Individual And The Social

Individual And The Social

'Serving the society' usually has the meaning of someone going out of their normal lives to do an act of service, such as being part of a chartiable or non-governmental effort. However, the 'social' seems to be built much more implicity into the individual, that often the society can be served right while leading just ones own normal life!

For one thing, if many individuals lead a truly happy, fulfilling 'normal' life, this should then build up into an overall happy society, because for the most part, problems of the society are due to disturbed individuals. For another, If many individuals give a bit more of their sensitivity to whatever they do, the life of the society will be that much more better. That is, if many people treat their work or whatever they do a little bit more than 'just work' or' chores to be done away with while waiting for the next holiday' then this has knock-on effect overall. Just for example, how much better it feels when that clerical worker behind the counter is willing to work with the spirit behind the rules than blindly by rules!

More than looking at this in a casual manner, actually it makes sense that faulty individuals cannot make up a healthy society. A lot of work towards a better world can begin right at home, it seems! From the perspective of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, colletive welfare can be helped by individual sadhana. Looking at this, the individual life derives a new meaning. A lot of modern world's problems are because individuals find their life meaningless. But if the world is part of an evolving effort, an evolutionary experiment of fun, individual life has a very important meaning in the sense of participating in this 'play'. If individuals realize that the key to establishing a happy world lies in their own individual discovery and manifestation of the joy of existence, that will be transformatory.

Malik Hyderabadi