The nicest and safest place in the world!

What is the safest place on earth? This was the question i was mulling as i saw pictures of Muammar Gaddafi being dragged out of a sewage pipe and given the treatment that isn't different from the ones meted out by him to most of his opponents for the last 4 decades.

With due respects to the departed soul, i was giving myself a dry smile at his very "karmic"ally apt last words 'Don't shoot me". Do you need any more proof that "Time is great leveler"?

I would not disgaree if you call him "mad dog from the middle east" with a nauseating sense of dressing, usurping power with a single tool called "merciless elimination of dissent" and who ruled with an iron hand on the foundation of nature's oil reserves. But my memory of Gaddafi from my college days were firmly rooted in adulthood jealousy when i read about his female virgin body guards :). His quotes like, 

"Were it not for electricity we would have to watch TV in the dark" 

"A woman has the right to run for elections whether she is male or female"

were quite revealing and inspiring in making me realize that nature isn't entirely logical and it can endow power and wealth to absolute merciless morons like Gaddafi. Then nature started revealing more such morons exist in the world like Dubya Bush and i think i am quickly reaching a stage where nature is suggesting that vast majority of our world leaders are rooted in ignorance, idiotic and dogma driven without any trace of logic and rationality in their genes.

The Gaddafi's clips on screen led me to recollect the images of Saddam Hussein being pulled out of a underground pit and hanged but the ending was a shade more gracious than his African counterpart.  

News of Jaya being questioned in Bangalore was also noticed by me on the day. A trial for 66cr, has been going on for the last 15 years and with more than 1500 policemen deployed for 2 days and the cost of just these 2 days should be more than 25 lacs to the state. I am sure by now the overall cost of trial is more than the tax from the wealth that could have been realized. 

Irrespective of country, creed, religion, and nationality, corruption has attained the qualities of god - Omnipresent and Omnipotent. With most of our leaders being mentally corrupt usurping power and wealth without any limits, but all the accumulated power and wealth does not provide the safety and protection when the time is not on their side. 

Chanakya in his "Chanakya sutra" says "Stinking riches are not possible without evil" 

(नास्त्यपिशाचमैश्वर्यम् । - nāsti apishācham aishvaryam)

So coming back to the question i started this blog with, what provides safety against the vagaries of time and life? This is not just for our leaders but for all of us in general. If enormous Power and wealth does not seem to provide that safety consistently, then what provides this safety.

Then i read this old email accidentally which said, the most valuable places to be,

"The nicest place in the world to be is in someone's benign thoughts

The safest place in the world to be is in someone's prayers"

Be it Saddam or Gaddafi or Bush or most of our leaders neither existed in benign thoughts nor in people's prayers. I understand that there cannot be a sweeping generalization and the argument that a person can never exist in everyone's prayers.

So, the next question i have, "Is there a easy way to be present in everyone's prayers that gives us an affordable ticket and visa to be on the safest place?'.     

I don't know the answer to this question but thinking logically about the “Law of reciprocity of nature” or you call it “Law of Karma” which states that "As you sow, thou shall reap", then the easiest way to be in the safest place / in everyone's prayers is to have "everyone in our prayers". So the trick seems to be,

For a healthy life, pray health for all, 

For a wealthy life, pray wealth for all

For a prosperous life, pray prosperity for all

For a safe life, pray safety for all

For a peaceful life, pray peace to all,

To be in everyone's benign thoughts, be benign to all

To be in everyone's prayers, pray for all!

2 aspects of this concept is concisely captured as under:

• தீதும் நன்றும் பிறன் தர வாரா - Theedhum Nandrum piran thara varaa (Translitt) (In Tamil it means Good and bad things to you does not come because of any one else but because of your thoughts and deeds only.)
• Shreyo-bhooyat-sakala-Janaanam (In Sanskrit, it means may the whole humanity be blessed with excellence).

From time immemorial nature has been teaching us the same lesson with many characters Ravans, Kamsas, Hitlers, Gaddafis, Saddams et al, and that does not seem to register with us. Guess, we shall continue to do what we would and nature would continue to teach us what it should!..

I am signing off wishing you and your family a very happy Diwali. 

May the festival of light help us lit the light within.

Happy reading!