On the occasion of yet another anniversary of our Independence, not long after a stable government at the Centre has assumed authority, this author, an average citizen of India, prays, presumably representing the sentiments of many:
O Lord, grant that our elected representatives will realise that a victory in the election is not a victory in a war; henceforth they should refrain from launching pompous processions to proclaim it like the lusty conquerors of yore. The election is not a case of the winner versus the loser. It is that of the winner vis-a-vis the people. In a clean election the people choose those they believe would serve them better than the other applicants. Ideally, the chosen ones should assemble and pray to the spirit of Mother India or to their gods or to their own higher self to keep them humble enough to remember that theirs was no mission to vanquish anybody, but to appeal for a chance to serve the nation.
Grant that all those elected, those to form the government and those to be in opposition, will spontaneously agree to undergo a course educating them in their rights and duties, the basic discipline that can make the Assembly or Parliament different from another arena for combat.
Grant that even though they know Lord Acton’s warning, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, they would kindly remember what follows, “Great men are almost always bad men”, and try to be a bit great avoiding being bad.
Grant that they will not exhibit the “V” sign—a sign popularised by the Allies during and after World War II, denoting victory over a brute fascist power in an unprecedented bloody war. Its significance expired; today the elected ones should fold their palms and apologise to their opponents for the wrong done to them through words and actions—for, indeed, both the sides did that to each other.
Grant that there should be no effigy burning, something that was done in medieval Europe for criminals condemned to death who absconded. While we burn the effigy of a public figure, we are only a step below the primitive impulse of satisfying our urge for publicly torturing and killing a human being. Imagine the horror it inspires in our target’s kin, followers and friends and the spasms of violence felt in the air, vitiating it sufficiently for other baser instincts to manifest and have a field day.
Grant that our politicians must not project their leaders as deities, making a mockery of human dignity. Further, grant that they will stop their crowds to burn the public property—buses (sometimes with humans inside) for example, like offering of incense to those dubious deities.
Grant that the captains of our traditional media as well as those who manage, manipulate and gambol with the myriad forms of their electronic incarnations remember that any toxicity they sow today will not wait to be reaped but uncontrollably proliferate and poison our today and tomorrow. Awaken them to the reality that the society is rapidly showing hitherto unsuspected signs of degradation—more and more crimes for big gains by big ones and for petty gains by anybody, undreamt of perversions like child abuse apart from rape, road rage, etc., and know through introspection their direct or indirect role in the situation.
Grant that we all realise that ours is a time when it will be hypocrisy to accuse any particular agency for the situation. As the wise say that we get the government we deserve, we must also realise that we get the atmosphere and the society we deserve. In the ultimate analysis the stark truth that emerges is, we the people are the patrons of all the agencies hosting and deploying the evil.
O Lord, awaken in us the faith that despite this sorry state of affairs we could muster the will for an alternative destiny. You did not intend us to use our freedom of choice in this way; you did not intend us to enslave ourselves to the inevitable development of technology instead of our using the process for realising our higher aspirations.
O Lord, on this auspicious day also grant us that we turn to the one, the first one to demand complete freedom for our motherland and on whose birthday the freedom dawned, who dedicated the later phase of his life to chart the Yogic passage to liberate humanity from its bondage to ignorance —Sri Aurobindo. Grace us to remember his words: “…the animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the Gods are content with their splendour. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented; he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.”
O Lord, is that “pressure of limitation” manifesting in our conduct today as restlessness, hatred and violence? Today citadels of falsehood are crumbling before our eyes. Still we cling to falsehood. Is this paradox a sign of what Sri Aurobindo terms as an evolutionary crisis? But he also says that in the crisis itself is concealed the choice of our destiny—either to perish or to flourish. Grant that “the divine frenzy for a remote ideal” lead us to the right choice, our ascent to a new phase in evolution.
O Lord, grant that we aspire to transcend ourselves.
Manoj Das
Author and recipient of several awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Email: prof.manojdas@gmail.com