We perceive the importance of
things based on our culture, social structures and our upbringing. Our choices
to respond to present things and what we might consider an appropriate action
for the future are also informed by collective wisdom and our memories.
There is a growing discourse in
the ‘Western’ world (or ‘Advanced’ world) regarding slowing down the pace of
life and adhering to “less” or being minimal in approach. The same world also
talks about observing the little things we do in life – concentrating on the
food we eat or taste - i.e. being very
mindful of whatever we are doing right now or doing just one thing at a time.
This “advice” from them is coming at a tremendous cost that they have endured
for long – wherein so much of technology has overtaken their lives. I see some
fundamental problems that inflict them:
a. Being
overwhelmed by information explosion and multitasking: Multi tasking (or
handling quantum) is leading to irritation, anxiety, stress, short memory and
attention deficit syndrome. This will entail writing a separate article, but
summarily I feel it constitutes severe fragmentation of character and a feeling
of placelessness. THUS, they look for attaining one point focus (therefore
meditation or one task at a time or mindfulness etc.) and they try to immerse
in any activity which will generate a feeling of connectedness (opposite of
fragmentation). Connectedness ironically will only happen, if one restricts
constant bombardment of fragmentary information and one learns from the surrounding
“local” environment itself. Groundedness is not only a physical restriction in
movement of people in space, but it also represents a feeling of wholesomeness
or completeness having ingredients of logic, intuition, feelings, culture,
environment and philosophy. From this definition, the “tribals” are the most
grounded people on earth (and may also display a depth of knowledge not found
even in renowned universities of the world). Thus, we are referring to a
difference between mere overload of information v/s wisdom. Wisdom develops
with time – one can’t rush at it. Wisdom is all about constraints and the
potentials achieved within the
constraints. Contrary to American attitude of craze towards freedom, wisdom
acknowledges a fundamental position of constraints in developing character,
strength and values. And contrary to Western perception of Individualism,
wisdom is concerned with developing empathy. Methods to generate these values
focus on doing essential things and being minimal. By being minimal, one is
forced to think of process, action, impact to all things present in the
environment (of which we are a part of) and by doing so, we become grounded or
feel “complete”.
b. Not
that everything is dandy in this state of being minimal. If minimal is so important,
then why do we (Indians) act as if minimal = poverty = dirty = gone case..?
This reaction again comes from the way
in which the idea of “poor” is perceived here and the kind of exploitation
befalls those who have limited access to services such as law and education and
job. Harsh conditions or limited resources have made life miserable for
millions of Indians and they therefore tend to equate money with power or
status or access. Thus anything that smells of money (which includes the
perception of West also) will be aped in no time. Hence the rush for
technological advancement, digitization, and all ideas or lifestyle images which
originate in popular Western culture.
Thus, there is no one way of
looking at things. How we perceive the idea of minimal for example, as
described above, is related with many other cultural and social factors.
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