SPEAKING FROM THE HEART ... 2

SPEAKING FROM THE HEART ... 2

There is a lot of empty talk that goes on in the name of spirituality today. But it is all froth. The real issues of life are left untouched for they involve deeper commitment. The inequalities that affect us, afflict us, to be more accurate, are not talked about even as long lectures on God, Atman, Brahman et al occupy the minds of speakers and are fed into the gullible audience. But that leaves us no better than where we stood before the lecture began. It is convenience and compromise all the way with the exploitative powers that be.

Idealism is preached but by men devoid of ideals. And even when ideals are spoken of by professed monastics, they fail to make their mark on account of the hollowness of conviction and articulation thereof. There is no force of character backing such lofty talk. It simply does not impress. It seems that the very men who speak what they speak do not believe in such principles themselves hard enough to live them out fair and square in their own lives. No wonder that they fail to carry conviction with the audience. 

Too much of preaching and too little of practice. Too much of self-publicity and too little of self-effacement. And where there is a show of humility, it is merely a show and does not as usual carry weight with the discerning. The multitude may be fooled into adulation of such 'heroes' but it does them little good. The status quo continues, that is, degeneration sets in, for if there is no incline, there sure is decline to take its place.

This is the situation today. There isn't a man of character who can inspire idealism, who can foster hope, who can excite one unto higher ends through exemplary self-living and incisive analysis of the rudiments of life as it is. Or, if there are some such, there are made to lurk in the shadows by the preponderance of the commercial corrosion which seeks its corrupt ally invariably and excludes all who may threaten its hegemony on a fast degenerating world. And, yet, such an inspirational one is the need of the hour as society rots in its absence. Spiritual men today are simply not spiritual. They have lost their moorings in life. They fail to inspire. 

Written by Sugata Bose