Philanthropy - The word has been interpreted as below in "wikipedia" as on the date of this posting.
"Philanthropy derives from Ancient Greek, meaning "to love people". Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, services, time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause, with a defined objective and with no financial or material reward to the donor."
Many a times I have wondered the evolution of humanity. Probably, the industrial revolution, modernization, automation, advancement of science and technology - all seem to be as external as they are perceived. While this can be observed as the evolution of human understanding of science, evolution of the technology, this has as much relevance to evolution of human being itself as age to do with intelligence.
The evolution of human being very much lies in evolution of human society. The very fundamental indicator for a mature human society, in my opinion, is the oneness, the ability of individuals to feel the responsibility for others regardless of the relationships between one another; regardless of the cause; regardless of the social structure and so on so forth. The "ability" of the individual can be derived from education, skill, position and the social structure itself. It is possible that not everyone is blessed with all the armours needed to respond to need of hour. However, higher the commitment and willingness of the individuals, even more in the way of life in a society, stronger is the evolution of humanity.
From this perspective, I believe, the theoretical fundamentals have been philosophized long ago before the "modern society". However, the realization of this philosophy has been hardly achieved and on the way probably lost its due attention from the "world powers". The resultant is continuing chaos created by humanity to humanity.
This reminds me a simple story parable to me when I was on my 4th standard. The parable is as follows:
God appeared in one man's dream. The man asked God, "if you were so nice, why did you create hell and heaven ?". God replied, "Hell and Heaven are made by men and not by me". God took the man to a place.
It was a big dining room, with all kind of tasteful food served in plenty and unlimited. There were all kinds of people. The hands of the people were tied behind them. Every individual was hungry and everyone tried hard to take the food and eat. As they were not allowed to eat directly by mouth, they tried to throw the food up by hand and to catch the food. The place had soon become messy and hunger remained. God said, "This is Hell".
Then He took the man to another place. This was much similar to the previous one. Same arrangement, all food, people tied their hands behind, same rule. However, this place was very calm and people were content and happy. The reason for the difference was that instead of trying to eat by self, everyone fed other person what they wanted. God said "This is Heaven".
The parable had registered in my mind very strongly, after grown up - don't ask from when, I had always wondered, if this could be a practical resemblance of problems of this world. Many a times, I think yes. Except for natural calamities and challenges, all man made challenges can be tied as a parallel, albeit logistically the complexity of the world is far greater than the dining room in the story.
The thought process also makes the below "Kural" one of my favourites.
௮றிவினால் ஆகுவ துண்டோ பிறிதின்நோய்
தந்நோய்போல் போற்றாக் கடை.
I think the meaning is straightforward. Just in case, if you do not know to read Tamil, the verse says "What does one's wisdom achieve, if it cannot recognize other's pain as pain of the self".
"Philanthropy derives from Ancient Greek, meaning "to love people". Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, services, time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause, with a defined objective and with no financial or material reward to the donor."
Many a times I have wondered the evolution of humanity. Probably, the industrial revolution, modernization, automation, advancement of science and technology - all seem to be as external as they are perceived. While this can be observed as the evolution of human understanding of science, evolution of the technology, this has as much relevance to evolution of human being itself as age to do with intelligence.
The evolution of human being very much lies in evolution of human society. The very fundamental indicator for a mature human society, in my opinion, is the oneness, the ability of individuals to feel the responsibility for others regardless of the relationships between one another; regardless of the cause; regardless of the social structure and so on so forth. The "ability" of the individual can be derived from education, skill, position and the social structure itself. It is possible that not everyone is blessed with all the armours needed to respond to need of hour. However, higher the commitment and willingness of the individuals, even more in the way of life in a society, stronger is the evolution of humanity.
From this perspective, I believe, the theoretical fundamentals have been philosophized long ago before the "modern society". However, the realization of this philosophy has been hardly achieved and on the way probably lost its due attention from the "world powers". The resultant is continuing chaos created by humanity to humanity.
This reminds me a simple story parable to me when I was on my 4th standard. The parable is as follows:
God appeared in one man's dream. The man asked God, "if you were so nice, why did you create hell and heaven ?". God replied, "Hell and Heaven are made by men and not by me". God took the man to a place.
It was a big dining room, with all kind of tasteful food served in plenty and unlimited. There were all kinds of people. The hands of the people were tied behind them. Every individual was hungry and everyone tried hard to take the food and eat. As they were not allowed to eat directly by mouth, they tried to throw the food up by hand and to catch the food. The place had soon become messy and hunger remained. God said, "This is Hell".
Then He took the man to another place. This was much similar to the previous one. Same arrangement, all food, people tied their hands behind, same rule. However, this place was very calm and people were content and happy. The reason for the difference was that instead of trying to eat by self, everyone fed other person what they wanted. God said "This is Heaven".
The parable had registered in my mind very strongly, after grown up - don't ask from when, I had always wondered, if this could be a practical resemblance of problems of this world. Many a times, I think yes. Except for natural calamities and challenges, all man made challenges can be tied as a parallel, albeit logistically the complexity of the world is far greater than the dining room in the story.
The thought process also makes the below "Kural" one of my favourites.
௮றிவினால் ஆகுவ துண்டோ பிறிதின்நோய்
தந்நோய்போல் போற்றாக் கடை.
I think the meaning is straightforward. Just in case, if you do not know to read Tamil, the verse says "What does one's wisdom achieve, if it cannot recognize other's pain as pain of the self".
No comments:
Post a Comment