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Coming
from the land of the Buddha gives me great
confidence, self-respect and joy. The feeling
that I come from a state where majority of
people have once adapted love, tolerance,
non-violence and scientific temper over
superstition, racism, hatred, violence and
bigotry makes my heart swell with pride.
But one thing that I cannot take my mind off is
how come Bihar lost the 'Buddha' in us and got
reduced down to its current situation. The
answer to this question is critical since the
mentality that caused this slide is deep rooted
and exists to this day. This underlying
mentality is not going to change merely because
people have more money and better career options
or more and more castes are moving up the social
ladder.
The answer to this is not very difficult. Most
of us humans by nature have weak character and
morals. Moreover, lot's of us are also
irrational, fearful and highly emotional. Greed
tempts us, power corrupts us, troubles make us
buckle under our knees and ethics seem to create
a hindrance for pleasure and power.
Let's assume that we are living a life free from
troubles, all our actions give us predictable
rewards and punishments. We are more prone to be
rational in this phase of our lives. Let's
assume that we face a crisis in life. Most of
us, even the people who are atheists might be
tempted to rush towards God to get a quick
relief. It's a human psychosocial response to
deal with danger and fear. Denying God at this
point is a true test of a rational mindset. Most
of us will fail in this test.
Almost all of us condemn bribery and corruption.
But how many of us retain this hate for bribery
and corruption when we get a chance to be
corrupt ourselves? The material rewards seem to
make us buckle under our knees.
We talk about love and forgiveness as long as
someone has not directly hurt us but the moment
we perceive that we have been hurt we want
vengeance. But we do this only when the other
party is not very strong. We fail to rise
against powerful tyrants because we are afraid.
Even our response to hurt is irrational! We
fight for personal grudges but not for a bigger
cause.
When we come to the US/UK we forcefully say that
the inequality based on race is wrong but how
many of us say the same thing about the caste
system back home? We have leaders who claim to
represent the oppressed but as soon as they
cross over and move to a position of power they
themselves become the oppressor. Merely taking
care of their relatives and caste-men becomes
social justice for them.
All the challenges in life seem to make us
humans throw down the garb of rationality and
rush towards irrationality. Temptation as well
as fear drives us towards irrationality like an
electro magnetic force (a strong force) whereas
our attraction towards rationality is more like
a gravitational pull (the weakest force). The
people who can remain attached to rationality
for most part of their lives are the ones who
have the biggest personality because without the
size of the personality the gravitation pull is
extremely weak.
Why did we loose the Buddha in us? We lost
because being irrational is the natural steady
state for most humans. This is a sad but true
statement. Also, we lost the Buddha in our
society because Buddhism itself became
irrationally peaceful, a suicide pact for peace
that failed to rise against murdering invaders.
How do we become rational again? The answer is
cultivating a strong character. The answer is
creating conditions where people know how to
think and not what to think, where people are
bold, brave, honest, just and ethical. The
western democracies have created these
conditions and hence many people in their
society have crossed over to the rational side,
we Indians need to do it too. We need to place
truth, justice and rational behavior before
greed, emotion and irrational thoughts. We used
to have Buddha in us once but then we lost him.
We need to win back our rational side.
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Comments: |
Mr.
Vishwakarma, a very thought
provoking article tinged with an
almost palpable sadness. The faults
you pointed out about the people of
the land of the Buddha I think is
universally applicable to all human
beings irrespective of where they
come from or reside. I have often
thought of the points that you
raised from a more personal
perspective but have been unable to
come up with either answers or
solutions. The two questions that
you posed i.e. "how did we lose the
Buddha in us?" and "how do we become
rational again?" are indeed
important and they need to be
answered. Perhaps some of our
colleagues at Readers Write may wish
to shed some light on this. - Dr
Ignatius Joseph, Malacca, Malaysia -
Mar. 10, 2006
I
feel it all boils down to what we
want out of life. I have had a close
encounter with corruption in my life
so far, not that I indulged in it.
In the beginning of my career I was
in a position where making money was
as simple as blinking your eyes.
There were people around me who were
busy making money. They could stoop
to very low levels if there was
money waiting at the other end. I
even saw a lady who had a paper
weight hurled at her because she
would not give a particular man what
he had paid for in advance. I chose
to stay clean and did everything as
per the rule book. I can share the
reasons for my choice.
The first reason was I wanted to be
at peace with my own conscience. I
did not want to feel like a thief or
a thug. Apart from these strong
ethical considerations I had a more
selfish reason.
The very straight and simple
explanation was that I wanted to
live in peace. When you do unethical
things you do it on paper and that
paper can bring grief at any point
in your life. I did not want to
carry mental tension for all times
to come. I chose a straight and
simple life because that is what I
wanted. Some people may say I did
not have the guts. They are right. I
did not want money in exchange for
constant tension. Now you can call
that Buddha in me or call me a
coward.
I tried to stop others even at the
cost of being unpleasant. Some
listened, many did not. As life went
on I left that place and moved on.
Today I am in a position where my
role is to bring the corrupt to
justice. Every case I come across
leaves in me a mixture of anger and
frustration. People who are very
highly paid by any standards are
caught pinching paltry sums. Why do
they do it? Perhaps they bargain it
differently. Perhaps they are strong
believers of "no risk no gain".
Perhaps they think they are brave.
Perhaps they love to take risks.
However, one thing is common, when
they are caught they all look sorry
for the choices they made in life.
The message goes out to other
people. Some stop. Some gamble on.
As a closing remark I would like to
state the simple truth that stopping
corruption is the job of each one of
us. Some of us are opportunistic
with our ideals. We bribe when we
want our work done and then lecture
the society. Most of us are simply
passive and indifferent. When we see
corruption we turn a blind eye
saying "This is the norm." or "Look
what happened to Satyendra Dubey..."
or "At least I am not being corrupt
let the world go the way it
chooses." If this is our stand we
forfeit the right to moan, groan and
complain about the society being
corrupt. Life is all about the
choices we make. Let us be bold and
make the right choices.
The west is ahead of India in time
as they became independent centuries
before. The systems you see there
are not what have always existed.
They are the outcome of the efforts
of thousands who were bold enough to
raise there voices against the ills
of society. A lot of blood of brave
men has gone into making that
society which you enjoy today. They
did not turn a Nelson's eye or run
away from the society. They stayed
on and fought the ills. - Rajesh
Chaubey - Mar. 11, 2006
I
think I have answer. Let’s talk
first what Gautam Buddha was trying
to find. He deserted his home, he
left his wife and son, and forsook
luxury … the price to search for why
a Human dies. After wandering many
places, he reached Bodh Gaya, and
enlightened that Man is mortal. The
summary is: we should not run behind
earthly luxuries and hoard stuff
which we can't bring with us on our
last journey, which we call Death.
The reality is that we are getting
more and more greedy, trying to
capture as much as we can, not only
for ourselves, but trying to make
sure our next generation can have
those luxuries. That is the reason
we forgot Buddha. - S. M.
Khurshid Anwar - Mar. 11, 2006
Mr
Som, I am impressed by the following
statement written by you "Buddhism
itself became irrationally peaceful,
a suicide pact for peace that failed
to rise against murdering invaders".
As a Bhojpuri speaking person I am
immensely hurt by the bomb blasts in
my own backyard (Banaras). If our
nation, irrespective of caste, creed
and religion does not unite against
the foreign sponsored terror then
there is a danger that we will be
sitting ducks for the terrorists
similar to what the Buddhist viharas
were for the invading Turks. -
Rajesh Sahu, Manchester, UK - Mar. 11, 2006 |
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