During my recent trip to my beautiful, diverse, warm and affectionate India, someone described me as being very 'Daanish'. This was not surprising to me because I am very much a product of secular India.
My mother, my family, and my school reinforced India's pledge in me -
India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well-being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.
They were disappointed when I chose to leave India, and did not join the I.A.S. as many of them had expected. I think I just needed to break free from control and expectations for a while. Life tested me severely after I had left, but it was part of my evolution as a human being. I am happy where I am and hope to keep moving towards my personal and career goals.
What is Daanish? The word refers to a secular person who gleans the core values and principles of all faiths as a means of attaining enlightenment. Lofty aim, no doubt.
As per Vedic astrology, I am still in the 'Dharma' cycle of life, not 'Moksha' - so I'm not sure about enlightenment itself. However, I believe my dharma is to be a good human being for this is what all faiths teach us. So many prophets have been sent to earth with the aim of guiding humanity towards spiritual evolution. And not just religious leaders - how about Emerson, Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Dylan Thomas, Keats, Coleridge, Shelley, Blake, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, the Blues singers, Yann Martel, Ang Lee, Peter Weir, Paolo Coelho, Tagore, Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, Achebe, and so on?
Still, humanity grasps and fights, demeans its faiths, pits countries against one another in the chase for profits...what have we learnt? Nothing much, really. Sometimes, I wonder if we are witnessing reverse Darwinism - the survival of the stupidest due to sheer might in all countries, cultures, and communities. Of course, I myself may be stupid in making this observation. Please forgive my limited perception.
Still, humanity grasps and fights, demeans its faiths, pits countries against one another in the chase for profits...what have we learnt? Nothing much, really. Sometimes, I wonder if we are witnessing reverse Darwinism - the survival of the stupidest due to sheer might in all countries, cultures, and communities. Of course, I myself may be stupid in making this observation. Please forgive my limited perception.
As per the internet, 'Daanish' is defined as - "Knowledge and wisdom. The deep inner urge to inspire others in a higher cause, and to share their own strongly held views on spiritual matters. Idealistic, highly imaginative, intuitive, and spiritual. Seeking after spiritual truth and often finding it. Visionary. If potential is not developed, there is a tendency to daydream and misuse power (ahem)."
Obviously, my hope and prayer is to fulfill my spiritual potential 100%. As I was telling my husband, we are here on this earth for only a blink in the universe of time. Why not utilize that little time in spreading positive energy and doing good for humanity? We all have a choice, don't we? Immortality, as Shelley rightly observed in his 'Ozymandius', is not to be found in the material but in the happiness and love one leaves behind. I'm sure my MBA classmates will snigger at this. Their skepticism and inauthentic living is precisely the reason why Ivy Leagues all over the world are exploring Leadership, Peace, Conflict Management, and People Development.
So, having been described this way, I was disappointed to receive a rejection letter for my poem entitled 'In Your Name', based on the rather facile Bible Belt America interpretation that it was a religious poem, simply because it contained the word 'piety'! If the reviewers had rejected my poem saying it was plain crap, I would have accepted their judgment as I myself feel it fails on some counts. But to say it is religious??? Seriously! It was an insult.
You know, being Daanish has its minus points. Firstly, I am viewed distastefully by my own fellow Muslims for having a mind of my own. Secondly, my words are misunderstood by Americans who interpret them as propaganda. Really, I thought the US would be very cosmopolitan but it seems I am being strictly defined in black and white terms more than ever! It is indeed true that walking the middle path is very lonesome.
Just to set the record straight - my poem is not about the surface meaning of the word 'piety', ok? Someone said that a poem is like an iceberg. We only see its tip - about 5%. A poem hints at the 95% that is underwater. Likewise, the piety and devotion I glorify have nothing to do with organized religion.
My idea of piety and devotion has everything to do with love. The love of between 2 people, the love of a child for his/her parent, the love of a mother for her child, the love between a merciful and just ruler and his/her subjects, between a teacher and his/her students, between a human and his/her pet, between a student and his/her subject. And so on. What is more noble than such love?
As an American friend (an ex-monk from a Wisconsin Catholic monastery) and I were discussing, perhaps this kind of love - that fosters life and affection, and is based on trust, kindness, and loyalty - is God, Allah, the Brahman/Atman, by whichever name we know Him...or Her. God is love. Those who think that success is attained by grabbing, through competition of the fittest (or the sneakiest), or by bullying others, are acting out of fear and insecurity. They are choosing to devolve.
Well, I explained my poem to the editors in question, and surprise, surprise, it was finally printed.
There are 2 things that I make of this - either my poem was so bad that it required me to provide an explanation (and therefore did not deserve to be published)...or...that the editors were pretty shortsighted themselves...or perhaps just plain hemmed in by their own shortsighted audience.
And so we walk on...
India's pledge! It's the first time I've ever seen it. Do you your boys say the American pledge of allegiance every day in school? Interesting differences I see on first-glance--India's pledge mentions people! Parents, teachers, elders, these are all replaced by the flag and the republic in the American pledge, abstractions that aren't always easy for people to relate to.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how the 'Dharma and the 'Moskha' (and the other third part) cycles of life will express themselves in Indian management theory. Or if they will ever find their way to management theory at all! Religious leaders are free to explore these ideas, but I wonder what business leaders and researchers would have to say about them?
Perhaps they need to find their way into the business dialogue. Although some people in business school might express 'skepticism' about these ideas or avoid them altogether because of 'inauthentic living,' it could also be a matter of not previously having the vocabulary to approach them. I think that everyone, regardless of social background, thinks about these lofty questions at some point in their lives. Some people, like ourselves, are lucky enough to have more time to think about them than others. I'm sure that many b-school students, who are usually fortunate to have that extra time, may not have the knowledge to deeply think through these issues. But I'm sure they still think about them!
However, speaking only about the U.S., there is a deep anti-intellectual undercurrent to American culture that may lead to the 'skepticism' and 'inauthentic living' you wrote about, as well as to the misunderstanding of your poem. This has been observed and written about by many American intellectuals (surprise). The flip-side of that anti-intellectualism is an aversion towards religion, especially among the few intellectuals left in the U.S. At least that's been my observation.
Hi T,
DeleteI think public school Principals say the pledge every morning over the intercom...? In India, it varies - we just said ours on important occasions that's all.
I haven't thought about the Vedic life cycles and GPE, but I think we could link business life cycles and the life cycle of a hegemon. I think the hegemon is in its 3rd phase and therefore the need for leadership and sustainability - to keep in mind the driving principles and vision of the phase 1.
Luck or articulation or time...?...that is precisely the question. Why not? We have all learnt that businesses are too profit-driven - not saying they shouldn't be (I agree with the 'survival of the fittest' idea) - but when it is at the cost of something greater than business alone (like the environment, human rights), then it is an issue worth thinking about. E.g. - Ken Saro Wiwa, the fire in the Bangladesh factory, child labor, blood bananas/diamonds...I think there are enough and more cases that reflect the need for this.
'Inauthentic living' - most MBAs tend to be this way. I think its a personality thing. They tend not to think deeply but to get the 'job done' no matter the means. At the same time, one is grateful for our Profs who think deeply and inspire us to think as well.
Here's where the world is lucky - the friction between doers and the thinkers drives change for the good in a country with freedom of expression and opinion made possible precisely by that profiteering...or what our Strategy Prof called friction for growth.
I totally agree with the idea that religion and state must be separate. I believe the reaction to my poem was not from an intellectual. Anyways, the truth is that my poem sucks.
You're right - everybody does think about lofty ideas from time to time, in between their tight schedules, some more than others. Every type of person serves a purpose.
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