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Life Is Action, Not Contemplation

1) The document discusses the relationship between contemplation and action, with many arguing that action is more important than just thinking. 2) It provides examples of great thinkers like Newton and Archimedes whose contemplation ultimately led to important discoveries and inventions through their actions. 3) However, it also acknowledges that without some contemplation, actions may be thoughtless and lead to trouble. The ideal is a balance and synthesis between thoughtful contemplation and meaningful action.

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Abhijit Jadhav
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6K views6 pages

Life Is Action, Not Contemplation

1) The document discusses the relationship between contemplation and action, with many arguing that action is more important than just thinking. 2) It provides examples of great thinkers like Newton and Archimedes whose contemplation ultimately led to important discoveries and inventions through their actions. 3) However, it also acknowledges that without some contemplation, actions may be thoughtless and lead to trouble. The ideal is a balance and synthesis between thoughtful contemplation and meaningful action.

Uploaded by

Abhijit Jadhav
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LIFE IS ACTION, NOT CONTEMPLATION

The end of man, said Carlyle long ago, is action and not thought, though it be of
the noblest. Is it not logical, after all, that what man knows or thinks to be right
should find expression in what he actually does? If we go on thinking and
contemplating about the rights and wrongs of a particular course of action and do
nothing practical, we might earn the reputation of being ivory-tower
philosophers, and that would be all. Total absorption with the thought processes,
and continual weighing in mind of the pros and cons of a concrete step or
manifestation would bring little gain; it would be very much like a vain search for
the truth in a vacuum. Such a search is characteristic of saints and sages; it would
ill-become the citizens of today who have to fulfill a host of duties and
responsibilities. In modern life, man lives by actions, not by ideas, though
thoughtless actions often prove dangerous and even disastrous. In the ultimate
analysis, mere contemplation signifies indolence, while activity indicates life and
speed, both of which ensure gains.

In the divine account-books, Mahatma Gandhi warned us, only our actions are
noted, not what we have read or what we have spoken or thought of. Man’s
actions are the best interpreters of his thoughts; nothing else can be a sure index.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, eminent thinker and also, by common consent, a man of
action, knew very well the near-fatal weakness of the Indian people. “Our chief
defect”, he said, “is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing
them.” Even though we are quite familiar with the theory of Karma, we are prone
to believe that our destiny is already ordained, and written in our “kismet”. There
are countless people in this country who just lie low, waiting for something to
happen and also waiting for someone to give them food and succor. They believe
that since they are also God’s creatures, the Almighty Himself would provide
them the various means of subsistence. But they get a rude shock when they
starve day after day and find that they have to fend for themselves, to do
whatever they can and leave the rest to God. There are also those who are so
indolent as to leave even the thinking to other people. Such people indulge in
even greater self-deception.

The author of the dictum “Life is action, not contemplation” was no less a person
than Goethe himself. He was known to be a great dreamer and thinker, but he
also realised that it is action alone that can lead to a nation’s salvation.
Apparently, he was thinking of contemplation in the narrow sense and action in
the broad sense. He was reproaching the dreamers and idlers who do nothing and
are a burden to society. In India we have the theory of action called the Karma
Yoga. This theory, however, does not exclude fruitful contemplation. It
disapproves of only such contemplation as leads nowhere, and merely promotes
lethargy and inaction.

Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, provided an excellent example of a thinker


who indulged constantly in the game of ideas and ideologies; he put across
certain beliefs and theories and he was convinced that ideas move and transform
the world. While great philosophers, after prolonged periods of meditation and
contemplation, impart ideas to mankind, those who put such ideas into action are
equally great men. It is also well to remember that some ideas may appear
fanciful and impracticable initially, but in course of time they lead to marvelous
inventions which relieve human misery and distress on a wide scale. There is the
classic example of Newton who gazed at the stars and the sky so often and so
persistently that people thought he was crazy and a drudge. But it was his endless
contemplation that gave to the world the theory of gravity and other invaluable
discoveries that changed the outlook of mankind and made it more scientific
minded.

No less significant have been the sudden flashes of thought in the minds of
geniuses that have led to concrete manifestation. Archimedes of Syracuse
discovered the principle of weight and displacement of water when he was lying
in his bath-tub. So excited was he on finding a solution to the complex problem
that he ran into the streets naked and shouting “Eureka” (I have found it!).
Similarly, India’s famous scientist Sir C.V. Raman is said to have made his greatest
invention when he was having rest on a sea-beach. His mind had been
preoccupied with a certain process and it was again a sudden thought, a flash of
lightning as it were that indicated the solution, much to the benefit of humanity.

Whenever anyone deplores the habit of endless thinking, without translating


most such thoughts into action, one is reminded of the classic example of Hamlet
who was constantly contemplating action but was so engrossed in his thoughts
that he lost several opportunities of taking concrete action, by way of revenge on
the wrong doer, and then he regretted his lethargy. When he did act, it was too
late and he actually lost his life. All this made Shakespeare’s Hamlet a great and
highly effective tragedy of an aggrieved hero who thought much but did little.

It is not contended that thinking is not necessary or a dispensable habit. In fact,


thoughtless actions often prove troublesome and may even lead to disaster. If we
act hastily and thoughtlessly, we generally have to repent at leisure. So, well-
thought-out actions are any day preferable to hasty deeds, but care has to be
taken that action is not unduly delayed on the pretence that we must carefully
think and consider the desirability of an action before taking it. Contemplation
and action are in effect inseparable in a normal and rational human being.
Besides, even for simple living there has to be high thinking. In his world-famous
play

“As You Like It”, Shakespeare wrote:

All the world is a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exists and their entrances;

The Acts being seven ages.

We have to also examine another aspect of this question—good acts and bad
acts, which are preceded in turn by good thoughts and evil thoughts. If human
thoughts are evil in nature and designed to harm or destroy others, the
consequent actions will also be wholly undesirable and uncalled for. Melancholy
thoughts and general pessimism do not lead to beneficial actions. It was the
generally pessimistic and gloomy outlook that prompted such sad thoughts in
Hamlet’s mind: “The earth seems to me a sterile promontory....this majestic roof
fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and
pestilent congregation of vapours.” In a fit of despair, Hamlet even described Man
as “the quintessence of dust”.

A jaundiced eye, it is said, can never see the brighter side of things. So people
who think constantly of the seamy side will always be sad and gloomy; what is
worse, they can never become men of action. Gloomy thoughts shut out all views
of joy and happiness in human life and also of all virtues of man. So, at times they
prompt men and women to kick the bucket to get rid of everything, in the totally
erroneous belief that they can find happiness in the next world. If they had acted,
they would have found relief, not only in creation but also in relieving boredom
and promoting happiness around them.

As to the question who deserves the greater credit for the progress of the
world—the thinkers or the men of action—it all depends upon what the thoughts
and actions were. But generally it would be fair to give the credit to both, and in
more or less equal measures. All earnest thinkers deserve veneration. It is true
that thoughts and contemplation show the way and open up vast possibilities for
the welfare of mankind, but unless there is concrete action, there can be no
additions to practical knowledge or to human achievement. Both thinkers and
actors have their due roles to play; the point is that unless there are concrete
actions, thinking processes serve little purpose. So Goethe’s dictum is no more
than a half-truth.

In sum, action has to be there in all walks of life but it cannot be divorced from
thought; it should rather flow from it as if in a logical sequence. The urge to action
and the desire to experience life through action influences the thoughts and
activity of all men who make a mark in life. Abstract thinking not followed by
concrete manifestation naturally proves barren. So the greatest satisfaction to
man comes through a happy and fruitful synthesis of thought and action.

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