Bright versus dark - a dispute resolved?

N. Arunkumar *

Recently, I overheard an interesting story about the disparities between darkness and brightness. The story goes like this. Once, darkness went to God and complained that he was under great stress as he did not get any chance to rest at all. He was continuously under great pressure and was at the point of having a nervous breakdown of sorts.

He further told God that it was because the sun, with its brightness used to come and chase him off every time he wanted to rest and he had to keep running away from it constantly. Therefore, he requested that God should intervene with the sun and ask him to leave darkness in peace.

Now, God is always sympathetic to complaints from his elements and promised darkness that He would speak to the sun about it. So, God keeps his promise and approaches the sun with this problem of darkness and, the sun was completely surprised to hear it. He never knew that there was something called darkness that existed in the universe.

He said that if there was someone like that with a genuine complaint, then he should come to him directly and speak about it. Perhaps he can find a solution to the problem only when the person comes and discusses the matter with him in detail.

God went back to darkness and explained the sun's position on the issue. Darkness however could never go to the sun, as we all know that they are not meant to meet each other face to face. Hence, the issue remains unresolved and darkness has to continue running away from brightness eternally.

Now, I feel that there is an essentially potent message in this story for all of us. The symbolisms endorsed by the two intense elements of darkness and brightness are many. For one, ignorance is akin to darkness in our lives and knowledge or wisdom is akin to brightness.

When wisdom rules, ignorance is banished from its boundaries, just like the darkness was, from brightness. When knowledge dictates our actions, lack of it takes us to the brink of ruin, again parallel to the story here. These are facts of life and, all of us have at one time or the other experienced the miseries enclosed in such realities.

Although we cannot claim a status of totality due to our knowledge or wisdom, we can at least humbly accept the fact that we are inadequately prepared to meet every challenge of life confidently without making mistakes, at one time or the other in our lives. We humans are not conditioned to be perfect as, every culture, every race, every creed on this planet earth have something or the other which lacks absolute flair.

It is not easy to accept that bravely though. Our ancestors did their best to overcome hurdles that challenge our intelligence to cope with the mysteries of life, and we continue to follow in their footsteps relentlessly. How efficiently we have done it, is for the future generations to reflect and judge over our generation.

But, the core question now is, are we doing justice to the efforts of our ancestors in integrating ourselves with a concept of universal brotherhood that teaches to live in peace and co – operation with each other, like they envisaged long ago in time? Somewhere along the way, we have lost that ennobling spirit of universality in us and have begun to detach ourselves from the world around us.

Narrow outlooks have taken roots in us and our sense of detachment from the world indicates that we are now almost like nomads in the crowded deserts of the world. Boundaries have become sacred for us and a mania that we need to protect from other predators. Man has thus become a predator among other men.

Many of us believe in wars and violence to protect our territories and as a consequence, even our abilities as a superior animal is under threat of disappearance. We cannot call ourselves as superior human beings anymore in the true sense of the word, as we are uniformly determined to guard ourselves like the animals do in the jungles.

Like the dispute between darkness and brightness, our lives are intertwined to the concepts of darkness more strongly than brightness more affectionately. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt; however we may wish to deny it among ourselves. As long as we do not accept our faults, we cannot expect to realize our strengths either, is a truth of scientific magnitude.

To drive home this point, I shall recount an incident that I witnessed with my own eyes and made me recount this story of darkness and brightness here. I was sitting at a roadside tea stall in Imphal a few days ago. A friend of mine was with me and we were enjoying light banter over a cup of tea in that stall. There is a school in front of that tea stall, and it is on a rather busy street.

It was beginning to get dark and the curfew hour was round the corner too. As we were discussing about this and that, we saw a small commotion in front of that school. A couple of young men, were found urinating in front of the gates of that school and a guard from within the compound of the school obviously shouted at those men for performing such an uncivilized act in front of it.

The boys retaliated with abusive language, which was unwarranted, I felt and even threatened the guard with dire consequences for daring to stop them from indulging in their birthright. The men were obviously inebriated and not in their appropriate senses evidently. However, the incident got out of hand, when the men went away from there and, within five minutes we saw them back with a gang of young men, boys even, approach that school gate with seemingly rebellious intentions. Do we have a prohibition on in this state of ours?

I and my friend were disgusted at the whole thing of course, but here was a mob of men who had come to show their might as a community, and we just watched in helpless resignation. Fortunately, as it was almost curfew hour, a police mobile van appeared on the street just at that time, and the gang of goons vanished from there by just melting into the crowd of people hurrying about to catch their safety before curfew time.

A potential gang riot was averted, and providentially too. It makes me recount the story I have mentioned here, about disparities between brightness and darkness. Those men should have known that such acts are uncivilized, and unacceptable in our society. That insensible act would have led to serious consequences between the parties, victim and perpetrators alike, and a social problem would have been created for no reason at all. Darkness would have overcome brightness though, and it would have contradicted the nuances of the story I have mentioned.

The men might have had concealed motives behind their filthy act, of course, it cannot be ruled out. But, if it means that they will go to the extent of even committing arson on the school, it is a matter that we must take note of. Might is right, is a mistaken concept that will only create unpleasant situations among citizens of a state.

The supporters of such wanton brutalization of our sensibilities must wake up and understand that we are a sensitive society that dreams of joining the nations of the world as responsible human beings capable of great achievements, given the right atmosphere to realize our true potentials.

A few misguided youths of this kind will only retard our progress towards nobler goals of identification as a sophisticated race of human beings on the planet. A school is a societal institution that is supposed to be considered as a temple of knowledge. If we do not wish to respect our temples, whether of the theology kind or the more pro – active academic kind, it indicates a serious issue of ignorance and disrespect to our people as citizens of the land. The law also does not instill a sense of fear of retribution in our citizens, and that is a tragedy for all of us.

None of us are safe in such state of affairs. Anyone can do anything and get away with it, seems to be the common belief in some people. The law is bent and broken without a second thought. Is it because the law is too soft and punishments or penalties too lenient that we harbor such individuals among us?

What is the guarantee that something like this will not happen in front of our own houses too, if we have no checks and balances in our system for civil living? Why is it that we are struggling even with minor issues of public etiquette in our state? Are we so irresponsible and unrefined to understand that the tenets of civility demands that we behave in a proper manner while living in a multi – faceted society like ours? What has happened to our sense and sensibilities?

Or is it that the sun has finally acquiesced to the demands of darkness and allowed it to prosper in this forsaken corner of the world called Manipur? Are we so much forsaken by God and everything else? Such human misconduct needs urgent attention by our social thinkers, and they must educate our restive youths about the urgent need to maintain social etiquettes in order to reflect our true personalities.

Our potentialities too are insulted for the moment and this incident more than shows our complete deprivation in morals at present. Of course I am forced to generalize these observations, with due respect to my more polished readers, simply because I wish to provoke an honest evaluation of decorum in each one of us, and wake us up to the other side of inconsiderate realities of our society that is real, however much we may wish to brush it under the carpet.