Stray thoughts of Dr.Y.V.Rao-7
Dr.
Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc., Ph. D
Retired Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
yernenivrao@gmail.comh.
B 2-28(
B2-45)
During
the period of early growth, childhood innocence gets slowly subsumed in
information, which then steadily gets congealed into knowledge with the advance
of maturity. And as knowledge ripens into wisdom with age, man’s lost
innocence, that paradise lost returns to him—in a few rare lucky instances ,
even the spring in the step , the sparkle in the eye , the smile in the face ,
the verve and wit in speech and story , the song in the heart and the beat on
the lips too may return—thus completing the circle. What all they want in this
child -like state , the second childhood, is a little warmth which they gladly
reciprocate multiplied many times over with a big heart for, that is what they
most cherish and treasure in life, and yet, love to share it with others
without looking for reasons and with no motives. Contemplate this circularity
of life and the mystery of the why and wherefore of the oneness children
spontaneously feel with the aged, and the how and the why of the rapport they
instantly establish with them would be cleared at once, for like Phil Moss’
grandmother, who is a person with too much wisdom to let that stop her from
making a fool of herself on her grandchildren, they too wouldn’t hesitate to
put aside their wisdom to steal the hearts of children. For those that know how
to heed the gentle dictates of their heart and follow it never mind making
fools of themselves occasionally if that is what is needed to make children
happy and spread sunshine and warmth around them.
B 2-29
It is
said that man should accumulate knowledge and wealth as if he knows no death or
old age. Reason? Why one, there could be many.
One such
: wealth without knowledge being blind , knowledge without wealth being lame,
either alone makes life incomplete at best while the two together not only make
it whole(complete) but elevate it to a higher plane of vibrancy and vitality to
enable man to live a life of nobility and fullness. The other reason could be ,
he can use his wealth wisely under the benign influence of his enlightening
knowledge if he has both—espousing worthy causes, supporting charitable
institutions, promoting social good and generally contributing to commonweal
without ever being concerned with what comes back to him in return , thus
becoming a living example of the Gandhian Doctrine of Trusteeship: “the wealthy
holding wealth in trust for serving the poor and the destitute in particular
and fellow beings in general. That such people live long after they are gone is
too obvious to need reiteration/be worth stating.
Still others simple and straight forward
argument could be that he can occupy himself fully with accumulating and
looking after his wealth by stashing it away in well-guarded vaults while he is
looked after by his knowledge , trusting in the infinite wisdom of time to do
what needs to be done with the wealth so accumulated.
Another simpler but less laudable reason
could be that man, deprived of his discrimination, may at times allow himself
to be looked after by his wealth while his knowledge looks on helplessly, at
any rate for the time being, but with an undying hope that it might still be
able to retrieve the lost ground and regain its preeminent role as a saviour
and keeper of man. Dazzled by his accumulated wealth, accumulated often at high
human cost, and deluded by his attachment to it , at some stage in his life, he
may start losing himself in his wealth and before long, find himself confined ,
cribbed and constrained in a cage of golden bars and silver ceiling—a cage
nevertheless, suffocating, stuffy and stifling , to say the least—while his
knowledge having itself become a prisoner of his acquisitive instinct long
before , stands a mute witness to his pathetic predicament , but as ever , on
the ready to get up and get on with the salvage operation to save him from
total annihilation at the first sign of a desire for such a bail out on his
part.
Yet another could be a more mundane one. For
worldly people, that means most, life is too subtle and complex for their
comfort , so they start looking for some shelter behind some simple palpable
purpose serving as a substitute for living, and what can be simpler and more
palpable than acquiring wealth, more wealth, and then some more wealth a la an
ever busy dung beetle busy harvesting manure and storing it up like nobody’s
business, using knowledge as an effective means to rationalize and justify his
greedy and unethical ways of pursuing wealth as an end in itself “grabbing the food of the hungry, robbing the
wealth of the weak”?
But what certainly could not be a reason
though it appears to be one is that one may (mis)use or abuse both wealth and
knowledge as merely tools to acquire power over others so that one can run
rough shod over them more ruthlessly than if one has only one instead of both.
Wealth, at best, is an instrument and
knowledge the technique to use that instrument for achieving a better quality
of life so as to make life more significant, meaningful, satisfying and
fulfilling. If wealth enables man to expand his capabilities and enlarge his
freedom to do things that he values, knowledge decides what things are of value and shows how to lead a
life of fulfilment which is of intrinsic importance rather than what
commodities he can acquire with his wealth.
Thus, wealth could be a boon or a bane /
boondoggle depending on one’s ability to handle it wisely or otherwise. In as
much as it is not possible even for the most conscientious and the continent to
be wise and vigilant always and every moment, the ideal thing to do for those spiritually
inclined few would be to accumulate just enough wealth to live a simple life so
they may devote themselves totally to learning, reflecting, meditating and, in
short, evolving into perfect human beings with understanding hearts and
harmonizing minds.
The motto therefore should be limited wealth
and unlimited enlightenment instead of limitless wealth and limited knowledge.
B 2-30
Every
rich fool or a well-to-do wastrel is surrounded by self-serving sycophants and
spongers, shameless flatterers and hangers-on and true-to-type time-servers and
gate-crashers as surely as an untended stagnant pool is infested by pests ,
parasites , insects and vermin.
B 2-31
Illuminating
are the insights of the “ready omniscience of the unlearned.” One such is the
innate ability of the simple folk to grasp the plain truth that more is not
better where less is adequate and to live with what is adequate without ever
falling prey to the temptation for more.
On a more
practical plane, what ‘the grass-roots innovators working in laboratories of
life by using their powers of observation, analysis and synthesis’, come up
with by way of solutions to problems bear ample testimony to their innate
intelligence , sagacity and wisdom, their innovations are singularly free from
the blemish of spawning ten other problems for every one they solve, as is the
case with many modern technological solutions. They snugly fit into the
environment, from which they arise, causing no harm to man or beast.
Hats off
to their unlearned learning or hita patutvam in the inimitable idiom of the
immortal Kalidasa, the poet par excellence.
<>><>><>><>
No comments:
Post a Comment