Started servicing the interrupts at will? Are you finding it difficult? Don’t worry, so do we. Do not give up. That’s the key. Now, let’s take a step forward.
This time, as you would have guessed from the diagram above, we have something interesting to discuss. An Individual’s Model. Sounds complex? No, it isn’t. Simplicity is one of the most important design value, I believe in.
This model represents each and every individual in our society. Yes, this is you. And that’s why, this model is intuitive, isn’t it? What’s new with this? Let’s try to understand what it has to offer.
The human body can be treated as a ‘black’ box, as we are not concerned about the internal complexities. Based on the senses input to it, human body does some processing and performs some actions as output, which may or may not be visible, under the control of our mind.
The important point to notice is, assuming natural condition, that our body is always completely under control of our mind. Thus, empowering our mind would lead to utmost control over our actions, even on the split-second reactions, irrespective of our desires, if any.
One question may arise, where is our mind actually located? Is it a part of our brain or a completely separate entity? Science and Religion have different explanations. From the scientific viewpoint, mind is constituted by some parts of our brain. And from observations, that science can’t explain yet, the spiritual viewpoint connects it to the unknown, soul. Where ever may it be located, for an individual, it means the key to complete control over actions.
Our mind evolves continuously with time and the current state of our mind and it’s ability to control is the impression of the past. Throughout our life, we interact with our family, teachers, friends, relatives and others in the society and they contribute to make us what we are today. Sometimes, we notice it and sometimes we don’t. This interaction defines our early ethics/moral values as well as interests and how we approach life, which most of us stick to, unless one has courage to question and validate them. In the current state of our nation, this interaction is the biggest issue that we need to address. Does it mean that we should give credit/blame them for all our actions and do nothing, even if we feel or if someone points out, that we need improve our mindset and there’s more to it, than what we know? No, absolutely not, but the point take note of is that, it is not that easy to improve one’s mindset in the later stages of one’s life.
As an individual, every one has the ability to think, but definitely our surroundings influence the way we think. We should look forward to have an open mind, which would respect and reuse as well as ignore whatever we receive from our surroundings, based on how we analyze it. An individual should develop the ability to recognize and accept mistakes and more importantly, to correct them. Also, one must instill the ability to listen to other viewpoints carefully, learn from them as well as question them and accordingly modify one’s own viewpoint, if required. We must never let our perception to become static.
Let’s get back to the problem with the interaction amongst an individual and the society, in the early stages of one’s life. Today, considering the state of our education system, this interaction in the early stages of an individual in this world is the root cause of majority of the problems, we face. Are our teachers or parents in a position to empower our children’s minds? The answer, unfortunately, is no for majority of cases and for variety of reasons. The most important reason being the quality of education, our teachers or parents received. And this is a chain, unless and until, we break this chain, we would never be able to reduce or completely resolve the problems, we face. The quality of education, one receives, from it’s surroundings, defines one’s mindset and as our mind is in full control of our actions, it in turn defines who we are in most of the cases, accepting the current state of our education system.
The surroundings are equally or even more responsible than a particular individual for any criminal activity that we witness around us like corruption, sexual assault, killings and etc. Whenever any crime happens, we blame the individual, punish that person and hope that it would not happen again, which I believe is a completely incorrect approach. The punishment should be there, no doubt about that, but more importantly attention should be paid to improve the surroundings in order to allow our children to learn the ability to think on their own as well as making them aware of the social issues, including the issues involving sex, that we face and encouraging them to allow their perception to evolve with time. We need schools that praise children for learning from the mistakes done in past, rather than scolding them for making mistakes.
Considering the current situation, a large number of children do not go to school, and those who do are not empowered to be autonomous learners, as suggested by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. By presenting this model, we hope that we would understand the importance of empowering our young minds by creating an environment that would enable quality education as a fundamental right to each and every one in the society. This would reverse the chain effect, mentioned earlier. These children who receive quality education, would reach out to their parents, friends, relatives as well as others and also someday would successfully take up one of these important roles. If we perfect the causes, the effect take care of itself and in fact, will multiply automatically.
Every single mind, when empowered, with the ability to control actions, in the societal setting, irrespective of the senses, would lead towards the ideal society where love prevails and crime does not exist. While focusing on improving the quality of education, we must pay attention to the fact that, it is difficult to reach, each and every mind, instantly, thus the law and order needs to be given equal importance, which is a short term solution, as opposed to quality education, which is a long term and permanent solution.
We shall continue to use this model as we move forward towards empowering our minds. Stay tuned.