Corruption is a word very familiar in India and made even more familiar by the ongoing satyagrahas, andolans, movements etc. lately. We all have knowingly or unknowingly been adversely affected by it and this would continue until we bring a check on individual greed and revengeful attitude.
One of my strongest views of Corruption is that it thrives due to greed and revengeful attitude of people.
Remember the days when we were kids and we would fight with friends over play. Some of our friends always wanted more and they never shared anything with others. We all disliked them at first but then friends are friends and most of us dont shun them at the drop of a hat, so most of us become like them and only a handful leave. The ones who leave remain alone for sometime and come back to join their friends but rarely anyone won't come back at all.
Thats is exactly the case with corruption in our society. Some of our brothers are greedy and they want everything and would go to any extent to get what they want as well as what they dont want. They were either born this way or they were 'made' this way.
How is one 'made' this way?
One is made this way out of the feeling of Revenge. Someone 'like them' did something 'like that' to 'them' and in the fury of Revenge 'they' became like their Nemesis - Greedy.
Thus, Greed translates into Revenge which further translates into Greed and hence a vicious circle is formed. Many of us are in this vicious circle and are the source as well as the effect of Corruption.
We were affected by corruption and hence we want to hit back those who affected us and in the process we ourselves indulge in corruption. Then this continues throughout generations. We are witnessing the same societal phenomena where morality is declining by the day and humanity is in serious Danger.
Let me put a small story to put my point further:
A young boy just out of college in a non-metro city in India is forced the bribe a babu to get a job in a government department. He works diligently and honestly but not for long as the people around him does not like him the way he is. He works like a slave but with no result, all his deserving and non-deserving colleagues went well ahead of him, with their 'connections' and he is left struggling. He was snobbed, ridiculed and taken advantage of by his colleagues and his seniors. He was pulled in each and every direction until one day he decided to give back. He is waiting for that ONE moment, when he would get his revenge of all that was afflicted upon him and when he gets that chance, he hits back at his new colleagues and the society at large in a manner worse than what was done to him. Hence he joins the 'Bandwagon' and makes the social environment even worse.
This is the story of an aam aadmi of India, who is ridiculed, betrayed and humiliated everyday. He is secretly waiting for that ONE moment when he will hit back and avenge himself.
This is the ground where corruption thrives. It multiplies itself to huge proportions and reaches out to all the directions in the society.
More the afflicted, Bigger it becomes. More number people affected by corruption, more people join it. Corruption proves to them what is a blatant LIE, that this is the way things are run and the innocent people believe it to be true.
So the Empire of Corruption is standing on a myth, a lie. Hence I do not blame the Young Man in the story, his reaction was but natural to the situation.
But then there were few who did not give up and kept dragging themselves and never compromised on societal ethics. Such people are less but they are the ones who have to power to break this circle.
To end corruption only one way exists, that is to break the Vicious Circle. This circle can only be broken if you either stop Greed or You suppress the feeling of Revenge.
Greed can only be controlled by moral education and awareness and Revengeful attitude can only be suppressed by what you call 'Ahimsa'.
As for Greed, it has been injected in our society by the caretakers of our nation in the form of Capitalism, which seems to be a failed economic system. An economic system has to evolve itself over time to change and hence we can only wait and watch.
Ahimsa not only denotes non-violence but also promotes a non-revengeful attitude. Hence it brings us back to the teaching of the Mahatma that an 'eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'. People like the Mahatma are the ones who face all the stones thrown at them but do not hit back and hence break the circle of corruption. They stop this epidemic to spread further and hence spread the feeling of Humanity and Kindness.
To absolve is the most difficult of the tasks in this world but that is what seems to be the only way to break this vicious circle of Corruption.
Through this Article, I would like to urge my dear readers to practice and preach Ahimsa and break this circle of Corruption which keeps on attaching innocent people to itself just like a magnet.
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