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Corruption Is The Fruit And WE Are Its Root!

Corruption has become a pet media word these days. Actually, commenting on ‘fighting corruption’ has become a fashion statement. Everyone has an opinion on how to fight corruption. One who cannot is considered to be either outdated or careless about the ‘nation’.

It is said that prostitution and corruption are as old as humanity itself. There was never a time when corruption was not there. The treatise of ‘Chanakya’ on corruption in ancient Indian Kingdoms is well known. But something strange is happening these days. Everybody is suddenly concerned with corruption (as if corruption never existed before, though it was much more during the ‘License Raj’!). However, the intelligent and evolved people around know quite well that it is impossible to FIGHT corruption. It is possible only to prevent it. That too if certain facts about ourselves dawn upon us.

Everybody goes on and on about corruption. But very few are able to track the genesis of it. The root of all corruption is fear and greed. I would say only fear. Because, again, all greed is born out of fear. Just look around with awareness. Corruption has entered everywhere. It is in schools, colleges, work places, corporates, Governments (of course!) and unfortunately even in our homes. There has been no corruption in this world whose root could not be traced to some fear or greed.

My sincere question to my readers. How many times have we, or the so called super-intelligent, pious and humanitarian social activists who claim to fight corruption, have ever given a thought to go to the root of the problem. The only thing going around is blame game. Always considering the other to be corrupt. Have we all ever decided to know the fact that we can become corrupt ONLY and ONLY if we become fearful? There is simply no other way!

Human beings are extremely fearful creatures. And when I say fearful, I am not talking about the fearful instincts that are necessary for our survival and one with whom we are born with. I am talking about the fear which is born out of our egoic pursuits. The social conditioning, right from one’s childhood is, – YOU NEED TO RUN TO STAY AHEAD OF EVERYBODY!. All of us are programmed to just compare ourselves with others. So that we can APPEAR BETTER than others. Our ego gets a strange pleasure out of this. So by the time the child becomes an adult and enters his practical and professional life, he already is anxious to STAY AHEAD IN THE RACE. He/she is ready to sacrifice all wisdom and is ready to do anything to LOOK SUCCESSFUL. This fear gives rise to an insatiable greed. And the fruit of corruption, which we are foolishly struggling to get rid of, appears one day out of the seeds of that greed.

Many of us have a habit to holding the people in power responsible for corruption. This is so strange! The bitter truth is that we too would have been the same, had we be in power. Actually, power does not corrupt anybody. It just gives an opportunity, a CHANCE for the ‘corruption’ within to get expressed. So, we need to accept that we ALL, yes we all are prone to becoming corrupt.

People, so far, have tried many different ways to fight corruption. The first and the easiest way is to waste the public money on a parliamentary session, enact and law and that’s it! There are so many laws in our country! But be honest and analyze. Which law has really been successful in preventing that, which cannot be prevented through a ‘threat’ of punishment? There is law to punish the murderers, but murders and killings never stopped (strangely they are increasing). There are laws to protect women, but the more the laws are created to protect them, more are they abused. (Check out the statistics!) This is so strange. Second method is to shout and express anger. Become an ‘activist’ who ‘fights’ corruption. Who in this world has ever been successful by reacting ANGRILY to a deep rooted problem? Nobody ever has. I am pretty 100% sure that nothing worthwhile will be achieved by fighting corruption out of anger. It would just be an angry reaction. And it will last only till the anger lasts. But who in this world have the time to stay eternally angry? So, we know the destiny of this ‘fight against corruption’.

Corruption is not a crime, though we perceive it to be so. It’s a mental disease. The only reaction that we ‘normal’ human beings give to corruption is that of anger. Can ANGER cure a disease? A disease needs a healing. A healing which penetrates deep into the consciousness. We are taught so many things in our schools and colleges, 99% of which never helps us in our practical life. It does not teach us how to handle our own emotions of lust, greed, pride, vanity, fear, jealousy etc. which would have been far more beneficial to us. (Who will teach? One who has been given the responsibility to create educated minds is himself/herself struggling with them!). There is absolutely nothing more important in this world to learn than learning the ability to handle oneself and one’s own emotions. And very surprisingly, no educational institute, earning millions from the students, ever teach this!

Our educators, corporate, politicians. Everybody needs to just calm down themselves. Just wait and watch what they are chasing. Why this corporate greed? Why this greed to get into power? Why this anxiety to always rush to the top by sacrificing values? We all need to be aware of how our inner world is getting dirtier and dirtier. A recent study made of the young corporate professionals gives a staggering statistics on stress. 95% of them are stressed out. All the decisions of their life are been taken out of this stress! Same applies to others too. The deep subconscious stress in our minds is the first and the foremost reason why we become greedy and fall an easy prey to becoming corrupt! That’s why I say, we need to just slow down a bit and become more aware about ourselves. That awareness can bring tremendous amount of healing, which in turn can go a long- long way in eliminating corruption, not temporarily but once and for all!

Human beings exist within four dimensions. The physical, mental, emotional and the spiritual. For thousands of years, our focus has been on the physical or mental. All our systems like educational, political and even the family system revolve on the physical and the mental dimensions. You must have a fit body and you must have a good IQ. That’s it! Due to this, the emotional and the spiritual dimensions have always been ignored. Interestingly, a spiritual dimension has been more corrupted than any other dimension! Many false beliefs were propagated amongst the people under the name of spirituality. People were completely misguided and were taught to FEAR God! God became an object to FEAR! How ridiculous is this!

Actually, the word spirituality itself tells us everything. It has got to do only with our SPIRIT! It concerns us! Our higher self, which we always cover up and ignore. Our spirit is the best healer. Practices like yoga, pranayama and meditation taught by genuine teachers, should be encouraged. Instead of encouraging the children to pursue unproductive activities, they must be asked to practice self-enquiry, yoga, meditations etc. That will give them a whole new perspective in life. This will reduce the possibilities of they falling prey to their corrupt tendencies in a real grander way!

Well, from all what I have said so far, you may be getting a feeling as if I want to allow corruption to go as it is. Not at all. This would not be a very matured conclusion at your side. I do agree that for all the corruption going around, punishment is required. Once the cockroach is born and is nagging us, there is no option but to kill it. But remember that if we follow this approach always, it will just spoil our hands, make them dirty and our hands will begin to give a foul smell too! We human beings have a strange habit. We love killing cockroaches everyday and become satisfied that we are cleaning our homes! Why not undergo a pest-control once and for all? Why not take preventions and cover up all the loop holes so that cockroaches are not at all born? Is it really so difficult? Definitely not.

If we can come together to ‘FIGHT’ corruption, we can certainly come together to prevent it. This in turn will definitely help, not only the corruption chapter to get over, but will also enrich our lives by making it livelier, more conscious and full of joy.

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Posts by SpeakBindas Editorial Team.

13 thoughts on “Corruption Is The Fruit And WE Are Its Root!

  1. Osho Shivo says:

    Dear Sarvesh,

    Although you have dealt with the genesis of corruption very well, you have missed a serious point on the nature of maya, of knowing how this world functions. This world is run by three gunas, tamas, raja, satva and they dominate one by one.

    Another way to understand this is that the seed of destruction of a trend are hidden in that trend itself. So, a particular way of life, morality, nation, group of people continue to gain power till it reaches the peak and then it gets destroyed. It is not the people who cause it, but the trend itself buckles under its own pressure.

    So let us understand that it is not the people who are creating this revolution. This is just the part of trend itself. Corruption will grow, grow and grow and then it will get bust (and then it will begin to grow again slowly, feeding on itself and gain pace). The way, certain people were involved in the trend of corruption to grow, some other people are involved in the busting of it. So many revolutions have happened before and those who were powerful, were thrown to dust and then a new series began when a new set of people will become powerful and corrupt. This is the cycle.

    Even though, people involved in this revolution have all the human weaknesses but I would stand with them and support them against those who are corrupt. Nature is exerting its power and I respect that and I give my support to this natural phenomenon. Trend of corruption has seen its peak and now the time has come for it to bust.

    Fight of good and bad has always continued. Bad takes hold of society and gains power, it reaches it s peak and then it collapses under its own weight. Though it appears that there are some people fighting for good, but that is not the real reason for its collapse. It is its own weight which causes the collapse.

    Even though you can say that those fighting against corruption are also operating from their own greed but I would still support them. If you compare Anna Hazare with Sharad Pawar, wont you feel that there is immense diff between both? Who do you think is more loving, more compassionate? Yes, Anna may also have his own ego issues, but the his consciousness is far higher than sharad pawar.

    Just remember something about being in this world- evil is the common denominator. Whenever conscious people have to make choice between more evil and less evil, they always choose less evil. They do not sit around and moan- “oh, both are evil, so I wont choose”. They make a clear choice.

    Even if I look at the whole thing from spiritual perspective, Anna seems to be living the peak of spiritual ecstasy, where he is inviting his own death, so many people have good wishes and relate with him. He is a person who realizes that life lived in service is far more beautiful than the life lived accumulating money. Off course when Anna fights SHarad Pawar, I will wholeheartedly support Anna. i am not going to say “Oh. Sharad Pawar is not enlightened, Anna is not enlightened. SO I am not going to take side” Anyone spiritual can see that Anna is far more spiritually grounded than Sharad Pawar and that is why nature has chose him to lead this crusade.

    Go on Anna. I am with you 100% .

  2. awaaj says:

    This post is extremely right. We all are routes of corruption because we are not going to take appropriate action against it, we are hopeless. We have to become courageous and have to do a revolution against it….. Satyamev Jayatey !

  3. Sarvesh says:

    Dear Shivo!

    That was really really beautiful and extremely matured way of expressing what you feel.
    Well, to make my position clear, I never said that I am against Anna Hazare. I do support him. (though you may not find me on the streets shouting slogans;) )
    Also, I am not that great to compare Anna Hazare’s consciousness with Sharad Pawar’s consciousness. Both are higher than mine 😉
    According to me, nature is not concerned with showing a trend that ‘corruption needs to be busted now’. Nature has got nothing to do with these things. Nature always guides us to show WHAT WE ARE, through all the events in this world. Nature just responds to our consciousness. Its OUR consciousness which operates in a cycle. Nature is purely neutral, so far as my view is concerned.
    You say
    “Even though, people involved in this revolution have all the human weaknesses but I would stand with them and support them against those who are corrupt. Nature is exerting its power and I respect that and I give my support to this natural phenomenon. Trend of corruption has seen its peak and now the time has come for it to bust.”
    I completely agree with you that nature operates in trends. But your concept of supporting something because nature is supporting it, is not so clear with me.Should I imply from this that when nature was exerting its power TOWARDS corruption, murder and rape, you were supporting and respecting it? So, today if the trend is of murders, rapes etc, should I also ‘go with the trend’ and ‘respect’ it and myself commit them?
    Remember the story of Jesus Christ? When all the people were angered on a woman because she was sinful and were throwing stones on her, Christ just urged them that only that person has the right to throw the stone who has never committed any sin in his life. All the people went away. Christ didnt sit and compare the consciousness levels of the woman and the people who were throwing stones at her! So if Christ’s focus was self-cleaning rather than FIGHTING sins, imagine where we are standing!
    To be clear, I am once again saying that my support for Anna Hazare, FOR THIS CAUSE is 100%. But my article is concerned with something that will happen AFTER his movement stops (sucessfully or otherwise). It just tells you that FIGHTING CORRUPTION begins with first cleaning oneself. And if we refuse to clean ourself, no amount of Anna Hazares can help us…..

  4. Osho Shivo says:

    Dear Sarvesh,

    In the fight between good and bad, I am always with good, fully knowing that both phenomenon move one after another and both are essential for this world to run. But my spirit is such that it only supports good people (even if that support is out of their egoistic nature).

    I am happy that the natural cycles has turned its head on the evil. I am praying that this bust happens sooner rather than later. Though, for my own consciousness evolution, I find both the times, good and bad , very valuable. I know from my own past life journies that I have evolved in both kind of times , dark age as well as age of light. Though the process of evolution have been very diff. IN dark times, I evolve by fighting the darkness and putting my life on stake. In times of light, I enjoy sharing with other souls and spreading light. So for me both the times are divine. However, I choose to be on the side of good , whatever may be the natural cycle.

  5. Sarvesh says:

    Dear Shivo,

    Coincidently, in the fight between good and bad, I TOO am always with the good 🙂
    At the same time, I also appreciate the fact that “good” and “bad” are only the labels given by us…and any real ‘change’ is an inside-out phenomena.
    What I feel is that the world does not operate in the mode of “good” or “bad”. Its mode of operation is cause and effect. People call corruption as “bad”. But actually, I feel, that its an ‘effect’ of a ‘bad’ cause. So, I am totally supportive of fighting the cause which gives rise to corruption. Thats what I have mentioned in my article. Corruption is a fruit. If I sow a seed of thorn tree and then later on grumble that I want to fight it out so that I can see mangoes on its branches, how is that possible? We are stuck with a ‘fruit’ and are desperately trying to change it without changing the seed which gave rise to that fruit.
    For example, RTI Act was passed. People became very hopeful. Now the RTI activists are getting murdered in broad daylight. Or the RTI law itself is getting misused. It is nowhere serving its REAL purpose for which it was passed. Why?
    Because the people who have to follow the law have REMAINED same! They have not changed! Old wine in the new bottle!! 🙂
    Now Anna Hazare is right in demanding the ‘Lokpal’ to be appointed. I too appreciate it. But I dont want to keep an innocent and a novice belief that LOKPAL is going to come down from the heavens and will be very much honest, non-corrupt, caring for people’s welfare etc. In fact, there are very high chances that if the Lokpal bill is passed as is demanded by the activists, he can quite turn out to be dictatorial in nature.
    So my urge is not to give support because others are supporting. Not to support it because “its a trend” or such things!! 🙂 95% people suporting the bill dont even know what Lokapal bill is. They dont know what they are supporting. They are supporting just because of Anna Hazare. Again, I am fine with that.
    So lets support Anna Hazare wholeheartedly, at the same time remaining quite aware that corruption cannot END with such superficial measures. The goal of this movement can at the most be to make he governement realise that tolerating corruption has gone beyond our limits and if timely actions are not taken, the condition of the country will deteriorate much more.

  6. Osho Shivo says:

    Dear Sarvesh,

    You have talked about the cause and effects and rightly mentioned that inner contamination leads to all kind of corruption.

    However, I

  7. Osho Shivo says:

    Dear Sarvesh,

    You have talked about the cause and effects and rightly mentioned that inner contamination leads to all kind of corruption.

    However, I always wonder, spiritual people tend to ignore the impact of outer contamination on inner world. For example, there is a spiritual sadhak and he intends to live a clean life in his job by staying away from corruption, but in today’s world his honesty can put him in most rigorous difficulties, trials, traps, conspiracies etc. There are even cases that honest people have been murdered simply because they did not take bribe and in such a situation many sadhaks compromise and start to take bribe, even though unwillingly. This really put their soul under immense guilt. So let us be clear, it is not just that our inner contamination leads to outer dirt, it is also true in reverse and it is a vicious cycle. So it is a duty for spiritual sadhak to fight against the corruption.

  8. shashank maurya says:

    i think that the present politicians should be fall and a new group of politicians should be standed or we should punish the politicians without any fear if we fight against this no 1 can even touch us
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! stand a new group of politicians !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    if any government officer ask bribe we should immediately complain to the anti-corruption bureau
    in our INDIA politicians are on the enemy

  9. RAJAN PATEL says:

    Sir, you are one of the Anna Hazare of India. I salute you to publish this type of article in such a good website…. Wish you all the best….

  10. varun rai says:

    I am very thankful for the article and its writer.You just gave the right solution
    I would also say that the fight and riots going on at the movement are only temporary and not a permanent solution!!!!As exams come close no student would be present in the march neglecting exam and our kind off students should try to imply the good thoughts into those kids we meet 😀

  11. dineshtilva says:

    kavi keva shu mange chhe…? 2 liti matr…

    1. Tame je FB par lakhyu te barabar j chhe.. Kavi ej kaheva mange chhe “‎….મુળિયા સડેલ તો ફળની આશા કેવી ર’ખાય !! “

      1. dineshtilva says:

        તો, વાંધો ન’ય… (વાંઢો નય)

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