Scholars
are Bankrupt
Mr.
Rushiraj Waghela
Department
of Communication Skills, MEFGI, Rajkot
If you check the word ‘Bankrupt’ in a
dictionary, it means ‘completely lacking’ or ‘a person who doesn't have
anything of his own’. I call the scholars ‘complete bankrupt’ as they don’t
have anything of their own. Everything they have is borrowed from here and
there. They rearrange the borrowed ideas and play with words. The information
they have collected and the ideas they have borrowed make them rationally sound.
They know a lot but they live a little. Once I happened to meet a forest
officer (my friend’s friend). I took a walk with him in Jungle. His knowledge
about birds and animals was sound. I heard a melodious voice of a bird. I said,
“Listen to the voice. It’s so melodic.” Not showing any excitement, he said,
“it’s Grey Nightjar.” He was not interested in the melodic voice of the bird. I
realized that he had lost his sense of beauty as he has knowledge (information)
of everything around in a jungle. He couldn’t enjoy the beautiful sound as his
information-loaded head has closed his heart. This is what happens to scholars.
They know almost everything that is knowable. But they cannot live them, cannot
cherish them. Their critical approach stops them from cherishing a novel,
drama, poem, music, painting, dance etc. They look at everything objectively. In
other words, they stay apart from the things and analyze them. When you see
things objectively, you can’t live or enjoy them. Say for instance, dance
cannot be enjoyed by being objective. You have to be involved in it. You have
to be one with the tune. Otherwise, dance becomes a painful exercise. You will
not be joyful in such an exercise. Therefore, you will find all the scholars grumpy.
None of them are cheerful. They have closed their hearts. The load of
information attacks the heart and it dies. I call it Heart Attack or Emotional
Suicide. Their borrowing makes them grumpy. They are beggars. Have you ever
seen a cheerful beggar? They cannot be. They cannot smile. Even if they smile,
it is constipated one.
Why to take the pain of reading and
knowing so much only to get grumpy? What’s so wrong in getting a bit childlike?
Final Blow
“Scholars
lead a contemplative and retired life” - William Hazlitt.
Good one!
ReplyDeleteHowever, when you say, "critical approach stops them from cherishing a novel, drama, poem, music, painting, dance etc.", you are saying that a student of botany should not cut flowers to study them but cherish them. It is the job of the critics to analyse literary works. Had we not had critics like William Jones, Dr. Samuel Johnson, A C Bradley, the would not have found Kalidas or Shakespeare worth reading. Besides, you are placing sensual experience over verbal or textual reading one which is a flawed comparison. Some people get lost while reading the book as some do while watching a setting sun, it is terribly subjective. And the best of the scientists and philosophers that we read and quote, like Einstein and Osho or Plato for that matter, are scholars by all means. Can we call them bankrupt? Even if do, we need them. It is a different story that now the idea of being/looking a scholar is more powerful than working as one. We as spectators need to get involved into the dance or drama, but the artists need to learn technicalities of the respective arts from the scholars. Lastly, insofar as borrowing is concerned, from breathing to the housing loan, we borrow. Borrowing is our deposition. Nothing wrong in borrowing 'matter' (like a potter) if you can render the same mater in fresh way (a new design of the pot). You can take example of either the borrowed matter of Shakespeare (Greek Mythology) or Valmiki (Rig Ved). If we study natural sciences properly, we will realize that even in nature nothing is original but reaction to or result of some chemical cross-breeding. So I believe that Scholars, in the best sense of the word, are not Bankrupts but yes in some cases it is the other way round!!!