Intention – the true power of democracy….

 

We have, as a nation and as a people, shrunken to remarkable depths of lack of purpose and a telling vacuum of values. We have been gripped by selfish fear and doubt of affecting good in the world. Not because we do not have the resources or the opportunity but we have come to a fantastic lack of will to make a difference. As Roosevelt says in his inauguration speech in ’33, “our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for.” And yet there lurks within the corners of our hearts and minds the plague of self-doubt and apprehension that have become hurdles to progress. We have stopped fighting and, more seriously, lost the intent to fight in our hearts. The lack of intent has led to us seeing the ill and inequity in the world and yet not taking cognizance of it. It has led us to hearing the cries of suffering but not listening.

We are the world’s largest and most dense democracy. Being as that may, we have, instead of exploiting the great miracles of it, become victims of it. Our leaders have gone from being humble representatives of our aspirations to becoming the directors of our fate. Stubborn, incompetent and corrupt, our representatives have exploited our lack of intent, our doubts and our selfishness at every opportunity that we have presented them to corrupt them into incompetence, stubbornness and incredible lack of loyalty for the land and the people whence they derive their birth and ascension, the land and labor on which they have set up their empires of tyranny and the people who they have been elected to represent in national decision making and governance.

How did we get to this place of hopelessness? Is it the system that is to blame, or the law of the land, or is it the executive layer? I think the biggest bearers of the burden of blame must be us. Every individual who has sacrificed our sense of ownership of our country, our right to question the people we have elected and drowned in accomplishing narrow goals without a wider purpose, is to blame. What separates us humans from the less evolved is our ability to form intentions that rise above the fulfillment of base instincts and material greed, and act upon these intentions. The Irish tell a story of a man who came to the gates of heaven and asked to be let in, St. Peter said "Of course just show us your scars", the man said " I have no scars", St. Peter said " What a pity, WAS THERE NOTHING WORTH FIGHTING FOR?"

Today, more than ever before, we need to demolish our corners of comfort and rekindle the long extinguished wicks of anger. More than ever before, we need to channel our doubts and fears into a conduit for demanding more – first from our own selves and thence from our leaders if we are to survive as a nation and rise to a glory that is quickly getting covered in the realms of past glory. More than ever before we need to stand up and take responsibility for what is failing around us and fight to rebuild what has fallen by the way. It is only then that we can realize our true place and full potential.

No one is beyond reproach and unaccountable for their actions. No one owns our destiny more that our own selves. No one can do wrong and get away without punishment. Those that seem powerful and untouchable today rose from among us, were poorly chosen by us and must be dismantled by us before their greed and selfishness can dismantle our most prized possessions – our national identity and pride.  Subhash Chandra Bose once said in a speech to the SOLDIERS of India's Army of Liberation, “History had taught me that every empire has its inevitable decline and collapse. Moreover I had seen with my own eyes, cities and fortresses that were once the bulwarks but which became the graveyards of by-gone empires.”

Change is brewing around the corner, waiting for the strength of our collective intentions to call in the forces that will drown the beast who has long fed on our weaknesses and impotence. Let’s unlock our intentions, long buried under, and join to build a better future…