BREAK THE CHAIN
How Spirituality can help in realizing a better world
Disclaimer: This article seeks to understand and correlate the laws of nature and their significance in making the world a better place. All the views expressed in this article are of the author alone. The author tries to analyze the issue by providing multiple views, and counterviews. This article is theory-heavy and may also contain quotes, debates, excerpts from books, etc. The writer encourages readers, both those who believe in spirituality and those who don’t, to go through the article and reflect on their lives for at least a few moments.
Virus and Hate have one thing in common — a source so as to multiply. In that process, the stronger may survive but the weaker might not. Consciously or subconsciously, we are becoming a source for all the hate and hence, the sufferings.
These are some turbulent times in the history of the world. On one hand, we have the virus, which is fastly spreading, and on the other, we have a more dangerous, if not equal, malady spreading across the globe. While the former can be treated by vaccines through interventions using science, there is no one solution for the latter. Mere passing of laws that criminalize hate isn’t going to solve the problem. It needs something different to be done and that is mostly at an individual level.
Our Constitution makers were aware of the pain of partition. They dreamt of an Indian state where equality, liberty, and fraternity are regarded as the core principles of human life. In fact, Ambedkar went to the extent of calling them a ‘Union of the trinity’, where one cannot exist without the other two. Removing/ restricting anyone from the rest defeats the whole purpose of the idea of democracy. There is an enormous literature available on them for those interested to explore further. But this article confines itself with the idea of fraternity and tries to explore it in a different dimension.
Idea of Fraternity
Fraternity in simple terms refers to brotherhood. When we say that we value the idea of fraternity, it is nothing but treating everyone with respect and a sense of belonging. It is a very broad term as it encompasses other values like tolerance, love, empathy, etc. It is a basic requirement for the successful functioning of any democracy, as it is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Our forefathers knew the importance of fraternity in achieving the unity of the nation. In fact, placing ‘assuring the dignity of the individual’ before ‘unity of the nation’ in the Preamble itself is strategic as the latter is not achievable without the former. This is evident from the Constituent Assembly debates. Assuring the dignity of any individual is intrinsic to fraternity since one can’t achieve brotherhood if others are treated as underclass or aliens, without giving them due respect, despite differences.
There are debates going around equality, justice, and the means to achieve them. But somehow, the idea of the fraternity took a back seat. There is nil to very few discussions on fraternity. It is the most neglected one among the trinity. Harsh Mander, a prominent human rights activist and peace worker, describes fraternity as the missing link of India’s democracy at present times.
It’s not like the idea of fraternity is wholly new. In fact, from our childhood days, we were used to taking the pledge, “All Indians are my brothers and sisters, and I shall treat them with respect and courtesy, and derive my happiness from their well-being (Paraphrased) .”
Hate and Theatrics
What makes hate multiply- Obviously, a source to breed, but that is only one side of the coin. What it essentially needs is theatrics to generate a sense of fear. As Yuval Noah Harari explains in his ’21 Lessons for 21st Century’, terrorists are so weak that they cannot wage a conventional war. Instead, they retort to optics and theatrics which can instill a sense of fear among people. The 9/11 attack on the twin towers of the United States of America is the best example as he mentions. As a matter of fact, they could have attacked any other building for that sake. But, for them, public memory is important and that is where theatrics play a role in constantly recreating that memory.
Terrorism is also a kind of hate crime. They breed on a sense of fear and imagination. The hate that is being generated today is also a combination of these. They instill fear among people by imagining things, which may or may not become true. That is done by pitting one person against another or one community against another. In most cases, it is the individual who is often equated with a community, thereby the whole community getting blamed.
The creation of fake videos, morphed images, and deep fakes also serves this purpose. It is more visually appealing and easily convincible than a straight forward text message. Conspiracy theories targetting a particular community is to create an imaginary sense of fear. They play on the memory of the people. Remove theatrics from all these, this hate would not have had much impact. This is how technology can also be misused to achieve personal gains rather than collective well-being.
It is, therefore convenient to say that,
Source * theatrics = Amount of Hate generated
‘We’ As a ‘source’
It must come as a surprise when I refer to us as a source of hate generation. But, let me clarify things: there are two kinds of sources — One who does this consciously and the other ones do it unknowingly and subconsciously. It is pointless to talk about the first category. They happen to occur everywhere. Even in electoral politics, the core base of any party is not significant for an electoral win but it is the median voters who decide the outcome. Similarly, those who spew hate consciously doesn’t matter much as they can be easily identifiable. What is of concern is the ones who do it subconsciously and whose intention doesn’t align with the outcome expected.
Life itself has a speech and is never silent. And its utterance is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry; it is a song. Learn from it that you are a part of the harmony; learn from it to obey the laws of harmony.
-OSHO in ‘The New Alchemy to turn you on’
Let me explain how this works in practicality. There are a few ways of doing these.
- The first way: When we constantly reshare the hate spewed messages and their images with our objections to it. Now, having put out objections is a good thing, but that could have been done without resharing those, as you may become the source for a viewer, who’s seeing it for the first time on your page only. He/She doesn’t know that someone else posted that hate message until you reshared it. That could have cut the chain there itself. In effect, you are letting another person see the hate.
- The second way: Many times, after constantly calling out persons for their hate propaganda or their subversion of duties, it doesn’t stop there. It goes on till mocking them for incidents of their personal lives. One example is the time when the Prime Minister of the country slipped and fell. It was natural for every being, and it happens. But he was mocked as,’ he could not watch his legs and walk, how can he run the country?’. One more example popped up as I was writing this piece, where the Cheif Justice of India had his pants slipping down. He might have forgotten his belt. Ideally, there should be nothing to mock him. But posts like, ‘ Now I am sure that he cannot hold anything rightly / ‘Contempt of fashion’ came out. These kinds of thoughts occur out of dislike, which may be due to professional reasons. But over time, it grows into something much destructive, i.e. hate. Hate solidifies by these incidents. Somewhere the contours between professional and personal lives have been breached. Criticisms on policies, decisions are always welcome, but mocking someone on their personal issues is the worst behavior.
By no means, this list is exhaustive. We must keep in mind that objecting to hate is not equivalent to propagating love and harmony. It is just half work done and if left unfinished, it has the strength to get back and destroy things. It’s like clearing the weed and leaving it alone. It again makes weed grow. Instead, if, we had planted trees when we cleared, there could have been a small garden growing up. They say, ‘As you sow, so you reap’, here we aren’t sowing love, care. We are just rejecting hate. And both aren’t the same.
Where exactly Spirituality fits in
There are different forms of spirituality in practice around the world. It is becoming difficult to differentiate as to which are genuine and which aren’t. Here are simple hacks to identify the right ones: The genuine ones do not discriminate against anyone and they do not charge for their membership or any other programs.
Having said that, what spirituality essentially teaches is to awaken inner consciousness and find the real purpose of life. Though these are meta-questions, these belong to a higher level of awareness of life. All that spirituality teaches is to silence the mind. It believes that the mind is like a garden. What you sow in that garden, you reap. This is where spirituality helps the world. It calls for only positive emotions to be sown.
As Osho says, ‘mind is always a deceiver. Wherever it goes, it tries to deceive. So be alert’. Also, Jiddu Krishnamurti in his book ‘Think on these things’ says, ‘life is like a river — constantly flowing. However, it is the mind that restricts from enjoying its true essence- by the walls of past experiences, fears, and so-called knowledge’. It is therefore important to understand the working of the mind and to carefully use it for the betterment of mankind.
Krishnamurti also touches on the basic problem humanity is facing, ‘the idea of co-operation’. These days co-operation is always linked to something achievable, deliverable, or monetarily rewardable. But that is not co-operation. That is basically an inducement or an agreement in the form of co-operation. What real co-operation essentially means is that, two or more beings together without any expectations, that real joy of being together and feeling togetherness. That conception of co-operation is missing in today's world. And without real co-operation, the idea of fraternity is a utopia.
Views and counterviews
Spirituality is for the rich while poor people are dying
This argument is fundamentally flawed. One doesn’t need to be rich to embrace spirituality. In fact, it doesn’t differentiate between poor and rich, educated or uneducated; and so on. it is open for all.
Also, preaching the idea of fraternity is no spirituality at all. Spirituality is a very broader term and fraternity is just a part of it. When everyone displays love and empathy towards other beings, there won’t be any need for spirituality.
Pointing out the wrong thing isn’t the same as transmitting hate
While this is indeed true, the only thing that must be kept in mind is the way of pointing it out. The more we use the languages or images or any theatrics of the hate, the more we tend to become a source of it. Nip that hate virus at its bud only. Don’t let it spread.
This is so easy to preach but the ground realities are different and difficult too
There cannot be any counter-argument to this. Ground realities are always different owing to the various complexities in play simultaneously. It is very difficult to achieve any progress when there is a sense of hate and fear prevailing. This is where the importance of fraternity comes in, making any kind of progress achievable. ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ isn’t merely a slogan, it should become a goal to be cherished forever.
Game ahead
This is a game where two sides are playing, one playing a dirty game while the other becoming dirty in the process. It is therefore important not to fall into the trap of becoming dirty in the process of defeating the dirty one.
Many a time, the importance of institutions in building a nation is stressed upon. Unfortunately, these institutions are mere skeletal structures, whose functioning depends on the individuals who administer them. History is replete with examples from both ends of the spectrum. How an individual with high values can transform the functioning of an institution can best be seen in the case of T.N. Seshan. This is why we need better beings with high values.
It is therefore very important to inculcate the ideas of fraternity among people, at every stage possible. This should be done on multiple fronts, like the education system, the technological front, and so on. Only then, the nation progresses and so does the world. That is the way forward to realize the goal of a better world.
