Tuesday, October 16, 2012

M.A.D – APOSTLES OF CHANGE


Today our Indian society is going through one of the most turbulent phases of evolution. It may be attributed to, rising aspirations; better education; media exposure; opportunities and self-confidence amongst the youth. This rise but natural and desirable but it’s the process of rise which is scary. All possible social ills of a sick society are manifesting in the most adversarial manner. This part could be blamed at system failure; failure to evolve from our mind-sets; understand the larger picture of unity rather than the dots of diversity and vote bank politics of divide and rule.
The society and individual evolve at three levels – physical; psycho-somatic and spiritual. To put it very simplistically, physical is what others see us in the physical form; psychosomatic is our control of mind, emotions, and spiritual is the capability to be at peace and state of bliss for most of times. They all are intertwined- physical being the outer and spiritual the innermost with mind being the middle one. The evolution is from outward to inward and any disturbance in any plane vibrates the complete system. It could also be explained with tendencies of saintliness; human and animals. The saintliness implies for others; animal implies self and clan and human implies self, clan and society to the extent it serves self-need of security and advancement. Everyone has a component of all three, depending on one’s state of evolution, these tendencies get exhibited- thus you witness a calm person becoming very violent and vice versa. This is the behaviour dictated by the dominating tendency at a point of time. A person who is generally selfish; short tempered; violent; greedy has a hire component of the first kind.
A human being must evolve materialistically and spirituality. In fact these two facets are akin to the wings of a bird- a weaker wing implies inability to fly or rise to the full potential. Thus the importance of evolution at all levels with core priority being the spiritual evolution.
We are hurling towards a materialistic or more towards animal trait society without maintaining the crucial balance. Thus today we are witnessing the fastest ever progress materialistically and perhaps the slowest ever at the spiritual level. The consequences are there for us all to see and witness the horror of violence and shameful behaviour on daily basis. This is across the board starting from top with people trying to defend the indefensible by stupid logic.
What is the way out of this quagmire? There is an urge amongst the new generation become wealthy with means being inconsequential, much against the teaching. This unfortunately is being followed by young leaders who are probably the youth icons – abuse/misuse of power to meet the greed needs being paramount; ways being inconsequential. Who does one blame?
The solution lies in balancing the materialist with spiritual; progressing with appropriate means. Our physical appearances are booming – Miss Worlds/Universe and Bollywood have the world eating out of our hands. We do have claim to fame of beauty with minds. However our performance at the competitive games based on physical prowess leaves much to be desired; however as society we do wonders in ill-treating the poor and the helpless. Shame by any standards! Female sex is performing better at the international arena then the men. Could this be an attributing factor in the inferiority complex amongst Indian males? Thus we have a long way to go towards individual excellence in physical prowess but that was never our forte.
Are we mentally fragile? Buckle under pressure, cannot take tough decision; keep waiting for consensus; weal leadership; cannot take a principled stand; more eager about others opinion; need certification of western world for good behaviour and to accept our glorious past; unwilling to rewrite our history and continue to follow the mutilated history handed over by rulers of centuries. Ideas and new thoughts which was our strength is missing. Our efforts towards the qualities of charity; empathy; kindness etc. seem to have disappeared. We are weak at the mental level too—the middle sphere of evolution to the ultimate.
Spiritual which we gifted to the world seems to be on the wane too. We do have a large number of spiritual gurus and preachers with questionable capabilities and exploiting the fear and innocence of human beings. The religious places seem to have become the symbols of greed, filth, turfs, controlling the folks through fear; hate and reprisals and making no efforts to eradicate creeping social ills or uniting the society by spreading spirituality.
We do have large number of enlightened Gurus amongst mass of frauds and reasonably high number of people leading a life bordering close to saintliness. There are numerous families in India where love flourishes and they are contended and happy people.
What can and Needs to be done
          What needs to be done? This question can be answered easily. Pick up the best of Indian spiritual values where evolution of individual body mind and spirit (dogmas; rituals; superstitions is out) to attain the highest aim of blissful living and beyond. Simultaneously pick up the best of modern science (remember our knowledge even today is far less than the ignorance where matters of mind and spirit are concerned). A suitable mix of the two which keeps evolving as our scientific knowledge keeps discovering answers to mysteries. Thus a way of life evolving by picking up the gems amongst the spiritual and scientific world is the way.
          What can be done? This is the difficult part to implement being trodden with challenges.
 Stage one is the systematic assault on superstitions and other barriers created by the guardians of religion. Caste; rituals; gender discrimination; violence; greed; self-serving tendencies; dowry; female foeticide; hygiene; merciless assault on nature ; hunger etc. need to be addressed. Laws cannot solve these issues; these are best addressed by the combined might of society with some leaders willing to face the wrath of zealots. This will ensure physical well being of the society. The basic needs of everyone are adequately addressed.
Next is the battle of the mind. This implies priority of thought. It’s the thought which ultimately becomes action. Righteous thoughts and action which address the well being of most with correct path is the way. If everyone from the child at home/school follows this we have made a major start. The child’s impression and tendencies come from environments he is exposed to; therefore it implies the parent and teachers have to walk the path of truth at home/school. The youth, thereafter following the same at the formative stage with physical and mind being correctly being addressed would be appropriate. Once the body and mind are working in harmony, blissful; stress free; cheerful life is the outcome.  The dots will become the mini revolutions to initiate major societal changes. People live happily and ensure everyone is happy. Fair play, charity, kindness and sharing become a norm of society. Society is at peace with itself and moving towards positive evolution.
Thereafter the most critical part being the spiritual, here the evolution is towards greater aspects. Creativity, fine arts, inventions and discoveries; harmony; peace, harmony with environments; animals and nature become part of the holistic development.
          It’s not that evil will vanish. Certainly no. It will just happen that people with positive values are dominating the society. This will happen when the momentum will pick up from individual families to groups and the forces of negativity will commence retreating.
The dots, we need to become and slowly it should become the tornado of change. We need to be part of it to make a difference in case we wish to leave a great place to our generations. This will ensure they enjoy Mother Nature and live life as they say king size.

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