414. The Future and the Past
On the other hand, how many can be now persuaded to give up coffee because once upon a time orthodox people never drank coffee? The essential value of the past - values of Truth, honesty, chastity, reliability, etc., -- must be combined with the real advances of the present. Mainly I wish the nation to appreciate such a value in education and industrial production. In education, we Indians are proud of our skill in memorisation. It was resorted to in days when there was no paper. For want of proper writing material, we resorted to memorisation. It kills thinking and makes us not only dull but prevents us from beneficially using our greatest advantage - our spiritual inheritance. In education, our spiritual inheritance lies in our subtlety, our capacity to understand without thinking - Muni - to see the truth as vision which at later stages gives birth to genius.
In industrial production, our present efficiency is the lowest in the world. While we have a hoary past of the highest efficiency, we have discarded our past efficiency in favour of modern life. Computer is resisted in the USA when it comes to changing the old procedures, especially by the older generation. In these modern days where tufts, dhotis and cold rice have vanished, and the TV, cell phone and two wheelers have invaded our lives, we cling to raghukalam and all the rituals that go with it. The result is we lose the benefit of either fully and in a sort of way combine the defects of both ways of life.- Login to post comments