Healing the marginalized majority

Modern Times
By Bhrahma
March 11, 2002

Healing the marginalized majority
Reading headlines in local papers about the ongoing madness in my home city, sitting in a foreign country as I am, gives me a perspective of an insider, looking in, from the outside!
!!
When I tell people in this country that I come from the same city where they burn people alive, they look at me in wonder! Wow!
What do you think could be the root of this madness? Who are these people any way? Can you think of anyone you know who could plot, let alone participate in such barbaric acts of violence?
No, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if one of the culprits works as a peon or is the rickshaw driver who takes my neighbor’s kids to school - normal people, living a mundane existence, like you and me.
Then why?
Bhrahm: I can’t think of them having any other reason other than a hidden anger so strong that it wells up like a volcano, given an opportunity to vent. In majority cases of mob violence in India, the vent is provided in form of assured political protection (ever heard of anyone being implicated in a mob crime?). There is a whole mass of people out there living in a constricted space, with no privacy, little money for leisure and zero job satisfaction. At the same time, they have aspirations that are growing grander by the day (what with the exposure to the good life on television and celluloid!). They are the marginalized majority with an axe to grind. Why did fate deal them such a lame hand?
So you think the inter-caste issue is a secondary phenomenon?Absolutely - a creation of shortsighted, self-serving politicians. Tomorrow it could be Gujarati v/s non-Gujarati or upper caste v/s lower caste. The root of the anger is somewhere else and incidents like this are just channels for bringing it out. It’s just that the politicians know the hotspots to push to rally one group against another.
So what can one do?
At least we have to try and recognize the frustration, the root of the negative energies and try and heal ourselves. If everyone channelizes some of their energy in this manner, you would have a community of healing people. All you have now are people like us who say ‘What can I do!? It’s outside my area of influence!’.
What do you mean ‘heal’ one’s self?
There appear to be many different ways to do it but all of them lead to the same destination – recognizing one’s own spirituality. Show me a peaceful and harmonious people and I will show you a spiritual community. There is no two ways about it.
What do you mean by spirituality? When survival itself is a struggle, who has the time for spirituality?
You don’t have to go anywhere looking for it! It’s right there, within you! Most of us have just lost touch with it. Just visiting a temple doesn’t necessarily bring it out. I am so confident that if each of us spent even 15 minutes a day, sitting quietly, alone, without any distraction and concentrated on our breathing - looking at ourselves from the outside (insider looking in, from the outside!), crime and violence rate would fall to a fraction of what it is.

Give me a break!
Don’t believe me. Try it and see the difference! And don’t keep looking at your watch while you do!