T
|
he title may
astonish many… Is it a crazy idea? Is it a dream or illusion? What is the
connection between morality and police stations? Why trying it with police
stations? Is it a possibility or just a theory? No, it is definitely a
possibility.
I am not proposing
a vague theory here, but am writing this with full confidence. I have with me
the experience of counseling at least 50 people and successfully changing their
life-style and attitude. All your doubts will be cleared and you will be
convinced, provided you go through the article till the end patiently and
without any prejudice.
First, what will be
the result if the project is carried out?
There is nothing to
lose either materially or otherwise. If it works out successfully, though an
ideally peaceful and fear-free state is at a distance, we can at least enjoy
the following benefits:
·
The present trend of prisons producing bigger criminals
out of smaller criminals will come to an end. Instead, reformed citizens
contributing to the establishment of peace and justice in the country will be
coming out of prisons. They can be engaged in more constructive works.
·
The governments can save money spent on maintaining law
and order, maintaining police stations and prisons and their inmates and
staffs.
Why Police-stations
and Prisons?
Though crime and
evil are spread all over, our focus is on police stations and prisons because:
·
These are the places that are meant to be used for
correcting and controlling crime in the country. Though government, judiciary
and other authorities are there to ensure peace and justice for the public, the
policemen are the people who directly work to control crime.
·
Police stations are places of security and hope for
sections of the public that are scared of, or are affected by, crime.
·
These are the places wherein captured criminals are lodged
together. While many criminals roam free outside, those imprisoned are the ones
directly involved in crime.
·
These are the places where criminals are found disengaged
from their routine work and environment and are available for open
consultation.
The Need
In every police
station we can find tables and charts depicting the statistics regarding the alarming
increase of crimes. These are, of course, reported data; we can only guess as
to the unreported ones. Needless to say, people are frustrated with the
situation. Day by day our existence is becoming awful. Now almost all of us
want to do something to change the situation, but we do not know how to go
about it. The initiative which I am proposing is a step in this direction. It
is not a new one, but it is, nevertheless, a time-tested one, which is taught
by our own Creator! The initiative proposed will be a part of establishing dharma
on earth which is the common goal of all religions.
The Cause
If asked as to why
crime and evils are on the rise, we could blame the government, the politicians,
the economic conditions, social and cultural background, and so on. But one of
the main reasons for the growth of crime in society is the ever-deepening moral
crisis.
To control this, we
have to correct immorality among the individuals that make-up our society. Is
it possible? Yes, it is possible, if we
understand certain basic facts and act upon that understanding.
Usually we human
beings often forget three undeniable, fundamental, truths:
Ø That the whole of mankind are descendants of the first parents on earth and
all of us belong to the same family irrespective of our color, language,
country, or period in which we live.
Ø That above us there exists a Creator and Cherisher of ours who is also the
Lord and Sustainer of the entire universe.
Ø That we are answerable to our Master Who has created us. That is, our
Creator will judge us for our deeds, and He will reward us for our good deeds
and punish us for our bad deeds.
If we want to
reform any individual or society, we have to remind them about the aforementioned
truths and convince them about their accountability for their deeds on earth.
If a man has to be righteous, he should essentially have a proper and clear
concept of God. Only then can a true sense of accountability be realized by
him.
It is natural to expect your
good work to be recognized and rewarded. With laws,you get punished when you
violate them. The law does not reward you for being good. Why would a person be
motivated to do good deeds?
One may ask, if laws can
prevent from doing bad deeds, isn’t that enough? We must note that, if man has
to fear only the law, he will find a way to tackle the law. We see that
happening today resulting in the increase of crimes.
When man realizes his
accountability to God for his deeds, it will motivate him to stay good and keep
away from bad.
If the concept of God is
wrongly taught to man, a reformation is never possible, for this misinformation
directly affects the seriousness of man’s belief in his accountability before
God. Implanting the proper concept of God in the human mind is, therefore, the
first step in the human reformation process.
Today, it can be
seen that right from childhood, lifeless and senseless objects are shown to man
and are explained to him as gods. People worship graves (e.g., darghas), statues, photos, monuments,
symbols, animals, sun, moon, and stars etc., as gods even though our reason
does not accept them as the real God. People, irrespective of the religions
they belong to, fall victims to this practice of their ancestors. Thus,
generations are nurtured with a corrupt conception of God and thereby do not
have even the slightest sense of accountability of their deeds. They dare to
commit any kind of sins and crimes without any hesitation. Thus, sins accumulate
in society uncontrollably. This is the most important cause of sins and crimes and
their perpetuation in society.
But this fact is
ignored and left unattended by the authorities of the nation who are
responsible for the control of crimes. As a nation interested in establishing
peace around us, we should initiate researches and action plans to arrest the
growing moral crisis on priority basis. Unless we keep aside all prejudices
arising out of our affiliations to different religions, races, regions and
languages and take positive, constructive, steps in this direction, the future
of the nation will be catastrophic.
The Solution
For the moral
uplift of society, we cannot ignore the role of the messengers of God who came to
India and elsewhere in the world and the Holy Books sent through them. We know
that during their times they reformed their respective people or nations
successfully and established dharma on earth. The reason behind their
success was that they followed the guidance from God Almighty and adhered to
it. After a comparative study of these scriptures and the sayings of those
noble souls, we arrive at the following facts:
God almighty has
been sending His messengers at different periods of time to different parts of
the world to preach about the real concept of God and about the purpose of man’s
life on earth. These messengers are known as ‘Rishis’ in ancient India
and are known as ‘Prophets’ in Christianity and Islam. All of them taught their
respective people about the unity of mankind and the unity of God.
They taught the
people that the Creator and Cherisher of this universe is one and only one and
He alone deserves worship. Except Him, everything else in the world is His
creation and none of His creations deserve any worship. They also cautioned
people strictly against worshipping any of His creations or associating
partners to Him as this practice leads to growth of sins, division in humanity,
spread of superstitions, exploitation in the name of God by middlemen etc. All
of them taught their respective people to worship the Creator directly without
any middlemen, formalities or spending of any money.
Traces of this can
be seen in the below quoted examples from the holy scriptures and sayings of
people revered by people of major religions of our nation:
About Oneness of
God
Brahma Sutra
of Hinduism:
“Ekam Brahm, dvitiya naste neh na naste Kinchan.” [“There is only one God, not the second; Not at all, not at all, not in the least bit.”]
“Ekam Brahm, dvitiya naste neh na naste Kinchan.” [“There is only one God, not the second; Not at all, not at all, not in the least bit.”]
“Ma cid anyad
vi sansata sakhayo ma rishanyata” [“O friends, do not worship anybody but
Him, the Divine One. Praise Him alone.”] [Rigveda 5:1:81]
"I am the
Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God." [Bible:
Isaiah 45:5]
“There is one God, Eternal Truth is His
Name; Maker of all things, fearing nothing and at enmity with nothing, Timeless
is His Image; Not begotten, being of His own Being: By the
grace of the Guru, made known to men.”
[Guru Granth Sahib - Guru Nanak]
”Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. There is none like Him.” [Holy Qur’an 112: 1-3]
[Guru Granth Sahib - Guru Nanak]
”Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. There is none like Him.” [Holy Qur’an 112: 1-3]
“Na tasya
pratima asti ” “There
is no image of Him” [Yajurveda 32:3]
“Shudhama
poapvidham.” [‘He is bodiless and pure.’ [Yajurveda 40: 8]
"Remember the
former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am
God, and there is none like me.” [The Bible, Isaiah 46: 9]
“And there is none comparable
unto Him.” [The Qur’an, 112: 4]
Warning
Against Worshipping False gods – i.e., ascribing partners to Him or worshipping
anything other than Him
“Andhatama pravishanti ye asambhuti mupaste” [They
enter darkness, those who worship the natural things” (Air, water, fire, etc.)]
- Yajurveda 40: 9
“(One of the Commandments is
this that) you shall not have any other gods before me." – The Bible, Exodus
20: 3
“Indeed, Allah does not forgive association
with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who
associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray.” [Qur’an
4:116]
Besides oneness of God, the messengers of God preached
about the purpose of our existence here. That is, the present temporary life is
a test in which our deeds are recorded. After a certain period, the whole world
will be destroyed one day and all human beings will be resurrected back to life
again for judging their actions on earth. After the judgment, depending upon
the weight of their good and bad deeds, people will be sent to paradise or hell
wherein they will live eternally.
By reminding people about the Creator’s plan of rewarding
the righteous with Paradise of eternal pleasure and punishing the sinners with
hell fire, the messengers of God reformed their respective people who were
going astray and gradually established dharma
in their region. The holy books of God convey the message that the life after
death is a reality. To avoid elaboration let me limit my quoting only from the
Qur’an which is known as the last one in the series of divine books that have
reached mankind. It has many arguments like this:
“Does man not consider that We created him
from a [mere] sperm-drop – then at once he is a clear adversary? And he presents for Us an example and forgets
his [own] creation. He says, ‘Who will give life to bones while they are
disintegrated?’ Say, ‘He will give them life who produced them the first time;
and He is, of all creation, Knowing.’” (Quran 36: 77-79)
It further says:
“Is not He who created the heavens and the
earth able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing
Creator. His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it,’Be,’
and it is.” (Qur’an 36: 81-82)
It convinces us logically that the One Who has created us
for the first time out of nothing can create us again to judge our deeds to
reward us or punish us.
The Method
After studying the background and psychology of criminals
and arranging open conversations with them, we can counsel them to correct
their mindset. By reminding them about the aforementioned facts in the proper
way, God willing, we can expect a positive attitudinal change in them. Further,
we can develop them by teaching adequate meditation and prayers. We should
educate them in such a way that when they leave prison, they are morally strong
enough to face the immoral environment outside. We should train them in such a
way that they will become volunteers in spreading peace, love and justice in
the country.
Conclusion
By implementing this project, we can achieve the real
purpose of establishing police stations and prisons. They are supposed to
produce reformed citizens out of prisoners. Just frightening, punishing and
torturing the criminals will only create feelings of everlasting vengeance in
them against the people affected by their crimes. If implemented, the prisons
will no longer be a place which converts small criminals into bigger criminals,
and no more the starting point of crime-networking and plotting as is found
today.
Suggestions
1.
To implement the proposal, House of Peace can offer a practical demonstration before the concerned authorities,
supply a team of counselors, and train those who volunteer to become such
counselors.
2.
This project will not be carried out under the banner of
any religion. There need not be any apprehension that this will lead to any
religious conversions. Our objective is simply the conversion of sinning souls
to purified ones, and this by reminding them about certain realities about themselves,
irrespective of their religious affiliation.
