In one of the
friendly chat I had with my friend, we talked about how we human beings have
lost on our innate
strengths, in the process of becoming excessively dependent on technology.
She said, “It
is because of the concept of pen and paper, that we have lost our innate
potential to remember and recall. We take down notes, for the want of referring
back to them in case we forget it.
Instead, if we choose to focus our mind and listen attentively to something,
with the belief that
our brain can record all that is being said and be recalled anytime we need it,
our brain can do
so. But when we do not have faith in our own innate capabilities, we depend on
a backup system,
like the pen and paper the backup systems, which takes over control. I felt this is true.
If we look at the way how the great seers of the past transferred their
knowledge from one
generation to the next generation, it was through oral rendition. The Vedic scriptures
composed between 1700 and 1100 BC were also said to be passed on by this
method. It is only after a certain period, a portion of it got transferred to
Ollaichuvadi (Palm Leafs). It is a proof that it is possible.
Consider this:
With the advent of calculator, we have lost our ability to do mental arithmetic
of even simple
calculations. With advent of computer, we have lost our capacity to store and recall data.
All our knowledge has been fed into the computer and is made available to us at
a press of a
button. This comfort of being able to outsource our physical and mental work
has made us
technology dependent.
We are all
aware that we human beings have a natural immune system, that serves as a
health defense
mechanism. But how far do we trust it? A saying goes, “It takes 7 days to cure
cold without
medicine, but it takes just a week to cure with medicine.” Though this may
sound funny, this is the
truth. Our body has the innate ability to fight the disease, but we in a hurry
for quick cure, choose to go for medicine. Once medicine becomes our back up
system, our body loses its innate strength of immunity.
This excessive
dependence on technology has in a great way locked our innate potential. The
Western culture is in one way responsible for this. The key differentiator between
Western culture and Eastern culture is that the Eastern culture is 'human
centric' whereas the Western culture is
'technology centric'. The Eastern culture relies on the infinite human
potential, whereas the Western culture believes in finding an easier way of
doing things, and therefore focuses on technology development. Western culture,
no doubt has made life easy. It has eased the work load of every human being
right from the home maker, the office goer, the factory worker and the farmer. But
at the same time all these inventions have weakened us in terms of trusting our
own innate abilities.
As human
beings, we are blessed with vast amount of innate strength, physically and
mentally but we do not even use a fragment of it.
The brain is
often called a super computer, for the simple reason that its processing power
is about 100 million MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) and its memory storage
capacity to something closer to around 2.5 peta bytes ( million GB).
Our body
structure is so precisely engineered and built, that it can handle enormous
amount of work load, which is out of proportion to our body weight. The Olympic
record proves that a weight lifter weighing 56 Kgs can lift a weight of 305
kgs, which is almost 6 times his own body
weight, which
logically sounds impossible.
We have been
amazed, as to how Pyramids were built as early as 2500 BC, in the days when
there were no equipment to carry such massive stone blocks to such great
heights. These types of herculean tasks were possible because man trusted his
innate potential.
In short our
mind and body are capable of doing much more than what we think. It is just we
do not have faith in our innate abilities. This lack of faith in our innate potential,
has led us to trust technology rather than our own selves. Let us take the time
to realize and understand our innate abilities and develop trust in it. Next
time when you face a challenging situation, don't ask, “Can I?” instead say, “I
can” because, you really can.
Happy Reading,
D.Senthil Kannan
Article Dated July 2013
