The Power of the Negative

Dr. TS Girishkumar, Ph.D 

My Colleagues used to accuse me of speaking of Hindutva to my students, and I used to reply, had I been doing so well, the students would have reached liberation, and had you all been listening to me, you also would have reached liberation, and would have become “Mumuktas”! Well, my colleagues are all Marxists of varying type, from CPI(M) party members to Naxalites, and existentialists to post modernists. My plight is also not much different from the average plight of Hindus in the Southern Indian State of Kerala, irrespective of social position and work; the plight of a Hindu when he is a Hindu in Kerala is not much different from one another. For me this is a daily affair with the alienated ones, and it is only natural for one to become singled out as well as targeted, one can only demonstrate one’s strength and conviction to them through action and work. During my living in the Northern Indian, I hardly used to continue wearing the Rakhi more than a week after the Raksha Bandhan, but in Kerala, I made it a point to continue wearing the Rakhi, quiet a few of them together, and always. Last years Rakhi is still on my hand, and it is well topped with the new ones. This is nothing special and unusual, when you join a University in Kerala you expect such things, and this precisely becomes the challenge, and mission in life. With all these, I must say that I am very comfortable.

And I must thank my colleagues for continuously giving me new ideas. The very next day I thought of giving a full module lecture to the research students on the power of the negative. Our full module is a continuous three hours lecture with a possible small tea break in between, which is only optional. This I thought as very relevant, since they are the constant victims of the power of the negative.

Hindutva is a process of affirmation, confirmation and agreement with age-old tradition and accepted Philosophy. We know that the wisdom of our ancestors are so great and had been put to tests by they themselves many times before them getting passed. There is a point where intellection ends, and beyond which the intellectual and rational mind shall not go, or cannot go. Some of the western philosophers also had this experience of the ‘end of rational mind’ and they did get the notion of that something beyond the senses. Take Immanuel Kant for instance, he ended up writing a “Critique of Pure Reason”. Bergson was interested in his theory of intuitionism. Hegel too is fond of the idea of the absolute, which through rational mind becomes difficult to comprehend. There could be more such examples. Thus, when we take our Indian tradition, we know that they are handed down to us from the wisdom of our ancestors, and commonsense ingenuity is in no position to question them. This how ever doesn’t mean that they are unchangeable of unquestionable at all, for then that would make it all static and dead. The Indian tradition is neither static nor dead; it is constantly becoming, evolving and dynamic. And to question and change, if at all needed, it takes another equally great mind, where intellection gives way to experiential knowledge, Apara Vidya becomes Para Vidya and Vijnana becomes Jnana. With such a developed mind, changes are spontaneous, and it is not mere expectation and story for the Hindus about the coming of such minds, it is our constant experience with history from time to time. The Gita vouches for this, when Bharat varsha faces deep crisis, there occurs Avatars, it may be complete incarnations like Sri Ram, or it may be partial Avatars like Mata Amritananda Mayi. But then, it is the experience of the Hindus that there are Avatars, who shall effect changes as and when required which keeps the Hindu world dynamic.

This needs patience with the tradition and history. Look at he Jews, and learn how patient they are. Can the Hindu not wait for the appearance of a proper avatar? Indeed the Hindu can, provided the negatives, and the power of the negative do not vitiate our younger minds.

Negativity has its demoniac power over the untrained and not matured minds. They can easily affect the student minds and play havoc. It is easy to instill revolutionary spirit in the young minds and turn them anti national, for they are rebels, rebels from the fact of their age as well as thinking mode. Hey have not yet had time to think about and go in depth into any thing seriously, they are still vibrant in horse powers that of an un reigned horse akin to wild horse, their minds are not trained well enough to pursue identified desideratum, all these, simply because, they are only in the process of being trained, and getting trained in life’s ways. Marxism has its tremendous impact of negativity among the youths of Kerala. The negativity in throwing a stone to break streetlights can easily develop into anti social tendencies if not checked by Dharma, or Hindutva. At the same time, this negativity could be inflamed through the negation of the negation taught by the communists, and young minds could be captivated through thoughts of action and the possibility of changing the world into any impossible idealism such as dictatorship of the proletariats.

Why should you listen to any one at all? Are you not grown up and capable? Are you not capable of thinking for yourselves and finding out what you shall desire? Who is any one for that matter to tell you about the dos and the don’ts? You are autonomous!

Indeed not. Man is not autonomous. He is indebted to a hoard of things, and all kinds of things. The language he speaks, the food he eats, his ancestry, determines the norms of his society, and even unto the attitude he develops to out side world and the world view itself. The idea of autonomy is a myth, a negative myth. This shall only lead any one to disintegration of the self and restlessness. No amount of tranqulisers shall be of any good use. The reign less horse of age compels you to rebel, and when the communists enable you to rebel, they are trying to make their fortresses formidable. Just look at the erstwhile communists, they rebelled stronger than you, and are they comfortable today? Go and get married to some one you temporarily think that you are in love with, where as it is infatuation all the while; love in the real sense of the term shall only develop through co existence and sacrifice to one another as taught by the Hindu dharma. When your parents arranges a partner for you, whom you do not know at all, you go with no expectations, and take things as they come, as they are, and since you have no expectations, you shall have no disappointments. You are bound to live together, and you do not have freedom to fall apart, and thus you will discover your ideals in one another, taking time, years, and finally become inseparable. At the end of your lives, you would wish that if you get another birth, you would want the same person as life partner. This perhaps could be called the seasoning of married lives.

The younger minds ought to create formidable fortresses to protect themselves from the powerful entry of the power of the negatives. And the only way to create powerful fortresses are through culture, tradition and of course, spirituality. For us Hindus, this is available in abundance. So resort to what is said of the old by our ancestors, learn from he Acharyas, and you shall become good human beings, good citizens, and good Indians. Finally. The choice remains that of yours, whether to be affected by the powers of the negative or to build formidable fortresses through tradition, to remain what you are supposed to be, what you desire to be and what you ought to be.

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