________________
CIRCUMSTANCES AND CHANGE OF HEART
surrounded by the vast ocean. After one has entered the ocean, after one has established contact with the deep lying iceberg, one's ideas undergo a complete transformation.
87
Take for instance the idea that circumstances determine a man's character. In himself a man is nothing; he is merely a product of his circumstances and can only be described in terms of his background. Without the concept of the unconscious, man's slavery to circumstance would have been absolute. Thanks to the concept of the unconscious, the notion of circumstances alone determining everything loses its validity.
A man learns a great deal from circumstanes. Indeed his whole development is based upon experience. Akbar the Great built a palace. He called it "Shish Mahal". The palace was built in a forest with a view to making an experiment. About 5 to 10 pregnant women were kept there. They were instructed to observe rigorous silence, to abjure all verbal communication with their colleagues. It was a severe command, no one could indulge in speech. The children were born in due course. Not one of them could speak. One month elapsed, then a year, two years, three years, five years. No speech could be heard. Mere moans and murmurs! No language! No gestures! Even if they grew to be fifty, none of the children would speak in that wordless atmosphere, would die indeed without uttering a word.
Occasionally we hear of a child stolen by a wolf or some other animal. Human children brought up by and among wolves begin to behave like them. They go on all fours; their arms and hands acting as legs and feet. They run and cat as wolves do and speak the language of their foster-parents.
Without human society, without the human environment, no child can learn to speak or use the language, which virtually means that he cannot do any thinking. Deprived of thinking, he is incapable of refined conduct. No thinking, no morality, no change of heart, no possibility of transformation in behaviour. For the transformation of the individual and his daily conduct can take place only on the basis of thinking and language. If language were possible in the animal kingdom, the cow and the buffalo or a lion would in no way have lagged behind man. The oxen and the buffalos possess tremendous physical strength, far exceeding man's. But they do not command language, have little capacity for thought, hence are incapable of any further development. But a man can learn from experience, from his environment. He owns the gift of speech. A child living in the midst of human beings, sces his mother and other elders talking and makes an effort to speak. Although he cannot yet properly speak, he is cager to make sounds like his elders. His whole mind is in it. Until the larynx is fully developed, he
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
