The Moral Compass

Mahatma Gandhi was a moral force, the like of whom India has not seen after his martyrdom, which we commemorate annually on 30th January, five days after the Republic Day celebrations. I was born many years after Gandhi’s assassination and I still remember the one minute silence we had to maintain on this day for many years during my schooling. Our teachers, who had experienced the dark shadow of the day when Gandhi migrated to his eternal abode, used to remind us of Jawaharlal Nehru’s immortal words of the light having passed away. Gandhi was more than a great leader. A moral force. A saint.

Having gone through President Pranab Mukherjee’s  eve of Republic Day address to the nation, I found these words most relevant and worth pondering: “It is time for the nation to reset its moral compass.”

It is long since we have heard such words from any leader of eminence, official or otherwise. On the contrary, every contemporary leader seems to be reluctant to speak of morality. The only references are to moral policing, moral brigades and moral hypocrites. True. No one speaks of moral authority because there is hardly a public leader with moral authority in India. In the absence of any, we only pay lip service to the Mahatma. Our powerful media also forgets him on the Martyr’s Day when the nation should be reminded of his sacrifice.

How can we reset our moral compass if our moral authority is on the decline?

Is there a moral force?

Does our religion, whichever it may be, give due importance to morality?

The rituals, customs and traditions of our religions, with the support of technology, hold sway over the followers while the voice that upholds moral teachings is almost lost in the dust and din of our festivities with glittering lights and deafening sound.

The voice of morality is a voice in the wilderness.

The President said: ”There is the law of the land. But there is also a higher law.”

When we break the law of the land with impunity, we weaken our Republic. When we break the higher law, “we wound the soul of our civilization.” As it happened when six men brutalized a young woman in a moving bus in our capital city last December. As it happened when a seven year old girl was sexually assaulted in a school in our port town in Goa. As it happens every day, every night with increasing frequency in our modern India.

Where Is the moral compass? And how are we going to reset it?

The Mahatma spoke of seven deadly sins: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, and politics without principle.

Our religious texts are full of teachings about the ideal life that we should live. All religious directives can be reduced to a common maxim: Do unto others what you expect others to do unto you.

Instead of searching for the common truth in our religious texts, we are busy misusing our religions to divide people, build prejudice and hatred which results in blind violence. As Gandhi said, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

The preamble of our constitution is an inspiring document which enshrines the soul of our civilization: equality, liberty and fraternity.

What better guidance can we seek than that which is encoded in all scriptures and our own constitution of India? 

The code of morality is already there in the compass. Are the pointers missing? Or are the pointers not sharp and clear? What is it that can drive the pointers to move?

The moral force. The moral authority. This force, this authority is different from the mere authority of the state or government. While law enforcing authority is very much required and derives its power from the laws of the state, the moral authority derives its power from the soul of our civilization and culture, from a higher power. Mere pious talk will not do. Example is better than precept. The person who inspires others to practice the moral code, should also be an inspiration himself or herself.

We need morally tall persons to be the pointers in the moral compass.

We don’t have to look at others or at established leaders to fill this vacancy. Each of us - whether parents, teachers, executives, directors, legislators, ministers, physicians, engineers, writers or priests (list not exhaustive) – has the potential to rise up to the occasion. 

Vacancy not advertised. It is the need of the hour. It is the cry of our civilization.

As James Q Wilson says it: “Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.”

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 03.02.2013