The primary goal in human life is survival, for which food and shelter are essential. Once these are met, we seek further requirements such as comfort, wealth, health and education. However, the ultimate quest for human beings lies beyond these creaturely needs in the search for truth, the aspiration to discover the reality of the universe. To completely fulfill our human potential requires that we transcend our physical and mental limitations to something infinite and eternal. Julian Huxley, in his article, ’Evolution After Darwin’ written on the centennial of Darwin’s ’The Origin of Species’, wrote: "Man’s most comprehensive aim is seen not as mere survival, not as numerical increase, not as increased complexity of organization or increased control over his environment, but as greater fulfillment -- the fuller realization of more possibilities by the human species collectively and more of its component members individually. Once greater fulfillment is recognized as man’s ultimate or dominant aim, we shall need a science of human possibilities to help guide the long course of psycho-social evolution that lies ahead."

We act according to the needs of our lives, the availability of resources and the nature of each individual. These actions could be for purely survival purposes or of a highly creative nature; these could be to satisfy our senses or the ego, or to help a needy person. All actions are ultimately intended to bring about mastery over our external as well as the internal nature. Our thoughts prompt us to act. We face a situation and, knowingly or unknowingly, our thoughts compel us to do what we ought to. These thoughts come through the prism of our world-view or philosophy of life.

Slowly, as we grow within, we learn to give up the ideology of ’survival of the fittest’ or ‘might is right’ and start to think about others. This is the first act of spirituality, the first step toward discovering the so-called ’Spirit’, the human spirit. One day we may start saying, "The entire universe is my family" - ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam!’ We transcend physical and mental limits and arrive at the spiritual realm. Thus we create philosophy of life, by the degree we understand the way the world works. Hegel said, "A civilization without philosophy is like a temple without the holy of holies." Just like drops of water forming a wave, we create some ideals of life, deeper thoughts, some behavioral patterns -- all are parts of the culture. Therefore, for survival, growth and sustenance we need a way of living. This way of living is nothing but culture. Living traditions that express the thinking, feeling, and living of a particular society are part of its culture. Individual culture is a unit of a national culture, which forms a civilization. According to Samuel Huntington, Eaton professor of the Science of Government and Director of the John M. Olin Institute of Studies at Harvard University: "Civilization is a cultural entity. Villages, regions, ethnic groups, nationalities, religious groups, all have distinct cultures at different levels of cultural heterogeneity - civilization is thus the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that distinguishes humans from other species."

UNESCO Chronicle May 1959 stated that, "Culture means the total accumulation of material objects, ideas, symbols, beliefs, sentiments, values and social forms which are passed on from one generation to another in any given society." Culture can be defined as the deepest insight about life and its highest aspirations, produced by the will in order to be the master of its inner and external nature. Culture, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, is ’discovery of the freedom of spirit’. His evaluation of a culture and a civilization is illuminating. He said: "True happiness in this world is the right terrestrial aim of man, and true happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. A culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this harmony and organized its expressive motives and movements. And a civilization must be judged by the manner in which all its principles, ideas, forms, ways of living work to bring that harmony out, manage its rhythmic play and secure its continuance or the development of its motives."

The above commentary leads us to focus on the Sanskrit words ’samskara’ and ’samskriti’, which refer to culture in the highest sense. Samskara is derived from ’sam’ (true to its Dharma) and ’kara’ (bringing about). Dharma is the higher potential and true nature of a thing, the spiritual potential of the human being as opposed to our simple material desires. Samskriti as the refined condition of a substance is contrasted to Prakriti, which refers to the vulgar or unrefined condition. Prakriti is the unrefined gold alloy, for example, while Samskriti is making it into a beautiful gold ornament. Samskriti therefore means ’the act of Samskara’ -- the sum total of all activities that bring a life into alignment with its Dharma. Samskriti can be understood as purification; making something better than it is in its undeveloped state. Samskriti provides the scope for growth, leading to the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual progress that is hidden in each person. Each act that makes us stronger, wiser, and more open to the life spirit is part of Samskriti. This idea of culture goes beyond the unfoldment of our creaturely potentials to that of the Divine soul or Self within is, our higher Dharma which is that of eternal truth. Spirituality is merely the discovering of all-encompassing spirit of the world, the inner connected-ness of all. The basic reason why we should care for others is this understanding of inner connections, that’s why ‘helping others is helping ourselves!’ Dharma tells us nothing but to be mindful and aware of these connections and act accordingly.

Each act that makes us stronger, wiser, or more open to the life spirit is part of samskriti. Each act that make us adherent to our Dharma is a samskritic activity. ’Dharma rakshati rakshitah’: Dharma protects the one who protects Dharma - therefore our samskriti is our protector. Dharma and samskriti are the two sides of the same coin. A culture and a person of a culture is judged by the following criteria: how much is he/she balanced in thought, speech and action, are these aspects synchronous? If not, it is ’vikriti’ - deviation and corruption. Such an entity needs samskar -- purification and modification. We can even judge the essence of the culture of a society by looking at those individuals who are most respected within it, who represent its standard of excellence.

As a final observation in this vein, our acts of communicating and talking, our sense of ethics, our methods of entertainment, the food we eat, the books we read and the television programs we watch reveal our culture and at the same time help create it. If something stops us from growing or deviates from our true nature and threatens to bring about our downfall, we say that ’vikriti’ is prevalent and we must call on `samskriti’ to remove it.

We solve one problem of life today and another problem arises tomorrow. Why do these obstacles come on our way and why would we have a hard time moving on? Because we have not developed our inner motion properly, our path or Dharma is not well-grasped, our life-force is weak and we have not developed culture yet! The culture of a person should be able to protect her and her diversity, her uniqueness and at the same time it should be able to unite her with the rest of humanity to peacefully co-exist and to keep the flag of human progress waving.