80. STEPPING INTO THE SAME RIVER !
HERACLITUS, the Greek philosopher said:
The water keeps flowing, and we do not enter the same water again when we step into the river the second time. Likewise, we too are not the same persons, as subtle changes have taken place in our minds- as we are bombarded by stimuli from the external world all the time. It is only the space enclosed by the banks that is unchanging, bearing the name of the river, just as the man enclosed by skin and bone remains the same, externally!
Painting of Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse, 1630.
Public domain via wikimedia commons.
The philosopher is wringing his hands in helplessness at the state of the world!
Change and Permanence
This saying shows the nature of the world as ever changing. Heraclitus posited change as the essence of the universe. This is a basic tenet of Hindu belief. The words Samsaram, Lokam all convey this very meaning. Acharya Shakara compared our life as inconstant like that of a drop of water on lotus leaf: nalini dala gata jalam ati taralam tatvat jeevitam!
The quest of the Upanishads is for the unchanging essence, behind the changes in the world-appearance. Hindus have never bothered to change the world- but change the person who perceives the world! As the saying goes:
Drishtim jnanamayim kritva
Pasyet brahmamayam jagat.
If we have the sight of Wisdom, we would perceive the world as the form of the Supreme.
This has been the traditional Hindu/ Indian approach. Even Lord Buddha did not set to change the world, but to reform the individual. His Dharma focuses on the individual.
Our sight is not of wisdom and we do perceive the world but as world! And we are troubled by the changes in the world. We are required to make adjustments to get on with the world, as it keeps changing.
Slow change and studied response
Slow change and studied response
Historically,the pace of change had been slow or rather imperceptible. So our adjustment process was also painless. It is only after the so called age of Renaissance, Enlightenment, Reformation, Scientific discoveries, Industrial Revolution etc that changes occurred at a furious pace. This coincided with the rise of the Western powers and spread all over the world under colonial conquest and rule.The two world wars and the subsequent technological explosion in all fields added to the phenomenon of change in unimaginable ways. The Western view came to prevail as the default position all over the world.
The old societies guided by their religious and spiritual leaders had standardised their pattern of personal conduct and social behaviour in terms of some religious tenets.This enabled people to respond to the world rather calmly. What they could not understand or alter, they simply took as the act of God . The Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian tradition is such an example, which itself replaced the more ancient views of different societies all over the world. But all such societies have disintegrated and the old behaviour patterns have been dismantled by the rage and range of the changes.
Furious Changes and FUTURE SHOCK
Furious Changes and FUTURE SHOCK
Alvin Toffler identified this as "FUTURE SHOCK" . In his 1970 book of that name, he simply defined it as "too much change in too short a period of time". Individuals and societies are unable to adjust to it psychologically. They are simply overwhelmed. The resulting condition is like an illness.
By Vern Evans (Flickr: Alvin Toffler 02) CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons via Wikimedia commons.
This is one of the basic books of the last century, and is now even more relevant. There are simply no words to describe the nature , magnitude and pace of changes now occurring and their impact upon the future. Who can say what will be the consequences of DNA manipulation or GM crops fifty years hence? Who knew when Penicillin was invented in the 40s that it would be rendered ineffective within 50 years? How many could foresee that the Green Revolution would be counterproductive and disastrous within 50 years?
We do not know the sources of changes, do not comprehend their nature, cannot assess their impact and cannot respond adequately. Hence are we baffled.
The problem is not that we are not able to manage the changes taking place. The problem is that we are not able to manage ourselves in relation to the changes. Nothing we do seems appropriate or adequate. Change has overpowered and outwitted us. It always does.
Technological changes and social stability
Scientists today do not care how their insights or discoveries are used in the name of technology. They are totally divorced from any moral concerns for the consequences of their discoveries. Nor are the technological innovators bothered. No one seems to be in control.At the same time, the religions have also succumbed to the lure of modern technology, and their leaders have lost credibility and direction. The common man is ditched by both science and religion.
We do not know the sources of changes, do not comprehend their nature, cannot assess their impact and cannot respond adequately. Hence are we baffled.
The problem is not that we are not able to manage the changes taking place. The problem is that we are not able to manage ourselves in relation to the changes. Nothing we do seems appropriate or adequate. Change has overpowered and outwitted us. It always does.
Technological changes and social stability
Scientists today do not care how their insights or discoveries are used in the name of technology. They are totally divorced from any moral concerns for the consequences of their discoveries. Nor are the technological innovators bothered. No one seems to be in control.At the same time, the religions have also succumbed to the lure of modern technology, and their leaders have lost credibility and direction. The common man is ditched by both science and religion.
It is clear we cannot resist or arrest change. Yet we do not know how to adapt to it!. When Swami Vivekananda interacted with the educated youth of Madras in the 1890s, he was impressed by the way they imbibed modern knowledge and scientific temper, without giving up their religious faith and practices and he hoped that it would become the national pattern. Replying to the Madras addresses from America, Swamiji wrote:
The people of Northern India are especially grateful to you of the South, as the great source to which most of the impulses that are working in India today can be traced. The great Bhâshyakâras, epoch-making Âchâryas, Shankara, Râmânuja, and Madhva were born in Southern India. Great Shankara to whom every Advâitavâdin in the world owes allegiance; great Ramanuja whose heavenly touch converted the downtrodden pariahs into Âlwârs; great Madhva whose leadership was recognised even by the followers of the only Northern Prophet whose power has been felt all over the length and breadth of India — Shri Krishna Chaitanya.
The South had been the repository of Vedic learning, and you will understand me when I state that, in spite of the reiterated assertions of aggressive ignorance, it is the Shruti still that is the backbone of all the different divisions of the Hindu religion.
But in the next 50 years things changed drastically. Modern secular education prevailed and people- especially the growing number of youngsters- have given up most religious practices.And this is more marked in the South than in the rest of the country! In the same reply, Swamiji referred to the state of Hindu youngsters:
the modern young Hindu struggles in vain to understand the religion of his forefathers, and gives up the quest altogether, and becomes a hopeless wreck of an agnostic, or else, unable to vegetate on account of the promptings of his innate religious nature, drinks carelessly of some of those different decoctions of Western materialism with an Eastern flavour, and thus fulfils the prophecy of the Shruti:परियन्ति मूढा अन्धेनैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः।— "Fools go staggering to and fro, like blind men led by the blind."
Can prophets go wrong? I do not know!
Confused by change, confounded by solutions
Not only are we confronted by the overwhelming nature of the changes, we are even more confused by the scholars analysing them and offering solutions! And in no field is there a consensus. So called science has destroyed all the old certainties which guided people for millennia. And science itself is unable to provide any lasting guidance! Today, science is so minutely fragmented in the name of specialisation, there is really no one who answers to the description of "Scientist"! And none can speak with absolute certainty or authority!
The greatest discovery of 20th century science only led to the creation of the most destructive weapon known to man- the Atom Bomb! Unfortunately, even Einstein was associated with it. Every so called scientific discovery can be related to some human misery.
Real Scientific Revolution
If we are to be saved, it seems we have to step into the same old river again: the river of Philosophy, natural Wisdom!
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