Open letter to my son, 19th Jan 2007
On the New Year’s Day, Times of India published a front page editorial of sort and started a new platform for its readers, to voice out their concerns, pool in their opinions and paint their dreams about Future India. It aptly captioned it ‘India versus India’ and highlighted the two sides of all of us – individually and collectively.
We all face our own share of dilemmas, sometime or the other. We all know the enemy within us, who also has a potential to act as our trusted friend – because he is part of us. We hate him, when we choose to think negatively. We crave for his help and advice, when we perceive him positively. Faith has tremendous power….Am I boring you with the usual fatherly sermon? – well, it depends on your point of view.
Let us talk about ‘we Indians’ and remember SRK’s famous song – Dil Hai Hindustani. It was a musical picture of – the many faces of India. But why we are like this? Difficult to understand – not only for foreigners but even for ourselves. Why we are so confused? Times said, one India wants, the other India hopes. What we want and what we hope for? How we want to be remembered by others? Who are our idols & icons? Where our faith & hopes lie?
Long time ago, two epics were written about two great sons of this soil and now they are regarded and worshipped by most, as gods. They are the role models of behavior – not so much for self, but mostly serve as scales to judge others. Ram and Krishna. They lived in contrasting ways and our faith in them pulls us apart from within.
Rama, as an avatar of God, came to this earth to live the life of a Nobody – a zero. He gave up power, luxury, authority and comfort to fulfill an old promise made by his father. He not only accepted to live in forest, but also consented his loyal wife and brother to stay with him in forest. He later punished Ravana for overstepping his limits and luring Sita with the luxuries of a palatial life. His victory was made possible by the army of Vanaras, disgruntled Bibhishan, loyal Sita & Hanuman, the organizing & technical skills of Vanarsena. They built a Setu to stretch Ram’s limits and invaded the un-impregnable Lanka. They blew up his heroic capacity to overshadow his urge to remain a zero. He returned to Ayodhya after 14 years and accepted the crown. He once again showed his zeroness, by asking his life partner to prove her own set of values to commoners, by going through an illogical test called Agnipariksha.
We, as Indians, prefer to read some glaring zeroes as potential leaders on Ram’s scale. The zeroes can easily challenge the conscience of a group, society, kingdom or individual and make them aware of their own urge to step on other’s toes. Mahatma Gandhi proved it by the principle of Ahimsa, when he forced the conscience of British people to leave India. Now we are left to be at our own mercy.
Krishna presented himself as a hero to his parents, Gopalas and Radha, by performing the superhuman feats as Kaliya-mardan, lifting Govardhan, etc. He also maintained his superiority, by living on both sides of the law. The seniors and the custodians of established law were made a laughing stock by him and he soon became the ‘ladla & messiah’ of the weaker lot. He punished others but never accepted punishment from others. His acts were always supported by onlookers because of the goodwill he earned and encashed at the right time. Later, on the epic battlefield, he told Arjun – ‘I am god, you are a Nobody. I decide everything, you just carry it out. Don’t be your own enemy. You have no powers. If you allow your ego to interfere with (my) divine plans, you will have only yourself to blame (for the consequences). Perform your Karma without thinking of the results. I (as god) have already fixed the results.’
Finally, he became the cause of discord, chaos and wars among his own domain. The Yadavas picked his attitude (sans goodwill) of being above the law and perished in anarchy. The golden city Dwarka got drowned in the sea and forgotten. Krishna continued to be the iconic measure of heroic success. We, as Indians, prefer to read some lawbreakers as potential leaders on his scale.
Think over son, every coin has two sides. One side symbolizes the authority that circulates it. The other shows its worth for us in our everyday dealings. Hero puts his stamp of authority and offers us a framework to operate. Zero puts a materialistic value to the deal, showing how far we are interested. The confusion and chaos set in, when we get ready to deviate from our own set of values and distort the deal, under the influence of ambition, greed, power or ignorance.
Closer to us, in our close circles of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, we all have a certain ‘accepted’ level & potential. That is also called goodwill & creativity. Seniors have more goodwill and (relatively) less creativity. Juniors are expected to be more creative than the quota of goodwill sanctioned to them. The social structure, anywhere, creates barriers or thresholds between every senior-junior relationship. The senior expects Ram-like behavior from juniors, while a junior expects Krishna-like framework to operate in. Senior expects unconditional and unquestioning follower ship from juniors. Juniors expect unconditional freedom and absolute support from their leaders – so that their creativity can follow any path of their choice and a guarantee that they will never have to face any ‘outside’ music. But we are always senior to somebody and junior to another. Can we act like Ram & Krishna at the same time? Can we be hero and zero at the same time?
That is the dilemma. Being above and below at the same time, makes us walk the tight rope. We sit on the fence. We remain stumbled at the threshold. We keep buying time. To move forward in life (and world) we should be bold enough to see and accept the ‘order’ in our own worlds. That order is itself the law – the currently accepted law – the way of life. Accept it first and then pursue your case with the establishment, to change for the better. Many have accepted it and are proud to be part of the circle called India. Those who want to be ‘out’ are refusing to follow our leaders’ framework. Some have become terrorists, some are traitors. They are marching in the same platoon like us, but are following the beats of a distant drum.
The hero worshippers are easily accepted as seniors, by majority. They hardly ever look back to see who is following them. They have their hero to show the path. He is their Fuehrer. And the operating system, that he provides, is protective and less restrictive. They are more positive than negative. They are natural, they are wild. However, they have a darker (private) side which remains the cause of their downfall. Once they lose power they are quickly forgotten by their followers and replaced by another hero.
The zero worshippers, who manage to become leaders, have their gaze fixed at their own feet, to see if they have enough support. They tend to create a police state, where everybody lives in fear of getting caught by the law sometime, somehow, somewhere. They are more negative than positive. They are un-natural, they are civilized. But they reduce friction and maintain peace, by employing zero tolerance. They are fondly remembered long after they are gone. They become heroes, mostly after their demise.
We are neither leaders, nor zeroes or heroes. We are sometimes seniors and other time juniors. And by going one step further, our seniors have their own set of seniors. Our juniors have their own juniors. We should not expect our juniors to ‘follow’ us so much, that they can never again act as seniors. We should not tolerate our seniors to such an extent, that they don’t feel the need to obey their own seniors.
Self respect, identity, pride, superiority and arrogance are various levels of ego. It is nourished by goodwill and kept healthy – or thrown overboard. Self preservation, personal space, privacy, selfishness and aggression are various levels of self expression. Creative skills serve as a tonic to expression. A balance between goodwill and freedom of expression keeps an individual mind and a group/ family/ society or country happy and healthy.
We don’t need Ram or Krishna; we need the blessings of Ramkrishna and his famous disciple Swami Vivekanand.
Vishwas Ghaisas
Under the Bodhi Tree 