I am 30 years old man who lives in Bangalore for the past 6 years. I came here looking for a job afterwards and settled here (although I am still unmarried). In hindsight, when I look back through the lens of time, I felt that my happiest time was when I was 1 year old, and a childhood photograph of mine attests the same. There was an instinctive feeling that world is bursting forth with joy, that world is fundamentally a good place to live in, that people mean what they say, that we cried just because our little brother or sister was crying, that we played on “the seashore of endless worlds” as Rabindranath Tagore would put it.
To sum up, it was a feeling that unshakable hope and great faith was born with us and in us.
I also felt that the education factory which churns out well crafted “educated children”, the more common term for which is called school, was the first effective and lasting step in introducing and glorifying the fear of punishment, fear of doing or thinking anything which the herd doesn’t approve of, fear of peer comparison by not being able to outdo the other “smarter” kid, fear of being bullied by the big kid when teachers were not watching, fear of living in prison sitting in front of a black board without contact with the great world in which one is born.
All these lay a good foundation for the eventual formation of a worldview which says:
- One’s fundamental nature is one of unscrupulous greed and selfishness.
- You can never trust that someone will be good towards you.
- World is fundamentally competitive and hostile place to live in.
- True power is the power over others.
- Nobody exists for his own sake but for the sake of money.
- All that matters is what one gets and anything that one gives away is a loss.
- All play is a frivolous and not in line to the goals of life.
- If you can make someone really afraid, you can make him do almost anything.
- Security is found in being a part of the herd at all costs.
- Modesty and humility is a sign of low self-confidence and underachievement.
- Glory of success is far greater than glory of any creative accomplishment.
- Someone is successful is because he deserved it and someone is poor because he deserved it.
- Being successful and having a lot of power or money is an unmistakable sign of maturity.
- Bottom line is to be successful at all costs and not how you get there.
- Events of history are random and have nothing to do with divine guidance.
- All that matters is one’s actions and its consequences and not one’s intentions.
- Spirituality exists separate and apart and from the material world.
- No one can ever love a stranger and still less an enemy!
If you accuse me now of preaching, I will invite you to read the above points again and ask yourself as a mental exercise:
What sort of person will someone be if he thoroughly embodies such a worldview?
What would make such a person happy?
What would I have to do with a child to break his spirit that so that eventually he inevitably becomes such a person?
What would have to happen to such a person so that he seriously questions his world view?
Do I know somebody who greatly resembles such a person?
How much am I like that person?
On a closing note, I would like to point out that constantly questioning one’s motives goes long a long way in the right direction without the need for preaching from anybody including myself.