Cultural Integrity and The Arts
Cultural values are at the basis of the peace, progress and prosperity of any nation. The arts, history, religion, traditions, social behaviour, language, laws, customs, climate and geography together help to formulate the culture of a nation. The arts play a significant role in culture because they represent refined, subjective values on the surface level of life. The visual arts and crafts, the design disciplines music, dance, writing and poetry are all the play and display in the floodlight of culture. Fundamentally, culture derives from the laws of nature at the basis all creative activity in human life.
For the arts and culture to be strong and vital, a profound connection to the laws of nature that underlie all creative thought and expression is needed. This in turn is the foundation for a prosperous society, cultural integrity and world peace. Maharishi Vedic Science informs us that the basis of culture lies in the enlivenment of the ground state of Natural Law – the unifying, unbounded field of creative intelligence and perfect orderliness in the transcendental field of life, the inner Self of everyone.
“Cultural integrity means all those values which are necessary to culture life, and to live life spontaneously in the direction of evolution. The result of cultural integrity is happiness, affluence, and harmony within the nation and complete impenetrability from any disturbing influences from outside. Cultural integrity is therefore, the foundation stone of invincibility for the nation.”
– Maharishi
Cultural Integrity for the 21st Century
In his Absolute Theory of Cultural Integrity, Maharishi outlines the Fundamentals of Cultural Integrity and Progress – Creativity, Stability, Adaptability, Integration, Purification, and Growth. With the enlivenment of these qualities, cultural diversity blossoms on the ground of an underlying influence of unity and invincibility – there will be no threat of one culture over another; just a mutual enrichment of all cultures, reinforcing life in the light of natural law.