Heed the voice of conscience!

The incessant babble – of voices imploring one to act or not to act is often maddening and at times dangerous, if one indeed acts on them. This babble is often so overbearing that lesser mortals which  most of us are, find it difficult to set aside.

We Indians are great at advising others, while at the same time often guilty of inaction ourselves. And therefore we have all these cases of blatant corruption, loot and rapes in glaring public view. People watch and walk away, wishing that someone else would pick up the straw and yet later grumble about the sorry state of affairs in the society, a society that is rapidly going bereft of men with spine.

We look the other way when the powerful custodians have their hands in the till. We continue to look the other way even after our Prime Minister, the greatest that this nation has ever had, exhorts us to rise above the “Mera Kya Mujhe Kya” syndrome. The top guy realizes, yet we do not, that a thief is hurting us irrespective of the ownership of the cauldron he is busy emptying. It is our nation and also our railways after all.

Often in life one encounters situations when a bigger general good is tipped against a petty personal gain or loss and unfortunately the latter tips the scale. Personal discomfort or comfort takes overriding priority over the need to be on the path of righteousness and the general good. Giants become pygmies on such occasions.

The very fact that organization and nation building does not come cheap needs to be grouted firmly and straight, in the inner recesses of our mind. The thought that good shall always remain good and shall always be the right thing to do even at the pinnacle of “Kalyug” needs to settle firmly in the collective psyche of the nation. Will it ever be so I wonder, yet the thought that now we have a true leader at the helm gives solace.

While we are all separate bodies with different likes, tastes, preferences, attitudes and actions, the fact remains that at the sub-conscious level, we are all one having emerged from the one single root of energy in the universe. Our conscience is therefore our best guide at such moments in life when the voice of reason starts wavering in the face of petty personal gains or losses. Brutal suppression of the voice of conscience that invariably emerges whenever there is a subconscious battle between good and evil is definitely not in order. Gautam Buddha the great, advocated looking within as the best means to lead a life, yet in the land he spent most of his life in, we have moved away from our souls towards materialism that really does not matter in the short or the long run.

Spiritualism needs to be at the core of all our actions and activities if the glory of this great nation or the great organization is to be restored. 

The mayhem continues!

Two recent news items disturbed me. The first was regarding the apathy of the passers by towards road accident victims in Noida and the second was Nirbhaya Part II, the brutal rape of a 5 year old in Delhi. Perhaps Kalyug has now fully descended on this great land of Rama, Krishna, Rahim and Gandhi?

Value systems have apparently gone for a six. Perhaps they were never there in our hindu society and we merely maintained a pretense of the same for centuries togethor. Else how can one justify the series of brutal rapes in a society the scriptures of which harp on maintaining the dignity of the fair sex. How else can one justify a total lack of concern towards fellow humans as displayed by the passers by on the highway in which an injured girl and his father along with their dead son and mother were merely shrugged of as an unpleasent scenery by others.

The father of the nation lived his life for others, yet his sone and daughters, we the people of India live only for self with absolutely no concern even for fellow citizens in extreme distress. 

And the leaders of this nation will continue to parrot their old line of defending the juvenile. As someone recently and rightly said that a guy fit enough to molest and rape is also fit enough to undergo punishment. Will the pseudo leaders of this nation ever understand? Perhaps they will, the day the daughter of one of the high and mighty ones goes through an ordeal Nirbhaya or the five year old went through. Till then they shall continue to parrot what in their opinion will get them votes. Yet they are wrong, any politician who comes forward and sets things right even by taking harsh and unpopular measures like hanging or castrating rapist juveniles is bound to emerge as the ladla of the nation at the next hustings. 

Expecting the bureaucracy to pilot measures for a value based society will however continue to remain a mirage. Yesterday's display of a rabid conduct by a senior police officer while handling aggrieved protestors at the hospital where the five year old lay is perhaps in tune with what the bureaucracy has on offer for the masses they are recruited to serve. 

I never found reasons to be proud of being a hindu, but today I am ashamed to be one. Even the much maligned islamic countries are far superior in so far as comprehensive handling of the masses by the rulers is concerned. They dont brutalize women like in our country nor do they allow one who brutalizes to get away without facing the same level of brutality that he inflicted on others. Our record at handling terror is also dismal. An american would indeed be proud of the bold manner in which his government has handled the boston incident. Our actions and reactions stand out in stark contrast with even responsible leaders clamouring to save the lives of those who butchered their own countrymen or defiled sacred institutions. Sadly our judicial machinery with all its inherent merits also never believed in the dictum that justice delayed is justice denied. 

Yet the common man on the street and the high and mighty in the comfort of their luxurious homes know what is wrong. Each and every one of us knows what is wrong with the nation and uniformly expects and also waits for someone else to set it right. This has forever remained the biggest tragedy of this great land known as Bharatvarsh.