Monday Morning Greetings #17 – Enternot
Dhanurdhara Swami April 25th, 2016
Enternot! What a nice play on the word internet by the poet Madan Oppenheimer. Everything has a utility. I say that for those who will shoot back after my post, “But you are using the internet to make this post!”
Disclaimer: I am not against its use, but rather its abuse, and we may even have to consider if its abuse outweighs its use.
For those of you that go back to the Sixties, the famous sociologist Marshal McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message”. He argued that the nature of the medium you use has a greater affect on you than the content it communicates. I think everyone has to thoughtfully weigh what one is getting out of the internet to determine whether the content they get outweighs the affect it has on one’s consciousness. I did.
I now use the internet for email, to check the news once a week, and occasionally google a piece of information, as I did for the spelling and refresher understanding of Marshal McLuhan. Others may require more for their service, but everyone should be very sincere and cautious about its use, especially serious spiritual aspirants.
For those who are serious spiritual aspirants we should especially be aware of the internet’s susceptibility to foster prajalpa (idle talk), one of the six main obstacles to the growth of bhakti. Prajalpa also includes frivolous news and politics (almost all news and politics). And the real danger of prajalpa is that it usually becomes parā-doṣānusandhana – finding faults with others, the general subject matter of idle talks. And there is nothing that distances oneself from awakening of the heart of divine love than sādhu-nindā, the propensity to carelessly criticize others, especially those committed on the spiritual path.
In regard to the internet I want to share with you two pieces on the subject matter. The first is Madan Oppenheimer’s poem Enternot, which serves as the title of this essay. The second is a piece I wrote ten years ago when my computer broke called “Windows to the Material World” – a play on the computer software “Windows” and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statement where he called the beautiful paintings on the wall at the foot of his bed “windows to the spiritual world“.
First Madan’s poem and then a link to my article “Windows to the Material World”.
Enternot
Dot communists everywhere
Invasion on a grand scale
Too much information too quick
Check your head when you check your email
They come disguised as friends and well-wishers
You’ve never had less time to think
This fruit of man’s progress looks good on the surface
But inside it’s toxic and stinks
If I give in
And I hope that I don’t
I’ll log on to forgiveme.com
But until then
You’ll find me on the run
From the fallout of dot-commie bombs
My essay: “Windows to the Material World”
I guess the message is simple:
Beware Of Computer.
Enter at Your Own Risk!