MADNESS

We can define madness in many ways, but we are good at modifying its meaning depending on the context we use this word. Some find anything not serving their own interests as useless. Some are mad after their respective images projected into the minds of others. Name, fame, wealth, luxuries of life and power, etc. are many things that make one virtually mad after them. Except for the things one is mad after, all other things become unimportant or irrelevant for him.

The excessive tilt towards something and resulting emotional attachment towards it disorients one’s decisive intellect. He becomes blind to the other side of the picture. Greed, fear and violence grips him and he become a source of all that harms his surroundings and himself. To ensure that the man does not become mad after worldly things, religions were evolved. All the religions kept the man at the center. The religions lay down the ways the man must think and conduct. Most of the religions kept the man; as he lived in a particular time slot, in a particular part of the world and in particular circumstances; at their focus.

Most of the religions, in essence, had been practical guides based on the theory of life evolved from its understanding generated through the spiritual experiences of some great souls who lived for others, not for themselves. Those great souls left enough clues that the life is not stagnant; everything changes with time, place and circumstances, and the man would do well to adapt to those changes. Most of the religions, either could not deal with the matter of spiritual freedom and its inherent nature or their followers failed to grasp the messages of the great souls relating to detached and free spiritual existence of all living beings. The question of how one can spiritually adapt to changes in the physical world remains inadequately dealt with in most of the propagated forms of many religions. The responsibility of explaining this spiritual aspect of life rested with selfless and thought full religious leaders with impeccable character. But, the things rarely worked that way.

The outcome was that often the religions themselves became the object of the man’s madness. This kind of madness is devastating. It is like a situation when someone in pain is in the hands of a violent healer. The modern man has to find a solution to this problem before it is too late.

PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA

[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]