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Perspective
Does Human Culture Matter
in the Modern World?
by TA Ramesh
 If
we look at the world today it can be noted that on one side there is a
continuous preparation going on a defensive or offensive nuclear
missiles war and on the other side, there is a talk going on for the
reduction of the nuclear weapons among the nations. On one side the
world is under the grip of terrorism and on the other side there are
exuberant exchanges of cultural activities. There is anxiety, excitement
and thrill everywhere! On weighing each and every news of the world it
is clear the world is certainly at the verge of a Nuclear War. All these
things can be quite interesting and thrilling to watch in a Bond movie!
But in reality nobody would like to see horrible event taking place in
the world. Indeed there is lurking suspicion and fear everywhere. Is it
the outcome of the civilization of the modern world? It seems that human
faith itself is in crisis now. How can humanity be saved from the utter
destruction of war? How can human spirit be regained?
Human Nature
It is clear to say that in every human being there is a continual
warfare between the higher and the lower natures which we may call as
the divine nature and the animal nature of man. If he tilts to the
divine side of his mind he functions like an angel. If he tilts to the
animal side of his mind, he acts like devil. Hence both heaven and hell
are in his mind only. Human nature will be neither animal like nor
divine like but non-aligned in thoughts, words and deeds. But to
maintain this nonalignment of human nature and improve further, human
spirit, which dwells on humane activities, has to be kept alive and
energetic forever. That is, human values have to be cherished and
sustained. That is called humanisation of man.
Materialism vs Humanism
East gives importance to spiritual values. West gives too much
importance to material values. Material progress has led man towards
rivalry, hatred, competition, destruction and domination. But spiritual
progress gives man satisfaction, contention, peace, bliss, selflessness
and freedom. Human development does not come out of material progress
but out of all round human progress i.e. emotional, intellectual and
spiritual. Therefore for the survival and sustenance of human race on
the Earth human values, which thrive on peace, cooperation, good will,
love, loyalty and friendship have to be given more importance than
anything else and have to be maintained at any cost.
Human Activities
The myriad human activities express the infinite faculties, variety of
interests, aptitudes, immense desires of human nature presenting
precious details of all the ways of life of human beings on various
walks of life under one broad subject called human culture. The variety
of human interests manifests itself under various branches of human
activities in different fields such as arts, science, technology,
industries, agriculture, commerce, literature, medicine, religion,
philosophy, politics, music and drama. Human action shows the dynamism
or liveliness of human spirit.
Passionate and Indifferent Works
For some the work they do is monotonous and distasteful and they do it
inefficiently and indifferently like unwilling slaves. And for some the
work they do is a great opportunity they cannot miss and so they perform
it with great passion. It is all the purpose, the motivation and the aim
behind the job that makes them perform their works with such attitudes.
So, there should be a good motivation and a high aim to do a job well to
the satisfaction of all concerned. But all cannot get satisfying jobs to
do so and there good motivation and high aim become irrelevant and
ineffective. That is why passionate and indifferent working attitudes
are quite prevalent in all human activities.
To curtail such attitudes human narrow mindedness should be changed.
Mainly due to this narrow mindedness only there are problems, chaos,
wars and destructions in the world. Human narrow mindedness is born out
of selfishness and egoistic or self centred nature of human beings. The
materialization of selfish ideas gives great pleasure which is not a
lasting one. But the failure to do so, on the other hand, brings
dissatisfaction, grief, sorrow and misery to the egoists who, as a
result indulge in inhuman and horrible activities making the world a
hell.
Non-aligned Attitude, Principle of Human Culture
The obligations of human beings may be unpleasant and monotonous to the
doers, but the hard labor or the difficult job done well at least
minimize or reduce the miseries later on in life. Indeed selfishness and
egoism are very difficult to be avoided by anyone. So, the best attitude
with which one can do one’s duty is neither indifference nor passion but
non-alignment, because the most important things in human life are
happiness and peace which can be obtained if one does one’s duty with
non-aligned attitude, which is the central principle of human culture.
Man and Machine in the West
In the West, virtually everything is functioning under the direction of
machines. There is competition between machine and man. Human life has
almost become a mechanical life. Life is going fast there. There is no
time for anyone to stand and stare at the beauty of the world, Nature or
the Universe and appreciate them. Nightmare is a common thing there. To
calm down the fast working mind, they use tranquilizers and have become
addict to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances like cocaine,
marijuana, hashish, LSD, ganja, etc. There is no peace of mind,
happiness and love for them, but only a lot of artificial amusements and
lustful activities encouraging mongrel life there. This is very much
true in USA. In Europe their cultural heritage should not be abandoned
as a result of the fast technological developments there. In this
respect France and Britain are exceptionally well off. But others have
to be careful before it is too late.
Economic pursuits, cause for all problems in the East
In the East the countries that had great civilization and rich culture
are economically backward now in the world. The relics of the past
civilization and culture are still existing in some important places
there. All the States in the East were socialistic countries. Their
predominant economic pursuits had sapped them of the free access to all
the other aspects of human developments. Some had chosen separate roads
to achieve socialistic ideals though existing under the influence of
Russian communistic socialism and in the list Yugoslavia and Romania
were far ahead.
Some years ago there occurred Cultural Revolution too in Russia and
China. In China there is no individual liberty and human rights like the
intellectual freedom to express own ideas are not allowed to its people.
When this is so it is certainly doubtful to believe in the occurrence of
real human cultural fructification there. Therefore the most essential
change needed there now is first the democratization of its political
system. And then only human culture is really practicable there. Whether
it is West or East human culture is a must for the appreciation and the
cherishing of human values in the world.
Culture as harmonious Human Development
Tension built up by the Cold War between the two Super Powers had
resulted into wide spread militarization in many countries of the world.
The espionage activities of those powers had enlarged their networks in
all parts of the world in such a way that no two neighboring countries
could coexist peacefully without any suspicion. Further terrorism,
political upheavals and plane hijackings have become a routine thing.
After four decades of arms built up and other activities America and
Russia had started direct talks on elimination of Nuclear arsenals in
order to sign a treaty on disarmament and destruction of Nuclear Weapons
and promotion of peace and friendship between them after realising fully
well that there would be no victory for anyone side except total
holocaust of the whole world in the event of a possible Nuclear War
being started by either of them in the future. Therefore the realization
that peace and prosperity are more important for human existence than
military domination over others has finally dawned on them.
Material Aids and Drug Culture
Indeed the usual human activities are very essential for ordinary human
survival on the Earth despite the sophisticated developments have
increased people’s inevitable dependence on the material aid or
scientific gadgets in the developed countries on a very large scale for
their day-to-day life. But the people in the non-aligned or neutral
countries by means of simple living and high thinking standards can
achieve great things in the world. Now for them too the routine life has
become insipid, meaningless, dull and dry due to lack of strength of the
body, mind and spirit. As a result like in the Western countries people
are very much affected by the drug culture and so, rules and regulations
are getting tightened in order to curb the drug trafficking activities
which are the harbinger of psychological diseases and other new diseases
like AIDS, etc. in this part of the world too. So, what is the remedy
for all these ills is the thing we all must think about immediately.
Ambition Necessary
In fact the usual human activities make human life quite insignificant,
meaningless and worthless. To make human life worth living everyone
should have some ambition to achieve in the world as ambition is a great
driving force which gives strength to the body, mind and spirit of man.
Not the ambition to amass wealth and dominate the world to be had which
will lead one to complete failure, but ambition to develop one’s
abilities in the fields one is best at and achieve something good and
great to be had.
Human culture, the Means to Achieve Life Goals
In this juncture it is worth remembering the saying of Swami Vivekananda
that “whatever work you do, do it as perfectly as you can and that is
the best way to achieve happiness and peace of mind in this world.” This
is the path of human culture to be followed as the best remedy to
overcome the present malaise of human society in the world. In reality
the purpose of all human activities is the achievement of satisfaction
in life, which can be the final goal of human life. The only reliably
best means is human culture to achieve that end. To arrive at such an
end the other goals to be achieved through this means are knowledge,
love, perfection, freedom, happiness and peace.
Human Culture for Perfection
According to the view of E.M. Forster in his essay, Does Culture
Matter? human culture provides “the power to understand and enjoy”
all the best things of life and so, without “tradition and culture the
chance of connecting work and play and creating a life which is all of a
piece” is impossible.
Another expert of culture, Matthew Arnold in his book, Culture and
Anarchy says that culture for an individual lies in the love for and
the study of perfection which is a harmonious expansion of all the
powers which make the beauty and the worth of human nature and the
pursuit of perfection is the pursuit of “Sweetness and Light, the reason
and the Will of God” and the Hellenistic knowledge of the Greek
Classical beauty for the achievement of excellence in human nature and
the Hebraic idea of Jewish action of fulfilling the Will of God. He also
says that human spirit behind all the great works of literature, art,
science and religion aims at harmonious human perfection leading towards
the development of all sides of humanity.
Poet Robert Browning whose concern with the evolution of individual soul
in his poems like Pauline, Paracelsus, Sordella and Asolando has worked
out the idea of synthesis of knowledge and love leading to the
perfection of man. Therefore it is clear to say that only when such a
human perfection is achieved through human culture, real freedom can be
obtained and as a result of that happiness, peace and satisfaction can
be achieved in life.
Hence human culture simply means that it is the love for, the study of
and the pursuit of all round human perfection and it can be completely
interpreted that human culture is thinking about or knowing, speaking or
expressing about and doing the best things of human endeavor in many
fields like Literature, Arts, Science, Politics, Religion and Philosophy
of the past relevant to the present and “enjoying ourselves those unique
and priceless things” and spreading such living truths to the intimates,
friends and fellow men we love in order to make those precious things
live in the future too.
Love and Knowledge for Human Perfection – Human Culture
Power, position and possession are all not the permanent things for
anyone in the world. The permanent things everyone can rely on are Love
and Knowledge of Truth which are as beautiful as the best things in
Nature and Art. Only these two things can permanently keep human beings
in happiness and peace, save them from difficult and dangerous
situations in life and certainly lead them towards perfection. Human
perfection is what human culture has been helping to achieve so long and
has to help so on and on though many men may come and go in this world.
With the knowledge of truth and the inspiration of love many
philosophers, poets and prophets have done immortal things and have left
the world, but the things they have achieved are still showing light to
the helpless and miserable to regain human faith and human spirit and
guiding them to achieve human perfection.
Goodness, Love, Wisdom and Perfection
Lord Buddha has said to the world that wisdom and love can overcome
desire, which is the root cause for all the difficulties, problems,
miseries, ignorance and so on in the world and liberate men from the
recurring cycles of birth and death forever to absolute bliss, which is
the final goal of human life. Christ has said that “be ye therefore
perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Gandhi has said that if
the end should be good, first the means should be good which can be
Truth and Non-violence only and nothing else. All these thought
provoking realistic and practical philosophies simply say that by means
of human culture everyone can achieve human perfection and can live like
a free and happy divine being even on the Earth.
Cultured Person, a Yogi
Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita Gita says that to achieve full liberty one
should become a Yogi and follow the path of Dharma suitable to one’s
nature to achieve perfection emotionally, intellectually and
spiritually. This gives the clue to visualize how a man of culture or a
cultured person can be like. Yes, a cultured person would be thorough in
knowledge, non-aligned in thought, pure in love, non-attached in heart
and effective, efficient and excellent in action. Further like a Yogi a
cultured person would be calm at difficult, dangerous and trying
situations, unruffled before adversaries and criticisms from various
quarters and balanced both in sorrow and happiness as such a person is
non-attached to anything in this world and is non-aligned to all the
controversial matters concerning human problems in the society. In fact
this is the way a cultured person can live and achieve good and great
things for the benefit of the present and the future generations.
September
24, 2006
Image
under license with Gettyimages.com
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Perspective
The Week of September 24, 2006
Is Osama Dead? Never Mind, Terrorism is Still
Alive! by Rajinder Puri
Mahatma Gandhi: Lost and Forgotten in India
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Confluence of Poetry, Evolution, Economics and
Terrorism by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
India-Pakistan "Bhai-Bhai" by Col.
Rahul K. Bhonsle
Does Human Culture Matter in the Modern World?
by TA Ramesh
Moral Policing by the State by Bijoyeta Das
Wailing Womb, Weeping Heart by Satya Chaitanya
Mahalaya: Invoking the Mother Goddess by
Aparna Chatterjee
The Desecration of Temples and Other Acts by CR
Gopalakrishna
Heaven on Earth Ravaged by VK Joshi
Chemistry of Tulasi by Dr. V. Sankaran Nair
How to make Your Signature Lucky? by Pt.
Aaadietya Pandey
Dr. Varghese Kurien: Idol for Indian Youth by
Bijoyeta Das
From Drums of Phantom to SMS by VK Joshi
Gandhigiri Works! Lage Raho Munna Bhai by Ragini
Puri
Remembering Hrishikesh Mukherjee by Yamini
Ayyagari
Normal Childhood Behavior Misconstrued by
Gary Direnfeld
HIV /AIDS - Prevention and Creating Awareness -
Role of Media by Jyoti Singh
Seeking a Say in Sex by Lubana Yasmin Palia
The New Womanomics by Sreedevi Jacob
Grannies Get Together by Elayne Clift
Women's March to Freedom by Mehru Jaffer
Breaking Tradition's Clay Feet by Surekha
Kadapa-Bose
Yohhh! Boloji by Dr. Amitabh Mitra
God's Grace by Arya Bhushan
Affirming Diversity, Resisting Decisiveness
by Julia Dutta
Why I am Missing my Roots? by Anisa Chaudhary
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