Every organization forms certain rules for smooth functioning. Similarly, every society develops a code of morality for the smooth functioning of society. The fundamental principles underlying these rules are quite noble. For example, generally, fairness, justice, and freedom are at the core of morality. That is why the moral code of conduct of any society says that we should not steal, hit, or hurt others, have discipline so that we may be free from laziness and may explore this world, treat others with respect, and so on. Society develops many rituals and customs around all these things and with time loses awareness of the foundations of these customs and starts following them literally. The customs and rituals, which in their original form promoted justice, fairness, and freedom start becoming emotionally and physically painful.
There are many such examples. For example, the festival of Rakshabandhan must have been started to make the boys feel their responsibility towards sisters. It is a very good way of gender sensitization whereby all the males in the society appreciate that they have sisters and they need to love their sisters similarly their wife is also somebody's sister and their sisters are also somebody's wife. However, as the consciousness of the society fell down, it was taken by a few as if the role of the male members in the family was to protect the female. This had two very unwarranted consequences. First, many people had a preference for boys and second psychologically girls started feeling dependent. In the present age, when many facilities, including mine, have two girl children, these festivals need to be transformed. In fact, in many families, sisters have started celebrating Rakshabandhan among themselves.
The moral code of the society aims at ensuring the smooth survival of the society as a whole. However, there will always be some conflict between the individual freedom and morality imposed by the society. For example, the latest protests by the LGBTQ community have been the headlines in the global media. There were a lot of protests in India as well and the Courts have taken cognizance of the same. Here the fight is between moral standards and individual freedom. Similar fights keep going on the internet. There are many websites that want to display the contents of their choices, however, society feels that such content is not good for society.
I feel that the crucial question here is to what extent, individual freedom should prevail if it contradicts the social norms. Earlier, the communities were more physically bound, and therefore the easiest way to punish an individual, if he defied the social norms, was to excommunicate such person from society. Such a person was banned from entering the village. However, today societies are quite different. People belonging to a society are spread all over the world. They have voices in different forms such as social media, e-mails, and WhatsApp messages, and communicate with each other in a really fast manner. They have very different exposure. It appears to me that in a very short time, the entire world will become a single community with quite a loosely defined moral code of conduct and individual freedom will be primary.
I feel that this society is quite money-driven. The center of existence of this society is money. Money can buy good food, houses, comforts, luxuries, power, and positions. The entire society is busy running after more and more money and therefore the rich will always try to influence the systems to tilt in their favour. History is a witness to the exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful across ages. However, we need to examine how much individual freedom is connected to money?
Probably a little deeper examination would quickly reveal that freedom is always free. Freedom is not dependent on money. Freedom is a product of awareness, and anybody can be aware. People like Victor Frankl decided to stay aware of the worst of the circumstances in the Nazi concentration camps. Sri Aurobindo decided to stay aware in the prison. Anybody and everybody who has money at the center of his life has it because he has lost connection with the divine. Anybody who has lost connection with the divine is going to be ignorant and out of ignorance, he is clinging to money as a savior. Freedom and insecurity can never coexist. That is why such people, who choose money and powers to allay their fears become quite calculative and manipulative, and therefore lose their capacity to be free and have compassion. A person who chooses awareness over money and powers gets connected to the divine, and in that state, he naturally becomes free and in that state of freedom, he loves everybody around because he can see that we all are different manifestations of the same divine: some aware, some ignorant. Just because somebody is ignorant, does not mean that he is no longer divine. He is resisting his true self due to ignorance-driven stubbornness. Thus, freedom, justice, and fairness in a world driven around money appear to be a utopia, while there are natural qualities when it comes to people who stay aware of their true selves.
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