BOOKS

Long before India was divided by Empire, there were carvings, sculptures and statues of unity up and down the country. They were the dramatic icons of non-duality that melded polar opposites together as one

Half and half images, like the fusion of Shiva the Destroyer with Vishnu the Preserver, were a striking way of saying, these are not opposites; they are inseparable pairs. Neither can exist without the other. It was, in the words of the Bhagavad Gita, “a unity beyond opposites,” freed from the source of loathing, craving and conflict.

In India, the word, “development” once referred to the spiritual growth of an individual. These days it refers more often to the material growth of the economy, and while extravagantly celebrating the idea of unity, politicians are importing values, which by their very nature, give rise to disunity.

Are India’s deals with the West a predestined part of the great cosmic cycle? Must the downward spiral of growing division inevitably end with the the Natraj, Shiva’s final dance of creative destruction? And as home to one of the last living traditions that bears the common hallmarks of many lost civilisations around the world, what does India’s spiritual decline mean for the rest of us?