Is Man really a Social Animal ?

Hi Folks,

I was discussing this topic in a different context with one of my colleague. I had always carried this thought in my mind, which I call it as one of my many theories (aka Gyanopdesh's)

The theory is a bit poetic and not really well framed (grammatically...but who cares)

"Man vies for a social life and in a group tries to be unique or different from the rest"

True, Dont you feel the same ?

Ok, take your time and close your eyes. try to recollect the guy/babe you hate the most and the one whom you can associate with words like - snob, show-off, et all

Thats right, there are many folks around us. and we are also one of them.

we live in a society which recognises what appears superficial, successful, glaringly bold, unconventional and all those weird things which we were taught in our school as not being right.

so what do we do, we do our best everyday to be noticed. dress up the best way, we strive to be cool (sometimes we are so cold that we have frozen expressions!)

we try to be indifferent to emotions, nostalgia, others around us. thats being cool right ?

I had heard about an experiment conducted by an psychologist studying human behaviour.

Luckily the psychologist did not use anyone but himself as the guniea pig.

He stayed away in isolation (siberia, alaska..i'm not sure where though) for few months. He had taken all the rations that would help him survive and basic needs to protect him from extreme weather.

He made it very clear that anything he carried need not have any labels on them, no markings, nothing which he can read. He had no communication device, nothing which can connect him to the rest of the world !

He had planned to stay in such condition for 6 months, but had told his friend to check on him in 3 months.

when his friend as promised went to see him. he could not believe his eyes.

The psychologist had aged more than a decade. he was worn out and unfit.

He begged his friend to abandon the experiment before he kills himself.

The psychologist had kept notes, daily log which he had updated to the tiniest detail. his observations were and are research material for experts in fields like Wild Life, Ice, Seasons, you name it.

When the psychologist came back to the civilized world, He was welcomed, honoured and praised for his will power, perseverance and determination. He was the guest of honour, speaker, & chair for many conferences and felicitations.

He continued adding to his notes/log, and later after few years He was back to normal.

He called few of his colleagues and asked them to use his notes to infer the changes he had been through.

The observations were made and the desicion was un-biased and unanimous.

1) In Solitude, the psychologist had explored beyond his interests, field of study. Each daily log had an unwritten claim and angst to be back into the society.

2) Back in Society, the psychologist had initially being happy to be loved and recognised. He carried this further when the felicitation had dried up, He became rude, commanding, demanding and proved he was an step ahead of all those experts around him.

well, I am not sure if this is a real experiment as this story was narrated to me as a kid. I dont have citations nor was i successful in finding any material on it on the internet.

The other incident which I want to share (confess) is really something which had embarassed me. but I was enlightened by a stranger on one of the IRC chat rooms where I boasted of being in the Deep Purple show in Banglore, India. which infact I never had been to, offcourse I used do listen to other classic rock bands and had nearly negligible knowledge of the legends.

when we were chatting about the show, the guy figured out i was faking and he said something which embarrased me but was really cool, I would love to quote it here.

"The Higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more of its butt can you see !"

well, you know who was the monkey now !

hope you enjoyed this post, do drop your comments and let me know if you think we are really social animals or just animals..grrr...!

The 4 Ashramas (stages) of Vedic Indian Life

The four Ashramas of Vedic Indian Life

The life span in vedic India was divided in 4 parts, each of 25 years. These were called Ashrams.

For Hindus the whole life is a Yagya(penance) and that is what this denotes.

These ashrams were named following:

Brahmcharya Ashram - Celibacy, Education

Grihasth Ashram - Matrimony

Vanprastha Ashrama - Social

Sanyas Ashrama - Meditation

1)Brahmcharya Ashram (Upnanyan Sanskaar-25 years)

After Upnayan Sanskar (Thread Ceremony) the person will go to Gurukul(School).
Under the guidance of revered guru (Teacher), he or she will study Vedas. The vedas have different parts or Angas. Vedas have knowlege of Adhyatm (Brahm), material and life...They will study and practise those till the age of 25. During this time they will live away from parents. During this they could not marry they had to maintain celibacy. The name Brahmcharya means the practice(of Yoga) on Brahm or actions carrying towards Brahm. Since in this Ashram celibacy was required so Brahmcharya also refers to celibacy. Not only Brahm Gyan was the focus, pupils also learnt various skills (Aayurveda, Shastra Vidya..) during this period.

read more on the importance of Celibacy at - http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/brahma.html

2)Grihastha Ashram (25 years - 50 Years)

After the age of 25 years people will get married and do work according to their skill set. They will have children and they will make sure that their children get Vidya (education). There is a shloka which means "that mother is an enemy and the father is an ill-wisher who do not send their child for education".

3)Vaanprastha Ashram (50 years - 75 Years)

In this Ashram people will still live in society and with family (spouse and children and grandchildren) but they will maintain celebacy and live with Niyama.

4)Sanyaas Ashram (75 years - 100 Years)

At this age person will leave general society and live with Rishis(Hermits) in some forests and fully meditate upon Brahm(GOD).

The beauty of this kind of division of the human life according to the Vedas was in its simplicity.

these stages or Ashrama's were also meant for all castes (denominations) in Hinduism

Now I need to gear up to write more on the denominations in ancient Vedic Hindu culture. keep watching this blog.

With due acknowledgements to Sarvesh Dipal - http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/

One more lovely post worth reading is available at - http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/2006/03/hinduism-in-holy-nutshell.html


regards,
Ganesh