The inherent goodness of humankind!

Despite setbacks, and there have been many, I refuse to dilute my belief in the inherent goodness of men at large. Evil, though it often lurks in the most unlikeliest of places has not yet succeeded in changing this belief despite tremendous environment inspired efforts.

I have always believed that men are inherently good and why not – after all, all of us are a part of the tremendous cosmic energy that we recognize as God. And if God is good, how can his constituents be bad or evil? What we generally witness are acts that are bad or evil and we often make the mistake of treating the act and the actor as one. Difficult it is to differentiate between the two, yet we have to, for therein lies the essence of life.

And therefore those who form their own opinions based on the true understanding (if that is indeed possible) of the infinite cosmic energy, and are not swayed by the opinions of masses are the ones who live life to the fullest, and that is how it is designed to be.

The theory of Karma sounds good and often takes a lot of burden off our heads for our acts of misdemeanor, yet I fail to be firmly convinced.  After all the infinite cosmos is not meant to be like humans – holding us responsible for each and every single act of ours – for by its supposed nature and constitution it has to be forgiving and not revengeful. And there is also no supercomputer at work, logging down each and every single act of over six billion souls and then paying them back in the same coin in this life or thereafter.

Yet goodness by itself is a reward that should enthuse those who indulge in evil to take recourse to course correction. Acts that are good and humane in nature impart a deep sense of satisfaction that is often divine in nature. Yet the intent is what really matters, good acts committed with the intention of appearing good in the eyes of others may not yield desirable results.

And that leads me to think whether there is a level above mere acts of goodness or evil. And if there is, it has to be genuineness and that again would come out of a deep and pure thought process that too over a period of time. Being genuine is maybe what really matters, to and in this world of ours and the great cosmos.

Retribution at the holy Tihar

The death of Ram Singh within the precincts of the holy Tihar was perhaps the only death in recent times that brought smiles on the faces of many. Vicious it may sound but the fact remains that this news gladdened many hearts for the act of his suicide was perhaps the best retribution for the heinous crime that this animal had perpetrated. Maybe God intervened for want of a swift and just punishment for this heinous crime against the human race.

Mad dogs should be killed at the earliest and what better than the mad dog killing himself and in the process making it easy for the overburdened machinery. Perhaps ours must be the only country in the world where even an act of killing a top honcho or an attack on the parliament itself takes decades to be taken to the logical conclusion of punishing the perpetrator. Dispensation of justice is also perhaps as deeply tied in knots as development and education are and rightly so, we all hail from same societal structure, howsoever good or bad it may be.

The Nirbhaya case has displayed the extent to which a human being can be brutal, merely for satisfying his basic instinct. The extent of brutality perpetrated shocked not only the common man but also hard core criminals who throng the holy Tihar and regarded Ram Singh and his gang as the ultimate scum amongst scums. Newspaper reports at times highlighted the vicious treatment that the men of Tihar inflicted on all those who defiled humanity by the rape and brutal murder of Nirbhaya. To that extent the men of Tihar gained the appreciation of many of us.

The affected party in almost all instances has a different and perhaps an appropriate viewpoint, yet the rest of us impose our, the society’s viewpoint even if it may be contrary had we been directly affected. During an earlier tenure as the head honcho of a major sarkari setup, I had as always cracked down on sexual harassment within office premises and suspended and transferred the male in many cases without going through the motions of an enquiry. On being questioned by a union leader during a staff interaction, I agreed to enquiries in future provided the leader would also seek an enquiry and not demand direct action even if his daughter or wife was sexually harassed in the office she worked. He and all other armchair critics were thus suitably silenced.

I am also unable to appreciate the clamour of many arm chair enthusiasts for a humanitarian handling of the criminals who displayed animal instincts while violating the girl and worse still showed no remorse thereafter. That this is distinctly a behaviour definitely not worthy of mercy or condonation is not in doubt, yet statements seeking the protection of the juvenile interalia seeking legal rights to rape and murder by adolescents keep on doing the rounds amongst the intelligentsia. Such pseudo protectionism encourages criminal tendencies, a familiar scenario in the capital city that has juvenile act in force.

Why cannot we be like Singapore or Dubai, nations where criminals are treated like one and crime therefore makes extremely rare appearances. That sheer deterrence is indeed the remedy for such crimes is a fact that needs appreciation even amongst that section of the society that remains fairly insulated from all that affects the common citizens of the nation. It is also beyond doubt that all those who are in favour of a treating the juvenile with kids gloves and abolition of death penalty for even heinous crimes, would like a chameleon change their stance the day someone from their immediate family and friends goes through even a hundredth of what Nirbhaya experienced. 

Soft pedalling on issues and softer still on deliverance and economic growth has led our nation to such a pass that even miniscule nations cock their thumbs at us more often than acceptable, and the recent snub is a case in point. Gandhi, the father of the nation wanted to build an India based on the foundations of truth, value systems and character, yet nation building has perhaps remained the least of our concerns. 

Today morning enroute to my office I read a graffiti on an auto that said “Please don’t honk. The nation is sleeping”. How true, yet how sad!

Excess of justice is injustice

Being just is good, but an overdose of justice can also be unacceptable at times.
One has to be practical. One has to respect sensibilities. One has to respect the fact that to err is human, but to forgive is divine.
Yes, thre are many instances of officials committing grave irregularities in official as well as personal lives. It is also true that often the punishment awarded in such cases, with exceptions ofcourse, falls far short of the requirement as per the needs of justice. The punishment awarded in such cases is generally less than warranted.
Yes, it is true that corruption cannot and should not be tolerated. But in a society where almost every politician and every bureaucrat is corruption personified, is it really just to expect high moral standards from mere mortals. The tremendous and also rapid degradation in moral values and standards of integrity in the people of this nation in general and sarkari mulazims in particular does not even shock people anymore. Corruption is considered an essential and tolerable part of the system, by all and sundry except some individuals like me who are tolerated rather than accepted by the system.
How long will this go on. How long will people continue to expect sympathy for punishments despite committing crimes that far outweigh the punishment awarded. Being soft shall not help, despite the price that one may have to pay at times. And being a soft state also does not help either. Something that we indians should have learnt the hard way, and if we have not learnt so far despite travelling on a long, winding and treacherous road, perhaps God also cannot save us!

Vegetarianism - Wrong interpretations

I have always been an absolutely pure vegetarian, one who does not partake of even cakes or cookies or anything that may have even a trace of eggs. This streak of vegetarianism is not because of any spiritual or religious thought process, but because of a personal dislike for any foodstuff other than the vegetarian variety. But contrary to the “Ambumani Ramdoss” thought process, this streak has not led to my imposing vegetarianism on my wife and daughters, instead my daughters have always been encouraged to partake of non vegetarian food so that they do not face any dietary constraints especially while travelling.

I remember isolated incidents from my childhood of my mother puking after seeing raw flesh. I also feel the same way when faced with flesh, raw or cooked, but not as violently as my mother. The feeling is borne out of the inability to accept the fact that a living creature can be just a meal for another living creature. But that is the way the world made by God is, for almost all creatures including mankind. My inability therefore appears irrational and illogical, yet I would remain a grass eater, as they say, in this life at-least.
Being vegetarian, by no stretch of imagination makes one closer to the gods than the flesh eaters? Sadly our Indian society, especially the Hindu majority lays a very high premium on vegetarianism despite the majority being non vegetarians. On a similar vein one is tempted to add that even most of the boozers regard a tee-toteller with reverence and most of the smokers respect a non-smoker as if not partaking of alcohol or tobacco brings one closer to God and hence makes one a godly person. Unfortunately right from the cradle to the ashes, hardly any emphasis is laid on the necessity of being a good human being, with the stress being on inconsequential things like smoking, vegetarianism and alcoholism. How would then the almighty be viewing such a scenario? Would he be judging mankind on the basis of who eats flesh or not or who partakes of alcoholic drinks and tobacco or not? The answer is a definite “No”. Flesh, alcohol and tobacco are personal choices that may be good or bad for the health, but have no bearing whatsoever on the goodness or otherwise of the human beings. What is actually bad is being a bad human being and what is actually good is being a good human being. Fortunately in our society, we don’t actually have to become a good human being to be regarded as “good”, there are other peripheral factors that do the job.

Being Reborn

I often wonder what shape I shall take in my next life. Whether one is reborn as a pig, dog, cat, snake, spider, mosquito, fly, monkey or a cow is difficult to predict. However seeing the large number, eighty four millions as per hindu mythology, of life species on planet earth, and also considering the law of probabilities, it appears highly unlikely that I shall again be born as a member of the human race and this is a frightening prospect. But does it really matter. After all, all species are a part of the almighty, who being what he is, cannot and also shall not differentiate between his own creations. But his righteousness would definitely force him to favor some of his own, on the basis of “karma”. And this thought alone propels me to be good, both in acts and words, even though with a selfish motive of again being born as a member of the human race.

Sycophant Prayers

Why do people pray? The mighty and the weak, the corrupt and the honest, the powerful and the powerless, the rich and the poor, almost all of them say their prayers regularly and I wonder why? It is not that I am an atheist, I firmly believe in God and also in the philosophy that all that is happening on planet earth is his bidding.

I witness bureaucrats cringing before senior bureaucrats, senior bureaucrats cringing before ministers and politicians, the poor before the rich, the rich before the men in power and the super rich before the super powers. And all this cringing and placating is almost in the form of a prayer, though not from the heart. It is for gains, personal in nature like a favor, position, materialistic gains or power. Basically we are all trying to curry favors by praying to others.

Carrying the same argument forward, I often wonder, whether our daily prayers to the almighty also fall in the same category – an attempt to please by cringing and placating. I always believed that what the almighty expects from us is compassion, love for the life species and to be a genuine human being. If God could be moved by the cringing and placating in the form of a prayer and then if he bestows what is desired by the applicant, then he cannot be God; he has to be a human being. If he is really God after all, then all the cringing and placating in the form of prayer or other rituals would not have any effect and blessings would be bestowed by him on only one criterion, the “Karma” of the applicant.

I have since stopped praying, except for a weekly darshan of Hanumanji and now the only attempt and desire is to be a good human being.