Skip to main content

Mind without borders

 

Image from here


If you feel that you belong to the whole human race rather than a particular nation or religion or any such relatively smaller community, you have a more evolved consciousness. Nationalists, religious bigots and terrorists, linguistic chauvinists and such people possess a low-level consciousness.

There is something called ‘terror management theory’ in psychology. It says that when people are made to feel insecure and anxious they tend to cling to narrow affiliations. Remember how the slogan Hindu khatre mein hai captured the psyche of a whole nation a few years back? The Hindu is in danger. What danger? In a country where the Hindus were what is today commonly and significantly labelled as “brutal majority," what danger did they face from the tiny minority? It was a danger fabricated by certain clever politicians for the sake of winning elections. They won too. They rule the country today. And they keep the whole country at a very low level of consciousness. For the sake of keeping their power safe. It is easy to subjugate a people whose consciousness level is low.

The terror management theory mentioned above says that we have an impulse to cling to labels of identity to defend ourselves against feelings of insecurity. Create some kind of panic among people. Like Hindu khatre mein hai. Then project nationalism as a secure label. People will flock to that label.

Poverty and economic instability also can lead to increased nationalism, according to the terror management theory. We know where India stands in many rankings of poverty and hunger and so on. Good for nationalism. But bad for the evolution of the consciousness.

The terror management theory also says that those who experience high levels of wellbeing don’t tend to have a narrow sense of group identity. They feel a strong sense of connection to bigger groups like the whole world or the species itself. They see themselves as global citizens. They see themselves as human beings rather than Hindus or Muslims, Indians or Pakistanis.

Psychologist Steve Taylor studied this in detail and has written much about it. In one of his studies, he found that people who experienced some trauma like cancer or a fatal accident emerge from the catastrophe with changed perspectives. Their perspective becomes wider, more inclusive. Hence their lives become richer, more meaningful. More fulfilling. They see the connectedness of the entire reality. Instead of seeing the borders and boundaries, they see relationships and connections. Borders disappear from their minds.

Wide minds. High level of consciousness. When most people in the world achieve that stage, there will be no need for passports and visas. Borders and boundaries will be only for administrative purposes. The human race will be ONE. Oneness of a mystical kind.

That’s just a dream, I know. Let me dream.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 429: Imagine a world without borders. No visa, no passport, no frisking... A really civilized world of harmonious coexistence. #VasudhaivaKutumbakam

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    I grinned... I have oftentimes commented when travelling that I am a universal citizen and wished passports unnecessary! I share your dream... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your writings have given me ample proof of your evolved consciousness.

      Delete
  2. John Lennon's song Imagine there's no countries
    It isn't hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no religion, too

    Imagine all the people
    Living life in peace

    My favourite song!

    ReplyDelete
  3. " Wide minds. High level of consciousness. When most people in the world achieve that stage, there will be no need for passports and visas. " This is quite deep! Loved the choice of words!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...

The Ramayana Chronicles: 26 Stories, Endless Wisdom

I’m participating in the A2Z challenge of Blogchatter this year too. I have been regular with this every April for the last few years. It’s been sheer fun for me as well as a tremendous learning experience. I wrote mostly on books and literature in the past. This year, I wish to dwell on India’s great epic Ramayana for various reasons the prominent of which is the new palatial residence in Ayodhya that our Prime Minister has benignly constructed for a supposedly homeless god. “Our Ram Lalla will no longer reside in a tent,” intoned Modi with his characteristic histrionics. This new residence for Lord Rama has become the largest pilgrimage centre in India, drawing about 100,000 devotees every day. Not even the Taj Mahal, a world wonder, gets so many footfalls. Ayodhya is not what it ever was. Earlier it was a humble temple town that belonged to all. Several temples belonging to different castes made all devotees feel at home. There was a sense of belonging, and a sense of simplici...