Autocracy,
aristocracy or democracy; none of them, can be de-linked from human mind,
intellect, ego and desire. The man’s compulsion to live in groups made him to
form his societies. And, to minimize the conflicts between the members of a
society arising out of the play of mind, intellect, ego and desire in
individuals, the man invented religions, social systems and political systems.
While individuals’ qualities, whether godlike or devil like, influenced the evolution
of religions, social norms or social systems; man’s intellect had a larger role
to play in forming of political systems.
Not much time has elapsed since the man has been continuously
trying to adjust to the changes in his life patterns arising out of changes
that he himself made in his physical surroundings through his intellectual
efforts. To explain, when the man discovered new lands and invented things that
reduced his physical labor; he was forced to invent more things that helped him
to overcome the difficulties he faced due to his preceding inventions. We can
say that the modern man perpetually occupied his mind for finding solutions to
the problems that arose due to the solution that he himself had found to solve
his preceding problems. With little efforts of careful observation and
contemplation we can infer that much activated intellect of modern man in the
physical world has been increasingly interfering with his emotional, social and
spiritual abilities, thereby making them less responsive to human religious,
social needs and spiritual.
In the first paragraph here, we have said that the man gives
a larger part of his intellectual self towards building a political environment
to help himself. In the preceding paragraph, we said that an over occupied
intellect may make religious, emotional, social and spiritual abilities of the
man less responsive to human needs. At this juncture, we come face to face with
a few questions. The first is; can we appropriately use our intellect, if our
religious, emotional, social and spiritual abilities have become less
responsive to our needs and have been corrupted beyond tolerable limits? The
second is; is it wise to deal with our political needs, relying heavily on our
intellect, isolating it from our emotional, social, religious and spiritual
abilities? Equally serious is the third question; that is, have we, while
switching over to democratic political systems, ensured that a philosophy based
on the man’s needs to strengthen his spiritual, emotional, social and religious
abilities, in addition to the satisfaction of his physical needs, is infused
and boosted from time to time and for times to come? The most important
question is, how to answer the above referred questions and many more similar
questions?
Once, the people have adopted democracy to deal with their
problems, the people themselves, become responsible for answering such and
similar questions. Perhaps, it will be a good idea to remind ourselves, that as
civilized human beings, we need to take care of our possessions, that is, our
abilities, and strengthen them to live a happy life. Our body, mind, intellect,
emotions, religious faith, spiritual understanding and social existence need to
be appropriately served to live meaningfully. The man has thought of democracy,
perhaps, only for satisfaction of physical needs of all, on an equitable basis,
relying much on the kind of knowledge he possessed in pre-democratic era to
take care of his other abilities viz. mental, intellectual, emotional, religious
faith and spiritual understanding. Perhaps, we have installed democratic political
systems to exclusively take care of our physical world, without commissioning
the philosophy of life in its entirety. Maybe, we need to go for a prolonged
democratic revolution, involving many, not a few, to fulfill the void in our
emotional, social, religious and spiritual existence.
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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