Essay: October 2022 Current Affairs | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

One Has to Win Their Internal Battle to Awaken Their Consciousness

“Who has Conquered the Mind, The Mind is the Best of Friends; But for One Who Has Failed to Do So, His Mind Will Remain the Greatest Enemy.”

Internal battle is the state of mind in which the individual is not able to decide what should be their next decision as per their future plan of action. Life has several occasions in which the mind suffers from a dilemma. Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta ascribes to Arjun’s state of mind. In the battle of Kurukshetra when Arjuna was surrounded by the Kaurava’s army he then became trapped in his emotions looking after Bhishma Pitamah and Guru Dronacharya. Arjuna faced two kinds of battle at that point. One is inner battle and the other is external battle. External battle is basically the battle of Kurukshetra in which Arjuna was supposed to fight against the Kauravas. Internal battle is basically the battle with his emotions which Arjuna fought with himself.

Internal battle is the battle in which the individual has to fight with his weakness such as anger, ego, delusion, desires and worldly attachment. The Arjuna chariot which was driven by Sri Krishna had five horses which symbolizes five basic human senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. These senses are the source of human desires. Individuals have to fight against the allurement of these worldly desires which emerge from these senses. Shri Krishna Symbolizes consciousness. If the command of the senses comes in the hand of the consciousness, then it leads to the awakening of the individual and the individual will achieve the permanent state consciousness. Awakening of consciousness will only be achieved through inner battle. The majority of the individual is slave of his mind, what the mind wants, they lure in it and live life just to fulfill it.

Consciousness is simply self-awareness. The more mindful you are of your thoughts and ideas, the more conscious you will become. The more you learn about yourself and the world, the more enlightened you will become. This awareness is personal and unique to you. If you can put your feelings into words, they are a part of your consciousness.

Consciousness is a form of action or process. It is controlled by the brain, just like any other behavior. When an individual asserts to concentrate in its objective to attain it by abandonment of sensual pleasure and comfort, he is truly battling in a battlefield where he is fighting with his uncontrolled mind every second. When the individual's mind is brought under control, awakening and enlightenment begin to occur gradually. The awakening of consciousness leads to the individual's detachment from superficial outer luxury and a desire to achieve something truly meaningful instigated.

You may battle someone and take his possessions, but if you win your mind, you can rule the entire universe. The question now is how triumph over the mind aids in the conquest of the entire cosmos. To understand this, we must examine our cognitive processes and inner understanding.

When we move on the path that controls our mind then in this process, we are actually exploring our mind. The human mind is as complex as the universe and exploring the human mind is like exploring the universe. If an individual succeeds in knowing his mind, he will be well aware of the universe. When your mind wakes up to a new reality, a new lesson or a new realization, it is an awakening.

It is true that a person who has control over his mind and thoughts may achieve anything in life. However, our mind is frequently unstable, disobedient, and dissatisfied. You spend your entire life thinking and working about your career, family, relationships, triumphs and failures, difficulties and struggles. Then, all of a sudden, you understand that there is more to life than the chase of momentary pleasures. It is an awakening.

There is a Mahabharata that each person must confront. Only those whose consciousness controls their mind would be able to win this war of Mahabharat. He advises Arjuna that he may achieve total perfection in life by mastering his mind. He makes it very evident that nobody can achieve serenity and happiness in life without control over their mind.

Shri Krishna advises Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita to surrender to him before carrying out his responsibility. If we consider Shri Krishna to be conscious and Arjuna to be the body, then consciousness is telling the body to act exclusively under its supervision so that the body (Arjuna) might win the internal battle of daily life i.e., Mahabharat.

When a person tries to concentrate in one spot, his mind tends to wander and travel here and there. Knowing well that no important message will arrive, you start checking your social media platforms every few minutes. But you check since it is difficult for you to focus on your task. You begin working once again, but after a short while, you turn to exploring the internet. You search for recent news. You often check Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. You take breaks that are unnecessary. You discuss stuff with coworkers to pass the time.

The mind begins to think in an uncontrolled manner, draining all of the body's conserved energy. When you realize that your energy and time are exhausting by thinking about irrelevant subjects, then you'll try to manage his attention by focusing it in one spot. Therefore, you spend several hours or even days doing a task that you might have finished in a few hours of focused effort. This is a continuous effort that an individual must undertake. Essentially, this method serves as a learning and self-exploration tool. He makes a lot of mistakes while learning. But he gains the expertise by attempting several times. This ongoing endeavor is basically a mental struggle, which we might call Mahabharat.

Meditation was used by the ancient Vedic sages to calm their minds and raise their consciousness. They concentrated on the sanctifying characteristics and transcendental shapes. They would compel them to refocus on their meditational subject. You must not, however, give up. You will ultimately master your mind by constant practice, as practice leads to perfection. As a result of practice, consciousness grew and spread. The mind wakes as a result of consistent effort, which leads to perfection.

“According to the letter of the Gita, it is possible to say that warfare is consistent with the renunciation of fruit.”

Less social, More media

Socialization is the lifetime process of acquiring and disseminating norms, conventions, and ideas. The use of social media has now become so important for the new generation that it has become an addiction that is difficult to recognize, so in this contrast, the older generation feels a sense of satisfaction and contentment at having been born in an era when something other than technology defined the social and recreational lives of the children of that time. We are attempting to become more socialized through media, yet the media is expanding, and individuals are essentially being trapped within a room. The younger generation is entirely relied on social media. Social media is basically the primary source of getting information in the present scenario while in the 90’s newspapers were the primary source of information. Reading the newspaper is a habit that our parents have instilled in us. The primary source of reliable news was regarded as newspapers and television news. Doordarshan was the most famous and reliable TV channel in the 90’s, compared to the 24-hour news networks of today, which lack any meaningful content and are occupied with playing outside in the real world. Social media is basically an outcome of technological advancements.

Every technological advancement brings advantages along with disappointments. It is on the awareness of the users how advantages can be maximized, and disadvantages minimized. 90’s is the time when there was no Internet and single-screen theaters were common. So, circumstances at that point were not conducive for the growth of social media. Rotary landline phones were found in every home feature, phones were considered a luxury, and our identity was determined by what we did in the real world. The 90’s generation often feel an awkward generation gap with younger generations. Social media created a virtual word which runs parallel to the real word. In contrast if we talk about socialization then there are two kinds of socialization that exist the one is real socialization and other is the virtual socialization. Technological innovation brought with itself the heat of change. A person who is able to adopt the stream of change will survive and advanced in future.

We molded ourself with change in time and time advanced with technology. We also adapted to ourself with changing technology and evolving social media life. Simple landline advanced in to cellular phones and it gives way to multimedia phones which ultimately culminated in to proliferation of smart phones. The origin of smart phones has given way to social media advancement.

Impact of social media we can observe in every sphere of life. Social media is used by the people for popularity. Ministers, Bureaucrats and several higher ranked government officials are proactively using social sites and social media to popularize their works and trying to establish themself as highly efficient professionals who are working more efficiently as an administrator to resolve the suffering of others. While the main purpose of using social media to popularize himself as an efficient administrator because it will be beneficial for them as per future is concern.

Billions of people are now creating and sharing massive amounts of data with one another. This gives people a sense of being associated instead of feeling lonely. When you consider developing a social media strategy for your company, the following platforms are likely to spring to mind: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube etc.

Civil services aspirants who lost their last UPSC attempt due to Covid-19 pandemic protested for extra UPSC attempts. They asserted that they would put pressure on the government for fulfillment of their demands. For this purpose, they started a campaign for extra UPSC attempts through several social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter. Social media is working as the people’s voice. It makes people's voices loud and clear.

Social media is the most promising medium in human history from the Stone Age to the Metal Age is currently in the Digital age. Mass mobilization to the spread of false news is highly influenced by the news available on social media. In a few cases, the situation deteriorated, which ultimately culminated in the loss of life.

In response to a recent exchange of aggressive religious social media remarks, two people beheaded a 40-year-old man in broad daylight at his tailoring store in a market in Rajasthan's Udaipur city. This incidence basically reveals that human beings are becoming inhuman day by day and have no guilt of being involved in anti-social activity.

Social media usage, on the other hand, can have a detrimental impact on youngsters by distracting them, interrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, inaccurate views of other people's lives, and peer pressure.

The views on social media held by peoples of 90’s and the younger generations are different. The younger generation see them as a way of life; however, people from the 90’s simply view them as a way to switch things up and meet with close friends sometimes. Social media has a big impact on people's everyday lives, self-esteem, daily activities, and even, to a considerable extent, job decisions. Younger generations' brains have been influenced by social media in such a manner that being successful YouTubers, Tik-Tokers, and Instagram influencers seems to be the aspiration of many of them. They take satisfaction in choosing to become these because of their cheap popularity and quick recognition.

A few years back an online game known as "Blue Whale challenge" which was basically a 50-day online "suicide game" for kids. The challenge was alleged to have resulted in a number of deaths throughout the world.

Social media is basically promoting socialization but in the closed room. People are feeling that they bring social revolution through societal change by proactively working on social media. Hard reality is entirely different from reality exit on social media platforms. Revolution needs ground work which is not possible only through social media. Any social media campaign will only be fruitful till it is not backed up by the groundwork. The new generation does not want to take the pain of groundwork because it needs real effort.

The use of social media more than certain limits invites social media addiction. Addiction of anything compelled individuals for self-harm. So now the time has come to take a break and introspect on the hours which we used to spend on social media. A break from social media is required for relaxation and introspection. We should take a break from social media, and try to feel and understand how people live their lives when there were no social media platforms. We should try to comprehend how time flies when there are no social media platforms. People back then were far more mentally stable and didn't experience the irritation that social media is known for nowadays. People were dealing with real practical challenges because they were mentally more stable and healthier. We should give up being creative for a few hours or even a day to detox since we have many other great ways to keep ourself engaged outside of the workplace. If social media is cut off from their lives, even for a short while, youngsters and adults in their twenties could experience anxiety. It is a characteristic of being addicted to social media.

On evening walks, we regularly see young men and women dancing and using a camera mounted on a tripod stand to record short videos to upload to Facebook or Instagram. We suppose it is reasonable for us to limit ourself to one or two social media networks in order to save time, which we can then commit to improving our health or performing other creative work that will benefit us. Almost eight to ten hours a day are typically spent on smartphones by most individuals. Most people use their smartphones for nearly eight to 10 hours a day.

Millennials are drawn to sign up for any new or well-liked social networking platform. This is because they frequently use the virtual world to incorrectly define their real-world personalities, resulting in them living in an illusory reality. Someone younger than us has opened their eyes in an era of social media, cellphones, and multiplexes, and their vision of the world, identity, and opinions have been significantly influenced by it, resulting in views that are dramatically different from those of someone 10 years older than them. The new generation is proactively socializing to themselves through social media rather than real physical socialization. They know a lot of information about the events happening in the entire world but they are not aware of the suffering of their neighbors.

Real is Rational and Rational is Real

Rationalism is fundamentally the tendency of human beings to ask questions and look for solutions to the different aspects of reality. It is a phenomenon that stimulates awareness and prompts questioning. In reaction to philosophical movements, rationalism thrived. It places a lot of focus on applying logic to evaluate facts and concepts. Rationality is applied in the majority of domains of life. Although there are many various views on what rationality is? It is widely accepted that it is the capacity to learn from the failures and successes of the past. Rationality is the result of a critical mind. Being rational requires the ability to think critically. It is the capacity to assess a claim, viewpoint, or ideas critically and decide if it is true or false. Rationality requires a logical mind and the capacity for critical thought.

Rationality promotes scientific temperament in the individual. Scientific temperament enables people to raise the question of what exists in the universe. Scientific invention, discovery and exploration are all the outcome of human rationality. Rationalism is the very fundamental essence of humanity. When the light of rationality illuminates the human brain, intellectualism takes birth. The rise of rationalism is the renaissance which happened during the 14^th to 17^th century in Europe.

Following the Middle Ages, Europe had a passionate era of cultural, artistic, political, and economic "rebirth" during the Renaissance. The Renaissance, often seen as occurring between the 14th and the 17th centuries, fostered the rediscovery of ancient philosophy, literature, and art. The Renaissance was basically the rise of rationalism. Every intellectual perspective became more visible under the illumination of rationalism.

Article 51 A(h), of the Fundamental Duties (FDs) which was introduced in the Indian constitution in the 42^nd Constitutional Amendment Act,1976. It is the responsibility of every Indian citizen to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. The spirit of inquiry is basically promoting rationalism in human beings. If we want to know the reality of the universe or cosmos, then our approach should be rational. The truths about who we are, the world we live in, and the cosmos may be discovered if we think logically and rationally. Truth and reason go hand in hand. It is not possible to imagine one exist without the other.

Rationality is continually looking for reality, and reality can only be found in the light of rationality. The Indian legal system is based on the principle of rationality. Judges attempt to make judgements based on evidence rather than preconceived notions, emotions, and sentiments. Rationality serves as the standard by which reality is evaluated. Rationality is continually trying to give truth the upper hand and truth is real. Thus, what is rational is also real, and vice versa.

Rational people may attain their life objectives by having the ability to control their thoughts and conduct. They have the self-control to avoid engaging in unhealthy life habits such as drinking alcohol or disordered eating, and they are able to make rational judgments without letting their emotions affect them. A logical mind constantly thinks calmly, attentively, and objectively. It may be said that everyone with a rational mind has this as their ultimate goal. If you consistently participate in rational thinking, you can base your conclusions on facts and evidence. Using reason, you can recognize bad conceptions and practices.

We may better comprehend ourselves and those of others who surround us by using rational thought. It can also help us succeed since we can comprehend realities regarding true desires instead of becoming sidetracked or behaving unreasonably. Although full objectivity will never exist, logical thought is still possible. As far as objectivity is concerned, rationality encourages individuals to make informed decisions. Setting feasible micro and macro goals is the fundamental indicator of being rational, and one should be proud of one's capacity for logical thought. If you want to succeed, you must be rational.

Rational people refrain from making mistakes they'll later regret. They frequently make sound decisions because they thoroughly consider all of their possibilities. Rational individuals have unique and clear views on the purpose and vision of life. Arguments need to possess the quality of truthfulness. A belief possesses the quality of truth when it accords with reality. Similar to this, it is asserted that a belief is false when it is inconsistent with reality.

Knowing the truth is necessary in order to tell it. To determine what is right and what is not, one must exercise rationality. However, reason and the application of reason also lead to truth. While we may experience some of the truths that exist both inside and outside of us, these truths are not reliant on our understanding or our capacity to perceive them.

The truth exists without our intervention. We can comprehend things because we can think about them rationally. The seeker of truth cannot ignore the search for reason because finding based on emotions and our feelings generally ignores reality and truth. The ideal circumstance is one in which you are free to choose solely what is best for you, without taking into account the repercussions or any other factors. When we are logical, we may draw conclusions that are in our own best interests. When we act impulsively, our judgments typically reflect our emotions instead of reality or reason. We can end up making poor decisions about our finances or even our interpersonal relationships as a result of this. As a result of their illogical behavior, this can cause them to make one poor decision, which might cause them to experience financial insecurity.

Financial matters need more accurate decisions. Accuracy in decision making depends on basic information and conceptual clarity. Conceptual clarity and basic information bring the ability to think and make decisions rationally. Poor financial choices frequently lock people in a cycle of poverty where they are unable to advance because they continue to spend more than they bring in. People who get into this debt trap frequently end themselves in even more debt because they use credit cards and other types of credit to pay off debts from earlier purchases while acting irrationally, which causes them to slip into the debt trap.

The rational is real, and the real is rational. Both reality and rationality are true. It very clearly signifies how reason and reality both complement one another. Considering that there are two viewpoints on truth, real and rational. Both viewpoints come to the same conclusion: both reality and reason are true. It is essential to understand how these factors interact. Creating arguments, drawing conclusions, and identifying causes and consequences are all aspects of rational justification, which is the main focus of rationality. In other words, thinking and emotion are both involved in reasoning.

Three Things cannot be Long Hidden:
The Sun, The Moon, and The Truth.  – Buddha