18-12-2014
Consciousness Responsibility
Time is successive. He passes through the particles of Time when he acts in Time. There is no sequel, but there is a sequence. What he does in one moment leaves his consciousness the next moment. An act is spread over some time, hours or days. To be aware of an Act is to be aware of some time. In that measure he is Master of that Time if he feels responsible for what he has done. Work is an act, responsibility is an attitude.Only he who can be conscious of the passage of Time, the work done during that time and feels the consistent attitude he has had in that duration is capable of consciousness responsibility. Especially one who takes such a responsibility for his family or his parents or his children spreads his area of action over Time and Space. As against the Man of the Moment such a Man is a giant with a wider personality. Naturally such a trait comes to be an aspect of Individuality.We do speak here of an attitude of relating to another and his own actions. Spiritually, it is a steps in which self universalizes by forging a relationship of mutuality and harmony. When one says the loss of another is his loss, he seeks a unity with his being. The other side of it is the gain of another is his, thus he becomes spiritually creative. Bennet’s value is, though welcome, apparently confined to him, rendering the act innocent if not innocuous. At least Darcy had something in his mind to seek, if not gain. Dr. Thorne’s family was eight centuries old. He cherished its value and in pursuit of it spurned the Ullathorne’s relationship while they were the oldest family of Barsetshire. Henry destroyed it at the altar of dissipation and Roger gave a fitting tribute of a man of sensitive valour. Dr. Thorne’s taking the baby into his fold, promising her mother that he would be a mother was the glorious finale to the tragic beginning. Prior to that Dr. Thorne paid his addresses to a lady who could find in her heart no response to his tenderness and married another. That development left Dr. Thorne’s heart richer than ever! In that the heart that longs for an unrequited love generates ‘that’ love in his own heart. It is a one-sided love, fully disappointed but there is more in it than meets the eye. His own yearning for her had in it the rich germs of human intensity that can make a dry flesh of a heart love at a later date. Into such human circumstances of creative consciousness he took the baby. Nature demanded for twelve years a secrecy which is really his secret springs of love. No wonder she enters his Greshambury life as an adoring angel who often hangs on his neck. We see how mortally he was wounded when Roger wanted to see her. He would not want him to see her and she should not know that she had another uncle living!His relationship was that of the subliminal with her. She more than thoroughly imbibed his VALUES and the keen sensitivity of perceptive awareness of human beings. She knew the French mistress was guilty and not the servant. Her ascendency in that incident is the forerunner to ‘Dear Mary’. Beatrice says Mary, with all this wealth, will be meek as a dove.
At the age of 21 to be meek on being rich is not given to a bastard child. It is the aristocratic inheritance, though by the stock of Roger, the stone mason. The infinite emotional energies of Dr. Thorne were not exhausted by its being the incentive to Roger to earn. It further entered the Squire’s house as its presiding deity. It did not end even here. She brought the richest woman who stood at the forefront of London season as his wife. Values are creative, creative of wealth, also. Bennet’s value healing the breach in the family reputation would be a standing wonder. It rose to further ’known’ heights and beyond that unknown summits. At least here we see the humourous reversal of the formula “Bringing out the unknown” evolving to “bringing out the known”. Bingley is the known opportunity that is smaller than Darcy while Darcy is the Unknown. The Unknown is greater than the known here. In a small way the reversal is justified by the resentful temper of Darcy. Considering his Pride as the ignorant unknown, the formula gets its apparent justification. What matters to me is the enormous spiritual creativity of the value Consciousness Responsibility. Dr. Thorne who had no money, fought the case of behalf of Roger against his murdered brother and secured his release. The full trust Roger had in him was born by that incident. I do believe that borrowers can emerge out of their distress and I add that should he take this attitude towards himself, the debts will turn into assets. Initially Bennet was irresponsible, unconscious, full of inertia. He was not forced to act from outside. It is a self-existing value for its own sake. Gresham was sore over the embarrassment to his property. His wife pushed him to enter the Parliament three times and have a house in town. The debts were thus contracted. But the ‘lady’ blamed him for the hounds and the advice of the doctor. His son would not think of his loss, but the father felt for it. Never once did he voice a complaint against his erring wife. He owned it to his son bitterly. He felt all the responsibility for what his wife urged him to do. Apart from its being a value of the aristocracy, this value of not blaming another for one’s action is a characteristic attitude of the Englishman. Sri Aurobindo said that it is not an easy task to win the friendship and confidence of an Englishman, but once won it is there forever. Nehru prided himself as the last Englishman who ruled India. He could arrest Abdullah for treason but when he came to Delhi, housed him in his own house. To receive him at the airport he sent the Secretary-general of the Commonwealth C.S. Jha. His personal friendship with Dicky was a major reason for the Quick Smooth transfer of Power.
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