Nov 1, 02

 

Evolution of Organisation

 

 (by Karmayogi)

 

 

·         The Thesaurus collects words according to a grade of significance under two heads of synonyms and antonyms.  It was created by a medical doctor.

·         A book at its composition will reveal how concepts overlap and the struggle the compiler had to go through.

·         Classification and systematisation make science possible. It becomes difficult when concepts overlap. To continue to classify in spite of overlapping concepts requires a clarity which is of a higher order.

·         Our aim is to define the organisation agriculture has developed.

·         Organisation is a fixed sequence of acts or activities or even systems created to make social activities repeatedly possible administered by a central authority.

·         A man digging a hole is an act.

·         Every man digging holes in his backyard when the rain descends is an activity, as all respond to the same occurrence. It can be called acts instead of activity.

·         Men digging several holes in a wide field while the earth dug out is carried by other men to a fixed spot under the orders of a supervisor is a system.

·         Several such systems working simultaneously or in succession under a central authority so as to erect a building is ORGANISATION.

·         Organisation can be individual, social, local, state or wider. The character is the same, the spread varies.

·         Apart from individual acts, energy, direction, decision, instructions, purpose, authority, obedience, the LINKS between them go to make any organisation.

·         These organisations are not sprouting on their own as rain that falls from the clouds.

All are made by men, for a purpose, consciously.

·         Man's conscious intention itself is a mental organisation which we take for granted but we do not carry our research into it now.

·         Likewise the individual possesses many organisations. We shall not bother ourselves with them.  Let us confine ourselves to social organisations.

·         Our prime concern now is agriculture as an Organisation.

·         A social organisation is sustained by social energy.

·         Energy is released by a physical need or vital aspirations.

·         A physical need is met by the vital aspiration that releases the needed energy when it is organised into action.  The organisation is done by the mind.  The subconscious as well as the conscious does it.

·         Hunger is such a need.

·         What gave birth to agriculture? Is it hunger? Hunger existed before agriculture emerged. The mental knowledge that agriculture is possible is the incentive that releases the energy.  It comes from the observation that one seed produces many and MAN can imitate Nature.

·         For this knowledge of observation to mature into an act of mental organisation that can be translated into a physical act takes time.

·         In our consideration of agriculture as organisation we start with it as we find it, without going into the details of how this organisation is born. Those stages are

 

v      Observation of a seed growing into a plant.

v      Knowing that one seed multiplies into many.

v      Such individual observation should mature into a collective observation.

v      Observation changes into knowledge, i.e. man moves from senses to mind.

v      Note at each state appropriate energy is needed at the individual as well as collective levels.

v      The mind needs a long experience or previous similar experiences to translate a mental knowledge into a physical activity.  It is done by a descent of knowledge.  That is still another process

v      Each such observation, knowledge or descent should be collectivised.

v      Now the collectivity is convinced  of the possibility of cultivation.

v      The collective conception has emerged.

v      For the organisation to emerge, SOMEONE should conceive of an organisation of collective effort.

v      It has to issue out of the previous experience in hunting where the young ones pick up the game shot by the adult, joint chase of game etc.

v      Observation and experience of those appearances of collective effort at the level of two should grow in the mind generally.

v      The actual organisation should evolve NOT out of thinking and planning but out of doing.

v      To study research material to discover these occurrences is a scholarly  job.  When collected they are to be arranged.

v      That man can replicate or imitate what Nature is doing is not a mere mental thought as it involves

1)          observation of a natural occurrence

2)         the possibility of a human act

3)        that he can do what nature does.

v      This is more than a mental conception as mind conceives of what occurs before it.  This is a possibility. Conceiving of a possibility is a mental faculty.  An act of imitation is a conception of man's whole being, not only of his mind. (We have not been considering this aspect so far.)

v      This is a landmark. Hereafter commences the social experience of creating an organisation. (All these are our assumptions but we do not exactly know what happened.)

v      Whether a few men tried  individually or collectively, the possibility had become an actuality in the experience of the community.  From here we can move to the beginnings of actual agriculture operations that is compellingly a collective effort of  those to whom the above process is a mental experience. 

 

·         It may not be possible to trace all the links.

·         When he was somewhat settled in agriculture we do know that sowing, protecting,  and harvesting were essential operations even if we disregard ploughing, weeding, etc., assuming they were later improvements.

·         Sowing involves collecting seeds, maybe a collective work.

·         When he learnt to guard, the cultivation may be implied.

·         Harvesting needs the technique as well as cooperation from others.

·         When man had learnt all these activities and realised these values, whether he learnt all by himself or collectively, the compelling need for collective action arose. That is the exact moment of the birth of the idea of organisation. That action can lead to other actions based on the observation that acts are LINKED. This is a profound idea whether it is collectively born or individually conceived.

·         That is also a moment of the birth of the collective mind.

·         If research facts are available to confirm these landmarks, it will be great.

·         The collective mind conceiving of a chain of action, creating an organisation for it as a thought and making it a reality is evolution of human nomadic existence into agriculture settlement.

·         It was a great transition and its immediate social consequences were many and important.

·         That would be the first act of freedom from dependence on Nature.

·         Man becomes PRODUCTIVE -- a step in social evolution.

·         Organisation is BORN.

·         Now we have to look at its components, close the gap between nomadic life and life of settlement in terms of aspiration, energy, skill, results, links between men, communication – its tools, language, vital instincts forming and every seen and unseen aspect. It is difficult. One real help is from observing now our transition from thought to action whenever we grow.

 

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