VALUES RELATED TO WORK, BEFORE MODERNITY , IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT

Another letter to our Prof., with whom we are in touch

Some more points I wish to bring to your consideration

(a)Recently in a TV programme  about  Gandhi-darshan in DD4 (Mal), a senior person was talking about spinning on the charkha. He said that if the concentration (eka-gratha) is lost, the thread will immediately break. Infact the Gita speaks of ekagratha,which is one of the steps in purification of the mind, to remove raga as well as dwesha, ie likes and dislikes to still the mind. (Same as the def of Yoga in Yoga Sutra of Patanjali- ‘Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha’) . Therefore spinning on the charkha, which is a non-sophisticated machine as per ‘moderns’ , will help to develop ekagra-chittam, in the user or practitioner. Thus working with this simple machine serves two immediate purposes, helping to maintain equipoise of mind and body of the user, with thread as a by-product used for making clothes. We can safely assume that more the ekagratha finer will be the thread. Indian silk robes could be passed through a finger-ring. This has been reported in history.

(b) Each ‘vyakthi’ (individual, -Vyaktham from avyaktham, a technical term used in the Gita), can be considered to be  a machine (yanthram-this word also used in Gita, 18:61). And each individual is having ‘karma-vasanas’,and gunas which has to be necessarily be ridden to attain unconditional happiness, which is the right as well as freedom/liberty of each individual. This vasanas and gunas are worn –off  by imbibing knowledge of absolute reality and doing karma in a deliberate and conscious way. That is the human-machine has to do karma ,to wear-off karma. The tools or instruments or machines must necessarily be under his control, and he must have control over them than the other way round. It is only his (man’s) will (derived from Iswar) that must animate the machine.

Suppose the man(or company) has invested heavily in a assembly plant (similar to the Maruthi assembly line), then he has no control over his work/karma/movement, but  the assembly line or the machine controls him. (He is not even at ease to go to the toilet). Even if the company wants to close the unit, it cannot do so due to investments made, so-called social responsibility etc. So here we see karma taking hold of men, and men unable to exit from the same. Most modern predicaments fall into this category. Therefore is not machinery evil ?

(c )Now such huge investments on plant and machinery, takes up the labour of many others, and how are these ‘jobless’ to wear off their karma ?Ain’t unconditional  bliss denied to them ?eg  Many Factories, airport , housing colonies and roads have taken up huge swathes of land in Gurgaon, Delhi displacing farmers (and allied labour) from their occupation. How are these farmers to wear off their karma.? Are we not facing social consequences because of this?

(d) The Gita  in 3:16, informs us about ‘chakram’ ie wheel or cycle, which in that context given in two previous slokas  ie  3:14 & 15, is about the constant cycling of materials, without accumulation or aggrandizement  at any point.  Imagine this wheel or cycle, to be a perfectly or smoothly inflated cycle tube. If the tube is weak in any particular area, a bulge will appear, where the volume of air in that particular arc segment has increased. This accumulation of air is actually a ‘diseased’ condition of the cycle tube. After a short period of time, the tube will burst at that point, ensuing total failure/loss. Another example connected to the human body is that of the accumulation of fat in the arteries (veins?) at a particular point, affecting pumping of blood and developing a diseased condition.

Similar is the case of accumulation of capital, and its investment in expensive plant and machinery. All these leads to aggrandizement  of a  minority section in society. Thus society becomes ‘diseased’. (An ongoing example is the case of increased gas prices only benefitting Reliance and the Ambanis, at the cost of millions in India)

Sir I will later quote from European sources, how some prominent men in Europe thought about work and its effects. And what they recommended.

Overall work is not having any intrinsic value, as per Indian world-view. This is my contention.

I end with a quote from John Ruskin, who had influenced Gandhiji. “Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality……but beautiful art can only be produced by people who have beautiful things about them, and leisure to look at them” . I am reminded of “Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram”.  

MACHINES AND WORK

I was having further thoughts about machines.

The Gita talks about Swadharma. Even if one’s swadharma is having negative consequences/effects, it is better to perform the same,(karma as per own dharma), rather than another’s dharma. The karma based on one’s nature (Swabhava), must be performed in such a  conscious way not yearning for the fruits, and thinking that “I am not the doer/or agent, but an instrument of God and without  likes or dislikes” .Gita 18:47

Human body as machine vis-a vis  another man-made machine.

Two possibilities may be considered. (a) The machine as an extension of the human-body, enhancing the ‘karmendriyas’ of the body. (b) The machine as separate from the body.

In the case of (a), if the machine is capital intensive, them it will have to work/be worked continuously  to have return on investments. Thus one is caught in the web of karma.

In the case of (b), since one’s karma is transferred to the machine, own karma-vasana’s will NOT wear-out.

In either case it is detrimental to oneself, and by extension  to the society.

Looking forward to your valuable feed-back,

Regds

Radhakrishnan M.S