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I.
Invention as the Mother of Necessity
At
the outset I would join many others in
congratulating technology for its wide-ranging,
often spectacular, contributions to human
existence. It therefore involves the dilemma
whether I am being ungrateful to a benefactor while
critical of it. Yet I cannot help taking a holistic
look at technology in both dimensions: its apparent
glories and its real worries. In the process I will
adopt a primarily subjective stance regarding
objective technology -- reflecting on some of the
impacts of the advances in the realm of the
measurable on the fate of the immeasurable of
existence. The Indian psycho-philosophical theory
of gunas (primordial elements constituting
everything in Nature) will be used as a framework
to open up the subject. The perspective will be
that of the Gita. The other theoretical
foundation of our analysis will be built around the
concept of self v. self (the empirical v. the
transcendental, or the vyavaharikav. the
paramarthika vyaktitwa). The plight of the
third world getting caught in the technology whirl
will also be briefly tackled. The role of greed,
fear, aggression and similar values in stimulating
technology will also be touched upon. The
conversion of the human being into a compulsive
wanting machine, playing a puppet to
innovation/invention, is the deep subjective
concern I would like to address.
II.
Marrying in Haste and Repenting at
Leisure
Let
me offer a few snapshots of technology-based
life-style, which is becoming more and more
common.
(A)
Personal Computers: Some years ago it used to be a
status symbol. Now it is nearly ubiquitous. Its
glories have been sung in terms of unlimited
information processing powers in a trice. This
would leave the user free to think, to escape
drudgery, to explore numerous alternatives and thus
reach excellent solutions or decisions and so
on.
A
recent report, however, exposes the worries from PC
with the smart phrase 'cyber sickness'. The writer
mentions about new ailments like Computer Vision
Syndrome (CVS) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS),
and quotes the finding of a pharmaceutical company
that 60 per cent of all eye complaints come from
computer users. He also states that seven out of
ten people with computer-concerned jobs have CVS in
the west. (1)
(B)
Cheating Calculators and Websites: An Australian
newspaper has recently reported about the latest
examination-cheating weapon -- a line of Japanese
calculators which allow pairs of students to
invisibly beam answers to each other during
examinations. Proliferating sale of 'electronic
essays' and 'term papers' through rogue websites
like the Evil House of Cheat or School Sucks (in
the US) is a growing menace in academic
institutions. (3)
(C)
Compulsions of Technology Investment: Dow Corning
had developed and begun marketing a silicon gel
product. A number of individuals within the firm
were apprehensive about the ambiguous but
potentially harmful effects of the product. But
their dissent was submerged in the corporate
consensus, which wanted the product to be marketed
to secure a reasonable return on the investment in
R&D and production of the item. However, later
on, due to accumulating unfavourable evidence,
government intervened, a lot of adverse publicity
occurred, the old management was replaced and the
new management had to withdraw the product.
(2)
(D)
Technology Response to Technology Problems:
Engineers are being exhorted to reduce the weight
and increase the fuel efficiency of cars, while
conceding that the number of car users will go on
increasing. Such technological breakthroughs are
expected to solve both traffic congestion and air
pollution problems. Similarly, in the field of
information technology the enticing picture of
being able to have a pocket telephone with cable
and radio inputs with one personal number is being
projected. (4)
It
is difficult to grasp how increased car use will
not complicate and aggravate our problems, whereas
the increase in human population is readily treated
as amongst the greatest concerns. Similarly, pocket
telephones and such other adult toys will
constitute nagging threats to the mental
equilibrium and health of the possessor. How is it
that such serious, soon-to-follow dangers to the
individual are glibly ignored? That such an on the
move, 24-hour society is bringing mankind to the
brink of insanity has been sensed in these words by
non-technical authors: (5)
Americans
are fired by work, frazzled by lack of time.
Technology hasn't made their lives better. No
wonder one quarter of them say they're exhausted.
They need to chill out before they hit the breaking
point.
(E)
Internet Networking :It has been reported that one
of the cutting edges of cyberspace technology is to
permit Internet users to have the same surfing
facility by remote controllers as TV viewers are at
present enjoying. To have this project on by 2002
A.D. would mean launching 840 satellites in two or
three years. But already the earth's orbit is full
of dangerous space debris. Besides, the project
will also involve the complex problem of passing
signals from one satellite to another. (6)The
question is will this technological marvel
contribute in any way to the alleviation of
poverty, ill health, and joblessness? Is it not
likely to be a breeding ground for unimagined
problems for future generations?
(F)
Bio-technology or Genetic Engineering: The journey
in this sphere had begun with hybrid seeds and
hybrid cows for greater output. It is now
culminating in animal and human cloning. At some
point such laboratory breakthroughs will be
commercialised or militarised -- because these are
the two dominant impulses in the world to day.
Recently two women authors had observed thus: "When
Dolly, the cloned sheep, preened for her first
photographs last week, the public learned that all
sorts of genetic mischief, including mammal
cloning, is now possible". (7) It is a fact
commonly forgotten that most of the technological
feats the common man encounters today have had
their origin in times of wars. In 1985, when the
world was politico-militarily bipolar, a Nobel
Laureate, bio-physicist Maurice Wilkins, had
admitted that about "half the world's scientists
and engineers are now engaged in war programs, that
the whole American space program was very largely
based on military needs, and that the true extent
to which the whole of science throughout the world
is being driven along by military needs is not
fully realised yet". (8)
So
what we see now is: innocent children dying in
hidden minefields, hotels being planned on the
moon, brisk marketing of human organ transplants
etc.. Whatever may therefore be the promises of
genetic engineering today, going by historical
trends of earlier technological developments of
science, the future springing from this new thrust
area is unlikely to be benign as a whole whatever
may be the promises of genetic engineering
today.
(G)
TV Entertainment: Within three decades of its mass
use, the TV has come to be called an 'idiot box'.
It has become a menace, causing degrading
homogenisation amongst children and youngsters
across the world in terms of violence, promiscuity,
conspicuous unsustainable consumption and so on.
These harmful effects outweigh the much-proclaimed
benefits of TV like information, entertainment,
education etc.. In fact, the present generation
(our children) has forgotten the habit of reading
for self-education or even enjoyment because
everything comes cooked and dressed up on the TV
screen. Shallow restlessness is a natural outcome
of this trend.
(H)
Human Health :Instead of being one of the most
sacred callings of the human race, health care has
become a high-tech commercial profession. So much
has technology invaded this field that we have
to-day only narrow specialists with no ability to
understand the patient as a whole. It often turns
out be a dreadful experience for a patient to be
subjected to countless costly and complicated
tests, often ending up in a whimper. Recently a
cardiac patient was taken to the USA from a very
reputable Calcutta nursing home. The Calcutta
doctors, based on their experience with the
patient, advised their American counterparts to go
slow and steady with their hi-tech processes. The
latter did not heed, and the patient died very soon
due to the rush of hi-tech tests inflicted upon
him. His system gave way even before any treatment
could start.
(I)
Fertilised Infertility: Scientists from the Centre
for Earth Science Studies have recently reported
that the 'rice-bowl' of Kerala (Kuttanad) has been
nearly ruined. For over a period of 30 years,
following the construction of a bund,
ostensibly to prevent seawater salinity, the
unanticipated side effect has been the steady
deposition and accumulation of residues from
chemical fertilisers in stagnant waters. This has
harmed the ecology of the area to an extent that
not only has the annual paddy output not increased
at all, but fish in lakes and palm trees (used for
toddy tapping) along with fields have begun to die.
Local people are being forced to migrate out of the
area due to the erosion of their sources of living.
(9)
The
few cursory examples provided above should prompt
us to think seriously about the wisdom contained in
the witty saying quoted in the sub-title of this
section.
III.
Nectar to Start With, Poison to End
With
The
first line of verse 37, and the second line of
verse 38 in chapter 18 of the Bhagavad Gita, read
as follows: (10)
yat
tad agre vishamiva,
parinamey-amritopaman
parinamey
vishamiva, yad tad agre
amritopaman
The
first quote refers to that pleasure which initially
is poison-like but finally nectar-like, while the
second one speaks about that pleasure which
initially is nectar-like but ends up by being
poison-like. We have people who could be dominated
by the propensity to seek well-being or happiness
by adopting either of these two characteristic
motives. Of course, by far the majority amongst us
lean towards the second option. Whether
divinely-ordained or genetically-conditioned,
contemporary humanity reveals, more than ever
before, the common tendency to choose short-term
gain, and incur long term pain. What is the
psychological explanation of this
phenomenon?
The
Indian theory of triune, elemental psychological
energy-forces (called gunas) seems eminently
fitted to interpret this predicament. Qualitatively
the most refined and excellent of the three is
sattwa guna which constitutes illumined
understanding. This is how verse 14.11 of the
Gita on this mode of Nature (guna) is
interpreted by Sri Aurobindo: (11)
The
intelligence is alert and illumined, the senses
quickened, the whole mentality satisfied and
full of brightness, and the nervous being calmed
and filled with an illumined ease and clarity,
prasada. Knowledge and a harmonious ease
and pleasure and happiness are the
characteristic results of sattwa.
The
second, rajo gunaor rajas, combines
an essential positive ingredient with several
associated dangerous features. Verse 14.2 on this
guna is thus explained by Sri Aurobindo:
(12)
Rajas
... is the kinetic force in the modes of Nature.
Its fruit is the lust of action, but also grief,
pain, all kinds of suffering; for it has no
rightpossession of its object, ... and even its
pleasure of acquired possession is troubled and
unstable because it has not clear knowledge ...
All the ignorant and passionate seekings of life
belong to the rajasic mode of Nature.
The
third, tamo gunaor tamas is the
poorest of three, being opposed to both
sattwaand rajas. As Sri Aurobindo
puts it: (13) "Tamas is inertia of nescience
and inertia of inaction, a double
negative".
This
guna theory is the result of long experiment
and sustained experience of the ancient
seer-psychologists of India. All manifestation in
Nature, including that of human personality, is
some combination of these three gunas. It
is the preponderance of one over the other two
which explains variations in behaviour, attitudes
and dispositions. If sattwa is the most
dominant guna then a leader, for example,
will act with illumined dynamism, will guide
himself and others towards long-term gain (or
nectar) by resisting short term gain (which truly
is poison in the long run). If, on the other hand,
the leader, or for that matter anyone in any role,
is dominated by rajas, he acts with blind
dynamism lured by short term gain (with long term
pain). The preponderance of tamas of course
leads to the inertia of inactivity.
My
view of the galloping speed of technological
innovation (I prefer not to use the term progress)
is this then: it symbolises the vehement dominance
of the blinding rajo guna.Rajas is
narcissistic, fascinated by its own dazzling charm.
It lacks objective detachment, which flows from
sattwa. In our epoch, in this age of
calculative commercialism (not of noble chivalry,
not of sagacious serenity), the world seems to be
ruled and managed by the predominantly "rajasic
temper" of nations, leaders, institutions, and so
on. Commercialization of any aspect of our
existence, springing from this rajasic
drive, seems to have always led to a qualitative
decline in human values -- be it in sports, music
or art, education or health care. Science and
technology too have become the tools of the
rajasic commercial spirit. Hence, brilliant
and laudable though their achievements may in
themselves be, their cumulative impact on man and
earth has repeatedly substantiated the truth
contained in the warning :'Marry in haste and
repent at leisure'.
Cooper
has recently written about the "relative chaos"
created by technology which "disrupts the
possibility of life-as-a-whole", and also about the
"threats to intimacy offered by technology". (14)
Of course what is poison to many could be nectar
for a few. Thus we have avid takers of
rajas-inspired chaos who write
dictionary-sized books about how to thrive in
chaos. (15) We also have ardent votaries of
'virtual worlds', created on computer screens,
where "houses are lived in, roses are smelled, and
hugs can hold together friendships". (16)
Rajasic narcissism seems to make these
writings blind to the fact that such virtual
realities merely prove the withering of the
cherished realities of human society. Little is it
realised that virtual realities are vacuous and
unsustainable. Mechanical or electronic mediation
cannot replace direct human relationships. Virtual
environments for the individual will tend to become
sterile and lifeless as soon as the initial
excitement about them ebbs.
IV.
I Need Your Greed For My Greed
The
Hitopadesa (Counsel For Well-being) narrates
the story of a wily and hungry tiger, grown old and
rather immobile, enticing a gullible man with a
golden chain in its paw. It feigns having
completely abandoned its violent habits and is only
waiting to really do good to that person by handing
over the chain for which it has no use. The man
hesitates for a while. But his greed overcomes his
sense of prudence. So he goes near the tiger and
stretches his hand to get the chain. The tiger
clutches at his hand, drags him into its jaws and
finishes him off. (17) This parable is profoundly
suggestive of the real nature of the
techno-commercial age in which we now
live.
It
is true that human desires and greed have always
been there with us. But to have brazenly
legitimised it and to have turned it into the
principal engine for managing human society seems
to have been a post-Enlightenment phenomenon. This
period has yielded much to be proud of and to
cherish by the human race. Yet, and this is not
recognised by the rationalistic protagonists of the
Enlightenment, this very period has witnessed
episodes like the spread of colonialism world-wide,
slavery in the New World, and the decimation of
helpless indigenous peoples, apartheid, two
disastrous World Wars, the holocaust, the dropping
of atomic bombs in Japan, imperialism, a burgeoning
arms-trade that foments local wars, spiraling
violence and social disruption, ecological
destruction, and so on. Given such a record of the
post-Enlightenment period, reinforced by new
technologies, is it not clear that it is greed,
which has acted as the key motive force behind all
such disasters?
The
historian-thinker, Arnold Toynbee, has leveled the
charge that modern scientific-technological
civilisation has given virtually free rein to
material greed. The root of this phenomenon is
traced by him to the original Judaic monotheism,
amplified later by Christians and Muslims, which
implied that nothing else but the one Creator-God
was divine, and that the whole of non-human
creation was placed by Him in the hands of human
beings to do as they wished. (18) This world-view
has eliminated all awe and reverence for Nature. As
a result, alongside the ascending curve of
technology, the technology-ethics gap has been
widening, and human dignity and happiness have
suffered. (19) Clearly, Toynbee's insights
challenge the often-facile glorification of
enlightenment rationality by its votaries (to the
extent that some of them deny the word greed
itself).
What
theoretical insight did the ancient Upanishadic
sage have to offer in this regard? Let us take,
for example, the first verse of the Isha
Upanishad: (20)
Isha
vasyam idam sarva,
Yat
kincha, jagatyam jagat;
Tena
tyaktena bhunjitha,
Ma
gridha, kasya svid dhanam.
[All
this -- whatever exists on the earth -- should be
seen as covered by the Lord. Enjoy with detachment.
Do not covet anybody's riches. ]
The
type of educational philosophy, the kind of
moulding of consciousness for human development
implied in this verse is:
Everything
on earth, as much as one's own self, is a
manifestation of Supreme Divinity -- cultivate and
nurture this awareness by constant
effort.
There
is no reason therefore to dominate over or be
aggressive or acquisitive about anything. The truth
being oneness and identity of all, what to possess
or to grab?
Only
take that much which serves your reasonable needs.
The earth has enough to meet that for all. Beyond
this learn not to be covetous or greedy.
Evidently
the ashram-dwelling releasers of a few thousand
years ago had precisely formulated the preventive
recipe for the human predicament which thinkers
like Toynbee have started articulating today.
Significantly, two of the latest writers on genetic
engineering have also voiced concerns similar to
Toynbee's about a strong strand in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam which treats creation to be
meant for humans to exploit. Again, like Toynbee,
they look hopefully towards Hindu and Buddhist
philosophy for a corrective approach.
(21)
It
should therefore be clear from the above that
Vedantic monism, instead of Judaeo-Christian
monotheism, provides a more holistic and therefore
sustainable philosophy for educating the human mind
in the next millennium. The monistic orientation
may alone help science and technology to recoup its
sense of balance and proportion. At first sight
this might seem impossible or irrelevant. But since
no better alternative is available, in theory and
principle, efforts are called for widespread
determined arousal of monistic consciousness. If
the divisive, dualistic consciousness, underpinned
by monotheism, has taken a few centuries to
penetrate into our cells and tissues, we need to be
patiently farsighted to gradually replace it by the
unitive, monistic consciousness. Abatement of
sci-tech fuelled greed could be achieved by such
efforts only.
We
have in India a psychology of the self, which
corresponds with and matches the philosophy of
monism. Briefly, this psychological theory tells us
that it is necessary to interpret the human
personality in terms of two levels: the lower or
unripe or empirical self, and the higher or ripe or
transcendental Self. The Swetaswatara
Upanishad conveys this two-level concept
through the metaphor of a tree on which two exactly
identical golden birds are seen. One of them is
restlessly hopping from branch to branch,
continually nibbling at fruits bitter and sweet.
The other sits contentedly on the top calmly gazing
as a witness at the restless companion jumping
between transient pleasure and pain. (22) At some
point in time however, the lower bird looks upward,
glimpses the bird atop which is exactly like
itself, yet so composed and steady. Then it
recovers its sense of identity with the higher
bird, flies up to it and merges with it in perfect
consummation. Hierarchy after all is not so
abominable as it is made out to be in certain
intellectual quarters.
Psychologically
speaking, the bird perched on the lower branch
symbolises our deficit-driven, perpetually hungry
self. The bird on the higher branch, on the other
hand, is the self-contained, poorna Self. It
represents the non-contingent, bliss-in-itself
substratum of the human personality. This Self is
verily the fountainhead of dignity of which Toynbee
speaks. The lower bird, greedy and hungry forever,
is prone to meanness and pettiness. The Biblical
pronouncement that 'The Kingdom of Heaven is
within', or the Gita declaration: "atmany
eva atmana tusta" (23) (the atman or
higher Self is contentment in itself) -- these are
the calls which can save us from the clutches of
the inveterately greedy rajasic lower self. Modern
technology reveals the relentless sway of this
self. The lower self in fact feeds on the rajo
guna, much like an effect-cause relationship. The
restless, externally-driven temper of rajas
is the key psychological factor behind the
exploding technology cloud. It is the
self-contented, sattwa-nourished higher Self
which can protect science from degeneration at the
hands of technology. Let us remember these
beautiful lines from Shelley's Stanzas Written
in Dejection, Near Naples:
that
content surpassing wealth
the sage in meditation found,
And walked with inward glory
crowned.
Science
can be treated as humanity's quest of 'knowledge
for the sake of knowledge' in the outer realm. But
technology is suspect because it almost always uses
'knowledge for the sake of greed'.
Cooper
is right in saying that attempts to immunise
"reflective moral judgments" against contamination
by sentiment are incoherent. (24) I fully agree
with him when he comments further on that the felt
horrors about bio-engineering of animals, and that
'objective' judgements about them can arise only
from "proper feelings" in people with "whom there
is nothing wrong". (25) Elsewhere I have discussed
at length the psychological theory and process of
chittashuddhi or
antarshuddhi(purification of heart, feelings
and emotions) as the ground for wholesome, holistic
and objective decision-making. (26) This is so
because each human being is subjective at the core,
struggling to be objective but ending up in failure
to be so. Unless we face this fact, the
contaminated (and greed constitutes a psychological
pollution) lower self will continue to manifest a
subjective element which is degenerate, and we
shall miss the goal of creating an objective outer
environment which can be uplifting for the
individual -- despite all the claims of technology.
The nettle has to be grasped right at the heart:
the issue of self v. self.
The
rousing reception accorded today to the
marketplace, globalisation, privatisation,
liberalisation and all that is a direct sequel to
the deification of self-interest -- an euphemism
for greed. Saul is correct to argue that
"Everything, from school education to public
services, is being restructured on the
self-destructive basis of self-interest". (27) The
marketplace is the new all-powerful clockmaker God,
aided solidly by his archangel, technology. (28)
Later in his book, Saul goes on to say that
invoking the "marketplace" as the Holy Spirit
serves only to restrict ourselves "to the narrow
and short-term interests of exclusion"; (29) the
often loud and misleading talk about the powers and
benefits conferred by technology amount to little
more than "minor technical manipulations" (30)and
that when "globalisation" (and trade) is proclaimed
as "pure Destiny", its protagonists care little
about its effects on jobs and living standards.
(31)
Having
pushed the purely 'economic model of man' to the
pinnacle, it became inevitable that technology
would serve single-mindedly the bidding of
governments and institutions for turning every
aspect of the social environment as a-human as
possible. From the viewpoint of Vedantic spiritual
psychology this implies building our society
exclusively on the foundation of the lower or
empirical self which is constitutionally
deficit-driven.
Mainstream
modern psychology seems to have helped considerably
the economic (or lower or deficit-driven) model of
self to attain supremacy by resolutely denying the
trans-empirical, higher Self. This spiritual Self
is self-fulfilled, whole and complete in itself.
This is the psychological meaning of the
declaration: 'The Kingdom of Heaven is within'. The
furious pace of technology-driven commerce is
turning humans into thoroughly exteriorised beings.
The crowding of our lives with
exponentially-burgeoning technology is creating a
debilitating, exhausting centrifugality of
consciousness. Such an exteriorised,
centrifugalised existence tends to lose its charm
very soon, driving us to seek forever fresh inputs
of technology that invade a daily life. This
chaotic, anchor-less environment is the real
psychological fallout of technology for the lay
individual.
The
Isha Upanishad caveat about not coveting
others' wealth can be heeded only if the individual
is not wholly engrossed in the rajasic,
deficit-driven lower self. At least some part of
his/her consciousness should be imbedded in the
awareness of the autonomously whole (
poorna) higher Self within. If technology is
dragging the individual farther and away from this
higher Self, then it should begin to quietly
retract its fatal dash. A bit of Shelly's sage must
occupy every individual's inner space.
Early
in this century Rabindranath Tagore, India's mystic
Nobel Laureate in literature, had spoken about
Simplicity as the source of truth, power and
beauty. Simplicity removes the obstructions that
block inner vision and fosters transparence. Both
are essential for the sake of Truth, which though
intangible, "is more real than the gross and the
numerous". (32)Explaining the 'philosophy of
poverty' underlying his school at Shantiniketan,
Tagore had told his American audience that "Poverty
brings us into complete touch with life and the
world, for living richly is living mostly by proxy,
and thus living in a world of lesser reality. This
may be good for one's pleasure and pride, but not
for one's education". (33) Hence his audacious
advice that everyone should have some limited
period of his/her life reserved to be spent like
that of primitive man -- in direct touch with
Nature and the natural. (34)
During
a lecture in China in 1924, Tagore had emphasised
that "simplicity is the product of centuries of
culture; that simplicity takes no account of its
own value, claims no wages, and therefore those who
are enamoured of power do not realise that
simplicity of spiritual expression is the highest
product of civilisation". (35) Sattwa guna,
higher Self and Simplicity are complementary in
creating the only sustainable environment for
humanity -- a spiritual one. The highest humanism,
the loftiest dignity has been attainable only
through spiritual simplicity.
V.
Technoxication? - Beware
In
1989 the United States launched the Human Genome
Project which is going to cost more than three
billion dollars and take perhaps fifteen years to
complete. Its purpose is to identify the entire
human genetic code. (36)
This
is a spectacular sci-tech research project by any
standards. The highest quality of scientific
dedication inherent in such an effort is
unquestionable. Yet an outstanding feature of this
endeavour is that it is entirely focused on the
material, physical existence of humans. It talks of
'human enhancement' by planned alteration of
genetic codes. Of course, new diseases and ailments
of the affluent sci-tech era may also be more
effectively tackled by the findings of such
research and their application. Yet, the entire
range of such hopes and aims appears to totally
ignore the role of human will to transcend his/her
physio-sensual boundaries, and step into the realms
of non-egoistic, non-body centered-levels of
psychological perfection. Objective genetic
manipulation, not subjective consciousness
elevation, seems to be regarded as constituting the
next round of human evolution. The greatest modern
Indian philosopher-sage, Sri Aurobindo, had said
this: (37)
To
be shut up for ever in his ego is not his ultimate
perfection; he can become a universal soul, one
with the Supreme Unity, one with others, one with
all beings. This is the high sense and power
concealed in his humanity.
This
statement is of capital importance because it
conveys a view of evolution altogether different
from what the human genome project is driven by.
The Aurobindovian framework tells us that dynamic
Nature has been manifesting herself successively
through this sequence: "matter -- to life -- to
mind -- to spirit" (above mind). Increasingly
refined and perfect unfoldment of consciousness is
the keynote of this evolutionary journey. To the
extent that the human body is a better mould than
that of the plant or the animal to allow mental
consciousness to flourish, Nature's progressive
intent is unmistakable. But the present confused,
stumbling, problem-creating mind-set of humanity
cannot be the final or supreme intent of evolving
Nature. Until the arrival of the human form on
earth, Nature has been profusely creative in
putting forth millions of physical forms. However,
once the human form emerged, it appears that Nature
ceased to create further new forms. The human form
seems to be the culmination of the physical aspect
of evolution. Henceforth evolution is intended to
take place in the subjective realm of higher and
higher consciousness in the direction of the
Spirit. (38) This consciousness is termed by Sri
Aurobindo as 'yogic consciousness'. He explains
that it is:
not
only to be aware of things, but of forces, and not
only of forces, but of the conscious being behind
the forces. One is aware of all this not only in
oneself but in the Universe. (39)
Granting
that the therapeutic aspect of human genetic
engineering is of some positive relevance to the
physical life of humans, does the thrust of human
advances in genetic technology show any sign of
incorporating the line of the Aurobindovian theory
of evolution? What is the meaning of 'human
advancement'? -- that indeed is the supreme issue.
Some authors like Singer and Wells do warn that:
(40)
when
we try to improve upon evolution, we may find that
for some quite unexpected reason we have only made
matters worse.
But
they do not go beyond pointing out the danger of
such sci-tech endeavours. No positive view of the
evolutionary trend in Nature-in-itself can be
gathered from what they say. This difficulty arises
because evolution for them seems to carry no
sacredness, no wisdom, no amelioration. Evolution,
for this school of thought, is "utterly indifferent
to the well-being or ultimate fate of our species".
(41) Anderson is more categorical in his views than
Singer and Wells, and unlike them also mentions
spirituality: (42)
Our
disagreements about what constitutes 'humanhood'
are notorious. And our insight(s) into what, and to
what extent, genetic components might play a role
in what we comprehend as our 'spiritual' side are
almost non-existent. We simply should not meddle in
areas where we are so ignorant.
This
is a counsel of prudence beneath a coating of
apparent conservatism.
Cooper,
taking technology as a whole, complains of
"technological society's lack of a centre", its
substitution of "relative chaos" for the "gradually
evolving norms of earlier societies", and the
resultant danger it poses to "life-as-a-whole".
(43) Kwame Gyekye, while pleading the case for
social transformation with the aid of technology,
rightly cautions that this will be unattainable
"unless technology moves along under the aegis of
basic human values", unless it "be guided by other
-- perhaps intrinsic and ultimate -- human values".
(44) If, without heeding such human values,
technology tends to trigger a social transformation
which is primarily chaotic and anchorless, making
for perpetual uncertainty, insecurity and emotional
alienation, then what kind of evolutionary stage is
it building up for humanity?
Between
them, then, Singer and Wells, Anderson, Cooper and
Gyekye -- all represent voices of sanity in an era
when large segments of world population are tipsy
with the effects of technoxication. And yet one
looks in vain to them for a bright horizon of hope
and light for the individual in search of a
profound life -- a life of powerful self-endeavour
to propel the lower self towards the higher Self,
and not one of impotent genetic engineering which
knows not what Self is.
If
human advancement were to be defined in terms of
the growth of his/her capacity for alignment with
the Universal or Cosmic and Transcendental Forces,
beyond the egoistic-empirical ones, and be thus
truly empowered to both become and do good, then
genetic technology would have the correct benchmark
to be measured against. My own view is that genetic
engineering is inherently incapable of passing this
test for it simply cannot lay its hold on something
that is higher and beyond mere reason and measure
-- Spirit or Consciousness. The table cannot show
the light, light shows the table. The fragmented
intellect cannot realise holistic Consciousness.
The moment this attempt is made, it results in
splits and splinters. That is why when asked about
God (who is nothing but Pure Consciousness), Buddha
response was silence. This I believe, is the nature
of the psycho-philosophical principle behind
Anderson's skepticism about the role of genetic
engineering in human advancement. The chances are
strong that this line of technology will breed
made-to-order, tailor-made robots in a robotised
environment.
The
simple, yet basic question is : can genetic
engineering ever reduce greed, cruelty, envy, lust
and increase contentment, gratitude, humility,
compassion and the like? What then will be left for
character-making education by and for each
individual? Adams voices his worry on this score,
although he speaks in relation to technology as a
whole. He is concerned with the sustainability of
"demand economics" (an euphemism for greed?)
fostered by new technologies. He speaks about
explicit direction of economic activity "by and
towards positive human values". For once he does
mention 'greed'. (45) But his argument is not
forthright enough as we are suggesting here: should
human advancement, supported by self-education,
dissociate itself from the list of negative-values
like greed etc., and embrace the list of positive
human values mentioned above? How does technology
visualise its position in this values
matrix?
Bhagwan
feels that in regard to developing countries "The
dark side of the picture is currently more in
evidence than the bright side". He cites the
examples of the ruination of the peasantry of the
Philippines, Caribbean and Madagascar, whose export
crops like rice, sugar, vanilla etc. have been
displaced by bio-technologically engineered
industrial substitutes in the advanced economies.
Possibly in future highly populated developing
countries may end up by being net importers of
technology-intensive food from the rich economies.
(46)Bhagwan also points out that while the 'green
revolution' has been lauded for its short-run
positive results through laboratory-bred
high-yielding cereal crops, it has also severely
endangered the existence of hundreds of natural,
indigenous, low-yielding varieties of those crops.
The dangers of the 'bio-revolution' in the wider
plant and animal kingdoms, causing manifold greater
man-made loss in bio-diversity, are serious enough.
So, Bhagwan doubts the wisdom of the establishment
in developing countries which are lured by the
immediate hopes of dramatic productivity increases
through the bio-revolution. (47) Another instance
of 'marrying in haste and repenting at leisure'
indeed!
We
have a growing body of such critical literature
regarding bio-technology, genetic engineering and
scientific research in general. (48) All of them
however seem to confine their focus to the diverse
social implications of sci-tech. An implicit
acceptance of the awesome march of sci-tech, a kind
of resignation to its inevitability, seems to ring
through this body of literature. The psychological
impact of sci-tech invasion into the daily life of
the citizen is not addressed. Nor are the still
deeper philosophical issues like the meaning of
human birth, the meaning of true humanness, the
ultimate human destiny being given any attention in
these writings. It is to some such neglected issues
that this paper has attempted to draw
attention.
VI.
Conclusion: Globalizing Spiritual
Ambitions
Sci-tech
has done a marvellous job of globalizing material
ambitions and in penetrating the remotest places on
earth. A greedy global village seems to be our
crowning achievement at the close of the second
millennium. Let us hope and pray that we can go
beyond half-hearted sociological critiques of this
state of society, and begin to devote our energies
towards globalizing spiritual ambitions from the
very beginning of the 3rd millennium. To
prepare for this paradigm shift we should be ready
to take our lessons from the Tagores, Gandhis and
Aurobindos -- who had made it the business of their
lives to progress within rather than progress
without. And in this they were no less systematic,
rational and meticulous than any scientist in his
laboratory. Only that their laboratory was first
within and next only without. They never shunned
the without, but proceeded towards it after, or at
least alongside, achieving elevation within. And
they were God-centered, not in the sterile
theological sense, but with abiding being-level
consciousness. So let us listen to them.
First
we glean a few utterances from Gandhi:
"Who
can deny that much that passes for science (and
art) to-day destroys the soul instead of
uplifting it, and instead of evoking the best in
us, panders to our basest passions". (49)
"If
the circulation of blood theory could not have
been discovered without vivisection, humankind
could well have done without it".
(50)
"I
quite understand that your "mass production" is
a technical term for production by the fewest
possible number through the aid of highly
complicated machinery. I have said to myself
that this is wrong. My machinery must be of the
most elementary type which I can put in the
homes of millions". (51)
To
the technoxicated mind all this might seem simply
bizarre and utterly gullible. Harmful as they are,
such reactions are not unnatural. Mad people are
not known to accept that they have gone mad. Many
nationalistically minded citizens of India feel
inferior about India's lack of innovative
capability and the apparent technological
backwardness of the common man's daily life. This
defensive mentality had perhaps been anticipated by
Gandhi, and therefore he had responded to a reader
as follows: (52)
It
was not that we did not know how to invent
machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set
our hearts after such things, we would become
slaves and loss our moral fiber.
Accordingly,
a few days later he had emphasised to another
reader: "We therefore, say that the non-beginning
of a thing is supreme wisdom". (53) Why? Because
each link in the sci-tech chain makes the next step
almost inevitable. But since the universe is a
highly complex and subtle system, sci-tech
tampering with it tends to breed problems beyond
man's normal rational reckoning. Eluded of any
final solution sci-tech rushes along a spiral of
ever complex problems and calls this
progress.
Let
us now turn to Tagore once more. In one of his
early morning discourses at the Shantiniketan
Ashram in 1908 he had spoken thus: (54)
No
matter how many railway trains we run and
telegraph lines we lay, in the field of power we
remain infinitely far from God.
If
we dare to compete with Him, then our endeavour,
transgressing its limits, becomes cursed and faces
annihilation. No scientist, no technologist has the
ability to plumb completely even a grain of dust
within which He resides. Therefore the person who
would compete with God in the sphere of power is
like Arjuna shooting arrows at the disguised
Mahadeva -- arrows that do not touch him. Defeat
there is inevitable.
These
warnings had issued from a sage-level
consciousness, which could gaze across the
fragmentary and transient towards the whole and the
eternal. For over-confident sci-tech to continue to
brush them aside as poetic prattle would be an
unpardonable act of irreversible recklessness.
Ninety years after Tagore had uttered these words
at a winter dawn in a small, quiet, simple corner
of the earth, we realise to-day their prophetic
accuracy in so many facets of our
existence.
True,
human beings cannot live without ambitions, desires
and aspirations. The question is: what is the
quality and direction of such propulsions? If they
are exclusively material, and therefore
outer-directed, the individual will continue to
live in a chaotic, unintelligible, exteriorised
environment. This has been the long-term
psychological trend underlying the development of
sci-tech. His/her whole life is now spent in a
furious race simply to cope with the torrent of
sci-tech objects invading from without. On the
other hand, if the primary human ambitions and
aspirations could be re-directed, beginning with
those who already have more than enough for
material sustenance, towards becoming aware of the
stable interior core of being, then should commence
the revival of the individual's lost mastery of
his/her outer environment. The loss of paradise
without has been caused by the loss of paradise
within. Here we turn once more to Sri Aurobindo for
a precise formulation. (55)
Man
... is a spirit veiled in the works of energy,
moving to self-discovery, capable of Godhead. He
is a soul that is growing through Nature to
conscious self-hood; he is a divinity and an
eternal existence... The natural half-animal
creature that for a while he seems to be is not
at all his whole being, and is not in any way
his real being.
Bio-technology,
genetic engineering, cyber communication and all
that must be judged, therefore, against the above
definition of the human being -- a definition which
is the only true hope for a sustainable world.
Discovery of, stabilising in, and working from
one's spiritual identity has to become the top
universal agenda of all human beings -- not
confined just to a few specialist seekers as has
been the case in human history so far.
Globalisation of this kind only is truly worthy of
human labour.
A
contemporary physicist, Goran Wall, strongly
perceives the need for such a shift because "From
the ecological point of view, the present resource
use in society faces a dead-end technology leading
to nothing but annihilation in the long run". Why
has our civilization reached such a dead end? Wall
answers, sensitively and sensibly, that this
calamity has been caused by "its lack of spirit and
soul". Though massive propaganda deployment of
intellectual and other varieties of capital
"Gradually the soul of society is reduced to greed,
competition and entertainment. ...A sick soul in a
healthy body can never work, it will also make the
body sick". (56) Such failure of the currently
fashionable 'intellectual capital' mantra lies in
what Sri Aurobindo discerns about man :"a
particular intelligence limited by his reason"
which is "incapable of largeness". (57) As a
result, his absorption in what he takes up for the
time being prevents his seeing where it will hurt
him or will go against cosmic purpose.
Arnold
Toynbee had asserted without mincing words that
"Karma, not scientific and technological progress,
is the factor in human life that produces welfare
and happiness, or alternatively, misery and
sorrow". (58) And karma is a keyword in all
schools of Indian thought dealing with the
ethico-moral development of the individual. For
one's own true welfare, as well as for that of
society, each individual must improve his/her own
karma by increasing one's self-mastery.
Does sci-tech contribute to or detract from
self-mastery, dignity, humility and ethicality in
the individual? Pointing out the increasing
disparity between technology and ethics, Toynbee
answers this question by declaring that "Human
dignity cannot be achieved in the field of
technology in which human beings are so expert. It
can be achieved only in the field of ethics".
(59)
Unfortunately
the rajasic, lower-self, deficit-driven
dominant leadership around the world today has been
turning a deaf ear to such wise insights from both
realisers of past and present, as well as thinkers
of past and present. Consequently, civilisation
continues to remain a "disease" (60) with the slow
virus of misdirected karma eating into its
vitals. There is not much hope then right now for
an individual to fulfil the promise of Nature's
evolution latent in the human form.
Yet,
long-term trust and faith in Nature's irresistible
ascending evolutionary force is something we must
go on cherishing through all our interim
despondencies. Let us listen to Sri Aurobindo for
voicing this assurance: (61)
Every
state of existence has some force in it, which
drives to transcend itself. Matter moves towards
becoming Life. Life travails towards becoming
Mind. Mind aspires towards becoming ideal Truth.
Truth rises towards becoming divine and infinite
Spirit.
Sci-tech
must nurture enough humility to be able to absorb
this message and modify and moderate its course.
The eighteenth century Enlightenment Projects to
achieve human perfectibility through secular
science, accompanied by equating religion with
magic, (62) leads well meaning critics to avoid
discussing the "good or bad" of techno-science and
choosing only to ask "who is responsible for the
production and distribution" of technology. (63)
The quality of this 'who' -- by what standards to
measure it -- is not dealt with. That religion is
spirituality, not magic, is a truth which only
realisers can tell because they know what they are
talking about. The philosopher who considers
himself as a mere 'translator' of diverse
discourses, (64) not as a realiser, is apt to
forget that the same tests for qualifying as a
critique of techno-science also apply to one who
wishes to critique religion. (65) The Goswamis are
right to say that "with technology there is more
diversion" today, which strengthens separation
rather than unity in society. (66) Evolution
towards involved Divinity for unity will be the
correct direction to follow. This may entail a
slowing down for sci-tech.
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(2)
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(12)
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(13)
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Ibid., p.342.
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The Message of the Gita, op.cit, II.55.
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(25)
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(27)
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(28)
Ibid., p.19.
(29)
Ibid., p.140.
(30)
Ibid., p.142.
(31)
Ibid., p.146.
(32)
Rabindranath Tagore: Personality (New Delhi:
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(33)
Ibid., p.121.
(34)
Ibid., p.122.
(35)
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(36)
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(37)
Sri Aurobindo; Collected Works (Pondicherry: Sri
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(38)
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(39)
Sri Aurobindo; Collected Works, op. Cit., vol.24,
pp.1149-50.
(40)
P. Singer and D. Wells; 'Genetic Engineering' in
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p.313.
(41)
Ibid, p.312.
(42)
W.F. Anderson; 'Human Gene Therapy', in Ethical
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p.347.
(43)
D.E. Cooper; 'Technology: Liberation or
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(44)
K. Gyekye; 'Technology and Culture in a Developing
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p.141.
(45)
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(46)
M.R. Bhagwan; 'The Major Issues Under Debate' in
ibid, pp.300-1.
(47)
Ibid, p.303.
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Mahatma Gandhi; Collected Works, (New Delhi:
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(50)
op. cit., vol.29, p.325
(51)
op. cit., vol.48, p.166
(52)
Selected Works, ed. S. Narayan (Ahmedabad :Navjivan
Trust, 1969), vol.4, p.151.
(53)
Ibid., p.190.
(54)
Human Values: The Tagorean Panorama, trans. S.K.
Chakraborty and P. Bhattacharya, (New Delhi: New
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(55)
Sri Aurobindo; Collected Works, op.cit, vol.14,
p.98.
(56)
G. Wall; 'Energy, Society and Morals'; Journal of
Human Values, July-December, 1997, p.202,
p.204.
(57)
Sri Aurobindo; Hour of God, op.cit,
p.54.
(58)
Choose Life, op.cit, p.54.
(59)
Ibid., p.342.
(60)
Mahatma Gandhi; Selected Works, op.cit,
pp.118-22.
(61)
The Hour of God, op. cit., pp.34-5.
(62)
R. Sassower; Technoscientific Angst (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1977),
p.10.
(63)
Ibid., p.129.
(64)
Ibid., p.128.
(65)
Ibid., p.16.
(66)
A. Goswami and M. Goswami; Scientific and
Spirituality (New Delhi: Project of History of
Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, 1977),
p.38.
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