The civilisational and cultural diversity is a boon for humanity. But, when things are impressed in a camouflaged manner to impose conformity then conflict and confusion erupts. For example, had it not been impressed upon us that it is the sign of being civil and cultured to wear coat and suit in office space then, who would want to wear a tie and coat suit in the sultry weather of Kerala or Tamil Nadu or in the summers of Uttar-Bharat for that matter? Wouldn’t one feel rather comfortable wearing apparel that suits one’s well-being in a given climate? Clearly this dress code is not a sign of cultural diversity, it rather is –‘in your face’ example of inferiority and conformity.
And, this hasn’t happened overnight. Under the pseudonym of secular discourse, intelligentsia identifying itself with this or that belief-system has been propagating these not so beautiful sentiments of conformity through various institutions in surrogate manner. The first propagation (prachaar) is that our/their belief is true. The second propagation (vitandaa) is that only our/their belief is true. Do they/we realise how much of a blinding impression the first propagation leaves in the minds of the children? And, how insulting the second propagation is to the rest of humanity? It is akin to robbing all others of their/our intrinsic human dignity. First, propagating belief as truth and then, imposing conformity in the name of truth is suffocating and gagging.
And, it is most unfortunate that first, these beliefs are sown in young minds only. It is unfortunate because these are destined to sprout in their behaviour towards ‘others’ while they grow up. This kind of ‘othering’/teaching is nothing but inducing mental lunacy and making innocent and infant minds crippling. Cleaning such impressions from their consciousness may take a lifetime. Instead of letting them stay open and innocent, is it necessary to sow the seeds of ‘us and them’ in every heart? It is due to this kind of parochial approach of imposing one’s own beliefs on all others that ‘belief-systems’ come across as divisive and segregating in their impact.
None appears to apply wisdom in seeing diversity (not as difference…) but different expressions of the same truth. When one set of believers begin to believe that another set of believers is inferior then the ‘them’ is created out of ‘us’. In reality there is no ‘them’, everywhere it’s us/we alone who are possible to be present eternally. Ponder over it wisely, as a wise consensus over the order of priorities across earth can catapult ‘we-ness’ into a dominant sentiment of humanity across the earth than any other separatist sentiment which instead of letting diversity flourish imposes conformity as unity.
Seeing from the point of existential reality, all transformed and transcended individual would acknowledge, verify, agree, assert, and reiterate that basic priorities of all individuals across earth coincide with the priorities of all earthlings as a collective and all their radii of various ‘circles of identities’ find their coinciding space with the single real identity of their being a consciousness
How to arrive at this consensus over ‘order of priorities’? What can be the mechanism for it…? Only “we” can solve all such questions by continuous debates and dialogues, “us and them” can never do that. Because “us and them” is the first problem. We should be confident and hopeful that there will emerge much more inclusive, open and transparent global mechanisms among earthlings in this age of communication technology.
At least, we can say this one thing unanimously that all cultures, religions and nations are in agreement over this sentiment that we are primarily connected to one another through dialogues of various nature. That’s how we design/architect (visrujya) our relationships and modules and ways for our mutual engagement, as earthlings. That’s the suggestion and reiteration here. Even a single agreement in oneness of word, deed and thought among all earthlings can keep the hope of peaceful existence alive.
Seeing from the point of existential reality, all transformed and transcended individual would acknowledge, verify, agree, assert, and reiterate that basic priorities of all individuals across earth coincide with the priorities of all earthlings as a collective and all their radii of various ‘circles of identities’ find their coinciding space with the single real identity of their being a consciousness.
Suppose, we choose ‘eternity’ as that one word with which everyone is in sync, then most of our dissimilarities will be ironed out in course of our collectively exploring the consciousness. Wise say that consciousness (in our own form) becomes free from all illusionary beliefs impressed upon us across Time, only when it discovers itself as an eternal being related eternally in oneness with the eternity. May that become our way to unbecoming us and them.
(Writer is the propounder of Sahaj Smriti Yog System of Self-Realisation. Founder Darpan Foundation @Bengaluru, Karnataka and Darpan Ashram@ Urigam Krishnagiri Tamil Nadu)
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