kokoroZendo

It is easy  to miss a forest  for trees, when you are in the forest. Distance brings in clarity.  I was
resisting  the temptation to  write in my  blog about the  recent specatcle  of “ War against corruption”. So when a colleague   of mine asked for my view, I thought  I will pen my thoughts   rather than offer another commentary  as a butterfly  on the wall  of Jantar Mantar, TV Studios  or even  @ the source of  that  mysterious CD. These are  some random thoughts  connected tenously  to the subject matter.  Some of them may be paradoxical.  But our wold is  a paradox.

J.  Krisnamurthy, one of  the  original philososphers   did  have  a way with words.  To quote Mr. Krishnamurthy “You are the world, the neighbour, the friend, the so-called enemy. If you would understand, you must first understand yourself, for in you is the root of all understanding. In you is the beginning and the end.”   We make our world. We contribute to the good, bad and evil. Add to the river of consciousness, either directly or indirectly. So it is important to introspect, before separating  “Lilly white” self   from the  “corrupt” and “dark”  world out there  and take a holier than thou self righteous stand.

It is also important to realize that  our world  is not an Ideal place.  Especially since it is made by less than ideal human beings.  Most probably  Rama Rajya is an inner longing of a guilty mind, than a melancholic recollection of  good old days.  There is nothing there in our world, absolutely  in Black and White..  It is a big band of  continous spectrum  (2G / 3G ) of Grey lines  two thin lines of  Black and White.  A vast majority of human beings, dynamically  oscillate between those thin lines  as context  (Or  Circle) changes . It is  mankind’s innate understanding of  this truth forced him to create  Ideal GODs who behave perfectly in a absultely honest ways.   So Ideal World is a Myth .  (like  Ideal God and Godmen ?).

 Especially a Corruption free world  is an Utopia. Why ?

Now I could hear the familiar clamor. It is the system and  we are all poor  victims of the system.

But  we started with the view, We make the World. System is made by  the “Self”. 

Considering this as another Chicken or Egg dilemma,    Should we strive for a solution  ?
 Of course we should,  if  we getover the the need for an Ideal world and ideal solution.

Then  what  could be a good  solution ?  Where it should start ? Self or System ?

IMV, it need to be started with the System.  While  Self is the best unit for change, it would take a  very long time  for each one of  us to be Saintly.  Keeping in mind the fact  that we have considerably evolved  ever since  we started  walking on two legs,  there could be a phsychological or biological
mutation for being better human beings, in very distant future.  So while waiting for that internal
transformation to happen in each one of us,  there should be systemic changes  as  an external motivation  to comply with generally accepted  principles of society.  Or unfettered  or  unregulated  greed  would  ensure a faster fall to the abyss.  So systemic changes is a must. 

 Even though Yudhishitira  said to have answered  Yaksha  “absence  of desire makes one rich”,  all of
us  are trying to be wiser than him  by trying to  GAIN riches  without  having to  LOSE our desire.  So if the Self does not change,  any system we put in place, will be ineffective.  Also a lot of effort  by way of religions, prophets etc have not made much of  a dent on Self.  Some of the most greedy people are  Hindu Godmen,  Many Muslim clergymen does not get proper sleep everynight  unless they  delcare a fatwa on some one’s head during the day and Vatican is struggling for a solution  for those priests charged with pedophilia in USA.  Human mind  will always find ways and means to beat the system.  Man  is an innovative animal  and  he has created  enough Mental Tools  to  do that.

Another question comes to mind, is whom we should entrust to change the system ?  Considering the area of  corruption should they be one  with no skeletons in their closet ?

The same principles  applies  to  security of IT systems as well. The best security systems are created by the best hackers.  If Tamil Nadu police  had  caught Veerappan alive, probably   we would have  had a best selling guide on how to stop poaching of  wild elephants.   That does not necessarily mean that  every cop need to have a criminal history.  But it does help. Even the  God  can’t be more religious than the recently  converted  athiest.

Then many  good men are endowed with  great ability to imagine the ways of  human psyche.  They can add immense value in creating a  good system. But  one quality they need to have  is  not being onion skinned. The moment we  offer ourselves as  models of perfect  virtue in public service,  we end up  like fish in a  glass bowl.  One of the most succesful attorneys in  USA, Jerry  Spence in his wonderful book “How to Argue and Win every time”, offers  a wonderful solution for all Presidential
candidates.  Write  down all our misdemeanors in our life and send to  the press and all opponents  before even announcing our candidature.  Infact  Mr. Obama started his own campaign  by writing his memoirs  “Dreams from my father” very candidly.  And went to become the President of USA.

So I did not really understand  Shanti Bhushan’s  logic and defense of  “ I have never known or met  Mr. Amar Singh”.  What can be a better qualitfication that  representing Amar Singh and his party in courts.    Or Hedge coming out  and writing to Digvijay Singh a note on  his learning  from his effort of  Cleansing the most corrupt state in the country .

So the 10 wise men  have come together to create the system.  They need to start, by learning about the Law of Entropy which states that  the moment we create a perfect system of order, it will start moving towards disorder.  And  as long as  the  Self  does not change, the movement to disorder will
be faster and  this Jantar  Mantar  act will keep repeating..