Silent Power?

By Dr Pravin Togadia

By no means am I speaking of power of silence here. And, the cliché of ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts’ too is not meant here. There are many powers! One that is generally termed as ‘power’ is the political one. Then there is a simple term in physics ‘power’. Body builders and weight lifters do power-lifting using their muscle power.

There are other powers which are not as openly seen or spoken about day in and day out on media or in the so-called social activists’ circles. Divine power is one of them. I do believe in it as many Hindus do. It has its own socio-spiritual connotations and therefore we will not speak about it here. There is some unseen but strongly felt power – Cultural Power. We will combine it with the power of society. Rather, let us term it as Power of Public (Aam Aadmi)!

In a nation like Bharat where there are glorious culture and civilisation of ages, this Aam Aadmi is not a mere mob or a group. Huge spiritual public gatherings of over five crore people at a time at the banks of pious rivers have been happening in the form of Kumbh and Maha Kumbh. People walk thousands of miles together to reach a pilgrim destination. Many nomadic tribes have been taking same routes for ages when they migrate in particular seasons. One can give umpteen examples of Public of Bharat where there is a silent power – power of togetherness, power of one goal and one destination but no exhibitionism and no 24 X 7 sponsored publicity. They halt where and when they have to on their journey, eat whatever is offered with love and respect by the village – again, there is no show of ‘how they halted at a poor home and eaten their food’.

This is a silent spiritual power inbuilt in the Hindu dharma which transforms into a social power. This social power has its own psyche. However anyone tries to manipulate or mislead this psyche, it remains firm on the basic principles of dharma, truth and togetherness. For short term gains, many try to divide it. Sometimes they feel that they were successful in dividing it into castes, languages, state borders and genders etc. Not the Public of Bharat, but the divisive forces are under hallucination if they think they can manipulate Public Power of Bharat.

But when the basic principles of Bharat’s social psyche are hurt, this power that is silently going on for ages and silently watching every incident gears up its own saatvik energy. This Eid thousands of cows were butchered in Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and many other states. I was in Hyderabad the very next day for a pre-scheduled programme when I saw ghastly pictures with big news items in the local newspapers of cows being butchered. They did not make even a single line ticker on national TV channels who continue their blah blah about rights of animals and human rights etc. They love to ignore such huge majority’s silent power.

Cow slaughtering has been happening in many states for long now. Andhra newspapers were so expressively and visually vocal this time! Scribes who respect the ancient Hindu dharma too come from the same social ‘psyche’ and this time they showed their word power. As it was silent for so long, such was the strength in their words and visuals that public gathered spontaneously for even a simple meeting. If anyone would have guided them to get the butchers, they would have. But Bharat’s dharma abiding Aam Aadmi is also law abiding.

However, there is a limit to their tolerance. They are now not only sick and tired of this one way tolerance but they are also angry with the systems, governments, people and invaders who are making their ancient psyche  bleed day in and day out. The boiling of a silent power is like a volcano. For ages it is there. It waits longer than fire crackers. But when it bursts it takes away all around. Hindus in Bharat are now like a volcano which is not ready to remain cool. Chirping channels, petty politicians and fairy tale net activists may not realise it sitting in their comfortable zones, but we see the silent power coming to the level of bursting these days almost all places in Bharat. Cow slaughtering, taking over temple and religious trusts, not allowing even daily darshan of the ancient Devis like Shrungaar Gouri and Bhagwans like Amarnath, demeaning Hindus as a violent criminal ‘group’ and brining in the so-called communal violence Bill, making sugar / milk / fruits expensive purposely exactly at the time of Hindu festivals / marriage seasons, high rail / air tariff to Hindu pilgrimage destinations vis-à-vis Haj subsidy and reservation in jobs / education, ban on speakers for Ganesh, Navaraatri etc and five times high decibel yelling even at wee hours from the mosques (despite the Hon Supreme Court verdict to stop it!), majorities tax money being used for subsidising unlimited children of minority, jailing social service Hindu organisations, people and Sadhu-saints while relaxing rules for minorities, abducting Hindu girls and raping them …

This list is very long and Bharat’s silent majority is angry. When we travel all over Bharat 25 days a month without any posters, media ho hoopla and show biz, we feel the boil within them. Kids of age 8 to 11 speak passionately as to how they are angry about many issues; same is the case with the Hindu teenagers and youth. So also of the middle aged and the elderly. Corruption, black money and such issue bother them, yes. They treat these as a part and parcel of orchestrated dirty designs to finish Bharat and Bharat’s glorious civilisation. If any social outbursts are gathering more momentum then the reasons are not in the current causes. The majority of Bharat’s social psyche is burning and boiling within. They tried expressing it through votes, through various memorandums to the rulers, through sporadic agitations etc. But no more. A little trigger if again hurts this silent power, then I fear that it would throw its ancient saatvik form once and for all for the survival of the dharma, civilisation and togetherness. Kaliyuga ends this way anyway!