Introduction.
Work extracted through Machinery is evil. That
is why modern society is caught in the quagmire of EVIL, since machines of all kinds are extensively used. The West
addresses this problem of doing away with social evils, with technology and more and more machines. Eg. The equipments for security and surveillance and the ubiquitous camera that you see everywhere. But then the problems do not vanish and it redounds with multiple and complex negative effects, threatening biological life on this planet . Thus it is evident that the WEST does not fully
comprehend the human spiritual, mental and physical constitution, essential for devising effective and long-lasting solutions conducive to peaceful living and happiness. Their incomplete knowledge of human nature & processes prevents them from conceiving BENIGN Management /Work Theories and
Practices, essential for harmonious living. The deficiency of the West stems from its lack of understanding of
the COSMIC process. Their Cosmology is weak and erroneous.
A chunk of modern machines run on electricity. Though businessmen
and management experts consider the
chronic power shortage in Tamil Nadu
to be a bane, it should be
considered as a boon in disguise. People are inadvertently being conditioned to
reduce power dependency and thus are weaned away from machinery.
Western Machinery Fetishism
In the blog-posting
'PAUL & THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY' , it had been pointed out that Paul
Lafrague had blundered badly, in advocating more and more industrial machinery
to rescue the working class from drudgery. Further
he had advocated the duration of work to be limited to maximum three or four hours a day. And
to dispense off with manual labour he
suggested the desirability of inventing more and more machinery. This
was in the year 1883.
In 1908, Gandhiji wrote The Hind Swaraj, a very
fundamental work , touching all aspects
required of peaceful national
living. In 1921, in the foreword to a later edition of the book , Gandhiji has said that the book was
written “in answer to the Indian School of violence and its prototype in South Africa” (The full text of 'A Word of Explanation' by Gandhiji is provided
in the scanned images in the blog-post).
According to Lord Lothian, a Britisher,
what Gandhiji was trying to teach India and the world “now lay in the
germ in that little book which deserved to be read and re-read in order to
understand Gandhiji properly”. One chapter of Hind Swaraj addresses the 'evils' due to machinery.
TO THE ‘MODERN’ WORLD
GANDHIJI PRESENTED ‘MODERN’ ARGUMENTS AGAINST MACHINERY.
Gandhiji was not advancing
naïve arguments against MACHINERY. His
reasonings against Machinery are sound,
and today we experience that, it had withstood the tests of TIME. Gandhiji
appeared very candid, when he said that “the impetus behind it all(machinery) is not the philanthropy to save
labour, but GREED.” Paul Lafarge also desired more and more machinery for rescuing humans
from drudgery (saving labour) without worrying about its negative consequences.
But Gandhiji is more
pragmatic with his total
understanding of human nature .
Further it was Gandhiji’s caution that
machinery will help concentrate the wealth in the hands of a few. This is very
conspicuous today, and frequently we
read in the media about the trillionaires
list and the FORTUNE 500 companies.
Gandhiji also believed that
machinery will atrophy the limbs of man, and will encroach upon his
individuality. This aspect of machinery we are experiencing constantly, in our
daily life. Not only our limbs, but our intellectual faculties are atrophied. Our privacies are
invaded and personalities distorted. The machines are ruling our life, in our
house as well as in the work-place For
primary needs of man like food and
clothing (ploughshare and needle ,spinning wheel and sewing machine) Gandhiji was agreeable to the
usage of limited machinery.
ULTIMATE VIEW ABOUT
MACHINERY & GITA 18 : 11
Gandhiji likens his body to a most delicate piece of
machinery. At a very personal level, as a Indian, he understands that the body
stands in the way of salvation, ie
absolute liberation of the soul. Gita
18:11 states that One who is in embodied form cannot fully dispense away with
KARMA (action/momement/work). And Gita 18:48 , says that all KARMAS have
negative side-effects, the degree of
NEGATIVITY depending on the KARMA, ie. good or bad.
Non-karma, ie perfect stillness represents the state of Moksha.
Negative-karma ie Vikarma generates Vasanas or tendencies, which
will lead to further karma. Whereas positive ( as per shastras) karmas
burns up one’s karma-generating-vasanas
from this life as well as previous lives, helping in advancing in the steps
towards liberation.
This above tallies
with Gandhiji’s constant refrain that
one cannot or it is IMPOSSIBLE for one to realize perfect Truth and Ahimsa,
so long as one is imprisoned in this mortal frame. Gandhiji
had fully understood the MATHEMATICAL
EQUATION provided by the Gita
with respect to realization of perfect Truth and Ahimsa. Once again
consider Gita 18: 11 & 48. Embodiment =Body =Karma=Negative Consequences. Gandhiji had equated the body to a delicate
machinery. Body=Machine=Karma=Negative effects (karma-bandham), which hinders
the liberation of the soul. If body itself is
a hindrance, what about Machines, which mostly contributes to increase in NEGATIVE KARMA in GEOMETRIC PROPORTION. ? Today the
world is in the grip of excessive negative karma, facilitated by MACHINERY of
all kinds. Any thinking and feeling person cannot totally ignore this fact !!
Like our body , Gandhiji
says that Machines are inevitable and is a NECESSARY EVIL. Neverthless all should strive for
transcendence. That means first we have to limit the use of Machinery and totally dispense with it. This will ultimately prove to be good for the
individual as well as society/nations. This
represents SANE Management /Work practice.
---------------------------------
Quotes from the book ‘The Hind-Swaraj about Machinery & Scanned Text --(References)
GANDHIJI "IDEALLY , I
WOULD RULE OUT ALL MACHINERY........
In the ‘PREFACE TO THE NEW
EDITION’ published in 1938, there is a conversation recorded, that
happened between Gandhiji and a 'questioner'. (Pages 74 and 75, scanned
pages provided). This was his response about machinery " Ideally, I would
rule out all machinery, even as I would reject this very body, which is not
helpful for salvation, and seek the absolute liberation of the soul. From that
point of view I would reject all machinery, but machines will remain
because, like the body, they are inevitable. The body itself , as I
told you, is the purest piece of mechanism; but if it is a hindrance to
the highest flights of the soul, it has to be rejected." (p.75)
Further, in A WORD OF
EXPLANATION written by Gandhiji himself for the 1921 edition of Hind
Swaraj his views about MACHINERY were ".................I am
not aiming at destroying railways or hospitals, though I would certainly
welcome their natural destruction. Neither railways nor hospitals are a
test of a high and pure civilization. At best they are a necessary evil.
Neither adds one inch to the moral stature of a nation. Nor am I aiming
at a permanent destruction of law courts, much as I regard it as a
'consummation devoutly to be wished'. Still less am I trying to
destroy all machinery and mills. It requires a higher simplicity and renunciation
than the people are today prepared for."
Chapter XIX of THE
HIND-SWARAJ is titled MACHINERY.
Quote "When I read
Mr.Dutt's Economic History of India, I wept; and as I think of it again
my heart sickens. It is machinery that has impoverished India. It is
difficult to measure the harm that Manchester has done to us. It is due to
Manchester that Indian handicraft has all but disappeared......
.........Machinery
has begun to desolate Europe. Ruination is now knocking at
the English gates, Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civilization ;
it represents a great sin.
The workers in the
mills of Bombay have become slaves. The condition of the women working in the
mills is shocking. When there were no mills, these women were not starving. If
the machinery craze grows in our country, it will become an unhappy
land...........
Reader: Are the mills, then
to be closed down ?
Editor (Gandhiji) : That is
difficult. It is no easy task to do away with a thing that is
established. We, therefore say the the non-beginning of a thing
is supreme wisdom. (Is Gandhiji considering 'Sarvarambha-parithyagi' of Gita 12:16 &
14:25 !!??)...............
........Machinery is like a
snake-hole which may contain from one to a hundred snakes. ..........I cannot
recall a single good point in connection with machinery.
..Do not, therefore, forget
the main thing. It is necessary to realize that machinery is bad. We
shall then be able gradually to do away with it. Nature has not provided any way
whereby we may reach a desired goal all of a sudden. If, instead of welcoming
machinery as a boon, we should look upon it as an evil, it would
ultimately go.
