Page 9 - NAMAH-Apr-2021

Namah Editorial

individually come up with alternative view-
points on the same topic. It would be a small
but significant beginning.

A sort of lateral thinking is now acknowledged
to enhance creativity but something more
is needed. One has to train oneself to be
unbiased and non-judgmental towards
“The bankruptcy of religions was because they an alternative set of ideas generated by
were divided — they wanted you to follow one others or even by oneself. This would make
religion to the exclusion of all others. And all subjects capable of unbiased thinking and
human knowledge has gone bankrupt because would counter exclusivism and improve the
it was exclusive… The step forward humanity mental health of the community at large. At
must take immediately is a definitive cure of one stroke the mind would rise above the
exclusivism (1).”
strata of dogmatic thinking. What a great
relief this would be! Is it not true that we
The possibility of overvalued ideas could be waste a lot of time, energy and resources
reduced if we were taught from an early age by holding on to a set of idiosyncratic ideas
to develop non-linear thinking. This would as if the whole existence depended on a
need a surpassing of the rational mind to particular set of ideas? Throughout history
reach what Sri Aurobindo called the Higher generations of people have unnecessarily
Mind. The Higher Mind is a supra-cognitive wasted their lives by clinging to a certain
field that is capable of mass ideation and set of dogmatic ideas as if other viewpoints
can simultaneously hold contradictory and were valueless. At an optimal point in the
complementary ideas without chaos and flow of consciousness, things should start
confusion. A programme in personal growth changing. It would not be immediately
that is preparatory to developing the faculties reflected in the mass-mind but even if
of the Higher Mind, can allow the equal selected minds are receptive, the message
appreciation of contradictory ideas. Children would spread.
could be trained to think simultaneously with
alternative ideas of the same topic. Is that Reference
possible? One may argue that if a child can be
trained to play chess with oneself, he or she
can also be trained to counter oneself at the 1. The Mother. Mother’s Agenda, Volume 11.
ideational and conceptual level. In a debate Paris: Institut des Recherches Évolutives; 1970
competition children could be encouraged to (English translation), pp. 22-24.
— Dr. Soumitra Basu

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