Choosing the serpent’s curriculum

Author of 200 plus titles [20 epics] and laureate of Charter of Morava and Seneca, Jernail S Anand, the world-renowned Indian author, in his Post-Truth Trilogy, treads the fields of grey wisdom, and challenges the moral complacency of our times. ‘Beyond the Boundaries of Thought Book II’ is a provocative collection of seventeen articles, in which Anand rejects academic detachment and wages an impassioned war against apostasy, the moral collapse of the postmodern age. The work is a fusion of philosophy, theology, cultural critique, and neo-mythology aimed at jolting a “surplus economy” civilisation back to ethical consciousness.

Anand insists that knowledge without wisdom is satanic in origin; innocence, not information, is mankind’s lost Eden. From “Evil, Crime and Violence” to “Your Sins Will Find You Out,” he traces a fall from divine harmony into a Marlovian overreach epitomized by AI, consumerism, and entertainment culture.

The ice-cube metaphor is quite striking: man’s fragile, melting existence caught between cosmic order and self-willed chaos. Technological advances are a “luxury raunch of Devil” where “knowledge is the domain of Satan”. For Anand, the tree of knowledge was never meant to be tasted; the reset button is absent now.

Anand writes with the fervour of a prophet-poet. His prose blends Vedic cadence, Biblical allusion, and Punjabi aphorism into a distinctive idiom. He indicts “neo-moralities” that normalize corruption as the new mores, or when he exposes entertainment’s invasion of politics as “hollow heroism”. The image of man as “unwelcome on earth,” like a ship battling the ocean, and the concept of “glass ceiling” of cosmic determinants show philosophical ambition. The book’s greatest value is diagnostic: it names the spiritual vacuum behind AI hype, parental overprotection, and the death of literature as it was considered a liability. His call to teach students “what not to do” is a corrective to credentialism.

Anand’s view of innocence makes sense when he says innocence does not mean ignorance. Adam and Eve lived in a state of innocence, not ignorance. He demonises technology but not without hope because, technology, he argues, is not dangerous; the real risk lies in man’s failure to live with this Jinn of Aladdin’s lamp. Stylistically, Anand appears to be homiletic, though sentences thunder; questions are Socratic and answers, apodictic. The work matters as a cultural document. In an age of data glut and moral relativism, Anand forces the unfashionable question: What if progress is a fall? His insistence that “wisdom makes him humble” while knowledge makes man a gangster is a necessary provocation.

Finally, ‘Beyond the Boundaries of Thought Book II’ is ethical theatre, and forms a single, sustained lament for a world that chose the serpent’s curriculum. Human moral imagination has to target transcendence and nobleness, observes Prasenjit Biswas in his Foreword. Section B throws light on Anand’s stand against apostasy, and on AI, as a fusion of sci-fi, technology and spirituality. He is not merely India’s voice – he is her echo across continents, believes Roman scholar Mauro Montachhiesi, and Lalit Mohan Sharma rightly calls him “large like Whitman, he contains continents”. Anand’s words, which embody Vedic wisdom, keep ringing in our ears long after the last page is over: “Man is not bad, nor evil intentioned. Only he is crazy, and he forgets his limits”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Askari Jaffer

Askari Jaffer[email protected]

Askari Jaffer, Features Editor, with a longstanding interest in writing a range of stories, has earned herself a place in the field of journalism. With strong values and courage acquired from her father, who served in the Indian Defence, she reflects in her writings. A strong desire to learn about the legal system, she has focused her writing on women's challenges. She writes about the women who became successful in various fields to inspire others. She takes an interest in education, health, lifestyle, fashion and entertainment too.

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