The Upanishads, though profound in the exposition of the ultimate Reality, can tend to turn the mind into an other-worldly direction. The Vedas are more holistic and integral in approach whereas the Gita more pragmatic in connecting the highest with the ground realities of life. The Upanishads, except the Isha, can give an uplifting orientation away from the earth and have a weakening effect thereby. It is this otherworldly orientation of knowledge with individual moksha as the ultimate goal, the rejection of worldly life as illusion and the discarding of Shakti that led to the fall of the Hindu empires. An excess of factionalism, selfishness and divisions of castes and cults rather than thinking as one race descendent from noble and great Aryans struck the last nail.
However paradoxically the repulsion of the Moslem and British invaders came through the awakening of the lost spiritual strength, through heroes who worshipped Bhawani such as Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Guru Gobind Singh and subsequently by those who followed the yoga and teachings of the Gita. Had we followed the spirituality of the Gita rather than falling in the trap of Illusionism, Asceticism, Buddhist cults then this would not have perhaps happened. Not that success is the only criteria of greatness. The Mughals and the British and the Portuguese succeeded temporarily but so does a pack of wolves and hyena fell a lion. But that does not make hyena the ideal or the king of the animal world.
