धर्मराष्ट्र भारत का संदेश

उद्दीप्त प्रज्ञा से उद्भूत
विवेक से सतत परीक्षित
धर्म वही है

 
सत्यान्वेषक
सत्यानुरागी
सत्यानुयायी
संवेदना से पूर्ण
स्वतंत्र चेतना से युक्त
जीव-अजीव के प्रति श्रद्धावनत
धर्मप्राण वही है

 
नकारात्मकता चिह्नित करने को उद्यत
न्याय का पक्षधर
दुर्जनों के प्रतिकार को सन्नद्ध
जो सज्जनहितैषी है
धार्मिक वही है

अंधकार के विरूद्ध अभियान है धर्म
अंधत्व से त्राण है धर्म
जिसकी दृष्टि निर्दोष
मस्तिष्क सजग निष्कलुष
धर्ममार्ग यात्री वही है

 
धर्मानुरूप हों
आस्था के वचन
उपासना की पद्धतियाँ
भारत का संदेश यही है

 
नीरज कुमार झा

ज्ञान : कतिपय स्पष्टीकरण

ज्ञान तभी ज्ञान है, जब उसे धारण किया जाए; यह भंडारण हेतु मात्र वस्तु नहीं है। ज्ञान आचरण में परिलक्षित प्रवृत्तियाँ हैं; सम्प्रेषण की निपुणता ज्ञान-अज्ञान से निरपेक्ष एक कौशल है। ज्ञान संवेदना और सौंदर्यबोध है; यह प्रभुता, धन या यश की प्राप्ति की युक्ति नहीं है। ज्ञान पीड़ा, वंचना, निरर्थकता, नीरसता, अन्याय और संघर्षों के शमन हेतु विज्ञान का संधान है; यह अन्यीकरण की योजना के द्वारा शोषण, दोहन और परपीड़न का उपक्रम नहीं है। ज्ञान, सहानुभूति और स्वानुभूति की क्षमता है; नाटकीय प्रदर्शन या मंचन में दक्षता इसके इतर एक कला है।

नीरज कुमार झा

Technology: The Most Real and Effective Equaliser of Human Beings

If we read human history with care, one of the most powerful forces shaping equality among human beings has been technology. Travel through the past, and inequality appears harsher, more rigid, and more brutal.

The first point I want to make is this: a scientific approach, though developed over time, aligns more closely with human curiosity than mere believing; history, in many ways, reflects this. Technology, as the usable form of scientific knowledge and endeavour, is a human extension and perhaps the most powerful medium of human liberation. Liberation, after all, is about human beings becoming more human.

It is true that technology gives an edge to its discoverers and early users and often remains concentrated for a time. Yet it rarely stays confined. Over time, its usage spreads, adapts, and resists complete monopolisation.

Take mobile phones with all their embedded features. They are among the most powerful instruments of empowerment ever placed in the hands of ordinary people. One only needs to pause and reflect to see this clearly.

One may even think of democratic elections as a kind of social technology, structured methods that make the idea of democracy workable at scale.

The reason for writing this post is that perhaps the most significant technology to enter common use today is artificial intelligence. It has the potential to reduce certain forms of intellectual and creative inequality among human beings by lowering barriers that once seemed immovable. With the help of AI, one can develop ideas into coherent writing, access background without excessive effort, and attempt creative expression such as poetry, art, and more that earlier felt out of reach.

At present, AI may still hallucinate, but with a little discernment, that can be navigated. Even now, it offers valuable ideas and information that might otherwise remain inaccessible.

This could facilitate another surge in democratic participation and expression, though its direction will depend entirely on how it is used.

The key takeaway, however, is this: common people must value science and technology, adopt them with eagerness, and demand more of them. There must be a wider awareness that science is not external to human life but an essential part of being human, and it must be pursued with greater seriousness and energy. This is good not only for the individual, but also for the community, the nation, and humanity at large. At the same time, people must remain conscious of its flipside, and actively think, discuss, and debate how its risks and distortions can be mitigated.

Internationally, the present moment may appear dismal; in reality, it is exposing hidden patterns and long-standing imbalances. It may well be the darker phase that precedes a new dawn. In such a phase, humanity can overcome its imaginative lag and move towards a new world that technology has already begun to foreground.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Why do wars occur?

Why do wars occur?
Human beings bear the duty to seek an answer.

From their primitive life in jungles,
much has changed.
At every stage of evolution,
they were not what they were before.

Sages spoke of peace,
saints sacrificed themselves to bring sanity,
tomes of literature have long upheld
peace and harmony.

Yet wars return,
again and again.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands perish.
Countless others suffer unspeakable agony.
Nuclear blasts have seared entire cities.
Napalm has burned human beings alive.

And yet they are forgotten soon after they occur.
Even when war rages in its full fury,
we do not heed the screams of pain
or the cries of loss.
War games, sovereignty, and economics
remain our chief concerns.

We must ask why people turn aggressive,
what others do
when such designs are in the making.

We must not reduce our answer to reasons alone.
We must ask how we have evolved,
how we see.
what impresses us, and what we fail to see.
how we behave,
what we value, what we cherish.

Have we ever thought of our human self,
or is that the missing link we ignored all along?

Niraj Kumar Jha

Understanding an Unfolding Phenomenon

An unfolding phenomenon, if understood only through externalities such as the name it goes by, the label it carries, or how it is propagated, branded, marketed, supported, or opposed, fails to reveal its real import. Rather, it should be understood by how it actually unfolds, how it affects people within its fold and beyond, how others shape or respond to it in making what it is, the ecosystem in which it operates, and the motives and conduct of its office bearers and followers, both within their particular collective contexts and in their private capacities.

A label is a matter of choice, often serving mere identification; substance, by contrast, consists of real persons in action, processes, or things with tangible consequences. In the case of social phenomena, this substance is also dynamic, manifesting and operating differently across persons and contexts. Here, I am reminded of a doha by Kabir:
रंगी को नारंगी कहे, मूल तत्व को खोय।
चलती को गाड़ी कहे, देख कबीर रोय॥
(Rangi ko narangi kahe, mool tatva ko khoy; chalti ko gaadi kahe, dekh Kabira roy.)

This confusion persists in public discourse as well. In many cases, Indian social science scholarship complicates matters by superimposing ideologically loaded, foreign-origin terms, concepts, and categories onto Indian conditions. These are frequently ill-suited even for description, let alone analysis or theorisation; the use of the term religion for dharma, and concepts such as secularism, communalism, fascism, or the binaries of right and left, are stark examples.

It also demands a self-assessment of one’s own role, whether as a viewer, a participant, or an affected individual.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Earning Humanity

Humanity comes through training. A human being is born as a biological entity, but becoming human requires cultivation; humanity does not simply come to people; it has to be acquired. Humanity is an evolutionary achievement of the species, yet it remains external to individuals as mere biological beings. Every generation must therefore earn its humanity anew, and the human condition at any time depends greatly on the care and quality devoted to education.

People must be trained even in basic capacities: how to see, how to listen, and how to review and process what they gather through their senses. Without training, perception remains elusive, and judgment easily falls into error. The good of humanity rests on how well a society trains itself at any given time.

Humanity must allow its members to be human in a substantive sense. This requires arrangements for a pedagogy that trains people to say neti, neti to deconstruct what they experience and reconstruct it into an intelligible order for their imaginational training project.

This is the lesson of our times: the toxic fumes around us choke not only our nostrils but also our conscience.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Civilisations?

Barbarism could never truly be relegated to the past. It is a travesty of humankind’s evolution that the most barbaric practices have often been refined and dressed up as civilisation. One is left with the lingering suspicion that what we call civilisations are civilised only in name, the term itself masking enduring geographies of barbarity. Century after century, as human knowledge expanded, brutality too became more methodical and efficient.

The great wars of the twentieth century witnessed what was called “carpet bombing,” a cruel euphemism that concealed the agonising deaths of millions. Strangely, the very nations that speak of human rights, environmental protection, gender justice, and free trade now exult in human slaughter.

The conflicts of today are rarely battles between good and evil. In motives and deeds alike, greed, grievances, perverse hedonism, and supremacism are so entangled that truth is pushed out of nearly every sphere of human striving. Through acts of aggression and injustice, the present generation places humanity in grave danger and sows a legacy that will haunt generations to come.

Niraj Kumar Jha