Page 18 - Seniorstoday November 2022 Issue
P. 18
Come to think of it, Kailash Satyarthi, play or a craving to be someone that one
the Nobel Prize awardee, may be present cannot be. Let us face it, all of us cannot be
and have 100 K followers, most of whom a Rama or a Krishna or an Alexander or a
will be in the NGO space wanting to learn Guru Nanak or a Gandhi or an Einstein or
from him or be inspired or hold it, even a Ramanujan.
wannabes. At the other end, you may have Taking a leaf out of ancient Vedantic
Abhijit Banerjee/Esther Duflo combo of texts, Vishwamitra, the renowned king
Economics Nobel Prize winners who are turned rishi, had to morph and transform
not present on social media, but are and thought and behaviour a zillion times
remain as relevant as ever in the field of before he could become a Brahmarishi (
economics. Kailash Satyarthi would be the highest class of rishis or sages who
no less relevant if he abstains from social have understood the meaning of Brahman
media nor will Banerjee/Duflo be more and have attained enlightenment ) . His
relevant by being present on social media. entire life was spent on evangelising and
Their importance or relevance is social profiling ( branding in today’s terms
media neutral. At the same time, there ) himself and either trying to beat or
are cases like Ramanujan, the renowned be better than the much revered Sage
mathematician, who was unassuming and Vasishta, who was instrumental in
understated while discovering daunting making him renounce his kingdom and
mathematical equations and theorems, tread the spiritual path in the first place.
but did not get due credit for his brilliance Vishwamitra finally made the grade and
during his lifetime and was discovered extolled in the Vedas and other scriptures
only years after his premature death. and earned an exalted position amongst
But then, there was no internet or social the cosmic ‘saptarishi’ ( big dipper or
media in those times doing the rounds ursa major in astronomical terms ) along
of inveterate dissemination of news or with Vasishta. On a related good-to-
newsmakers. know basis, Vishwamitra founded the
Some deeper dive into the social media Gayatri mantra, one of the most powerful,
presence and activities would possibly highly revered and chanted mantras in
bring alive the mimetic theory of desire, Hinduism.
derived from the philosophical concept of Personal branding is good, but self-
mimesis ( meaning mimicry or imitation ) serving. If it helps you meet your ordinate
, propounded by the French historian and and superordinate purpose in life, by all
philosopher Rene Girard. The theory is means go for it hammer and tongs. But
essentially about people imitating models be circumspect in descriptors or posts
who endow objects with value. Humans, for there is a thin line between personal
generally do not know what to desire. As branding and bragging personified. As
a result, we look up to others to make up does any brand, we also have a limited
our minds. The likes or comments on any shelf life of relevance and it is best to get
post or for that matter following someone off personal branding before that expiry
or the other, in a way, is reflective of this date. The world will continue to be a
theory. On a different dimension, this stage no matter the players, no matter the
could well mean that there is an envy at audience.
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