Understand, Comprehend, Analyse and Act....

Author : Ashok Murthy
Location : India

It is the 9th of September, 2007. We are seven years into the current millennium. This is the age of science, where logic and sensibility determines the credibility of people. Yet in the face of such theoretical perception of the 21st century, lies a reality that is quite amusing, yet worrying none the less.

A couple of weeks back, in a well known mosque in south Asia. Hundreds of people under the leadership of a disillusioned religious head, who was known for his support for the Taliban, refused to surrender to that country’s army even after repeated warnings. In the end, hundreds of lives of policemen as well as those people who had refused to surrender were lost. One man’s continued support for the forces of tyranny and oppression and his utter lack of concern for human life, brought death to hundreds of lives, only because these people trusted him.

In another part of south Asia, a holy man has exploited generations of women of various families, married and unmarried with their express consent, while these women think that they are blessed for being subjected to the exploitation. A married 21 year old woman would have been one more victim, had she not detected that her own mother-in-law was leading her into a trap when she was asked to spend some at the holy man's ashram. The mother-in-law was a willing victim herself and was only happy to be in the divine service of this holy man.

Both the cases presented above are as real as they can get. Who do we blame? These cases are not in isolation but only the tip of the ice berg.

People like that religious head and the holy man are guilty but not in entirety. Throughout the course of history, they have capitalised on some people’s contempt for logic, rationale and self respect. Words are not enough to describe, how unfortunate our society is, which continues to place forces unseen and unheard, only preached about by such exploiters, above their own sense of logic, rationale, sensibility and self confidence.

A terrorist promises to end the deaths by his organisations if Americans converted to his religion. If this sounds disillusioned, roughly 200,000 people or more are ready to blow themselves up in the service of this intelligent man.

Let us not allow these insults to human intellect continue. We are biological beings capable of drawing distinctions between good and evil, gifted with a brain whose abilities transcend beyond the scope of the term extraordinary. We are blessed with intellects far superior than any other beings known to us. Let us not allow others from the same species make a mockery of the spiritual, analytical and logical intellect which we hold as our positive trait. Let us not allow people to exploit those whose innocence is a good quality and not a medium for exploitation. Let us not be a party to the evil deeds of these people. Let us understand, comprehend, analyse and act.