There is a report in the BBC news magazine on the cost of raising children in the UK. I don't doubt that parents like me, in every part of the world, would agree that costs of raising our children have gone up significantly compared to what our parents spent on raising us.
My eyes popped out when I read this quote:
- "Technology is also playing its part - with nearly one fifth of parents of children aged 0-4 years having bought a television for their baby's bedroom, rising to 28% of parents of children aged 15-24."
कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च ||३-३९||
kaamaruupeNa kaunteya dushhpuureNaanalena cha .. 3\-39..
This constant enemy of the wise in the form of 'desire, ' which is difficult to be appeased, like fire
Here, Śrī Kṛṣṇa describes desire as a fire that consumes all the fuel thrown at it.
जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम् ||३-४३||
jahi shatruM mahAbAhO kAmarUpaM durAsadam || 3.43 ||
Slay, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of 'desire, ' no doubt hard indeed to conquer.
What hope do these babies have that they will be the slayers of this enemy called desire?
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
Let me start the comments ball rolling by attempting a relative look at a possible answer to your question:
ReplyDeleteThe same hope that you or any one of us has in 'combating' the desire in our lives. Let me indulge in a bit of quantitative allegory:
If we have A,B, C desires in our lives of 'i' intensity we use the 'x' factor comprising of Learning, guru's guidance, reasoning and will power (among others) to 'combat' it.
This, I suppose should not change over generations. If this view were to be rejected on grounds that one cannot quantify desire, the argument holds true even more so.
Would it be fair to say this 'combat' was easier in 500 years ago than it is now? Phenomenologically, that there is a variable called desire, is constant across generations (if you permit the intentional play on words). So, my experience constitutes of a certain type of desire and my next generation's experience constitutes a certain type of desire. For the former, the intensity might seem increased in the next gen but the for the latter, that IS the very nature of their desire.
Also, getting TV sets for babies is the PARENTS' desire which then ripples across in merely SHAPING the desire of their progeny without CAUSING/INCREASING it.
Thus, to reiterate, although the nature of desire 'evolves/progresses' as humans 'evolve/progress', the effort required and the process may not be much different than what it is for us or what it was for those before us.
@TheTrooper: Thanks for the input. You must be a PhD student - your comment is pretty complex, I had read it a few times. I won't reject your proposition because we can't quantify desire. That is irrelevant. Every factor you have indicated, the desires, the intensity of those desires and the x-factor ability to combat them, is unique for each individual.
ReplyDeleteYes, desire in individuals is a given (wouldn't call it a constant in the scientific sense e.g speed of light) just as death and taxes are meant to be.
The process of combating is not different, effort is necessarily different. The PARENT's desire for their infant, makes the child's future effort several measures harder.
It is I, Siddesh. Thank you for over-estimating my abilities/qualification :P
ReplyDeleteYes, of course I understand 'constant' in the scientific sense and I did mean it in the sense of a 'given' only. variable = constant was a (failed) play on words.
I was just trying to say, that this feeling that the effort will be harder, may be an attribution on our part keeping in mind the nature of 'desire' in OUR life/experience. For the child, without a measure of comparison, whatever is present is desire... and hence effort, though different, cannot necessarily be said to be harder. And it is not only generational...
What about I'm richer/poorer than you, so it is harder for me to combat desire? Or, qualitatively, my desire is of such and such nature and requires more intense effort than your desire.
experientially, 'combating' (if that is the word) desires requires the 'x' factor.. requires effort.. full stop. More/less... Harder/easier then do not come into the picture.
Also, on a side line.. isn't 'several measures harder' also a type of quantification? :P
Another way of looking at it can be that desire in its purest form is the aspiration to grow higher and higher (some will say the creation itself sprang from desire of One to be Multiple, as in 'Ekamev Bahushyami').
ReplyDeleteHow sad to let this psychic energy go down the drains, because the likes of FMCG industries need ongoing streams of consumers.
@mindspace. Interesting contrarian viewpoint. However, I see no danger that people will suddenly stop buying consumer goods.
ReplyDeleteIf you stretch a point, you can definitely consider all desire as rising from the infinite Maya that is the nature of the Divine Mother. If you do that, you're already a realized master. It is safe to say that it is simple stupidity that drives parents to buy TVs for their infants. Even pediatricians are now convinced that no infant below the age of two should watch ANY TV.