Guilt Consciousness

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Logicians and intellectuals distinguish between guilt and crime. I don't know whether guilt is less bloodletting than crime, but crime they say, is an offence punishable by law  and guilt is an offence. Choicelessely I have to accept this distinction. If a man kills his wife for adultery, it is a crime but if a man cheats on his wife it is guiltiness! Nietzsche calls guilt, 'bad conscience', and by way of illustration suggests a debtor's promise conveniently forgotten over time. He knows that he has to pay back but he does not. This part of his memory is internalised. He moves in the society, meets his creditor often with a sheepish smile, if confronted repeats his promise to reply but doesn't. This man has definitely a bad conscience but the recognition of his guilt is below the surface. He deliberately forgets his social moral responsibility. All those who are in politics make tall promises to people. For instance Modi promised 'Good Days' ( Acche Din) but he himself knows that his own definition of Acche Din is a mysterious self deception. But in his monthly Radio broadcast to the nation- Mann Ki Baat- he has never confessed his guilt. But does it mean he has a clean conscience? The atrocities  committed by the East India Company have never been publicly admitted : Does it mean the British do not have guilt conscience? A guilty mind whispers his guilt to his lifeless pillow while fidgeting in the bed at night. But is it ever redeemed?

Instances, however, are aplenty, of people who never realize that they have done immense harm to people while trying to further  their ambitions. One of the most "sinful", illustrations of guilt is in the Mahabharata: Dronacharaya, the Guru, the Teacher of the  Kaurabs and Pandavas, who never taught Ekalavya demands Gurudakshina of him when he saw his brilliance as an archer. Ekalabya was of a low caste tribal community and could not get access to any  Guru of Drone's calibre. But he had an earthen image of Drona and worshipped it as his guru. By demanding the left thumb of Ekalabya without any rights, with a view to incapacitating him as an archer for the rest of his life the guilt which Drona  committed borders on crime. Guilt is not  a mistake, it is a bloodless crime which ought to weigh on the mind. But no man who is not publicly condemned or judicially punished ever realizes that he has done  immense harm to a human being. Bhisma in the same Mahabharat took the vow of celibacy only to facilitate marriage between his father Santanu and Satyabati. Was it not a betrayal of the kingdom? When he did not use his moral authority as the most respected in the family to avoid the Draupadi denuding scene in the open durbar, was  he not guilty of inhumanity against the daughter-in-law of his clan? I take these instances from our ancient epic only to avoid known examples of our times. But what I intend to prove is that guilt is more criminal as it betrays a Being's worth in life. The wonder, however is that such guilty persons never suffer from self-flagellation of the soul or psyche or innate moral sense.

The dalits complain of repression and torture by the so called higher castes over long centuries. But does this guilt  ever shame the higher castes? Manu and other social scientists who classified the society by creating  hierarchies cannot be faulted for God has created human beings alike but has given different mindsets to people. Manu's class and caste system created a social organism which operated as a cohesive unit. One part of the Organism must think and plan, another must protect the Organism, a third must earn and feed  and another must do the execution of things  by physical leg work. Otherwise if all parts do the same  function the organism will lose all dynamism and could become effete. By merely faulting the  social thinkers  who created a system of social dynamism we are irrationally blaming a group that sustained life systems. And to remedy an imaginary law we create a sense of guilt artificially in a section of society that was more capable, agile and intellectually alert.  Moreover the 'accused' are no more available, so are the victims. By reservation we create  a new order where the capable are  deprived of their rightful place: and by placing the undeserving above the deserving we create a new anomalous system where suppressed anger  surfaces pushing away the unconscious guilt of remote generations. Those who have reversed the order of the system are they not guilty  of the new class system of bureaucracy, judiciary, management gurus and the labour class?  The same system of the old Masters operates in the present day world with new nomenclature. And there are guilt ridden smiles which turn violent in no time.

We are all guilty of being born for we have to do many things harsh, cruel and sinister to survive. Love is betrayed , trust is belied, promises are broken, facts are violated every moment in our reality: If we feel guilty the human race cannot survive.