- Jan 3, 2010
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Dr. J.S. Anand’s ‘The Monster Within’: A Clarion Call to the Devastated and Torn World
Prof Dalvinder Singh Grewal (Ph.D. English)
Ex Dean Desh Bhagat University, Punjab
Prof Dalvinder Singh Grewal (Ph.D. English)
Ex Dean Desh Bhagat University, Punjab
God created nature for a continuous flow for universal good; man started changing the nature using tools of science, technology and biology into economic and political scales for his personal aggrandizement. Man forgets that he is created as a part of nature and he has no power to control nature. Disturbing its structure and characteristics for his personal use rather than to adjust with it, man got into conflict with nature. His magnified ego created a destructive mentality in him. He does not realize that by destroying nature, he is moving towards his own destruction. Trying to manipulate water, air, earth and space, he has polluted the entire environment which has now put his very existence in danger. Man's power is no match to the nature's power. Man's use of his energies to disturb natural energies is miniscule. Even an iota of disturbance of nature may become the cause of Man's total destruction. His mind is getting polluted by evils of greed, lust, infatuation, anger ad false pride.
Syndrome of ego to become rich in a day has made man exploit the earth through technology. He has forgotten that science will always be subservient to nature and scientific laws cannot surpass the laws of nature. All experimentation with technology, spacecraft and genetic engineering has failed against a simple attack by a virus. Entire world was shaken up by the mounting dead every minute. Continuous burials were not leaving enough space for burials of following bodies. How can we deny that many more such tragedies are in the offing in our near future? The biggest tragedy is that this is a man invented virus with which millions of men went for ultimate sleep. This virus has shaken us up well to remember God.
Man’s ego, ‘haumai’ or narcissism is leading him towards the evils: the evil of greed to have more and more trying to acquire more through falsehood and dirty means, the false pride at having amassed the material wealth without earning these through hard work, the lust in having bodily pleasures, the infatuation towards the expandable beauties, power and pelf; and getting angry for the desires not having been fulfilled make him Satan like. He may get some pleasure out of it but does not get peace, happiness and bliss.
High rise buildings, well spread aerodromes and ultra-long bridges do not make a nation great if there is no internal life and happiness. Why do we need tranquillizers to set our minds at rest and glucose to recuperate energies? The tragedies occur at the socio-political level by the economic, technological and scientific advances for the sake of physical and mental comfort and pleasure. Instead, the material sophistication created by these advancements has increased tensions and threats of spiritual disintegration, psychic instability and psychological imbalances. VCRs, Videos, TVs, Computer, mobiles and other technical gadgets invented for pleasure have led towards ‘drying up the inner springs of happiness and the man is losing the spiritual connect with God and nature. A nation can only be great with high moral and ethical values and its eagerness to help others and not by the material acquisitions which may include capture of other nations or their wealth. These high moral values and ethical education is not built in a day.
I remember that about seventy years ago, as children we used to listen to the spiritual hymns from our mothers while in their lap. As we grew, our grandmother used to tell us tales of great men who were embodiment of their ethical and moral values and laid their lives to hold principles. In schools, our books had spiritual lessons and our morning prayers and religious gatherings were to explain the importance of God and nature in the lives of beings. Ethical and moral values were ingrained in to our minds from home and then in schools.
A recent documentary explains how during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule house and religious temple had small books to guide children towards spiritual education and all the children had to compulsorily read these booklets. Elementary education by means of these small booklets was followed by advanced education in religious scriptures which led the beings closer to God and nature. No temple or mosque was allowed to be built until they opened a seminary for religious education.
With the end of his regime, the existing institutional systems were gradually destroyed as these were considered the pillar of strength of the mighty kingdom. The education system too was systematically destroyed and replaced with education of science, technology, economics and political science. This new education system removed man’s mind and soul away from God and dragged him to the world of pleasure and pelf. With this introduction of modern education which includes economics, science and technology, lessons on moral and ethical values have been deleted from syllabus books. This has caused immense damage to the life of human beings. These teachings of so called modern subjects have stripped the new generation of human values. Now no student wants to be a good human being but he wants to become a bureaucrat, scientist, technologist, an economist or a financial giant. The acquisitiveness, consumerism and commercialism have created a race to build wealth and properties leading to wars and barbarity. Instead of development of human values we have used these subjects towards acquisitiveness leaving minds and hearts deeply polluted.
Civilization is now attuned to pleasure but not to happiness. Man remains unhappy amongst plenty and loses the sense between real and unreal. Happiness is a spiritual experience, having nothing to do with body and the mind. Its springs lie silent in the human heart. They flow only when human heart, like snow on mountains, melts in the calm sunshine of love, sympathy, and charity. Happiness is a state of mind achieved when man gives away his prized things to the people more in need - his time, his money, his love, his attention, and his affection, to those dispossessed and less fortunate of this earth. Thus happiness is the result of going out to others in sympathy; loving nature, and the human being at the cost of the self. Happiness has nothing to do with objects as objects. For, an object is merely a subject of study by the physical sciences.
The closest creations to a man are the men, the animals, the birds, the trees, the plants and rich greenery around. Love them, serve them, and care them if you want comfort in your mind. This bliss, this solace, this peace, this comfort will be far deeper and long living than what you get from man-made machines. These machines are making man mechanical, expressionless, affectionless and defused. Imagine the plight of an old man mutely watching all the members of the family busy on their mobiles: children attending to classes or playing games, father speaking to his boss, mother busy gossiping with her kitty friends, and no one is available to give this cripple even a glass of water; what to talk of sharing a few sweet minutes with him. Similarly the entire family keeps busy watching a serial but there is no one to help the infirm to the bathroom for nature call.
This is the time when the old and infirm develop love with a pet dog, a mewing cat or a twittering parrot - all a natural creation which makes you more vital, more-lively, more loving, more joyful. Being too much with the mechanical creations takes one away from the natural creations and the real bliss. Love begets love. Machines don't give you love nor they understand your love. Life without love is barren, morose and lifeless. Loving the living nature is thus the real life. Love when reciprocated by living beings i.e. men, birds, animals, plants infuses energy. With this energy of love you will be lively; you will be the truly human being. Nature-love-humanity is the true combination. Machine-infatuation-man is perversion. Maintain true combination if you want to really survive. There is no survival with machines: it is all mechanical reactions.
The techno-religio-politics lacks true vision. It is rudderless, directionless and emotionless lacking human approach, natural instincts, love and creativity. The Socialism or Marxism or even liberalism do not have any psychic dimensions and are lost in materialistic entities which are only half truths. Since man does not live by bread alone, these materialistic approaches have bound the souls into chains. What is needed is energizing the psychic life.
This is the basic reason of cosmic conflict between the God’s purposes of natural creation for entire universe with man’s innovation of it for self-development without caring for others. Since this has been causing a great damage to the future of the man itself, Dr Anand searches for a point where God's creativity and man's innovation and love for the nature and welfare for others would match.
Man’s survival as an embodiment of soul, spirit, love life, peace and happiness has become essential and needs a human recovery. The present chain of ruling combine of politics bureaucracy, scientists, technologists and economists under whose wings the public is being crushed needs to be reversed to ensure that the public holds their controls, instead of the reverse combination.
In this step towards advancement with plasticized intelligence and knowledge men are becoming machines and getting disconnected from mind, soul, life and true humane values and we are moving towards life-giving process of nature, the simple country life beset with personal relations and natural existence.
To make this very serious point realize to the man Dr. Anand's anthologies are monumental. His effort is to make man realize that the real pleasure is not with worldly achievements but enjoying nature to its entirety. Technology made TVs, computers, cars, aero planes or ships do not provide man the real bliss. Real bliss lies in watching the blooming of flowers and joyfully fluttering butterflies, greenery rich or snow covered mountains and rising sun from behind them, glittering stars in the dark sky and comparing the brightness of this vast spread, listening to the singing of cuckoo and the lovely chirping of sparrows. Real love is, loving the Creator and His creation. Meditate on Him and you will get peace and bliss. Love His creation and you will get solace, observes the author.
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand’s book ‘The Monster Within’ is a step towards this aim where he makes the reader realize the human tragedy of evil’s onslaught which is causing a psychic drought. For this, he provides a guide sequentially in 13 guided dicta in the form of essays to overpower these evils and to create a new world close to God and nature and saving man from practical annihilation. His is neither an ordinary writing nor is it for ordinary people but it is a very serious study presenting the degenerating global state of affairs and, thereafter, giving the solutions to move forward in future. He has used words ‘monster’ and ‘devil’ for all these evils, for easy understanding through mythology where Adam had taken the apple and strayed away from their loving relationship with God and nature and got lost into the world of pleasure beset with evils and to tragedies one after the other.
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand has authored more than 100 books, many with number of editions. He is globally acknowledged and honored for his philosophical literature and for literary conferences. He has brought global authors together through conferences where old and new authors from almost all countries join annually in large numbers. His writings delve deep into the minds to create positive change.
‘The Monster Within’ [3rd Ed.] is a clarion call to the devastated and torn world to create a global awareness about the threat humanity is facing from the devils of consumerism, commercialization, fundamentalism and expansionism to the moral, ethical and spiritual value systems. It sets in a process of recovering mankind lost in the morass of materialism, and attaching them to nature and its Creator thereby leading to a life full of joy and happiness, solace and ultimate bliss. ‘Anand’, a Punjabi word when translated into English means ‘bliss’ and that is what Dr. Anand desires for all through this book. This much and more in elaborate form can be found in ‘The Monster Within’ by a serious reader which aims to recover man from the clutches of Demon of modernization, materialism and sophistication and to revitalize his spirit to make him a human being again through old value system and humanized education in art, culture, philosophy and poetry of life. When the light of true knowledge spreads, the dark demon of ignorance will no more eclipse the minds.
The book is written in a very lucid in a natural rivulet like flow forcing the arguments into human minds through proper reasoning in a logical manner. Even though the subject matter is serious yet at no point it bores but attracts one to know further. On the whole, the book is of enlightening nature and a must read for all.
