I quote
below a few initial lines of a chapter of my book “In Search of Our
Wonderful Words” titled as “Ideal, Man’s half brother”.
**************
QUOTE
Don’t use that
foreign word “ideals”. We have that excellent native word “lies’.
(Henrik Ibsen)
A map of the world
that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at, for it leaves out the
one country at which Humanity is always landing.
(Oscar Wilde)
For
almost all of us, an ideal means what is not practical. We all try to devise
our own individual methods of brushing aside the ideals from our daily lives. Perhaps,
a few of the readers of this book might have left it at some stage assuming it
to be a book talking about the ideals that served no immediate purpose in their
efforts to lead their lives successfully. I included this chapter in this book
to discuss why our lack of interest in the ideals of life is worth pondering
over. In place of ‘an ideal’ let us use a different word that has a parallel
meaning. The different word is ‘the theory’. Any theory is evolved after
considerable observations and experimentation with due care. However, for
developing any theory many assumptions have to be made to explore the ultimate
possibilities that can be materialized in conditions when no obstacles, no
resisting forces or impediments exist. The scientists are well aware that such
ideal conditions may never occur, but their job is to find out what best could
be achieved according to the logical considerations of cause and effect. We
have been using many scientific theories to make practical achievements. We
have made great materialistic advancements using theories that have been
evolved for ideal conditions that never existed and will never ever exist.
UNQUOTE
**************
The
book does not discuss any particular philosophy. It simply raises a few issues
for the consideration of its readers. After all, their personal philosophies
are more important than anything else. If a change has to come, it will come
from there.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer is the author of
“In Search of Our Wonderful Words” and “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively
Obvious”.]
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