N. ANANDAM
Rationalist Writer
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Everyone has, at some time or another, pondered over the meaning of life. This is one of the eternal questions of interest to all people. However, different people have different notions about the meaning of life. The presence of varied points of view is due to the different levels of knowledge among individuals.
Philosophy defines what life is. It states that keeping the spirit of inquiry alive in one’s mind and acting based on reason is the meaning of life.
Philosophers consider that living as a complete person is the objective of life. They define a complete person as one who possesses the power of thought, willpower, and the power of the heart. The power of thought is the light of knowledge; willpower is the energy of the personality; and the power of the heart is love.
Philosophy serves as the theoretical foundation, while culture is the practical application. Individuals must assimilate and apply wise ideas, fostering a shift in cultural values toward reason-based thinking.
Crucially, a transformed mindset is pivotal, as the mind dictates actions. Enlightened thoughts lead to positive mental outlooks and virtuous deeds, culminating in happiness.
Philosophy is the theory, and culture is the practice. People have to imbibe wise ideas and practice them in life. In other words, they have to change their cultural values and their mental outlook based on reason.
Change of mind is vital because the mind is the origin of all that is. It is the mind that commands and contrives. If the mind is properly enlightened and filled with wise thoughts, the mental outlook will be good, and deeds also will be good. If thoughts and activities are wise, happiness follows them, as the shadow accompanies the substance.
The teachings of many wise thinkers are valuable to lead life wisely. The ideas expressed by great thinkers such as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Buddha, and Confucius are good guides to lead a meaningful life.
They are revered because they do not preach fatalistic ideas in any manner. They don’t mention anything about God and the afterlife. They don’t teach anyone to pray and perform rituals to please an imaginary god.
Contrarily, they taught individuals to love their fellow human beings and treat them as equals. These ideas keep interhuman relationships cordial. Cooperation of the people for a common cause is better. The spirit of equality keeps the social structure and social system ideal for social unity and progress.
In addition, their teachings encourage individuals to think independently. They advise individuals to think critically, logically and rationally to realize the truth. They highlight the importance of individuals’ initiative, effort, and action.
In short, their teachings emphasize that every individual needs to be a thinking individual irrespective of one’s position in society. It means that everyone should live with intellectual hunger.
Intellectual hunger, characterized by a thirst for knowledge and critical thinking, propels individuals toward learning, exploration, and creation. In the contemporary world, however, a significant portion lacks this intellectual drive, often due to the prevalence of fatalistic ideas. Fatalistic notions, pervasive in varying degrees, stifle initiative and effort.
They propagate the belief that life events and personal traits are predetermined, leading to mental and physical inactivity.
Fatalistic ideas are present in human society in varied degrees and forms. They corrupt the mental outlook of the people and mislead them. The individuals who fall prey to fatalistic ideas assume that all happenings in one’s life are predetermined. Accordingly, they ignorantly assume that one’s conduct, character, and attitude are predetermined.
Philosophers assert that fatalistic ideas are extremely dangerous because they arrest individuals’ initiative and efforts. In short, they make human beings inactive mentally and physically.
Ancient Greeks considered the idea of ‘fate’ as a blind force. They were not simply afraid of fate. They fought against fatalistic ideas. They spread the idea of human freedom and human power. By spreading human greatness, they could contain the evil effect of fatalistic ideas.
In India, Hindu religion spreads fatalistic ideas. Hinduism preaches the Karma theory. It is nothing but a fatalistic theory. So, in India, more people are fatalistic and superstitious than in the rest of the world. The majority are not intellectually hungry. The majority live like imbeciles.
For the spread of fatalistic ideas and many superstitions in human society, god-centered religions are responsible.
They give omnipotence status to an imaginary god. This idea itself is wrong. Gautama Buddha (563-483 BCE) taught that the concepts of god, hell, and heaven are human imaginations only. Giving importance to those speculations will do more harm than good.
Rationalists assert that giving omnipotence to God indirectly spoils the mental outlook of individuals.
Mainly, it destroys the idea that every individual is the master of their life. It aims the self-confidence of individuals. It inculcates only fatalistic ideas in the minds of individuals. That is why atheistic philosophies are better than theistic philosophies.
Blind faith in religious scriptures is another evil. Ignorant people assume that the scriptures contain the words of God. In reality, all the religious scriptures are human creations only. Blind belief in religious scriptures makes individuals mentally inactive.
Belief in the existence of the ‘soul’ is another evil. This belief is dangerous since it is the source of the development of many superstitions and the priestly class. They make people superstitious and waste their valuable time and energy on prayers and rituals.
Human-centered religions such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are wiser than god-centered religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
This is because atheistic religions give importance to improving the moral standard of individuals. They don’t teach any shortcut way of life to reach the heaven. They don’t claim their teachings are divine. Buddha says that his message is open to anyone to question, test and find what truth it contains. No other religion’s founders have so fully thrown open his religion to such a challenge.
Buddhism appeals to individuals to rouse oneself from the life of sloth and indolence and follow the law of virtue. It asserts that the virtuous rest in bliss in this life and in the next. It teaches that earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), and thoughtlessness is the path of death. Those who are earnest do not die. Those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.
Buddha chides the individuals who refuse to think. He compares them with an ox. They live like an animal. Categorically, he says that individuals living one day by doing critical thinking are better than living 100 years without contemplating.
These messages clearly assert that one should live with intellectual hunger. Philosophers assert that it is an acquired character. Any individual can acquire this character. Anyone can become curious and hungry intellectually. They also mention that culture, education, and parental guidance play an important role in inspiring individuals to acquire this attitude.
However, cultural values have to be reason-based and not faith-based; education has to be knowledge-based and not religion-based; parental guidance has to be morally based and not sentiment-based. If we make such changes, they will motivate individuals to think and remain inquisitive.
Greek philosophers recommend Socrates’ method of debate, the so-called dialectic, in which two men argue until together they arrive at the truth. This sort of intellectual and open debates will make people inquisitive and intellectually hungry.
Gautama Buddha says that all miseries of humankind are due to selfish desires. The first desire is to give pleasure to the senses of the body. The second desire is to continue to exist after the death of the body. The third desire is to accumulate wealth. He says that only by controlling these desires can one live a meaningful life.
Wisdom considers that intellectual laziness is a vice. Unlike other vices, such as injustice or cowardice, intellectual sloth harms oneself rather than harming others. But it is still a serious vice since it consists of turning one’s back on one’s human nature.
Nature has given human beings the reasoning brain. It is relatively large in size and complex in structure. Its most significant feature is its algebraic (computing) faculty. Besides, the human being’s mind is logical. It can establish cause and effect relationships and it can reason. Without the endowment of such a brain, a human being could not have risen to the present level.
So, human beings are ‘angels’.
Philosophers believe that individuals, who live with intellectual hunger and act based on reason, are living a sensible and meaningful life. The individuals, who refuse to think and act based on reason, live like an animal. This comment may sound harsh, but it is the truth.
