There are many kinds of power — one that comes from the double barrel of a gun, another that comes from money and yet another that comes from using the religious feelings of millions. But a nobler power is that which comes from the purity of mind, best intentions, sacrifice for the dispossessed and the weaker sections, positive thinking and linking oneself to the Almighty, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji
Nowadays politicians have become the flavour of the season, especially with elections happening throughout the year in different parts of the country. So one gets to see a variety of election gimmicks live through various media like television, internet and now smartphones, too. So what is it that makes politics such an interesting subject for discussion among people across the worldIJ
To begin with, one needs to understand that politics, whatever form it takes, whether of monarchy, aristocracy, dictatorship, democracy or any other, has always a big or small link and strong or weak nexus with economics, religion and culture. In principle, politics is for governance and there cannot be any governance without power, which everyone would agree, RightIJ Now! We all know it very well that this power is derived by associating politics with religion, economics, military might and so on . So, in short, those who enter the arena of politics, their motive is to rule, to possess power and to be acclaimed as powerful people or as persons in seats of power.
Therefore, politics aims at governing not only the state or its people but it also has a tendency to rule all fields of human activity, including religion, economics, trade and commerce, culture and so on. In this attempt, it tries to find support from history by quoting from it what supports its present objectives and by pointing to past failures of nations and men in order to justify what it does not now intend to do.
In fact, it can be said that politics has its roots in history or it evolves from history. It would be wrong to omit philosophy in this discussion because everyone has a world-vision and a vision of what life should be or a society should be. This may be called the working philosophy of a person or the ruler who has the power in his hands. If we appreciate the factors that have been fore-mentioned and that play a role in determining the state policy or political philosophy that motivates, guides and plays a role in politics, then we should analyse the present political scenario in the light of these.
The present political dictum is that “politics is for power and that there can be no governance without power.” This underlying thought itself is faulty. Instead why not say: “Politics is for service of society at large” and “Power helps to fulfill this aim of service.” There are many kinds of power — one that comes from the double barrel of a gun, another that comes from money and yet another that comes from using the religious feelings of millions. But a nobler power is that which comes from the purity of mind, best intentions, sacrifice for the dispossessed and the weaker sections, positive thinking and linking oneself to Almighty whose children we all are. Governance also can have the motive of a power-play or the tendency to dominate and to rule others but, if used rightly, it can also take the form of ruling one’s own sense-organs and mind. So unless and until the motive behind governance and power changes, and there is a paradigm-shift in politics, we cannot have such clean, fair and benevolent form of politics that brings about betterment of society.
Today we are witnessing fall of many governments, empires, kingships, democracies across the world. The reason behind their collapse is because the values and aims of both the leaders and people are not clean. The seed of difficulties in our system is the lack of awareness and practice of values such as cooperation, honesty, service, self-examination and self-discipline.This is mainly because since childhood we have been taught to compete fiercely in order to succeed rather than to develop individual talents to complement each other; to possess and accumulate more as a means of security rather than sharing our resources and realising that security comes when there is unity, a sense of belonging among everyone in the society. This ignorance towards values brings sufferings to humanity due to which vices are created bringing further misery to our lives. It would thus be wrong for politics to use religion, culture and economics for selfish ends or to satisfy one’s own hunger for power. Instead, it should learn its lessons from ethics and economics of people’s welfare and use the power it has gained, towards the common goal of purity, peace and prosperity.