by Promod Puri
From Mohammad to Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela and Dr. Ambedkar all had religious commitments grounded in humanism, love, compassion, and kindness to wage their political and social campaigns against slavery, apartheid, discrimination, inequality, and un-touchability based on color, class, and caste.
Gandhi’s crusade against evils in the society and
his political discourse were derived from the Hindu scriptures of
Upanishads advocating the concepts of non-violence, truthfulness,
self-discipline, compassion, and virtuousness.
Obama, who believes in the power of faith, has
sought a “serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern,
pluralistic democracy”.
He argues, “more fundamentally the discomfort of
some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from
effectively addressing issues in moral terms”. In a public address, he
said: “secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their
religion at the door before entering into the public square”. (“Obama’s
2006 Speech on Faith and Politics”, The New York Times, June 28,2006
edition).
“Before entering the public square”, what Obama
is demanding instead is the infusion of true religion, without its
symbolism, in the political environment to establish moral guidelines in
its ideologies.
In a world, which is politically divided into two
castes of Leftists and Rightists with sub-castes of Extreme Left and
Extreme Right, ideological fanaticism runs high along with elements of
power, ego, and greed, which are opportunistically embraced by all
political establishments. In this “dirty game”, socialist idealism
becomes just sloganeering.
The idiosyncrasy of the present sociopolitical
left and the right mental constitution is that the leftists have a
revulsion for religion. And the rightists are religious fanatics. The
former ridicules and rejects religion and the latter is narcissustic
illiterate about it.
And this is where the science of politics must
step in to explore the true spirit of religion based on its universal
teachings to find permanent residency in political leadership.
Deepak Chopra says: “Enlightened leadership is
spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious
dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience
values like truth, goodness, beauty, love, and compassion, also
intuition, creativity, insight, and focused attention”.
Paved with these divine and acknowledged values
religion offers an ever-guiding relationship with politics in the
service of humanity and its environment.
(Promod Puri resides in Vancouver, Canada. He is a journalist and author of Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs, and Traditions).
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