MAN AND HIS MISSION ... 11

MAN AND HIS MISSION ... 11

"Scepticism is my birthright, " said Einstein. While this is laudable in his personality which was totally dedicated to the unravelling of scientific mysteries, a degenerate irreverence stemming out of it in lesser humanity is most unwholesome and, so, outright unwelcome.

Scientific scepticism is one and irreverence, thus, for seminal spiritual greats quite another. Irreverence for pristine principles that have been well tested and authenticated through the realisations of sages and saints down the ages is a decadent trait that does no good to human society and does positive harm in indulging it in amoral practices, promiscuous forays and licentious living. Despite the fact that some seminal greats can successfully ride the billows of the sea of sensuality and come up with great works of science and art, the common man in blind imitation of these practitioners is apt to sink in the mire of a decadent materialism that will loosen the moral fabric of society and cause irreparable damage to it. Hence, reverence for spiritual values must be maintained despite seemingly irreverent attitudes filtering through to society from creative persons of genius who, perhaps, require for their very work of creative discovery to cast overboard all the trappings of faith and tradition.

It is not that such seminal greats are ever unerring in their repudiation and rejection of tradition. More often than not they are prone to errors which bring them to spiritual grief. Some exceptional ones like Einstein, Russell, Rolland, Tagore and others of their breed, by dint of their genius, are able to construct their own philosophies of life and, so, circumvent difficulties that cast simple folks, following their path in blind imitation and devoid of a worthwhile moral compass to guide them or sufficient self-restraint to keep them from straying, into a major moral predicament. But for the vast mass of humanity these irreverent aberrations must be treated as exceptions to the general rule of reposing faith in the great architects of human society, that is, the spiritual founders of the great religions and in the universal message that they preach. We must accept their universality while rejecting their exclusiveness wherever we spot them in their teachings. That would be progress, indeed.

Written by Sugata Bose

14Prithwiraj Sarkar, Riya Bhattacharya and 12 others