what I heard about how people lived in earlier days. I find that many people follow many practises daily without knowing their significance. What was followed some 50 years back need not be followed now as times have changed and our lifestyle has also changed. Even when it is explained in detail, they do not want to understand that. So I welcome this thread whole heartedly.
Thank you very much,
With warm wishes,
varloo

Chitvish · May 25, 2006

Thankyou, Varloo !

I think this is one of my threads which has attracted a lot of attention as soon as I posted it.
I am overawed, as usual that I should be able to fulfill atleast a fraction of your expectations !
Pray God stronger & stronger to be with me !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Shal · May 25, 2006

my wish going to be fulfilled!

Dear Mrs Chitra,

Like Varloo said, I always pestered amma with hundreds of questions on why we follow certain rituals too and poor amma would try and give me reasons best known to her. Perhaps that is one reason why I feel that everything that happens, happens for a reason.

With modern day complexities, one can choose to take it or leave it. But little things in our marriage such as the nalangu made a lot of sense when amma explained and asked me to put myself in the shoes of an ancient times girl(like my mom herself!) who's never met her husband before the ceremony. This gives her an opportunity to get familiarized to him and his family!

Mom used to tell me why in olden days, cousins were married and marriages within extended families happened. With minimal or no communication available, one would fear sending his/her daughter to a far away place and want to make sure she went to a good family and thus the culture of marrying within the family for safety started. I am not sure how far these are true, but I'd still like to believe bcz afterall, amma told me these and they seem logical too!

Thanks for starting this thread,
Looking forward to learning a great deal from you

Love
Shal

Chitvish · May 25, 2006

Hello Shal !

Please give me your mom's id ! I shall consult her whenever a doubt arises. She seems to be good at explaining things logically !
Thankyou for the message.
Love & regards,
Chithra.