According to the Hindu conception of time, we are in the thick of Kalyuga. While what Kalyuga will be like has many descriptions, the one given in Ram Charit Manas in the conversation between Kakbhushundi and Garuda seems to be one of the most appropriate ones. But rather than debating over the authenticity of those accounts we can quite conclusively settle down for one widely agreeable description of the present times that this is the age of unreason. Interestingly, The Age of Unreason is the title of a popular book written by Charles Handy according to whom this is an era of constant, random and discontinuous change, and it is important to break out of old ways of thinking in order to use change to our advantage. But what Handy could not foresee is the quality and level of change that is more sickening than refreshing. look at the way things are happening, the way people are behaving and the direction the world is heading.
The crux, however, is the people and their ways. Just a look at the way the events are unfolding will convince you that all is not well. And the root cause is people. Francis Bacon was right when he said that if you go deep into any problem, you will find people. Well, we are deep into problems and we are finding that it is the people who are responsible. But how do we measure unreasonablenessIJ It is difficult but George Bernard Shaw has offered a clue. He had said that a reasonable man adapts to the world while the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Well, Handy does prove right when he says that the twenty first century will be an era of unreason, but he could have concluded the same about the earlier centuries, too.
The reason is not the time which has changed. The reason is the man that has not changed. Going back to the Indian philosophical thought events in Satyuga, or Treta or even Dwapar, the three other eras apart from Kalyuga appear eerily contemporary. You can change their dateline and would find striking similarity to the present times. The stories is the various Puranas that narrate Satyug, or the Ramayana that describes Treta, or the Mahabharata that recorded Dwapar are quite similar to what we are witnessing today. The miseries of this world are largely creation of the human beings who are as shameless, envious, haughty and ignorant as were the counterparts of the previous eras. Societies under state have proved to be as good or bad as the societies that were there before the advent of state which was a creation of Brahma to develop an orderly society by inculcating a sense of duty in human beings through the concept of Trivarga.
The question today is, where does humanity stand nowIJ As the same disorderliness, the same unreason, the same emotions of hatred and envy drive human beings, it is not difficult to predict. And it is no gloomy foreboding, nor an awefulising proposition. It is simple projection, as the statistics suggest, of the obvious disquietude. As the competitive politics become murkier and murkier, the level of leadership descends to the bottomless pit. Is there hopeIJ Yes, because the distaste for all this is also growing. And it will, in due course, become the engine for righteous growth as more and more people will realise that it pays to be good.
Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com