Ma The Wonder Panacea
A Wonder Panacea for Communal Conflicts
Ma - A NECESSITY FOR OUR TIMES
Role of Religion
To civilize mankind, religion came into existence. In the effort to change brutal mankind into a social animal, is where religion finds its origin. If not for religion and the feeling of belonging to a society, he probably; would still lead the life of a barbaric tribe and even as cannibals. When religions come into existence it educated him and weaned him on the values of love, morality and discipline.
Religion also gave him an identity, a formula and pattern for life; in short they made him not just a Man but a human with emotions, the ability to make choices and most importantly to consider the existence of others as vital as his own.
When the number of religions arise, there arose a competition among them. And that gradually took on the ugly forms of communal riots, which lies dormant but ever ready to burst out at the slightest provocation.
These clashes, which the men folk usually trigger and partake in, also find the women and children of both sides, as their victims. Clashes between two religious sects at times claim the chastity of women and life of the children as acts of revenge and humiliation. The tragic truth is that, it is commonly the innocent people who fall prey to the malicious deeds of a vengeful few. They might not even be aware of the true motive or have any animosity against the people behind these grim plots.
In the line of Fire:
A communal blaze spreads across the community without heeding to the real reasons or consequences of a riot. Numerous examples abound like an incident that took place recently in North India. A rumor of a boy belonging to a certain religion who smacked the chastity of a girl from some other religion, spread like wild fire stirring the people of the girl’s religion to avenge. They killed three people and harmed many. It later dawned on them that it was a mere rumor, but sadly the damage of their violent retort could not be undone. Malice and the resultant conflicts borne out of it, has become alarmingly common to us.
Which brings us to the inevitable question of why, innocent victims and peace loving citizens often bear the brunt of these cruel inhumane clashes?.
To make things worse, clashes of such kind sometimes, don’t last even a day but the impact and suffering of the victims will remain as painful reminders. Victims become helpless and depressed and struggle to sustain themselves as many families lose their sole breadwinner. Traumatized and affected children are forced or sometimes voluntarily turn into child soldiers and terrorists.
The most disturbing fact remains, that the preachers of hatred and violence disarmingly outnumber those who propagate the message of peace.
Spirit of Humanity Strengthens Religion
Certain religious groups try to convert people and coax them to follow a religion. But they often miss the fact that meaningful conversion would naturally occur, if there was enough evidence of goodwill and peace prevailing in the religion.
It should be established and practiced in faith and action, that the religion leads to path of love and people who follow them are humane and peace-loving. Indulging in violence and other fanatical acts, would project a negative image and repel rather than attract people to follow its tenets.
Hence, the ideology of motherliness underlying Ma is a universal ideology to all religion, caste or sects. If a community could cultivate and nurture a balanced mind, free of like or dislike, never heed to rumors and considers the fellow sect people with motherliness then that would help transform the world. Peace and harmony could be realized, we could build together an ideal world free from conflict. The heart has been meant to love and be loved. The tongue has been meant to speak kind and wise words not rebuke and condemn. Motherliness is meant to nurture goodwill and compassion and protect, not destroy and harm. Every person regardless of their caste, creed, race or religion, must adhere to these simple humane laws and Ma encompasses this belief in thought and action.
Tool to destroy the enemies of society
A scholar once said; that the best way to destroy your enemy is not to kill him rather loving him. What a simple and good piece of advice. By loving thy enemy the enmity disappears. The Thirukural resonates this saying, “Is it not greatness that lies in doing good against bad actions.” By loving the enemy we gain a friend. If we have enemies there are probable chances of strife and threat by them. If we turn them into our friends, then there are no such threats to cause us undue worry.
Goals through organized efforts
So far we have seen numerous good thoughts, and we could be quite sure that most people are essentially good-natured. The primary problem is that they don’t know how to put their good thoughts into action. Secondly this cannot achieved by any single handed effort, but if carried out through an organization, it is quite possible.
Ma founded on such noble ideology, presents itself as a simple and effective solution. Join in, to make a better world. Or you could start Ma in your neighborhood, in your organization, or in schools and colleges. Ma also lays out an effective action plan . See next chapter for activities & Action plan.
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