Fear is supposedly the beginning
of wisdom! It leads man to think afresh how to reorient life to a new sense of
security. But this process is never ending . In the march of civilization we
move from comfort to comfort but the same comfort brings newer
discomfiture . If food security is somewhat assured epidemics and new
bacterial enemies sting us to newer
fear. If cancer is controlled the environment threatens, the mood swings
of climate cause panic. It's fear and fear all the way with saucy
uncertainties stalking our moves to collective wisdom. But the constant fear of
nature's fury makes all our wisdom look pale and effete: We cower under
typhoons, cyclones, floods and earthquakes, lava vomiting mountains... We have
no divine umbrella to take shelter under, and despair makes our fear
outrageously violent often on our own institutions like governments and
agencies.
The fear that creates faith in
divine agents often creates doubts too when the gods fail to save and protect.
In the Kurukhetra battlefield God himself enacts the drama of death in the name
of saving the honest and upright- as if all those who were killed were monsters
of depravity. In 1999 Odisha experienced one of the world's worst cyclones on
the Durgasthami day, leaving about 10 thousand dead and taking Odisha back to
some twenty years. Pandals, idols and temple tops were blown into space. And
so did faith in the Protector in many cases. This year the Fani Cyclone had its
landfall at Puri where the Lord of the Universe, Jagannath is worshipped by
almost anyone who has faith in the ultimate divinity. Puri today is ghost town.
Houses have been blown away, trees , especially the coconut trees of the Puri
district which sustained families are gone. Shelterless darkness an eerie sense
of helplessness has shrouded the poor in their thousands. The temple, a twelfth
century architectural masterpiece has been damaged. The sanctum sanctorum was
filled with knee deep water. The deities on the bejewelled platform remained
unfed. The temple rituals were stopped. The beach side hotels are now closed
for repairs. Tourism has been hit the hardest. The National Disaster Management
teams are working hard to restore life in this holy city. The capital city,
Bhubaneswar, once hailed as a Smart city has lost all her smartness. The
populace in sweltering heat waits for restoration of water supply in smarting indifference. The
Government machinery is alacritous but the task is so challenging that the best
efforts are not good enough.
Mercifully the elections are over
in Odisha. The leaders waiting for May 23, the result day , are blissfully
indifferent to the lot of the Fani victims. But relief to the poor is
distributed with unexpected promptitude as Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister
is seriously at work. Promises are made and fulfilled in no time. The
confidence of people to live to fight for survival is boosted by both the state
and Central Governments.
Fani will be forgotten as the
Supercyclone, Failine and Titli. The lights will come up , roads will be built
, new houses will be given to the houseless poor,, hotels and shops will again
be full. The Car Festival of Jagannath will be celebrated with the usual
fanfare and the rains on time will keep the farmers busy, But the question is ;
Who is the saviour of man? Is it by now obvious that God is man's creation to
celebrate his creativity. As art,
poetry, architecture, Scientific inventions are all man's contribution to human
welfare and entertainment, God too is
one such creative work of man to
mitigate his worries in the here and
hereafter. If you ask today any true believer, ' Who saved the people of Odisha?'
the answer would be 'Why? It's God who commanded the government and agencies to
work for man. All things are His and He manages things, He caused Fani and He
evacuated and sheltered people...'
Faith has its own logic. Fear is
the Maker's way of raising people to brave the vicissitudes of life and also
the vagaries of nature. Man alone rises up to all challenges. And the
inspiration, energy to create , invent, innovate is infused in man by the Maker.
Fear alone makes people brave all odds for life's driving force is fear. If
there were no fear life would have been
dull dissipation. In Eric Fromm's Fear of
Freedom one learns that freedom management is difficult for man does not
know how to use his freedom. But
freedom from fear is more important
than fear of freedom.
Life in all its forms is fear management to be free from fear. The fear
of hunger, destitution , loneliness and even boredom is managed in
civilizational creativity. Fear brings to the highest tension all human energy.
If this is God's device to keep man on his toes all the time - SO BE IT. But
fear should not quake your logic or make you denounce things in angry
desperation. Fear is your distant lover: Try to reach her instead of shedding
tears. That is what wisdom is.
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