A WIDE CANVAS
HOW DO IDEAS SPREAD ? -3
Literary ideas
Ideas about literature are usually confined to the academic world. They spread through or stagnate in the academic system. General public may read literature- even serious ones like poetry; but they have no idea how such literature is treated or interpreted in the academic community. The post college generation- those who left college 20 years ago, say- would have a certain view of some great works of literature or literary figures, like Shakespeare and Milton.But the current academic stress may not be on them. More than that, they may even question the relevance of such figures today! This poses a great danger to the cohesion and cultural traditions of a society. Ideological gaps between generations may develop due to this. Figures considered icons for two centuries are dropped without a debate! One link between generations and a value are quietly lost! It is one thing to change one's opinion consciously after due consideration; it is quite another for something to get dropped, just like that!
This is not speculation. This is what is happening in the Academic world in the US. Today, students of literature are taught a theory called deconstruction. It says (if it says anything sensible at all) that no piece of literature has a cohesive or inherent meaning. The meaning is what we "construct". So, it can be dismantled. Multiple interests can be identified in any text or piece of literature, and alternative, or even opposite meanings developed.Thus it is possible to view the works of Virginia Woolf as expressing her anger at paternalistic society. It is possible to view Othello or Macbeth in racial or feminist terms etc. It can be shown, on the basis of the writings themselves that such views are totally unfounded; but once an academic power point decides something on the basis of a theory, nothing else would be allowed in the university. This is actually happening. The public is not aware how the old works are interpreted. One day they wound find Shakespeare is no more read, no longer wanted. A recent survey in the UK indicated that most students do not want to read Shakespeare because his language is not spoken today and cannot be understood. This in the land of Shakespeare! At this rate, newspaper would be the only 'literature' the younger generation reads! Thus, literary ideas do not spread at all except in closed circles, and that due to institutional fiat! For that very reason, only some ideas spread or rather,are circulated deliberately by vested interests.
All other important ideas would be found outside the system!
General Ideas
It is really strange where we get our ideas from. Most of us do not indeed bother to learn anything new, one we leave school or college. When such people become leaders- in any field,not necessarily politics- they become not only the spokesmen or guardians of the old theories; they become immune or hostile to new ideas. Their mind is closed. They really become senile.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Perhaps, the greatest example of this in modern India is Jawaharlal Nehru. He visited Soviet Union in the 20s and was shown around by officials. He listened to what they told him, he read what they gave him, he saw what he was shown. On this basis, he became a convinced socialist, fanatical believer in their system of planning. He continued to move with Gandhiji for another 20 years, and was even anointed heir by Gandhiji who said that 'Jawaharlal would speak my language'. Yet, when Nehru became Prime Minister, he did not adopt or implement a single program of Gandhi, but went in for wholesale imitation of the soviet model.The great violence unleashed by Lenin and Stalin, the suppression of the peoples and nations of Eastern Europe by the soviet military machine, the suppression of even the basic human freedoms- none of this made a change to Nehru's mind. It was as if he had no mind- it was only a receiver, with a line only from Moscow! We got slogans in his regime: Aaram haraam hai, non-alignment, Panchsheel, Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai, Socialistic Pattern of Society, Mixed Economy, etc. But was there anything new in any of them? And how did they all end up? Politicians and bureaucrats did indeed work without rest (aaraam) to make themselves rich by corrupt means; non-alignment brought us two wars- with China and Pakistan; Panchsheel and the bhai-bhai slogan were shown bye-bye by China when they invaded us; mixed economy became mixed-up economy where nothing worked-except shortages and high prices; the socialist pattern led to total bankruptcy of the economy by 1991 so that the country's gold had to be pledged with IMF for a loan! All because Nehru as a leader had no capacity or will to learn new things and absorb new ideas!
Indeed, read his biographies. In all his public life- he did not do a single constructive thing! He is indeed one who has had greatness thrust upon him.
RAJAJI
In contrast, look at Rajaji- you don't have to agree with him.
After leaving active politics at 70, he returned to our itihasas and started writing on them, interpreting along the way. After the Avadi congress (1954) where the socialist pattern resolution was passed, he became its main and strong critic. He found that the govt. was turning statist and authoritarian and commented on that. He found that planning was leading to economic distress and he wanted people to be given freedom to work and progress. He found that it was leading to the politician-bureaucrat-businessman nexus, resulting in the 'permit-licence-quota Raj' and raised his voice against it. Finding that isolated voices would not be effective against the huge establishment of vested interests, he started the Swatantra Party, collecting some brilliant minds as colleagues. He was already past 80 then! And he opposed the imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people!
But his thirst for knowledge, quest for new ideas did not abate. He found time to read the latest novels like Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and review it in Swarajya! He found time to be in touch with serious political thinking and writing: he was the one to bring to the notice of Indians the brilliant truths of Parkinson's Law: work is elastic in its demands on time ie work expands to fill the time available; officials make work for each other, expenditure rises to meet the income available etc.. The bureaucracy keeps bulging and grows not only unresponsive, but uncontrollable! He wrote his columns regularly in Swarajya week after week- till the week he was admitted to the hospital and died, at the age of 94. And in the 'Dear Reader' column, he wrote on every subject on earth, including on Tamil grammar and English idiom!
The leaders of Madras state decided to name it Tamil Nadu.This is incorrect according to Tamil grammar. There are certain situations in which the last u sound is not fully pronounced or elongated, but shortened. Nadu is one such word. But if the U is added at the end, non-Tamilians, and even half-learned Tamilians would be pronouncing the word wrongly! (This is a problem non-Bengalis face now in pronouncing Kolkatta!) This rule is called in Tamil grammar: KUTRIYALUGARAM ( where the u sound is somewhat shortened in pronunciation.)Rajaji pointed this out. That the bigoted Tamil chauvinists did not listen is different .
Rajaji at a meeting, with three local leaders who became Chief ministers1968
MohanV Raman CCBY 2.5 in http;//creativecommons.org/licences/by/2.5/in/deed.en] via wikimedia commons
The matter relating to English idiom is interesting. During the election campaign in 1962, Rajaji addressed many meetings. He was 84. In one meeting, he used the expression: catch the blackest crow. The chauvinist Tamil newspapers, which circulate mainly among 'the pit' went on overdrive and overkill mode. They alleged that 'black crow' referred to Kamaraj who was dark in complexion and Rajaji who was fair, and a Brahmin at that, was thus abusing Kamaraj. The view spread like fire among the people and there was great resentment. Not a single newspaper cared to understand the meaning. Finally Rajaji himself had to issue the clarification: 'catch the blackest crow' is an idiom, where the true meaning is not what the words normally convey individually. It means when you aim at opposition, aim at the strongest opposition. At that time, Congress was in power, and the strongest party, and every opposition party had to aim at them.It did not refer to any individual or his skin colour at all!
Thus, till the very end, Rajaji was intellectually active, learning and teaching all the time! And his legacy lasts! The socialist regime was thrown out in 1991 and a new era of liberalisation was ushered in- by a Prime Minister who did not belong to the Nehru blood-line! Rajaji proved right!
Yes, it is important to remember that good leaders always teach, but not necessarily in word. What can be a better lesson than a life well lived! I salute Rajaji!
Swami Ranganathananda
From a book cover in LKAdvani blog.
A monk of the Ramkrishna Order, we expect him to talk of religion, philosophy, Gita etc. And he did that. Most monks do that, any way. In fact they are meant to do that. But what Ranganathananda did was something more, something different.
He kept his mind open to areas other than physics (which most scientists do not do). He found that the findings of subatomic physics seemed to accord with some of the mystical insights found in the Eastern religions: Tao, Yin-Yang of China and Vedanta. Of particular interest to Hindus is the fact that he understood the movements of and in the universe as the Dance of Shiva! I cannot refrain from quoting him:
Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing,when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand,rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the Earth's atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of 'cosmic rays', particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; I 'saw' cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I 'saw' the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I 'heard' its sound, and at that moment i knew that THIS WAS THE DANCE OF SHIVA , the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.
From the preface to the first edition: Tao of Physics, 1974.
Eight years later, in the preface to the second edition, he wrote:
When I discovered the parallels between the world views of physicists and mystics, which head been hinted at before but never thoroughly explored, I had the strong feeling that I was merely uncovering something that was quite obvious and would be common knowledge in the future; and sometimes, while writing the Tao of Physics, I even felt that it was being written through me, rather than by me. The subsequent events have confirmed these feelings.
.......the connection between physics and mysticism is not only very interesting but also extremely important. It shows that the results of modern physics have opened up two very different paths for scientists to pursue. They may lead us....to the Buddha or the Bomb......at a time when close to half of our scientists and engineers work for the military, wasting an enormous potential of human ingenuity and creativity by developing even more sophisticated means of total destruction, the path of the Buddha, the 'path with a heart', cannot be overemphasized.
From preface to the second edition, 1982. There are many editions in the market.
Some of the words here are worth noting, He felt he was merely "uncovering". The facts were there. And he felt that the book was being written "through'" him!. If we think deeply about it,we will realise, with a pleasant shock, that this is exactly what our Vedic Rishis did: they 'uncovered' the mantras which were then revealed through them!
For my part, I will only add one thing: today, the choice is not only between the Buddha and the Bomb_- there is also BUSINESS! Modern economic and industrial arrangements are thoroughly destructive of Nature ( which people celebrate as "development" and human nature ( which people celebrate as 'progress")!
The manner in which this book spread in the world without undue publicity and promotion, almost entirely by way of mouth, is an instance that an idea cannot be stopped whose time has come! And good people spread good ideas. Such was our Swami Ranganathananda!
Ranganathananda is interesting in other ways too. He was the one, after Vivekananda, among our Swamis who was always explaining our religion in a scientific spirit and always sought to connect it with modern science. In his exposition of the Gita and the Upanishads, he cites numerous modern scientists and explains the true basis of the theory of evolution: it is evolution of consciousness/awareness. This he has argued with Huxley himself.( This is an aspect on which Sri Aurobindo wrote long ago- nearly a century ago! But somehow, RK Math swamis will not acknowledge Sri Aurobindo openly or wholeheartedly.)
Thus we see great leaders in all areas are open to ideas and are themselves purveyors of great ideas. They make people think. They don't create or head mobs. They work silently, and it lasts.
Knowledge has many dimensions. But true knowledge has only one direction- towards Wisdom, Unity, God. That is where both science and mysticism have to converge. Rather, mysticism is already there: science has to catch up!
Shiva Nataraja at CERN, European Organisation for Nuclear Research, Genvea Switzerland.
By Kenneth Lu (Flickr. Nataraja at CERN)[CC BY 2,0 http://creativecommons.org.Licences/by/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Another view of the image.
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