The most precious outcome of intellectual labour is perpetual
development of the understanding of the Universal Intelligence so that
Universal Consciousness gets settled in humanity. Those who dedicate their
lives to intellectual labour must avoid distractions of excessive physical
comfort and luxuries in life that are for pleasure of the senses and distort
the true perception of things. The people who dedicated their lives to such
intellectual labour were called ‘Brahmins’ in ancient India. They depended on
the alms offered to them by others for earning their livelihood and merciful
immunity granted to them by the society for their physical protection.
The man found that his intellectual efforts also helped him
in improving his quality of physical life. Not all, but at least a few sections
of the human population could make their lives much more secure and comfortable
through intellectual labour. Superficial understanding of the process of life
makes the man respond to his physical advancements more quickly and to a
greater extent than his spiritual advancement. Ordinarily one’s senses respond
to physical conditions instantly and rather loudly; whereas, his intellect
responds to the matters of spiritual nature very slowly and peacefully. The powerful
and the selfish among the men quickly realized that use of intellectual labour,
instead of physical efforts and strength was a more effective way for leading a
life with greater ease, comfort, and security. In the modern world, demand for
those, who could put in intellectual efforts for generating more wealth and
much faster than through physical (bodily) labour, rose by leaps and bounds.
Although most scriptures and many wise philosophers had
warned against the indiscriminate use of intellectual labour for ensuring
mindless physical progress, but the powerful and the influential among the men
preferred to lead the world in a direction that gave them better opportunities
for creating much wealth to satisfy their greed, and the power and social status
to manipulate the affairs of the world in their favour.
M.K. Gandhi said, “The
intellectual labour is for the benefit of the soul; it cannot be deployed for
earning one’s livelihood.” In spite of
serious warning by many other modern philosophers also a new but much distorted
and perverse form of ‘Brahmanism’ established its roots firmly in the modern
world. The intellectual supremacy, the intellectual efforts and labour are
being primarily used for physical empowerment and growth of a few privileged
people out of the vast population of human beings. These privileged people
lead, control, and rule; and, decide everything concerning the lives of those,
who have little or no privileges. The intellectual efforts are very sparingly
being used to explore the realities of today in today’s circumstances. We
hardly find people dedicated to reviewing what was said by our wise ancestors,
so that the eternal knowledge we claim to be in possession of can be used by
the modern man who has many affinities to the intellectual efforts for his
physical welfare, for the sustainable good of the human race, without
discrimination and distinction. On the contrary, the eternal truth is being
presented to the modern man as something highly theoretical and beyond his
reach. The matter does not end here. Those who help in circulating the great
knowledge created for the spiritual growth of the mankind need money to perform
their duty, because the trend is to consider even intellectual efforts (labour)
for promoting spiritual, religious and ethical growth as a commodity. Just as
the opportunities for physical survival must be available to all, without
distinction; the opportunities for spiritual growth must also be free.
The critical issue before us is ‘exploring the realities of
today in today’s circumstances’. The historical realities of the past many
centuries have pushed the man towards aggressive and violent means for his
physical advancement. Virtually, nothing has been seriously done to review the
changes and ponder over what the man had been doing individually and socially.
The man quickly learned to reduce his dependence on his bodily efforts and
deployed his intellectual abilities to grow faster than ever before. Those who
could make intellectual efforts were promoted by the powerful in their self
interests. The vast majority of human populations were neither powerful nor
intellectually advanced as a few among them were. Today, the nexus of the
powerful and the intellectually advanced call the shots, and the majority just
watches the game helplessly. Just as many Brahmins of ancient India took upon
themselves to pay more attention to and guide the warrior classes that often
ruled; the intellectuals of modern times served the handful of powerful people
to help them become more powerful. In ancient India the Brahmins, the intellectual
class, considered it as their duty to guide the ruling class so that the right
social order is maintained, but their proximity with the ruling class
distracted them from the purpose they were supposed to serve. As a result the
spiritual growth of the entire society was stunted. The scenario of modern
times had been different. The use of intellect to reduce the component of
labour from production prompted the powerful people to acquire the means of
production to acquire much wealth in no time. The majority lost the means of production
that they possessed, as also the opportunities to put in physical labour for
their survival. The people with intellectual abilities; knowingly or
unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly; sided with the powerful, because only
that could have guaranteed them a comfortable living. This analysis may appear
a bit too simplistic, and the root causes and repercussions of the happenings
may be far more complex, but the appearance of a totally misguided, greedy and
impatient ‘Neo-Brahmins’ cannot be overlooked.
The appropriate use of human intellect is more for his
spiritual growth, because only thereby the man learns how to live. Undoubtedly,
man’s intellect can also be used to facilitate his physical survival, but the
benefit thereof must accrue to all without discrimination and distinction.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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