The enemy lies within us. Mara in Buddhism, Shaitan in Islam and Satan in Christianity are all angels close to God, and hold the power to sway God’s creation, often irreversibly. Therefore, the one who is closest to the truth is not only most susceptible to being corrupted, but also most capable of corrupting others. This is the genesis of all evil in every religion. How do we see through this negativity and the poison spreading within us? How do we cleanse?
The worst form of corruption is to discriminate between human beings on the basis of faith, colour of skin, the language in which people express themselves, or the Creator they worship.
And yet this discrimination exists, mainly to gain power over others. Power over minds. Power over lives. Power over destinies. And what better place to weild such power than politics. Politicians wean their way to such power through people’s needs and weakness.
“Indianness” has beauty and an innate sense of wisdom that never fails. Sadly, in today’s age of mass media, where we can generate mass movements even before we can comprehend the truth, we miss the relevance and power of this heritage. Instead, driven by forces of mass consumption and consumerism, “movements” are packaged and served instantly.
Have we ever stopped to ponder the chemistry of corruption? Not just where it affects us but also how it manifests in other walks of life or how we turn a blind eye when it is used by spiritualists, or when it is used in politics to polarise society on communal lines, to blunt the tools of a healthy democracy, by religious heads to politicise religion, or how it is used by the media to generate hype and grab eyeballs, or in commercial films to rake in fast bucks and by the corporate sector to further its end. Corruption is at all times extremely physical, material and ideological and a combination of these in varying proportions. People understand it to the extent of their evolution and depending on the effect it has on their own lives. Out of any positive upsurge an order has to emerge, which will begin with putting things in order as we know this from the time of colonial oppression (the 1857 upsurge led to the formation of judiciary or a legal system to control corruption).
The communal mind that gnaws at the root of our free and secular society by spreading hate and intolerance is the most dangerous form of corruption and leads to an equal and opposite reaction, such as terrorism.
Have we paused to think?
We need to see with the inner eye, as the great Sufi Rumi said, out of the self-realisation process:
Dar kash qadah-e-sauda hal ta nashaw-e-ruswa
Bar band do chashme sar ta chashm-e-nihan beeni
(Drain the cup of passion that you may not be shamed
Shut the eyes in your head that you may see the hidden eye.)
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/muzaffar-ali-620
