Query: The world is threatened by violence, bloodshed and the use of deadly weapons! Almost all the countries are plagued by numerous problems. But even after that every country is trying to disturb other countries! Why is this happening across the planet ? How can this be reversed?
Gurumaharaj :This is called sadism. They derive a kind of pleasure by inflicting pain on others. From a child’s behaviour you can deduce whether he will become a sadist. It is often observed that a village boy slowly kills a pest or a spider by piercing their bodies with a small stick. When the same child becomes boder, he tears apart the legs or wings of an insect or ties the back of a grasshopper to fly it as a kite. Be sure of the fact that this small boy will be a sadist when he is an adult. Such a boy in a city is often seen to be giving slaps on the head of one of his timid classmates for no good reason or causing a boy to stumble or falsely implicating his friends to give him severe punishment. Thus, he derives a perverted pleasure hurting others. If the parents and the teachers observe such things and try to remedy this kind of behaviour, the child can change his mindset. This kind of boy does not change, his mindset only gets changed . If the mother of such a child has a higher consciousness level or if she can become a mother in the true sense of the term, then she is able to improve the consciousness level of that child. A mother’s sacrifice, her teardrops can effect this change. If instead of reacting to one of his misdeeds she looks into the child’s eyes with painful emotion, then even he heart of that cruel child will be melted.
Other than the mother only a spiritual master or the Guru can mend ways of such a boy or girl. A true academic teacher can also do the same. Such cases are aplenty.
But there is another important condition for this. That is one’s compassion for his own self ( Atma Kripa)! A man can change himself, that is, he can elevate his own consciousness level. The company of pious people largely contibutes to this process.
However, our planet is still in its infancy. How can the consciousness level of most of the people of this planet be higher? Most of the people here are sadists. They love to hurt others. A closer study of the history of the world will reveal the fact that the political leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Nero, the emperor of Rome; Mihirakula, the leader of the Huns; Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, Saddam Hussein, the ruler of Iraq; Gaddafi of Libya, the Moghul and Turk emperors of India were all sadists!
The dominant philosophies in most of the countries other than India namely the Semitic philosophy fails to answer how a person can realize the Truth Absolute or attain enlightenment. Consequently, those who follow such philosophy always suffer from dissatisfaction and acute sense of insecurity. Thus, they are politically, socially and religiously motivated to develop a very violent attitude.
If we take Indian religion into consideration, then we must conclude that the Indians are quite lucky. Hindu philosophy refers to ‘Dharma’ as eternal ( Sanatana). Only the Indian philosophy in this planet offers the idea of Perfection or Enlightenment!
The religious and political leaders of the world has time and again caused bloodshed by waging wars. On the other hand, the spiritually advanced leaders of Sanatana Dharma comforted the war- ravaged world by showing them the path to attain Peace in life. They taught the world meditation, yoga, pranayama and the ideals of love and sacrifice. In ancient India the kings followed their revered spiritual masters and consulted them for running the administration of their kingdoms. As a result, no Indian king ever dominated other countries. Emperor Ashoka established amicable relationship with the King of Sinhala propagating peace in that region. The Kings of the Pala dynasty spread the academic and cultural activities in the island countries like Shyam and Malay (at present Thailand and Malaysia respectively). Even today the extant architectural remains of these countries bear testimony to that past glory!
( to be continued)
Translated by Amitava Saha
Talks by the Master ( 33)
Vol. 6
In the previous episode our revered Gurumaharaj was explaining why our planet is faced with constant warfare. Here is the following excerpt:
Gurumaharaj : However, let me get to the root cause of this sadistic personality disorder. The chief reason for sadistic behaviour is discontent. Indian scriptures teach us that the sense of contentment can give us happiness while the feeling of discontentment gives rise to all our sufferings. Our scriptures point out “… nālpe sukhamasti bhūmaiva sukhaṃ…” ( Chhandogya Upanishad 7.23.1). It means that there is no happiness in anything small or finite. Only the attainment of Brahman or the Infinite can give us true happiness.
As the Indians are accustomed to these ideals right from their childhood, they are mentally much healthier and happier. If you analyse the condition of the people in other countries, you will observe that the poorest of the poor in our country live happily. They may be full of wants, they may live in poverty they may be the victims of many social injustices. But far from the maddening crowd of the urban society when after a day’s hard work these hapless people dance round a small fire holding each other’s hands after consuming locally made liquor, it turns into a heavenly court. It seems as if some divine boys and girls are staging a brilliant dance performance .
When I was travelling in Europe, I was asked to deliver a speech on the reasons and possible remedy of the moral decadence of the younger generation of the advanced countries, ever increasing violence in the world and the possibility of third world war in a seminar.
I said in my speech,” I really appreciate the fact that you people are well aware of all these terrible crises of our times. Actually I always endorse the causes of humanity and I’m dead against anything that is contrary to that.”
However, look at the present world. Only a few countries are politically and economically highly advanced. On the other hand, a good number of countries live well below the poverty line. This is how the world has been divided as first word, second world and third world and many such categories. In every country you will find many economic and social discrepancies. In those countries some people scale the economic, social and political heights. Some people live as the middle class. But the common masses lead a miserable life in extreme poverty. They don’t even afford to educate their children properly. While the other people enjoy nutritious food and decent dresses, they remain absolutely deprived of all such things.
They observe everything but can’t enjoy them. This gives rise to sheer discontentment among them. Again this leads to unrest which finds expression in the rebellious activities. This is the foremost reason for their jealousy which results in violent reactions. In addition to this, a section of people are enjoying all the privileges which others cannot. As a natural concequence of it, the have nots develop a competitive mindset. Hence, many rebellious political outfits or terrorist outfits crop up. They fight for the privileges, luxury and wealth. This has been termed by many as class struggle.
This happens as the society evolves. This way the marginalised, deprived class struggle hard. But in reality ten per cent of such people succeed in achieving elite status. But funnily enough, those who finally manage to succeed in achieving elite status starts hobnobbing with the people of the elite class and gradually become a part of that class with whom they have earlier fought such a battle.
About forty per cent of the deprived section accept their failure when they cannot win the rat race. The rest fifty per cent remain dissatisfied. Some of them suffer from inferiority complex and some decide to take revenge. Sadism springs from this kind of revengeful attitude. In other words, being pitted against the circumstances the deep seated tendencies of such people manifest in the social domain. They resort to numerous means of violence to disrupt the social fabric.
Such persons who are less powerful become bullies or robbers. If any of them somehow grabs the highest political power, he begins perpetrating bloody massacres or waging wars against another nations putting lives of millions at stake. The followers of such perverted person also have a sadistic streak in them. They foolishly make that pervert their leader. These fools are also discontented. They also bear a grudge against the privileged sections of the society. So, they inevitably get involved in number of scuffles, murders and conflicts. All these factors eventually cause wars. These small wars cause major international conflicts and finally they lead to World War.
(To be continued)
Translated by Amitava Saha