The most pathetic sentence of the 21st Century

How many times a day do we hear this sentence "I don't have time"? Arnold Bennet, author of the celebrated novel "The Old Wives Tale", also wrote a small book "How to live on 24 hours a day" more than a century ago. 

He said that "Essentially, you do have time; you just don't realise it. We never shall have any more time. We have, & we have always had, all the time there is". He proceeds to analyse what the average man does after  work, & proves he wastes at least 6 hours before going to bed. He also adds that one can get up at least an hour earlier in the morning.

For Homi Bhabha, the nuclear physicist, the arts were not just relaxation, but as essential in life as physics & mathematics. He felt art was what made life worth living. He was an avid painter & connoisseur of Western classical music. Raja Ramanna, also a nuclear physicist, was an accomplished pianist. Sudha Murty, the busy philanthropist, just gets up an hour earlier in the morning, to indulge in creative writing. What is badly needed is not extra time but focus & mental discipline to make the best of the time available.

In more recent times, Katherine Rundell, author of the award winning "Rooftoppers", became a Fellow of the All Souls College at 21 & later produced a doctoral dissertation on John Donne. She also learnt to walk a tightrope forwards, backwards & in high heels!

Allan Rusbridger, who was Editor of "Guardian" during the Wikileaks period & was working a stressful 14-16 hours a day, also managed to squeeze in piano playing & managed to learn the fearsomely difficult Chopin Ballade No. 1.

Such being the case, the commonly used words "passing the time" & worse "killing time" assume a sinister meaning. These ways of spending time are nothing less than  criminal.

The same people who claim to have no time, will find time fast enough if there is money to be made or status to be attained! And all this to gain what Luke 16:15 says  "What is esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God." The same thing was said by St.Teresa of Avila in other words. "More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones." Because in our ignorance, we always pray for things which are harmful to us in the long run. Even in Hinduism & Islam, the only efficacious prayer is submission to God's Will.

So to conclude, the best human activity is contemplation of God, followed closely by cultural activities, to indulge in which "when there is a will, there is a way."

Civilisation & Education

At the outset, it is clarified that the two are not synonymous. Many civilised persons may not be formally educated & many "educated" persons are far from being civilised. For example, the egregious "dog walking couple" in recent news, despite being educated & having cracked the difficult UPSC exam, behaved in a way, which can hardly be called civilised. In contrast, Salumarada Timmakka despite being un-educated is highly civilised. Education without civilisation, will only produce jumped-up little upstarts who become tin-pot tyrants.

The hallmark of a truly civilised person is the way in which he/she behaves towards those who are hold a difference of opinion with them.

1. No personal invective to be used.

2. No raising of voices at any cost.

3. Semantically correct words to be used. For example, in a case of road rage, the other is neither a fool or an idiot, but only a careless driver at the worst.

4. Only the differences to be pointed out without using intemperate language or in any way offending the other.

5. Always make only accurate, factual statements, which one can write down & authenticate with a signature.

6. In case of irreconcilable differences, one should agree to disagree, without grudges or subsequent ill-will.

7. Respect for human dignity to be always preserved even in case of those not agreeing with one.

8. This can be considered as an extension of the Hippocratic Oath sworn by doctors, (where they swear to treat even their sworn enemies like their own loved ones), being extended to all fellow humans in all circumstances.

It is unfortunate that many politicians, guardians of the law & even sportspersons, in spite of being "educated", now fall quite short of being labelled civilised by these criteria.

A noted industrialist, groomed a man to be his successor. They fell out later & the industrialist was the only man not to condole even the accidental death of his one time protege. A badminton star was the only one not to congratulate the international win of her one time junior.

Respecting human rights is an essential part of being civilised. It may be noted in this context that even the accused is seated in a chair while giving his/her testimony in U.S.A. courts, whereas the accused is made to stand in Indian courts.

Aristocracy of Culture

An Aristocrat is generally understood to be from an (erstwhile, in these democratic times!) royal family or those with wealth & status. If closely analysed, however, birth does not necessarily make a superior being, as pointed out by Thomas Paine in his "Commonsense."    The shenanigans of the few extant Royals amply bears this out. Nowadays wealth is owned even by the Mafiosi. As regards status flaunted by Captains of Industry, Senior Civil Servants & Political leaders, it is only a human variant of the despicable "pecking order" in the animal & avian kingdom.

The true goal of human life, according to Hinduism, is no less than self-realisation. However, as it is very difficult to attain, (remember the story of Dhruva, who did not attain it immediately, as he had desired kingdom first), the next best exclusively human need is the quest for culture, i.e., knowledge (books), music & other fine arts. In ancient Hinduism, a cultured person had to be learned in 64 arts! Even in Victorian society, a gentleman or lady was conversant with literature (remember Maryanne & Col. Brandon continuing the poetry lines quoted by each other in Jane Austen's "Sense & Sensibility"!), could play the piano & even sketch a little.

Even now, Murakami, the famous Japanese author, has an audio system comprising Thorens & Luxman Turntables, Accuphase & Octave Amplifiers, Tannoy Berkeley & JBL  Speakers & more than 10,000 LP records.

Unfortunately in India, even the very wealthy, cannot think beyond owning ostentatious houses & fleets of luxury cars. One iconic Bollywood star, though owning a library, was so neglectful that he had housed it in his basement, which was flooded in the Mumbai rains!

The true aristocrats now are those who can  enjoy reading great literature, listen to music regularly & appreciate great art. If they can write creatively, play an musical instrument or paint a little, so much the better.

Universal Aesthetics

According to Baumgarten (1714-1762), the founder of Western Aesthetics, the object of logical knowledge is "Truth"; the objective of aesthetic knowledge is "Beauty". Beauty is the perfect perceived by the senses. Truth is the perfect perceived by reason. The good is the perfect attained by the moral will.

Lord Shaftesbury (1671-1713) felt Beauty is known only by the spirit (unlike Baumgarten who postulated that Beauty is perceived by the senses.) God is the principal Beauty - the beautiful & the good proceed from a single source.

This is more similar to Hindu thought which equates Satyam (Truth), Shivam (God) & Sundaram (Beauty).

In Kannada Literature, even though Kuvempu & DVG have written about this subject, the in-depth study is the doctoral thesis of S. L. Bhyrappa, "Truth & Beauty." It is so comprehensive that it covers everything from the beauty of babies to the beauty in Beethoven's String Quartet op.135!

An extremely erudite volume on this subject is the little known work of Leo Tolstoy, "What is Art" in which he firmly repudiates the thesis of Art for Art's Sake. He views Art from a Western Christian point of view & presents an iconoclastic, polemical viewpoint.