You will find leaders everywhere. It is difficult to discriminate between a real leader or so-called or self-proclaimed leaders. People are sometimes confused to identify a real leader. Anyone who has a proficiency to deliver lectures, carry out social activities and convey sympathetic words to the poor stratum of the society can be recognized as a leader in the society. But in reality, to get a true leader is very difficult.
Leaders must be very compassionate and they should not be manipulating types. Because of their sincere approaches, we can extend our love, and show our keenness to respect them. In recent days, of course, it is not so. Most of the time, we criticize them; hate them and disobey their advice. Why is it so? We cannot believe their words. We don’t find any compassion in their attitude and behavior. There may be the exception, but the majority fall into the category of less passionate about people’s welfare. If you read the preamble to the UN Charter, you will find the saying, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defenses of peace must be construed.” Samrat Ashok’s edification also state that hatred of the other’s beliefs is the primary cause of the war. As a king, he got transformation and ensured that adjournment of war must be the policy of his kingdom. He used to believe that one has to eliminate the hatred through compassion. Through the thoughtful approach, the hate needs to be reduced and through meaningful discussions, hatred is to be converted into love. It may not be possible to do this transformation in a day or two, but with perseverance, with congenial behavior, and with the compassionate approach, it is possible to arrive at a fruitful decision. Here is the need of the compassionate leaders. Our society requires more and more leaders of this nature. At the same time, we don’t want to have credit-mongers as our leaders.
Ashok is one of the greatest leaders of all times who transformed his character into the great apostle of peace and spiritual values. He is remembered today not because of how many wars he fought and won, but we remember for his power of winning hearts of thousands after thousands of people. The reasons for wars are many. The countries will fight for keeping the surrounding of their boundaries. There will be wars of aggression. Then there will be patriotic wars, trade wars, wars for the protection of religions, cold wars, and finally showing the power of superiority. Where the roots of all these wars lie? It is because of biases, prejudice, complexes, and fears, which grapple our mind. The solution to war lies in “freedom from fear,” says the most erudite religious guru J. Krishnamurti. Another leader, who was a great philosopher S. Radhakrishnan, pointed out, “Belief and behavior together,” and if we believe in racial discrimination, division in religion, blood and soil; we will convert us into a hell. Contrarily, if we believe in peace, brotherhood, universal spiritual values and peace, then the level of understanding will grow. The leaders, who possess these qualities or have tremendous faith in these qualities, are great warriors who are instrumental in showing the right direction and right path to his followers without asking any benefit from them. There is an interesting story, which narrates that two soldiers were returning from World War II site to their homes, and they were in a pensive mood. One soldier out of his enthusiasm told that one day all the soldiers will lay down their arms and ammunition and will refuse to fight to avoid killing the other soldiers. Hearing this, the fellow soldier who was accompanying him said, “In that case, the enemy would win.” The parable preaches about the insecurities of our minds to always visualize the enemies when in reality, nobody was present. The search for the holy grail of peace is a journey that must begin with a reality check within our real anxieties, fears, and hopes. These negative conditions of mind are quite common, and these alone itself can create negative emotions. So, one should take an utmost effort to nullify these types of negative emotions so as to flourish in life. Further, it would be worth enough to make the effort to fear apart from this veil of double- speak which seems to cover us all along. We have to come out of this sequence to avoid any gloomy situation in life, particularly in maturity. The efforts must also be taken to prevent the negative pattern of thinking. One must tread the old pilgrim path to brotherhood and show strong bonding to embrace upon to resurrect the value systems which have enabled our cultural systems and made them alive for the benefits of human beings. We have a habit of showing our reverence to the soldiers, who fought for the country without bothering their lives. Needless to say, they are our real leaders. We must honor them irrespective of the fact whether they died on the battlefield or elsewhere. They should be treated as real heroes and exemplary leaders whom we can trust.
We must revive the traditions of searching these types of leaders more and more to bring a peaceful harmony in the society. It is very much required today when the culture is predominantly pervaded by a destruction of buildings, roads, burning off public vehicles, creating anarchy, and disruptive of mental peace of the denizens. In fact, the leaders who provoke these types of activities are more today. But we need compassionate leaders to guide us in the right direction to maximize the benefits out of our lives and the societies. A real leader is a person who leads from the front like our soldiers. They are always vigilant to save the sovereignty of the country and its inhabitants without bothering about their comfort level. In a real sense that sort of leader in our social life is very less.
