Reading Maketh a Full Man----

From time immemorial reading and writing were a significant part of man’s life. Hindu mythology divides man’s life into four different stages or ‘ashramas’.The first and the most essential being "Brahmacharya" or the Student Stage -- a period of formal education when a person gathers both spiritual and practical knowledge through reading literary works of his ‘gurus’. For the twenty first century man, the value of reading remains the same if not enhanced. Sir Francis Bacon’s famous quote, “ Reading maketh a full man..” still stands true by its inherent nature.

Though,not surprisingly, with the evolution of mankind the very essence of reading has transformed. If what you have read matters, then what you have read and have successfully applied, matters more. Sir Bacon himself explained in one of his essays, “studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.” Though much of it holds forth today the latter part stands missing and forms the basis for my writing here. If reason has the power ascribed to it by its advocates, it is hard to believe, that man, the wisest of all beings, have failed to apply their wisdom.

Assuming wisdom is a quality that one acquires over time through continuous reading, had we been able to apply even a pinch of our much hyped ‘wisdom’ there would be no corruption around. I would like to stress specifically upon this ill-effect because it has a pandemic impact. Man himself is to be blamed for this viscious circle of corruption he finds himself in. If we dig deep into ourselves and explore, we could find an answer to it. Through our life in school,college and even after that we continue to read. When we read we come across variety of subjects but each of them have something in common -- each one educates us. To comprehend the works of celebrated authors and retain their reasonings is a task more than equal to common intellects; and he is by no means to be accounted useless who has stored his mind with acquired knowledge. The question however remains that the aquired knowledge has to be utilized or applied and applied successfully.Therein lies our answer.It is a challenge that we humans have to take head on and make ourselves committed to apply the things we learn through our readings. No good writings preaches to be unethical, uncultured, negatively aggressive or unsocial. So when we happen to read all good pieces of work by reknowned authors why do we have to act antagonistic to what we inculcate within ourself through them. This is a rhetoric question whose answer is seamlessly obvious. So reading maketh a full man but application makes him ‘Complete’.

I have penned this writing with compassion and would like to reach every individual.Hope all my readers can feel the same pain and disagreement within their conscience as I feel when I put my pen down.