Social Media – A Gnana Astra
Social Media is a new phenomenon that has come into existence in the last fifteen years.
The internet, the web has in many ways shrunk the world like never before. It has got the people together, a global family of netizens, a family of people who are well informed in the happenings both at the local level and the global level, a family of people who are knowledgeable. This is one Avatara of the traditional Indian way of expression, Vasudeva Kutumbhakam.
In India, traditionally, knowledge is something that is put in the open and shared freely and fearlessly among the knowledge seekers. While that was in the past, in the medieval times and the post medieval times knowledge became something that was exclusive and elusive.
It is with the coming of the post modern era and the information highway that knowledge has once again come back in the public domain. Even here knowledge was made available in formal formats. With the coming of the Social Media, the components of this knowledge have become available in digestible doses. This created knowledge for the netizens in digestible portions.
In India there is a well known saying ‘sange shakti kaliyuge’, meaning, in this Kaliyuga, it is those people, who are able to gather people around them, that gain the strength.
We are in the midst of Kaliyuga where so many unsavory happenings are happening all around us. The way to alert people of these, the way to bring people together on these issues cannot be left to the media alone. After all, it is for the people’s welfare and so has to engage people directly one on one. Social Media via the internet has come in handy here. For instance the social media allows one to reach many and at the same time express a point of view with all its associated layers of issues without any space constraints.
“Pen is mightier than the sword”. This is an old adage.
Wars have been fought with swords from time immemorial. For major as well as petty issues, countless lives, since the dawn of history have been lost in wars, in getting across one’s point of view. Yet, after all this, if we continue to say that, the pen is mightier than the sword, then the power of the word, the power of knowledge in moulding human minds is mightier indeed.
Gnana Astra
In warfare, we have the Astra and Shastra. The Shastra are hand held fighting equipments. The Astra are the ones which are released from the hand.
Social Media is a modern day astra, an astra of knowledge, a Gnana astra, where in, without hurting the other we get our point of view across to the family of seekers of this knowledge.
Knowledge Era
The world has gone through many succeeding era like the Industrialization era, transportation era, commercial era, communication era. We are now in the midst of an information era. It is here that the family of the knowledgeable, with their knowledge, will have a bigger say in moulding our thoughts, minds and ways.
With the word, the vak, being mightier by the day, with the world coming together for common good, with the knowledge era dawning on us, mediums such as the internet, present us with a whole field ahead in guiding people. A simple, beautiful, sustainable, open minded, interactive engagement, with a “questioning and responding” nature, is a responsible way forward, for the society as a whole.
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