Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Editorial: Culture and Civilization: Prospects of a Universal Mono-formula

Our mind grasps two simultaneous time-arrows--one facing the past, the other the future: while culture and civilization grow anew, we grow old! This historic vision about the history of culture and civilization and about us makes for a baffling picture; it changes in two directions--a part of it represents old wisdom, and another a renewed one.

Human vocabulary has been blessed with a few rich words, of which 'culture' is an important one. So, in a greed-dominated, consumerist world, what ordinary people usually think of all blessed words is also relevant about this word: it smacks of a damp smell, an impenetrable gloom, a soft issue, an icing on a hot cake, and a consideration for boring leisure.

The etymological definition of culture, that includes customs, arts, social institutions of a particular group or people, their language, ideas, beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, tools, techniques, and other elements, has for its basis man who is to be studied carefully. The long-standing debate about providing an absolute rational definition robs the definition itself of its meaning. 'Rationalism is reductionist; it excludes any other kind of knowledge.'

In short, culture is a changeful tradition of a people, nay, the change itself is what we try to define as culture. It concerns the 'within' of the people, about how that grows inwardly and how that growth relates to the 'without' of them. The aspects that are natural to an inward life cannot be quantified in terms of the laws of economics. They reach a depth where all life is inter-connected. And a life that finds the inter-connectedness denies all discrimination. Its expressions, barring a few aberrations which are common in a process of growth, point to this inter-connectedness of all life. This one-ness of life, of spiritual life, is a capital, of which the external flourishing is the interest, as it were.

This reality about a single basis of which culture is the expression, though mostly undetected, normally forms the principles of culture. Having moored on this reality--the only reality amidst variety--a culture takes wings bringing into colourful display an array of virtues and values manifesting themselves as its ingredients which are in a flux of continual updating.

All changes have two vital aspects--a history and a vision. A culture is said to be sound if it is deeply rooted in the past and eternally open to renewals, open to amputations and imputations, able to flow, as it were, through rivers or through water-taps, and is a subjective manifestation and not an objective transformation.

By culture, we deal with ideas about man the known (the field of science) and man the unknown (the field of spirituality). The 'body' of culture is subject to growth, decay or even death while the soul remains immortal. It has its support in the Upanishadic realization, 'This atman is Brahman,' which took form in Swami Vivekananda's aphorism as: 'Each soul is potentially divine.' It places people in the limelight at centre-stage.

The essential characteristics of culture are under a constant stress for renewal. It is a process of learning, and, of course, teaching. Because what is taught is not exactly what is learnt, i.e., some portion of what is taught is lost, and some new additions are always made. This change cannot be avoided, rather, it should be welcomed and embraced. Culture remains an ever-dynamic phenomenon because of the nature of such changes. Yet it does not, and should not cherish to sustain any compromise with its soul which forms the essence of people. This continues to be the glorious tradition of culture, and it is said, 'A culture does not have a tradition, it IS a tradition.'

Through culture a community recreates itself in successive generations. The members of the community enrich the values and virtues of the culture not only positively but also in a negative way by removing the evils present in the culture. The wheel moves on ages after ages in this fashion in a never ending, but ever increasing momentum.

Civilization, on the other hand, means the way of life of a people, nation or period, regarded as a stage in the development of organized society. It has a few characteristics, some of which may determine its identity, like urbanized societies with large population, symbiotic economy, very complex social organizations, accumulation of wealth and privilege in a few hands or institutions, advancement in the fields of writing, sciences, trade, architecture, etc.

A look into history will show us how civilizations started taking shape, from a very early period in man's long journey to today's complex world order. There was a time when people moved in groups in search of food (both plants and animals) from place to place. Experience taught them the necessity of a permanent settlement for farming and raising their own animals. Such settlements led to the formation of cities and consequently, the development of organized social order, supply of group-necessities, invention of tools, educational institutions, systems of governance, and the like.

There are many definitions concerning civilization (like: 'achievement' definition--Richard Burger; 'social structure' definition--William Sanders & Barbara Price; 'wasteful' definition--Kwang-Chih Chang; 'cultural interaction' definition--Eric Wolf, etc.), and theories (like: 'war finance' theory--David Webster; 'social surplus' theory--V. Gordon Childe; 'circumpscription' theory--Robert Carniero, etc.), each stressing the importance of a particular characteristic of civilization, using different models. But what one misses in each such model is a holistic view. Yet one cannot deny the supreme importance of recognising the meaning of the parts of a whole. It is in a way better for one to start participating by contributing to any model that suits one's temperaments and opportunities. If the development is marred by the present highly uncivilized economic order based on unchecked greed, it is through participation in reformatory movements that we contribute more, than theorization.

In short, in the aggressive march of the human order, both in the past and in the present, and hopefully in the future, culture is implicit, and civilization, explicit. Our excellence to 'be' marks a dynamic culture and excellence to 'act' marks a dynamic civilization; they remain dynamic, and should be so, to register humanity's track-records. Culture and civilization are not at loggerheads, rather, the growth of one indicates the growth of the other.

There are varied opinions favouring this postulate. If a cosmic or international dimension of culture and thereby that of civilization can be worked out, it may help in cleansing them of disgusting scourges. It is most probable that a wisdom of learning from others will form the basis of a cosmic culture. At this moment, information technology has made it easy to monitor social and other ills worldwide and it is now also easy to act constructively. Globalization and, for that matter, mingling of localized and intra-national traits into the international current is an unstoppable phenomenon.

Virtues are universal in that they have their independent and cross-cultural application. Similar with the vices. The framework of virtues enunciated by Aristotle supporting a 'single norm of flourishing for all human beings' supports a single formula postulate.

On the contrary, some thinkers are of the opinion that no mechanistic approach can apply to a holistic reality. No regimentation, no globalization and no generalization will hold good. Recognition of variety should be the watchword for such a cosmic approach. The universal mono-culture formula is as much harmful as the problems it tends to solve themselves are. Respect variety, and don't become over-enthusiastic about the variety that you present.

Culture and civilization do not grow separately. A degradation of culture is a degradation of civilization also. Rather, civilization is a degraded form of culture. Then, will it be all right to call it a civilization? The two words are precious assets of human knowledge. Therefore, it is just that we should term the present day scenario as so-called culture and so-called civilization instead of reducing the words of their dignity.

The veritable feast of ideas that has been presented in the following pages of this special issue on 'Culture and Civilization', written as they are by the best minds of our time, will proclaim in clear terms the distressing call of humanity to cultural revival and regeneration for the benefit of the posterity, for civilization to survive the challenges of the millennium. If we anoint ourselves with this wisdom, if we catch the earnestness of the cosmic mind to reorient itself to 'the lost world' of values and virtues, if we put our shoulders to the sinking wheels of civilization, then the new-world-order that will emerge out of it shall remain ever-indebted to its fore-runners, in life and also in death.

The initiatives and approaches should start at a crude level, to be refined gradually over a period of time. A fool-proof system cannot be introduced initially, it can only be evolved. The system will lay bare its shortcomings in the attempt to constantly recreate the civilization of international bearing leaving all the horizons wide open. A selfish model sacrifices common good for private interest, and an unselfish one sacrifices private interest for the common good. Whatever be the model, it involves a sacrifice no doubt. But a sacrifice of the many will result in a total annihilation of all life, when sacrifice itself will lose its validity. Swamiji says, '... as culture comes, physical happiness lessens.' Cultivation of values turns an ordinary human into a cultured human being. Swamiji rightly observed, 'You can put a mass of knowledge into the world, but that will not do it much good. There must come culture into the blood.'

Einstein once remarked that if one got a hammer, all problems would turn into nails! So, a mono-culture or a mono-civilization formula will not do. Similarly, a multi-culture formula will not do, because we would then use many hammers to drive one nail! That means they are not hammers at all--they are all made of thermocol! Such has been the saga of our dishonesty about the application of the means or approach to a solution. A universal formula, a mono-formula at the root of every approach, should include all varieties in the scope of one humanity, for our essence is the same. Until and unless we are prepared to diligently realize and accept the reality of One inter-connected life on the planet, any approach to or solution of divergent problems that have taken global roots, whatever the sincerity of purpose, will remain a far cry. As the different pearls are strung together to form a garland, the mono-formula of civilization will display a variety based on the reality of One humanity, of One life.

Laotzu, the famous 6th century (B.C.) Chinese philosopher, while speaking on the implication of 'plurality' and 'unity' said: 'A plurality that does not lead to unity is an illusion, and a unity that does not depend on plurality is tyranny.'