The journey of an individual from its birth to its demise from this physical world is closely related to the history of all the species that have ever walked on the surface of the earth.
We can identify with human emotions because we are human beings. We can understand the emotions of certain animals as well because of our developed consciousness and our familiarity with their activities.
The famous Pavlovian Experiment is a testimony to this way of learning in animals, where certain action or activity is associated with another activity in order to garner a certain desired reaction from the animal every time those associated actions are repeated. Strangely, such an approach is invariably inherent in the penal systems throughout the world to regulate human beings.
It can also be deduced here that those who don’t let others enjoy these rights are demons in the human frame. The Kerela incident with a pregnant mother elephant dying because of eating a pineapple given to her by some lunatic, filled with crackers, is a sad example of such demonic attitude.
This urge of thwarting happiness of others and violating their fundamental right to life and personal liberty is particularly seen in certain human beings. They cause a great loss to those who are meek and not quick to revert or retaliate. It starts from a simple superiority or inferiority complex.
The superiority complex residing in human beings has caused great exploitation and questionable practices against fellow human beings and other natural inhabitants of the world, which has tainted the self-image of humanity in a disgusting manner.
The Black Lives Matter campaign in the US, that has soared amidst protests after the death of George Floyd in police custody, apartheid practiced in South Africa for a long time, Nelson Mandela imprisoned for 27 years, the filling of American prisons will the majority of the Black population, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., who gave a dream to so many people through his words, are all related to each other.
The bullying in school, child abuse, molestation, sexual exploitation in and out of marriages, murders, unnecessary wars; all such behaviour roots from the seed of these complexes and demonic attitudes.
The term “Sadhu” in old Sanskrit means someone who behaves in such a way with others as he does or expects for himself.
For a demon to become a Sadhu, it might take a few minutes, a few hours, few days, few months, many lives, or just a second. But for that, a realisation of the mistake made should be present in his or her heart.
Valmiki was initially a bandit with the name of Ratna’kara and his life took a U-turn in a fleck of a moment. He had murdered many people in his career. The moment he realized his mistakes and took the shelter of the Supreme Lord, he turned into a Sadhu, doing meditation and sitting for long hours where small ants had made their homes on his body during his absorbed state of meditation.
Another such transformation could be seen in dacoit Kalicharan, who became Kalikanand Avadhoot, a monk resolved to serve the suffering humanity, after getting initiated by young Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, in 1939, when he was just 17, meditating in the forest, when he was attacked by Kalicharan for money. Sarkar was later known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiiji, lovingly called Baba, by his disciples of the socio-spiritual organisation Ananda Marga (literally meaning the Path of Bliss).
The conclusion of the discussion is that even though such complexes exist in human beings, redemption is not denied. It just needs the feeling of surrender towards the Supreme Entity along with a sense of deep mutual belongingness towards the whole Universe.
(Extract from Chaitanya Dev’s article)