What is Enlightenment? एनलाइटनमेंट क्या है?

Enlightenment means people coming out of a kind of self-made childhood. This “childhood” is when a person won’t use their own mind without help from someone else. It is self-made when the problem is not lack of brains but lack of courage and will. The motto is “Sapere Aude!” or “Have courage to use your own understanding!” Many people stay childish because of laziness and fear. It is easy to let a book think for me, a pastor act as my conscience, or a doctor choose my diet. Then I pay and do not think. Some “guardians” like this. They warn that walking alone is dangerous. But this danger is small. After a few falls, people learn to walk. Still, such warnings make many people timid, so they stop trying. For one person, leaving this state is hard. He has grown used to it. He was never allowed to try using his own mind. Rules and formulas can turn into chains. Even if he throws them off, his first free steps feel shaky. So only a few people free themselves by training their minds well. But a whole public can enlighten itself more easily if it has freedom. Even among strict guardians, a few will think for themselves and share the idea that each person has worth and a calling to think. Yet the public moves slowly. A revolution can throw out a tyrant, but it cannot quickly change a way of thinking. Old prejudices are often replaced by new ones. Real enlightenment needs only one thing: freedom, especially the freedom to use reason in public about all matters. Everywhere people say, “Do not argue!” Officers say, “Do not argue, drill!” Tax men say, “Do not argue, pay!” Pastors say, “Do not argue, believe!” One ruler says, “Argue as you like, but obey.” Which limits block enlightenment and which help it? Public use of reason must always be free. Only it can bring enlightenment to all. Private use of reason can be narrowly limited without stopping progress. “Public use” means what a person says as a scholar to the reading world. “Private use” means what a person does in a job or office. In some public business we need order. People must sometimes act as parts of a machine so the state can reach common goals. There, do not argue; obey. But the same person, as a scholar speaking to the world, may argue without harming his duty. An officer on duty must obey orders. As a scholar, he may write about errors in the service. A citizen must pay taxes. If he stirs trouble while refusing, he may be punished. But as a scholar he may publish thoughts on bad or unjust taxes. A pastor must teach his church’s symbol because he took that post. As a scholar, he is free—indeed called—to publish careful, well-meant thoughts about mistakes in that symbol and to suggest better church forms. If the symbol truly breaks the nature of religion, he must resign. Teaching as a church servant is a private use of reason. Speaking to the world in writing is a public use, which must be free. It is absurd to have spiritual guardians who are themselves childish. May a church assembly bind itself forever by oath to one fixed symbol to control all members and people? No. Any deal that aims to stop human enlightenment forever is void, even if kings, parliaments, or peace treaties approve it. One age may not tie the hands of the next. People must be free to gain knowledge, correct errors, and grow. At most, a short, provisional order may stand while all citizens—especially clergy as scholars—are free to write publicly about faults. Later, when insight spreads, the people may ask the crown to protect groups that adopt new church forms, without bothering others who keep the old. But no group may set up a faith that nobody may question in public for a lifetime. That would wrong future generations. A monarch may not impose what a people may not impose on itself. He should let people seek their spiritual good, so long as civil order holds, and stop anyone from blocking others. He lowers his own majesty by meddling. Are we in an enlightened age? No, but we are in an age of enlightenment. The path is opening. Obstacles are shrinking. A prince who gives full freedom in religion, without bragging about “tolerance,” is enlightened. Under him, pastors as scholars may publish even if they differ from the symbol, and others without office have still more freedom. Freedom does not harm public order. If rulers stop inventing tricks to cling to power, people will rise from barbarism. Only an enlightened ruler, unafraid of shadows and backed by a disciplined army for peace, can say, “Argue as much as you want, but obey.” Free thinking then grows, shapes the people’s mind, and even guides government to treat humans with dignity, as more than machines.