6.2. Spirituality and Individuality

Though today most people claim that they want everyone to be happy but what is happiness exactly? Is it to do good to others in form of donations or to have a charming personality with surrendered thoughts? Or to stand for oneself fearlessly, with a head held high; for one has one’s own thoughts, ideas and beliefs? If we notice keenly, being happy is becoming a sin in the world, as the whole concept of happiness has been understood wrong by the masses. Where seeking happiness for the self is considered as a selfish act and altruism as righteous. In the book ‘Fountainhead’ the author Ayn Rand does not consider altruism as a virtue but she emphasises that the only virtue one can do, is to give one’s own independent creation to the world, which has been created by one’s own quest and hard-work.

The author names people as ‘second handers’ who do not have thoughts of their own. They borrow their speech and actions from others too. She redefines ego as one’s new guide.

Like Jain philosophy, even she emphasises that one is answerable to oneself and to none other.

‘It's so difficult to stand on one’s own record. You can counterfeit ethicalness for a group of people. You can't fake it in your very own eyes. Your sense of self is the strictest judge. They keep running from it. They spend their lives running. It's simpler to give a couple of thousand to philanthropy and think oneself honourable than to put together dignity with respect to individual norms of individual accomplishment. It's easy to look for substitutes for skill -such simple substitutes: love, charm, graciousness, philanthropy. Be that as it may, there is not a viable alternative for skill.’^[1]

The author describes the second handers as,

‘They have no worry for certainties, thoughts, work. They're concerned uniquely with individuals. They don't ask: 'Is this valid?' They ask: 'Is this what others believe is valid?' Not to pass judgment, however to repeat. Not to do, yet to give impression of doing. Not creation, yet show. What might befall the world without the individuals who do, think, work, produce? Those are the egotists. You don't thoroughly consider another's mind and you don't work through another's hands. When you suspend personnel of free judgment, you suspend consciousness.’^[2]

In today’s religious format no one seems to be happy.

Rather they are filled with a never ending feeling of guilt because they have made realised deeply that they must not do this, they must not think of their own happiness, they must serve to the society by any means, be it monetary or physical service.

‘However, you ever hear a man disclosing to you that you should be joyous, that it's your normal right, that your first obligation is to yourself -that will be the man who's not after your spirit. That will be the man who has nothing to pick up from you.’^[3]

Perhaps the world needs newer torch-bearers, who teach them to live fearlessly.

We must prefer individuality over collectivism. Each must be satisfied with the self. Each must have each’s own acts, thoughts and feelings and not borrowed.

We all must be free to disagree and to find our own truth through our own experiences.

‘To act together. To think together. To feel together. To join together, to concur, to comply. To comply, to serve, to forfeit. Divide and vanquish first. But then—-unite and rule. We've found that one finally. We found the enchantment word -cooperation. The individual held as malevolent, the mass--as God.’^[4]

In the society usually those who stand alone, are looked down with an inferior eye, no one even tries to understand them or their point of view, whereas the people who make their own way are the people who invent newer ideas. Whether it is a community, a religion or a family, all want their children to speak what they think is right.

None motivates one to stand for the self.

‘To sell your spirit is the most effortless thing on the planet. That is the thing that everyone does each hour of his life.’^[5]

A new born child is filled with a clear heart, has innumerable queries in his mind, he sees and analyses everything with fresher eyes. But children are taught to surrender their thoughts to others’ thinking since the day they are born. As soon as they start to grow they are expected to speak others’ language. Rare are those in the society who are able to keep themselves intact till the end of their lives.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Rand Ayn. The Fountainhead (TF). New American Library, A Division of Penguin Group, USA. 1952. pp. 606

[2]:

Ibid. pp. 606

[3]:

Ibid. pp. 637

[4]:

Ibid. pp. 639

[5]:

Rand Ayn. The Fountainhead (TF). New American Library, A Division of Penguin Group, USA. 1952. pp. 577