During the Second World War as the Japanese were almost near the borders of India, a certain Wingate organised a band of young officers who had themselves parachuted into the midst of enemy-held territory. This small band of Wingate Boys not only altered the course of the battle, but also created a new chapter in the art of warfare, whose full effects on the destiny of states and nations are only just becoming palpable.
Operating behind enemy lines is not a new concept or practice. What Wingate methodically and practically demonstrated was the possibility of developing a single individual into as total a war-machine as possible. The commando, as we may call him, thrown into a hostile area, had to become his own quarter-master, intelligence-officer, sentry, rifleman, judo-expert, doctor and sometimes political agent and so on. Cut off from dependence on all organisational support, he was called on to stretch himself and his faculties to the utmost in the service of his aims.
However suspect and unpalatable the commando and his techniques might be in the context of a particular background, the demonstration of the colossal effects to which a single, determined person can prime and raise himself and his body will be an eye-opener to warriors in more than one field of human endeavour.
Health and sanity is one such field, and I submit that there is enough need and scope for such commando action in the face of the mounting waves of ill-health and irrationality and insanity, that all the dykes and battlements and armaments of organised health and social services of the world seem unable to contain.
To meet the waves of irrationality and insanity within one's own body with all the resources at one's own command is the most potent method of action.
For a cultured Indian this concept should not be difficult to grasp. If the need to defend one's self is seriously, desperately felt, and the thirst for real personal autonomy is aroused, then the search for means and methods for bringing out the best from the rich resources of one's own body becomes automatic.
One must be a commando in the battle for personal autonomy, for Self-Government is the basis of Social Government: Svarajya is the basis for Samrajya.
Operating behind enemy lines is not a new concept or practice. What Wingate methodically and practically demonstrated was the possibility of developing a single individual into as total a war-machine as possible. The commando, as we may call him, thrown into a hostile area, had to become his own quarter-master, intelligence-officer, sentry, rifleman, judo-expert, doctor and sometimes political agent and so on. Cut off from dependence on all organisational support, he was called on to stretch himself and his faculties to the utmost in the service of his aims.
However suspect and unpalatable the commando and his techniques might be in the context of a particular background, the demonstration of the colossal effects to which a single, determined person can prime and raise himself and his body will be an eye-opener to warriors in more than one field of human endeavour.
Health and sanity is one such field, and I submit that there is enough need and scope for such commando action in the face of the mounting waves of ill-health and irrationality and insanity, that all the dykes and battlements and armaments of organised health and social services of the world seem unable to contain.
To meet the waves of irrationality and insanity within one's own body with all the resources at one's own command is the most potent method of action.
For a cultured Indian this concept should not be difficult to grasp. If the need to defend one's self is seriously, desperately felt, and the thirst for real personal autonomy is aroused, then the search for means and methods for bringing out the best from the rich resources of one's own body becomes automatic.
One must be a commando in the battle for personal autonomy, for Self-Government is the basis of Social Government: Svarajya is the basis for Samrajya.
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