The history and heritage of social injustice is in fact a sad story of illiteracy. All efforts of social or, for that matter, economic or political development become fruitless in a state of mass ignorance. With enormous resources and time going to waste, policy planners awoke to the need of putting in equally colossal funds in literacy promotion. That was evident from the not-too-distant experience of the new Asian economic giants like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Let the people find light to lead them toward progressive goals.
But progress is ironically not the ultimate goal of life. Happiness is. Unluckily, prosperity and happiness are not moving together. They are more often than not at loggers’ heads. There must be something missing in the linkage between these seeming twins of human society. Does prosperity guarantee happiness? All of us are glued to the belief that they do. I too wish that is irrevocably true.
Spiritual knowledge is, in simple terms, an awareness to realize separateness of body and soul, division and unity of spirit and, above all, fusion of consciousness and super-consciousness.
But wait a minute before we come to a hasty conclusion. When a powerful country like the United States turns nationally aggressive and globally egregious and its rich people unhappy, we give a second thought to our sanguinity. When successful professionals and leaders of fast developing societies in China and India, like their Asian and African counterparts, stash trillions of dollars in Swiss banks out of personal greed at the glaring cost of their capital-starved countries, things appear to be in apparent disorder. Does politics need to be as bad as we find in Nepal despite intelligent, knowledgeable and well-meaning people engaged in it? We need to seek for answers by going a little beyond the periphery of prosperity, proficiency and professionalism.
All these cherished achievements come with hard labor and pravritti, an outward-looking attitude. People imbued in pravritti habitually lose themselves in the vicious circles of the external world in pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction. They take it for granted they are where they ought to be. It is so complex that it takes a full tenure of human life to untangle the cobweb of illusion and disillusion. But in most cases it never gets cleared up because the intent to do so remains far from the self-conceited man. The peephole to perforate the darkness is again nothing but literacy, a spiritual literacy to be precise.
If mental literacy can completely transform an ignorant person, should spiritual literacy not be equally or more powerful than that in reawakening a man and reshaping a society? This is something fraught with high potentiality but yet to be tried. It is a small element of nivritti, an attitude to look inward, contrary to pravritti, which is so important for remodeling a man from unhappy one to happy one, from restlessness to restfulness and from rigidity to flexibility. It is a sort of self reflection that tends to represent what we wish to advocate as spiritual literacy.
President Barack Obama, after being elected, was time and again advised by thoughtful personalities to allocate some time for self reflection daily to stay tuned to his avowed mission. They did not spell out the term ‘meditate’ but that was what they were suggesting. One of the distinguished public characteristics the unconventional President of America has displayed is a cool and collected visage at all times, some of which were awfully stressful. Irrespective of whether he abides by public advices he has demonstrated the symptoms of being spiritually literate. It is not all that easy in a country like the USA to be spiritually aware, where money matters the most. Paris Hilton, a young and rich socialite had to be incarcerated for more than a month on drunken driving to incidentally provide a chance to self reflect and get oriented to what we prefer to call spiritual literacy. The unpleasant experience of confinement was a result of lack of such a simple awareness. The world’s top billionaire golfer, Tiger took recourse to spiritual solace from Buddhism to extricate himself from moral disgrace he faced due to his sexual extravaganza. Spiritual awareness could possibly restrain him from such indulgence.
Spiritual knowledge is, in simple terms, an awareness to realize separateness of body and soul, division and unity of spirit and, above all, fusion of consciousness and super-consciousness. Spirituality gives a clear vision of being an observer and the observed. But what one thinks of the other is none other than oneself, a unity of spirit realized through interaction of the two. It is a power that bestows the capability for self critiquing, self protection and self reformation.
With such awareness will it not be possible for the politicians to desist from misuse of power and corrupt practices? Will the people in business and finance not be self resistant to indulge in malpractices and harbor ‘profit only’ motive? Will the public scandals of the high and mighty not go down if they have a third eye to keep a vigil over themselves? In the eternal fight between divine and devil in us, spiritual literacy goes a long way in tilting the balance for the good against the evil. It is a silent inner force stretching from a single person out to national horizon and beyond. Be spiritually literate and test its power as we have successfully tried and testified the 3-R’s phenomenon.
adityaman@hotmail.com
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