INTEGRATE
SSSS
Integrate ssss for
short means Integrate Socialism, Science and Spiritualiism
with Sincerity. Of the SSS ( Socialism, Science and Spiritualism ), almost all of us accept one S,
many of us
accept a combination of
2 S and probably a few
of us accept all 3
S while again almost all of
us expect the fourth S,
Sincerity from "others " probably in
a spirit of selflessness! It is very important to integrate Socialism, Science and Spiritualism not merely for intellectual pleasure but more so for genuine progress in all the 3
spheres. The aim of
this essay is to show that if those of
us who accept only one S, make an
attempt to integrate that S
with the fourth S
of Sincerity then the remaining two S also will become acceptable.
First
few clarifications
are necessary. Socialism deals with the laws of Society, Science deals with the laws of nature and Spiritualism deals with the laws of Divinity. Sincerity ideally means speaking what we think and doing what we
speak.
Sincerity also implies a UNIFIED APPROACH without duplicity in
all the spheres and with
respect to all beings and things. Socialism
and Science
operate within the limitations of the senses and Spiritualism goes
beyond the senses. While Socialism is
based on the known and ignores the unknown, Science also is
based on the known but tries to find out the unknown. Spiritualism deals with the unknown, while some relate it
with fellowship with all beings and things, others relate it
with the unknowable. The
historical ( ever since
human civilisation
began developing ) association,
of the unknown and unexplainable with the concept of
God, is probably responsible for the view that God is beyond logic, beyond reason, beyond understanding etc. It is indeed sad if the Omnipresent, the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, the
Transcendental, the Immanent is beyond our understanding.
The laws of Divinity are not clearly visible like the laws of
nature or the
laws of society due to the limitations of the senses, though it is to be noted that the laws of nature are not yet fully
understood and the laws of society are ununderstandably illogical and unreasonable. Based on practice and knowledge,
our understanding in all spheres is increasing." Practice and knowledge, again practice and again knowledge, this form repeats itself in endless cycles and with each cycle the content of practice and knowledge rises to a
higher level." Though there are many statements that the Absolute Self cannot be understood or even ununderstandable and inspite
of Astavakra
Gita's declaration that, " Every attempt at
verbalisation of the Absolute Self is
an unforgivable blasphemy "
, concepts of God are abundant. Every religion is
a
concept. Even in individual religions there are many variations in the concepts. Though Saiva Siddhantha,the ancient version of Hinduism, identifies 56
possible variations, there are two main
variations in Hinduism based on Dualism and Non Dualism. Sai
Baba said
there are as
many religions as
there are human minds. Unknowability had never been a barrier. Though concepts are many but Reality is one and though it
may not be
possible to reach any
agreement
about the nature of
Reality within the limitations of the senses, it may be possible to explore salient features which may facilitate further understanding possibly by stilling the senses. Just as still water permits the deep bottom to be seen, Stilled senses may permit a
better understanding of
the underlying
Reality. It is to be noted that since long, Science itself has started exploring
beyond the realm
of the senses when it started investigating the world of electro-magnetic waves
beyond the wave band of
vision or the audio waves beyond the wave band of hearing.
It could be
said that Science and Spiritualism form a continuum, Science moving from the Senses-end and Spiritualism moving from beyond- the - senses - end, Science
investigating
the
laws of nature and Spiritualism investigating the laws of
Divinity.If it is accepted that God, the underlying Reality is the Source of the laws of
Divinity as well
as the laws of Nature and if it
is accepted that the limitations of
the senses apply only to us
and not to the underlying Reality, then we should be able to accept common features in
the laws of Nature and the
laws of Divinity.
The most salient feature in thelawsofnature is that they are impersonal,impartial and Non- discriminatory and that they are independent of
the observer or the user. If Bill Gates and a vagrant step off a precipice, both will fall in the same way. If one country pollutes, the
pollution does not stop within the boundaries of that country. Equally hurricanes or
floods do not respect boundaries of countries or the characteristics of
the peoples. The laws of nature do not
respect property laws, property relationships, sovereignity
of countries, or
the characteristics of the peoples. Certainly we are free, individually
or collectively, to learn to
understand the laws of
nature and take precautionary or
useful measures and the results will depend on
the measures we
take. It will not be blasphemy to
assume
similar features in
the laws of Divinity as
the Source of
the laws of nature and the laws of Divinity is same. It is self- evident that we
all are of “Divine origin” and therefore should incorporate similar features in
the laws of
Society.
If such features are incorporated, then exploitation of
man by man or nature / environment by man will not be
there on the face of
the earth; so
will be the property
laws,
property relationships and sovereignity will be
matters of the past. In other words integrating Scince
or Spiritualism with Sincerity will lead to Socialism/Communism. It is worth noting Sai Baba's statement: " Your progress in meditation must be authenticated by your character and behaviour. Meditation
must transmute your attitude towrds beings and things; else it is a
hoax. "
Integrating SSSS will have immence benefits. It will become clear that SSS are three aspects of the understanding of theReality, one aspect
complementing the other aspects. In the last paragraph, we
started with the laws of nature and ended up in the laws of society via the
laws of Divinity. Also the application
of scientific approach or dialectics
to study the development of society though initially developed into materialistic
determinism,
subsequently the objective conditions paved the way for conscious development with the possibility of flowering into spiritualism. arx who studied
social development
scientifically, formulated that : matter is primary and mind is secondary, material conditions and economics determine politics,
culture, in short all forms of conscious activity and finally history developed independent of
man's will. However around the middle of the 20th century, countries
achieved political independence without any economic independence,
politics determining everything else
and MaoTse Tung declared that peopleand people alone are the sole motive force in the
making of history,in
other words,conscious activity determining material
conditions etc. Even the "market"
started to respond
to political signals rather than economic ones . Share prices and interest rates move up
or down depending on
the
political wind rather than supply and demand or profit and loss. Only the oppressed and exploited people are taking time to understand this change. This change was neither accidental nor a result of subjective thinking but a result of the resolution of the contradictions between the then existing theory of materialistic determinism and the emerging objective social realities just in the same way as in the laws of nature, Einstein's laws arose to lay the boundary conditions of Newton;s laws of motion enriching natural science. In dialectical terms, in
the contradiction between man and nature, man replaced nature as
the principal aspect. Mao's cultural revolution and the famous dictum, "Let a hundred
flowers bloom, Let a hundred schools of
thought contend " can be
said as a
base for spiritual development. A society based on , " From each according to his ability, To
each according to his needs " is a favourable
base for fellowship of all beings and things. When property consciousness is
forgotten, it is easier to
forget body consciousness. Thus socialism leads to spiritualism
via
science. A unified approach in socialism, science and spiritualism is possible and there is
no need for any duplicity as in the well known purport
to Bagavad Gita
where it is
stated that telling lies for business purpose is permissible. Such duplicities in
spiritual literature mislead
people to think that body consciousness could be
given up without giving up property consciousness.
Egolessness is considered as essential for spiritual development and prayers or surrender to God is
for this purpose. It can be seen that science and socialism also help to achieve the spirit of egolessness. Astronomy
teaches that the universe is infinitely vast beyond visualisation and atomic physics, in particular the uncertainty
theory teaches how uncertain
and how infinitesimally
small the building block is
and the two sciences together teach us
how insignificantly small
and how uncertain we are and
therefore there is
no room for any ego. If we
study even the smallest social output, say transporting vegetables from the garden to the market, involves the labour of many, many people, living and the
dead and even the smallest activity cannot be
claimed as one's own and
hence helps to get rid of our ego.Thus
science and socialism when integrated with sincerity help to rid of ego and hence enable spiritual development. Socialism, Science and Spiritualism promote and florish with egolessness.
Collectivism in society or team work in scientific research or group
prayers
in Spiritualism are all to
facilitate egolessness. It does not make any difference whether the the individual self or
ego is surrendered to the society or to the nature or to the underlying
Reality for
society and nature are the reflection or manifestation of the underlying Reality within the limitations of the senses. Nature and society could be considered as
apparent Reality, not illusion.
It is interesting to
note that in
spiritual terms (
unlike in social or scientific terms ), the " holy ego " of taking pride in being the most pious person etc is not different from the " unholy ego " of a
criminal reflecting the absoluteness of
comradeship in spiritualism and this spirit needs to
be copied in socialism and science. In a sense, the "unholy ego " is less dangerous in
that there will be many to criticise it.
Unity of opposites
or the laws of contradiction is
the dialectical or
scientific approach to study society or
nature and this approach is
the equivalent of Dualism or pair of opposites in Spiritualism. Dialectical
or Scientific approach in essence
is that any phenomenon or
event or object should be
understood in context in
space, time and relevance and it is
the resolution of contradictions
between opposites that constitute the basis of change.The
evolution of Nature
and Society or
the apparent reality can be
considered as a
consequence of the resolution of contradiction between the underlying Reality and the apparent reality by
a process of
recycling which
is violent at times and non-violent at other times. Saiva siddhantha, the ancient version of
Hinduism calls it a process
of purification of the contaminants (malams
). The question of a
beginning and an
end is a conceptual miscarriage as they are based
on the concept of
time which is sense dependent. Unity of opposites helps to understand every facet of apparent reality and can help to
understand the
underlying Reality,
thus establishing a UNIFIED APPROACH in
all aspects of life.
What is to be done is
the main question. As pointed out earlier, although the laws of Divinity could not be understood fully within the limitations of the senses, it was inferred that
the salient features of the laws of Divinity should be similar to the
salient features of
nature ( the underlying Reality being the Source of
both the laws of
Divinity and of nature , and does not have any
sense
limitations ) and that
laws of society should be made to fall in
line with those salient features-- impersonal, impartial, non-discriminatory with regard to property, property relations, sovereignity
etc. Hence what is
to be done, should facilitate the resolution of contradictions in society to fall in line with these salient features. The resolution of social contradictions in this manner would help in
further understanding of
the laws of Divinity by creating the necessary environment for stilling the senses. In the present environment, if one stills the senses genuinely, on returning to the senses, any private wealth would be
lost thus pointing to the need for abolishing private property ownership to
facilitate stilling the senses and consequential spiritual
development or further understanding of Spiritualism. Thus
progress
for socialism is also progress for spiritual development, enriching life herein and hereafter. Spiritualism ,
on the other hand, broadens the scope of socialism from humanism and human affairs to the realm of all beings and things and the environment.
The scientific approach or dialectics enables one to view events and phenomena in the context of space, of time , of relevance and of integrating SSSS.
In the absence of
further understanding of the
knowledge of the laws of Divinity, socialism, humanism ,
communism and felloship
of all beings and things can be considered to be on the enroute.
Hence the resolution of contradictions within the apparent reality should be considered from the objectives of minimising
wastage of
matter, of resources, of
knowledge and of time, minimising extinction
of beings, minimising pain
to animals and minimising
unhappiness to human beings. " Minimising " is considered appropriate in the above objectives as
the " Minimising the total cost " seems to be the way of violent or
non-violent
driving force
behind the evolution and hence the only way in resolving the contradictions within the apparent reality. The contradiction between the underlying Reality and apparent reality cannot be resolved or understood when the contradictions within the apparent reality are not near
resolution but rather dominated with confusion and with
contaminants. Saiva
Siddhantha divides the souls/ atmas ( pasu )
into three categories ( i.e. 3 levels of contamination ) depending on the number of contaminants (
malams-
5 in all ) and the common and most difficult contaminant to get rid of is egoism. These contaminants are to
be got rid of by the right effort
specified in 30 levels(
probably facilitating the movement
in
the 3
categories ) which is unlike the division in
Bagavad
Gita that is based on a caste system. Further the right effort , to rid of the contaminants in order to
" see " the underlying Reality , is hindered by
prejudices and
ignorance. There
is no alternative to " Right Effort ". Bakthi
or surrender of ego to rid of prejudices , Gnana or Knowledge to rid of ignorance, are all means for the " Right Effort " to rid of the contaminants hiding the
vision of the underlying Reality. Similarly the prejudices and ignorance, blocking the right effort for the resolution of contradictions within the apparent reality ,need to
be rid of. This is very important particularly in the period of conscious development after the mid 20th century when man replaced nature as
the principal aspect in
the contradiction between
man and nature and conscious
activity became the determinant of social change.
The
sources of all contradictions within the apparent reality is globalised
capital which exploits the people of the world and the environment itself. The agents of the globalised
capital
have ubderstood
that
people and
people alone are the sole motive force in the making of history and therefore were and are making all out efforts to contaminate the minds of
the people with
prejudices and ignorances
so that they will not focus
on the main contradiction, the source of which is the globalised
capital and which needs to
be recycled optimally for the benefit of all beings and things. This contamination is carried out easily as a result of the monopoly ownership of the mass media of all forms by the globalised
capital. The internet
,though useful, cannot be an effective alternative, in
that
it cannot be accessed
by the vast majority and also controls
are beginning to be exercised in various guises. Developing cheap and non profit making ways of communication are possibly the alternatives. Profits , egoism based on individualism, family and such narrow interests help keeping the contaminants intact though these narrow interests do not help the vast majority herein or hereafter. Ironically such narrow interests are permitted
and even
encouraged by some spiritualists for affairs of this world and this is one reason why " Integrating SSSS " is very important. The devils have to be fought herein or
hereafter. The
contamination is being entrenched with the terrorist phobia which has been developed as a modern version of
the anti- communist phobia
of the cold war days, the difference being that terrorist phobia is a collusion game. However the net effect is
same--demolition of any resistance or
attempt at
liberation, while promoting the armament sector of the globalised
capital. The fight against globalised capital (
i.e. for
recycling of he
globalised capital ) should be understood and carried out with due consideration for
the context : globally and locally; spiritually, scientifically and socially; ideo-
logically and materially; against
all forms of exploitation of people and the environment, individually and collectively;
in favour
of all liberation movements,
independently and linked.
There is no liberation from duty to liberate from oppression
and exploitation like Siva having no liberation from the Dance to sustain the apparent reality just as the body cannot have
rest by stopping the blood circulation or breathing to sustain life. Egoless duty is the key. Some inspiring statements are:
Sai Baba : Even in Liberation one should not be selfish.
Ghandhi quoting
Ruskin: The good of the individual is contained in
the
good of all.
Vivekananda
: I have lost all wish for my salvation; may I be born again and again and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls-- and above all my God the wicked, my
God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species is the object of my special worship. He
who is high and low, Saint and the sinner, the God and the worm Him, worship the visible, the knowable, the real, the omnipresent, break all other idols. In whom there is neither past life nor future birth nor death, nor going nor coming in whom we always have been and always will be
one Him, worship; break all other idols
P.A.Subramaniam
16 . 11
. 2004