Anantaraman is a young Executive with affluent salary and
perks. He has to go on a week-long tour for the company. He gets his car
serviced by a trusted mechanic and test out its performance in the city. The
vehicle cruises like a boat and he is gratified with its condition as he sets
out on his journey. After three hours, the car comes to a grinding halt. Anxiously
Anantaraman presses the starter again and again; and
then he tries pushing the vehicle too, but all to no avail. There is not the
slightest response from the engine, there is no other vehicle in sight and the
mid-day sun is beating down on his head. The stranded executive curses his fate
before he proceeds to curse the mechanic, the car-manufacturer and his own
company. Let us, for the nonce, leave him there in the sweltering heat!
Bharat is also an
Executive in the same firm and he had been Anantaraman’s
classmate. He too has to travel but in a different area. Bharat
prepares the car even as Anantaraman did. He is
driving along cheerfully, singing a film-hit at the top of his voice. (He can
indulge in this luxury only in unhabited territory, for
otherwise there would be angry protests from all around!) Bharat’s
car too comes to a sudden halt on its own but he is not bothered one bit. From
the sound he had gauged the problem; he gets out of the car, opens the bonnet, unscrews
and rubs a wire-end, refixes it and returns to the
steering wheel. The vehicle, like a satisfied cat, shoots onward. During the
entire operation restart, Bharat did not stop his
singing.
A and B were in identical
situations but how was it that the latter could overcome the crisis, whereas
the former was bogged down in it?
The answer is simple dear Watson: B had learnt not only driving
but mechanism too, whereas A knew only how to start and steer.
Most of us are in A’s plight when confronted by the problems of
day-to-day living even, because we had equipped ourselves for the Art of living
only and had omitted to learn the Science of living. Should not a good driver
learn mechanism too, if he hopes to be master of his own vehicle.
It is not as if the leaders in society are not aware of the
lacunae in the educational curriculum as constituted at present. Did not a
learned Judge of the High court say recently in deep anguish that the system of
formal education stops with development of intellect and imparting of
professional skills and as a consequence, the future of the society itself is
bleak?
The problem is that leaders in all the fields of human endeavour,
viz. Education, Politics, Trade and Religion are not themselves equipped to
devise a remedy. And so the social ills continue and proliferate. Violence is
on the increase, crimes go unchecked and indiscipline is rampant as much on the
roads as in institutions of all grades and brands.
Are we to be helplessly watching the deterioration of standards
in all walks of life; and are we to bequeath to our sons and daughters a world
worse in every way than it was when we inherited it? Has not Avvaiyar, the philosopher-poet of Tamil Nadu
said in one of her quatrains that dying would be far, far better than living in
unrelieved misery?
By our own effort, let us evolve a science that would enable us
to live in peace and happiness for the rest of our sojourn on this our planet
Earth. That indeed would be the Science of Sciences.
The research has to begin here and now. On birth we found ourselves
on the Earth and we have to compulsorily live out our allotted span of time. Does
the journey of life have a purpose at all and does it have a specific
destination? "Yes", says Poet H.W.Longfellow
(of all persons!) :
"Tell me not in
mournful numbers
That life is but an empty
dream;
Life is real, life is
earnest
And the grave is not its
goal.
Dust thou art and to dust
thou returnst
Was not said
of the Soul".
The questions are before
you in black and white and their articulation cannot be ignored. Do your
homework and come up with your own answers before we resume the quest.
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