Kaffir, Lower Caste and Satan.

It was another day on social media and ended up in another debate on religions. When Hindus were accused of discriminating based on caste, I counter-argued with how Christians discriminated against black and Islamists discriminated against non-believers. For a moment I was elated. The argument continued, no one was interested in listening to others’ arguments. It was just a shouting match. In the middle of this, my feeling of elation soon faded into depression.

The debate proved only one thing. We all are primed to discriminate. As the debate pointed that we have been discriminating against each other for eternity and this is going to continue in future too. We have come a long way. Discrimination against women, caste, colour and race has reduced. We are trying our best to accomplish it. But at the same time discrimination through other means is continuing to rise.

1-Money

Past, present or future. The biggest source of discrimination is wealth. It continues to do so. Imagine a man opening a door for us with a smile. How do we respond? Many times he is non-existent for us. Not just for individuals, even countries do these. Rich countries trying to poach on other territories, bombing other countries in false pretence. They get away easily because they have the money and other countries need their friendship.

2- Power

Only a few hold the right to do certain things. It is given to them the power in terms of a job.

If you want to lessen your ego. You can do 2 things. Go to the temple and contemplate on God or go to government offices daily. They are Omnipotent. Few interactions with them can melt your ego away. It is not just Politicians, Army, Police, and Magistrates. The moment we get an upper hand, we start discriminating against those who don’t have it. They are in our mercy.

3-Physique. (Strength and beauty)

Bullying at schools happens because some children discriminate against others through beauty and strength.

A person who slightly drags his feet will be laughed upon and the one who is little well built will be feared upon. In our adult life too this continues.

4-Intelligence.

Not everyone is created equal. Few are above average and some are below average. Acts of below-average people are the biggest source of entertainment in workplaces. Although many of us will not do this if we review such acts. It happens day in and day out. We are the most intelligent species on our planet and how we look at other species. We think they are created for our pleasure.

Don’t try to find Similarities.

Primitive human fears two things. A new thing which he has no knowledge of or another human from a different tribe. When he encounters these two it could be a life-threatening moment for him. A new plant can be a poison or this new human can be his enemy. This is why we have this urge to find similarities and when we find them we think they are compatible with us. But the very act of finding similarities ends up pointing out hundreds of differences.

Let me give an example.

As we all know, The Rock and Dwayne Johnson are the same person. The man who once started as a wrestler on WWE ends up as a movie star. Naturally, their pictures are going to like the same barring a few changes due to ageing. But we are so good at finding differences that we will end up convincing ourselves as both are different.

I have at least a hundred friends, if I start discriminating against them because of,

Wealth, colour, race, religion, sect, intelligence, language, country, age, job, physical strength, sex, and region. Then I can rest assured I will have none. Before finding one similarity and working together, I will end up finding ten differences and will start discriminating against him.

We need to let go of this primitive urge to stick to our tribe. In an ideal world, even nationalism will be an unparliamentary word. Let’s work towards universal brotherhood. It does not just build a better world, more importantly, it loosens the clutches of our ego and we will start living blissfully.

Rajesh

Awareness | Bliss | Contemplation