— goldenboy

Hi. Writing here after a long time. Propelled into writing here now by
two events: Sidd exclaimed in “the group” mails that he hasn’t seen me
writing here for too long. That made me smile. At least there is one
person out there who cares if goldenboy writes here or not.

Secondly, I have been wanting to express what I have been pondering
upon. I have been reading Krishnamurti and what I understand is that
he is saying that -a heart that is dead to the suffering of the poor &
the miserables, is a dead man’s heart.

There is this whole new phenomenon changing the world (no I am not
talking about the Occupy Wall Street, or Arab Spring) but the book and
the Film “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. The philosophy, espoused in The
Secret has entered into the hearts and minds of all “Spiritual”
people, and Corporates! The book asserts that The Law of Attraction
works i.e.when one always keeps a positive attitude, and keeps away
from negativity, and keeps thinking of what one wants, one gets what
he wants. (you need to see the movie, it is not that simple as i write
here)

I worked in a firm, where the Director was such a die-hard fan of the
film that he would not listen to any negative feedback in the
Institute.

I see this virus of ‘ignoring all that is negative’ , spreading like a
social malaise. Nobody likes me talking about a poor abandoned old
woman, nearly blind, on the street, who makes my heart go out to her!
Her poverty, her distress, her tears, her dignity, her failures when
she is forced to beg, all of it moves me!

I know many people who would tell me, “if her plight moves you so
much, why don’t you take her home?” (I wish I could, I wish I could
take each one of these elderly abandoned persons to my own facility
someday, a rehab, where they will be treated with the dignity a human
being deserves.) I wonder if these people understand that she must
have been a mom, a daughter, a sister, a wife. This is not the way,
she must have been paid back. This is not how her people must have
treated her.

The same Societal rules we live by, the same family structure in which
the mom has to ask for pocket money from her son, where women who do
all the household chore but are dependent on the working men in the
family, the same kind of families most of us live in, is the root
cause for this woman to be on the street today.

So, as I see it, (and you don’t have to agree to this one): anyone who
abides by the same family rules, the same Societal Structure, each one
of us is responsible for her state today!!

I am not saying each person to take out time for her, or feed her, or
rehab her. No! But when somebody speaks of poverty around, of people
dying of hunger on the streets of our own Cosmopolitan towns and
cities, why are they asked to shut up (in the name of Positive
Thinking!) I wonder what has happened to everyone?

We pseudo-Spirituals, want our middle-class cafes , gadgets , nice
positions in Corporates with fat salaries, and there is absolutely
nothing wrong with that. I want these too.

But when I am told not to look at the negativity and the rot in the
Society, to neglect the feelings in my heart for the poor, for my “own
well-being”, advised that by paying attention to all those
“negativity” in the world i would somehow paranormally “become
impoverished and negative” myself! (absolutely what ‘The Secret’
says), I wonder what the world is coming to?

We are becoming not only an insensitive world but also a very very
stupid and sick world.

Imagine the Stigma attached to the “Negative people” in all this Law
of Positivity business! The less-privileged sections of the society,
the rape, catastrophe , crime victims become invisible people, we
infact even blame them for their own destiny as self-created misery!
(again, exactly what The Secret says)

Finally, I wonder what would a person reading J.Krishnamurti, say
about “The Secret”! I would say, “Live Dead, live happy!”
Cheers!
(Thanks Sidd!)