Dear Man, dear Mankind. Are you enlightened?

"What is enlightenment?", questioned Kant. It was way back in the 18th century."Dare to know. Have the courage to apply your own wisdom", was his answer. Kant represented the spirit of the 18th century enlightenment movement. He was talking of the newly discovered Man- the questioning and the reasoning Man, the creative Man, the scientific Man, Man at his best. The scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, and later Newton, had indeed proved that, "On earth, there is nothing great than Man; and in Man, there is nothing great than mind".

This greatness of Man, of Mankind, has enchanted me since childhood. What is this greatness  that led to this gradual but magnificent evolution of the cave dwelling savage to one day unanimously sign the human rights charter? Have you known this Man in men? And do you want to keep this Man alive, or would you let him die each day, the way most of us do? Are you enlightened?

Lets explore...
As Alexander Pope  rightly recited in the 18th century, 

"THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND, IS MAN."

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan. 

The proper study of Mankind is Man. 

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;

In doubt his mind or body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,

Whether he thinks too little, or too much;

Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;

Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;

Created half to rise and half to fall;

Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;

The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,

Correct old time, and regulate the sun;

Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,

To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;

Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,

And quitting sense call imitating God;

As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,

And turn their heads to imitate the sun.

Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—

Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides...

PS- This is a series I plan to update regularly. I want to explore where it takes me. And you too.

Forget...

“And each day brings it's pretty dust,

Our soon-choked souls to fll

And we forget because we must,

And not because we will.” 

― Matthew Arnold

This every passing day

"Manage your days with precision,
EVERY DAY, YOUR ACTIONS ARE CHANGING THINGS"

The Mermaid

"I must have been a mermaid, Rango.

I have no fear of depths,

but a great fear of shallow living"

- ANAIS NIN

Remembering Kabir.

"Heera soi saraahiye
Sahe ghanan Ki chot

Kapat kurangee maanva

Parkhat nikra khot"

Only that diamond is praiseworthy 
which can bear the blows of a hammer.
Untrue, deceptive men 
are found out when tested.

Renaissance- the essence of history

The renaissance is hope.

And it is incarnating itself from age to age.

"THE RENAISSANCE WAS THE DISCOVERY OF MAN, AND OF THE WORLD"

- JULES MICHILATE

While he said this, the French historian was referring to the great intellectual, liberal and cultural movement of the 14th-15th century Europe, wherein a new Europe was taking shape, on the strength of ancient European inspiration. Michilate was reffering to those intrepid ideas of people which had long been imprisoned by the blind submission to the religious authority of the middle ages.The renaissance was indeed the discovery of man.
And of course of the world. For there came a Copernicus who now questioned the church's earth centric belief. And a Petrarch, who discounted the medieval idea of self repression. New geographical knowledge was overturning the Europe centric view that the mediterranean was the centre of the world.

The renaissance has inspired humankind. It has inspired me, often stirred me to thought.
Was Renaissance  just this single unique event in which Europe rediscovered itself? I don't think so.

For instance, was this Rationalism, this human centric rationalism which held that human as an individual was capable of making his own decisions not inherent in the 6th century B.C.E. teaching of the Buddha who questioned the prevalent Brahmanical belief that an individual's existence was determined by his/her birth in a specific caste or gender?In that age he held that the individual was the carver of his own destiny. Was there not a renaissance in the age of the buddha? or in the age of Kabir, Nanak and Meera? For in all of them lied a new rationalism, a new humanism, a new inquiring spirit, and hope.

The contexts have been different. So have the spatial and temporal aspects. But there have been multiple renaissance taking birth on this globe.

I now know what the creator of the Bhagwad Gita meant in part 4, 7/8-
"Whenever there is decline of righteousness
and rise of unrigheousness,
I incarnate myself.
To protect the virtuous
And to destroy the wicked
From age to age."

The renaissance is hope.
And it is incarnating itself from age to age.