The Birthday of Vidya Ashram, like all birthdays should be a day to dream big, expand the mind as much as possible unshackled by the 'realities' around us, for they are dominated by the small minds of the day. Thus it is only appropriate that one tries to make a leap into the unknown part of one's self, ones samaj, one's country etc. And I wanted to share on this forum something, some thought that has been uppermost in my mind ever since we planned the Philosophy and Lokavidya meeting in Pune.
If chooses to be very brief, I may say I came to the conclusion that Lokavidya philosophy begins and ends with a fundamental realization regarding human knowledge - We do not know what any name in the language ( we use for communicating with our fellow members of the community ) really is. And that language is of the samaj, this includes the self, the philosopher, the lokavidhyadhar. In short, in Lokavidya, philosophy pervades completely all aspects of life and its flow is felt by even different names in different contexts! But it seems to have its source in what is generally understood by ordinary people as the Inner Voice, or Antharatma ki Awaz. This gives rise to the ability and opportunity to every one in the society to enter " a deep thought" mode as if at will, as and when found called upon to exercise this option. It is not much different from saying that everyone in the samaj may sing if one chooses to, if only one could 'listen' well.
Moreover, it would appear that this is the true mark of being human, the myriad other rationalities are as if inherited from other life forms. And, so the the story of human bondage and struggle is at its core the denial of this source, by slavery of the samaj in some manner or other, taking its legitimate place in the discourse as the means of survival, economic activity of the menial or the mental kind, etc.. Though the mining of this source is a secret known to all, just like the significance of sleep, it had to be emphasized by great teachers from ancient times, precisely because of the existence of the domination of the dialog of knowledge in society by the ignorant and powerful. Thus it is reiterated by the sants with no exception right into the modern times.
It seemed for moment that we have to explore this in some detail to be able to (re)establish this as living force in the Lokavidya Janandolan. It is my firm belief that this points to the route to trancending the verbose argumentative dialogs on the knowledge in society on the one hand and building mutual trust among a variety of groups and ideas taking part in it.
Surendran KK
Pune
If chooses to be very brief, I may say I came to the conclusion that Lokavidya philosophy begins and ends with a fundamental realization regarding human knowledge - We do not know what any name in the language ( we use for communicating with our fellow members of the community ) really is. And that language is of the samaj, this includes the self, the philosopher, the lokavidhyadhar. In short, in Lokavidya, philosophy pervades completely all aspects of life and its flow is felt by even different names in different contexts! But it seems to have its source in what is generally understood by ordinary people as the Inner Voice, or Antharatma ki Awaz. This gives rise to the ability and opportunity to every one in the society to enter " a deep thought" mode as if at will, as and when found called upon to exercise this option. It is not much different from saying that everyone in the samaj may sing if one chooses to, if only one could 'listen' well.
Moreover, it would appear that this is the true mark of being human, the myriad other rationalities are as if inherited from other life forms. And, so the the story of human bondage and struggle is at its core the denial of this source, by slavery of the samaj in some manner or other, taking its legitimate place in the discourse as the means of survival, economic activity of the menial or the mental kind, etc.. Though the mining of this source is a secret known to all, just like the significance of sleep, it had to be emphasized by great teachers from ancient times, precisely because of the existence of the domination of the dialog of knowledge in society by the ignorant and powerful. Thus it is reiterated by the sants with no exception right into the modern times.
It seemed for moment that we have to explore this in some detail to be able to (re)establish this as living force in the Lokavidya Janandolan. It is my firm belief that this points to the route to trancending the verbose argumentative dialogs on the knowledge in society on the one hand and building mutual trust among a variety of groups and ideas taking part in it.
Surendran KK
Pune
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