Our instinct to be drawn to light is about as old as the dawn of mankind. Our ancestors, and their ancestors, were all beings who revered the pure energy that is light, and feared anything that was devoid of it. The reason for that is while there is life and warmth in light, there is cold and death in darkness. It is this fear of darkness that made our ancestors revere and hone fire, after they di
scovered it, and it is this fear that has manifested itself today into the artificial illumination that bathes our homes in light while the world outside is cloaked by a curtain of darkness. However, there is a form of darkness that is perhaps the hardest to dispel; the darkness of the mind. Ignorance, prejudice, callousness and so many other evils thrive in the dark corners of one’s mind. It has controlled entire generations of men and has made them unleash an era of darkness among other beings, an era of ignorance, an era of deception, an era of oblivion. Aratrika, the dispeller of darkness, ignorance and every evil that festers within a shrouded mind. Aratrika, the beacon of knowledge. It is knowledge and thirst for knowing more that broke through the cloak of ignorance and darkness then, and it is this knowledge that keeps the darkness of our minds in check now. In our revered field of Architecture, knowledge is vital, and there isn’t another way about it.For a field that is vital to humanity itself, it is imperative that we not let darkness pollute and create chaos. It is essential that we architects and to be architects let our minds bathe in the light of knowledge and cleanse out every nook and cranny within our minds to safeguard our ancient and noble profession .In today’s world, however, light is no longer the pronounced victor, for darkness has manifested itself into the minds of men who see their pride before everything else, who indulge their greed and see nothing else. After years of successfully progressing towards a world of light, illuminated by knowledge, we are now regressing back into a world shrouded by ignorance because of such men. Our field has been affected as well. The scale at which architecture has evolved in the past few years, is enormous. But one must ask, at what cost? We now see members in the world of architecture who have all but forgotten everything in their haste for fame and wealth. The greed for wealth and name but not for knowledge which is growing in this profession , will stop at nothing. Their minds are completely controlled by darkness, and this disease is only spreading, and spreading fast. It is because of this growing darkness and the fear of a world shrouded in ignorance and oblivion that we now need to revoke and rekindle the flames of enlightenment, to create a blaze so bright that the world is bathed in an everlasting light. We need a dispeller of darkness so strong that for centuries to come the tendrils of darkness may never set foot in the realm of light. We need Aratrika, the dispeller of darkness.
