As part of the selection process in my first job, I had to participate in a group discussion whose topic of discussion was 'why was the light bulb not invented in India'? I don't quite remember what transpired in the discussion, but I do remember one of the lines I said - 'What useful thing was invented in India in the last two thousand years for us to worry about the light bulb?' The answer, then, mostly came out of the 15+ years of western schooling. Despite the intense schooling I went through, I remember still feeling a tinge of sadness as I uttered those words then.
Why work on inventing toys?
After lots of study and personal realizations, I can now state confidently what many of the best minds in India have been doing traditionally - they became monks. This is not the monkhood of self deprivation and self torture, but the monkhood born out of recognition of the need of freedom and peace and the absolute pointlessness of the egoic ways of living. The best minds out here saw clearly the stupidity of spending your time inventing new objects when the need of the hour is evolution in consciousness. Of what use it is to invent toys when our minds are clearly insane? Of what use it is to have bigger buildings and wider roads when our ability to empathize, ability to love and ability to build a peaceful society are taking a nosedive (are in fact almost non existent)? They saw clearly that the root cause of all human suffering is that almost all human individuals function out of a false identity about themselves - that they are their ego and that the psychological demands of it dictate the course of their life (personal accomplishments / ambitions, endless obsession about praise / criticism, fear of death etc..). The best minds here then went about trying to do what best can be done to change this - to evolve. When compared with the courage and audaciousness of such an attempt, what a trifle all the material inventions turn out to be? Not to disregard them, but, honestly, there is no comparison even.
The best minds became monks!
Cut to the modern day world, and the best minds in India go to IIT / IIM and go around making / selling products that promise happiness to people in various ways. Absolutely ludicrous! Its even more ludicrous that they dont even realize that they are doing all of this to enhance their own image in the eyes of others and themselves (in terms of ambition, long term plan, future security etc). The stupidity of such a life is the first lesson people were taught in the anicent days, the first lesson in Brahma Vidya, that happiness does not come from outside. This is the sad state today - wastage of human capital. Not everyone may be doing this but, at best, those who are not involved in making big money, may be studying, say, biological evolution in a university lab. The best minds are needed to assist the evolution of human race primarily - the evolution from the point where most individuals live a ego centric life to the point where most individuals possess an identity that encompasses all of creation. All else is secondary. That of course is the reason why nothing material got invented out here in the last two thousand years. People were busy trying to cut through the forces that prevent them and others from evolving. This is not to claim that they were successful, but to point what they were occupied with. When Buddha attained enlightenment, the kingdom was still available for him to take up. But, he did not become a king. He did not feel he could contribute towards the eradication of suffering as a king. Instead, it was obvious to him that the work needed was on evolution of consciousness and not on roads and dams. People misunderstand this wrongly that because he had renounced the world, he could not become a king again!
They worked to assist the evolution of the human race.
Can we see this? Can we see the absolute primacy of awakening? Of course not to take pride in claiming that my nation is great. That is too silly. When one awakens, where is the question of 'my nation', as there is no 'me' in the first place? There are no boundaries. When the sun is shining brightly, why worry about light bulbs? Can we see this?
7 comments:
So true !
Thank you for your beautiful writing.
Ya... Lovely piece of writing !
Oh Partha... still a long way to go and light your inner bulb. This is not condescension; but a note on your constant ranting. Don't try to dilute the contributions of Science and scientists to the world.
Not all great minds of India went into self discovery. Claiming that our great minds were occupied with self consciousness and assisting the evolution of human race and so did not invent the bulb is absurd. If so, why are we still struggling with so much of poverty and hunger?
Honestly, Im very sad to read this post of yours. No invention is good or bad. It is how we use it makes it good/bad. Maybe you should open up your mind and try to see the beauty of the science behind every invention instead of being judgemental about inventions and giving reasons for why we did not invent the bulb.
@Sneha -
When you see what another says from the perspective of condemning / judging, you might not be able to see the truth. I request you to totally let go of such notions before understanding what I have written.
"Not all great minds of India went into self discovery"
=> Absolutely true. I dont think I claimed such a thing. That would be absurd for sure. But, an extraordinarily large number of people attempted this.
I only said they attempted this, not accomplished this. No subset of humanity can accomplish this. Only when all of us, or at least a vast majority, come together, can this be accomplished.
I believe that if you understand the direction science has been taking by and large, and understand the root cause of suffering on planet earth, you might be able to see the importance of the evolution of human consciousness (over that of science) in eliminating all forms of violence from earth.
So, please let me know what you think is, by and large, the motivation of individual scientists who decide the direction of science? Also, let me know what you think is the root cause of all human suffering (for eg: poverty and hunger in India that you pointed out)
Partha, either I understand your message wrongly or you were not clear. To me, the point your post was trying to make was: The reason that great minds in India did not come up with the bulb was they went into "attempting" self discovery. And ofcourse, I do understand the important message of human consciousness you are trying to make. But what direction has science taken and the human suffering it has resulted into is not the the point. If that was what you were trying to say, maybe write separately about that.
What Im pointing out is, every invention is beautiful and undermining years of thought, imagination and hard work behind any invention is not needed if you want to make a point on consciousness. Just because they did not incline towards consciousness and landed up inventing things does not give you any reason to put them in comparison with those who went into self discovery. And self discovery is no reason not to do science. No invention is made with the idea of destruction in mind. And science is not responsible for what the lesser minds have used it for. As I told you earlier, no invention is good/bad. It is how we use it makes it good/bad.
You may now argue from a consciousness point of view that "why invent at all in the first place?" Well... I would then suggest on going back to the hunter-gatherer way of living; even still, did we not have to invent means to hunt/gather? Trying to say that human consciousness is more important than science sounds to me like you are arguing which among the two eyes is important. Neither consciousness nor science is superior over the other. They are equal. They have to go hand in hand for the progress of society. And I strongly believe that only when you realize this, you would be able to work towards betterment.
Is there a "root" cause of suffering? Is there a root cause for anything?
>>Also, let me know what you think is the root cause of all human suffering (for eg: poverty and hunger in India that you pointed out)
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