Don't be Alienated

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

In every process of rejuvenation there is an act of self actualization or self regulation, because the moment one creates something one has to ensure full participation in the act of creation. That full involvement occurs only when one is able to exercise free will. Otherwise, a person who is not involved in a particular activity will naturally be alienated from the action as well as the context in which he is acting. This process of alienation is a very serious one and the person who himself alienates from the context, as well as the action, will never be able to make anything novel or anything creative. It is the total involvement of the person in the context as well as in the action that makes him really free and such a person should be able to create something, in the sense that he must be able actualize whatever be the potentialities in him. The range of the actualization as well as the range of the potentialities may be changing from person to person or place to place. A person who is actualizing something alone need not be great – this rule is applicable to a great writer and a great craftsman.

A person who is able to actualize whatever he has with him must be able to produce something and such an act of creation must be able to surpass the test of times. The test of times means that an act of creation must be able to survive irrespective of the temporal changes. This is what is meant by the term novelty. So the act of creation is a novel action and in that novel action the person actualizes whatever he has with him in the potential form. If there is a cent percent involvement in that actualization that can be treated as self-realization in the context in which one acts. So, self-realization is the aim of a creative artist. The moment one feels that he has actualized whatever he has with him then he can be sure of the fact that act has been a creative one. Such an act of creation really leads the whole nation to prosperity and progress. A progressive society is one that gives maximum opportunity to its members for the actualization of their talents. This is one of the reasons why the fascist societies are not able to survive the test of the times. Such a society will never be able to preserve the right of its individuals to create with maximum involvement in the said context. This is one of the reasons why the fascist maxims are failing in due course. Fascism will never be able to entertain the free will of the individual and since they are not able to do that they won’t be able to help those members of the society to actualize their capacities; it can be in any form.

A man can be creative in a business field just like genuine artist. So we cannot say that only artists and writers are creative and business men are not. This style of thought never makes any sense. Business men can also be creative provided they also blossom into full. This is applicable to every area of action including religious service. Take for example any business man or an industrialist, who is making money and he cannot enjoy the total of his creation for himself alone. That is another characteristic of the art of creation. The art of creation guarantees its enjoyment not to the creator alone but to other persons who need not be gifted to live in a particular favour. Take for ex. Ford. The Ford industry has made money, and whatever Ford has made, that money is utilized also by the persons who are not directly linked to him. This is the case of a businessman in India too. My point is that whatever be the art of creation, one of the aims is that any activity of creation is not exclusively meant for the creator alone; it is meant for the whole public in the sense that it also includes the generations to come. 

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Novelty in Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

It is the self regulated mechanism of freedom that really leads a society to creativity. Creativity in its ideal form must be novel and noble. By novelty, it means rejuvenation of oneself - that is the most important feature of novelty. Novelty invariably rejuvenates a person to new dimensions and it also leads one to new horizons. It is in this sense that a creative activity becomes the best form of expression that makes every society healthy and wealthy. If a society is not wealthy, it simply means that such a society doesn’t utilize its’ resources in a creative manner. Rejuvenation intends to make use of whatever one has with him/her in tune with the contextual demands and never anything from external sources. Rejuvenation for a person is not through extraction of any sort of energy from external agencies, but that person or the body of that person due to its metabolic mechanism makes use of whatever it has in a more organized manner, to make the body more strong in that context. It is what is called the adaptability of the body mechanism. When novelty rejuvenates oneself, then he/she must be able to produce the best from them. 

There is rejuvenation of economy and health. The best of a nation or of a person can be made only through the process of rejuvenation. In that process, an individual, society or a state makes use of its economic energy in a convergent manner to make it more and more useful. To make a nation wealthy, it is not proper to invade other nations or rob off other’s wealth. Instead, they have to depend upon whatever they have with them. This is how creativity is made novel and noble. The very idea of invasion and exploitation of others is not at all creative because such an idea never makes a person free. A person who is engaged in any sort of exploitation will naturally be living in a world of slavery. It is in this sense that Mahatma Gandhi made it clear that the British people who were establishing colonies in Asia and Africa were not enjoying freedom. He knew that free people never exploit others, they always rejuvenate their own resources. This rejuvenation of one’s own resources must be the source of an economic force according to the Indian concept. Mahatma Gandhi who followed the Advaita system in socio-political life, insisted that Swaraj must be the dictum to govern the socio political and economic forces in India. It is the Swaraj that gives one freedom nobility and novelty; it is the Swaraj that makes one happier. This must be the dictum for everyone who is engaged in a creative activity. 

In literature, plagiarism has totally been treated as unethical. There is no creativity in imitation. Here, no one can enjoy freedom or happiness. A plagiarist cannot also utilize his own talents. This is applicable to the nation also. The case of a nation or a society which exists exploiting others might cease to be wealthy one fine morning. Same is the case with an artist, an industrialist, layman or a family man. While addressing a writer’s conference, Gandhiji made it clear that as an Indian one has to depend on India. The writers who are trying to follow the footsteps of the western authors will never be able to make their attempts a successful one. For ex. one cannot imitate Shakespeare and create an identical play in India. In the history of the literary movements in India, we are not tracing the history of all imitators but we are after the original writers who made exclusive use of local resources, the literary history of India begins with Vyasa and Kalidasa. So, originality depends on creativity and creativity means rejuvenating oneself and rejuvenating oneself means using one’s own resources in the given context. 

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A Simple Solution for a Big Problem

Freedom and Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

A very false concept on creativity is that it amounts to anarchy. Take for ex. music; anarchical expression of various sound waves can never be able to create music. Music can be created only if the musician regulates his vocal cord to produce a specific range of sound with all required features. A musician also needs consistent practice for effective utilization of all supporting equipments. Like this, a poet has to make rigorous practices to make his selections proper. After all, poetry is diction; but how to use the words appropriately is the question. Words can be connected properly in a poetic manner only if one is able to make discrimination between what the poet needs in a particular poetic context and what he does not need. So the ‘need’ and ‘does not need’ are to be assessed properly, where one has to exercise one’s power to regulate his capacity to select words. Words are flowing like a river but we have to get what we need. This proper form of selection is to be done by proper regulation. This is applicable to the administration also. A good administrator is the one who is able to regulate himself as well as his establishment. Administration is nothing but an act of exercising freedom, in the sense that he regulates himself and the whole establishment. Regulation can never be confined to the financial matters alone, even though every finance manager gives the warning that one has to regulate one’s expenditure. If one is not able to regulate expenditure, such an institution will end up in bankruptcy because unregulated spending of money will definitely take an institution to financial crisis. So, regulation is essential even for a good administrator. One cannot become a management expert without having regulation. 

These rules of regulation are not restricted to either a good politician or a good academician. Wherever we exercise our free will, there we need regulation. There cannot be any creation or creative activity without having proper regulation. This universal theory can no way be ignored by any person whatever be his area of activity, irrespective of a laymen and an expert. Take the case of a lady who is cooking. Cooking is an activity which needs a high level of attention and concentration. In every minute segment of the process the one who is engaged in cooking has to exercise accurate self-regulation mechanism. She should invariably know the proportion of all ingredients used in a dish – from salt to spices. In short, wherever we are placing ourselves, we essentially need self-regulation. My point is that self-regulation is not merely the concern of Rishis and sages alone but of every person who is engaged in any sort of activity. The moment one wants to transform ones activity as an act of creation, such an act can never be able to ignore the role of self regulation. At the very beginning of this discussion itself, I had made it clear that freedom is self-regulation. Advaita Vedanta clearly gives the idea that any person in any field can be creative only when he exercises his free will with a regulative mechanism that has been designed by the person himself. 

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Freedom and Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

If you want to actualize the potentialities present in an individual, you must ­­­necessarily make him free and if a teacher can make a student free from fear of a subject, quite sure that such a student must be able to produce the maximum in the subject as well as in the society. Because of the fact that there is an element of fear in our students, usually they are not creative in their activities; they are afraid of language, they are afraid of mathematics, they are afraid of science and they are afraid of almost every subject. The duty of an ideal teacher is to remove fear of a subject from the mindset of the students and removal of fear is exactly the work of a teacher. A person who is able to remove fear from the minds of the people is a real leader. But, on the contrary what happens now is that here in the political organizations the supreme leaders are creating more of it. Because of this fear any follower always imitates the leader, and imitation cannot bring out anything creative. So, especially in the case of India, we have to free our youth, free our students free our management and our employees from that fear which has already been created by the so called superiors. The removal of fear is an essential precondition in exploring the potentialities in a human individual. Advaita aims at removal of fear and the moment we admit that ‘I and you’ is identical, we also indirectly admit that there is no difference between ‘I and you. If there are identical elements in ‘I and you’ there is no question of lack of communication. Lack of communication always ends up in creation of fear. 

No society can be progressive without expression of freedom by every member. A developed and progressive society means a society which actualizes the potentialities in every individual. All such actualizations should have the ability to exercise freedom of each person. Freedom is something that is not given; it has to be taken by the person concerned. The one who exercises freedom has to remember that a free person has to regulate himself too. The self-regulated exercise of freedom by every member of a society alone ensures progress and development. The present day market economy believes in unfettered freedom. An unfettered freedom is dangerous to a healthy society.  A society needs regulation and that regulation must be self-regulation. This aspect has been forgotten by the Western philosophical systems of thought. Now-a-days the world moves towards polarization of power, wealth etc. This is highly dangerous. Freedom is dangerous but self-regulated freedom is not.

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Fear in Freedom

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

Freedom is one of the necessary preconditions for creativity. A society can be creative, only if it enjoys freedom; same is the case with individuals too. A free person and a free society should be able to actualize whatever remains in potential form. So, the best form of management is exploring the creativity of one and all in that organization. Here, both the organization and all the members of that organization should be free. An organization consisting of free members alone is a free organization; only such an organization turns creative in management, in political affairs, in social affairs and even in industrial development. A developed society in its real form is a society that enjoys freedom, in the sense that it is able to exercise self-regulation.
A self-regulated society alone will be able to effect changes in a creative form in the context in which it exists. Take for example the case of management: we want to get the best product, the best result etc. but the best can be produced only if all the members of that organization, right from the last grade to the Managing Director are exercising their free will. The exercise of free will means that a person in that organization must be able to concentrate, must be able to organize and focus his attention on the goals directed by that organization. Then only an individual can be creative and only a creative individual is able to contribute something effective and valuable to that organization. What happens now days is that we are fixing targets to be achieved. In the process of achieving a target, the individual is bound by issues other than the target because if he is not able to achieve the target, he will be thrown away from that organization. This naturally generates fear. A person who is overpowered by fear can never be a free man. Man must necessarily be free from all sorts of fears including fear of God. The very concept of fear of God has been the contribution of the Jewish tradition. When Jesus introduced His Gospel, He really changed this position and He identified with those persons, who were then treated inferior. Such an identification give those persons, a sense of freedom because they get rid of the fear that has already been created by a philosophical position which says that God is something different from man and man cannot attain the position of God. ¬¬Jesus has made it clear that if a person is able to experience God he should also be able to establish His kingdom on earth. Jesus explains that when one experiences heaven on earth he gets freedom from all the fears that have been created by distinct forces.
This philosophy is never different from right management principles. A management expert must be able to guide others to exercise their free will in tune with the objectives of the organization. When an individual gets tuned to this style, he really turns a contribution to the whole organization. This is what effective management means. But now-a-days what happens is that we are separating the management tactics from the employees; such a separation creates fear in the minds of employees. A person who is afraid of his superiors may not be able to extract the good aspects of his own potentiality. So, in every sense, the management has to make everyone in that organization, free.  If a teacher can make a student free from fear of a subject, quite sure that such student must be able to produce the maximum to the subject as well as to the society. (Contd.)

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Violence and Centralization

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

 Effective communication is a necessary precondition for the maintenance of peace and harmony, because if one does not understand the other he is inculcating fear in the other. If the other inculcates fear in me, naturally I will be getting away from him and there cannot be effective cooperation. So if I want to cooperate with the other, I must be able to understand him. To understand means, there should be effective means of communication between I and him. If this effective communication is not possible, then naturally the other becomes an unknown continent; an unknown continent always creates fear and fear provokes one to conquer and the control the other. 
Anything that is unknown in the world creates fear and fear is the reason for the violence against the other. Violence really is the creation of fear and fear is due to lack of effective communication. If one is able to understand that there is nothing uncommon between I and you then naturally that person must be able to get in touch with the other because there is a level of identity between the two. If such a level of identity is not able to be experienced by the person, then such a person will naturally turn to weapons as a means of protection. What I am telling is that similar persons are in need of effective tools of communication and effective communication should be the essential precondition for the maintenance of peace in oneself as well as in others in the society. Only then a peaceful society can be a free society. 
Freedom can be attained only when one is able to practice non-violence and the moment one practises violence, he/she must be imprisoned by fear as well as the other entities which make anyone incapable of getting in touch with the other. So, a free man must be a man of non violence; non-violence in the sense that one should be able to make use of the minimum for himself as well as for others. So, the idea of sharing is the essential part of non-violence and freedom. A free man must be able to share everything with him with others. That’s why Jesus has once made it clear that if you have got two with you, you have to spare one to the other. This means that there is identity between one and the other. This identity has to be realized. That identity can be realized only by means of effective communication. The moment one is not able to understand the identity between oneself and the other he has to keep everything for himself because he never sees any reason to share whatever he has. The moment he sees that he has to keep everything for himself, he is centralizing them be it money or position. 
Centralization of money position etc. can easily be the necessary and the most explicit form of violence. Wherever there is centralization of power and money, such a place can never be free from violence. So, violence means centralization and decentralization means non-violence. If you want to share whatever be with you with others, then you have to realize that there is identical element in yourself and the other, just because one realizes that, one must be able to share whatever be with him, with the others. In a non-violent activity, a free man must be able to share whatever has. So a free man must be able to share money and food with others.  A society that shares everything with others can be treated as a free society. Advaita System firmly believes that a non-violent society can never be a society that believes in centralization of power, money etc. Power and money can be decentralized in the sense that it must be shared with the rest and such a sharing process alone will be able to guarantee freedom. This is the basis of pluralism. What I mean is that a pluralistic society must be a free society, a free society must be a non-violent society which does not believe in centralization of anything. Such a de-centralized society that is capable of sharing resources with the other alone will be able to maintain peace harmony. 

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Levels of Communication

Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

Richard Rorti and other American writers who were too much conscious of resolving the riddle between body and mind have finally done it by creating a man who is free from mind – the mindless man, a man who is untouched by the problems of the mind. Such types of divisions can be seen in the Western philosophical trend, I mean the Greek philosophical trends. But this issue has been resolved in a brilliant manner by Jesus, when he said that there is heaven in you and there is heaven in me. Heaven is best common entity. There is the body in you and body in me; hence ‘you’ and ‘me’ need bread. Where I am more than the body, I am in need of something more than bread. This concept of the finer forms of human experience in life that begins with the sense organs, travels through the mind and finally reaches a state of experience which can never be explained either by words or even approached by mind. Everyone must be able to experience it. Such a state of experience has been termed as Ananda. Si it begins at Annam Brahma. Annam means the body, the matter - man is a matter. This fact can never be questioned. For ex. suppose you say that it is with wood that the table has been made. That is true; but if you ponder over the question and ask yourself ‘what you by wood?’ then immediately you will get the answer that it is specific unification of innumerable number of molecules in a very peculiar manner and the unification have been made by a set of rules and regulations. The table made out of wood is true at one level of our experience, and at the other level as the physicist says it is a peculiar arrangement of molecules also must be true. Here you agree with the fact that it is both molecules and wood.

Quite similar is the question ‘who am I’? Nobody can deny that there is a material entity in human beings. This truth cannot be ignored or deleted from the sphere of our experience. The body gets in touch with other material entities of the world. Whenever my body contacts with other material entities of the world there is a type of identity between the body and the material world. That is there. Here, you can also say that I am something more than the matter. There we have life - pranan. There are certain entities that come from the finer forms of matter. Life must be in the finer forms of matter. This vision is not new to the Indian Schools of thought, especially the Advaita System. We read in the Upanishads, ‘Who are You?’ ‘I am matter, then more than that I am life’. That life element can be seen in me and the unicellular mechanism in the world can never be differentiated. There is perfect identity in the life elements in me and that in the unicellular organism which can be termed as a microbe. It is impossible to find out that microbe through naked eyes, but with the help of certain equipments one must be able to detect it. But that life element which can be seen in that microbe in you and me is identical (not, are identical). More than that it is ‘mana’ (mind) – the ultimate reality is ‘manas’. Manas is the most subtle form of matter. Beyond manas, there is prangnanam (consciousness) and this consciousness can be seen in matter also. Ultimately it goes to a level of experience that can either be approached by mind or explained by words and such an experience is termed as Ananda. One must be able to communicate at that level also. Pluralism definitely raises the question of communication and this issue of communication can be resolved properly only if one is able to accept that there is something common in between you and me. Common entity can either be matter, life, mind, consciousness and ultimately the extreme Bliss (Ananda). There are various levels of experience, with regard to communication. All these have to be recognized and the moment we recognize it, the question that arises is, ‘what is the tool by which one must be able to understand that common element?’

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Chopping the Headf

Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

It is at this point that we have to think of a different way of life that says that though there is flesh and blood in human beings, they are something more than that. According to Bible, “Man can never live by bread alone.” He needs something that comes out of the mouth of God. That something can be anything. It has been identified as heaven by Jesus. The moment we think that we are in need of something more than the flesh, that something is the foundation of the human beings, then the communication has to be directed to that end. From flesh to flesh we have to shift the communication to spirit to spirit or heaven to heaven. So the heaven in me and the heaven in you must be identical. This fact has already been explained in a brilliant manner with logical precision and clarity by the Advita System. The Advaita basically says that the world is a pluralistic entity but amidst that pluralism there must be something that is identical in everything that makes communication possible. A man and man, that is flesh and flesh, mind and mind; and also something more than flesh and mind. That something that exists in me and you that makes communication easy and possible.

The problem of communication is really important in the present day world. With the physical proximity that has already been seen in the world, thanks to the development of IT and transportation, we must be able to get in touch with the other within the least possible time. But the unfortunate fact is that the physical proximity alone is not enough to understand oneself and the other. So we have to find something more than that. That is why the Advaita System says that human beings are something more than what we directly perceive. Advaita asks ‘who you are?’ ‘I am the body’, that is one of the finest answer one can give. But are you the body alone? ‘No I’m more than that. There is mind in me.’ ‘Are you mind alone?’ ‘No, I’m more than that. There is spirit in me.’ ‘Are you Spirit alone?’ ‘No I’m more than that. There is pure Ananda in me’. This type of experience also must be identical. This problem has either been forgotten or misrepresented by many of the scholars and exponents of various Systems of thought, especially that of Western origin, more precisely that of the Greek origin, because Greek philosophy basically believes in bifurcation. There is no unity in Greek philosophy and the philosophical development of bifurcation is the central problem of Greek philosophy. That problem has not yet been properly solved by the tradition. So, generally we would like to say that there is a Decarthian problem or the Carthesian bifurcation, which says that there is difference between body and mind. Hence, we have got a psychology that is entirely different from that of the physiology.

There is physiology and psychology and these two systems are working on different systems of thought. Physiological rules and regulations need not be applicable to the psychological operation; hence we have the psycho-somatic; soma means body and psycho means mind. The somatic entity need not be applicable to the mind because mind is an entity totally different from body and what exactly is the relation between body and mind still remains an unresolved question or puzzle or riddle in the entire history of the Zen thought. Resolving this question Richard Rorty has suggested that it is possible to have a man without mind. So if there is no mind there is no question of any division between body and mind. This is as easy as possible to treat the headache of a man then it is better to chop the head itself; then we must be able to eradicate the whole ache due to the ailment of the head.    

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Flesh Verses Flesh

Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

Democracy can never be maintained in a uni-polar world; it can be maintained only in a pluralistic world. One of the positive aspects of the new market economy and the IT revolution is that it has made the whole world into a world of plurality. For ex. a man who lives in a remote village of Kerala cannot remain aloof from the developments of other parts of this affluent world. The so called European culture has often been accused as an inferior stuff by the Oriental group of philosophers, writers and scholars. But today, nobody can keep away from the influence of the so called European culture because even without your invitation, either you like it or not, the European culture is within the frames of your own living room. Whether you like it or not, it is there. The other ‘now-a-days’ is very near to you in physical terms.

The question, how is it possible to get communicated with the other who is physically very near to you, leads you to the problem: what is common between oneself and the other. The other here can be a religion, a system of life, a philosophy, a continent, a man with a difference or an object with a difference. The other is too near to you either in the virtual world or in the actual world. Since the other is too near to you, you will be forced to get communicated with the other. The question on the tool that helps to get communicated with the other is a fundamental question. To make communication easier, however, that common element has to be identified and experienced. But, this seldom happens in the present day world. This is a very serious problem. Though we have developed too many theories on communication, the real problem of communication is within oneself, not anything external to him. That is what that is common between ‘I’ and ‘You’; in another sense, what is common between oneself and the other, what is common between one religion and the other, what is common between one continent and the other, what is common between one philosophy and the other. If there is nothing common between one religion and the other, the only possibility is relational conflict. If there is nothing common between ‘I’ and ‘You’ the only possible relation is estrangement.

Estrangement means, ‘I will be really afraid of you’. An estranged entity or an estranged person or whatever it may be, it creates fear in human beings. So, there must be fear. So what is common between ‘I’ and ‘You’? While Jesus was teaching His philosophy and way of life, this question was asked. When He was talking about the kingdom of God, this question was raised. We see Him saying that what is common between you and me is the heaven. That means that there must be heaven in you and me; there must be something common in between you and me that makes communication possible. So communication can be made easy and possible only when one is able to find out the common aspect that exists in me and the other.

 This aspect has often been forgotten by the present day Western thinkers. The present day world is too much concerned with anti-foundationalism. For example Richard Rorty asks, “Where are the foundations? I have not seen it.” But, if there are no foundations communication is impossible. Communications can be possible only if there are certain foundations, which must be common for the one and the other. That common element can be reduced to human flesh alone. Then flesh must be able to communicate with flesh. Only the identical elements make communication easy. If one thinks that man is flesh alone then everything that he expresses about man must be the various dimensions of the flesh alone and everything that can be communicated to the flesh alone. Here, the flesh communicates with the flesh. That sort of a communication system says that man is nothing but a lump of flesh and there may be blood also. So, if at the moment one thinks that human beings can be reduced to flesh alone then everything that is related to human beings must be related to the flesh also. It is here that we have to confine ourselves to the pleasures that can be enjoyed through the sense organs. Epicureans firmly believe that the human aim is to enjoy the maximum sensual pleasure. The moment we admit that our aim is to enjoy the maximum pleasure, then we have to admit that this pleasure is related to flesh alone.   

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Lessons from the Sky

Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

Democracy does not mean that it is the rule of the human beings alone. The definition that democracy is the government of the people for the people and by the people is an obsolete one. Such a democracy can be termed as anthropocentric democracy where we are concerned only with the right of the human beings alone. We are totally unconcerned with the right of a granule of dust or the whole of vegetative kingdom. Democracy can never be a good system of government if it exploits nature, because it affects the free movement of the individual in one sense or the other in a different manner. So in a democratic set up what happens is that one has to expand the definition of democracy. Democracy has to include not only the human beings but also the biotic and the non-biotic entities of the universe as a whole. So a democratic government must be able to respect the right of a particle of dust and also it must extend a possible regulated mechanism to protect such a right, maintained by the non biotic world. It can never be confined to the biotic world alone but to the non-biotic levels also and then we must be able to protect the right of one and all. So democracy in this sense is not the rule of one or a few over the majority or the minority or the rest who are not part of a particular ideology but democracy means it is the rule by one and all in the sense that everyone must be able to regulate himself. Such a self regulated activity alone can be treated as the basis of democracy.

Then a question can be raised about the nature of non-human beings which are not concerned with the discriminatory power which is not applying the discriminatory power. How can we say that they are also part of a democracy? The answer is that no being or non- being in the universe except human beings will never be able hurt the rights of the other entity. Take for the example of a lion. A lion eats only when it feels hungry. No lion kills another animal as part of their sporting experience. This is not the case of human beings. No being in this universe ever collects anything for its family or its future generation. What they are doing is that they want only what they need at that particular moment of time. Human beings have got the habit of collecting and keeping things for a long time. They expect that they can keep it forever because they falsely believe that they must be able to lead a very long life on earth or probably till the end of it. Such a concept is too dangerous. What is possible is that in a democratic set up the people must be able to understand the fact that non-biotics are strictly following the rules of Nature and the Universal law that governs the macro and the micro, organic and the inorganic in manifestation. But human beings due to their ability to apply discriminatory power have got the habit of collecting and keeping. That is why Jesus once asked his disciples to learn the principles of right living on the earth not from the human beings but from the birds of the sky. No bird hoards anything for the future. It gets enough to satisfy the present. Humans are not able to follow that dictum but the spirit of that dictum should be practiced and maintained by every human being. 

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Democratic Problems

            Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

          As we have already seen, the system of Advaita propagates plurality and freedom. Plurality admits uniqueness and identity; uniqueness in the sense that every individual needs unity. But at the same time, there is something common between one and the other. When there is something common in between, then there can be communication.  A democratic system can be maintained only in a state of effective communication methods. For effective communication, the primary requirement is that there must be something common in between I and You. Wherever there is nothing common in between I and You, there cannot be any communication and wherever there is no communication there cannot be a democratic set up. Freedom depends highly on democracy in the sense that one of the preconditions for freedom is communication. This shows the fact that a free individual must be able to share something with the rest; he has to take something from the rest. This type of give and take relationship can be maintained only in a democratic set up.

In the capitalist set up especially in a market economy, there is no question of giving or taking but only grabbing. Everyone wants to grab the maximum at the maximum level. Maximum level means every individual leads a nomad like universe where he lives as a free individual who is totally cut off from the rest of the society. So he wants to maintain a world of his own. But in a democracy, no one maintains his or her own world. The world is his own but at the same time it has to be shared with the rest. So what I am telling is that the free individual has to admit that he is free to regulate himself. Such a self-regulated individual and the communion of such individuals form a society. Such a self-regulated individual and communion of individuals made society that also believes in self regulation can constitute a democratic set up.

            The present day market economy can never be able to give any sort of guarantee to democracy.  Any platform of privatization, liberalization or globalization also cannot be liberal because a person who believes in competition can never be liberal. A liberal person has to admit the right of the other individuals. The world that has already been liberalized for the market economy is to get it the maximum for each individual to get in his/her custody, not sharing anything with the rest. Such a state can never be treated as liberalized. A pluralistic society has to admit these and at the same time admit the identity between one and the other. Identical factor is a common factor; it is that common element that makes communication possible. Democracy can be maintained only in a society in which effective tools for communication also is maintained. Then the question arises is how is it possible to maintain democracy where there is no regulation at all. An unregulated society can never be treated as democratic; it is a chaotic society. So, at the ultimate stage, the state next to the present, there should be of utter chaos if we are not able to regulate the unfettered march of globalization. So, the possible form of government according to Advaita is the democracy. 

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Mark of Dignity (VAW)

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan

Globalization has created a myth that a free society can be created only through open competition and a free society according to globalization is the one that competes for maximum and thus prove its might over the rest. This eventually has become the basic notion of a consumerist society and it has created a very false impression that a good individual is the one who consumes the maximum quantity of consumer goods, whatever it may be. A person respected as good here is the one who enjoys the maximum and this maximum is limitless or undefined. Consumerism firmly believes that an individual who consumes more and more gets respectively more and more power, freedom and happiness; this again is false. The natural outcome of globalization is the emergence of a consumer society. A consumer society is the one which firmly believes in maximum everywhere. No such a society will ever be able to enjoy freedom, as it already has already been explained in the previous sections.

Advaita firmly believes that it is not consumerism that creates a free society but the self regulation imposed by the individuals, societies and the nation on itself. The present consumer society trend is to create more and more consumer goods. Take for example the automobile industry. Every week, a new brand of motor car is being produced by the manufacturers and again every manufacturer is also producing more and more varieties of motor cars. Once it reaches an optimum mark, their advertisements begin to ask ‘what is your second car?’ This shows the fact that the first car has already been purchased and now the individual has to purchase one more, otherwise he cannot be treated as a respectable individual. Similarly, the same strategy says that the identity of a woman can be established only by the amount of gold or diamonds she possesses. The possession of gold and diamonds is treated as the hall mark of dignity and one has to compete. Every Jewelry shop or manufacturer of jewels has the opinion that every woman has to purchase the maximum to keep up the dignity of womanhood. Here, what happens is that the dignity of womanhood is identified with the amount of gold or diamond she possesses. This is nothing but equalization of a spiritual being into a mere material entity. This attitude reduces man to the false assumption that man is nothing but a physical entity alone. It forgets a very simple fact that man is something more than a physical entity. That is why Jesus said that man never lives on bread alone. The globalization and the resultant consumerism, firmly believes and propagates a notion that man is only just a physical entity and he is destined to live by bread alone. This is bare materialism. What I am telling is that consumerism, globalization, market economy and the resultant consumerism reduce the whole society to rare materialism which never gives any hope for the individual to attain some sort of pain or pleasure or happiness. It limits all happiness to the possession of material entities only. Whether the possession of material entities is capable to offer happiness or not, which has never been a concern for this type of society. At present what happens in our society is that the society turns to the uncompromising materialism and a society that believes in it will never be able to enjoy happiness or freedom. 

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Freedom in Anarchy and Despotism (VAW)

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan

The competition as it has been envisaged by the market economy leads the whole society either into anarchy or into despotism. Anarchy results in the disintegration of both the individual and the society. Freedom can never be identified with anarchy because in an anarchic set up there is no regulation at all. Without regulation there is no freedom guaranteed. Freedom requires regulation and an individual is always regulated by some force. Whenever and wherever our society is being regulated by itself then it can enjoy freedom. That can never be equated to anarchy. Market economy takes the whole society either to anarchy or to despotism. Despotism can be practiced in a novel manner in the new world in the form of corporate management tactics. The corporate world believes in an open world that is the free world – an unregularized and liberated world. In a liberated world the corporate giant must be able to establish itself. This shows that after the establishment of the might over the meek according to the corporate giant, what remains there is despotism.

 In a despotic set up, either in economic sector or in political field, or in cultural arena, wherever it may be, it ultimately leads the whole society to slavery. In effect, the present day economic practice takes the whole world into different islands of slaves through despotism, unfettered competition and unregulated life pattern and life mode. This can never be treated as a sign of freedom because freedom can never be guaranteed by any despot. Freedom is not something that is not given by somebody to someone but it has to be taken by the individual himself, the society itself and also the nation itself. If the individual never takes the freedom to experience freedom, such an individual will never be able to enjoy freedom. One has to prepare oneself by self-regulation, for this unique enjoyment of freedom.

Freedom can never be enjoyed without giving its price. Its price means the individual has to take up the responsibility. Responsibility of an action can be established on the individual, only when he is being regulated by himself. But in the other cases of an individual being regulated by some  external forces, then naturally such a society of individuals can never be treated as a free one. So freedom in this sense either at the individual level or the societal level or at the national level can be enjoyed only by regulation by itself. This factor has been totally eliminated by the market economy or the new economic system. This is a very serious thing; when we think of a society in terms of the competition that has been permitted by or that has been enjoyed by the present day system of economic practice, then we have to think of the one fact that such a society can never give or guarantee freedom. Advaita believes in self regulation as an effective means of enjoying freedom. Equality, fraternity and liberty, can be enjoyed in a democratic set up only within the frames of self- regulation. No society can be said to practice equality if it denies self-regulation. Fraternity is the direct result of self-regulation. To maintain fraternity one has to admit that there are differences of opinion and such differences has to be admitted as pre-condition for the existence of society and the individual.

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Competition and Annihilation (VAW)

             

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan

                Advaita system aims at plurality and co-existence at the levels of both humans and non-humans. In a sense, it envisages an eco-centric universe, where the centre of every spacio-temporal manifestation should be at the centre within that spacio-temporal manifestation and it must be that centre which must be the governing force of each and every existence. Equality is an essential condition for pluralism; equality does not mean uniformity. It means uniqueness, identity and co-existence. Equality does not mean that everyone should get a share which has been fixed by an external force or authority, and everybody should be able to get his share as regulated by himself. In such an act of regulation, the individual should be very careful not to take the maximum but to confine himself to the minimum. The confinement of one’s minimum is the necessary precondition. And such a confinement alone will be able to guarantee plurality, equality, co-existence and freedom.

            A free society means a society that regulates itself just like a free individual means an individual who regulates himself; so is a free social mechanism. In this sense, freedom means self regulation. So, the regulated by himself and should regulate himself aspects should be the necessary tool to be noted in a pluralistic society. Such a society must be the strength of the world. A strong human being means a person who is being regulated by himself. Such an act or mechanism of self-regulation, is to be practiced by every individual, every institution, and every stations and positions in a society. But unfortunately, the first casualty of the modern economy or the said to be market economy is the plurality. If we attain the principles defined by the modern economy, then we have to think of the annihilation of all the rest for the existence as supreme. In such a society there cannot be co-existence but only competition and annihilation and a society that believes in competition and annihilation, cannot guarantee any sort of freedom. This is the second casualty in the modern economy. Here, the society can never be free, the individual never can be free, a nation can never be free. In such a set up it is also not possible to reach the actualization of all they potentialities of an individual. Naturally, the theory that competition is an essential condition for growth and development is absolutely nonsensical, illogical and also draconian in its nature because if we believe that there is competition, it ultimately ends up in annihilation. Such a society never gives the opportunity to express itself, to expose one’s own potentialities. So, a free society is the society that guarantees the actualization of the potentialities of one and all enjoying enough freedom to provide a set up where one must be able to actualize the inborn and the acquired talents and potentialities.

In this sense, Advaita aims at the acquired talents and potentialities. Take the example of an artist: an artist can never be able to express himself in a society that is being determined by too many forces. Here, even the Almighty God may not be able to create an individual with his genuine talents well actualized. The ethical principles of Advaita and the metaphysical ideas of Advaita can no doubt be in tune with the philosophy of such an economy. 

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Views and Words - Dr. K S Radhakrishnan

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Is India Great? (VAW)

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