Social Consciousness

Each molecule has a past and a future; unfathomable past and an endless future springing from the bed of the Infinite. It carries the burden of the past, imbibes the influence of the present to give shape to the future with a core, that is the Absolute. Matter has evolved in time from inconscient to conscient and presently reached the stage of human mind with the wonderful mechanism which Nature has installed in the form that is Man. Man can take stock, not merely of his surrounding but also of the past and is capable of chalking out a conscious course for his future pursuit.  

The human mind is also endowed with the capability of transcending the experiences in time and space to dip into the core - to discover the Absolute. He, unlike all other material, can comprehend the finite and infinite and their respective laws. When man becomes conscious of these laws and conforms to them, he strikes the note of harmony and pursues the path of peace with all things. It is this supreme knowledge  and a conscious adherence to it  that eliminates the courses of discord of one self with the surroundings, of his clan with other clans, of his country with other countries, of mankind with animal kingdom. It is the path of truth and nonviolence; by the pursuit of which man lives in peace and fulfills the divine purpose of creation.

The blind projection of ego leads to blind rejection of the laws of a superior order, with the disastrous result of man slaughtering other animals, killing his kith and kin, enslaving other clans, conquering other people, building empires, exploiting all creatures, turning hostile to nature, bringing unrest to one and all. All such efforts, however well planned and attractive, are doomed to failure and frustration. For man, with all his power and ingenuity, is but a child of nature and is finite; he is a baby in the cradle of the infinite. 

            Based on this fundamental of fundamentals, we are to develop social consciousness in one and all; to lead the path of living and letting others live as all are creatures of nature; to live not for ourselves alone but for a vaster purpose of the divine interplay of the cosmos. 

I am not passing from the sphere of social science to the realm of mysticism. I am only emplacing the danger of developing schools of social consciousness in isolation from the laws of nature and of the Absolute. The message has been reportedly dinned into the ears of the erring man not only by all religious leaders and holy scriptures but also by all social philosophers and friends of mankind. No clearer exposition of social consciousness can there be than that expounded in Gita where the righteous path and vicious cause has been scientifically laid down. It was on this bedrock that Gandhiji based all his activities.

            The knowledge and realization does not dawn upon all human beings. Laws of nature endowed man with different points of view. The consciousness of the average man is confined to his self interest or of his family gene. Some develop a wider vision and identify their consciousness with that of their region or country. But the few that comprehend the laws of the Infinite and the Absolute are verily the leaders of mankind. The social ship is likely to flounder on the rocks, if the intellectual elites do not captain her. This is the message of Gita, of Pluto and of the cold and calculating reason.