Committing your life to a 'cause' takes courage, determination and grit no doubt, but it starts with compassion, empathy and sensitivity - for others! Keeping moving on the chosen path of 'liberation' in spite of all the adversities and obstacles faced in the path requires a being of mettle. It gives you immense pleasure and satisfaction to see such efforts getting recognized with 'Noble Prize' as, it doesn't get any better. However the story continues as it refuses to rest on the laurels of any Prize - even a Nobel!
The Journey of Kailash Satyarthi towards liberating every child from drudgery and slavery gets filmed and this creative effort of documenting the predicament, the principle and the process in a documentary has come out so well that even this documentary bagged Grand Jury Prize, US Documentary, Sundance 2018!
'Price of Free' is such a quintessential case-study for all those who look forward to commit to a 'cause', undertake a social initiative or enterprise and aspire to have some purpose of life bigger than their self and be of use to a larger good!
Sustainability is not a Quick-fix, its a Culture. And Culture needs to be cultivated, developed and imbibed with a top-down approach. Why Top-Down Approach...? Because it is the TOP where Policy Decisions are made. Art and Science of Politics is about taking a stand for the People with inclusive, far-reaching and proactive policies that would affect not just the present but all the future generations to come. It is not the dirty game or a power-play it is a responsibility higher to any other individual responsibility reinforced with Ethics, Empathy, Environmental and Economical Balance.
Bhutan, a tiny but 'rich' nation with a tallest standing when it comes to sustainability, got rid of GDP long ago and embraced GNH - Gross National Happiness - an unprecedented measure that the World should lookup to for all its proactive, practical and political purposes.
There's sure a lot to learn from this tiny settlement that never boasted on 'Democracy' neither craved for a 'Developed' status but continued to take the path that it believed in wholeheartedly - by taking along each and every citizen of it.
"Dāna is the price which is paid by the way of social duty. And Dakṣiṇā is the price paid for services received. Everything has a value. Every service has a value. And whatever has a value, is wealth! And righteousness and pleasure both depend on wealth itself. That is why financial transactions should be performed righteously."
"Taking someone else's wealth without paying for it amounts to seizing someone's wealth. And seizing someone's wealth amounts to destroying one's own wealth. Emperor, food and your people are your true wealth and food is related to the people."
"Concern for the society. To me, the country is important and not a person. I am devoted to betterment of Society; I think of just that! That is why I am concerned about taxes. That is why I am concerned about dāna. Taxes are that very wealth on which a government depends. And dāna is the wealth on which society depends."
"Society is an ocean. If the ocean's waters do not go back into the ocean, then wealth can become harmful." "Who should I honour? The Acharya who lives with bare minimum needs, or those respectable merchants who would not pay taxes?"
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This is Chanakya explaining importance of 'Dhana' and Social Responsibility to Chandragupta- the Emperor about 2500 years ago. Isn't it true even today, in fact truer, when we do not have Emperors anymore but have our elected 'Representatives' (if not 'servants'!) who are supposed to 'Serve' the 'Society' as a whole and not Rule (or overrule?) it by setting wrong precedents; particularly in the arena that is yet to find maturity and is already exposed to risk of 'liberal interpretation'? Anyway, Happy Diwali and have a prosperous Laxmi-poojan; just try to make it Righteous too, as far as possible!
Way to go...
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PS[ST] - By the way, if the note 'Contribution towards this project did not qualify as CSR activity as per schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 as it was not a heritage asset.' in CAG's report about CSR funds contributed to the world's tallest monument finds some relevance to the Gyan above by Chanakya, it is unintended and a pure coincidence.
our prehistoric ‘Homo sapiens’ mindset; a Latin word
that actually means ‘Wise Man’… what an irony!
By the way that
sanity, if it prevails anytime, would also help us, at least to understand, if
not put a conscience full stop to, the agitation about the Sabarimala and many similar
issues!
Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope
for the best, for a day when this ‘most evolved’ species of ours understands
and behaves meaning of its Name and... Fame! Amen!
Politics [not to be confused with ‘Political Science’ which is a stream of Social Science that deals with systems of governance and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts and political behavior] taken from Greek ‘Politiká’ means "affairs of the cities" – the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance – organized control over a human community, particularly a state. To make such decision of governance, collectively termed as Policies and rolled out in form of bills and legislation, a special constitutional position of power and office of authority is required. Obtaining that position and office is done with the help of elections.
In a democratic system of governance, people – the rightful citizens of the province – vote in elections to choose and elect their representatives for sending to the Office of Policy-making, right from Gramsabha, Panchayati Raj to Assembly or Parliament. The candidate with most votes wins the election and secures his position of power for the term of that particular office. However only the candidate having ‘wining capacity’ gets to contest the election and is promoted by his or her party. Amongst many other criteria of wining capacity, one major criterion is influence of the candidate on many fronts, including but not limited to, community the candidate belongs to – his or her Cast and Religion!
Historical records of elections held in Independent India confirms the fact that people of India who vote in elections use a triple bottom line of their own judgement that comprises of Cast and Religion of the contestant, promises and lures – particularly of ‘development’ – the candidate has offered and candidate’s public image. This happens like this for years as majority of India dwells in villages and we are still a developing country with an immature democracy! In spite of being world’s largest in size, why are we immature as a democracy? First, because we are largest – we have a huge, diverse population. But this same diversity is our identity we have cherished for centuries and it cannot be compromised.
Secondly, we have thousands of years of tradition of Personality Cult – worshiping a Person for his or her special identity or presumed qualities, attributes. It could be anything from the dynasty the person comes from to charisma of a particular individual. This is a clear indication that we either have not yet learned [or completely forgotten] the theory of relativity, or have lost our conscience entirely as we cannot think rationally and act independently but choose to follow safest and convenient herd mentality instead. Our fundamental survival instinct of feeling secure in a group takes over our rationality for sure.
Finally, we are bargain-freak people obsessed with negotiating and consider it a ‘win’ to get something bigger in return for what we offer. Our philosophy of transaction is based on a win-lose, or on lose-lose in the worst scenario, but never on win-win situation. This same mindset is prevalent in all our dealings – economical, social or political. We have put a price on our vote and we bargain it for the promises that are always towering around election times but never to be fulfilled unless the proposer is the beneficiary of the outcome, in one way or other. Politicians are the biggest advertisers and they have mastered the ‘Art of Selling’ so well that they know what to put in the Showcase and what to store in the godown for delivery. That way, for all these years of Independence, Transition and Development we are fooled every time and our votes are exchanged for a bargain that never materializes as anticipated.
So what’s the context of all this Gyan about Democracy and Indian Politics today? Well, the Great Indian Circus is back with its acrobatics showing the optimum flexibility of human mind, body and soul, defying the laws of physics – the science of ‘matter’ – and giving tough competition to each other as well as to rubber in elasticity, with the ‘evolved’ rhetoric in form of glasnost and ‘spiritual’ expedition in form of pilgrimages. This is a welcome change that could be acceptable only if nature takes its course to make a lion vegan and a cow carnivorous!
A word of advice would be handy to prepare your mind for responding to these show-themes – don’t get fooled with the bargain; use your brain. Although we do not have the 'Right to Recall' for accountability yet, we have our voice in form of a vote... it’s invaluable, do not bargain, lose or waste it, put it to the best use as the future generations would revere or curse you for what you would leave for them!
Click on the link to play the Google Video The tagline of 'Ego-wise' gets life with this 'Drama' at Ferguson College where Maitrayee could be spotted 'In search of truth...' with her 'Philosopher' friends!
