Solutions Lie Within Us

N. Arunkumar *

Every era of human evolution has projected extraordinary human beings into our midst, who have gone on to become figures around whom legendary stories, myths and supernatural aura are woven. From Europe to Asia and from Africa to the Middle East, there have been illustrious individuals who have created unassailable niches for themselves that remain inmprinted in world consciousness for time immemorial.

Down the years, perhaps these figures will gradually take on mythological hues, that will go on to inspire or deject the world of that era. It brings us to a fundamental thought about our own ancestors and their contributions to our contemporary culture and how those have shaped the nature of our thoughts and actions of the present.

Today, we are witness to momentous achievements in terms of cultural development, scientific expansion, technological wonders and a host of other sciences that have brought about a huge change of sensitivity in our way of living and defending life. Ancient sciences, systems and ways of life are however being casually discarded by the younger, more awakened youth of today, claiming that those are old fashioned and outmoded systems of living.

The glitz and verve of modern life, in a global village ambience has subjectively seasoned them to receive many of the old traditions with scepticism. Critics of the old trditions often refuse to acknowledge the fact that our ancient scriptures and what have been said in them are rich observations about a mystery, called life.

Even today, our ancient scriptures throw sufficient enlightenment on many scientific discoveries of the present, in a language that needs deep knowledge to understand. Vedic traditions, Sanamahi, Christianity, Islam et al, depend on one common cord for insight, which is faith. Faith, even in a piece of stone lying on a persons path can sometimes bring boundless confidence to that person and help him to overcome collossal challenges in his fight for survival.

I had a friend who would always pick up a stone nearest to him, kiss it reverentially and put it in his pocket just before facing a tough situation in his ordinary day – to – day life and work. I got curious about that trend, and asked him why he did that. He said that he did not know why, though he promised to prove to me that it worked.

One day, I had to face a tough situation on a particular working day, and this friend was also with me at the time. He quickly picked up a stone and kissed it as usual and gave it to me. He asked me to keep it in my pocket while I faced the volley of questions regarding my work situation.

Providentially or otherwise, whatever you may wish to call it, my answers to the queries from my boss were readily accepted and I did not have to face the flak that I was expecting to on that day.

My faith in his solution obviously captivated me and I indulged in it a few more times, even when my friend was not with me and I was faced with messy situations on various fronts. I don't particularly recall if it worked for me at other times, though the first time left a lasting impression on me. That is indeed faith and what faith is all about. It gives you the strength to face tough situations with confidence and when confidence is gained, it is half the battle won.

At the present moment, we are going through a severe crisis on various fronts. On the one hand we have the security operations going on at a frenetic pace to curb all kinds of law and order problems, and not all of them connected with secessionist forces, mind you. We have in our midst those elements who are upsetting and demolishing our normal routine work and fight for survival by extorting from us, our hard earned funds.

There are those who earn by unfair means too among us, and the differentiation is not all that important. Everyone, immaterial of his social status, has to comply with these menacing demands of all kinds and that is only destroying our social fabric with far reaching repercussions. To expect a hero to come and save us from this depressing mess is a fervent prayer on all our lips today.

Those elements who are creating havoc amongst us are also not living peacefully of course. They are also always staring down the barrel of a gun or expecting a sniper to get them sooner or later. Why and what makes them undertake these suicidal missions and to what purpose, is our constant thought companion now. Many of our brothers and sisters have already hit the dust and are forgotten in the dusty lanes of time, and those who are living now and furthering these deeds need to ask this question to themselves.

Have their deaths really changed anything or brought about a solution to our pressing problems? Dossiers on killings and bloodshed get filled up almost on a daily basis and our population is facing social disharmony of a kind that only leaves a sour taste in all of us. Imagine, where sons should have been conducting funeral services for their fathers, the fathers are doing that for their sons.

Many young lives have been consigned to the pages of history, which will only create more and more hatred within our forthcoming generations. Natural deaths are what all of us wish to experience, so that our souls will not leave here with half fulfilled dreams or desires. At least something has to be achieved if not all of our longings.

Unfortunately, that natural process is largely troubled now, due to the ongoing battle which is more or less a 'cat – and – mouse' game between the gun and the flesh. It is depressing, and the more we come across it on a daily basis, the more we realize that our society has lost a lot in the struggle to catch up with the contemporary world.

A few brilliant achievements here and there go unnoticed by the rest of the world too, as it is generally believed that Manipur is a disturbed area where only stories of gunbattles, killings and sporadic incidents of law breaking violence exists as a routine part of life. It is not enough to blame everyone but ourselves for these dark days in our lives. We must look inward, and find solutions to these miseries by ourselves. Expecting far away Delhi to solve our issues is like asking for the 'Khechri' to cook when the fire is lit far away from the pot.

It is a memorable story in the Akbar – Birbal series, where Birbal proved to Emperor Akbar that a manner of punishment decreed by Akbar was actually unjustified and wrong. When Akbar saw the logic behind Birbal's argument, he immediately apologized to the victim and reversed his decision.

Hence, we all humbly must appeal to our genuine senses, to reconsider the level of violence in our midst, and bring on some heroes, who will actually struggle to fathom the mysteries of life around us and offer solutions to living with dignity and self – respect. These qualities are at a low ebb at the moment.

I have often come across folks who claim that Manipur is a poor state and that we have severe limitations in terms of realizing our dreams of making our state a great example of progress and peace. That is far from the truth. If we had been a poor state in terms of natural and human resources, we could perhaps not have faced the problems that we are facing today, ironically.

We have enough talents, resources and readiness to strive and overcome adversities bravely, but what we don't have is the patience to let our brilliance do the dictating in terms of deciding the quality of life we wish to live and demonstrate to the world. Our rich traditions are today taking a back – seat, due to our struggle with violence all over us.

The violence is sadly, defeating our principles as a peace loving race of people who enjoy inner calm due to the wisdom handed down to us by our ancestors. Our ancient traditions of peaceful existence are compromised almost on a daily basis. If politics and governments could have solved our problems and guided our dreams of achieving greatness, there would have never been these little wars or destructive events in our society. We have to dive into our inner strength and bring out paramount qualities from within once again.

Maybe, then a hero will emerge in our midst too, who will go on to take mytholigical proportions in the future that will reflect our ethos in a superior light. And all that, only if we really want it.

Seriously!