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Consciousness
Written by Mahesh Prasad   

How far permissible?

The event had all the elements to escalate the TRP ratings, instead it raised public temper and outcry against moral policing.

Just watch this. Volunteers of Ram Sena enter a pub in Manglore, catch hold of merry-making youngsters and thrash them including even the girls present there.

The incident is condemned by all--right, left or centrists. There is a great hue and cry amongst the secularists, liberals and human rights protagonists. Electronic media is at its best to highlight the outrage; it even even brands the attempt of Sena men as equal to “Talibanisation of Karnataka”.

The event undoubtedly is a case of high-handedness. Not just that, the incident is also abhorrent to civilised norms, violating individual liberty and freedom of entertainment. But, it is really unfortunate that we judge the events only as peripheral or apparent expressions. There is hardly any attempt to asses the rootcause, which causes such ugly events. What irks more is that even when violence emanates from social distortions and want of basics, the incident is termed a “law and order problem” and it is solved through policing alone.

Now, the case on hand has a political angle to it. Ironically, it was the same Congress-led government in Maharashtra with Sri R.R. Patil as the Home Minister, which had ordered the closure of hotels for employing bar dancers. Dancers were hounded out in scores and their livelihood snatched, all in the name of culture and morality. And, all those people whether in the authority or the social elites, who are now raising their shrieks to the top did not bat an eye-lid then. If the bar dancers were outraging our culture, how can we justify these young boys and girls with half naked bodies who wine, dine, dance, kiss or even go farther in the so-called pubs. These pubs have actually turned into dens of immoral behaviour in the name of entertainment, liberty, individual freedom and choice.

I vividly remember the conversation with the daughter-in-law of one of my colleagues in Bangalore way back in 2006. During our conversation, the lady asked me if I had visited any pub there. To my denial, she blurted out that the girls visiting these places were just “goondis”.

In such a background, the protests by the human right activists, social activists or political hawks giving a call for “pub bharo” andolan to youngsters, is simply the product of a perverse mind.

Agreed, our Constitution allows many freedoms. But, all freedoms carry with them some responsibilities. If ones freedom impinges upon another’s freedom or sensibility or endangers social fabric then the former’s freedom has to be restrained. And, this norm is incorporated in all constitutions and penal codes, every where.

Be it the bar dancers, the growing pub-culture or similar such activities prevalent in today’s society, they slowly but steadily, tear apart the long-woven fabric of culture. In fact, culture cannot be restricted to a limited definition. It is the sum total of all human expressions, which get evolved in a particular environment according to its necessities over a very long period of time. In India we admit it to have been five thousand years old (though according to a Great philosopher it evolved over fifteen thousand years).

Every region of the world, be it the West, East, Middle East, Far East, North or South, has its own culture. And, this culture is passed on from one generation to another and is interwoven in the fabric of their lives. If anybody tries to upset this arrangement, there is sure to be dissension and tension.

There is a section of elite who cite the example of the temples of Khajuraho with erotic sculptors of women and argue that even our ancient culture did not detest openness and the intimacy in man-woman relationship.

Now, in reply to this argument, we can say that firstly, making images of Gods, Goddesses or apsaras is not ancient. It started some two thousand years ago in puranic age only. Secondly, the Khajuraho and similar other creations are of comparatively recent origin say – a thousand years old only. And, no one has a clear explanation as to why such images depicting intimate scenes have been sculpted on temple peripheries.

As per Ac. Rajneesh, the outer portion signifies the crudest portion of mind i.e. conscious mind. All amorous thoughts and expressions are its domain while the purest and deepest thoughts are that of inner most layers of mind. Thus, the depiction of images on the outer surface of temples conveys deeper tantric and philosophical meanings. The people who seek ‘anandam’ or higher consciousness leave the impure thoughts outside and for deeper realization go to the garbha graham.

Taking cue from the explanation by the great Master, it is just childish to compare the two eventualities. Moreover, the compromising images of Khajuraho have not dented the tradition or belief of Hindus even a bit. The argument is just for argument’s sake and should be buried.

Since the day we adopted the Constitution in 1950, our intellectuals mostly fed on Western culture, either through education there or through their foreign-bred parents or otherwise have stretched the freedoms guaranteed therein to the extremes. Many prominent TV channels and some in print media are being heavily financed to see that there is a complete transmutation in the thought process of Indian psyche.

True, we cannot take back the hands of time; every thing is subject to time, place and person; change is the law of nature. Thus, the parameters of culture, as they are, must also change. But, a million dollar question is: to what extent? To the extent to which it does not violate the sensibility and freedom of others, to the extent it does in no way tears apart the very fabric of society and is also in harmony with law and order of the country.

There are cases galore where promiscuity has resulted in unwanted pregnancies. Some 8 million girls below 12 become unmarried mothers in US. Even in the metropolitan towns of India, the trend is taking alarming proportion. Even law and order is on challenge. This is the reason restrictions are put on Christmas and New Year revelleries. Many murders are the result of societal neglect of excessive freedom allowed to youngsters. Hence, the need for state as well as societal restrictions.

The greatest irony is that while a considerable size in West and US has realized the blessedness of Indian (Hindu) culture, value of joint family system and its consequent social security, worth of its thought, Yoga and its practices and are running to bathe themselves in its ‘left over’ glory, we Hindus of all shades are just negligent and unconcerned about the slow but sure demolition of the edifice so laboriously built by our rishis, munis, saints and sadhus!!

It is high time we woke up for some concrete action to save our heritage from the onslaught of unwanted liberalism.