-it’s time the horse was put before the cart
Man is primarily a Spiritual Being and only secondarily a Social Animal. But, through our education system we have only been taught the latter and see ourselves and the society from a ‘social animal’ perspective only. We are completely blind and ignorant of the other higher attribute or the infinite possibility within us, and are instead bottled up seeing ourselves only from the lower attribute.
By terming man as a ‘social animal’ is in fact not divulging the tremendous potential that lies within, and belittles the ‘being’ aspect which is the differentiation between man and animal. As such, it may be alright to hold the view of man being a ‘social animal’ from a basic standpoint, but it necessitates expansion beyond this limited and reductionist view to a more holistic one to build a platform to better understand the purpose of being human.
When the ‘Spiritual Being’ aspect is ignored, and that we are stuck with describing ourselves as a ‘Social Animal’ it denies the vision of the world within ourselves and how we could grow within to make intelligent choices rather than be trapped by impulses like animals do. In fact, the word ‘animal’ linked with man is like a cruel verdict who has no hope. It confines man to a helpless state and denies knowing about the power of choice which is the differentiating factor between man and animal, as animals can only react, while man can also respond.
As such, man is an animal as long as he reacts and gives into impulses. But, when he starts exercising choice through a sharpened intellect and responds, man then transcends to a more refined state of existence. It is at this state that man then arrives to the state of being human. That is the goal of education and not just relegating man to animalhood and to cast him as a victim from which there is no hope.
It’s not that man does not and will not be ‘attracted’ by impulses. He could be, but with the awareness nurtured in him of the knowledge of his higher nature, gifted in the form of the faculty of Freewill, he could realize that he has the ‘power to choose’ and will be able to comprehend the necessity of the bridge between Freedom and Responsibility, and will not consider them as two separate zones in life.
Therefore, unless ‘man is not introduced to man’ as a Spiritual Being from an early stage, he is then indeed living and suffering an animal’s existence till such time he comes to know of the higher possibility. That is grossly unfair and brings the question back to the education system and what has it been doing over the years and why has it itself not evolved from this condescending statement that ‘Man is a social animal’.
The purpose of this website is to try and fill this gap for young individuals and to introduce a much left out perspective in the education years which will probably continue to be so, for as long as the education system does not evolve and understand the importance of holistic education. The time for sole importance to marks and grades is up. In fact, this website is also for the Teaching Fraternity too to retrain their own approach to nurture a future generation which is happy in the heart, and strong in the mind.
If there is a root cause of easy despondency growing into depression in the youth today, it is this very faulty, incomplete and hopeless introduction of man.
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