It’s time to pick spirituality as a tool to awaken love in the minds of people and eliminate hatred and discrimination, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj Ji

Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, was deeply revered by the world over when he spoke against his encounter with racial discrimination in Africa, when he was thrown out of the railway compartment for which he had a valid reservation. Similarly, when Nelson Mandela took over as the president of South Africa, the hopes rekindled about the end of the sad chapter of racial discrimination. It felt like the birth of a new era of good will and amity.

However, looking at the scenes that are being played out on various news channels since last few days, makes one think, reflect and ask — Which force has once again brought back the sad episode of racism? Are we going forward or backward? People would give different answers to these questions. But the fact remains that we are still a racist society at large.

Now, let us put the question as to ‘why has there been mass protests and why are the echoes getting ever louder in the UN and in high councils of various countries? Some would say that the person who died or rather was killed, reignited the spirit of self-respect in a community who has suffered insults, incarceration and persecution for decades. While others would say that the voice raised by many nations and its loud echo and resonance in the media and different fora of the UN ultimately became so loud that the majority community and the ruling party there could no longer refuse to listen and yield. All these answers might be correct but the basic question yet remains unanswered. Well, a simple yet valid answer for that would be that racial discrimination was, is and will always be wrong. But what is wrong with it? It insults the very dignity of a human and his rights. It is based on hatred and arrogance on the part of those who consider themselves to be superior on the basis of the colour of their skin. It leads to cruelty, injustice, inhuman treatment and conflict.

The colour of the body should not be the basis for fragmentation of humankind and of injustice and rancour. One should remember that we are all one and belong to one great family of humankind and colour should not divide or alienate us.

So, saying it feebly or loudly, our real identity is not determined by our skin colour. Hence, it is sheer ignorance of human rights or insanity to discriminate on the basis of its colour. The body is of flesh, blood and bones whereas we are made with dots of consciousness and experience and intelligence. In short, we are souls, point of light and we belong to one family or fraternity of beings.

Thus, what the world needs today is the spiritual response, which can break the psychological barrier of racial discrimination and bring down with it the high walls of hatred and injustice. It is spirituality, which is different from religion that works as a uniting factor whereas discrimination, based on body or materialism, divides the society on the basis of colour, gender, territory, language, etc. Spirituality generates or awakens love in the minds of people and eliminates hatred, narrow-mindedness and enmity whereas identification with the body or its various aspects, leads to conflict, based on caste, country or culture. Our present predicament thus is due to this missing element which should elicit the soul-conscious or the spiritual response.

It is a blend of such benign values as universal love, goodwill, co-operation, concern for the wellbeing of the whole family of mankind, based on the constant and living awareness that we are souls and we belong to one family or fraternity of the beings-of-light. We must thus remember that without this kind of spiritual response, no problem, whether you call it political, economic, ethnic or by any other name, can be solved.