The Party-less Manifesto

 Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 5:08 PM

Divine Character                                                      *C.L. Gulati, 

 Whenever the General Elections are announced, the political parties swing into action on making alignments and equations for winning the elections and gaining power. While blaming each other, every party paints a rosy picture for the public at large. Feeling pulse of the people, the parties promise to add to their purse by way of multiple perks.

The major political parties usually bring out Manifestos in order to gain popularity and to attract more votes. They announce their respective policies and programmes in the event of their coming to power and getting a chance to govern. This way, each party highlights certain issues and in its political wisdom tries to offer the best possible solution for it. In fine, the end statement of all the Manifestos would mean purity, peace and prosperity or in other words, health, wealth and happiness which can be termed as the Charter of Demands of the People.

Now, concentrating our attention on this statement, we find that health, wealth and happiness are inseparable. They all go together and cannot be enjoyed in the true sense if only some have and others do not have them. If there is a disease, poverty or unrest in any part of the country, we can not have complete peace. These have to be in abundance for all the people to experience the joy of life.

The rosy picture shown by the political parties would only be a fleeting phenomenon, if divine virtues are not ingrained in human character. Therefore, either it must be a divine sovereignty and everyone an embodiment of divine virtues or it would only be a moth-eaten hollow society devoid of any real substance. But we find that no party comes out with any such Manifesto which talks of man turning divine or the society a divine sovereignty. Little does any party realize that all its promises to the electorate would remain unfulfilled if the citizens of the country are not persons of divine character.

The most important and urgent problem facing the Brave Society today is the crisis of character. Materialistic values and outlook have weakened the fabric of society to the point where selfishness has become endemic in all walks of life. The higher human values that spring from the awareness of the spiritual basis of our being must be re-awakened, if the crisis is to be resolved. The spiritual and moral development is essentially required in order to bring about a non-violent spiritual renaissance.

So, the era which the political parties promise to usher in would remain a dream only as long as nature of the people is not given divine touch. This is the task which they can not perform because they do not have that magic wand of Divine Knowledge which transforms human nature into divine one. They do not have such know-how or expertise which would help to accomplish this superhuman task. God alone can do this. He, through his Prophet, places before mankind the party-less Manifesto of complete purity, peace and prosperity, as also the divine sovereignty, irrespective of their race, religion, caste and culture. By revealing Fatherhood of God, the prophet establishes spontaneous brotherhood of mankind This Divine Knowledge provides divinity to human character- which leads to harmony in the house, order in the society and eventual peace in the world.

The religion is a vehicle of spiritual enlightenment, moral consciousness and cultural values which are best suited to address the problems of life in all forms on our beautiful planet earth. It is for this reason that in the past, the kings and emperors used to have Raj Gurus to give religious touch to their politics. But now, when the religion has lost its gravity and has been totally eclipsed by politics, self-transformation holds the key to social transformation and it is up to each one of us to make an informed choice in favour of higher human values needed for a better society at large.

Self-transformation is decidedly a panacea for all social evils and holds a promise for global peace and progress. But its achievement is not that simple as it looks to be. Explaining the intrigue, Nirankari Baba ji who stands for human integration through spiritual awakening explains that every human being is an amalgam of material body and the soul-guided mind residing therein. The natural phenmenon is that man should link his soul with God and body with the materialistic world for its maintenance. But there is a patent short-circuiting in that the man has linked his mind with mundane world and body with certain rites, rituals and outer ceremonies in the name of God. Man thinks his physical body to be the be-all and end-all of his life. He spends more time looking in the mirror than looking in his mind to strike a balance for an ideal life. With this short-circuiting, men are running berserk like excited molecules of gas.

Every human being comprises of five material elements i.e. the earth, water, fire, air, sound plus the soul. The first five elements form the body while the sixth represents the individual unit of consciousness. Whenever there is a deficiency of any of these five elements in the body, some sort of disease or disturbance takes place. However, the deficiency of one element cannot be made good by any other. For example, the necessity of water cannot be met with by earth, fire, air or sound. Exactly on the same pattern no material element can replenish or substitute the sixth i.e. the soul or the individual unit of consciousness.

The human body fulfils its material needs from their counterpart mainstreams of earth, water, air, fire and sound abundantly available outside it. Likewise, all pervading God, the mainstream of individual unit of consciousness (soul) exists outside the human body also. In the absence of establishing relationship between the individual unit of consciousness (soul) with the mainstream of consciousness (God), those who materially lack nothing in life, feel disturbed and, at times, find themselves face to face with situations, when they feel that they have lost everything. Physical death of a person is painful, but more painful than that is the situation when the man lives with his soul lying deadly neglected within. For an ideal life, self-transformation is another name for self-realization based on reunion of soul with God. When God dwells in our mind, we are protected from evil ways and that marks the beginning of much needed social-transformation. Saint philosophers Augustine of Hippo writers, "Restless are our souls until they rest in Thee my God."

An enlightened person perceives God in all and all in God. He believes that all his assets, material and mental, belong to God and he, as a trustee, is ordained to use them for the common good of the whole human race. This spells a living above narrow prejudices and dogmas of caste, colour and creed. Thereby, one becomes respectful towards other's mode of dress, diet and culture and leads a purposeful self-reliant family life and maintains order in the society."

This spiritual attainment is a perennial bliss which brings saint Kabir living in a hutment earning a Takka (two paise) a day by weaving and Raja Janaka living in palaces, on the same ecstatic wave length despite their being poles apart socially and economically. There is no line of demarcation separating the rich from the poor. Spiritually speaking Haves are those who are spiritually awakened and Have-nots are those who are bereft of Divine-knowledge. which is the only key to purity, peace and prosperity. There is Biblical warning, "What shall avialeth a man if he gains the whole world but loseth his own soul!" The Prophet brings security and equality through spirituality.

The unity of divine thought and action leads to the humanism of the first water and forms a unique base for the best administered Government. All the Manifestos of the political parties can not match the divine path shown and the divine character built by the party-less True Master. He represents the mainstream of spirituality carried on by saints and sages, down the ages, reiterating and translating into action the same bold message, "Man is a man, when he is human. He is human, when the entire mankind is his family. Mankind is his family, when the all pervading God is his home. God can be his home when he actually knows Him and blissfully identifies himself with Him by living upto the divine message of the Prophet.

It was exactly this religion in his mind, when William Burke claimed that the religion is the foundation of the society, the basis on which all true civil Governments rest, and from which power derives its authority, laws their efficiency and both their sanction. If it is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable or lasting.

Population explosion, magnified power of technology and psychological attitudes becoming a way of living on earth – all these factors combined, we are behaving as if the planet is a business in liquidation. There is a collusion between our civilization and the earth. Leading scientists in the world are openly giving a call that we probably have short time left in which to make a dramatic change in the pattern that now represents business as usual. Yes, we can fulfil the task but we will first have to change attitudes and awareness and recognize it as a spiritual issue, a challenge that goes to the core of who we are as human beings. In such a situation, awareness is important warmth is important and spirituality has a game-changing role to play in reminding us of our humanity.

*C L Gulati is the Secretary of  Sant Nirankari Mandal, Delhi-9