Resurgent Culture - 1. Swami Krishnananda

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 08, 2021. 07:43.AM.
Preface -1.

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What man needs is not philosophy or religion in the academic or formalistic sense of the term, but ability to think rightly. The malady of the age is not absence of philosophy or even irreligion but wrong thinking and a vanity which passes for knowledge. Though it is difficult to define right thinking, it cannot be denied that it is the goal of the aspirations of everyone. It is not that anyone would deliberately wish to think wrongly, and wrong thinking, is that attitude of the mind, where the false is mistaken for the true. This is a deep-rooted prejudice which it is hard for most people to eradicate. Error has become so much a part of man's thinking that there seems to be no one in position to point it out. One cannot, at the same time, be a judge and also a party summoned for examination. It is necessary that some effort has to be put forth in tackling the problem in its core.

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There is often a complaint that today the world has lost all philosophical or religious consciousness and that there is no receptivity to higher values. In this connection it is always forgotten that the higher values do not suddenly fall from the skies and they have to be inculcated into the mind with some care. It is impossible that consciousness can reject truth, for the two are inseparably related to each other, and, in their highest states, the two are one. What is needed is the presentation of truth in a proper form, fitted to the particular stage in which human consciousness finds itself. What is said should be neither too much nor too little, but suitably adapted to a given situation of the human mind.

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This means that the educational method varies for the different levels and, though the same truth can be taught to all, it cannot be taught to everyone in the same way. Methods of instruction differ, though the truth does not vary. Our present-day education has become a failure because of the wrong methods adopted in stuffing the student's mind with information that cannot be easily digested. Education is not accumulation of information but assimilation of reality by degrees. When educationists forget this fundamental truth behind the educational process, education becomes a travesty and life a meaningless adventure. This is exactly the condition in which most people find themselves today and there cannot be a remedy unless a vigorous attempt is made to come face to face with the main point in question.

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There is also a complaint that life is very busy and there is no time for philosophy or religion. But philosophy and religion are not activities which require time,-they are not works to be done but identical with right thinking, which does not require of one time. Just as one does not require time to exist, though time may be needed for doing something, the question of lack of time does not arise in the case of an effort to think rightly. It is like maintenance of health, which is more a natural condition to be aspired for than a business to be dealt with or executed.

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To be contined ..

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