VEDIC WAY TO ERADICATE CORRUPTION IS TO DEVELOP SPIRITUAL STRENGTH

AUM. VEDIC WAY TO ERADICATE CORRUPTION By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM LONG AGO A NASTY REPORTER CONFRONTED THE Indian Iron Lady, Indira Gandhi, who had dismembered Pakistan, with the rampant corruption at almost all levels of administration. Indeed indirectly she shouldered the responsibility of overseeing the governance of a big nation with a large and diverse population. She deftly brushed aside the loaded question by a swipe of her hand accompanied by a short sentence that Corruption was a global phenomenon. How true and how false. Undoubtedly large amounts of cash changed hands in big offices in Japan for granting favours illegally and resigning when caught in the act. Same was the case with the developed countries of the West. But India walked away with the cake in being submerged inb corruption from top to toe in all walks of life. How is it now, one may ask. Well, the situation on the corruption front has gone from bad to worse. Now under the present regime at the Centre, headed by the same Congress party to which Indira Gandhi belonged, there is a scam a day, There is hardly a Minister of the government who is not directly or indirectly involved in a scam. So, no one can claim that he or she is more pious than the Pope. No one is in a position to exercise the right of throwing the first stone at the sinner because all are sinners and sailing in the same boat. WHAT IS CORRUPTION The dishonest or illegal behavior of people in authority for granting favours for a consideration is termed as corruption. Accepting bribes for doing an illegal act or omission to do so may also be called a corrupt act. When many senior officials and ministers make money under the table for allotting coal fields, granting licenses to do something legal but in an illegal manner, the whole transaction might be termed as an illegal act and the regime would carry the tag of corruption. As of now, corruption is a way of life in India that is Bharat. If an act or omission amounting to a corrupt practice is out in the public domain, there is a lot if mud slinging and calling names. Right now we are passing through that phase of public life where political correctness demands that one who wishes to make progress and let his business flourish must keep his mouth shut and purse strings loosened. The Common Man or the AAM AADAMI in conversational language is the worst sufferer and sees no light at the end of the tunnel. It is for his and her good that you and I have to work now. The common remedy may not be effective to cure this uncommon malady and we must think of something different, something spectacular. We may have to go back a thousand light miles away to the ancient period of history when life was so simple and man breathed fresh air that was free from pollution. Above all the word Corruption had not found a place in the vocabulary of men, women and children. Life ambled along and people remained in the comfort zone both inside the house and outside too. Great. THE DIVINE LIGHT Our Divine Father, ISHWAR, had shown the way of the VEDAS to lead us and help us walk on the path of righteousness. Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati has mentioned many a time in his treatises as well as the magnum opus, Satyarth Prakash that the Vedas were revealed by the Param Pita Parmatma to four Rishis right at the beginning of the present human Creation. Rigved, Yajurved, Samved and Atharvaveda were revealed to Rishis named Agni, Vayu, Aditya and Angira respectively. Life was good. The Vedas guided one and all irrespective of their caste, creed, region or religion. So far so good. Nevertheless we all know what goes up in the sky is bound to come down. The Vedic way of life too ran into hurdles and roadblocks due to internal strife, clash of cultures and new emerging way of life in remote islands. Minor strifes gave way to major civil wars where one fought against one’s own kith and kin. In India a war of great magnitude was the Mahabharat between royal cousins called Pandavas and Kauravas. The Great War caused unt0ld suffering and the knowledge emanating from the Vedas receded in the background. Semi-literate priests and purohits took over reins of religion and misinterpreted the mantras leading to travesty of Truth. Mr Ignoramus even deprived the women folk from becoming priestesses and snatched the right to read the Vedas. By and by women suffered and turned into illiterates immersed in superstitions. It took centuries to bring them back on rails. It was Swami Dayanand Saraswati, born in 1824 at village Tankara in Rajkot, Saurashtra who restored to women their lawful rights to read the Vedas and become High Priestess again. Gurukuls were opened for both boys and girls to let them have the benefit of the Vedic education to counter the bad influence of education imparted by schools of East India Company. Sir Ramsay Mcdonald, then Leader of Opposition in the House of Commons and later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who visited Gurukul Kangri paid rich tributes to Mahatma Munshi Ram, later Swami Shraddhanand, for answering Macaulay’s Minutes in a pragmatic way. The graduates of Gurukul were now ready to face the wrong doings in the society and establish the Vedic way of life. They vowed to uproot corruption and bring about Rule of Law. They took the burden of rooting out corruption from India that is Bharat and let all citizens live a life of honesty. DEMON DOMINATES AGAIN The year 2012, the period of our exchange of views in the International Arya Mahasammelan in Rohini, Delhi. The demon of corruption has raised its head again. The hydra-headed monster is all pervasive. It is here, it is there and it is everywhere. It will need the combined thought and action of Aryas from all over the globe to think of a battle plan and attack the monster of corruption from more than one direction. It will be a multi-pronged attack to reduce the monster’s influence on the human society and finish it off in the second and final phase of decisive assault. Corruption is dominating our society and the Vedic values of life are gradually receding into background. Why is it that the Ravan-like tendencies are dominating the thought process of our youth today? The Kans-like tendency to destroy the peace of common man is gaining strength. Why? In a nutshell one may say that the social set up of today is such that the Leader matters a lot. When the rest of the population emulates the Leader, it would be appropriate to reform the Leader and motivate him to lead the way for the rest of the human beings in that social set up. YATHA RAJA TATHA PRAJA – the way the King or the Leader behaves, the led will follow in a devoted manner. In the good old days the King was guided by the Vedic values of life that he followed and his subjects emulated him. Unfortunately, the Vedic values of life stand fractured now. At present the new emphasis is on eating fast food, drinking alcohol, smoking and avoiding the company of cultured men and women immersed in the mantras that show the path of righteousness. When the leaders of men roam around with wives of others, abdicating his responsibility as a husband, as a father and head of his own family, the basic unit of society, the Family is destroyed leading to destruction of the society as such. It is the Head of the Family who has to eschew drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and abandoning drugs and grass. If he succeeds, his family will follow suit. Good behavior of the Head and generating Love as pure as that of a mother for her newborn baby, will lead to these good traits be accepted and practiced by others in the family and elsewhere. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH Spirituality is the panacea of all social ills, both major and minor. Right now most of the human beings are devoid of spiritual strength. Men and women pay a lot of attention to developing physical strength but pay scant attention to developing spiritual strength. While talking of Leadership, we in the Army always say and practice, “ Moral is to physical as ten to one”.In other words, if a leader has moral strength he will stand on a firm platform and inspire confidence among the led. What do we do to acquire the spiritual strength? To begin with, have a firm and unshakable faith in Ishwar. When you face problems, go to God and ask Him for guidance. It will be forthcoming. One should go out in early morning for some fresh air, a wee bit of exercise and ,of course, Pranayam. When the like-minded people assemble in the morning, a short chat on a religious topic will be in order. Let this morning engagement be a regular feature not to be abandoned at the slightest pretext. Those who may be able to afford, chanting of Sandhya mantras and doing simple and short Havan will be in order. With this spiritual bent of mind, the devotee is bound to gain spiritual strength that would hold him in good stead when the chips are down. Our next rung of the ladder on the path of progress should be Social Solidarity. To root out corruption, social solidarity will be a great deal helpful. In a mohalla matter, if all the residents are united, the municipal counselor dare not ask for a bribe to have a lawful work carried out. The overwhelming presence of the local residents in large numbers will be a deterrent to the corrupt official who will have no option but to turn the tail. Remember the phrase: SANGHE SHAKTI Unity is Strength. No wonder Bal Gangadhar Tilak, our great political leader and freedom fighter had introduced Social Ganesh Chaturthi to replace the individual one so that people meet each other and think about the movement to gain independence from the British overlordship. KARMA AND KARMAPHAL Let us beat the dr4um and announce from rooftops that the Vedic principle of Karma and Karmaphal is as relevant today as it was in days of yore. As a soul, I am free to act, act in bad faith or not act at all. Since my soul is free to act, it will indeed reap the harvest of our action. No other soul or individual is permitted to deputise for me and receive the Karmaphal, howsoever great or small he may be. The soul must act and besides acting in self interest must also act for public good too. The karmaphal will be given accordingly as a reward or as a punishment. Let it be clearly understood by one and all that in most of the cases Karmaphal is given in this life. Yogeshwar Shri Krishna knows all about it but we have to learn and imbibe this theory. With a view to remaining firm in our Vedic belief, it is essential that we do not deviate from our decisions that we make. Remember you have pocket money but be a spendthrift and ask your father for money to be spent on buying teaching aids. Self-Discipline or Aatm-Anushasan is what the people must practice. Collectively the people will be well within their rights to ask for Clean Administration where no bribe is asked for and none is given. It will be of interest to note that there is a United Nations Convention on Eradication of Corruption. The UN has put its seal of approval on confiscation of cash and kind, moveable and immoveable property of a corrupt official who is brought to trial and found guilty. The ill gotten wealth and the property bought thereof will revert to the State and cash,if any be deposited in the government treasury. Thus it would be appropriate to prepare self for spiritual strength and unite the society mentally and physically for eradication of corruption from the human habitat. Email : sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com Mobile: 9811173590. Address – upvan, 609, Sector 29, NOIDA -201303 Bharat (India)