New Mind in the New World
(Vinod Anand)

The companions, the relationships, the work, the ideas and the beliefs and the dogmas that we hold have produced a monstrous world, a world of conflict, misery and perpetual sorrow. We accept it as normal condition, we put up with it day after day; we never inquire into the necessity, the urgency of a revolution that is neither economical nor political but much more fundamental.

No inquiry is ever possible when the mind is tethered to any kind of dogma, tradition or belief. The difficulty is not that we are not capable of inquiring, not that we are incapable of investigating, but we are apparently totally incapable of letting things go, putting things aside and therefore with a fresh mind, with a young, innocent mind, looking at the world and all the appalling things that are taking place in it.

Only when you can destroy completely everything that you have held sacred or right or virtuous that you can find out what is truth. If one has observed sufficiently the things that are happening—not only mechanically, technically, but also in our relationships between people — when one observes that progress throughout the world is denying freedom, the strength of society in which the individual has completely ceased to be, and how nationalities are dividing themselves more and more, one will see that some kind of deep revolt must come about.

Society controls our minds, shapes our hearts, our actions, whether you live in a communist, Hindu or Christian world. Society with its structure shapes the mind of every human being, consciously or unconsciously.

The culture, in which we live the traditions, religions, politics and education past and present, shapes our thought. And to bring about a complete revolution a crisis in consciousness you must question the structure of society. We are concerned with bringing about a different action, mind, and a different entity as a human being; and to go into that profoundly, we must not be slaves to words.

Society is relationship. And that social structure, as it is now, is based on ambition, greed, envy, seeking power, position, prestige and all the things that man has setup as being extraordinarily significant in life. That is the actual fact — not your gods, not the Gita, not your guru, not your saints and saviours, but the daily life in which you are, which is your ambition, your greed, your envy, your pursuit of power and wealth and position which you want.

And, without altering that radically, without breaking down the whole system, you cannot have a religious revolution. A religious revolution is not concerned with reaction at all. It is concerned with dealing with a fact and destroying that fact; that is being aware that our relation- ship, our soc1al structure is based on this extraordinary sense of values on ambition, greed, envy and destroying that completely in ourselves, totally, wholly eradicating it.

That is the beginning of a religious revolution — not the pursuit of an idea, which you call God. You need a new mind because a new world has to be created — not by politicians, but by you and me who are just ordinary average persons, because it is we that have to change completely, it is we that have to bring about a mutation in our minds and hearts. It is only when the mind is completely quiet, free of conflict— it is only then that the mind can go very far into the realms that are beyond time, thought and feeling.

Author's Bio: 

VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE

Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.