Paul Panmei
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e live in a world that is in need of change. We see changes around us, a city with modernized infrastructure, change in government policy, religion, educations and so on… But do we see changes in people? There are some people whom we once knew has been changed to someone we think we haven’t known them before. But we forget to change the way we should to make our world a better place to live in. Something is desperately wrong with our society. Lust, greed and corruption plague societies, death and disease, political uncertainties and environmental changes take a heavy toll on people’s lives. Misunderstanding between husband and wife and family as a whole, unhappiness and dissatisfaction and discrimination among our tribes increasingly characterize the lives of people in our state then sorrow, tears and pain follow… Here comes the need to change the way we are. We must firstly build our own moral value from home. How can we remove the dirt in our shirt with a dust in our hand? We the Nagas are good at judging others but we forget to judge ourselves. Home is the best institution to build a child’s character in our society. Children are the assets of our future and we should invest with the best effort we have to train them with strong character and civics sense of living.Those children whom we trusted and give little of his responsibilities from their childhood will never think of breaking the trust, they earned from their parents. They will never think of running away with a large amount of money when it comes into their hands. The reason for a tendency of child being spoiled is more when the child finds the environment outside more independent, joyful and safe than that inside his home. It is the duty of parents, elders and the leaders to show them what is right but not to prove them what is wrong practically. Children should be mould in such a way they think comfortable and independent. In other hand refraining from punishing a child on his first dishonest act is encouraging him to commit again and by keeping a child deprived beyond a limit and forces him to take to anti social activities. On growing up, even when educated, these children may gain respect and acquire wealth, but they are constantly on the look-out for doing something when others are not looking. Every dishonest person has some role model upon who, he builds himself. According to that model, every dishonest person, thief, dacoit or thug is fulfilling an important function in society as saying good road doesn’t make a good driver and tough time never last but tough people do. A dacoit claims he loots to remove disparity between the rich and poor. Let’s take an example, Amir Ali, a notorious thug and murderer of the 19th century, says, “Without encouragement from god I cannot take anybody’s life. It is she alone who gives me the strength.” Even if Amir’s life were treated as a mere story it would not matter because those cases around us of criminals are set free by the court on account of the counsel’s petition. Because men are intelligence enough, to realize that everyone is criminal in some way or the other. Be it a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a priest, government servant or a minister, most of them draw an imaginary line around themselves to convince their selves that acts performed within the said line are honest and those committed outside are dishonest or crime. A rich-man having his own big business set up consider theft of an ice-cream from an ice-cream man as a theft but theft committed by evading his income or his corporate tax is not considered a theft. How can a minister who takes bribe from his people can be able to lead his society to a better future?? If it is to be kept justifying our own dishonest act, every person would find excuses to justify his crime.
A beggar says with immense pride, “I beg for alms, I don’t steal.”
Modifying this statement, a thief who theft from rich people says, “I earn by virtue of my strength and intelligence, I do not beg for alms.”
A rich person who steals from the government says, “The government itself is not honest. When all are exploiting the government why should I be left behind?”
Who is to be blame now??
We have all given responsibility to the administrative set-up (govt.) so that with its powers it would prevent a wily person from snatching the rights of an ordinary man. But when the authorities themselves acquire the tendency to snatch the public’s right, then dishonesty becomes widespread and criminals multiply like a virus in our society.
Before deciding how to punish the criminals every parents, elders, leaders and well-wishers must start showing their children practically what good is and teaching them theoretically what bad is…
We cannot walk in stupidity and spend our whole life ignoring the consequences. It took me a long time and a dreadful experienced to learn this lesson. As a new believer (though not a Sunday lover) I was taught about my authority over evil things and temptation and told that I should exercise that authority to overcome temptation in my life. Scriptures says, “Shut the door in the devil’s face.” It warns us that the devil is looking for someone who is wicked in character and weak in spiritual.
God has given us wisdom and he expects us to use it. We shall first submit ourselves to God, and then shall inculcate wisdom and character. Then and only then, we would have authorities to resist the devil.
I believe we live in a world that is out of balance. I also believe that most of the people in it are out of balance. It is something that we must be kept and maintained. We cannot continue to wear our clothes when it is torn. We need adjustments in our life i.e., change. The fact is, in order to go on, we have got to learn to let go.
Nothing in life is so unchanging as change. There will always be changes that have to make, and sometime we don’t like that. We want to go on to what lies ahead. But we really don’t want to let go of what lies behind because we are comfortable with things/people as they are. We are secure with the way we have always done things/people, even if that has been hurting us. If that is the case, it is time for change. I am concerned about the things in my life that still need to change because I want them to change but I know that change comes about by degrees as I go from glory to glory.
What disturbs me most is that many Naga Christians today think spirituality is just floating around on a cloud somewhere singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” and holding Bible and song book. In fact, they discriminate each other among their own Christian family. Baptist has different criticism over catholic, catholic against Revival and so on… They don’t seem to think that spirituality is about oneness in God.
In our Naga society, the present situation is discriminating and depriving amongst ourselves. Be a true Christian believer and not a Sunday lover. Our state Nagaland has declared as “Nagaland for Christ” but our practice and mindset is satanic. We have noticed, sadly, a lack of fairly decent character from small to big, from rich to poor. Godly character is especially important in our society because we are finding more satanic and demonic traits in people today, fighting amongst brothers, influenced by selfish thoughts and personal gains. We are to go out and be a light in a dark place. In order to do that, we have to be people of Integrity, people of oneness people of Character.
