  Ayurvedic Treatment For Terrorism
In the allopathic system of medicine – the prevalent and dominant system in the developed world-- the treatment is symptomatic i.e. you treat the symptoms. You have a headache, take a pill and suppress the pain centre in the brain. Headache disappears. In reality the headache never went away but your awareness of it did go away. Symptom disappeared. So you feel you are cured. You have high blood pressure. Take pills which control the pressure chemically and your BP will be restored to normal limits. In an extreme example, your limb is affected with gangrene, chop the limb and replace it with an artificial limb. Normalcy restored. Basically what this branch of medicine does is it provides you a quick short term remedy so that you can get on with life. That is why it has become extremely popular. Compare this with our ancient art of Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, symptoms are noted and not treated. Through the symptoms the “Vaidji” understands the basic body problem and he tries to understand the sources of the problem. His medicine will aim to root out the basic cause. Sometimes this is achievable in a short time frame but mostly in a much longer time frame. In this fast paced world where everyone wants “instant” coffee, tea and results these longer time frames become not so readily acceptable. But what must be understood is that it is only systems like the “Ayurveda” that will strike at the very root of the problem and sort it out. The allopathic method with its remedies will only cure the symptoms and only short term relief will be possible. The disease will not be rooted out and more often than not it will resurface.
Post 26/11, there has been a huge emotional outburst in the country propelled partly by the media “to do something”. As explained above, our modern romance with “instant nirvana” leads us to a romantic liaison with the allopathic style of solutions where the medicines are generally aimed at the symptoms and not at the root cause. Our preoccupation with administering this medicine will normally ensure that long term solutions are pushed further behind in time frame and slowly are lost in the oblivion. Till another terrorist attack. Again short term measures cycle will repeat itself.
There is no doubt that we must install systems that prevent an attack from outside our borders so that 26/11 type of situation does not repeat itself. But what about the local support that was provided? What about the other blasts that were engineered by the terrorists that exist within? Should we not ensure that both the ‘doers’ and the ‘supporters’ stop doing and supporting such acts?
For this to happen Ayurvedic style analysis has to be applied. The root cause of all terrorism is “intolerance” and “perceived injustice”. Let us focus on “intolerance” first.
Intolerance stems from the feeling that whatever one thinks, believes and does is the only right or correct way to think, believe or act. Any other version becomes non-acceptable. How does intolerance surface or breed? If a child sees his parents/relations exhibiting intolerance, he is likely to follow that streak. If these attitudes are reinforced in the school by his teachers and friends he will embrace intolerance. Intolerance is not the copyright of any system, religion, caste, colour, creed etc. Wherever and whenever the feeling that only I am right or my belief is right is predominant intolerance will raise its ugly head.
Intolerance will invariably lead to violence. Basically, intolerance is the inability to see the myriad shades of grey that adorn truth. There are no absolutes in life. Everything is relative. Truth lies in the eyes of the beholder. If in childhood parents and family and thereafter in school, teachers teach the value of tolerance, teach that there are no absolutes in life, that everyone has the right to choose and that life is the biggest boon one has in life, then it will be tolerance that will surface and cement. Value of life will then achieve its sacred spot that it deserves.
For this to happen two basic changes must occur. Our education system must have an inbuilt mechanism to transmit the liberal values of tolerance, right to life, acceptance of others as they are, acceptance of situations as they are, acceptance of the inequalities that prevail due to caste, creed, geography, religion, nature etc. In short ethics and moral values that were once the foundation of good education and which have slowly been relegated into background and in fact mostly ejected out of the education system must be re-injected into it. The space earlier occupied in the syllabus by morality and ethics is now occupied by curriculum aimed to produce a “smart” child who will be more “suitable” for the rat race of market place. This needs to change. While awareness of values can be given in school, they are not imbibed by rote. Values have to be lived and the real nursery for this value education is our home and our family. Children only act what they see their parents do. For children to learn values, the parents have to walk the talk. Home revolves around the mother. It is the mother who can nurse and nurture the right values to the child. It is our girls who grow up and become mothers. And this is where the most important long term measure comes in. Every girl child must be educated, and educated rightly as spelt out here. Once we succeed in this the next generation brought up by such mothers will be more tolerant of the “other” and the major reason that breeds terrorism will disappear. This is indeed a long term measure but highly implementable.
Kerala is one of the states where literacy levels are close to 100 percent. As the mothers are all educated, the physical aspects of pregnancy, child bearing, bringing up children are all done in the prescribed manner. This is reflected in the elements of human growth index like child mortality rate etc which score high. This was achieved because the girl child in that state is educated. One will reap a similar harvest on the internal emotional front if value education is reinvigorated in our school curriculum. Tolerance will then be inbuilt into the psyche of future generations. A utopian dream, you may say. Highly possible, I say.
The other root cause of terrorism which my Ayurvedic analysis brought forth was “perceived injustice”. That will be the theme of the next article. |
