Sometime back, I was into an Apartments Complex. Just inside the gate, in front of the garden, there was a black board in which it was written: ‘It is intelligence and not knowledge that makes an ideal human being’. I could not easily swallow what was written there and I do not endorse this statement too. What I understood was that people generally confuse between, intelligence, knowledge, purpose and value. Intelligence is generally interpreted in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. Intelligence is not restricted to humans only; instead every matter has intelligence in some degrees. Knowledge, at the same time, is our awareness or understanding of someone or something or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning. In my opinion, neither knowledge nor intelligence is invariably what an ideal human being is.
In an ancient temple, a number of pigeons lived happily on roof top. When the temple was under renovation the pigeons relocated themselves to a Church nearby. When the Church was undergoing a facelift, they flew to a mosque. When the mosque was under painting, they flew to the market place, where they found people fighting each other. A baby pigeon asked the mother pigeon,
"Who are these people?"
The mother replied that they were "Human beings".
The baby asked, "But why are they fighting with each other".
The mother said "These human beings going to temple are called 'Hindus' and the people going to Church are called 'Christians' and the people going to Mosque are called 'Muslims'.
The Baby pigeon asked, "why is it so? Look, when we were in the Temple we were called Pigeons, when we were in the church we were called Pigeons and when we were in the Mosque, we were called Pigeons. Similarly they should be called just 'Human beings' wherever they go".
The mother Pigeon said, 'You and me and our Pigeon friends have experienced God and that's why we are living here in a highly elevated place peacefully. These people are yet to experience God. Hence they are living below us and fighting and killing each other".
This story, I think, answers our questions on who we should have been.
Joseph Mattappally
No comments:
Post a Comment