Saint Tulsidas’ saying ‘Shastras suchintit puni puni dekhiye’ is like an ocean in a pot, which means that it is not only necessary to read important, serious and great works, but also to read them again. Things read once often slip out of the mind, due to which their full meaning is not clear and by reading them again and again, one often experiences new truth. That is why Saint Tulsidas gives the idea of reading well-thought-out scriptures again and again.
The same thing was said by poet George Santayana, ‘Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.’ This is true for many events and thoughts of that time and the present, but many times, not publishing the old literature again and not reading literary texts disconnects the young generation from its history, due to which the influence of global thoughts starts increasing on them. This is completely true about Sanatan because the entire focus of Hindus was on following their own religion, due to which they often remained ignorant of global events and global thoughts. Based on the idea of ‘Atmavat Sarvabhuteshu’, Hindu society considers all the people of the world as its own and perhaps it has assumed that all the people of the world will also have similar ideas. But Hindu intellectuals made a mistake in understanding that there are many such ideologies and religions in the world which do not consider any other ideologies and religions as their own. They can go to any extent to include them in their ideologies and religions. The result of not understanding this fatal idea was the fragmentation of Undivided India and in the present scenario also, this idea of separation is raising its head again in many provinces of India.
Among the forgotten texts is also the book L’Opium de Intellectuals written by sociologist and philosopher Raymond Aron. The title of this book was basically a response to Karl Marx’s ideological comment, which called ‘religion the opium of the people.’ Sociologist Simone Weil had rightly said that Marxism itself is a religion, a religion which was never accepted by the public. Only those who called themselves intellectuals got entangled in this new religion and faith. Globally, almost all universities are wrapped in this new ideological religion. Not only this, but many professors, writers, poets, artists and editors of Indian society are also suffering from this disease.
Ear-catching ideas, ideology and goals are often presented on the basis of airy intellectualism to attract the youth, but no Idea has any connection with human logic and conscience. Far from ground reality, this idea is only a castle of cards which often collapses after being covered by a gust of wind of rational thoughts. But to acquire such a rational intellectual, it is very important to study history and related literature.
Aron writes about the ideology of Marxism that it (Marxism) demands the best ideal through moral condemnation or lofty declarations and evaluates the present conditions according to that hypothesis. He considered responsible statement from the point of view of abstract ideals of equality and freedom to be more beneficial than philosophical, existential analysis. (Book: Buddhijiviyon ki Afeem, Author: Shankar Sharan, Page: 15) According to Aron, wisdom lies in choosing the better path in a situation when the best path is not available and in fact humanity always faces this situation.
In the book L’Opium the Intellectuals, the author tries to bring down the poetry of ideology to the level of prose of reality. According to him, the myths of revolution, leftism and proletariat seem compelling because they have the attraction of poetry. (Book: The Devils, Author: Dostoevsky)
Such myths create the illusion that everything is possible in the entire universe, due to which complete liberation can be achieved through social and economic revolution. But in reality, this is just an irrational hypnotic sentence that sounds good but is based on limited information. If the above hypotheses are combined with the myth of historical inevitability, which Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism did, then all of them together create the intoxication of a terrible intellectual dictatorship in thought and behavior. Just like opium works on the body, in the same way this intellectualism works, it first makes the person happy, light and joyful but later makes him numb.
The progress of human society cannot be understood by indulging in the spirit of this revolutionary ideology because sometimes some ideas are important and sometimes not. On the basis of which it can be believed that ideologically progress and defects are two sides of the same coin. The great philosopher Aristotle writes that the answers that seem the most brilliant, shiny and attractive are the worst and evil. Such answers promise everything possible, like many religions promise to bring heaven down on earth, but in the name of heaven (jannat) they only bear pain, violence etc. Similarly, communism is a corrupt form of western thought which aspires to conquer nature and improve the condition of ordinary people, but eliminates ideological criticism and freedom of expression.
In reality, at the global level, humanity has no choice but has to choose from possible compromises, which is the basis of the democratic system in politics. But still, after enduring all kinds of regimes since independence(1947), it is true that the government should be chosen not based on ideology but on action. These socialist visionaries are very optimistic and enthusiastic about the abstract human being, but their behavior towards humans based on reality is also negative. On which the sociologist Rousseau writes that, “Perhaps I know humans, but as far as people are concerned, I do not know them.” Though the realist thinkers may be pessimists, they are not in any way suffering from ideological intoxication. In reality, the intoxication of the opium of historical inevitability of Marxism is so deep that they consider Marxism not as a philosophy of history, but as the only philosophy and it is said that rejecting Marxism is rejecting historical wisdom.
Many leftist intellectuals in Europe justify all types of dictatorships from the bloody communism of the Soviet Union to Cuba and hate the western democratic countries, to tarnish their image some definitions like capitalism, fascism and class conflicts were created. For the Marxist intellectuals of India, the truth of communist society was mostly limited to enchanting stories, which were propagated by communist leaders and which were based on literature glorifying the Soviet Union and Red China. As a result of the propagation of these global ideas, Indian society was misdirected since independence and used as an ideological battlefield, as a result of which nation-based ideas started being considered hollow. As a result of which, India, the land that produces great ideas, is getting entangled in foreign ideas by forgetting its basic knowledge and is on the path of indulging in many types of ideological distortions like isolationism, wokeism etc. False, hateful, factless and impossible ideas in the name of revolutionary ideas have only harmed society, the main reason being that 100 million people died in the completion of 100 years of communism.
In the present times, where there is an ideological war based on anti-social or anti-national narrative toolkits, Only common sense, prudence and rationality can save human civilization.
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