Bhagavatam-daily 272 – 11.13.5 – The Vedic plan is not just inclusive but also progressive

And that way we move towards success in our human mission, in the mission of human life. Thank you.
Sattvicam, among them whichever are sattvic… So whichever are sattvic, they are praised for chakshate. By vriddha, the great sage Vyasadev who is mature in knowledge. He criticizes that which is in passion, in ignorance.
He neither criticizes it nor praises it. So in this verse, how the scripture and especially the Bhagavatam… channelizes the… assesses the human cultivation of goodness is described. That by recognizing that things are in the three modes and things influence us depending on how we… depending on what we expose ourselves to.
So Vyasadev, especially in the sattvic Puranas and more specifically in the Bhagavatam gives us an exposure to that which will take us towards transcendence. The Vyasadev’s overall Vedic strategy needs to be carefully understood. The strategy is both inclusive and progressive.
The word inclusive means that which includes. So it includes everyone in its broad focus, in its broad scope by stating that actually everyone can progress on their spiritual journey, on their eventual progress towards transcendence by connecting with Krishna. At the same time it also emphasizes that that connection with Krishna cannot happen overnight.
It needs to be systematically, steadily and… for many people who are not yet ready for a spiritual take-off to be done slowly. So people in even Tamoguna, if they are fortunate enough to interact with the potent devotee and if they are intelligent enough to recognize that fortune and start the process of devotion then they can advance rapidly towards transcendence. But if that doesn’t happen, that means they don’t get the fortune or they don’t take the fortune.
To get association is a great fortune, to take association is our responsibility. If somehow that doesn’t happen, that does not mean that they are forever rejected. But for them there is another path.
So sometimes when the idea of inclusiveness is taught, is conveyed in our today’s circle, the idea is that everybody, however they are, they should be included. And that is correct. Thus everybody should be included.
But the point is not that how people are but how people become, that is also important. So if inclusiveness means that everyone should be allowed to stay the way they are for all of time and not only allowed to stay but everyone should be glamorized for however they are then that is not inclusiveness, that is stasis, that is stagnation. So, for example, a person in Tamoguna, now the mode of ignorance severely stunts the potential of a person both spiritually and materially.
Ignorance doesn’t allow a person to think intelligently, act introductively and therefore ignorance stunts the potential of a human person. And to allow a person or to not just allow, to allow a person’s ignorance to practice dharma is compassion and it is desirable, it is essential because that’s how the person will become gradually freed from the stunting, stultifying, paralyzing influence of ignorance and will gradually be able to develop one’s potential both materially and spiritually. And that is what the Vedic path does.
Unless other paths which demand faith in one God, one prophet, one scripture, the Vedas offer people modes and forms of worship which vary according to the mode that a person is in and accordingly people can worship in a way that is also broadly favorable for overall, that is that they will be inclined to worship. That’s why we have Puranas in Sattvaguna, Rajoguna and Tamoguna. Or rather Puranas meant for people in Sattvaguna, Puranas meant for people in Rajoguna and Puranas meant for people in Tamoguna.
Now along with this there is also, so while people wherever they are there is a provision for attracting them and providing them custom made religious practices but along with that there is also the recognition that people need to be elevated and that’s why there is a process for elevating them from ignorance to passion to goodness but if that process is neglected and is depicted as if wherever we are, however we are that’s how we should be and we don’t need to do anything to improve then people’s potential will stay stunted throughout their life and stunting people’s growth potential is actually not compassion. It is indirectly violence. If a hospital should allow all kinds of people to be admitted for treatment but it’s not that whatever condition a person is in, that condition should be perpetuated and celebrated.
No, that condition is to be cured. So today’s people when they talk about inclusiveness and they talk about all kinds of different groups of people who were in the past discriminated so they say oh they should be included. Yes certainly they should be included but they should be included so that they can be elevated.
Not that they are included so that their present position is perpetuated. So that inclusive aspect of the Vedic path is often talked about but Bhagavatam also focuses on the progressive part and in this progressive aspect and in this verse it is stated that in the scripture and within the 10 elements which we talked about in the previous verse, out of which scripture is one there is Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic and Vyasadev focuses on the Sattvic praising it thereby encouraging people to practice it. Just as a doctor praises something and people want to do it and Tamasic strongly criticizes it and Rajasic leaves alone.
So in this way the Bhagavatam and Vyasadev, their strategy of complementing inclusiveness with progressiveness is explained herein and by this so no one is discriminated or rejected because of lacking some qualities or whatever. Everybody is included but then everybody is facilitated for their individual elevation and that progressiveness is what makes the Vedic path so personally transformational and empowering. Thank you.