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Finding themselves in the throes of a deep crisis, unprecedented in history, human beings look askance at the huge fund of knowledge they have accumulated, and they ask: ‘Why should we increase the frontiers of knowledge, when even the specialists seem to know less and less about more and more of the developments in their own disciplines? What is this knowledge for, when we have very little understanding of it? Why should we strive for more knowledge if we cannot use it for the good of humanity or check its misuse?�

Nowadays people are confused to see, on the one hand, the uncontrollable population explosion, alarming ecological disasters, and new devastating diseases; and on the other, the sophistication of genetic engineering, the development of enzymes for waste disposal, the attempt to create unassailable artificial intelligence, etc. On one side loom large the clouds of impending disaster, while on the other, there flies like a kite our irrepressible desire to create a new world order. Nevertheless, human beings, intoxicated by the exhilaration of the wonders of science and technology as well as by the gimmicks of management techniques and manipulative politics, stride on the surface of the earth like arrogant, haughty cocks. But there are a few level-headed persons who question where humanity is drifting. They wonder if man knows his destination.

Francis Bacon once said, ‘Knowledge itself is power.� But if one analyses the power and glory of knowledge � scientific or humanistic � in which we are basking, one may observe that this knowledge explosion seems to have struck people like splinters from a bomb. Very few people have a holistic view of these fragments of knowledge. Humanity today has a vast data bank but only a vague outline of knowledge � and still less, insight into the essentials. The more a person is busy expanding the frontiers of his knowledge, the less he endeavours to assimilate this knowledge to develop wisdom.
There is no doubt that knowledge is power, but for persons like Hitler knowledge is also a means to secure power. Power brokers adopt whatever knowledge is convenient that will help them advance. Love of power, like lust, is a strong force. This is also true of the power of knowledge. Sometimes a person increases his know1edge without knowing for sure what he is going to do with it. At first love for the power of knowledge may be a stimu1ant for pursuing further knowledge. But then it may turn into an intoxicant. An overdose may throw a person off his balance and hypnotize him, making him think that he is someone special and that whatever he says or does is correct. Moreover, circumstances often prompt people to follow such a person b1indly as a leader, and he in turn takes advantage of their trust to swell his own image as their saviour.
The lure of power often prompts people endowed with knowledge to misuse it. Unfortunately, society has not yet developed any machinery by which it can monitor the misuse of power, or even detect the hidden intention of a state or company which, for example, spends billions of dollars to decode the human genome. Thus the question remains � what should human beings do to ensure the beneficent use of the power of knowledge before they rush for that knowledge?

- Courtesy
Bulletin of Ramakrishna Mission
Institute of Culture, Sept, 2002