#Ancient Culture ( Samskaram ) of Bharatham-2.3 : Swami Krishnananda
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#OPINION : 12/01/2020 : 2023.
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1.
In the beginning, every person is like every other person. There is not much of a difference between or among people from the point of view of the basic instincts or physical nature, etc. Hunger and thirst, the need for security, and the urge for survival are common features in all individuals. Primitive man, in the earliest of stages of the anthropological development of human nature, is said to have lived mostly under the pressure of the basic needs of the physical personality, if we are to go along the lines of the evolutionary process of nature, which seems to have risen gradually from mineral to plant, plant to animal, and animal to man, etc. This way of thinking has been accepted both in the East and the West.
2.
There has been evolution, and in the process of evolution the succeeding stage is supposed to overstep the limitations of the previous stage. It bypasses, it overcomes the conditions prevailing in the previous stage, and the succeeding stage is an improvement on the earlier one. For instance, human nature is an improvement on animal nature. But natural evolution has been seen to work in a peculiar way. That is to say, the succeeding stage has some little remnant left as a tail end, as it were, of the previous stage, so that the earlier instincts are not completely destroyed or overcome in the succeeding stage. We sleep like a stone, we breathe like a plant, we have passions like an animal, and yet we are also human beings over and above these previous conditions characterising the lower species. The earlier instincts are not completely overcome.
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3.
A person becomes completely human only when the earlier instincts are subdued thoroughly. Animals and plants have a localised consciousness of themselves. The plant bothers only about its self-survival. The animal is also concerned only with itself. The saying “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost” aptly fits into animal nature. There are also human beings who think like this: I mind my business and you go to hell. If this kind of outlook is also seen in some human beings, we may conclude that even at the human level there is sometimes the remnant of the earlier stages. Culture is buried deep as a potential in such stages of life, but it has not manifested itself even by a little modicum.
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4.
When evolution progresses further, the animal man becomes a little bit more refined in the sense that he recognises the necessity to live in a society. There is a primitive tribal culture, for instance, which is a way of living in groups of people with common instincts and common needs. The totally independent animal life, primitivity, is later found to be unsuitable for even survival of oneself because there is a threat of nature’s working on one side, and there is a threat of other individuals on the other side. So it became necessary in the process of gradual evolution to protect oneself from the onslaughts of nature. A habitat, a kind of house, was found to be essential; otherwise, wind and rain and sun and cyclone will beat upon your head, and nature may not allow you to even exist. A little bit of security from nature was found to be necessary, and security from other people was also necessary because while one person recognises the existence of another person as a human being, mostly, under pressure of circumstances, a human being may not bother so much about the welfare of others when it comes to the question of one’s own survival. Everyone has this instinct of survival of one’s own self, and when you are cornered from all sides and pressed to an extreme, you may not mind guarding yourself somehow or other, even at the cost of others. This is the animal working in man.
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JAY HIND
JAY BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAY.
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#OPINION : 12/01/2020 : 2023.
Chapter 2: The Evolution of Culture (SAMSKARAM)-3.
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1.
In the beginning, every person is like every other person. There is not much of a difference between or among people from the point of view of the basic instincts or physical nature, etc. Hunger and thirst, the need for security, and the urge for survival are common features in all individuals. Primitive man, in the earliest of stages of the anthropological development of human nature, is said to have lived mostly under the pressure of the basic needs of the physical personality, if we are to go along the lines of the evolutionary process of nature, which seems to have risen gradually from mineral to plant, plant to animal, and animal to man, etc. This way of thinking has been accepted both in the East and the West.
 |
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There has been evolution, and in the process of evolution the succeeding stage is supposed to overstep the limitations of the previous stage. It bypasses, it overcomes the conditions prevailing in the previous stage, and the succeeding stage is an improvement on the earlier one. For instance, human nature is an improvement on animal nature. But natural evolution has been seen to work in a peculiar way. That is to say, the succeeding stage has some little remnant left as a tail end, as it were, of the previous stage, so that the earlier instincts are not completely destroyed or overcome in the succeeding stage. We sleep like a stone, we breathe like a plant, we have passions like an animal, and yet we are also human beings over and above these previous conditions characterising the lower species. The earlier instincts are not completely overcome.
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3.
A person becomes completely human only when the earlier instincts are subdued thoroughly. Animals and plants have a localised consciousness of themselves. The plant bothers only about its self-survival. The animal is also concerned only with itself. The saying “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost” aptly fits into animal nature. There are also human beings who think like this: I mind my business and you go to hell. If this kind of outlook is also seen in some human beings, we may conclude that even at the human level there is sometimes the remnant of the earlier stages. Culture is buried deep as a potential in such stages of life, but it has not manifested itself even by a little modicum.
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4.
When evolution progresses further, the animal man becomes a little bit more refined in the sense that he recognises the necessity to live in a society. There is a primitive tribal culture, for instance, which is a way of living in groups of people with common instincts and common needs. The totally independent animal life, primitivity, is later found to be unsuitable for even survival of oneself because there is a threat of nature’s working on one side, and there is a threat of other individuals on the other side. So it became necessary in the process of gradual evolution to protect oneself from the onslaughts of nature. A habitat, a kind of house, was found to be essential; otherwise, wind and rain and sun and cyclone will beat upon your head, and nature may not allow you to even exist. A little bit of security from nature was found to be necessary, and security from other people was also necessary because while one person recognises the existence of another person as a human being, mostly, under pressure of circumstances, a human being may not bother so much about the welfare of others when it comes to the question of one’s own survival. Everyone has this instinct of survival of one’s own self, and when you are cornered from all sides and pressed to an extreme, you may not mind guarding yourself somehow or other, even at the cost of others. This is the animal working in man.
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JAY HIND
JAY BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAY.
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