The Spiritual Politician
For readers outside India, my book ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY? (Paperback and Kindle) is available on amazon.com (USA). Please click on the link below, or use the options at the top right side portion of this page, next to the image of the book. It's a good idea to first RIGHT CLICK in an empty portion next to the image, and choose RELOAD FRAME for updated options. The Kindle version is also available at other Amazon locations. Please click links given below:
For readers outside India, my book ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY? (Paperback and Kindle) is available on amazon.com (USA). Please click on the link below, or use the options at the top right side portion of this page, next to the image of the book. It's a good idea to first RIGHT CLICK in an empty portion next to the image, and choose RELOAD FRAME for updated options. The Kindle version is also available at other Amazon locations. Please click links given below:
Amazon (Germany)
Deepak Chatterjee
chatterjee.deepak33@gmail.com
Hello Friends,
It's election time in India! There is a lot of excitement, anticipation, anger, frustration, hope and despair - all emotions that one can associate with human existence. During elections we have almost anything that adds flavour to the noise surrounding the world's largest democracy. Do we also not enjoy the entertainment, fun, humour and sarcasm that such times throw up? Many of us are glued to TV sets, iPads or other gadgets to catch up with the latest! This is going to go on until the process of elections is over in May this year and the results are out. For readers outside India, it would be worthwhile to put out some facts about general elections in India.
These are elections to the Lower House of Parliament through which people of India directly elect a total of 543 members. Approximately 800 million adults are registered to vote. The coalition of political parties that can cross the half way mark with 272 members forms the government. Gone are the days when a single party could do that, not after 1984! This political formation also selects the Prime Minister, who in turn puts in place a cabinet of ministers. These elections are held every five years, unless political compulsions require early elections.
Amid the din of this excitement, some readers of this blog have asked me questions about where politicians figure in the unhappiness-happiness scale of human existence. Are most politicians fundamentally unhappy? I have wondered about this myself: Do politicians display more angst than others?
Let me clarify that the basic human condition of despair, anxiety, meaninglessness or depression is universal. It would be difficult to postulate that this human malaise is seen more in one category of professionals than others. What could be of interest is to explore how politicians, like other human beings, could benefit from a bit more spirit in their lives. And how politics could consequently change in democracies across the globe.
In my book ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY? I have devoted separate chapters on the benefit of spirit in different sections of society: youth, CEOs, subordinates... I did not write any section on Spirit and Politicians. Let me do that now.
I have been stressing this again and again: the biggest benefit to anyone who has advanced spiritually is the substantial diminution of the EGO. This is obviously true for our politicians as well. When you watch politicians bicker over issues with opponents, often it is the same old monster that surreptitiously rears its head: the EGO. When I say this, I am not making any value judgement about politicians being good or bad. They are as much the victims of ego play, often despite having the best of intentions, as any one of us. I have always maintained that ego creeps in on the sly. That happens with politicians too.
Politicians often have to take a firm stand on various issues. This could be due to political compulsions or crass opportunism. This position could well be based on certain principles. But do politicians get too identified with their stand? Then at least part of the determination is driven by ego, before it completely takes over. When ego takes over, we stop thinking, we are judgemental, we feel threatened, we are negative, we turn unnecessarily aggressive, we may even manipulate, scheme and get vindictive. All balance is lost. The sound principles from where politicians started are completely lost by now. But they remain in denial.
Yes, another major problem with ego is that it prompts us to be in denial. This is true for all of humanity. We lose the courage to be authentic. For a politician, this translates into denials about the direction in which the politics of his political party is going. Politicians vehemently denying charges and rubbishing scrutiny by media and civil society is a common sight. We have also seen well meaning politicians and political parties, straying off course and getting into things that are superfluous or disgusting or both.
To say this does not mean that politicians should not take a firm stand on issues of national interest. Rather, a person with more spirit in his life will probably find it easy to take a firm stand on any important matter based on conviction and backed by a strong value system. He is less likely to be swayed by the temptations of compromises. However, a politician also has to be in the business of politics and will, understandably, find himself in situations where he has to be flexible and amenable to political calculations and the changing dynamics of the politics surrounding him. Navigating through all this from a value system keeping ego at bay is the crux of the matter. Where does practicality end to give way to political dexterity, to some grand vision or to plain opportunism? This is for each politician to judge. Time, however, will always judge a politician in the overall context, years later. And, time always makes a fair assessment.
My take is that the spiritual politician will always be judged favourably by history, even if earlier he was criticised. I normally do not take individual names as examples. But one name undoubtedly stands out: Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. He was able to lead a peaceful movement to eventually get freedom for his motherland. He protested, sat on fasts, disobeyed and created a mass movement, often disagreeing with his own colleagues, friends and well wishers. But not one move of his emanated from ego. Even at the peak of his tough stand against colonial rule, never did he display any negativity or arrogance. Yet he was able to do plain speaking, calling a spade a spade, whenever necessary.
He was certainly UNHAPPY with colonial rule. That's what prompted him to pursue his vision. But that was CIRCUMSTANTIAL UNHAPPINESS. Fundamentally he was at peace with himself. His lifestyle demonstrated that. His lifestyle also exhibited his FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS. History has recorded many such illustrious examples of spiritual politicians throughout the globe. They have brought in phenomenal changes in the lives of mankind - changes for the better. Others have been either just names, or leaders with a few 'wins' against a backdrop of bad politics or poor personal track record.
Politicians often have to take a firm stand on various issues. This could be due to political compulsions or crass opportunism. This position could well be based on certain principles. But do politicians get too identified with their stand? Then at least part of the determination is driven by ego, before it completely takes over. When ego takes over, we stop thinking, we are judgemental, we feel threatened, we are negative, we turn unnecessarily aggressive, we may even manipulate, scheme and get vindictive. All balance is lost. The sound principles from where politicians started are completely lost by now. But they remain in denial.
Yes, another major problem with ego is that it prompts us to be in denial. This is true for all of humanity. We lose the courage to be authentic. For a politician, this translates into denials about the direction in which the politics of his political party is going. Politicians vehemently denying charges and rubbishing scrutiny by media and civil society is a common sight. We have also seen well meaning politicians and political parties, straying off course and getting into things that are superfluous or disgusting or both.
To say this does not mean that politicians should not take a firm stand on issues of national interest. Rather, a person with more spirit in his life will probably find it easy to take a firm stand on any important matter based on conviction and backed by a strong value system. He is less likely to be swayed by the temptations of compromises. However, a politician also has to be in the business of politics and will, understandably, find himself in situations where he has to be flexible and amenable to political calculations and the changing dynamics of the politics surrounding him. Navigating through all this from a value system keeping ego at bay is the crux of the matter. Where does practicality end to give way to political dexterity, to some grand vision or to plain opportunism? This is for each politician to judge. Time, however, will always judge a politician in the overall context, years later. And, time always makes a fair assessment.
My take is that the spiritual politician will always be judged favourably by history, even if earlier he was criticised. I normally do not take individual names as examples. But one name undoubtedly stands out: Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. He was able to lead a peaceful movement to eventually get freedom for his motherland. He protested, sat on fasts, disobeyed and created a mass movement, often disagreeing with his own colleagues, friends and well wishers. But not one move of his emanated from ego. Even at the peak of his tough stand against colonial rule, never did he display any negativity or arrogance. Yet he was able to do plain speaking, calling a spade a spade, whenever necessary.
He was certainly UNHAPPY with colonial rule. That's what prompted him to pursue his vision. But that was CIRCUMSTANTIAL UNHAPPINESS. Fundamentally he was at peace with himself. His lifestyle demonstrated that. His lifestyle also exhibited his FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS. History has recorded many such illustrious examples of spiritual politicians throughout the globe. They have brought in phenomenal changes in the lives of mankind - changes for the better. Others have been either just names, or leaders with a few 'wins' against a backdrop of bad politics or poor personal track record.
Cheers!
Deepak Chatterjee
chatterjee.deepak33@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/deepak.chatterjee.944
@Deepak33C
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I personally feel that happiness/unhappiness are not very pertinent when we are talking about worldly life because worldly life has to be, by definition, a mix of happiness/unhappiness from time to time. A spiritual politician cannot be an island among non-spiritual people. Such a politician will be ignored by the people. I recall an attempt by the Speaking Tree editor, Narayani Ganesh, to give a spiritual shade to Manmohan Singh. But I think a leader, and more so the top executive like a PM of India, cannot be spiritual. He has to be very very worldly to be effective and to be able to meet the people's expectations.
ReplyDelete- Kishor Kulkarni (SBI Titans member)
Thanks for your comments, KK. As we step onto this spiritual journey, we can still dwell in a material world. However, we are able to create a space between ourselves and the material attachments. I have written in my book ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY? about how one can hope to become a spiritual CEO. Similarly it is possible to be a spiritual politician. Gandhi is not the only example. Finally when we demarcate between 'spiritual' and 'non-spiritual' people, we are putting them in separate silos. In reality, persons completely attached to material possessions or a position too have spirit in them. They have not felt it strongly enough. A person spiritually more advanced too will have material likes and dislikes.
DeleteIs spirit more or less in people or are people more or less aware of the spirit in them?
ReplyDeleteWhen we say less spirit, we probably mean that spirit is deeply buried and has not been awakened. Just as we train our bodies, do exercises to develop it, similarly there are spiritual exercises to allow us to connect with our spirits.
DeleteI have read with great interest your blog post on spiritual politician, a very well written post. But I feel that politics is just like any other profession to earn livelihood,to get money,name, fame and power and therefore the effect of spirituality on politicians is the same as on other professionals. However I fully agree with you that persons who have been able to control their ego and are at ease with themselves are fundamentally happy even when they are unhappy due to various external factors. Such persons in fact are in better position to counter the external factors of unhappiness than those who are slaves of their own ego. This I feel is true for all persons irrespective of their profession,religion and nationality. But the words spirit,spiritual, spirituality etc. at times are confusing. If a spiritual person is one who believes in God, who answers our prayers, protects us from danger, fulfills our wishes and desires and therefore needs to be feared,worshipped and propitiated, I am afraid such person will not be able to overcome his ego and greed the two most important factors responsible for fundamental unhappiness. If however spirituality means accepting all fellow human beings as different reflections of the same supreme power in whatever name we may call Him,if spirituality means considering the whole world as our family, if spirituality means not only loving ourselves and our families but loving all living beings, then such a spiritual person will be devoid of all egos, greed and will be fundamentally happy and will be able to focus his energy and attentions on eradication of all the causes that cause unhappiness. It is difficult if not impossible to attain this stage of consciousness but even if people make conscious effort in this direction the world will be a much better place to live in.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you. Interestingly my next post is going to be on demystifying spiritualism. People often confuse spiritualism with religion, mysticism, or even occult. An irreligious person can be spiritually advanced. I have given a more detailed treatment in my book where I have explained how excessive religiosity can also be a bottleneck against our spiritual journey.
Delete