‘…God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’ Gen 1:27. ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath…’ Mk 2:27. Man is the measure of everything.
Hear the words of Sri Aurobindo:
‘A deathbound littleness is not all we are:
Immortal our forgotten vastnesses
Await discovery in our summit selves;
Unmeasured breadths and depths of being are ours.’
It might have been the great Upanishadic truths like ‘Tatwamasi! Soham!’, meaning ‘Thou art that! I am Brahman!’ enabled him and others to consider man as a spark of the divine, if not divinity itself. That is why Jesus also asked his listeners to be perfect as his heavenly father is perfect. Mt 5:48. Man’s call is not anything less than becoming divine. ‘…God does crown him with glory and honour.’ Ps 8:5. The dignity for which man is heir is no one’s concession, not even any sovereign. It is so inherent of humanity, of being human and none can take it away. This greatness endows certain freedom, freedom of the children of God! Rom 8:21.
Man along with myriads of living and non-living organisms, inhabiting this earth, if not the other planets as well, has to be its custodian and not its selfishly dominant and exploitative master. He has to keep it a cosmos and not chaos to his own destruction in the not far long future and nurture for the times to come. ‘Development’ in tune with the rhythm of nature will sustain man along with all other organisms. The backlash due to greedy over exploitation we feel so powerless to resist could be avoided, if only we care for the nature and its resources.
This dignity entails equality besides the liberty of we referred earlier. No one is above anyone else. All claims contrary to this are claims of interest and so be ignored as such. What is latent in every one of us will reach its fullness unless some of them are not denied of possible opportunities. History, in spite of it being recorded by the dominant ones, betrays such atrocities throughout. The domination onslaught was many a times presided over by the ‘religious’ and as such was justified, though there won’t be many takers for that in our times. A latest revelation on this count was reported in the ‘Hindu’ on 21st February 2013!
Such atrocities go on in almost all the religious institutions with less pay, more working hours, no safety provisions and so on. Mind you, they carry on with such exploitation with offerings made to gods! They conveniently, rather consciously forget the high handed intervention of god at such times. Ex 3:7. They possibly can’t escape that situation which is so imminent like ‘Damocles’ sword.’
The human dignity we are speaking of expects certain minimum requirements such as food, clothing and shelter. All this, I think, Jesus referred to as ‘bread’ when on request he taught them to pray for the daily bread. This can’t be denied to anyone, not even to the birds of the air and lilies of the field. Mt 6:26ff. That is why he seemingly complained of having nowhere to lay his head. Mt 8:20. Food certainly includes water, that too worthy of drinking; and shelter will include toilets facilities for health and hygiene.
These basic facilities are denied to a great number of people in India! Why speak of India, when one can look down on one’s own backyard for these deficiencies. The recent reports on the water scarcity in the coastal villages, besides the reporting some time back of public defecation along the coast in certain part of our diocese should shame us all in a state which publicizes itself as ‘god’s own country’! May be that it is the duty of the governments; however can’t we do something from our part when we squander money on skyscraper like churches and comparatively palatial rectories, let alone the innumerable shrines on all nook and corners obstructing traffic and so on.
It is a well known fact that the literacy among our people in this capital district of the state which claims universal literacy! Where does the public fund go, when most of our schools even are miserably maintained and children neglected. Don’t we have a right to know what are we doing with all that money comes from within and without? When the church clamor for many other otherwise ‘insignificant’ ‘rights’ like the ‘minority right’ and lobby or negotiate with the government, presenting impoverished state of being as underdeveloped, why don’t they insist for such basic necessities which will certainly instill some self-esteem which in turn would make them slowly independent? [to be continued...]
