Page 44 - NAMAH-Jan-2018

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 4, 15th January 2021

What is more is that he is also chained to his his or her uniqueness, which may not or may
suffering and illness. In fact, he may even clash with the social milieu.
surreptitiously and unconsciously enjoy his
illness and eulogise his suffering for some Society itself moves through many cycles.
secondary gain. There is a conventional stage where social
ideals that conform to ethical codes have
The problem is that not only the client but to be developed. During this phase, certain
the counsellor also is usually elusive about individual aspirations have to be voluntarily
the connotations of freedom. The other day subdued to facilitate the emergence of social
I happened to meet an 18-year-old girl who norms or else we would have an anarchic
had the habit of writing the capital ‘I’ as a situation.
vertical line (as in typescript) without the This is why, even though with a heavy heart,
horizontal bars above and at bottom. Her Sri Rama had to take a decision for the ordeal
a
counsellor took it as an outrageous act of of fire which Sntaa had to undertake to prove
uncontrolled freedom that would land the poor her chastity. This was supposed to be a role
girl in trouble with her authority figures. model of moral values. We must remember
Perhaps she would be non-compliant in that Sri Raama, as an Avatar or emanation of
counselling sessions too if she cherished her the Divine, was entrusted with the crucial
freedom too much! She was instructed to work of leading the human consciousness
put the horizontal bars in place, ostensibly from the infra-ethical to the ethical phase,
to conform to societal expectations. for the establishment of moral values that
a
the infra-ethical Rakssasa and Vaanara lacked.
I immediately remembered that famous Sri Aurobindo describes that it was Rama’s
a
proclamation in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, mission, “to fix for the future the possibility
“For to arise in freedom I was born (2).” And of an order proper to the sattwic civilised
did not the seer in the very beginning of his human being who governs his life by the
magnum opus, The Life Divine, explain that reason, the finer emotions, morality or at
freedom was one of those basic principles least moral ideals, such as truth, obedience,
that could not be subdued but ergo, would cooperation and harmony, the sense of humour,
rise with greater vigour each time it was the sense of domestic and public order, to
suppressed? establish this in a world still occupied by
anarchic forces, the Animal Mind and the
As the girl was a bit perplexed, I told her to powers of the vital Ego making its own
switch to the cursive mode in writing capital satisfaction the rule of life, in other words,
I as that did not need the horizontal bars, the Vanara and the Rakshasa (3)”.
moreover it would suit her as she had an
artistic flair. When society is stabilised, humanity gets
ready for the phase of individualism where the
But this seemingly small incident points to a individual has to discover one’s uniqueness
very deep existential issue — the phenomenon irrespective of societal and ethical norms.
of individuation and its relation to the social And this one can only do by pursuing the
matrix.The individual of course has to discover freest way in which one’s consciousness can

44