Culture and the best way to look at it

We all have a common statement "We are proud of our culture, the great Indian culture". Lets go back to understand the statement ourself, what culture is? and Do we understand the real meaning of culture. Our great country India is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It's likewise rich in trouble too. If a religion is a way of Life, then what does culture define? If a persons thoughts are different based on religion, place of birth etc, does it mean they are from different cultures?

Basic Questions to Understand Culture

• Whats Indian culture?
• Whats Andhra culture?
• Whats Telengana or Rayalseema or andhra (regional) culture?
• whats Hyderabad culture?
• Whats difference between a city culture and village culture?
• Whats difference between Hindu culture and Muslim culture?
• Whats difference between cultures of different sects or casts of same religion?
• How different are cultures between people of different economic sections?
• What difference in culture do we have based on fundamentals of life like good, bad etc?
• How do we differentiate cultural difference based on laws and rules of state?
• How culture is different based on our daily basic habits like eating?

I think it all comes down to the habits or the day to day activities we do in our normal life and we set a rule around them and say its our culture. We can define culture as noting but a common rule followed by like minded people. It can be very different and very much same among different individuals.

Historian Patricia Ebrey suggests that if we really want to understand a culture the following features of a society are worth looking at:-

• Values - What people say one ought to do or not do. What is considered good and bad. For instance, the importance of honesty, or chastity.
• Laws - What political authorities have decided people should do, and what the sanctions are. For instance - laws about murder and robbery.
• Rules - What a society has decided its members should do, and the sanctions imposed. For instance social rules about marriage ages.
• Social Categories- Ways of thinking about people as types. For instance "kings", "friends", "Criminals", "lovers", "nobles", "clergy". [Note that not all these categories exist in all societies.]
• Tacit Models - Implicit standards and patterns of behavior that a person does not think about. For instance, knowing how to address police officer rather than friends. Knowing how to dress for a job interview as opposed to a dance.
• Assumptions - Implicit, not usually articulated ideas and beliefs. For instance, a belief that hard work will be repaid, or the belief that things will get better (for a long time this was a defining aspect of American culture.)
• Fundamental - Categories and ways of thinking that people take for granted and may not recognized even when pointed out. For instance, thinking in duality good/bad, male/female, beastly/godly.

I would say, lets be proud of all the good habits we have and the commonality we have among ourselves.

Culture begins with discovery of truth and reality (of life, creation) through spiritual inquiry-

• Who am I?
• Where do I come from?
• Why am I here?
• Where do I go hence after?

But these questions arise mostly when things go contrary to our wishes and make us ask-

• Why do I suffer?
• Is there ultimate happiness and What is best way to attain it?

There comes a Buddha or Shankaracharya who sees farther than the rest and discovers reality of life, laws of existence and the way for ultimate happiness. They design a system of social set up for collective good and evolution. So religion is only a way life. Culture is the visible product of unseen religious/life values. Religious beliefs and principles shape the culture, in harmony with the place (Nature) and time (socio-economic-technological conditions). So if a person is living all by himself, in a cave, he has no religion hence does not produce any culture. He is one with the nature, like a tree or animal.

Culture is separation from nature but complementary to it. So, Culture is a response to geo-climatic-economic/technological and environmental conditions, based on beliefs in life, in general and ones own visions of an ideal life. Beliefs intern are the outcome of spiritual truths and natural laws.

It is very difficult to single out reasons for a culture/ritual/habit, as there may be many layers of facts, ranging from spiritual, scientific, psychological, ecological, climatic to economic and technological. Over simplification leads to blind following, as well as out right rejection. Both are unwelcome. Habits, Rituals some times may not have any functional value but only act as psychological shock absorbers.

Many cultures like animal sacrifice, sati, widowhood etc. have been (almost) lost for good reason. But many good cultural traits are also lost due to mindless aping of other cultures and ignorant rationality.

But there are some universal truths and values independent of place or time. For Hindus (actually the name Hindu is given to us, so not very important, only convenient to describe ourselves) all pervading Athma, Karma Theory, Rebirth are some of the core truths, which are same, whether you live in Kashmir or Kanyakumari. Hence there are cultural similarities but food, clothing, festivals vary.

(Namasthe) and not handshake, why?

• Spiritual reason: I salute to the Paramathma that resides in you (remember it is not the cunning politician way but with absolute humility)
• Health reason: handshake my transmit contagious diseases. Too many handshakes may give aches....laughter. On the other 'hand' handshake and rubbing cheeks, in cold regions may give warm feeling.

(hanging Mango Leaves during festivals):

• Spiritual reason: Helps identify that a particular family is celebrating a certain occasion or participating in a certain event.
• Health reason: Mango leaves continue photosynthesis long after they were plucked from the tree, so help in maintaining oxygen levels in large gatherings during festivals. But what if we hang plastic leaves? Why not, they may still provide psychological solace.

Vegetarianism/ Balanced meat eating habits:

• Spiritual reason: Minimizing harm to other living beings and avoiding karmic backlash.
• Ecological reason: One meat meal equals to Ten Veg. meals. (Even more for beef, hence one reason for the ban. Did our sages foresee global warming?)
• Health reason: most of us know. Also it is said that veg. meals aids in mind concentration. But cultures of deserts and cold regions consume meat, where, it is very difficult to have fresh vegetables.

I wish India undertakes scientific and objective research of our rituals and habits. One reason why we have such low self esteem about our culture, is that we don't know the real purpose and value behind it. So knowledge brings respect and wholehearted practice.

It takes a saint to re-translate Vedic knowledge, into active life, in computer age, to discord obsolete, to reform the rituals and to redefine objectives. But we can do our bit and search for essence of our culture and readopt for present age.

Culture can be as big as how we get married, Which brings down to culture being called as a system or process through which we are identified as. I get confused when someone says that their culture is great or rich etc, because, Sati was good culture at one point of time, when India was ruled by foreign rulers and the wifes of the defeated or killed kings were used as concubines to the winning kings. Now that we have adapted to democratic setup, it doesnot make sense.

which proves that culture as it is is not rich or poor, it can only be identified as good at that particular point of time. Its convenience. As NTR garu rightly said "Brahmana mantram telisina vaade Brahmanudu". Unfortunately only 10-20% of current brahmins practice it. If a brahmin doesnot know Brahmana mantram, can he be proud of being brahmin or his brahmin culture? This is a classic example of misunderstanding culture and not probing the essence behind it. We need to remember in the early days, cast system is not by birth but by profession. Brahmin is the one who has realised Brahman or Paramathma, or atleast seeking to realize Brahman. There are various other paths or methods. So today's conditions may require a different method.

If culture is just a practice of a particular sect of people, then how many generations does it take for a particular act to become culture.One day or one thousand years.

Woman have lot of physical limitations (periods etc) hence they were excluded in many religious ceremonies. But non traditional ashrams and masters, allow woman to attend prayers (even during periods, because probably, personal hygiene is much easier to maintain now), chant Vedas and even Gayatri Mantram, which were exclusive to men.

Here are some other definations of culture are -

• Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.
• Culture: learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day-to-day living patterns. These patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction.
• Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism"
• Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another."
• Culture means all those historically created designs for living, explicit and implicit, rational, irrational, and non-rational behaviour, which exist at any given time as potential guides for the behavior of men.
• Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them.
• A culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society

Culture has been defined in a number of ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings - I believe in this defination.