In the last post, I talked about how Maya can cloud the human mind. And one of the few ways to come out of Maya can be to create awareness among the people. And leaving the ambiguity of my previous posts, today I am going to talk only in the context of India.
On one matter the people of India seem to be relatively well united as compared to other matters. That the current condition of India is because of the continuing sack of the nation by the political elite. More than any other human population in the world, it is the political elite of India that has the ostrich syndrome, the temerity to hide the head in the sand, which it has been found recently, is not even done by ostriches. At best, it is a tactic by the bird to hide from the predators, but yet its head remains outside the sand and it will take flight upon seeing predators, often causing injuries by its powerful kicks which might even cause death.
On one matter the people of India seem to be relatively well united as compared to other matters. That the current condition of India is because of the continuing sack of the nation by the political elite. More than any other human population in the world, it is the political elite of India that has the ostrich syndrome, the temerity to hide the head in the sand, which it has been found recently, is not even done by ostriches. At best, it is a tactic by the bird to hide from the predators, but yet its head remains outside the sand and it will take flight upon seeing predators, often causing injuries by its powerful kicks which might even cause death.
Sorry for going OT for some time, but had to show that even the bird is better than our political elite and causes damage when provoked. In the context of India, it is needed that:
1) People are told that merely voting the government into power is not going to work. You have to be after the politicians till the time they do not retire from politics (which anyway happens only when they die). For this, they should be made aware of the 'Rights To Information' act of the government. As far as my understanding of this is concerned, the act is there to provide the people an answer of the government's policies regarding various matters, and our preference shoud be most importantly on matters like national security, education, employment and other public welfare.
2) People are made aware of their fundamental duties and rights. They should also be made aware of the structure of the government and its functioning. Rather than understanding that they just have to vote, they should be given a crash course in Civics to understand the structure of the government. After all, doesn't any worker, no matter what the skill level, know how to operate a machine? I bet that there are people out there who do not know how the government functions. Perhaps even I do not know it very well. If democracy is a government run by the people, for the people and of the people, they should also know how to operate it.
3) People should be made aware that voting, even by sheer impulses if not through intuition, is better than not voting at all. Politicians must be made aware that the only way that they are going to get elected and have power is to serve the people. I wonder, that inspite of the difficulties that India faces, why is there still not a 100% voting turnout? Or even in the mid nineties? Even in today's frustrated times, voting turnout is 60% or 70% and so on. Another worrying idea seems that some people who came up with ideas such as "Don't vote 09 campaign". Such defeatist initiatives should be ignored at the least, and stopped at the best by co-operation among the people.
4) Leaving the dogma of the Hindu/Jain/Buddhist/Zoroastrian/Jewish/Muslim/Christian caste system behind, whoever is in power needs to be told shamelessly that he/she/it has to serve the people like a kshatriya (a warrior). There is nothing to be shameful in it. It is simply impossible to lead the nation by being something else than a kshatriya. Leading the nation involves following the righteous path, doing what is necessary and not doing bits of everybody's will. A person must be ready to call someone's bluff and I do not see that happening in any other way then being bold, courageous and war-like, characteristics which are supposed to be found in a kshatriya.
Moreover, on occasions like today, people should force their supposed-to-be 'kshatriya' leaders to start aggressive posturing and actions, and make Pakistan face the retributions rather than to fold up on themselves. And now, there's also evidence implicating that nation in the Mumbai strikes. After all, as the great seer of the Bhagwada Gita says:
Chapter 2:
३२
यद्र्च्चाया कोपपन्नाम
स्वर्ग-द्वारं अपव्र्तम
सुखिनः क्षत्रियाः पर्थ
लभन्ते युद्धं इद्र्सम।
"O Partha, happy are the kshatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets."
३३
अथ सत त्वं इमं धर्म्यम
संग्रामं न करिश्यसी
ततः स्व-धर्मं किर्तिम का
हित्वा पापं अवप्स्यासी।
"If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter."
३४
अकिर्तिम कापी भूतनी
कथायिस्यन्ति ते ’व्यायाम
सम्भावितस्य काकिर्तिर
मरनद अतिरिच्यते।
"People will always speak of your infamy, and for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death."
Dishonor seems to be the preference of India's leaders. And dishonor seems to be the preference of our people, over death, which is going to happen anyway when they elect such people to power or do not respond when such leaders are hoisted on to us from the powers beyond our reach. So, we end up getting both dishonor and death, while those responsible for the terror and carnage at the Taj that visited us get their supposed rewards in heaven for their 'martyrdom'.
"Splendid" is the only thing I can say of the current government's response to this provocation. The least we can do right now is to boot out the Congress and their allies in the next election so ruthlessly as to make an example before the other parties for them to understand what would happen of them when they do not follow the people's wishes.