Circle without Centre – – – Rethinking Modernity

Linear and circular motions represent not merely two modesof movement, but in their deeper content and context, the two motions typifytwo fundamental facets and manifestations of life. To undergo a pilgrimage onehas to follow a linear path. But once the pilgrim reaches his destination, heis then obliged to circumambulate the house of God, going around it again andagain. Linearity is essentially motion of the mind envisaged under the algebraof logic and rationality. Rotation represents the motion transcending logicalequations. In circular motion, the objects in orbit tend to loose theirsubjectivity in the collective objectivity of the centre. The revolving objectis not so much constrained by its own coordinates, rather its motion isdetermined by the nature of centre and its distance from it. Revolution of themoth around the flame is a typical example of this loss of self in the objectof contemplation. Same holds true for pilgrims going around the sacred house,or electrons going round the nucleus and planets going round the sun. In eachcase, the subjective consciousness is dissolved in the realisation of objectiveunity represented by the centre. Rotation implies submission, acceptance andrealisation as against the resistance and isolation of linearity.

Presence of the centre represents the presence of principleother than sheer subjectivity and individualism in human life. Civilizationswere always tethered to a centre, be it religion or tradition. It is thiscentre, in which civilizations sought their stability and perpetuation. But therise of modern civilization has altogether relegated the concept of the centre,and placed entire focus on the orbits. The multiplicity of orbits hasculminated in the sublimation of the centre from human civilization. Thisabsence of the centre has left life devoid of permanence, stability andobjectivity. Modern mindset has replaced grace with pace, and permanence withchange. Every change is deemed positive, for it implies motion. The failure todiscover the centre of existence, is compensated by multiplication of orbitsand trajectories. This approach has made it all the more difficult to discovera sustainable worldview and stable basis for civilization. We seem to bestanding on floating sands which makes entire civilization susceptible tointernal and external factors of instability.

   

As long as civilization was centred, and centred around thedivine and the sacred, men enjoyed an integral and integrated picture of thecosmos. In the traditional outlook, nothing was anticipated in isolation butthe universe used to be envisioned as an organic whole with all its elements offormation related to, and entangled with one another. All forms of art and forthat matter all activities executed in the realm of the material, wereanticipated to have an equivalent spiritual and metaphysical correspondence.This integration of disparate parts was realised by unity of the centre, towhich all things traced their path and which was in turn connected toeverything. Traditionally, the cleavage between the universe and man, was notso sharp and distinct as it is now. Humanity was, to use Jacques Lacan’sexample, in the state of collective infancy- yet to realise the dichotomy of”I – Thou”. In this outlook, nature was not only related to man insome secondary sense, but was fundamentally an aspect of man itself. Music,which seems full of absurdity now, was an object of sanctity in the traditionalparadigm, for the function of music was not mere pleasure of the senses, butelevation of the senses to a higher level of ontic and epistemic realities.Traditional astronomy strengthened the belief that, man does not stand interrestrial isolation, but is married to the celestial lights. Ayurveda, whichsought the cure of human diseases in herbs, was again rooted in the worldviewthat these herbs and man share a primordial unison, and the solution of onepart of the cosmic whole was very much conceived within its local complement.This orientation enabled man to integrate himself into a larger diagram ofcosmology. But the later day split has not only been ugly and misleading, butpainful and destructive as well. Tradition taught, “We, us, our”;modernity focused on “I, me and mine”. This segregation reached apoint where we have a distinction between the psychologist and the pathologist.The modern day world view is so divisive and discrete, that it fails toenvision man, the smallest and fundamental block of existence in its entirety,not to speak of integrating man to the universe and then, back to God. Underthe aegis of specialisation and super specialisation, human life and the humanbody have been divided into separate independent colonies based on the axiom oftheir non interaction. Guneon writes, “The specialisation arising from theanalytical attitude of mind has been pushed to such a point that those who haveundergone its influence are incapable of conceiving of a science dealing withnature in its entirety”.

The all round disintegration that has resulted as a naturalcorollary of loss of centrality, has influenced human life both in theory andpractice. Growing individualism and shrinking collectivism, more action andlittle contemplation, and an uncompromising differentiation of the sacred andprofane, are some externalities accompanying this ideological dystopia. Menhave been modelled after machines. Brain has been reduced to a blind dance ofmatter, and mathematical models of social evolution are sought for. Theapparent technological victory of the material and decentralised perspectivehas encouraged man to go further in reinforcing this fictitious ideology ofcompartmentalisation. Alexis Carrel, who thought his entire life about thedeterioration of humanity remarked in his book, “Reflections on life”that, “We have abandoned the struggle against ourselves as eagerly as thatagainst our environment. Without troubling to ask ourselves whether thetraditional rules were not necessary for the success of individual andcollective life, we have emancipated ourselves from all moral discipline. Thefrontiers of good and evil have vanished in a mist of ideologies, whims andappetites “.

The need in modern times is not to encourage man to returnto his prehistoric primordial state, for that is neither possible nornecessary. What is needed is the awakening of realization, that disintegrationand chaos that fills human lives has been created by man himself, by ignoringthe presence of higher principles of life. At this critical juncture, we asindividuals must toil to rediscover the lost principle and the lost centre ofour lives. In doing so, we shall be discovering not only the key to happinessand bliss, but above all, a key to life and its mysteries and that is what ourminds crave for.

amirkas2016@gmail.com

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