DEMIGODS OF THE MANKIND

“Even after 67 years of freedom 75% of rural families in India live on less than Rs. 5000 per month.” “The government allows a big chunk of forest land for non green use.” “Reservation of backward classes in government jobs to continue.” “Marriages within same sex may be legalized.” “Education of science subjects cannot be made compulsory in schools that follow some religious system of education.” This is the type of news we get every day. We cannot question the intention behind circulating this news, because it can easily be proved that the matter relates to the welfare of the mankind.

An ordinary citizen of any country, who has minimal opportunities to feed and clothe himself and his family does not take sides in religious, political, economic, social, educational and many other types of matters. He wants nothing but enough work for his physical survival. He also does not mind sharing a portion of the fruits of his labour with others. He trusts his teachers, his political and religious leaders, the philosophers who guide him, the scientists who explore the unknown and many others who claim to ‘know’ and to possess superior abilities to ‘think ’and decide. We will call all of them and others like them, ‘the leaders’. The ordinary citizen, a big majority in numbers, allows ‘the leaders’ to interfere in every aspect of his life. ‘The leaders’ propound theories, from the theory of relativity’ to ‘the universal consciousness’; they decide what is good for the man and for this earth; they decide the type of education they need to govern the globe; they decide who should do intellectual labour and who should do physical labour; they decide how many wives, male or female, a man can have; they decide what kind of laws are just and what is injustice; they decide who need not do anything  except manipulating things for living a luxurious life; they decide who can possess what; they can decide about everything  on this earth and implement it; and so on and so forth. ‘The leaders are ‘the knowledge Bank’ of the mankind.  They can be collectively called the man-made, Demigods of the mankind and for the mankind.

No, I have no intention to classify the world in two classes; the first, that works less, thinks more and has all the powers; and the second, which works more, has neither the ability, nor the time to think and has no strength to decide much in the matters of his life. We know many of the ordinary citizens cross over to the leader’s side, and acquire the same knowledge as the other leaders have. It makes no difference, because the leaders remain the leaders and the ordinary citizen remains the ordinary citizen.

Perhaps, the man of the distant past believed that the nature was the provider and the man could survive by adjusting himself according to it. Maybe, the man later experienced that he had the ability to manipulate the nature and what was around him, including the fellow human beings, to improve upon the conditions of his own survival. After having learnt that, the man did not look back. Some knowledge was created initially, but later he busied himself with ‘mass production of knowledge’ with ever increasing vigour and pace.  Today, for every piece of knowledge, there is reverse knowledge; in every point of view, there is an opposite viewpoint and to every argument, there is a counter argument. We do not know where the truth lies and what is good for us.

The man has no ability to create knowledge for universal good. He cannot manage the universe. He can only try to manage his immediate surroundings. One can perhaps, create knowledge for the benefit of his immediate surroundings that he is somewhat aware of, but he definitely cannot and should not universalize that knowledge. To align our intelligence with the universal intelligence we must meticulously and selflessly perform our duties towards our immediate surroundings. That will benefit us and our surroundings; by doing thus, the universe shall automatically be served.

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”.]