Peace and harmony
In response to Joe Haskins comments, posted under the article Man Made God I had stated that any action based on idea, belief or an ideology creates division. Thought cultivates prejudice, opinion and judgment and these create division. Joe feels that thought also has been used for the betterment of society. Leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu produced results that were beneficial to the world as a whole.
To better understand the role of leaders in solving human problems we need to carefully look at the total human situation. Generally we are accustomed to look at things partially through the medium of our beliefs, ideas and concepts that we have already formed. This way our perception gets distorted. The best thing would be to imagine that you are coming from a different planet. You have the power of observation but you are not a participant in the human drama. This way your attention is focused on facts only. In order to keep the perception objective you should not form any opinion about the facts.
It is a fact that human beings are endowed with the ability to think. Thinking ability has helped man to make tremendous progress in the field of science, technology and other areas. But thinking also is responsible for creating numerous problems. No one can deny this fact. It has been known to man that selfishness and self-centeredness are at the root of human conflict, misery and sorrow. Yet human beings remain in the same predicament as they were centuries ago. Basically, fundamentally, psychologically their thought process remains the same. The mechanism of thought by which they create, maintain and perpetuate differences remains the same. Although it is evident beyond a shadow of doubt that the process identification with ideas creates divisions on the basis of religion and nationality, yet attachment to beliefs remains at the core of their thinking process.
Love birds
People continue to operate on the basis of violence, greed and jealousy because of strong psychological reasons. What actually takes place in the mind has lot of energy and momentum behind it. Human beings talk of love, but their minds are not free from hate and prejudice. They proclaim that all human beings are born equal but each one feels to be more than equal. They know that hate is the root of violence and that violence perpetuates fear and antagonism, yet they continue to meet hate with hate, anger with anger and violence with violence. All over the world this process of thinking has created a chain of cause and effect. Cause produces effect and the effect becomes the cause of another effect. The roots of disorder in the world lie in the state of the human mind.
What do humans do when problems arise? They use the same thinking ability to solve the problems. Unfortunately when they try to solve the problems they do not look at the mechanism of thought that creates the problems in the first place. Even if they intellectually grasp the source of the problem they either ignore it, avoid it or feel totally helpless about it. They rely on some outside authority who they think can take care of the mess. Leaders, like other human beings, have a framework of mind within which they operate. They too lack clarity of perception about the intricacy and the complexity of the problem.
Leaders are intellectually brilliant and impressive speakers. They are very good organizers. Majority of these leaders exploit the situation for their own self-interest in order to gain more power, position and prestige. But there are some who are driven by the desire to serve the society and make the world a better place to live. These leaders pursue great ideas in order to achieve positive results. They bring within their circle other great thinkers who are equally keen to make a difference. People applaud such leaders who are willing to make sacrifices in order to protect and safeguard their interests.
Unfortunately leaders deal only with manifestations without perceiving the malady. They fail to realize that all problems are interrelated and spring form the same source. The source is the cultural composition of man. Attention is focused only on specific issues and solution of a particular problem becomes the goal of life. Desire to achieve results motivates their action.
Gandhi appeared on the world stage when there was lot of resentment against the British occupation of India. Gandhi mobilized public opinion and started a non-violent struggle against the British rule. It was non- violent because the British had army that was equipped with sophisticated weapons. Violent struggle would lead to bloodshed without producing any results.
Gandhi asked people to set aside differences and fight for the common cause. Struggle for India’s independence stretched for a long period of time. Ultimately the British decided to leave India. But they were still the puppeteers holding in their hands the strings of the puppets – leaders of India including Gandhi. They were planning to divide and weaken the country.
The inner psychological demands and urges of the leaders and their followers came to the surface. Ideals like non-violence and peace, unity and brotherhood, equality and justice blew away in the wind. Mountbatten connived with Jinnah who readily agreed to the proposal to partition the country so that he could become the ruler of the country where Muslims would be in majority. He was, however, willing to oppose the partition if he was made the Prime Minister of undivided India. But Nehru too was an ambitious person. He was very anxious to become the Prime Minister. So he rejected Jinnah’s proposal and persuaded Gandhi to agree to the partition of the country.
Although Gandhi had publicly declared many times that he would not accept the partition of the country, yet he succumbed to the pressure of his close associates who were eager to grab power. If Gandhi had insisted on doing the right thing there was no power on earth which could have stopped him from disassociating himself from these leaders.
The moment declaration was made about the partition of the country riots erupted in different parts. There was mayhem, bloodshed, looting, destruction of property and killing and suffering of millions of people. Was Gandhi aware about the consequences of partition? If he was, then accepting the partition was the most irresponsible act. Most likely he was not aware of the repercussions. He was also not aware of his own inner weakness. Although he was working with his close associates on a daily basis he did not have any clue about their inner desires and compulsions. The behavior of the top leaders might have come to him as a shock. Fate of the whole country was decided by the egocentricity of its leaders.
After the partition there was supposed to be a government by the people for the people, but the politicians soon forgot their obligation and responsibility and started behaving the same arrogant way as the British who were ruling the country for their own selfish reasons.
Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu fought for equality and justice in their respective countries. But is there any change in human nature? Improvements and modifications made here and there by enacting new laws are soon engulfed by the new problems that crop up due to man’s inability to deal with the most basic and fundamental issues that determine the quality of life. Laws can be enacted to end segregation but laws cannot take away the feeling of superiority. The feeling can arise due to different reasons. Beside race, color, religion, nationality a person’s educational background, material wealth, talent etc can make him/her feel superior to others. This feeling is one of the main causes of inequality and injustice in the world because it creates division between “me” and “you”.
Throughout his long election campaign Barack Obama focused his attention on the major problems facing America. He blamed the Bush administration for pursuing wrong policies and thereby creating mess and chaos. The word ‘change’ became the mantra that was repeated at all the election rallies. When he became the president all the problems about which he had talked so extensively became an actual challenge and needed urgent attention. Human greed was at the source of many of these problems. Neither the people nor their leader asked why human beings are greedy. Greed is being treated as part of human nature.
For most of the people life as they actually live remains unexamined. For example there is blind and mechanical pursuit of ‘progress’ and ‘success’. Achievement of power, position, prestige and status is considered as the aim of life. All struggles for personal pleasure, competition in all spheres of life and the system of reward and punishment are part and parcel of present day existence. Faith and belief in God and reliance on some or the other authority, including religious and political leaders, are never questioned. It has been assumed that rules and regulations, imposed discipline, ideals, gospels will solve the problem. Attitudes and habits formed as a result of various influences are taken for granted. Obviously such a way of life produces numerous problems both at the individual and collective level.
People have relied on political and religious leaders to solve the problems that they themselves have created. Such reliance has made them complacent as they have never looked inwardly and become aware of the irrationality of their own thought process. No leader or an outside authority can give freedom and intelligence and no leader can teach a person how to love. Ideals cannot bring about love, care and affection because they do not take care of the complexity of the problem. There can be no relationship without love. Each person has to discover this quality that is not the product of thought.
Sardar Singh
