Mastering "Hurti-culture"

It is generally believed true, and perhaps to a great extent, that "You are what you eat". When I say "Eat" I mean what I really feed myself on a daily basis, both in terms of food and thoughts, especially thoughts. The food that stays in the body for a few hours may have lesser effect compared to the thoughts which stay with me all my life. After all, majority of my thoughts are nothing but a manifestation of what inputs my brain gets from this physical world, be it audio or visual or any other form.

Before I try to make my point, let me first start by talking about this interesting picture I took on the way while climbing the steps to the Holy abode of Lord Balaji, Tirupathi, a few weeks ago. Several thoughts went through my little head (which is suspected to have a brain!)

Before I try to make my point, let me first start by talking about this interesting picture I took on the way while climbing the steps to the Holy abode of Lord Balaji, Tirupathi, a few weeks ago. Several thoughts went through my little head (which is suspected to have a brain!)

I could not help but notice the spirit of this "living specimen". Apparently no water, no soil, nothing that is remotely conducive to its growth. Perhaps its roots have to travel miles through the crevices before it can find a drop of water. All this it does for its critical survival and the next generations to come.

I was reminded of one of several beautiful Aphorisms from DVG's treasure trove, Manku Thimmana Kagga, and here it goes... 

(Courtesy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mankuthimmana_Kagga)

Kannada Version:

ಹುಲ್ಲಾಗು ಬೆಟ್ಟದಡಿ, ಮನೆಗೆ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಯಾಗು

ಕಲ್ಲಾಗು ಕಷ್ಟಗಳ ಮಳೆಯ ವಿಧಿ ಸುರಿಯೇ

ಬೆಲ್ಲ ಸಕ್ಕರೆಯಾಗು ದೀನ ದುರ್ಬಲರಿಂಗೆ

ಎಲ್ಲರೊಳಗೊಂದಾಗು ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ

Meaning:

be a (gentle) blade of grass at the foot of mountain, and jasmine flower at home,

Be (strong) like a rock when fate pours (torrential) rains of difficulties on you,

Be sweet like sugar and jaggery to the poor and weak,

Be one among all, Mankuthimma.^[5]

So what is the point I am trying to make here? Our culture, the Sanaathana Dharma, remnants of which, that is generally accepted as "Hinduism" (the way of life), has made extensive and elaborate attempts to keep our society in check so that we do not err as a society, as a cultural group. It's a lot less to do with the millions of Gods we worship and more to do with the souls that we carry and nurture and pass on our values to the younger generations, to lead a peaceful and harmonious life.

Cluttered minds create cluttered societies that we see today where no amount of technology can help. One of the most obvious things to do would be to feed our minds with less garbage but to keep looking for every tiny occasion/excuse to feed positive thoughts and images to ensure our brains do not go astray. The Bhagavad Geetha stresses that our minds are like still water and the tiniest pebble can create huge ripples in our minds and also that it is the most difficult to control and predict like the weather. Hence every conscious effort must be made to feed it with the most appropriate content.

Alas, what do we see today? Our senses are so vulnerable, that even the faintest of inputs can disturb the mind. Be it a disturbing cinema poster (no less than soft porn) plastered on the walls, or an ad in the news paper or a WhatsApp clipping, the consequences usually have a cascading and often disastrous effect on our minds. However, we, as a culture seem to have made a heady and dangerous mix of freedom of expression and information, with gay abandon without giving a second thought.

I was on a flight from Indore to Bengaluru recently. Out of boredom I scan my surrounding and what do I see? I see 9 out of 10 people, of all ages, scrolling through their so called "smart" phones. Gone are the days when I would see the same numbers, holding on to some book or the other. It has become a common sight for all of us and we tend to take it as normal behavior and ignore. Its only fair to assume that most of them are doing it just for the sake of it, without any purpose or intent. As I scan through the mobile screens (no intention to snoop, I promise!) I see people switch between content from movies to Facebook videos to reality shows to all sorts of non-serious content ranging from sex to mindless violence to obscene musical videos. Taste for the sound of music is quickly changing to musical videos which has more to do with the visuals rather than the sound. Wait, I heard you, you are absolutely right, I have no business to comment on somebody's choice of content. But look at the damage it is doing to our society as a whole. We are letting our minds roam freely without direction and all the harmful content only helps us desensitize ourselves and we tend to loose compassion in due course. I also tend to believe this is more predominant with us Indians though we have made it fashionable to hide behind the screen and blame the West for all our ills and lack of culture, which is far from truth. The West "practices" Karma Yoga while we only "preach" Karma Yoga.

And what do we do at homes, even worse.

Our generation is the biggest culprit. Our fathers and forefathers had values. Our generation is guilty of creating technology for development on the one side and total abuse on the other. Our generation is guilty of creating a society where we have liquor shops opening even before the grocery shops opens. Our generation is guilty of creating reality shows and TV soaps which is injecting poison into the young minds of the next generation that we are so heavily banking on for our salvation. Do we even realize that the so called "Reality" shows are spreading cancer in our societies in more ways than we can imagine?

How can we make sure our next generation understands and practices "Happiness" which is defined by the WHO as a combination of Emotional, Mental, Physical and Spiritual health? Bhutan even quantifies happiness in terms of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Is there a way we can help the next generation bring back the life that we have systematically destroyed? I firmly believe in the fact that you cannot stop the rain from falling but you can certainly use an umbrella.