CHENNAI : The recent incident of gangrape and murder of a nine-year-old girl has sparked public outrage and anguish across the country. The question that comes immediately to the mind after seeing all this is — where are we heading? Are we really living in India which is known for its morality and values.
Fifty years back who would have ever thought that a day would come when daughters of India would be subjected to such barbarity? Television channels are screaming with debates as to why, what and how this menace of sexual violence can be controlled in our society. At the end of the discussions, no solution is ever reached. Various sections of society are blaming each other over these barbaric acts that have been happening in civil society, but neither the government nor the lawmakers are able to find the reason or solution to these.
However, one needs to give a thought over the possible reasons behind such ghastly acts, hurting the core fabric of our age old existence? Is it a case of uncontrolled libido? Or is it animal instinct? Or lack of education? Or bad parenting? There could be multifarious reasons with cascading effects, but what is the solution? Would severe punishment solve all these issues? If it could, then there would be disciplined societies all around, everywhere across the world,but it cannot be.
Sexual crimes like rape, gangrape and marital rape have become common occurrence that are top news every day. Recently, it was reported that a cellular company has proposed to provide free adult content to all its subscribers for one year. In 2014, the government of India made an attempt to ban pornography over Internet through Internet Service Provider (ISP) operating in India. However, they failed to achieve it due to absence of legal or infrastructural framework support.
The main contention of the government behind this ban was the fear that porn promotes and encourages sexual violence against women and it has a bad influence on young minds. However, the question that comes to one’s mind is that isn’t it too late? Because a recent report released by an NGO clearly says that the average time that an Indian spends on pornographic sites is eight minutes 28 seconds which is more then the world average.
Today, porn has become so pervasive on the Internet that it poses a big threat to children who are unknowingly exposed to it. While parental supervision and film certification rules help shield children to a large extent from pornography on television and in films, but the Internet, by its very nature, is beyond regulation and therefore there is no way to check the free availability of pornographic content.
It would be wishful to think that this explosion of morally degrading images provides just perverse entertainment. No, infact, such images influence our way of thinking and help create unhealthy attitudes that can easily lead to crime. Just ask yourself, can a person who takes pleasure in watching pornography be expected to look at women with a clean mind? Will he not try to attempt what he sees on someone who is vulnerable or naive?
We wring our hands helplessly at the growing incidence of crimes against women, but we should now understand this fact that sexual abuse is now not just a matter of rape or indecent behaviour indulged in by the odd misguided person. No, it is now reported to be rampant at homes, with the perpetrators in most cases being known to the victims. You never know what your brother, son or someone as close as your father figure might do.
Hence, if we continue to turn a blind eye to this malaise, soon a time will come when even those of us who consider themselves immune will become one of its victims. So is there really a genuine solution to this menace? Yes, by simply remaining in the consciousness that we are an eternal soul and not body, one can easily transform human love into spiritual energy by changing our feelings of lust into feelings of love, thereby dissolving lust automatically without any kind of suppression whatsoever. Science has proved that energy can be transformed from one form to another, then why can’t we transform physical energies to spiritual energies and liberate ourselves?