Education-Personality: Chapter 1

1. THE SCIENCE OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE……….

PHILOSOPHY OF THE SCTRUCTURE – SCIENCE OF FREEDOM

GOAL – HUMANBEING – SOCIETY – SYSTEM – PHILOSOPHY

Man is a social animal. Every human being will be in one or the other structure during various phases of his life. Living as isolated individuals and living collectively are two different matters. If many sticks were tied together they will become a powerful force. Isolated sticks could be broken. But a bundle of them could not. Leaves of grass will fly away with air. But when they are made into a rope they could as well become powerful and could tie an elephant. If individuals become collective they could become a powerful force. Human beings survive as part of many social structures and relations.

1. The Power of the Collective

Audience come out of theater in groups on to the street after the exhibition of a movie is over. Thousand of people walk on the streets of a City. When we see from a distance it looks like a mass rally. In fact all those individuals are walking separately from each other as individuals. But even when a hundred individuals take a procession on a street that could have influence as a force. Whereas even thousands of people walk as isolated individuals on the streets, that is no force at all. The reason for this is they are walking with different purposes and goals. Same is the case with the society, if individuals live with their own narrow selfish interests. The influence of such people will be zero as a force on the society. Only when people move forward in an organized way as a mass rally or group it would be a reckonable force. Wearing the same colour dress, or wearing headband - such a group will be powerful and will have its own identity. If hundreds of people unit for a goal they could defeat lakhs of isolated individuals. Crores of people who are disunited would amount to nothing before a few organized individuals.

2. United few could overpower disunited lakhs

Unity is strength. We are studying this since childhood. Disunited population may be defeated by the united population. In the history of India local people were defeated by Aryans, Muslims and Christians who came from outside because of their disunity. One of the reasons for this disunity is cast system.

3. One for all and all for one

Despite the fact that many people know this they loose the opportunity of becoming a powerful force by assuming that ‘I will live on my own and I have nothing to do with this world.’ Because of this the society looses. More than this that particular individual will also loose.

Though many people know the strength of the unity they stand back from working with the paradigm of one for all and all for one by deceiving themselves that they stand to gain joys of life by ignoring this fundamental truth. The conveniences, facility, force that accrue from a collective life are not possible to achieve as separate individual.

We pay less as fare in a bus because we collectively travel as a group of 50 or so in that bus. So is the case with a cinema theater. In this way facilities which require huge amounts of money are available to many because they share them with others.

4. Dream for a ideal world

The goal of every human being is creation of an ideal world wherein every body lives happily. The ideal world you dream should bestow each and every one with freedom, equality, independence, fraternity and opportunities. You should dream for such an ideal world. Above and over that you should take up practical action for that. Let us start imagining today itself, that how a society should be tomorrow. The moment you do that you will find change in your self.

Think positively. Live amongst the group and live for the group. Decide for yourself what your goals are and what your ideal world is. Write down on a peace of paper the goals of your life and the dream of your ideal world and paste it in a place that is visible to you in your bedroom. If possible make a drawing of your ideal world and keep it in your room.

5. Why the personal blossoming is not the same in the eastern and western countries?

Existence determines consciousness. The place of our birth determines our consciousness and culture. There is a close relationship between the personal blossoming and the society we are born in to. The personal blossoming will take place as a part of the social developments. In USA and Europe the family is disintegrating because of the prevailing individualism. So there the principles of personal blossoming will be in accordance with their society. In India we still have centuries old systems of caste and religion. Preponderance of agriculture, backward thinking and family system. That is why here personal blossoming means traveling through all these and winning the game of life and growing towards higher ideals.

The personal blossoming and blossoming as leader has to continue in accordance with the particular conditions and society in our country. Here the western perspectives won’t be sufficient.

6. Blossoming as a leader will follow personal blossoming

There is a close relationship between the personal blossoming and blossoming as a leader. Some people would say these concepts are synonymous with each other. That is true. The collective entity and collective leadership are similar. The collective blossoming of individuals is nothing but the collective blossoming of leadership. So personal blossoming and social leadership could not be separated. These are the two facets of the same coin. For this reason only this book was titled as: PERSONAL BLOSOMING AND SOCIAL LEADERSHIP.

7. Thinking in isolation causes damage

You are living for yourself. Winning in your life is your goal. Because we are living in a society we have to understand the society and its developments. We have to work together. But, those of us who think individualistically about success would feel lonely. They are afraid that they have nobody to fall back upon in case of need. They read books again on: How to grow in our life in order to overcome this? It looks like that these books are providing the self confidence that such an individual requires. But as all this is only atomized thinking only; that individual will again fall back into fears, withdrawnness, inferiority and lack of courage when a new problem arises. This way the personality development literature and theories will provide many individuals with courage on one side and also will make them feel fear, lack of courage and insecurity as a shadow of that on the other side.

All this is the consequences of the individualistic thinking. A human being could overcome fear, withdrawnness, lack of courage, insecurity and inferiority only when he starts thinking in terms of the society and the collective. Such individuals will grow together as a force. That is why there is the saying: “Death with a group is similar to a celebration.” Because of the individualistic thinking society is become impotent. More over with such thinking a person may be successful but he cannot stand as a force with courage. Because of that both the individual growth and social progress come to a grinding halt.

8. If we unite it is like a flood

Drops of water will make an ocean. If individuals unite with the same goal it becomes an invincible force. It becomes a movement. It becomes a mass rally. That will grow as a social force and would influence the society. Such things could not be done alone.

9. What happens if each had his own way alone?

It is impossible to imagine a condition where each individual had his own way and won’t care for the society a hoot. Human relations and bonds will decay. Selfishness and happiness alone would become the ultimate such a society loose its collective force and disintegrate. The September 11^th incident in USA where in the World Trade Center Buildings were destroyed made the people there undergo a shock. That incident led to reduce divorces. Rethinking began about the human relations. In India such incidents are happening every year. But the similar incident that happened in USA as a rarity surprised them all. They could not come out of the fear. This grotesque shock is because of the individualistic living style of the Americans.

10. Adversity teaches well

People of India are united into various groups such as caste, religion, movements and trade unions etc. They have a collective thinking style and in some rural areas joint families still exists. That is why despite many challenges and problems Indians are not afraid like Americans. Despite Naxalite problem, Kashmir Issue, Caste Issue, Punjab Issue, Assam issue, and regional disparities people of various regions still continue living there. The reason for this are the self confidence and courage gained through collective thinking.

11. How will be the mass movements?

It is beyond the imagination of anybody to understand the mass movements. The collective force will break out all of a sudden. In 1986 when Sri Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga was killed in Vijayawada people came out voluntarily and created destruction. About thousand buses were damaged. Thousands of shops were looted. In 2005 a small incident let to a big upset in France leading to the destruction of thousands of cars. During that situation the collective spirit in many people suddenly raised. Even the cowardly will be bold when they are in a group. For this reason only different organizations are formed for mobilizing people and for collective thinking.

12. What is the importance of an organization?

Organization is nothing but the coming together of the people for a common goal. But still an organization is more in sum than the individuals it is constituted of . If an organization has ten members each of them would gain the strength of the other ten and thus the organization becomes stronger by hundred because of synergies. Human beings form organizations for the purpose of survival and achieving goals. It helps them to work together.

13. Cooperation which facilitates give and take

In an organization where many people work together they enjoy mutual respect from each other. They uphold the duties of putting limitation on their own freedom and respecting the rights of others. An organization will have office bearers like the President, Secretary and the higher bodies like the Secretariat. The force of the people who hold those designations would carry more power than the power they wield as individuals. They will have a concentrated power of hundreds of people in them. For example a Prime Minister or a President of the Country like ours would represent the strength of hundred crore people.

14. The Power of the Concentrated Force

In the above way the power of those in the positions of office would be many times more than that of the members who constitute the organization. The force of such an organization could either be used positively or negatively. Hitler in Germany and Napoleon in France became dictators so also the case with the organizations where in the leaders became dictators commanding the followers. For this reason only there will be a constitution for any organization which will determine the rights and duties of the elected leaders and the members. What ever, might have been written in such a constitution the members of the organization will have the rights and say as only a person having one vote. Rest of the power will be concentrated in the hands of the leadership.

15. Civil Liberties – The Need for them

For the above reason only an organization’s character as either democracy or dictatorship will be determined by the freedom, independence and rights and it grants to the citizens. So in an organization, society and country the fundamental issue is the freedom of the individual and his independence.

16. What is the difference between individualism and collectivism?

The leadership of the upper echelons of an organization would exert authority arbitrarily on its member or public according to its whims and fancies on the members by preaching that the members should constrain their freedom and independence in accordance the needs of the organization. Because of this only the members of an organization or the masses in a country think in one particular way and the leadership thinks in a different way.

17. What is the difference between the Statists and the Democrats?

Those who stand for the individual freedom and independence would be called anti state and anti establishment. And those who stand on the side of the state or the organization are called as institutionalists or pro-state or pro-establishment.

18. The structure of an organization reflects institutionalism or else democratism.

The structure of an organization reflects institutionalism or else democoratism The Insitutionlist talk the issues pertain to the organization or the institution and its structure. That is why all the topics that discuss about the structure of the organization developed into the philosophy of the institutional structure. And all those topics which advocate freedom and independence within the limits of the organization itself developed into the science of freedom, those who are ion power try to enhance the authority. Where as the ordinary members or the people talk about their rights.

The above situation is like a tug of war. In such a war if members pulling in different direction are more in number the rope will break off. If the rope is stronger ultimately one side or the other will win.

19. The philosophy of the institution – and the philosophy of freedom are not separate.

The philosophy of the institution and the philosophy of freedom both of them discuss such forms of structure and the activities that follow through that, the importance of those activities as well as the limitations that were laid on the members. The Social vision means an area which discusses the happenings between these two sides and also the interactions that take place between the individuals and the human relations. So, the individual freedom, philosophy of freedom and philosophy of organizational structure become part of the social vision in a fundamental way. The admixture of these two is the middle way. Many countries in the world made their constitutions according to this middle way. This middle way could also be called the welfare attitude.

If we take a human being not as a separate individual but as an unalienable part of the group we should talk about individual goal, mission, objective, the structure of the organization and the structure of the society. So it is a must to discuss about the idle world on one side and social leadership along with personal blossoming on the other side at the same incidence.

20. Why this book?

An individual cannot exist isolated from the society. There is a great need for the socially oriented personality development literature today. As the study of social sciences had declined in the students this study of socially oriented personality development literature becomes more important. Personal blossoming does not mean individual development alone. It means social blossoming also. There is a lot of literature today in many languages, particularly in English on personal blossoming. They were written mainly as a part of psychology. In this book I have attempted to touch upon philosophy, sociology and other social sciences along with the dimension of psychology in personality development. I also presented to an extent and analysis about the other books.

Many readers of the personality development literature would have found some gap even after reading many personality development theories and techniques. In such theories and techniques there is only one dimension of the individual life; the other aspects like thinking the society, social progress as an individual, part of the collective and the citizen were ignored. As a result of this the problems like lack of courage, self confidence; inferiority and fear haunt an individual like shadow while living together in a group. So my desire is to provide solutions to that gap through recognizing the need for the collective effort along with personal blossoming.

The personality development literature is not studying the entire society and the social developments. It talks about floating in a flood of water with the help of a small stick that comes in that flood rather than encompassing the whole flood of society. In such a kind of individualistic thinking there is no place for how and when the rain created the flood and also how that small stick came along with that flood.

This thinking is like that of the seven blind men and the elephant. The person who holds the tail says the elephant is like a rope. The person who holds the legs says it is like a pillar. The person who holds the ears feels the elephant in a different way. Nobody could see the elephant in total. So is the case of the personal blossoming. It could be achieved only in a comprehensive way. The software industry has provided employment to lakhs of people. But, assuming that – because I have secured the job as a Computer Engineer – I am successful – is utterly wrong. Such an attitude which is mired in consumerism is only one dimensional.

Only when we understand how the software industry was born and what are the social and political forces and developments behind that and why the IT industry sees ups and downs whenever there is a change in the government, then only we can understand the whole picture. We don’t understand why a declaration of war on Iraq has averted the attentions of the world public and lakhs of people lost employment in the IT sector. We also could not understand what are the reasons for poverty and prosperity and link between them and the government policies as well as social developments.

The personality development writers and those who suggest techniques - personality building did not discuss these problems elaborately in English because these problems are specific to our country. Those who study this literature in English and do their work of writing books in Telugu left over the concrete problems of the Indian society and the personal blossoming in our context to the writers like us. The nature of the exploiting classes, the nature of the exploited classes’ patriotical ideology, the discrepancy between the rural and urban personality developments, caste dominance, lower class and the domination of money – all these things could be understood only when we study personality blossoming in the context of India.

21. What is meant by Social Philosophy?

Knowing about the human being and human relations will alone constitute social vision. The corner stone and the central pillar of society is the human being. Human society formed out of the relations between the human beings. The systems or the institutions formed so would be analyzed as a part of ‘social structure philosophy or systems philosophy’. The relations that form between the individual human being and the society and also the freedom in human relations are studies as a part of the ‘since of freedom.’

22. What is the importance of the Science of Freedom?

Many philosophers in our world have shown inclination towards the philosophy of freedom. The purpose of the human freedom is only to make the mankind progress towards higher levels and realize its creativity. The ultimate purpose of the society is the welfare of the human being. Science has advanced a lot. It is our duty to spread it to the entire humanity. It has to be taken to the people. This is an attempt to combine all the experiences that came about in this process with the contemporary knowledge of sciences and present the same before the people.

It is a must to rebuild and to redefine the relationship between the human being – social structures in a continuous way.

What is this life? What are freedom and independence? What is meant by humanism, love and sympathy? What is meant by the society? What are social duties? What is a system? What is the ultimate meaning of the human life? What is a class? What is caste? What is progress? What is a state? What is a family? What is a race? What is literature? What is culture? – It is a must to know all these.

23. What is the importance of the Philosophic Science of the system?

The philosophical science of the system deals with all kinds of structural forms, the relation between individual – institution, the relation between the citizen – state – administrative system. It also discusses about the relation between the party and the member, and also the relation between the community and the individual – and also what is existing of now and what is the ideal that has to be. It always tries to analyze what is existing of now and what is the ideal. When we discuss in support of the system and establishment that become a part of the structural philosophical science. When we discuss it as a part of human freedom and independence it becomes a part of the ‘science of freedom’ or the science of individual freedom, civil liberties and human rights.

24. There is a relation between the Science of personal blossoming – Science of system – Science of freedom.

There is a relation between the science of personal blossoming - science of system – science of freedom. The more the individual consciousness and human consciousness blossom; the more the new movements evolve over and above the structural forms, which ultimately take the form of the new social structures, thus democratizing those relations. The institutions and the systems that hamper the human consciousness curtail the human freedom and make him as a cog in the machine.

‘The philosophic science of system’ and ‘the philosophic science of individual freedom, civil liberties and independence’ are nothing but the two aspects of the same thing. They are two sides of a coin.

The philosophic science of system became a part and parcel of the state and the constitution. It can turn in to a stooge of those who are dominating the system. Though there is a freedom to make decisions to the individuals that freedom would be limited to a greater extent. In fact, in the name of the development of the organization, the welfare of the people, duties of the members, and the responsibilities of the member - the decisions made by the collective might be distorted according the whims and fancies of the dominant people.

For this reason only the rights that were provided by the structure of the system and the constitution would be available only in a limited way to the people. All the rest of the rights would be concentrated in the hands of the cabinet of ministers, legal system or the administrative system. People become only pawns in this process.

The philosophic science of the system and the philosophic science of freedom discuss about these as their subject matters. The analysis of the structure – structural forms, the relation between the collective – individual, and the relation between the particular – individual was done in the book ‘who am I – a backdrop of philosophic vision’.

25. Both are important

The philosophers like Jiddu Krishna Murthy, Jean-Paul Sartri and those who belongs to the schools of Dhyana Yoga believe in the individual freedom and deny the philosophic science of social structure and forms of systems. People like Karl Marx, Engeles, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Napoleon glorifies the philosophic science of the system and ignores the human freedom in the name of ‘historic limitations’ and social necessity. Society keeps on changing every movement. According to some people it cannot be defined. Some people define in terms of rich and poor. But some times rich become poor and poor become rich – nothing is permanent excepting change. Thus they say there is nothing like a structure in the society. Also they say freedom is not a philosophy, it is a part of the human nature.

26. Ideas, theories demand expansion and the institutional structure.

Ideas and theories demand expansion. As a part of this structural forms will be required. When old structures absorb new ideas, the new idea becomes as an appendix or addition to the old structure. When a new structure is formed; the form and the nature of the structure will be a new. Making that idea itself predominant the forms of practice continue.

People like Buddha, and those who are democrats recognize the philosophic science of system, structural forms of system and their functioning along with the individual freedom and independence. They practice what they say. In the new structures there might be relics of the old system.

Those who talk about the need for organizational structures in the name of unity amongst the people and collective life try to impose limitations of human freedom. They say that the freedom has to be within the limitations of the structure of the system. But in fact one confines himself to the structures of the system; it is impossible to develop new social structures. New structures and institutions are born continuously. It means the human kind is going forward in order to achieve a society of independence, freedom, equality and welfare through new structures and systems; this discarding the old structures and systems.

27. Collective force – Collective psychology are the best

When a number of people gather at a place a collective force is born. The process of thinking faster. This is called as mob psychology by the social psychologists. It is very important to study the social psychology. Here in I am not introducing social movements or forces that create social psychology. That is a different science. In a book called Propaganda written by a Russian the aspects of social psychology was discussed beautifully. The study of the science is very important for the officials in the administration, leaders of the social movements, politicians, police and those who create and lead the mass movements. This book doesn’t discuss about these aspects. They are the material for another book.

28. Solutions in the society are at least of three times.

i) Individual Solution – this cares about only psychology and personality development. And reveals individualized thinking and functioning. At the most it extends to the level of a family.

ii) Social Solution – it cares about social problems and deals at length about social, cultural, political and ideological movements which change the society. For example there should be promotions in a job is a solution. But promotions for whom is not an important issue here. Thinking that, I alone should get promotion is an individual solution.

iii) Combining individual solution with social solution – this is more comprehensive. It helps very well in the transformation of the society. The individualistic thinking would alone lead to individual mode of thinking and individual solutions. There is a lot of difference between individual mode of thinking and social mode of thinking.

In the individual mode of thinking the prevailing concepts are – luck, capacity, talent etc. If some one succeeds it is often said that luck favored him. The growth of an individual or a family might be real – but that is not a purely individual issue.

29. The Difference between Individual Mode of Thinking and Social Mode of Thinking

There is definitely a difference between the individual mode of thinking and social mode of thinking. This difference might be as large as the gap between the sky and earth. Individual mode of thinking assumes the social developments as if they are luck or the blessing of the god. Social mode of thinking is diametrically opposite to this. There is no place for the so called concepts of luck or else god in the social mode of thinking. There is no scope for the concepts of god and luck in the constitution or institutions. Such concepts survive only in the individual mode of thinking.

The salary of a Patwari was only Rs.30. How to grow up in life with such a meager salary? The Nuxalite movement flared up in 1967 and in 1969 the Sreekakulam caught fire. P.V.Narasimha Rao became the Chief Minister of the State after the separate Telangana Agitation. He brought out the legislation for land reforms under the impact of the Naxalite movement. The land lords manipulated the Patwaris and transferred their lands under benami names and have shown an empty hand. The Patwaris who co-operated in this received huge commissions and partnerships. So many of them could build beautiful houses. Could educate their children well. Later on another house followed by the marriages of their daughters. Now ten of them settled down in America ad American Citizens. This growth is not individual one.

An opportunity that emerged in the form of a social development was used for the selfish gains of the individual here. I am not going to discuss the matter of ethics here. I confine myself to concluding that the growth of those families was not because of individual capacity but because of historical developments.

30. Praying gods and ignoring scientists:

Some people ignore social developments and scientists and recite the mantra of gods and luck. Some people consider settling down in America after becoming a Computer Engineer as individual luck. The real matter is lakhs of people could become computer engineers, because computer was invented in the first instance. Many people became industrialists. Many billionaires emerged. The invention of Radio, TV, Printing Press and Electricity created opportunity for creating lakhs of engineers. Many got employment. Many became millionaires. Many became industrialists. Social structures proliferated. Institutions and government departments increased. Discovery of an engine created many drivers and conductors as well. All these were the Socio Historic Development brought about by Science. But in individual mode of thinking becoming an engineer or an employee were considered as luck. Where as in the social mode of thinking it is considered as smelling the emerging opportunities, taking challenges and improving ones capacities.

31. Who depend on luck?

Those with a dependent psychology rely on luck. But no philosopher would suggest us to depend on luck. Those who advocate that are not philosophers. Individual mode of thinking is at the root of such thinking. Realizing that creating luck or opportunities is within our hands is social personal blossoming. Modern science, technology, inventions and discoveries gave rise to millions of skilled personnel, industries and employment. These are all not created by any god. They were all the result of the human endeavor. Gods know only buffalos, goats, cows and horses. They don’t know trains, buses, cars, electricity, computers, telephones or else cell phones. Gods are the creation of primitive mind.

There are many other examples in our daily life. Some people do black marketing and earn a lot of money - and call it luck. Also they call it the blessing of god. Some people do real estate and garner a huge sum for a few yards and call it god’s blessing. But all these are the gains of the social situation and political conditions.

This is an attempt to make it possible to blossom in any field or institution or party or movement or union by providing it leadership and thus working for the progress of the society with efficiency and self confidence.