Wholeness of
Man-World Relationships
Dr. A. KANNAN
There is a constant struggle in man to fight the state of insecurity in himself, and in that process he not only fights the feelings of fear, want and hatred within himself but is keen on pointing his finger at others to demonstrate the prevalence of violence around him. Hence he is unable to make use of the goodness either in himself or in others. Evil, it has been said, has no per se existence and in that sense goodness is not the opposite of evil but a prima facie existential fact without depending upon the demonstration of goodness itself or the opposite quality of evil. If this proposition is accepted then it may perhaps be visualized that the concept of devil has come into existence because it has been demonstrated through human misery, fear and hatred and not because such a thing actually exists. The ‘d’ of the first letter of devil has been added on, it appears, to evil through the demonstration of a non-existing fact, in a fundamental sense, of evil. Foremost example of such demonstration of evil is the persistence of war in the minds of men even after the holocaust of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has passed off 40 years ago and yet peace as an existential fact has not been established. Perhaps this is also the reason for people to consider that the significance of the spiritual literature consists only in fighting evil and not in the unfoldment of establishment of goodness in man. These two aspects of human nature are complementary but the emphasis that is erroneously placed on evil and violence fakes the attention away from goodness or godliness in man.
Humanness as Goodness or Godliness
Goodness or
godliness is the same in all beings and hence it cannot be measured by comparison;
it is not within the bounds of reasoning which is generally used to separate
one from the other, to argue in favour of something
in which the separated self has become interested, to criticise
that which has gone down in the estimation of the separated self and hence
utilized to demonstrate evil in others. Thus morals art erroneously invoked to apply only to beings who are regarded as equal,
namely among men only and not to animals. With regard to relationship with man the
self-opinion of man categorises the other man as evil
if the sense of separateness goes to the extent of regarding colour as a barrier, the status of a widow as a barrier or
the existence of conscious and loving animal is meaningless as a living entity
and hence can be cruelly treated or slaughtered for food. This kind of
reasoning power born out of the sense of separatedness
has been used to falsely demonstrate through modern science and technology the
evil of the destructive power of atoms in Nature· The power in Nature is not
destructive but man adds the nonexistent evil to the facts of Nature through his self-imaged and
self-opinionated activity; such wasted efforts are returned to him through
accentuated feelings of misery, fear, hatred and also the phenomenon of death
and destruction.
The goodness or godliness in man has to be
established by its inherent resources and not by man’s separative
tendencies. That is how humanness or true human nature is regarded as whole and
not a sum of the parts of the separative actions of
man. In this sense we may perhaps interpret J. Krishnamurti
as rejecting the value of religion, philosophy, science, the scriptures and
corrupted traditions when they try to establish violence or evil in man which
is non-existent in the true or whole nature of man. This violence is & violation
of true human nature and has to be eschewed totally by denying a place for it
in human activity. Fighting evil adumbrated in The Bhagavat
Gita, The Light on the Path, etc., has to be
viewed as establishing godliness or goodness in man and not as a struggle for
physical existence or survival, neither as a fight to secure trends of human thoughts
and activity which might have a seemingly constructive and opposite meaning to destruction and devilry,
but have to find their stillness in human goodness and godliness.
This perspective of wholeness has been extended by
Krishnaji to consider sorrow, death and the supreme
human activity, meditation. He has termed it as the only revolution and shown
us the new way of observing, listening and creating or establishing goodness in
a state of non-separatedness or wholeness There are
trends of discovery in modern science which help us to do away with the fragmentariness in understanding man
and the universe and they can be helpful in retaining the integrity of
wholeness of man.
Creative, Holistic trends in Science
and Technology
The materialistic, polluting, destructive and
dangerous activities of science and technology are the result of the interaction
with man’s separative tendencies and have to be
eliminated in considering the potentilities of the
wholeness of human endeavour. The creative source of
science by which new knowledge about man and nature is constructed is the very
heart of scientific discovery and invention, and that constructive value can be
enhanced only when the application of the discoveries and inventions are used
wisely with a view to secure human goodness. This non-separatedness
of creativity and created product of scientific activity resulting in interactions
with man and society means the permeation of human goodness all along the channel
of human endeavour and holds the key to understand
the wholeness of scientific and technological endeavour.
Such a holistic trend in the approach of physical
sciences is evident when stress is laid upon the unfoldment
of an implicate order in the universe to result in the explicate order of the
physical phenomena. The sum of discovered laws of nature constitute the
explicate order of the universe and is not complete to comprehend the working
of the universe and hence the implicate order is posited and explained. This implicate order points to a principle which unites the
universe in its wholeness and this principle is more fundamental than the laws.
Extending this concept to biology we find that while various organisms live
according to particular laws – such as genetics, growth morphology, etc., –
which are common to them there are individual variations in the species in
their behaviour, etc., which have to be viewed from a
more fundamental level of being. “The New Science of Life” of Sheldrake propounds
that the pattern of behaviour of animals could be
modified by causes effected at a distance thereby
pointing to a dimension of wholeness in which biology has to interact with consciousness.
The principle of various organisms living together
and preserving the unity of the habitat is expounded in ecology as well as by
the existence of the biosphere. Man in his separatist views about the world
finds it most difficult to apply the principle of ecology not only in his
relationship to nature but more so in human relationships. The human habitat is
under constant threat of destruction through demonstration of the demonical
evil of weapons and technological tools. The search for goodness or wholeness
of man is now carried forward in the public awareness of the threat to the
environment and the imperative need for education of man to preserve the
goodness in him so that he might inherit the only earth. This education should
lay stress upon the integration of the inner environment of man with the outer
environment by cleaning the separative tendencies
which result in violence and destruction.
In fighting evil man engages himself in a
rear-guard action of battle and in the process he destroys his own defences of construction and products of creation, whereas
if he establishes himself in his own fort of goodness he retains the harvest of
humanness, creativity and goodness which he has gathered in the past. Only then
life is not a struggle and the love of power has given way to the power of
love. The kingdom of heaven on earth will not be so far off. Man has to secure
his true and whole human nature twice over, namely secure without, i.e., against
outside forces of destruction and violence and secure within, i.e., against his
own inward subjective nature which is fragmentary and separatist in action.
So the modern awareness to conserve nature,
natural and human resources has given rise to a complementary awareness to develop
man in his wholeness. This has given rise to the concept of the development of
whole man and many developmental programs in the national and international
spheres have changed over to this concept. For this concept and awareness to
take root in an he has to disarm himself not only of the various types of
weaponry he has sadistically devised but also divest himself of all tendencies
to regard evil as an existential fact either in himself or in others. Thus he
has to initiate himself into true humanism as a per se existential fact
in many and apply it in his relationships with Nature and man by establishing
its supremacy in science, religion and all other wholetime
and holistic activities of man. These activities mean that he should not only
read, understand and engage himself in the respective
creative and constructive activities of science, religion, etc., but must practise them in his life so as to bring out the
significance of their wholeness in his life and relationships.
The intellectual awareness of the holistic nature
of the universe and the applications of the scientific understanding should
become widespread in order to make use of such knowledge by man in ordering
human relationships. Such ordering implies the regulation and disciplining of
man to the true needs of humanity and without this self-discipline the
understanding of the holistic nature of the universe will again tend to become
fragmentary because man as a functionary – homo faber
– becomes separated from his knowledge. Knowledge points in the direction of
wholeness whereas man is the limiting factor in the application and use of such
wholesome knowledge. We can consider if there are such complementary trends of
knowledge which are holistic and relate them to the nature of man himself. Also to consider if such knowledge is being applied with a view to
bring out its wholesome benefit in life and relationship. These trends
although not clear directions in scientific thought still relate man as a
biological and psychological being to his whole nature and such trends can be
integrated in the field of education. The integration is to view man and
nature as one whole by wisely using knowledge for that purpose and utilizing
the resources of the head and the heart.
One such trend has considered the biological cell
in its wholeness, i. e., the sum of the functions of
each of the parts of the cell do not make up or explain the functioning of the
whole cell. Similarly the sum of the functions of the cells
do not represent the function of the tissues nor the organism is the sum
of the cells, tissues and organs. The whole body has its own wisdom to regulate
its functioning, one aspect of which is homeostasis, and to provide its own
immunological defences. The human brain has been
closely studied to know the link between the parts of the brain and the other
dimension of human activity in terms of his behaviour
and psychology. The very structure of the brain is such that holographic model
of wholeness has been proposed for it. The left and right half
of the brain have different kinds of functions but when the function of
one half is impaired the other half supplements it. This study in wholeness
has been further extended to posit that the conscious self of man and the brain
act in unison and do not have disconnected separate functions. Thus consciousness
can be functioning in man even after clinical death of the brain has occurred,
and this discovery has been made through scientific studies of near-death
experiences of drowned persons brought back to life. Such subjects have been
able to retain these experiences and narrate them when resuscitated to life.
The new science of life by Rupert Sheldrake does not accept that man’s behaviour is conditioned by his genetic pattern alone. In
the case of animals it has been established that any change induced in its behaviour pattern can bring about a similar change among
other members of its species separated by space and distance. This has the potentiality
of application in man who exists in the three dimensions of body, mind and spirit,
but he functions in his ignorance as though there is no organic link between
these dimensions. Trends in holistic psychology have tried to remove these
barriers by taking into consideration those aspects of the psyche as are not
amenable to study by experimental physiology and psychology. Psi research has not yet established itself as a scientific
discipline but the development of biofeedback and therapeutic
touch have shown that man can be his own healer by tapping the resources
of his other dimensions. Other branches of holistic medicine have come into
existence in which man is not treated on the basis of a biochemical model but
as a holistic being whose thoughts, emotions and vitality have to be taken into
account in their wholeness in order to enable him to live healthily.
Another trend is to go into the learning process
deeply so that man is able to integrate within himself
and with the outside world. Education forms part of a larger process of
learning to be human, and thus integrates man with the evolutionary process
having the goal of full humanity. He learns to look upon life as an open book
and meets the requirements of each life situation by a complementary resource
unfolding from himself. Thus the ancient science of
Yoga becomes meaningful in the modern context provided it is viewed as a
holistic science and no as a means of enhancing the fragmented world view.
Human Values in Holistic Religion,
Science and Education
With the above mention of trends in scientific
thought and integration in man the question of values pertinent to humanness
arises, especially when the fragmented view denies the value of humanness in
its wholeness. Human values are erroneously conceived as securing human
rights, peace and freedom from fear, hunger, etc., not by securing within
oneself the uprising of hatred, fear, etc., but by fomenting the same in others
as well and making preparations for war.
All religions including atheistic religions like
Jainism and Buddhism lay primary emphasis upon moral values. In the holistic
view morals derive their sustenance from uniting ethical principles with human
action but in the separatist context they become dogmatised
into cults and sectarian traditions. They further degenerate into superstitions
and need the unholy support of authoritarianism. ‘Humanness or goodness or
godliness as explained already has lost its value in the corrupted
consciousness of man to which science has also contributed. The two major tools
or keys to civilization, namely religion and science, having failed to maintain
the integrity of wholeness of man, education has by and large dropped religion
as its resource of knowledge and taken to science in its amoral and
materialistic perspective without examining its holistic human potentialities
nor is education becoming holistic by integrating the human values derived from
science and religion. So it becomes necessary to go deeply into the resources
of religion and science and utllise the right means
of education for establishing the holistic humanness. Integrative education
should adopt the overall unifying principle as the guideline in synthesizing
concepts, theories, and models of an intellectual nature and integrate it with
values of wholeness of an aesthetic and devotional nature inherent in ethics and
morals. In sum, it can be stated that we are in a paradoxical situation today
of having to inculcate the full value of humanness to man although he is born
and bred as a human being. However, fortunately the knowledge explosion has
spread so widely as to create the awareness among the people in general of the
existence of these treasures of wisdom so that it becomes the enlightened task
of humanity to imbibe holistic humanness as a deep-rooted concern for the
welfare of the world, to include man and nature as a whole.