Mawlana Jalaludin Rumi, great mystic and poet of Islam has migrated to the West. While the twist of the phrase is intended here, the meaning alluded to here is that Rumi is studied, appreciated better understood there.
Sun Tzu, the great theoretical and philosopher of war is studied in war colleges and academies of the West. Yoga whose provenance is from India is practiced more in the west. These three essentialized examples from the ‘East’ and their transmutation or migration to the West are suggestive as well as indicative: the pedestals and premises upon which the East defines itself have been lost in the maelstrom of modernization.
As the ‘East’ modernizes in a warped, zig zagged and convoluted and imitating way, the West is looking ‘eastward’ to connect with the more transcendental aspects of the self. In an ideal world, what should have happed is a two-way osmotic process where the East and the West would enter into a dialogue and craft a bold and beautiful world. But, nay, the direction is not two way; the East drools over the west(badly) while as the West seeks to learn and imbibe the best that the East had to offer. The two-way direction would have been the perfect closure in the post-colonial world to the depredations of western colonialism and imperialism in the not-so-distant past. What, the question is, does this tell us about the west and the east?
One prong of the answer is that the west is superior. But this would be trite and pedestrian. This needs qualification. The west is superior on grounds of technos and logos- technology and rationality- and their integration. The marriage of technology with reason not only gives the west a ‘first mover advantage’ but also allows it to create a template- social, cultural, political, economic and technological- that the rest of the world can only follow. But as the west surges ahead, it appears to realize that the techno-rational worldview is not enough. To regain psychical and emotional balance, some in the West are looking ‘Eastward’. It is here that Rumi, Sun Tzu, and Indian yoga come into play : many in the west are studying and imbibing these but most in the East are ignoring them. This is a fundamental paradox with multiple implications. One is that the ‘east’ is basically in transition and after a lag of time, it too will become like the West. And that in this period of transition, its bad mimicry of the West is just an interlude or a prelude to a fuller becoming like the West. This implies that the west is superior. But if the west is indeed superior in all domains of life, why are many sober westerners looking and delving into Eastern philosophical, spiritual traditions and practices?
While the West, at the risk of being tautological is actually and really superior in many cross-cutting domains- rational, technological, scientific, political and even perhaps social- there are many pathologies that define it: extreme and hyper individualism, social Darwinism, high divorce rates, residual racism, marital and the attendant social breakdown and social ruthlessness. But if ‘voting with feet’ is any answer to social, political and economic superiority, world immigrant flows are unidimensional: almost all immigrants and refugees head westward. Hardly any choose to live in the East.
The west then, despite its pathologies, appears to be superior. While the East meanders toward a West determined end point in a warped and convoluted way. This, for me, at a personal level is a very painful admission. My adult intellectual life has been predicated around studying the west- its political philosophy, political theory, economics and culture., organizations and so on. In the main I have found fault with the West. I do not mean to say all is well and great with the West. But considering an n number of themes and factors, and a baseline comparative analysis, it appears that the west scores above the East. Does this mean I am doomed to become the eternal ‘mimic man’ – an easterner who mimics the west ? No. Not at all. Pared to essence I am the quintessential Easterner and proud of that! I will read, study and appreciate the great Rumi and savor his works. But I can only do that by employing the idiom of Western rationality, understanding its limits and then seek to understand the world, and life through Rumi. More than anything else, this quest , in itself , telling!
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