Crime, corruption, extremism and yoga therapy
Sometimes people commit crimes out of compelling necessity due to poverty, unemployment, hunger, etc. But usually offenders commit crime because of their misplaced faith in short cut to happiness and peace through unfair means.
M N KUNDU
To many people in Bangladesh yoga means a few free- hand exercises for physical health and healing. Yes, yoga does help in keeping us in good health and cures many incurable diseases. But its far better use lies in practising yoga for mental health and psychological development for which we have no other matching alternative. As a product of ancient Indian culture, of which Bangladesh is very much an integral part, Yoga enables us to control our inner nature from within through vital force and psychic power equilibrium. Using it merely for physiological purpose is just like using a good computer as an electronic typewriter and nothing else. The social problem of evil and extremism are essentially rooted in assimilation of wrong culture in uncontrolled mental frame, which can be duly offset by right culture based on non-sectarian wisdom and self-control mechanism.
Once a thief came to a great yogi and asked, Sir, I am a thief. But I am very much keen to practise yoga for health, healing and self-development. Can I do it? The great yogi piercingly looked at his eyes and replied, Of course you can. The astonished thief asked again, I had gone to many masters and all of them said that first of all I have to stop stealing. Then only I can practice yoga. Although I am quite rich and no longer required to steal but it has become my habit. So I cant stop stealing. The great yogi said, You steal due to darkness of evil in your inner nature. No one can fight with darkness. Kindle the light of yoga within and the darkness of evil will automatically vanish. Evil is invariably pathological and rooted in darkness of ignorance. Root cause remedy of evil lies in kindling light from within.
When Girish Chandra Ghosh, a celebrated actor and dramatist started coming to Sri Ramakrishna some people told the great master, Sir, this actor is notoriously alcoholic. Never accept him as your disciple. Sri Ramakrishna replied, Let him drink as long as he can in spite of divine nectar placed before him. Very soon Girish became an exemplary disciple with incredible surrender. Sometimes people commit crimes out of compelling necessity due to poverty, unemployment, hunger, etc. But usually offenders commit crime because of their misplaced faith in short cut to happiness and peace through unfair means. Majority of the white coloured criminals in our society do not indulge in criminal misconduct out of any compelling necessity but out of habit and demonstration effect for sheer ego-satisfaction. Corruption is a common human problem but those who indulge in it are rather greedy and not necessarily needy.
Imposition of ethical standard and strict law and order situation has limited impact on such white coloured criminals. They have very little regard for ethics and values as they are essentially victim of deep rooted disbelief system. Root cause remedy of their disease lies in building trust on value system from within. Unfortunately, our money making education system does not cultivate virtues or value system. Most of the people are entirely ignorant of the mathematical exactitude of the law of karma like Newtons third law or at best they know it only as a piece of information and not a binding truth. Human resource development has so far continued to remain confined within money making education instead of man making one.
Evil is invariably an enemy of our centring to the being beyond doing and possessing at existential level. It keeps us confined and rotating in the apparently merry-go-round of the surface level of living driven by desire, doing, having and ultimately suffering at the circumferential outskirt in utter oblivion of the centre of being. We may have limited success in the circumferential living for some time. But that invariably leads to frustration and suffering sooner or later. Until and unless we are centred to the being which is existential we cannot have peace. Our ego-centric life and modifications of mind can never give us what we really want and keep us busy in futile search for happiness, peace and panacea in externals. It becomes too late for us to realize that the apparent merry go round of life is actually a misery-go-round and we must search for an exit route.
Ancient Indian legacy of yoga, a way of living concerns searching for the real behind the apparent, permanent behind the transient and Self behind the egoic non-self. Proper cultivation of the universal culture of yoga and its psychophysical process for mind programming dispel the darkness of evil from within and give us health, healing, harmony, peace and happiness. All the problems of the world can be solved by imparting man-making (including women) education leading to assimilation of the solidarity of all life. Problems cannot be solved on racial, religious, national or narrow grounds but have to cover the whole humanity. Man making education will generate compassion for all sentient beings as extension of self and also awaken aspiration for the highest wisdom.
Serious common error in all ethical systems has been the failure of teaching the means by which man could refrain from doing evils under instinctive compulsion. The solution lies in controlling our own internal nature through the path of yoga. No one can make us better person or spiritual, our growth must come from within.
Yoga is acceptable to all minds, emotional, intellectual, mystic, active etc. To the worker it is union between man and whole humanity, to the mystic between his higher and lower self, to the lover union between himself and God of love, to the philosopher it is union of all existence. This is what is meant by yoga.
It is held in yoga that the entire universe is nothing but manifestation of the absolute One. There is only one self in the universe, only one existence. When it manifests through time, space and causation it appears to be diverse and is called by different names. In the heart of things there is fundamental unity. When all life in the whole universe is seen in vast oneness the selfishness, narrow-mindedness and innumerable compartmentalization instantly collapse.
The aim of our life is to realize the same unity through the path of selfless service to the humanity, assimilation of wisdom through deeper introspection, devotion to any concept of the Almighty or some special psychophysical practice. These constitute the curriculum of yoga, the art of cosmic union. Realization of the essential unity of all creatures has to be acquired through unconditional love for all, wise detachment and extension of self through service of humanity beyond the dogmas and any sectarian faith. Unfortunately, people erroneously think that yoga is either a matter of Hindu religion or of health and healing. In fact, yoga is neither. It has nothing to do with Hinduism, its way of worship, rituals and concept of gods and goddesses. It belongs to universal culture of humanity at large.
The writer is a freelancer
