There is a famous anecdote about Gandhiji. Once a mother came to Gandhiji with her child. She complained to him that her son eats a lot of sugar and doesn't listen to her when she asks him not to eat that. After listening to the complaint Gandhiji asked the mother to come back after three days and seek resolution for her complaint. The mother returned after three days to Gandhiji. This time Gandhiji asked the boy not to eat more sugar because it is bad for health. Being amused by the triviality of the instruction passed on by him she asked why did he take three days to convey this simple message to the child. Gandhiji responded that when she came for the first time he himself was fond of eating more sweet and before instructing the child he himself wanted to follow the same rule first. This small incident reflects a lot about the character of Gandhiji of first practicing then preaching which is also getting manifested in the topic of this essay —“ You must be the change you want to see in the world”.
The human race has ben blessed by the almighty that it has chosen this race to enjoy the status of a social being. Almost all schools of Sociology in general, and the school of Phenomenology in particular, describes society as a sum total of all individuals and the interaction between them. Hence, society is because individuals exist. If a concept of modeling, belonging to Mathematical Sciences may be borrowed in this case, then we could say that the Society is a function of its individuals and the interactions between them. It is interesting to notice that the determinants of society mentioned above are mutually interacting that it is to say that the individuals influence the nature of interaction as well. The nature of interactions between individual in a particular society depends basically on two factors, one is individual himself (internal factors) and second is external factors viz. parentage, upbringing, degree of socialization, economic, political, ecological and social milieu etc. Clearly it can be said that all the external factors are again being determined by individuals only. So, in a nutshell it can be said that weight-age of individuals in determining the shape of nature and shape of society is higher. Hence, for a society to undergo a change it requires its individuals to change first. We have seen this in history also. The Industrial Revolution in Europe took place when its citizens adopted rational thinking and questioning the status quo after being swept by the influence of renaissance and enlightenment. Don’t we in India attribute the changes in the four yugas i.e from Satyuga- Tretayuga-Dwapar to Kaliyuga to the changes in the traits of individual character where in Kaliyuga the individuals are inclined more towards materialistic achievements.
Another evidence of individual being the driver of change of society is obtained from the philosophy propagated by almost all the religions in the world. Invariably all the religious scriptures like the Gita, the Koran etc. focus on attaining a particular set of individual characters and virtues. When Buddha asks his disciples to renunciate desires he wants them to follow it themselves before getting transformed to Bodhisattvas. Similarly, Mahavira urges his followers to follow ‘ahimsha’ and doesn't ask them to make others follow without practicing it themselves first. A more elaborate description of how the individual traits influence society has been given by Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs. The same line of thought has been propagated by 19th century social reformers, especially Swami Ramkrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda, as well. According to them it is futile to find the reasons of once’s woes and problems in the external world. The enemy lies within one self. They have identified 6 major traits which lie within individuals the level of which determines the personality, traits and hence the actions of the individuals. These traits are, “Kama” (lust), “Krodha” (anger), “Madha” (addiction), “Moha” (attachment), “Lobha” (greed) and “Dambha” (ego). Different individuals have different degrees of all these traits which make them act in a particular way. For example if we take the case of corruption which has plagued the Indian society we can easily arrive at the conclusion that corrupt officials would be high on “moha” for material wealth and “lobha” of having more. Similarly, an al-Qaeda terrorist would be high on “krodha” and “dambha”. The culprits of December 16 Delhi rape case would be high on “lust” and “krodha”. In a nutshell, it can be said that almost all the social evils are perpetrated by those people who are high on anyone of the above mentioned six attributes. If these six levels are kept under control then individual actions can be controlled and this is what all the religious and spiritual leaders have asked their followers to achieve through practicing and “saadhna”. If these traits are brought under control by each individual then the probability of committing crime and hurting the collective conscience of the society would come down significantly.
Coming out of the spiritual realm, we find the relevance of the above line of thought in real day to day life as well. A few examples here are in order. It is said that during the Delhi rape case many commuters just passed by the victim lying on the roadside without caring to attend her. The same set of people would make much noise when they are on the other side of the fence. Similarly, the youth participates actively in anti-corruption demonstration and don’t even fear repressive police action. But the same youth never cares to ask whether the high-end mobile phones they carry were purchased by ill-gotten money of their parents. We feel bad when we see a policeman exploiting a hawker and demanding bribes from him for putting his stall at the roadside but we never hesitate to buy a costly laptop from the grey market so that we save on the sales tax, the same tax which could have paid the policeman a higher salary discouraging him to indulge in corrupt practices in the first place. Several such examples can be enumerated where the individual considers herself to be the victim and tries to find faults in the external world - what is fashionably called “the system” these days without realizing the fact the system is as good as the individual. The famous couplet by the poet Rahim summarizes this thought—
“Bura jo dekhan main chala, bura na milya koye; jo mann dekha aapno, mujhse bura na koye”
which means
“When I tried finding a bad individual I couldn’t find one, when I saw the heart of mine, I found myself bad”
The idea is hence, that if we wish to see a positive change in the world the starting point lies within us. We will have to reflect upon our traits and devise a course correction plan.
So not practicing what we preach only leads to a hypocrite society. There is no other way to achieve a society we would love to see a part of without setting this in order at individual level.
It is also important to note that it would not suffice if only a few individuals adopt this approach. This has to be a collective endeavor. The changes would appear only when all individuals are collectively responsible to mend individually. The degree of change in a society is directly proportional to the number of individuals making efforts towards changing themselves. We achieved independence from the foreign rule only when a large portion of our countrymen rejected subjugation individually.
Gandhiji was the father of nation but we have failed him by not inculcating his teachings in our thoughts and actions. We consider him “Bapu” only in text books, government offices and bank notes. Our gratitude towards him as a father of the nation would be established only when we also stop eating sugar for three days, realize the merits and demerits ourselves before advising anyone on the same.
