DO GHOSTS EXIST?

A lot of people ask me about the existence of evil spirits aka ghosts. I have never given any detailed explanation not because I did not want to; but because I was so unsure about the topic myself. I thought this question can never have a solid explanation… I knew whatever spoken in this respect will never be concrete enough for taking a firm appreciation in peoples’ minds. But as I began researching the topic, I encountered various elucidations; each struggling hard to prove a point. Some of them said that ghosts existed and most of them said ghosts are no more than a jinx. But what I reflected upon after having travelled across very many documentations and interactions with people, gave me a slightly different idea from those entire pro and anti ghost believers. Before I nail down to the point, let me speak about a few basic points from Science. For a moment, I warn you, you might wonder how the following is going to carry the title topic in essence; but follow patiently.

Most of the day-to-day equipments that we use like hair dryer, ceiling fan, tube light, refrigerator, air conditioner etc., still fascinate me so much. Could you imagine how we have shifted from an earth that had all these latent capacities but was so naïve and fresh, to the present day earth that can be compressed in a few Google applications on your Smartphone! This earth from times immemorial has had the same magnetic and electric fields in it; only so much less exploited those days. Many of you reading this article may not really know what is that energy that can drive your fan, your air conditioner or your bike! If there was no magnetic energy or electrical energy (both co exist) none of these modern day facilities could have emerged that has been continuously making life today much easier than yesterday. It is the field … the basic forces of attraction and repulsion that even cause the earth to rotate. The fact to be appreciated here is even an atom (a tiny form of matter) has its own field, vibration and its own effect... An influence upon any other entity placed in its field. Tenth Grade Science text books have this definition for a field:

“The field of an atom is that area surrounding it where it has the capacity to extend its influence on any test charge that enters the same”.

If you don’t quite understand this...  Don’t panic. Here is a simpler explanation: If you are the head of your family, the range of your influence is your home; someone living in your street corner will not necessarily be affected by you. So in a nutshell, the area that you command is your field. And the area the atom commands is its’ field. Though microscopically small, it is still very significant. Atoms pervade the entire galaxy (I am not quite sure about the truth of this statement at the scale of the entire universe).

Now if you appreciate this, you must also accept that every single thing in this universe is made up of atoms. Powerful microscopes that can magnify biological tissues in laboratories have also confirmed that when the most fundamental cells are deeply probed ... what lie behind are atoms. So a human being will also be carrying an assemblage of zillions of atoms in roughly one sq.cm of his skin, tissues, and organs and at every level of his body. Brain is no exception. When a thought arises in his mind, it activates certain chemical reactions, releases certain hormones and triggers a feeble pressure in some nerves. Therefore the neurons of his brain carry an electrical impulse as a mere translation of the reactions on the body that were due to the thoughts in his mind. We already know electrical field gives rise to magnetic field (Courtesy: Michael Faraday, Lenz etc,). Therefore this thought now has given rise to an electromagnetic signal with a definite frequency ready for transmission. Depending upon the strength and belief about the thought, the strength of the electrical signal carried by the brain varies , directly varying the strength of the magnetic wave associated with the thought. Therefore thoughts pervade the entire universe. There is this concept called ‘resonance’ which says that two objects vibrating with the same frequency are inter-connected via frequency. A classic example is the FM Radio stations. You tune your radio to 93.5 Mhz and it suddenly starts picking up Suryan FM signals from the air from which you could normally hear nothing. Does it mean that, just because you did not hear it plainly, there is no song playing in that frequency in the spectrum? Certain things are like that. You need fine, intricate and detailed knowledge to even seek them; and generally such things are never openly available for notice; but that alone doesn’t suffice to ward them off as irrational and ‘not scientific’. Probably science hasn’t still grown to accept those concepts or we did not know how to rightly apply the available science and try to understand them better.

Now slowly try to understand this one concept and we are done.

What is 10-5?

Ans: 5

What is -10+5?

Ans: -5

You might even ridicule me for choosing these apparently childish math questions to test your ability in understanding the subject.  But if you look beyond the horizon you will understand one thing:

+10 means an additive combination of ten ‘+1s’

-5 means an additive combination of five ‘-1s’

The net additive result is a numerical 5 preceded by a positive sign.

The meaning is 5 plus ones from 10 have fought the battle and neutralized the 5 minus ones .

There are 5 remaining plus-one warriors!

Similarly for the other case with -5.

When someone dies , especially a death to violent causes or an accident or any kind of mishap at a place, the moment of death seems very terrible and they emit strong thoughts of hatred, vengeance, hopelessness and a feeling of revenge that pervades the place of the death. This negative emotional system builds up a web of negative vibes in the area. When a man who is so weak and has a very little hope or in general is devoid of positive ideas  and beliefs moves into this area, a -100 (signifies higher bad energy) battles with a +10 (signifies a lower positive count) and the net result is a negative ninety . That’s why they say, it is the weak and the feeble-hearted that gets easily possessed by bad spirits. Why, in adding proof to my conclusion , I will briefly narrate an incident that happened in my hostel when I was doing my Under Graduate course. We had separate rooms but two adjacent rooms shared a same balcony. I had a very calm, quiet , generally depressed friend of mine who was sharing her balcony with a vibrant, generally cheerful another friend. Few weeks after the former started staying in this room, she completely avoided coming to classes, always locked herself in her room, got up at weird hours very late at night and stood at the dark backyard of the hostel( She normally falls asleep at 9 pm everyday from her childhood). She sat next to me at college sometimes and when I would try to snap her into an easy conversation, she always remained indifferent, gazed at a faraway place and said, “I wished I did not live”. This behavior of her was quite disturbing to me. So when I began my usual job of researching the anomaly in her behavior, I landed in a shocking truth.  It unfortunately happened so that a Senior girl student to us, who had committed a suicide by jumping off the sun-shadow of the third floor had been staying in the same room as this girl. Obviously the avalanche of negative emotions that was brimming in the small room that was locked as soon as the deceased expired had succeeded in mentally depressing the otherwise also generally-depressed and a weak-spirited girl. I voluntarily persuaded her parents to take her away from the hostel and put her in a new environment and guess what! She is fine today. Absolutely fine. But what gives me deeper affirmation is that the other vibrant girl sharing the same balcony of the deceased seemed so cheerful and absolutely undisturbed by anything around till she successfully completed her graduation!

I say, if you have understood the Science behind the existence of evil spirits, you now know what to do and how to handle them.

Bottom-line: Ghosts or fairies is up to how strong your heart is!

Oh.. did I forget.. people call the encroachment of negative spirits as ghosts.. You can also call it Jack , Peter or whichever way you want.

A LETTER FROM GOD

Dear Child,

               I have been sitting here all night looking at you. You are so cute when you are sound asleep. Infact in whatever you do and however you are... you are always cute to my eyes. You have 3 smiles when you sleep. One when you are thinking nothing , one when you are dreaming about your favourite person and one when I ask the breeze to glide against your face. I was waiting to see if you got up and saw me. You got up.. only in the morning though. I was excited to see you approaching me. But you walked past the chair in which I was sitting, to get into the bathroom. You were all busy getting ready for school. Then... you were neatly dressed up in your school uniform. Your mom was feeding you , your favourite breakfast cereal when your dad was bent upon the lace in your shoes. Honey... These are the people I carefully chose and gave you to show you a part of my infinite love upon you.I was sitting on the sofa then; You ran and came to the sofa... I was eagerly awaiting your, 'Good Morning' ... but you came to dig its groove to find your school ID that you threw in there  last evening after school. When I made you easily find it,you hurried through the door-way out of your home . It was evening then. You finally came back home after playing with the puppies at the end of your street. I was again waiting. You made yourself busy with your Math homework and went on to play games in your computer. You never retired from the games until your mom called you for dinner for the thirteenth time. You had your favourite dinner again. I was happy that I could see you muttering a hurried poem to me. It was called prayer. I dont want my children to 'pray' to me. I just want you to ask me, with all rights , and unflinching hope. That makes me feel appreciated and needed. And I love that... just like your mom who cooks selflessly for you with all her best efforts and waits to hear a compliment . She hates you begging her for more food. But when you say, "Oh.. Mom I love it. Give me more"- she is more than happy to give you. Thats how it works with me dear child. I am your ultimate Mommy and Daddy. Cos.. its easy to be a father than a daddy... and I am always your own daddy sweetheart. I waited as you finished your dessert. You came to your bed. But before you would say a Good Night to me, you slept off again.

       But... Thats okay! I am still waiting because another dawn is not so far my dear child!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                            Your loving Daddy,

                                                                      
                                                                          GOD                      
                    
                                                                                                           

HOW SCIENCE CAN PROVE GOD

       Have you ever wondered how you got your bed-time milk from mommy every night before you fell asleep? What is there to wonder in this? If this is your question, you are in the right direction. Have you ever wondered how you are in your under graduate course now? How you can take part in music or dance competitions and win the first place? The answer from you could possibly be agreeing to this: “It is because my parents took me to school, dropped and picked me every day from art classes”. I totally accede to your answer. But wait... did you come to this world holding an agenda of your interests and educational dreams in your tiny hands? According to you, you were born, baptised, fed and pampered. It just happened as a random process. You never knew why you were drilled into those boring chess classes every Sunday. But had you not been drilled, you wouldn’t have come this long way as a rated player, would you? We‘ll take up one other situation, when your family planned for a tour. As a kid, all you’ve got to do is to sit in the car, listen to the music, fight silly with your cousins, eat your favourite junkies and fall to bed before it is too late. In all these incidents quoted above, can you find a chaining link? You were not wanted to plan for anything; in every case you were a receiver. For you to be able to achieve something later, there was a triggered action somewhere (which you did not trigger) before. In all these random events, there was an order between an action and a reaction. A definite sequential order, where things ended up in the desired nature. May be as a kid, you never understood who ran around getting you admissions into various schools, who booked tickets for your journey in advance, who cooked your favourite recipes and who had to whisper out of a severe muscular cramp just to not disturb your sound sleep; and even when you sometime later came to know who did that, you cannot understand why and how!

       Expanding the same argument over a larger scale, I will tell you of a father I know. He is a biosynthetic scientist who can create living organisms. Once he created a being called man. After so many cosmic centuries, this man experimented on audible frequency ranges and came to a conclusion that, we can hear frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz only. He observed that watermelons or pumpkins do not grow on trees, it just grows on creepers on ground; also that only small fruits grow on almost all trees. He explored into a layer called ozone that protects him from harmful ultra violet rays. He has never recorded a traffic jam in the path of the motion of the earth (which is supposed to have occurred as a result of a RANDOM process called- the big bang). He has found out that there are various medicinal trees available to cure every RANDOM disease that he can create for himself. He found that the polar bears have fur to protect them from freezing cold, the camels have humps to store water for sultry days, and the fishes have gills to breathe under water. He cannot deny, if there is fire, there is water; if there is summer, there is winter; if there is man , there is woman; if there is hunger, there is food; if there is anger, there is love; if there is an electron, there is a positron. Can’t you find an unquestionable balance right from the psychic, physical, emotional till the sub-atomic levels of various forms of existence?

     Before coming to any conclusion, I will tell you why we cannot hear beyond 20000Hz and before 20 Hz. If we would have been able to, we will be hearing the sound of our own muscles’ contractions and expansions. If there were melons on trees, no beggar would be sleeping under it. If there was no ozone our human progeny would have become extinct due to increased levels of skin cancer. For the next few questions you can say “evolution”. But, according to experimental conclusions from paranormal sciences, if thought patterns create what we are today, how would a fish or a camel think and program its’ mind? A copper metal can conduct electricity. We have also learnt that we do not receive a voltage shock from it because at any instant, the electrons are in random motion. We never looked beyond this horizon. Yes, I would call this a horizon because only a horizon is actually not what it seems to be. A random process is supposed to be random always, isn’t it? So why not at any instant these electrons get biased to conduct a current. Again if you argue it might be short-lived, I might tell you that its’ longevity of sustenance is also one of the random processes. But in our lives we have never heard anyone die of receiving a shock from natural copper metal. One more thing! If our parents have the power of creating us, then they should be able to stop our death too. So don’t you think there is something that is beyond our scope that sustains order and balance in every single thing? That power I call with the help of science, God! One flat rate discount for my reader is that, if you want, you can also call Him a Dog. There is no grudge. It is a win-win situation. Just flip the letters of the word God from back to front. You‘ll know how!

Please note:  Even after reading this article there will be some insatiable people helping me indirectly to prove my theory of order and balance in God’s creations. Cos if some people accept.. some should oppose. That’s balance. Don’t u think?

SUMMER,WINTER,SPRING

 December 15,2010

                    Mark was silently sipping his coffee laid back on a rusty cushioned chair. He is turning eighty five today. The room was silent... very silent that we could hear even his heart beat.It is not beating. It is talking. It says ,"Summer"; And every time it said 'summer', the next time it skipped a beat.

 May 10, 1946

                       It was a long day. I was preparing to get to home by St.Edwards train  like all other days. People called me 'hermit crab' because they thought I was a total failure with girls. The very fact that I haven't dated anybody so far made me a running joke at my office. But the fact was... I actually chose to project myself that way to the girls ... Cos I never felt 'She is the one' with anyone till then ever. Well... I did socialise with them, but deep inside my heart I ve always secretly disliked them- the 'plastic' girls that were covering nine-tenths of the population of Europe. I never found even a streak of truth in any one of their eyes. They always played superior- may be to cover their inferiority. I was constantly searching for innocent eyes; I never cared to whom those eyes belonged to- she may be African or American, beautiful or ugly,Marlyn Monroe or Big fat Betty as long as she isreal. Anyhow I never took much trouble to explain myself to anybody.

                 It was already getting late. I stuffed my bag with a few documents and books that I was working with and headed towards the station . I could faintly hear old St.Ed blowing his whistle and hoofing his cigar above his head. I was running faster to catch it for I can't wait to get home till tomorrow after work. I managed to reach the station in five minutes and was already panting. I was just about to get into the platform when she hit me while running past me. She hit me, muttered a sorry to herself and disappeared when someone shouted ,"Summer... hurry up girl". I did not see her face. But I sure did see her eyes. That was the first time my heart ever skipped a beat.

                  Weeks passed and I never got to see her.  One Sunday afternoon, I was playing the piano for my choir at the local Church; my notes fell down.Somewhere between  when I bent to pick it and when I  rose up, I noticed the same eyes. Suddenly she was not to be found. But I know she was somewhere around cos... my heart missed its beat for a second time.

                I began searching for her day and night. In fact most of my nights were sleepless. I never found her for another two years. As I was strolling down my road engrossed in a 'Summer'evening... I saw people rushing to a spot and some wails here and there. "Oh... my little Janey" cried an old lady- probably the granny of the victim of the accident. I was right. I ve always heard about a 22 year old girl fondly called Janey by everyone. I ve always heard how kind and sweet to people she was. I never got a chance to see her. And today, even when she was there I couldn't .. because her head was injured badly and all smeared with blood. I had a very strange feeling. Instead of sympathising ... I was empathising. I felt really connected to her and literally pushed lumps of pain balls down my throat. Two tears welled up my eyes and blurred the whole scene.

                I could never sleep. I rushed back to the hospital when she was getting discharged. I was shocked to meet the same eyes again!- the love of my life. I slowly gathered enough courage to ask her name. She said " I'm Summer; Summer Jane".  Her left leg was amputated after the accident. But will that stop me from seeking her? Never.

                 I lived fifty three adorable years with my Summer; in fact I met her in Summer for she was all the brightness of my world. And even during this cold winter time that is freezing my wrinkled skin- she is the sunshine of my life. Her thoughts give me my warmth- the warmth that is supplying life to my body. And as a testimonial to our happy life, Summer gifted me an amazing daughter with her very own real eyes.

December 16,2010- 08:00 hrs

               " Dad... It's breakfast time......" ,  she said.

                "Spring honey... Daddy is coming", Mark said as he rose up from his chair.

THE MAGICAL POTION YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

Often times I had really been upset by a lot of breakouts in my face like every other teenager. My mom used to tell me scenes from the flashback where I was supposedly an obedient kid and did things just as I was told. The point is my mom claims that I had a very clear and smooth skin that time. But as I started ‘growing up’ I probably got all the flair for makeup and hence ended in a lot of flare-ups. Even at that time I did not realize all I was doing was just irrepairable damage to natural skin. As I had already added enough ammonia, methyl parben , titanium di oxide etc., to my skin… I knew I had to finish what I had started. The sad truth is the rate of damage is usually hundred times faster than the rate of skin renewal. But inspite of this fact, It is definitely possible to clear your skin and I know who can do it for you.

One reason why women are desperate to try one product or the other available on the market is the need to look beautiful. Everybody wants to look like the new actress who starred in a recent flick. Why do they do this? The ultimate reason is because they don’t love themselves enough. First, you should accept that even two trees in nature do not look exactly alike. If that is the mechanism applying to every creation, that applies to you and the cine actress you have been worshipping inside too. Why I am talking about this is because I know for sure that you are the reason why your skin looks like this today. You have been continuously holding a higher image, of that girl you saw at the departmental store or the other one you see everyday while having a morning walk, higher than your own self that knowingly or unknowingly you start developing a dislike about your face in the sub-conscious mind. Parapsychologists and Metaphysicists all over the world have now developed an understanding of the power of the subconscious mind. They have enough evidences to state and prove that a strong belief rooted in one’s subconscious mind has unparalleled power to manifest the very cause that created it.

If the truth be so, you hating your skin and trying to be looking like ‘somebody else’ is a strong thought that is going to be reflected on your skin. No amount of external medication or chemical creams is going to stop the acne… because that’s what you wanted. No I’ll rephrase. That’s what you believed and hence that’s what you deserve. Please do not impute a wrong motive behind these words. I am writing this to shake you awake from the trance state of the make-up myth surrounding you. We have to work from the inside-out if you want a really adorable ‘you’. A clear mind and body will automatically result in clear skin. When I hear people talking of an inside-out revolution, they stop with eating the right kind of food for your skin. But that’s not where you should stop. If you are holding in your mind one idea and doing some other thing, it is totally a contradiction and therefore will only result in contra indications.

No... I am not saying you should not wear any make up. But make sure you don’t hide your face behind that heavy layer of foundation or the gracefulness of your true smile behind Pamela Anderson’s idea of pouting lips. Love yourself and use make-up  only to highlight the beautiful ‘you’.

So, now you know that it is not the Myth Makers Pvt Ltd ., from a teleshopping commercial but you who can undo the damage you have done to your skin. 

HOW FREE IS AN INDIAN?

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Through this essay, I have thoroughly discussed what I , as an Indian citizen encounter in the society day by day, what are the dimensions to my freedom , whether I am currently ‘free’ with respect to economic, political and personal frontiers.

In the equation to freedom, balance is brought by an equal mixture of external and internal independence. A society is an assemblage of hundreds of thousand individuals and hence it becomes vitally important that every participant of this society takes considerate measures in promoting clear, unbiased and socially beneficial thoughts and actions to garner the health of the overall country at large.

Though we as a country have officially won independence from the colonial British Rule over sixty years ago, the question is, have we actually won it?

As being a representative of the responsible youth of India, I have presented this essay as transparent and as close as it can be to truth hoping that we do not fail in addressing the problems owing to restrictions. Because I believe only if the disease is firstly diagnosed precise, shall we be effective enough in treating it and fixing it.

 INTRODUCTION:

The LIFCO dictionary defines the word ‘free’ as ‘not restrained; not bound’. The meaning of this word hence conveys a state of a being where he/she is on his/her own free will to think, act and implement an action independently. But what if it curbs the freedom of another individual or a major part of the society at large? What is its measure? How much freedom is actual freedom and how free am I in this society?

MY ECONOMIC FREEDOM:

  As an average middle class Indian woman, I believe I should try to be as ‘economical’ as I should be in my monthly expenditure and make rooms in my average Software job salary for any jolting, sudden hike in onion or petrol prices. I am supposed to be living in a great democratic country where there is a separate Ministry of Finance explicitly meant for mitigating the overall economic burden of a regular Indian citizen. They are supposed to be framing and carrying out various policies all round their tenure with their expertise and experience to make the subjects lead a decent, even if not an extra-ordinary life.

But many a times, I have really found the farmer, a true representative of the major Indian population; go hungry after feeding all the rest of us with his cultivation. What puzzles me so much is, why would he be penny-less at the end of the day when he still  had his own piece of land, free electricity from the Government and a great deal of harvested crops?

The answer is simple. We all are today, by one way or the other victims of a policy of special-interest framed by a bad economist yesterday. There is yet another factor that still spawns new economic fallacies everyday; This is the persistent tendency of men to only see the immediate consequences of a given policy or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group, but in all other groups as well [1]. The result of one bad economic policy has a cascading effect on other policies too. It so happens that this ends up in converging a lot of money at one group/party/people and the rest with not even fundamental essentials. Any policy, that fails to meet the basic demands of even a single citizen living in the remotest corner of the country, is subject to be dropped immediately. But in reality, that never happens. The government tries to appoint another special committee to ‘research’ and investigate the fallacy of the policy in spite of the well-displayed wide negative impacts of it in the society. A huge number of hungry farmers and their families would have expired before the committee comes up to even acknowledge the erroneous portions. Then, appealing to the Courts to revise it or replace it will take yet another few years. And when the verdict (which may/may not be in favour of the affected) is passed, people would have very well learnt to adopt and live along with the unjust rule. I still vividly remember farmers at Tanjore, the rice-bowl of Tamil Nadu, setting traps for field mice to survive until the next morning. This happened not so long ago.

Even about a few months back, about 90% hotels stopped using onions (the key ingredient of Indian cooking) in their daily dishes. When a local cultivator was cross-questioned about this, he said that he had no idea why this was happening as he had been giving away onions for the same rates as usual. A very famous official from the Central Government said that even the shockingly increased price of onions did not stop its sale. Of course, it did not. But were buyers the same? No. The top business-men and celebrities had no idea of the impact suffered by a common man. One great mystery is, the cultivator had not increased the rate of onions sold to the whole-sale traders. The retailers did not hide the ‘not hide-worthy enough’ onions (Onions unlike rice decay after just a few days. So there is no point in hiding). Then, who / what were responsible? None of the prevailing reasons seem reasonable enough to appreciate the cause. If a particular state government had as much money as to extravagantly spend more than a hundred crores on a conference, why not use the same to pay a part of the petrol price on a per-liter basis to have atleast temporarily alleviated the miseries of drivers by profession and working men & women who need to travel 40 kms or extra to earn their daily bread? Why I am talking about the petrol hike is because I am very convinced that this had been the prime reason for the hike in onion prices.

1)      Most farmers quit farming and move to urban areas to rise in economical standards. Firstly one has to realize that the age-old occupation of the Indian nation had been diminishing because of the lack of appreciation, financial aid and subsidies that it deserved from the government.

2)      This automatically resulted in lesser production of onions( all other cash crops , food crops too)

3)      The whole-sale traders, to meet the ever-growing demand, had to purchase onions from the Northern states or import onions.

4)      Transporting the same from other corners of the country, especially when petrol prices have increased five times continuously means they should pay extra to the transporters.

5)      How do they compensate this extra charge? Charge the retailers.

6)      What would the poor retailers do? Charge the consumer.

7)      What would a poor consumer do? Shut up and buy or stop cooking with onions.

This is a perfect example for how the cascading effect of one bad policy affects another. This is the “economic freedom” (pun-intended) that an average citizen of India currently enjoys.

When it comes to me, I am an under graduate Engineer who is aspiring to do an MS at an American University and plan to come back to India for improvising and serving Indian Electrical board. Hailing from an average middle class family, I have come to realize of one hard-to-swallow truth. As I did a lot of researching on available scholarships for a meritorious candidate, I came to understand that Indian Government has not too many easily available schemes promoting higher education at International Universities. The only feasible option left is a bank-loan. Another thing I learnt is that USA, unlike India has hundreds of promising scholarships to the native students and encourages young, inventive minds by creating a very easy, see-through neutral network to aid them financially. A report from HappySchools blog tells that more than 70 million $ every year in the US goes unused under scholarship aids and grants.

So, right from simply buying a kilogram of onion to the extent of realizing my educational dreams, Am I economically free in this set-up? No. I am hand-cuffed by the bad economist and the careless Government.

MY POLITICAL FREEDOM:

“Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

                                                                                                                                              -Winston Churchill

India is the largest democracies of today’s world. Democracy is now the wave of the future, as more and more nations adopt democratic systems. This is a development to be welcomed. However the word democracy did not always have positive connotations. ‘Democracy’ comes from the ancient Greek, ‘rule by the people’, and they used the term as a system to be avoided. Democracy was contrasted with monarchy (rule by one), oligarchy (rule by a few) and aristocracy (rule by the best)[2].

However ‘democracy’ has the following three defects according to the Greek people.

1)      The majority could use their power to oppress the minority.

2)      The people could easily be swept along by a wave of ‘emotion’ and ‘passion’; and not by reason.

3)      The people might be motivated by their own special interests at the ‘expense’ of the society as a whole.

If all the decisions are taken by the collective majority which acquires power through false promises and inspiring election manifesto, that again is not a free or liberal democracy. It is indeed a TOTALITARIAN DEMOCARCY to use J.D.Talmon’s words.

Political freedom is always open to abuse by political leaders. In response to Plato’s call for rule by wisdom of philosophical guardians, Aristotle is said to have asked the following question:

“Who will guard the guardians?”. This question requires a deep contemplatory reflection. This is exactly today’s scenario. India is divided internally into tens of religions, hundreds of cultures, thousands of castes and millions of racial discrimination activities. This is the main reason for why ‘special-interest’ policies come up in huge numbers favoring the members of the same group to which the man in power belongs to. Every function superadded to those already exercised by the government, causes its influence over hopes and fears to be more widely diffused, and converts, more and more, the active and ambitious part of the public into hangers-on of the government, or of some party which aims at becoming the government[3].  By stirring up the emotions of an angry mob (irritated by the previous Government’s overall inefficiency), politicians quickly gain fame, power and huge money. Shakespeare in his classic Julius Caesar has rightly understood this and makes Antony speak,

“In every wound of Caesar, that should move

The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny”             - for he knew the angry mob is always at the side of the last speaker.  Though there are more than ten famous political parties and a hundred more minor parties in India, the political leaders have continuously only been the greatest exploiters of the country. Disappointed by one party, people have no other choice but to select another one sooner or later. The sad part of the story is that it is an open book secret that everyone here knows no party here completely acts like it is supposed to act. So when it comes to voting, the only choice with which the people are left with is to select between the bank-robber and a pick-pocket.

  Though the election commission of India had laid strict rules against the bribing for votes by political parties prior to election and had also propagated the message that it is unethical and immoral to sell the voting right to the parties, people were not free to follow either. First of all, if a man were to sell his right for a few hundred rupee notes- that itself in essence explains what kind of economical fix he has been locked up in. Secondly, if he listens to the Election Commission and refrains from selling his vote, leave alone his economic constraints, the local party under propaganda would not let him be ‘free’; Everybody knows the emotional trauma that he has to undergo to finally accept the money and escape the ‘wrath’ of the contestant party members. If he accepts the money, the opposition party under its preying eyes would at any moment, lock him up in jail with the help of enough and more video footages

  When I, for instance, as an educated youth of India try to identify the fallacies of the existing government and question the same government, I can assuredly say that my voice will never be heard, in the first place, leave alone the drastic after-effects of my boldness. If this democracy stands by the definition of the great President, Abraham Lincoln, which says it “is a government of the people, by the people and for the people”; why would one representative from the common ‘people’ clime be suppressed and subdued never to rise again? This government has been following many unnecessary rules framed by yester century politicians who failed to look beyond the horizon and save the future community at large. For instance, does the disparity in cut-off marks between special reserved communities and others really benefit the back-driven? No. It only brings in more detest towards the entire set up and hatred among two friends (one with a low cut-off but with caste reservation and one with meritorious marks but no other policy for backup).

If I say I express an interest in becoming a political leader with mere qualifications, a compassionate heart for the oppressed and honesty, willingness to serve the overall state or country and no hot cash to ‘invest’ or support from a major political party, even a small child would laugh at me. That explains right from being a mere citizen to the extent of trying to be the first citizen, Am I politically free?

Definitely Not.

MY PERSONAL FREEDOM:

Though my personal freedom is majorly attributed to my personal approach to life, I would say, practically to effect a wholesome package of personal freedom, my economic and political freedom are the deciding factors. In a country where I am unable to follow my educational dreams owing to restraints in financial independence; In a country where I am unable to even refrain from selling my vote or contest in the elections without putting at stake the safety of my family and friends; In a country where I cannot go alone at night for a long walk(owing to loopholes in the law and order), what will be the status of my personal freedom?

Ofcourse, I can be happy by following a few yogic techniques and detaching myself from the so-called “worldly activities”. Because at the least measure, that is the only freedom that is safely accessible to me. But is this for what I was educated? Is this the reason why I tried making that ‘an education for life’ other than ‘an education for mere living’?. And infact, only to put this point well.. I chose to discuss about my economic and political freedom beforehand.

SOLUTIONS:

As we know that one’s political, economic and personal freedom is always interdependent and co-existent, and that man is a social being, I propose the following solutions to suggest a positive change in the existing set-up:

1)      The government should re-assess , reframe and if necessary replace old disjoint rules by new ones to ensure that law and order and particularly ‘equality’ is maintained in all strata of the society.

2)      Civil society is the result of the spontaneous human actions of free people. It requires that government get out of the way of people’s endeavours and leave them free to associate with one another. It is easier for the moral fabric of society to be destroyed than it is for it to be carefully built up and passed down through the generations. There can be no doubt that freedom will not last long unless that task is begun. That means that the people must be free, in their economic affairs, in their religious activities and in their family lives [4]. And it is a ‘civil society’ that can ultimately be a ‘free society’.

3)      “Where the mind is free

And the knowledge is…”

-          Rabindranath Tagore has rightly said that positive thoughts from a free and clear mind is the pre-requisite for a free society.

Parapsychologists and Metaphysicists all over the world have now developed an understanding of the power of the subconscious mind. They have enough evidences to state and prove that a strong belief rooted in one’s subconscious mind has unparalleled power to manifest the very cause that created it. If the truth be so, instead of lamenting about the negatives of the existing set-up of the country, positive and active participation of people to help reshape it better is also greatly expected. It is the attitude of ‘worrying more about the less’ that has caused the great differences in the society of rich and poor today. Hence the first step towards a free society is a shift from this weakening thought chain.

REFERENCES:

[1] ‘Economics In One Lesson’ by Henry Hazlitt

[2]& [4] ‘Principles For A Free Society’ by Dr.Nigel Ashford

  [3]‘On Liberty’ by John Stuart Mill