THE MANIPUR WITHIN ME




“We all see only that which we are trained to see.”

Robert Wanton Wilson

 

Some years ago, our Centre - The Dawn Club Centre of Excellence - published a book by the title- ‘I AM GOOD, THE WORLD IS GOOD’. We had invited many little ones, young ones and adults to get in touch with their prejudices – which blocked them from viewing people from ‘other communities’ as ‘our own’…

The book was highly appreciated…

How I view my outside world depends on how I view my inside world. If my heart is clean, mind is clear and – if I nourish my ability to see right as right and wrong as wrong – then, I can  be an instrument of peace and harmony…

Imagine, from cradle to grave, we live wearing clean filters – unbiased, caring and compassionate… Imagine, the world that gets shaped through such an outlook!

All conflicts first arise within us… They get brewed inside our respective echo champers… The echo chambers, like I am White, I am Black, I am Indian, I am Pakistani, I am Christian, I am Muslim, I am Hindu… I am pro-government and I am anti-government… and many, many more. If fact, every group we create can be a potential echo chamber… Inside these chambers, what we see is what we like to see, what we hear is what we like to hear, who we love or hate is who we like to love or hate…

We see through, we hear through and we judge through our biased filters…

Hence, this apathy when a Manipur or a Ukraine burns… when innocent citizens are caught in the hate-fire… killed, paraded naked, gangraped, shamed, banished. Yes, when all this happens right in front of our eyes, we are unable to feel the pain and anguish…

We need to come out of our echo chambers – every ‘stronghold’. Living inside them, for years and years, has numbed us… We have converted ourselves into zombies… heartless!

The ethnic cleansing starts from self-cleansing…

What is wrong cannot be justified as right. But, that’s exactly what we find ourselves doing!

Hardcore politics and religions are the echo chambers we need to be most mindful of. Trust me, we can never see, hear and feel anything that happens outside clearly, unless we step outside these chambers.





Yes, I am good, the world is good…

You and I need to pray for peace and healing in Manipur…

When anger dies, compassion is born!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic.: Zino Bang/Pixels

 

Video: WISDOM MUSIC/John Lennon

 

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