Quality standards for the arts?

Quality standards for the arts?  Ouf…..

The article in link given at the end was brought to my knowledge for the second time after a gap of some years so I was compelled to write this post.

At the outset even to articulate the many aspects of Indian classical music in English is, in fact, a difficult task and to make it understandable to a large number of readers is all the more difficult.

How can anyone determine quality of Indian classical music, though it needs to be done anyway, but on what basis?

It is generally difficult to measure the quality of any art through any scientific method because it is difficult to define art through any unit of measurement [even in science we are not aware of the vagueness of certain measurements like kilo- read James Trefil’s ‘101 Things You Don't Know about Science and No One Else Does Either’ - or a broad framework of measurement, even a highly relative one.

Defining quality is a general problem in matters of taste, trends and traditions.

It would be equally foolish to look out for socialistic justifications or stupid still to sully art by scrutinizing it trough any ideological lenses.

These general issues become all the more complicated when we are dealing with an art like Indian classical music imbued with enormous aesthetic appeal, entrenched in enormous traditions of various schools and excess of   subtle nuances in terms of techniques as well as substance and content of sound structures labeled or classified as Ragas.

I am confining only to the musicality of music, i.e. sound structure, not even venturing into lyrics, dress, traditions, different schools and methods all of which may offer lot of controversies and debates-probably may be suggested for news hour high decibel verbal duels.

Besides having all our own pet theories and notions about quality or tradition I feel what is more important than the commercials involved is that we face the harsh reality of the more difficult art of carrying out the necessary transition from tradition into transformation in classical music and Natyams [dances] of India.

This is required to make it more relevant by various means, I am neither competent nor arrogating myself to make suggestions in any aspect, but this transformation is required to make it more appealing to many youths.

Art and culture cannot be allowed to become too stereotyped, trite, redundant leading them to be fossilized or ossified but they have to evolve, like everything else, by wading through the tides of trends –which could be contributory, complementary, contrasting, conflicting, contaminating - with the oars of compulsions and compromises and sail smoothly and safely to ensure the fundamental and basic principles or inherent aspects of the art forms are kept intact and appropriate doses of  innovations are introduced to ensure that there is a subtle transformation through a  smooth transition from tradition but not away from or apart from it.

All said and done culture is an important part of life and creates a very powerful impact through various forms of artistic expression the multiple meanings of life as a journey of the soul's experiencing, acting and interacting with all its tools like body, mind and emotions.

We need to understand and appreciate in proper perspective that our traditional arts and culture though are mostly imbued with and/or embedded in Bhakthi orientation with lot of religiously venerated mythological, historical, and theological and some esoterically conveyed philosophical concepts and scientific aspects as well.

However, most aspects of Indian culture are multifaceted splendors with each facet revealing itself according to the frame of reference and scale of observation of the individual. A very important but unfortunately often ignored short coming of our perception.

At the same time most of these traditional cultures and arts were neither constrained by these aspects nor confined to these aspects but rather used them as a medium to convey through different art forms certain emotions; in some cases  high philosophical concepts; in some cases social mores; in some cases appealing to the aesthetic sensitivities of human beings; in some cases portraying the sensuous and natural aspects of life; in some portraying and appealing to the various senses at different levels; in some individual morals and principles for enhancing one’s inherent potential , embellishing one’s character and so on.

So, in a way most of the traditional arts and cultures of this land permeated almost into every aspect of life and society and therefore they had to manifest the many human emotions.

But as vast and varied it may sound. The traditional arts and cultures, like all traditional arts and cultures, is at the same time very difficult to depict or handle because any aberration anywhere can hurt the sentiments of purists as well as those who are sentimentally or ritualistically attached to those sources [religious bakthi orientation ] wherein they are embedded.

Purist kill art and tradition by sticking on to classicism too much like sticking on to King’s English and Chaucer’s spelling and end up petrifying all traditional arts and cultures.

There is another brigade which creates lot of noises, mostly to seek attention, by taking on a very radicalized and diametrically opposite stand of  breaking into pieces everything that is part of tradition and end up putrefying the arts and cultures, unaware of the fact that the new scheme that they are creating will become a new tradition, forgetting two important facts that life has no permanent trends or taboos and that we can neither defy nor deny the importance of anything or anyone, as everything is interrelated, interconnected and interacting constantly as pieces in the unsolved jigsaw puzzle of life.

 Denying and defying things which have stood the test of time, either with reason or irrationally, is all the more difficult task and before denying their importance we need to first understand what has contributed to their survival through long periods of time.

The greatness of predecessors in any field is not meant to weigh down on the avid learner or the performer but make their perspectives, perceptions and preparations wider, wiser and wonderful. As the great Sir Isaac Newton used to say, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

We are able to witness this particular welcome trend - I mean evolutionary advancement [like evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, evolutionary philosophy, evolutionary politics etc] - in most domains of life.

Of course there are domains where it is caged in narrow walls like in certain ritualistic and religious observances which have refused to allow evolutionary trends and instead opted for verbal vindications to sustain the status quo and therefore are likely to gradually move away from the radar of involved participation and move into diminished interest and then saunter around for attention before finally fading away through indifference into the inevitable bin of insignificance and oblivion.

For any art form to survive it must ensure to manifest its inherent aesthetic and artistic appeal and relevance to the human body, mind and soul. Themes can change but must ensure commercial support for the artist to at least survive and lead a normal life with social acceptance and respectability. Only when art fulfills all these important aspects it will remain in the radar of involved participation, interest and public attention.  

This is proving to be true even in the realm of sports, let me confine to cricket, where five day test matches [which are undoubtedly still the best form of testing a skill of a player] have given room to one day matches and to T-20s of all hues and colors to make it more interesting and commercially successful. But no one ever wrote about playing cricket without 11 players or without a ball or without a bat or without a boundary line etc because you cannot dissociate cricket from these factors.

Similarly, I have listened to 5 to 6 hour concerts with two to two and half hour Ragam Thanam Pallavis, but nowadays we have artists who render  similar items very nicely within ten to fifteen minutes, quality need not be determined by length. After all we had the pioneers of SMS and Twitter in Tiruvalluvar and Aviayyar .

I have launched on to this lengthy preamble of general perceptions to put in right perspective the inevitable positions and avoidable perceptions in the minds of  young rasikas of music and dance, who were swinging like a  pendulum between some purists, critics and elders who treated  most new performers/performances with condescending comparisons [ I am not passing any judgment as to whether it is right or wrong] with very high standards and some street smart artists who used their PR machinery well enough to propel into realm of popularity [again I am not passing any judgment as to whether it is right or wrong].

This scenario was fair enough and expected but what is worse is now they are being confused and swayed away by irrelevant and incorrigible comparisons far removed from art. I shall explain about this [again I am not passing any judgment as to whether it is right or wrong].

Art and the cultural milieu and context where any particular art has evolved have to be evaluated only with those parameters.

We can adopt and effect necessary changes to embellish it, but to create controversies to confuse the general public with arguments as if it is a socio-political phenomenon to be approved and sanctified by some particular political ideology is totally wrong and worse still is misusing the fourth pillar for propagating such views.  Let us get it clear that unfortunately music is not made for the deaf, canvas painting is not made for the blind and dish antenna is not made for frying vegetables.

Culture develops only by change, developments etc. At the same time we must remember that if we all had to stick to traditions strictly then we must be either moving around nakedly or with bare minimum leaves covering certain parts of the body as that was the most ancient tradition of human race.

While analyzing anything we must explore only the relevant facts and while doing that we must desist getting distracted from the following major traps:-

1] Mutilating the facts,
2] Analyzing them with preconceived notions or prejudices,
3] Generalizing the particular and particularizing the general,
4] Approaching facts with unloving criticism or uncritical love,
5] Evaluating facts with our pet isms or philosophies,
6] Resorting to statistical justifications,
7] Unleashing unworkable utopia,
8] Mask them with logical fallacies,
9] Bury them in pleasant jargons, and
10] Give historical justifications or passing judgments based on traditions which are contextually not suitable or valid or hold water or which in no way contribute or affect the essence of what we are analyzing.

Art and culture serve in their own way certain social and public purpose and more importantly contribute to certain neural activities which have nothing  whatsoever to do with any political- ideology defined victimhood creation or has any hidden intention to ostracize or isolate anyone as proclaimed by some publicity seekers.

So to talk or write in a tone of trying to sound over generalizing or over simplifying something as vast as classical music to me is being ignorant of many aspects of it.

I believe in what Phenella writes in “The Unwritten Comedy”.

“To be ignorant of many things is expected
To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom.
To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning.
To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no longer be ignorant.”

http://m.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/music/quality-standards-for-the-arts/article2726903.ece

Abstractness of Reality, Thoughts and Feelings

The words Reality, Thoughts and Feelings are terms generally used very loosely to convey things that are abstract and relative.

The abstractness and element of relativity about reality, thoughts and feelings defy specific definitions for anyone of them.

Any single definition of what is reality, what is thought and what is feeling will be defying logic and difficult because all these three terms refer to phenomena that are a bit complicated as they are all in certain ways independent, in certain ways interdependent and in many ways inner dependent.

We make them more abstract by adding constantly a huge carapace of fuzziness around them.

Certain philosophical concepts and idealistic ideas are meant to be imparted to only those who have at least the necessary intelligence to understand the appropriate meaning, even if they cannot understand the exact one in proper perspective.

They are called abstract for a reason.

I think the fact that they are abstract is the most important thing we must keep in mind and mind about.

Though there is nothing wrong in constantly trying to seek to know what they are or what is meant by the terms through which certain abstract phenomena are articulated verbally, here I mean things like Reality, Sprit, thoughts etc

They are not meant for those incapable of handling them.

I do not want to say uninitiated or less intelligent because then I would be courting controversy.

It is like giving a knife to a child.

Whatever the child does with it you cannot blame the child.

This has been the problem even with some of the highly scholarly and academically well equipped people as they lack the necessary perspective to evaluate things and ideas and get educated with appropriate contextual relevance.

This has been the problem with many myths, epics, history and scriptures.

We mutilate them in multiple ways like for example over exaggeration; excessive adoration or condemnation; extreme unwarranted devotion or irrelevant criticism; excitement in ideologically appropriating greatness; trying hard to  convince that something has  universal application and can act as a panacea; ethnocentric pride in claiming that we knew something much earlier than the rest; portraying many things with our limited petrified prejudices, putrefied perceptions and puerile pomposity and so on.

All these collating to suit our justification or our stand on something may lead to collusions and ultimately mask everything with massive misinterpretations.

Worst part is  all these is they prevent many us from making an unbiased or unconditioned observation of anything as it is or grasping any phenomenon as it is or seeing and accepting anything actually as it is.

This is how we render them more abstract.

Under such category of things come these: - Reality, Thinking and Feeling.

Thinking or thoughts and feeling or feelings [emotions] are important components of social human beings.

It would be really dangerous to encounter a society where human beings act without feelings and/or thoughtlessly.

The very same thinking or thought and feeling or feelings [emotions] may hamper our progress into or in higher realms of life and living.

But no human being can achieve a higher state of consciousness without going through the processes of thinking and feeling.

It is like expecting someone to write great novel without learning alphabets or words.

These are necessary steps i.e. thoughts and feelings but they need not necessarily be the stops.

Not only reality but all thoughts and feelings are also relative.

No one say with axiomatic certitude that something as the only or ultimate reality or best reality because reality itself is what is perceived to be so.

So, it is even risky to venture into come out with any particular definition and therefore most people mostly catch on to some readymade definitions available out there.

Fundamentally Reality is reality with all its multiple facets and faces; dimensions and dynamics; polarities and probabilities; positives and negatives; victors and victims and so on.

But reporting of reality is confined to or constricted by perspectives, frames of reference of limited perceptions, populist projections, perverted and preconceived portrayals based on identity affiliation of religion, region, language, ideologies etc.

Reality: - http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/09/reality.html

Thinking and thoughts: - http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/10/thinking-or-thought.html

Seeking: -   http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/07/search-search-forseeking.html

Seeking and searching for meaning of life with all our senses, sanity, with a scientific spirit and trying to understand spirituality- to find if it exists- along with a sense of humane social consciousness renders seeking a sweet sojourn.

IT or NON IT sector- A new R & D in Trend Prediction is required

IT or NON IT sector- A new R & D in Trend Prediction is required

Really very good and timely article as it is an eye opener for all.

It lays on table the harsh realities and facts as they are and also suggests the much needed course correction.

It is easy to sit in media rooms and do analysis and post mortem, though they may be necessary to not to repeat similar mistake or prepare for similar eventuality.

However, this genre of problems is not just for IT but applies to all activities across the spectrum of economy and business where the churning process is happening at great speed and also throws many factors tangentially.

Therefore it becomes difficult for anyone even to predict trends.

I keep saying that the changes happening in economics and politics are so attractive but unpredictable, including the tools used or prediction that what happens is like designs that may emerge because all aspects and arms of modern economics, present day politics as well as the means to implement them through various technological tools are too complex and operate with multiple dimensions and myriad dynamics involving various factors.

Besides, they keep changing their patterns as unpredictably like those of a kaleidoscope in a monkey’s hand. 

But what happens in digital technology and cyber world is like a monkey sitting inside a kaleidoscope.

So, vulnerability and volatility of the patterns of change are difficult to comprehend and even see.

Therefore, I think, along with many new and emerging technologies and fields of studies with R&D holding its relevance as always, innovations, AI and so on trade, commerce and business must also have specialized field of study for predicting probable or emerging economic trends in some scientific way taking into consideration the exigencies of circumstances and imperatives for a advancing human life styles making use of immense data, surveys , statistics, mathematical models, AI  that are already available.

Most importantly we all must works on new models suitable to our milieu rather than merely copying what someone has produced somewhere else presuming that it would work everywhere and can or may be a panacea for most of the ills of our economy.

We may come up with many models some useful some directly going into dust bin but does not matter.

That is better than merely copying and living on illusion then it will be like the monk story [1]

Barbara Marciniak said, “Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorbing the frequencies around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving an imprint from existence.”

To me economics, like many things in life, is all about unbiased observations, unprejudiced perceptions, doing away with defensive statistical justifications, cutting off camouflaging irrelevant logical fallacies, chaffing off bombastic jargons, curtailing the instinct to churn out untested or untestable theories  and instead engage in interpretations of all the observed facts  uninfluenced by any ideological affiliations taking into consideration various factors that impact and/or involved in these facts appropriate to the context and relevant to the region.

[1] A new monk arrives at the monastery and is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that instead of copying the original books, they are copying the copies.

So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies. The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son”.

So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. After many hours still the head monk does not return.

So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. 

He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books sobbing and also banging his head against the wall. He asks what's wrong.

You have really awakened us, we have missed the ‘R’ [I am not referring to any party leader here].

“In the original the word is celebrate” says the old monk with tears in his eyes.

Confession is hypocrisy

Confession is hypocrisy whereas care shows conviction and courage.

If you really care for them then you must go live near them and help them rather than sitting in air-conditioned comforts of media houses in India and USA alternately.

Instead of making unsolicited confession about his pleasant relationships with Pakistan, as if someone said it was a sin or mistake. I would suggest and also ask sponsors to enable him to find a house in Pakistan.

Anyway this is not even real confession but profession of pandering to pay masters.

When you SIT near HEARTH WHERE the RAJ was RUN as during previous regimes of taking money from foreign entities to dance to their tunes.

But now the whole of or at least the majority of humanity is globalized and thankfully interconnected through technology and interrelated for a better and happy living where xenophobia, religious bigotry are slowly becoming outdated.

And because of these very facts anyone who harps on or insists on identity based victim hood projections or biased opinion peddling without having the guts or spine to condemn nonsense as nonsense and terrorism which affects everyone’s life as terrorism is exposing himself as part of the clan of leftover LEFT of India and paid media mafia of India who I would like to see carry on living in Pakistan rather than pathetically confess about his connections in Pakistan.

Social Media’s many voices mute the MSM mafia.

                              Social Media’s many voices mute the MSM mafia.

The 24 hours of inevitable churning involving contradictions and constant change throws out of gear the control freaks in the form of mass opinion molders.

       1. So desperate is the MSM that they do not miss any opportunity to show their disgust  for this social media          calling them as ‘‘English –driven social-media echo chambers’ because Social media are trumping paid and      prejudiced news.

        2.Jealousy driven, frustration filled club of media mafia who lived in the sanctuary of  comfort where they     felt that peddling lies, opinions , twisted presentation of news with hidden agenda of provocation were their           sole preserve.

3. Their only qualification being misinterpreting, misquoting and maligning their chosen targets with impunity               and worse still gloated over their status of mass opinion molders.

4. These media channel room heroes, in some cases Romeos thought that their sanctuary will never be invaded by any force and they could burn anyone or any truth or fact in their toxic gas chambers of Left or paid patrons’ ideology.

5. Unfortunately, they have been upset by unexpected technology which enabled people to capture facts in real time and also vent their views on various dimensions of any issue so they call this force of social media users as ‘English –driven social-media echo chambers’ as this echo is gradually silencing the 24/7 news channel cacophony.

6. What about paid MSM extremism before and after advent of social media.

7. This debate itself is because biased and paid MSM feels unsettled by social media. [SM]

8. Confirmation bias promoting, opinion and judgment peddling are no more sole preserve of MSM.

9. Everyone can express what touches the heart, triggers the adrenal or tosses the mind or makes one feel that it can be good for humanity.

10. MSM alone has no exclusive copy rights for social engineering anymore.

         11. It is an age of missiles of multiple mindsets and aspirations and myriad perspectives and perceptions                  where moderation is marginalized and aggression is adored.

12. Social media’s popularity itself stems from some of the above and besides, of course, the usual human attributes of attention seeking, gossiping, rumor mongering and impulse to communicate and share.

13. In these processes SM has taught Newton's 3^rd   Law of motion to MSM.

14. If people want only palatable sermons plenty of scriptures out there, literature and life are lively because of stories and experiences.

15. Avoid attempts at homogenization and control of opinions and aspirations. It has failed everywhere starting from craze of Roman Empire to Nazism to Stalinism even in limited geographical area because nature is variety.

16. Life goes through its own churning process and evolution plays its part in all spheres unmindful of lofty preachers or news and nuisance peddlers.

17. Sense of balance must prevail over emotionalism. It would be nice if everyone and everything also evolve along with awareness of these inevitable facts.

18. Science and technology must be used as a medium for this along with providing physical and mental comforts.

19. Religions must emphasis utility to life rather than parading and taking pride in number of adherents or superiority of cult like following.

20. Economies must ensure better and happier life for maximum number with collective participation of all while ensuring minimum damage to environment.

21.Nations and politicians must realize that humanity is better served if  it functions as a global unit devoid of specific real estate veneration, refrain from interfering in others affairs, avoid hysteric reactions to historic blunders etc.

22.So, social media extremism or exchange of ideas, ideologies and information and so on go to reflect all the sensitivities of  identities which are prevalent in the society, which resists unity amid variety.

23. A society where social media savors the benefits of globalization but supports xenophobia.

24. Where on one side traditional practices are giving way to rational questioning and another side emphasizes more and more of traditions with justifications and excuses.

It is ok to be disorderly when you are busy with other things.

It is  ok  to be disorderly when you are busy with other things.

Voilà I have got a detailed justification manual for procrastination and disorderliness.

http://timharford.com/2016/10/theres-magic-in-mess-why-you-should-embrace-a-disorderly-desk/

In my  Pre University College [called as PUC] days I hunted and read books titled as C.E.M. Joad’ s ‘That there is no such thing as Morality’; Bertrand Russell’s ‘In praise of Idleness’ and that attitude of  titles questioning existing status of virtuous behavior continued.

They have not disappointed me as they gave me an opportunity to questions beliefs, myths, faiths, doctrines and then study, appreciate, accept or reject, evaluate if required everything on certain inherent merits or contextual relevance to my life and that of others.

Then I veered into studying lot of books on philosophy and science; topics that intrigued me like what is actually meant by consciousness, knowledge, understanding, thinking, thoughts, perception, reality  and so on and so forth.

It is a continuing journey of learning where I keep on reading lot of serious stuff.

In that line of attitude this article caught my attention

http://timharford.com/2016/10/theres-magic-in-mess-why-you-should-embrace-a-disorderly-desk/

as I have been wanting to organize my writings and my files for the past 15 years and I cannot  even say it is work in progress I have not even started.

Voilà I have got a detailed justification manual for procrastination and disorderliness.

In many domains most of us prefer to follow or believe blindly as it is a more convenient and easy option.

But instead when we start to question the why? What? And How? We stumble upon lot of interesting information and learn and gain some knowledge.

Without why?  What? And how? Our lives would be unimaginative, dull and passive like inanimate objects.

Note that the why  also implies why not.

It is not only in questioning but exploring to seek the answers for these why? What? And how? Whatever source they emanate from and in all possible ways, is what educates and emancipates mankind.

In this process of enquiry, we must steer clear of impenetrable jargons, lukewarm sea of half-baked theories, the illusion that life and its meanings and problems can be reduced to some specific straight-jacket dogma, and delusions of fettering axiomatic certitudes like something is said to be so and therefore, it is so; and a whole lot of other such aspects of the culture of escapism, and indifference and lies.

Of these ubiquitous trinity of why? What? And how?

Let me take up only why here. The word Why is a magical word.

Small children use it to keep their parents talking on and on without end.

Unfortunately, it is not only to keep their parents talking but also out of inquisitiveness.

Inquisitiveness is what produces a wide range of characters starting from an eavesdropper, a scandal monger or a clandestine voyeur or a gossip giant or a spiritual mediator or a social inventor, etc.

So the type of reply a parent gives to a child’s enquiry of a why? (out of inquisitiveness) will produce such a “deep” impression that, the child’s mind would start using the question why to get a particular expected answer and also produce any of the above referred characters depending upon the parent’s reply.

Very often parents tend to give clever replies like a tourist guide who, when once, a lady asked him “How a row of fine rock formation were piled up”, said “they have been piled up here by the glaciers”. When she anxiously asked him “Where are the glaciers?” he replied “Madam, they have gone back to get some more rocks”. Such replies are often the result of ignorance, half-knowledge or impatience or all of these.

I, for one, would rather like to go to the maximum extent possible to find the answer for all the whys that arise in me, for, I believe in what Phenella writes in “The Unwritten Comedy”.

“To be ignorant of many things is expected
To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom.
To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning.
To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no longer be ignorant.”

Blind Beliefs, Whys, Ignorance and Kilo

Whether it is science or religion, most of us prefer to follow or believe blindly as it is a more convenient and easy option.

This whole preamble is to take you on a journey to explain the funny details behind ‘kilo’ as per science, link given at the end.

But instead when we start to question the why? What? And How? We stumble upon lot of interesting information and learn and gain some knowledge.

Without why?  What? And how? Our lives would be unimaginative, dull and passive like inanimate objects.

It is not only in questioning but exploring to seek the answers for these why? What? And how? Whatever source they emanate from and in all possible ways, is what educates and emancipates mankind.

In this process of enquiry, we must steer clear of impenetrable jargons, lukewarm sea of half-baked theories, the illusion that life and its meanings and problems can be reduced to some specific straight-jacket dogma, and delusions of fettering axiomatic certitudes like something is said to be so and therefore, it is so; and a whole lot of other such aspects of the culture of escapism, and indifference and lies.

Of these ubiquitous trinity of why? What? And how?

Let me take up only why here. The word Why is a magical word.

Small children use it to keep their parents talking on and on without end.

Unfortunately, it is not only to keep their parents talking but also out of inquisitiveness.

Inquisitiveness is what produces a wide range of characters starting from an eavesdropper, a scandal monger or a clandestine voyeur or a gossip giant or a spiritual mediator or a social inventor, etc.

So the type of reply a parent gives to a child’s enquiry of a why? (out of inquisitiveness) will produce such a “deep” impression that, the child’s mind would start using the question why to get a particular expected answer and also produce any of the above referred characters depending upon the parent’s reply.

Very often parents tend to give clever replies like a tourist guide who, when once, a lady asked him “How a row of fine rock formation were piled up”, said “they have been piled up here by the glaciers”. When she anxiously asked him “Where are the glaciers?” he replied “Madam, they have gone back to get some more rocks”. Such replies are often the result of ignorance, half-knowledge or impatience or all of these.

I, for one, would rather like to go to the maximum extent possible to find the answer for all the whys that arise in me, for, I believe in what Phenella writes in “The Unwritten Comedy”.

“To be ignorant of many things is expected
To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom.
To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning.
To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no longer be ignorant.”

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/07/kilogram-story-how-much-is-kilogram-by.html

Humility, tolerance, humanitarianism and wisdom

Humility, tolerance, humanitarianism and wisdom

Here in India more frequently we indulge, interfere or are indifferent rather than involving with humanitarian concerns.

We suffer from two extremes of unloving criticism and uncritical love.

Greater than anything else is the attitude of humility, tolerance and real wisdom evolving from them.

We need to evolve many behavior patterns to make life better on planet Earth [ which itself is a wrong word used for something which has more than 70 per cent water] which  has unfortunately been divided by the atlas of national boundaries and spoiled by excessive dominance of human species.

However, evolution fortunately has ensured in all spheres and in all its manifestations that variety has been held in tact which human beings unfortunately have misunderstood as differences.

No one is either big or pig. All are morsels of biochemical organism infused with energy and interrelated in many ways than individual human brains can understand or have bothered to understand.

Love for any language, art, culture, tradition, religion etc need not necessarily lead to either identity veneration or vilification.

It is not what language we speak, what tradition we follow, what culture we love that matter.

What ultimately matters is how we treat others? How we treat other species? How compassionate are we? How humanitarian are we?  

But I feel while everyone has every right to feel euphoric about something close to their emotions, heart and mind it also must ensure to imbibe a spontaneous or subconscious or studiously developed sense of humility and tolerance towards others and what others are trying to say and wanting to say with all sense of humor and subtle sarcasm.

These alone can bring many of us out of both egocentric and ethnocentric whirlpools of self deceptions and complexes [either superior or inferior]

There could be multiple versions of wisdom in various forms imparted through myriad scriptures and religious practices.

But real universal wisdom in my humble opinion may be like this whether sanctioned or sanctified by either social mores or religious morality.

Wisdom is the work shop where works of evolutionary trends and experiences of everyone in it emerge to express wisely the essence of everything to enlighten everyone;

A wisdom which prioritizes living in the present context and along with practicing certain time tested values which have relevance in present context but with global perspective to bequeath a livable planet, a lovable society with lovely infrastructures and improved living conditions;

A wisdom that evaluates everything and everyone with contextual relevance and based on the inherent attributes or merits of what or who is being evaluated without extrapolating any  presumptions, opinions, judgments, perceptions, expectations, ideologies, doctrines, identity based ideology and so on;

A wisdom which is willing to make minor adjustments, small compromises, spontaneous cooperation to create compatible and conducive atmosphere with humility devoid of any egocentric pride;

A wisdom with the realization and a perspective that must be aware that life is a constant process of learning of the multiple dimensions of many things and the various dynamics of those dimensions involving the constant interaction and interrelationship with everyone and everything.

A wisdom that is willing to accommodate multiple methods or means of life with some overall tolerant attitude embedded on humanitarian concerns towards all human life and environmental or natural concern towards all other species.

A wisdom that gets its clarity of understanding through a churning process that takes into consideration several aspects from the practical to the philosophical to the all fantasies of the mind.