Some thoughts
It is our duty to train and develop our mind and acquire knowledge, as much as we possible can obtain. Knowledge is like a deep well, fed by peremial springs, and our mind is the little bucket that we drop in to it, we will get as much as we can assimilate.
The brain, which is aeous physical organ ofthe mind, is one of the two precius products of the aeous of Evolution: the other is the inponderable "social instinct". This wonderful brain, whore every convolution represents millions of years of time, really distinguishes us from the animals. Many animals have very powerful sense organs: the eagle, the ant and the dog have keener sense that man. But no animal has a more evolved brain and a higher inte linence. If we donot develop and use this brain to the utmost of our power, we are more akin to the heasts than to Homosapiens.
more akin to the heasts than to Homosapiens.
Knowledge and mental self culture will confer told blessings upon us . We will not be victims of superstition and demagogy in religion and politics. We will know our duty and do it. To be wise and independent in our religion and in our politics, not to be deped and duped by the selfish priests and the schening politicions of capitalism and socalled socialism: is this not a noble aim worth striving for? Most men and women today are not free and wise. They are like kites flown by the priests and politicians who hold the strings. They are fleeced and fooled on account of this ignorance of science, History, Economics and other subject. Half the ills of Mankind are due to Ignorance, the other half arise from Egotism. Knowledge is fully as important as Ethics: they are really inter-de endant As Lessing says: "The aim of knowledge is Truth, and truth is a need of the soul". The pessian poet Saadi exhorts all to acquire knowledge wit unremmitting zeali:" Like a taper, one should melt in pursuit of knowledge. This is they duty, even if the has to travel over the whole earth".
In the never ending struggle for knowledge, we should work regularly and methodically. We should devote a certain portion of our time daily to study or experiment. We feed the body several times a day: We should not starve our Mind. We should keep a diary, in which we should note the titles of new books. We should get new and second hand catalognes from the book sellers. We should always be in hunt for cheap second hand books in the shops. We should have our own private liabrary, however small. We should take pride in the books that adorn our home. With every book we buy, we add a nullimeter to our mental stature. We should borrow books from public liabraries and also from our friends. Also we should not forget to return then unctually. We should keep notes and summaries of what we read other wise our studies will be like a ranifall on a sloping roof.
We should Revise much and refresh our memory frequently: like Macaulay should have all our knowledge instantly available. We should know exactly what we know, as we know how much money we have at the Bank and as a house wife we know that is available in the Kitchen. We should make plan for our studies a few years in advance, as the states man plan an economic or military Campaign. We should set apart a fixed proportion of our in come for the purchase of books and journals: Call it the "book fund" and should not it for any other purpose. Thus we will find it easy spend money on books. We should Join scientific and literacy societies and study circles; we should not grudge the small subscriptions. It is a good plan to form a small group, in which each member read a new book and then offers a paper on it, with
copious quotations from the original. Such "Cooperative study" is necessary, as our spare time is unfortunately limited. Life itself is short, for too short for the lover of knowledge. It we had the gift of immortality like Jithonus, and also unfading youth, then we would surely devote a hundred years to the study of Astronomy, a hundred years to Biology, a hundred years to History and so on, untill we could call ourselves a well educated man or woman. But alas! our life is reck oned in months and years, not in centuries and milennia. We are old before we have discovered that we know very little independ We should make haste to learn. J.R. Green, the famous historian wrote: "I know what men will say of me, "He died learning;" Let the men say the same of us, Two outrstaches and obstructions are there to mental self culture. We should try to over come these with concious efforts.
1. Many of us are so money mineded that we donot under take any serious work that does not pay. It is belived that it is foolish to exert them selves for such study and brani work as cannot be converted in to cash. Hard work for money and then planty of play & pleasure; this seems to be their rule of life. For them intellect is only the key to material prosperity; and personal mental development is a foolish fad. Rich and poor all suffer from it. Intellect should be employed chiefly as an instrument of growth and social service. must not be a tool for exploiting our fellow citizens, If we look upon all brain work as a money making device, we are a degraded and pitiable prestitute. Such prostitution is so rampant in our capitalist world that we take it as a matter of course. We are not replled by it or astonished at it. Nature has given as a brain to know, to think, to understand, to reflect, to discover, to invent, and to fell the
deep joy that comes to all who fulfill Nature's law. So we must not be ours own worth enemies.
2. Certain false theories and dogrnas have diverted millions of men and women from the pursuit of intellectual culture and persuaded them even to take pride in their ignorance and stupidity.
This may seem strange and in credible, but it is only too true. We should not allow our in mind to be enslaved by many unsound theories of life which would convert the best men and women into virtuous and holy animals. Ignorance in brutesh, knowledge is a peculiarly human prerogative. This knowledge can be had in various waye but books are the main saurce. For this purpäse one has to learn to read & write. Also it Jan Vachan Andolan is to be build in to Jan Vachna Andolan then the activists will have to first inculcate the above mentioned qualities in them only their the conducing environment for liabraries can be built.
