Mystic Mantra: New people, smart cities

These days if you travel around India, you will find a lot of excitement among people who live in what were known as second-grade cities until now. Their excitement is justified — their cities have been upgraded to “Smart Cities”. Although nobody knows what it means, they feel proud of being in the illustrious list of a smart city.

When and how does a city become smart? There are many definitions and all of them more or less amount to the same criteria. To present one description by the Bocconi University, Milan: “A city becomes smart when the human and social capital investments, the traditional (transport) and modern (information and communications technology) infrastructures, foster sustainable economic growth and a high-quality of life, through an efficient management of natural resources and a participatory governance.”

Every citizen feels the need to upgrade the quality of his/her outer life. Osho had envisioned these smart people long ago. It will be educating to see who is this new man according to Osho. “My vision of the new man is of a perfect man: Perfect in the sense that all his three dimensions are functioning without contradicting each other, complementing each other. The perfect man will create a perfect world. The perfect man will create a world of scientists, a world of poets and a world of meditators. My approach is that all these three centres should be functioning in every person. And these centres are in the individual, not in the society; hence, my focus is on the individual. If I can change the individual... the world will follow.”