CAPITALISM OR ?

Ever stopped to think what the saying ‘have-a-heart’ means? It’s a pleading to be kind and benevolent; to bring out something good out of one’s heart. What is in the human heart? The human heart is mysteriously dark. It is deep and full of evil. Anyone who says they understand the human heart has to be lying. Only its Maker can understand it and gaze right into its bottomless depths. Is this not a harsh indictment on the whole human race? Well look around and what do you see? Capitalist pigs! That is what the communists and socialists are calling them. There is some truth in that but what about the communists and socialists? Are they any better? Was there ever a benign socialist or communist regime? History cannot produce even one. So capitalists, communists, socialists and fascists all have a heart full of poison. This is the human heart.

In Robin Cook’s fiction story of ‘Chromosome 6’ he put his finger on the human heart. The human heart was accused, put into the docks and wasn’t able to defend itself. It was found guilty as charged! In the story which is set in some African state scientists were experimenting with Bonobos (pygmy ape). The subjects were all put onto a remote island and their behaviour over a period was observed. Then the subjects were brought in and the chromosome 6 was crossed over with a human chromosome. The result; the bonobos started exhibiting human tendencies which they never ever showed before. They began to separate into factions and began to kill each other off. How is that for an indictment on the human race! They never became more benevolent and start to help each other. No! They began to see each other as rivals and began to kill each other off. Sounds capitalistic, right? Well, its human. And it includes capitalists, communists, socialists and fascists and all other –ists.

In just about every area of life every human being sees another human being as a rival. In the affairs of marriage partners, getting a job, education, sports etc, etc. What happens when a certain company advertises for a grand mega jumbo sale at greatly slashed prices? The entire town turns up and no order prevails; but chaos. It even leads to stampedes where people are crushed to death. Why? Each one is seen as a rival; each one is seen as competition. Talking about advertising; what makes a successful advertising agency? The agency that taps into the greed in man’s heart is the most successful today. Most people don’t buy what they need but what is dictated by their greed. That is why a successful salesman is the one who can sell ice to the Eskimo. Today the word ‘sports’ has lost it’s meaning entirely in the arena of world sports. The word sports used to mean a good-natured competition where the loser acknowledged that the winner was better. May the better person win had much meaning those days. The loser tried to better themselves with strict discipline and training and other fair means. Although it must be added that the East bloc countries had other ‘vaiz and meenz.’ Previously it was only in the combative sports that foul play was common. However, today even in the non-combative sports too there is so much of trickery and deceit. What the motive for the bonobos killing each other off was we cannot know but the motive for humans today seems to be one thing and one thing only; greed. Greed for fortune; greed for power; greed for fame and greed for satiating the insatiable desires is the motive. Today it is common that the way to get to the top is by trampling all those under you and climbing upon their sprawled bodies and making a scramble for the summit to make it before somebody else. And every unfair means and foul play is acceptable just so long as you don’t get caught. To do it is not a bad thing but to get caught doing it is very bad.

Somebody may define capitalism as a system in which the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. There is much truth in this way of thinking. Every capitalistic run country is a glaring proof of this. Is the answer communism or socialism then? History can show us that every socialist run country had it’s wining and dining bourgeois while the common man had to sweat his blood to make a living. And every communist run country had it’s caviar eating creamy layer while outside in the streets queues were formed for bread and potatoes. Then how can we reconcile capitalism (the lesser of the evils) with a system which is for the benefit of all its subjects? Is there such a system anywhere? Can there be a system?

We may have to accept the fact that just so long as the human heart is around we will not have a system. We cannot have a system because as long as the heart is around there will be greed and as long as there is greed there will be rivalry and as long as there is rivalry there will be the cutting of each others throats and the stabbing of each other in the back. And what will happen? The rich will get richer by unfair and unjust means and the poor will get poorer. One poor man looks down on the other poor man. The one slum dweller with plastic covering for a roof looks down the other who has only jute sack for a covering. We all seethe in anger when a greedy development land owner employs the mafia to use strong arm tactics on the poor who don’t sell to him. But the same poor man when fortune smiles upon him and he gets big does the same to those poor with whom he used to eke out a living. Greed is in all human hearts whether, poor or not so poor or stinking rich.

Isn’t is surprising that in just about every sphere of life there is rivalry to be found but possibly the one area where no rivalry is found is for God’s love. Its not common to find one another competing to get God’s love. Is it because sub-consciously we know that God is infinite and therefore His love is boundless; there is enough of Him to go around and we needn’t see each other as competition? Could the answer for capitalism perhaps possibly lie in there somewhere; enough for all to go around? Will there be enough to go around? Water shortage is going to be the cause of many a conflict in the very near future. There will not be enough water to go around. It will be the no. 1 cause in India. Just before the rains came in Australia the government was making a contingency plan to evacuate 11 million of its inhabitants. There will not be enough commodities or utilities to go around.

Democracy or Mobocracy

India today holds it's head high being proud to be the largest democracy in the world. During the PM's address to the US Congress he proudly said that US is the world's oldest democracy and India is the world's largest democracy. Pavan K Varma (and so we all should) in his book “Being Indian” asks the question how can a people who are of undemocratic mind-set be democratic? That is certainly a question we all Indians need to deeply ponder. How can this be so?

What are some of the principles which govern democracy? Freedom! Freedom to vote. Freedom of speech and expression. Freedom to practice and propogate your religion. Freedom of civil liberties. Freedom to choose. The word freedom conjures up some emotions of wild abandon. Abandoned to be yourself. The picture of a bird singing as it flits from place to place enjoying the wide open sky is the picture of freedom.

Former CM of UP attributed blame to the Election Commission for losing the UP elections to BASPA. There is an element of truth in this. The EC set an unprecedented standard of making sure that the elections were free and fair. And so it was. Goonda raj wasn't able to operate. There was none of the booth capturing which the UP elections are so notorious for. There were no threats to make voters vote for those they didn't want to. The heavy security force presence at polling booths and the police being kept away from polling booths made sure that the elections were free and fair. BASPA sweeping the board with an outright majority was a major surprise to all and sundry. Why? This time there was a difference. Voting wasn't done along a single cast line as was previously. There was a mixture of castes, Brahmins and Dalits. This time both Dalits and Brahmins voted BASPA. However, the point to note is that voting was still done along caste lines albeit a mixture of castes. Is this in line with democracy? The very idea of democracy is that voting should cut right across caste lines from one end to the other end of the spectrum, far-left to far-right . Be it UK, USA, France, Germany, Australia, SA,etc voting in western democracies is mostly done according to the acceptance or rejection of party policies. Will India ever get to that place?

It is enshrined in the Consitution that every citizen has the freedom to believe, practice and propogate the religion of his or her choice (Articles 25, 26, 27). All democracies have this enshrined in their constitutions and live accordingly. Where this freedom is infringed upon the perpetrators are brought to book and punished for this infringement. It can be very easily observed that those who infringe upon this basic human right are the Neo-Nazis and Fascist elements. In India it is very difficult to believe that this basic human right is enshrined in the constitution because the neo-nazi and fascist elements set themselves up as the moral police and make it seem as if it is immoral to believe and practice any religion besides their's. What does the law do? Most of the time the law is on the side of the violators of this basic human right because they confabulate some trumped up charges against the innocent. If you happen to be living in a state in which a fascist is the CM then beware. If you dare to be different your life can be made to be hell. Most of the time the fascist elements stir up the emotions of the people and march in mobs brandishing their weapons openly and then descending upon the so called guilty ones. What are they guilty of? Being different. Guilty of choosing a set of beliefs which are different to that of the fascist elements. The police is on the side of the rich and powerful and not on the side of the poor and voiceless. What does the central government do? Nothing. A mere rhetoric of being a secular rather than communal state when there is a flaring up of communal violence. The Gov has no backbone to stand up and come to the aid of those who have their rights infringed upon. It isn't a safe haven for minorities. It is embroiled in its own battle to try and stay in power. It cannot spare time for these trivialites.

When it comes to freedom of expression no artist, writer, actor or newspaper is spared. Like freedom of religion freedom of expression is a farce. The recent spate of cases against artists is a case in point. Renowned artist MF Hussain had his works vandalised and properties attached by court and cases of obscenity made against him. Other artists who have had their works vandalised have recently been at the sharp end of the trishul of the moral police too. Even those who stand up for the rights of the artists are punished by the court. If you stand up and protest then you can be hounded and attacked by the fascist elements for the rest of your life.

When some writer researches history and finds some not very complementary things about some past heroes then he is asking for trouble if he publishes this factual information. His office and the very centre where his research is carried out, housing a rich heritage of Indian civilization can go up in smoke in an instant while the rest of the property is completely destroyed by mobs baying for blood.

When an actress was the victim of racism in a celebrity program the whole nation was in uproar because the Indian sentiment was hurt. The same actress when during an HIV awareness campaign was the victim of being publicly kissed she and the kisser were both charged and summoned to appear in court for indecency. That was a laugh. Had it been 1st April all would have taken it to be an April fool's joke. But it was not April and no joke and no laughing matter. This was serious business of the moral police and the court.

This same Gov spends corores of rupees to attract visitors from all over the world to come to the tourist destination of the temples of Khajuraho, caves of Ellora and Ajanta to see the rich heritage of the land of India. The moral police doesn't bat an eye-lid when they stand in front of the statues in all kinds of indecent postures depicting nudity and sexuality. Is it because it is seen to be their gods? On the contrary it is touted as the rich cultural heritage of Bharat Mata. Why shouldn't it be...it fills the coffers of the Gov. Keep in mind this is the land famous world all over for the Kamasutra. In any other country these graphic depictions of sexuality of Khajuraho, Ajanta, Ellora and Kamasutra would be seen for what it is. Pornography. But breathe not a word of that sort here or you may have the wrath of the moral police come down upon you.

If there is any film which hurts the sensibilities of the moral police then the director making the film faces the wrath of the mob, most of whom don't even know why they are there, except to destroy at the behest of the moral police. If the film made it past the sensor board and is shown in cinemas then it is the cinemas who come under the brutal vandalism of the mobs stirred up by the fascist elements.

Here is something to think about. In the well known Sanskrit plays of Kalidasa the ladies are depicted as wearing very little clothing to cover themselves up. Some article of clothing on top covering the breast and something covering the bottom and a very filmsy wrap around. Hence much of the body is visible. Today the sari is seen to be the dress of modesty. Yet I sometimes don't know where to look when ladies wearing saris wear an extremely small blouse just covering the breast and tie the sari well below the navel leaving the entire area from the blouse to below the navel exposed in the front and much to be seen from the back too. I am surmising that modesty in clothing only came in with the Mughals. Hence the evolution to the sari from the sarong-like wrap around. However, even the modern sari still has marks of the immodesty of times of old. I wonder when the moral police will force all ladies to wear salwar-kamiz only?

Do we see the moral police lift one finger when Dalits are treated worse than dogs? Do we see them protesting against the female foetacide and infintacide and abortions? Do they do anything about the corruption in the police and judicial systems? Do they stand up for any travesty of justice? Did they stand up against the Nithari child killers? No! Why? Because it has nothing to do with their agenda. Their agenda is to bring everyone in line with their ideologies. Let corores rupees of food get rotten in godowns while the poor are dying of hunger and starvation. It isn't any of their concern.

What is ironical is that the fascist elements of India are the far-right and yet they are worse than far-left communist regimes of present and past.

Is India a true democracy or does mobacracy rule? Do you have the feeling of a bird soaring in the open sky or are you afraid there are fowlers out there who have set up their nets and they are waiting for you?

Hind's feet on high places

The friendly beast

Man - A Dual Personality

Man is extremely complex…nobody can claim to understand the workings of man fully. Man is not only male but female too. How different are they from each other…if we say poles apart we may not be wrong. But to plumb the depths of the difference between male and female is a task which cannot be accomplished this side of eternity. The difference between male and female, however is not what this discussion is about…this has to be left for the experts.

What we want to look at is man, be it male or female, is a complex whole made up of many parts. We can either say man is made up of 5 sheaths or narrow it down to 3 parts…body, soul and spirit. The body is far too complex. Everyday scientists somewhere are discovering something new about the body. As for soul and spirit…who can really tell the difference? However, the soul it seems, is present only when man is alive. Well, so is the spirit. So, what is the difference? There are spirits who don’t need bodies and don’t have a soul but man as long as is in a body and needs to function in this body needs to have a soul. So as long as the spirit of man is in a body he is a soul but the moment the spirit departs from the body man no longer has a soul. So, what is the function of the soul? It can be said that the faculty of will, emotions and intellect are what constitutes the soul. The soul is the medium for the spirit to express itself and that expression is seen through the body…when the spirit smiles it is seen in the face and eyes of the body.

Man is really a spirit being living in a body and having a soul. The spirit is who man really is. Deep down inside of you, you are what your spirit is. What does the spirit really look like? Can we really tell? It is not so easy to tell what the spirit really looks like because it is so wrapped up in the will, emotions and intellect of the soul. The spirit seems to be disguised. The spirit seems to look like many different things at different times. Without a doubt we see clearly the characteristics of being loving, helpful, caring and kind. We also see the characteristics of being hateful and extremely selfish. We see some people behaving like sweet angels and we some people who are full of evil.

Man is made in the image of God. God blew His breath into man. So, there is something of God in man. Hence, man is loving and caring and kind. This is all very understandable and seems to make a whole lot of sense. The really frightening thing is when the same person who is loving and kind and caring at the drop of a hat becomes hateful and selfish. In an instant the sweet man is turned into an evil being. That which is all the time hovering below the surface rears it’s ugly head. The beast in man is now revealed. Man is really a dual personality…an angel and a beast. Most of the time man tries to be an angel, however, that too is changing fast, man doesn’t bother to cover up for the beast in him any more. He openly displays the beast in him. This is what man really is…a beast. A beast so ugly and evil!

As life goes along man most of the time tries to be good. Sometimes, the beast pops out it’s ugly head and man pushes it down. When man doesn’t push it down the beast takes over. Take for example the people of New Orleans, Louisiana before hurricane Katrina struck. I am sure they were most of the time good people…sure they must have had their share of being bad too, like everybody else. Then Katrina came. The forces of nature were unleashed and Katrina began to wreak havoc. The people were forced to take shelter in a stadium. Stadiums are not normally built to have thousands of people living in it for days on end. The conditions became squalid with toilets so stuffed that they were overflowing. Drinking water became a very scarce commodity and the electricity was out. Very abnormal conditions with non-stop howling winds and pouring rain with no hope in sight. Panic set in. People went into survival mode. The beast in man came out and revealed itself fully. The law of the jungle was now in operation…the survival of the fittest. Each man for himself…now no more loving and caring but completely self-centred. Girls were getting raped, men were shooting at each other, looting was taking place…anarchy set in and began to reign. The beasts turned upon each other…they began to devour one another. We who are watching this debacle unfold cannot understand how this could happen. Can I say what I would have done in such conditions? Can you say what you would have done?

In 2000 when the earthquake struck Gujarat massive amount of relief was being poured as the extent of the damage became more known. People from different parts of the world got into planes at their own expenses to come and help in whatever way they could. All over India school children were taking collections for the suffering homeless whose lives was turned upside down in a flash of a second. TV channels were transmitting extensive coverage of the plight of the quake victims. In the midst of all this humanitarian aid Zee TV showed how people with their very fancy 4-wheelers were driving up to damaged abandoned shops and loading their vehicles with TVs, air-conditioners and other expensive equipment. While the whole world was pouring humanitarian aid into Gujarat, some of the very people of Gujarat themselves were going out looting shops. How unthinkable. The beast in man was revealed.

When the director of the Sames Management Institute of Varanasi was shot dead at point-blank range for not paying protection money there was much outrage in the city, and rightly so. But how were the students expressing their outrage? By waging violence, not against the murderers, but against society. They took all kinds of lathis and went on a rampage in the city breaking down hoardings and damaging other people’s property. The police had to be called in to disperse the lathi wielding students. How does this kind of violence help bring justice to put the criminals behind bars? When people are outraged how do they react? By going out and burning cars and busses and breaking into shops of people who had nothing to do with the injustice suffered by the victims. This is insanity! When a G8 kind of meeting takes place protestors gather from all over the world to protest against the leaders of the rich world being unjust to the poor developing countries. But how do they protest? By blocking roads and burning cars and breaking shops of the people who have nothing to do with the G8 meeting except that it is being held in their part of the city. This is pure anarchy! The beast in man is being more and more revealed as the days pass.

Road - rage has become a very common occurrence in many parts of the world. A family man taking his family out for a days outing gets annoyed at a motorist for some or other reason. The beast in man takes over and the family man pulls out the driver of the other vehicle and beats him up badly with the full intent of doing him the most harm possible. If he is carrying a gun he takes out the gun and shoots the man. Was the other man a family man too with little children to look after? It doesn’t matter to the beast.

A former cricketer and famous cricket commentator is famous for his sharp wit. But hovering under the surface of the sharp wit was malice. This malice was evident in the caustic remarks made in trying to be witty. Most people have no inkling of this malice but are mesmerized by the wittiness. Just like the little bird which is mesmerized by the eyes of the serpent which is about to devour it. Not long ago it surfaced that this cricket commentator three years ago beat up a man so badly in a road rage situation that the man succumbed to his injuries and died. The beast that was lurking just below the surface was revealed. Now he is a politician spitting out the same venom of malice.

The beast in man has total disregard for rules and laws. There is no regard for others and their feelings. There is no regard for other’s property. Anarchy and total chaos is the law. I predict that as the days pass we are going to see violence and anarchy in various parts of the world in an unprecedented way.

Can any man deny that he needs to have a new spirit…one where the beast is put to death and the angel-like spirit is alive? Can you deny that you have a dual personality? To be on the true spiritual path is to have a new spirit.