My quest for an ideology

What I understood as I was growing up was that every individual on this planet ever since it was created is made up of both positive and negative qualities. Right from one’s childhood, one goes through the positive and the negative acquiring in the process a bit of both. Till attaining a certain age no matter what one chooses to do, it is understood and forgiven and taught what the right ways to live are. Here one gets to know one’s self through the teachings of elders and through the stories of scores of people who came before us and left behind their life experiences for us to learn from. It is given to us in the form of epic stories, wisdom and moral tales, which tell us how they lived, succeeded and failed. They teach us what we should learn and unlearn so that we do what is right.

By doing the right thing or making the right choice, we succeed; not in terms of monetary gains but in terms of harmony, peace and happiness. What is the difference between right thing and wrong thing? How do we distinguish between the two? When we do the right thing, we feel fearless, lighthearted, joyous and radiant. That inner joy and smile creates a great harmony not just in him but in the community and around the places he lives.

There is nothing wrong in our desires but we ought to examine them by gazing into those very desires, which will help us know who we are.

If our leaders, not just in political sphere but leaders in all spheres of our society such as social, cultural, educational... don’t understand themselves or don’t understand what they are doing and what their actions could do to the forthcoming generations, would it be a responsible thing to do?

If our leaders who lead us don’t influence the multitudes of followers for the general good of the society, but in turn if they create distrust, hatred, selfishness, divisiveness for their own selfish gains of every kind, they are going to create a great pain and strife in the society. This great land of ours Bharath Desh has shown us enough times with enough examples of how to curb the rise of such individuals, groups, dynasties and ideologies so our country’s harmony, integrity, peace and progress are safeguarded. This is an inseparable part of our lives. But the greed and darkness should be minimized to an extent possible from individual to society.

I realized that to come out of fear and helplessness one has to examine one’s self and through that lens of your own self one will see the society. Without correcting one’s self it is difficult to understand and come to a conclusion. And it is a process that continues for always, it never ends until our last breath. If you are aware of what you are doing every waking moment of your life, even if something goes wrong, you will be aware why. This book, ISM, is written with Raju Ravitej whom I met through a close relative of mine, when I had founded CPF (Common man Protection Force). At that time I met a lot of interesting, patriotic, truth-seeking people, willing to sacrifice their lives for the general well being of the society and our sacred land Bharath Desh.

In the few of these people Raju Ravitej really stands tall. I am really fortunate to meet such an individual who has a lot to offer to society and to humanity in general.

As I have said earlier, I was looking for an ideology to live fearlessly and to be in harmony with self. So I tried to find in existing ideologies, example, communism, separatism, caste-based ideologies, religious based ideologies... but none could give completeness in its thought nor could it quench my thirst to embrace an ideology which will bring that harmony within me.

This book is a result of a life lived by two individuals who were seeking the truth, who questioned it, were perplexed by it, depressed by it, and many times felt helpless in all of two decades of personal experiences in the socio-political realm. With the writing of this book, we felt that we came closest to the path of truth. Our principles and observations we shared with our fellow men and readers as given to us from the “Sanatana Dharma” of our land and also by the highest reason and logic of the western philosophical thought.

We are not claiming that this is the ultimate truth but we know it very well that this would lead us closer to the truth if we are persistent enough. Even we both knew this requires a lifetime of practice and universe never allows us to conquer it. But it always allows us to align with it.

As a man thinketh, so is he, yad bhavam tad bahavathi, nuvvu ela alochisthe ala avuthaav, mathi entho gathi anthe... this is what our parents taught us in my childhood and the paths they laid for me led me here finally. Each minute of each day I used them as a guideline for direction and walked the path of my life. Due to this I tried to understand my desires and without suppressing them too much, I tried to gain control over them and to the extent that I could possibly do, within my limited influence, I tried to find a way to express the significance of principles and values in this book, that will help not only me but all people.

Thus this book has become the ideological basis for Jana Sena Party.

I have endeavored to create an organization around this idea and adopted this book to become the ideological basis for Jana Sena Party. As politics is very much a part of our social existence, the political party I have started is no different from my thought and my being.

In this unending universe, with all its thousands of crores of stars and milky ways and countless planets and among all this infiniteness a solar system and within this solar system, an earth, and its thousands of crores of living beings and hundreds of nations, among those one nation called Bharath and in that nation of crores of humans, with an individual life that is a mere speck in time, existing as just a small atomic particle in this supreme, unending and unfathomable universe... to this universe that constantly reminds me of how small a particle I am in its creation, I kneel, I submit and I surrender.

(The above text is the first chapter from the book ‘Ism’ penned by Pawan Kalyan who launched the Jana Sena party recently)