The
passage of the eons, however, has brought with it unimaginable varieties and
complexities of life-forms, as far as we know, essentially upon our Mother
earth. As Tagore profoundly described in
his poem Prithibi, the human entity
from time immemorial has been struggling to advance its divine nature, and also to suppress or (perhaps wishfully) destroy
its demonic nature. The appearance of art, culture, music- in fact,
language itself, tempered the best within the human being over vast expanses of
time. Namra Holo Shikale Bandha Danob (the Demon, in chains, became soft
and mollified), Tagore says. However,
elsewhere, Tagore maintains, Tobu Sheyi
Adim Barbar Aankre Roilo Tomar Itihash (yet, the old barbarian continued to
afflict your history). How utterly and
starkly true, I feel, to this day.
Evil,
in its simplest manifestation, is that which causes suffering. Suffering in its various forms (except for
voluntary suffering to end the suffering of others- this is on a nobler plane) is
the most fundamental aspect of evil.
Thus, physical harm inflicted upon other beings is evil. Starvation is evil. Disease and epidemics are evil. Bombing, shooting, poisoning and maiming
living beings (by use of nuclear weapons, toxic chemicals, agent orange,
depleted uranium, cluster bombs, bunker busters or remote-controlled drones-
the list really goes on and on, and in this age of instant knowledge, we should
all know who the greatest users of these are)- these are all evil, and the degree of evilness
varies with whether these occur in small or large numbers. Deprivation is evil, as is privation. Colonizing people or their territories, in
material or in spirit, is unimaginably evil.
Annexing peoples' homes or their homelands, invading sovereign
territories, creating homelessness and refugees by uprooting entire
populations- these evils have been with us from the earliest times, and are
with us even as I write.
At
a more fundamental human level, greed, avarice, fraud and depriving or looting
from others- these are the roots of much that constitutes evil. I would hardly be the first to state this-
the great teachers of mankind from just about every corner of the earth have
repeatedly issued warnings in this regard.
The greatest irony in all of this is that some of the most depraved,
cruel, intrinsically selfish and hateful individuals invoke the names and words
of these human exemplars, and then in virtually all their actions and what they
propagate, run exactly opposite to what the teachers have taught. This is true, by and large, of all
fundamentalist and right-wing proponents in the world, regardless of religious
affiliations. And even as
fundamentalists are busy spewing hatred, exercising the worst forms of
hypocrisy and fraudulence, and also when the opportunity presents itself,
butchering one another- at some deep, psychological level, I often find narrow,
vicious, fundamentalist thoughts and their proponents actually resonating with,
and reinforcing one another. Thus it is
that I find that those marinated in absolutist, fundamentalist thinking,
actually supporting one another, using false piety and putting on the cloak of
religion, even as they periodically exercise vicious violence upon one another,
and even more against those that stand apart from them. The reason I dwell upon this idea of the
nexus between right-wing, fundamentalist religious affinity and right-wing
politics is as follows. It is perfectly
clear to me that every great soul in history (many of them founders of
religious philosophies) have taught lessons that may be briefly summarized as
follows: (1) love all your neighbors, be
they white, black, yellow, red; malformed or pleasant to behold; whatever their
racial or religious origin; whatever their language or culture; (2) love all
the fellow creatures of this earth, and especially love those that need to be
protected or sheltered; (3) live by example, not by words alone; (4) above all
else, live a humble and simple life, dedicated to uplifting your fellow beings,
and selflessly serving the poorest of the poor, and those that have very
little.
The
Lord Buddha (who himself renounced great material wealth and became the
Enlightened One), Jesus of Nazareth (who repeatedly preached humility and
simplicity, and advocated against materialism and wealth, and identified with
the poor and, yes, all welfare seekers),
and in our time, Swami Vivekananda (the irrepressible Hindu monk who once said,
As long as even a single dog remains
unfed in my country, I shall appear again and again to serve the needy) --
in every aspect of what these noble humans said, they were indeed advocating
what amounts to socialist ideas. Sharing
with others, reaching out to the needy, making the world equitable and just,
eschewing amassment of wealth, or its associated vanity and arrogance- these
are essentially socialist ideas in the political sense. None, not a single one of the noble souls would
have anything to do with Wall Street, or the various magnates and billionaires
that crowd the corridors of vicious political and corporate power. They
have all been the exact opposite.
Yet- here comes the greatest irony of all. And the silence of humanity to this cruel
irony is truly ear-splittingly deafening.
First let me say that I hold Ayn Rand and even more, her philosophy with
the greatest disdain. Yet, I would at
least give her credit for this: at least
she did not profess any allegiance to religion; from what I understand, she professed
atheism. Good for her. At least she was not hypocritical about her
brand of intense materialism and self-advocacy.
She formulated an intensely selfish, completely self-oriented,
accumulative, materialist philosophy which was every man for himself, the
end always justified the means, and anyone or anything that was weak was
automatically worthless. This was
essentially an advocacy of social Darwinism at its worst, and those that have
since embraced it are invariably drawn to it by its lure of money, power (or as
I see it, the illusion of power), and uncontrolled greed, which are all at the
root of what I have outlined earlier as the real evil in human life. These ideas, which are the cornerstone of
what I see paraded as capitalism, are exactly 180 o in opposition to
the messages of the Buddha, Jesus, St. Francis, Vivekananda or Gandhi. Most ironically, a great many so-called
god-fearing, church-going individuals, and more so their pulpit-thumping
religious preachers align themselves with right-wing politics. The basic tenets of right-wing politics are:
(1) anyone not like us are aliens; (2) some ill-defined entity (ascribed
various names, including God) has "chosen" certain nations and peoples to be
special (not too long ago, perhaps even now to a degree, this idea was used to
oppress vast populations of "others", enslaving them, impoverishing them, and
exploiting their labor in order to amass vast amounts of fortune and wealth),
and hence these have an inherent right to the material riches of the earth; (3)
those who are impoverished are so because of their own laziness and
worthlessness; (4) a vague notion of
personal freedom and opportunity (cleverly put in place by the moneyed
interests that perpetually hold the vast majority, including the religious
flock, in subjugation) which is nothing but the freedom for the ones of
privilege to continue exploiting without end; (5) advocating war and violence
anywhere and everywhere in order that (1)-(4) might continue. Some, if not all, of capitalism's pillars are
based on these deeply self-serving ideas.
This perfect comfort with violence, exploitation, bully-behavior,
advocating execution (some the most virulently right-wing types are invariably
strong proponents of capital punishment; murdering doctors that provide
abortion, and of course, dropping bombs, including nuclear, chemical or any
other lethal kind, upon those they perceive as enemies, or, "the other"), all
while singing paeans to some merciful Father, is irony at its cruelest. Right-wing politics and religious
fundamentalism are thus, most oddly, joined at the hip. This form of fanatical, self-serving thinking
readily lends itself to violence and an intensely cruel pathology. Thus it is that most, if not all, proponents
of guns and firearms (the NRA comes to mind) are right-wing in their outlook,
and we also invariably see them shout the loudest about "Christian," "Western",
sometimes "Judeo-Christian" and other such "values." Yet, this cruel and deeply selfish pathology
has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth or his message.
At
bottom, proponents of dominant capitalist philosophy use religion or religious
symbols as baits to keep the vast majority from questioning the status quo, or
redressing society's real ills. This has
long been the modus operandi of imperial governments in cahoots with profiteering
and plundering religious establishments (be they in medieval Europe, colonial
America, or anywhere else). This and the
associated hypocrisy and deception (which are euphemisms for outright,
large-scale lies) define the co-existence of a merciful Father, a Savior, and
so forth on the one hand, and the most virulent forms of hatred and merciless
barbarism on the other. Conducting wars
and genocide under the cloak of religious piety has worked wonders for the
oligarchic elite for many centuries.
We
note from above that events and conduct that constitute evil have nothing to do
with human ethnic origin, language, or culture.
They instead have to do with personal and collective choices, and these
may happen anywhere in the world.
Propensity towards violence and the other vices are thus intrinsic to
the human being, and are present in humanity as a whole. It is the
minimization of such propensities that is the goal of civilization's upliftment
and the advancement of the human spirit.
Let
me now dwell upon what is definitely not
evil, yet is frequently depicted as such, quite often from ignorance or
deep-rooted insecurities. Language,
ethnic origin, belief system, or sexual orientation are not evil, unless there
is any discernable evil intent in their application. One's physical appearance (skin color, length
or shape of the nose, nature or style of hair) has absolutely nothing to do
with evil. People may well have notions
of what constitutes physical beauty, yet as has been perennially pronounced,
east, west, north or south of the earth:
beauty is only skin deep. How little attention is paid, sadly, to this
fundamental truth. Simply look at the
prolific beauty industry, and the increasingly overwhelming emphasis on fashion
trends and tabloid trivialities. Not
long ago, Arianna Huffington, a one-time right-wing affiliate, who turned (in a
positive way) away from the warmongering AD 2000-2008 years (even though the
frightful warmongering has continued unabated since then), especially from the
avaricious and predatory banking industry, started an online news and
commentary resource named Huffingtonpost, around I believe 2004 or so. After a brief period of laudable journalism, I
noted with great dismay that this website had also fallen prey to the most
shallow and superficial advertising (friends told me this was simply for
revenue generation and so forth) and naturally the quality of its journalism
likewise also fell right through the floor.
These days, I virtually never visit that website, which has become
simply an online version of a combination of the NYT (a journalistic joke in my
view) and the New York Post. Much of the
hitherto uncharted worldwideweb has become a super tabloid. People's languages and cultural practices are
not by any means evil. Yet, these, too,
have been historically made to be such because of the very same reasons I have
outlined above: insecurity and ignorance.
The
above bring me to the thesis of this article- what does Bijaya really stand
for? Is it simply a greeting to be
exchanged routinely and often mechanically at the end of each Sharadotsav? Is it nothing more than that? And, if accosted regarding its meaning, is it
simply the worn-out dictum- victory of good over evil? The answer, I believe, is both a yes and a
no. Yes, it is definitely the
celebration of victory, but no, that victory is not what seems to be the
conventional notion. As I have
indicated, evil does exist out there, and that evil may indeed be regarded as
something demonic. Hence, we have
Mahisasura. However, this idea that good
gets into the gear of warfare (the Devi's many weapons), and goes after a
"humanized" or, perhaps dehumanized "demon"- there is no doubt whatsoever in my
mind that this is all metaphorical.
There really is no demon with bloodshot eyes, frightful fangs and
razor-like claws coming to get us. When
we fail to see the metaphor, whether with our Devi versus Mahisasura, or any
other good versus evil pairing, that is when societies become vulnerable to
constructing demons, or rationalizing the demonizing of some entity or group of
entities.
The
above paradox is frequently adopted, sadly, by those wielding power and money
in society. This is the persistent
danger of the good versus evil paradigm.
It serves imperial governments, or powerful groups trying to exert
control over their rivals extremely well.
Hence, we commonly see imperial governments (sometimes cleverly cloaked
as "democracies") constantly inventing "enemies" or "those evil others", in
order to then go out under the pretext of being the "good ones", and engage in
all manner of self-serving warfare and for all practical purposes, a genocidal
killing spree. For such power-wielding
governments and societies to continue their looting, profiteering, and "their
ways of life", as they sometimes deceitfully proclaim, there always needs to
be an evil, a demon, out there. When
there is none, they have to invent one.
After thousands of years of human evolution, we continue to see this
playing out in our daily lives. Imperial
wars of aggression, whatever pretexts they are conducted under, all stem from
the carefully constructed good-versus-evil paradigm. I do not for a moment believe that the visionary
Rishis would see their Durga versus Mahisasura battle as a power game between
the "haves" and the "have nots." But it
is really quite simple to frame power games under this rubric and thereby fool
vast numbers of people, and keep them from protesting the true evil inherent in
such actions. The "enemy" is not evil,
it is the perpetrators of such aggression that are evil. The true face of evil is thus not in the
fantasy demons that are constructed, but that of the power-hungry, money-hungry
charlatans that use religion and well-meaning metaphors to carry out their
nefarious deeds. From the Ramayana down
to the many grossly disproportionate "wars" we see right now, there is a
constant parade of conveniently constructed demons and "evil." To me, there is not a better image of the
devil than that of the power-brokers and warmongers that create imaginary
demons to embark upon nefarious missions.
This
convenient ruse of creating "demons" out of those that a society of exploiters
routinely needs to subjugate and repress, is also exactly the point of origin
of all manner of racism, classism and other manner of stratification in society
that riddle human history. Anything or
anyone that society decides goes against their state of equilibrium, in other
words, anything that is "the other," will then be immediately demonized, and
consequently victimized without remorse or the slightest sense of outrage
vis-a-vis the inhumanity of it. These
rationalizations have made possible the various genocides and mass deprivation
and suffering, usually brought about by the imperial cliques. As I have stated several times, race, class,
sexual orientation, gender or one's belief system have nothing to do with evil,
per se. Yet, these have been made
contentious issues, and points of divergence in order to continue the
stratification, and maintain the status quo.
Of
course I see Bijaya as a celebration of victory. But this is a victory against the true evils that plague all of life itself. Bijaya was when Jonas Salk discovered the
vaccine that eliminated the scourge of polio, or when Alexander Fleming discovered
penicillin to combat bacterial diseases.
Bijaya was when humans discovered speech, and thereby found the ability
to communicate, and indeed to create great works of art, literature and
philosophy. Bijaya is the celebration of
those in our history that truly speak for peace and harmony (the Buddha, Christ,
Nanak, St. Francis, Kabir, Ramakrishna, Tagore, Gandhi, and the various war
--protesters around the world), and quite the opposite of those that conduct, or
justify warfare, and collateral damages, or some sort of humane rationalization
of killing innocents.
I
see Bijaya when I see the laughter of a child, I see Bijaya when I see the
intrinsic beauty of nature, untouched by human hand. I see Bijaya when I see compassionate human
beings struggle on behalf of their suffering brothers and sisters against
imperial aggression (where imperial is a combination of government, military,
industry, and increasingly these days, crooked bankers and lenders). I saw Bijaya when I heard about Rachel Corrie,
a young American girl, who could simply have lived a comfortable life in the
land of plenty, but instead chose suffering in order to fight the obscenity of
the mighty bull-dozing the homes of human beings half a world away, and in the
process sacrificing her life. I find it
obscene beyond description when those leading comfortable lives, with shiny
cars, gadgets and mansions, demonize those human beings willing enough to offer
their lives for a noble cause.
I
have come to this very fundamental conclusion regarding evil that has been
proclaimed for millennia: money and its relentless pursuit (beyond what is
needed for survival) are the ultimate root of all evil. When Gandhi was felled by a bullet, his
life's possessions consisted of a pair of eyeglasses, a pair of walking togs, a
spinning wheel (which he used as a powerful symbol of self-reliance), and a
well-worn copy of the Bhagavad-Gita.
Elsewhere, we see the potent expression, Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. So much for the violent pursuit of money and
power. So much for the viciously
narrow-minded Ayn Randism. Recall
Christ's well-known aphorism: It is easier for a camel to pass through the
eye of a needle that for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus made his ideas deceptively simple. Yet, how little is the lesson learned. The professional Jesus-promoters are the
greatest purveyors of money, power and tyranny.
Recall Tagore's strident indictment of caste-based repression in his
country in his famous poem, My Ill-Fated
Country. Towards the end of this powerful
denunciation, Tagore recalls Death as the ultimate leveler through these
stinging words (MRC translation):
Do
you not see the messenger of Death arrived at your door
And
the fatal curse writ large upon your vaunted casteism?
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