Open Spaces, Open Minds

– Krishan Kishore

Let’s go out in the fresh air more often, look around at the realm of nature, vast, varied and inspiring. We only wonder at the variety and beauty of diversity in nature. We marvel at everything around us. We don’t want to convert any corner into private and personal fenced garden. Sometimes, a thorn pricks our finger, a rock hits our toe, a branch of a tree falls on us, the wind becomes too strong and the heat of the Sun is unbearable. But we don’t get abusive, intolerant and hateful. It is only different. On the contrary, we feel more powerful.  Longer we stay outside, our love of diversity becomes stronger -a part of our consciousness. We don’t want to change it any other way. It will become suffocating. Monotony will make open nature suffocating. Why can’t we take diversity all around us in our daily life in the same spirit? On the contrary, differences of opinions, beliefs, religious ways, and political thoughts upset us, throw us out of balance, choke our normal day to day judgement- we forget that we are out there in vast openness of life.  But we are out there. We expect this even before we are there. Do we take precautions? No, precautions become meaningless. Bitterness is no more a taste on our tongues. Prejudice against thorn or rock or a flower is a shame. Only openness remains.

This openness doesn’t mean that we keep walking on fires in a forest. It doesn’t mean that we don’t shelter our heads in rocking hail storms. It doesn’t ever mean we keep bleeding and walking on piercing rocks. We make honest and sincere efforts to extinguish these fires or remove these stones. But we don’t hit anything. Neither the fire nor the rocks. We just fight them. And remove them to clear our path around. We don’t harbor prejudice, a permanent prejudice against these objects. We only try to change things for the better. Better for everyone. Not just for us.

There is no doubt that our paths outside are not smooth. Take for example, our political domain. Nothing more muddy, opaque and to an extent, dangerous. Can anyone count the number of political parties out in the arena. Can anyone define what they mean to people. Can ever their founders spell out in a coherent manner their ideologies to people? Even the stalwarts in the field fumble and stumble. They are not out there for honest propagation of ideas that people can trust. Their effort is only to banish clarity and spread confusion. Demagogy , not thoughtfulness is what prevails in our politics. Honesty and sincerity was never their intent. Good of people is a blind ally, doesn’t go far. In one summarizing statement, grabbing power is the permanent political ideology. The vision doesn’t go beyond that . We cannot see beyond that , it is all dark, scary dark beyond that. Even more scary is, people’s unthoughtful behavior. Supporting or oppressing is  only two lane highway. Over crowded highway. Because there are only two lanes, without any traffic rules. The result is bloody accidents all around.. People only hit ‘others’ going in the opposite lane. They are not even mindful about loss of life on the way. They are the traffic Lanes as ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’. “We” and “them”.

Who stops to think that we should open more Lanes of thought. Bitterness is not a thought. Power is not a rationale. Let’s just stop on the side. Every now and then. Not only watch, but think . Right and wrong are not the only two words to describe something. The only meaningful word is “different“. They are different from us. Let’s try to know the difference and overcome our pre judgments and prejudices. Something different can be a source of  curiosity, propel us to think and maybe enable us to see some beauty in the difference or at least not be corrosive to us as something opposite. Let us not corrode ourselves. Hitting our minds against things, beliefs, thoughts and opinions as opposite. Let’s look at them as something just  different . Let’s never stop being curious. Curiosity has always been instrumental in developing thoughts and removing prejudices, blindness of faith. So let’s be curious and thoughtful and not just be in favor or against something.

Democracy or no democracy, constitution or no constitution, one constant absentee in all times more than every before is social harmony. Irrespective of any Creed of governance and political formations, we have not witnessed a time of harmonious coexistence among different hues of social fabric. Almost without 

Is there something basically wrong with human nature itself that the peaceful coexistence is not an option, not even an exception?  Not at all. Even four legged denizens of our planet or winged life crisscrossing our skies fight each other sometimes, but not without a reason . But a perpetual dislike or hatred among the members of the same species is not the norm.

The reasons that create a wedge between groups and individuals can be as simple as different skin color over which you don’t have control and is no fault of yours. Fortunately, our society is almost color blind to this. We are discussing here only those reasons for which we can be faulted, may not be punished. Unfortunately, most evident or non-evident reasons of this disharmony are not punishable in any court of law. Just as we are free to love, so are we free to hate! But this is not even a Love or hate situation. This is rooted in our notion that a group or individual is different.

” We are different” is such a cloud of mistrust that envelops all our surroundings. The clownish feeling that we are different is not laid in cement. It can change with a puff of circumstance, a situation or a little slant in our thinking. We have no control over circumstances or situation. But we do have control over how we think. The buck stops here. We don’t want to think. Some of us claim that they think. Yes, they think. But in the same direction. They go a little further on the same path. Do they ever think that the opposite can also be true. Or that let me think in no particular direction, Let me be neutral for a little while. Let me stay in zone zero just for fun. Just for shedding the load, just for going out in fresh air, just for looking at everything as it is and not giving it a name of your own liking. Just for a brief fresh breath, be neutral. Being neutral for a second may empty the junk that we have collected in our minds over a period of time.

We all have vague and unanalyzed notions about practices of thoughts and actions. If something comes in our way, we resent. Without giving it a thought, we resent. That resentment keeps accumulating over times and it converts into prejudice. Our minds are cluttered with such prejudices almost about everything that surrounds us. Try to utter a word about anything and we have a prejudice about it. Prejudice itself means preconceived permanent judgment. A big fat judge has occupied our insides. That space in our minds should be left empty, vast and empty. Always empty. So that impressions from the world outside enter an exist without any damage. Impressions are enough. Impressions are not prejudices. They change easily. Their core is soft. Yes, some impressions can be long lasting, but they are not too many to be counted in the context of forming prejudices.

The process starts in our childhood. Our parents and other adults are constantly disseminating their hardened beliefs and notions in front of the children. The children are not spared to collect their floating impressions on their own. They’re not giving enough empty space in their minds to look at the things as they are. Our children have a natural capacity to see why does white, red as red and black as black. We adults insist on them to see a black as white, a blue as red and so on. It goes on so densely all the time about everything, no exception! We talk about family relationships, uncles and aunts, who’s good and who’s not so good. About religion-invariably our own religion is good. About politics -sure my family is right and their beliefs. Then comes status, a comparison that draws a hard line up and down, low and high, good and bad, rich and poor. All this heaps layers upon layers of disharmony in day-to-day life. A division that is not always on the surface. But it’s very deep inside. It is so deep that it can be denied. People deny it easily. And they cannot be contested about it. There is no panchayat or social court which can rule that yes, it does exist. One might say that passing our beliefs to our next generation is just normal and harmless. But no, we are individuals from day one and we need to stay individual to the end. We don’t want to be tethered together in belief systems handed down to us .  Divisions all around us are countless and a solid ground for all kinds of disharmony – latent silent, harmless or visible, vocal and violent. It all depends on a circumstance, a situation, and occasion – small or big.