THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES ... 1
Nowadays people wish to be spiritual without practising their regular spiritual exercises. Their children wish to be academic without doing their regular studies. Shree Krishna must now amend his teaching of non-attachment to the fruit of action for it is now attachment to it all the way. Men speak science nowadays but must reap a harvest from seeds not sown, output from cipher input and a perfection of end from imperfect means. Such is the predicament of urban India in the modern context where sincerity has taken to the wings and life has been reduced to a circus of sorts with the common man, driven by delirious desires induced by the visual image that preaches puerile purposes and profanities galore, aspiring for unreal ends rooted in wishful thinking and no solid ground in fundamental depth labour to lend substance to the possibility of fulfilment of such.
An abject imitation of the worst elements of the West does not become the Indian mind that is capable of better performance on its national basis and need not take recourse to indiscriminate copying of superficial cultural elements from abroad. Adaptation is the key. But it must be along creative lines, not merely suited to economic requirements of the rich.
One more thing and this is a decadent inheritance post the decline of intellectual culture in India consequent on continuous conquest and colonisation. The basic grain of Indian intellectualism has been much hindered and we have today a much debilitated national intellectual climate where clear thinking is not common and a muddled mass of mental expression is all that goes about in the name of social discourse.
Written by Sugata Bose
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