Applying the Brain

APPLYING THE BRAIN that in those days he was a chain smoker (he has now given up smoking) and was in the habit of going on smoking late into the night, when he was studying for examinations. One night, at midnight, he had a great urge to smoke, but he had run out of matches, and even the heater was not working. His urge to smoke went on increasing, and his mind remained preoccupied with this problem for half an hour. Finally, he managed to think of a way to save it. His room was lit by a 100 watt bulb, and he thought that if he wrapped some light material around it, it would become very hot and start to burn. So he took an old, worn-out piece of cloth and did just that. Within five minutes the cloth had ignited. Mr. Kamal immediately lit his cigarette and began smoking. This is called ‘mental labour,’ as opposed to physical labour with which people are better acquainted. Of the two kinds of labour, the superior kind is mental labour. All the great achievements in this world have been brought about through mental labour. Physical labour involves only the wielding of the mattock and the hammer. But it is mental labour which runs offices, factories and modern scientific establishments. If the former can bring us one rupee, the latter can bring us a million.