THE MORAL CRISIS FOR MAN

By Moin Qazi

An award winning poet, Moin Qazi holds a doctorate and is an independent researcher and
consultant who has spent three decades in microfinance with State Bank of India, India’s
largest bank, where he was involved in microfinance as a grassroots manager and as head of
its microfinance operations in Maharashtra. He belongs to the first batch of managers of
commercial banks who were associated with the launch of India’s microfinance programme.
He writes regularly on development finance and environmental issues. He was a Visiting
Fellow at the University of Manchester specializing in microfinance.

A concern for fellow beings has been the cornerstone of every religion.
In fact, the mystical orders in all religions lay great emphasis on the
cultivation of the virtues of piety, noble conduct and righteousness so that
the urge for worldly pleasures and possessions could be tamed to such an
extent that service to others becomes totally devoid of any element of
self-interest. The great mystics ,St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa,
Moinuddin Chisti, Rumi, Kabir, and Chaitanya and are the finest medieval
models of a life which provided a unifying force to human society
irrespective of the class and creed to which people belonged. They
became myths when they ennobled the lives and touched the hearts of
humans.
All the mystic orders, be they Christian, Islamic Hindu, or Buddhist, Jain
or Zoroastrian make service to mankind the main current of their
philosophy. All their teachings expound an elaborate analysis of the
spiritual role of human individuals in the society.
The entire canvas of human history is a chilling catalogue of greed and
lust, and of the failure of man to subjugate the evil cravings of his heart.
But at every moment of upheaval and chaos, a saviour took birth and
reformed large masses of corrupted human souls. The message was
picked by those people who had receptive hearts and perceptive minds.
These people have always been few in number because the greater
majority have been guided by more selfish instincts. These people have
not only lived by the principles enshrined in these teachings but have also
tried to spread this message among people who lived around them. Thus,
while most of the canvas of history evokes an unpleasant image, there
are a few islands that captivate the eye and whose beauty hides the
eyesores around them.
“Where the poor are taken care of there is Thy grace seen,” says Guru
Nanak the great medieval saint, “he fills pitchers and empties pitchers
that are full.”
We study the words of the sages, and turn them into chains that make
us prisoners. It is hard to believe that that is what the sages intended with
their words. The problem is us, not them. We believe that the great men
of spirituality (horrible to have such a thing) are great beyond our grasp.
Do we seriously believe that we can become like them? Do we seriously
try to let go of our edifices as they say? Do we seriously forgive our fellow
men what we perceive as their misdoings, or are we rather waiting till
they forgive us? We are willing, very willing to study wisdom, but are we
prepared to become one with it?
So much for rhetorical questions. It is valuable to contemplate on the
words and lives of people who lived the path we are looking for, but living
that path is a completely different ballgame. Well, even though we are not
advancing as fast as would be desirable, at least we take an eager
interest in spiritual matters. Studying the sages is perhaps best regarded
as a preparatory activity, though it might teach us some things that are
actually helpful to make progress.
Great men are well great to have around. They undeniably change the
way we perceive the world we live in. Even more they change the world,
either by themselves, or by us. It is us they change.
The story of human civilization is, in fact, a story of brutality, cruelty,
and bitter warfare; and it was left to a few enlightened souls in every
epoch to keep the flickering embers of human civilization alive. Kindness
can take birth only in a heart radiant with truth and a mind devoid of the
garment of ego. “A good heart,” said Bulwer Lytton, “is better than all the
heads in the world.”
The nearest answer to this moral dilemma is in the words of Nielsen:
“Perhaps, here we should say that justification comes to an end and that
we just have to make up our minds what kind of human beings we want to
be.” If we have this deep underlying belief that there must be an equal
moral concern for the well being of all human beings, then we will be in
some non-trivial sense, egalitarians. We will, if we have that conviction,
see humankind as a community in which we view ourselves as a republic
of equals.”
“Yes, this is an age of moral crisis. Your moral code has reached its
climax, the blind alley at the end of its course. And if you wish to go on
living, what you now need is not to return to morality…but to discover it,”
says Ayn Rand. “What is morality, or ethics? It is a code of values to guide
man’s choices and actions, the choices and actions that determine the
purpose and course of his life. Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering
and defining such a code…. No philosopher has given a rational,
objectively demonstrable, scientific answer to the question of why man
needs a code of values. So long as that question remained unanswered,
no rational, scientific, objective code of ethics could be discovered or
defined. The greatest of all philosophers, Aristotle, did not regard ethics as
an exact science; he based his ethical system on observations of what the
noble and wise men of his time chose to do, leaving unanswered the
questions of: why they chose to do it and why he evaluated them as noble
or wise.
With the powerful weapons at his disposal and the growing destructive
instinct in him, man has become the greatest threat to his own survival. In
the zoo at Lusaka, there is a cage where the notice reads: “The world’s
most dangerous animal.” Inside the cage, there is no animal but a mirror
where you see yourself.
 Jonathan Swift once wrote: “Man is the most pernicious little race of
ominous vermin that nature ever suffered to walk across the face of the
earth.” Then there is the famous exclamation in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
What a piece of work is man! How
noble in reason! how infinite in faculties!
in form, in moving, how express and
admirable! in action how like an
angel! in appreciation how like a god!
The beauty of the world! the paragon
of animals!
In one of his poignant comments on the human race in which he
compares humans with wild animals, Jawaharlal Nehru observes:
“Wildlife? That is how we refer to the magnificent animals of our jungles
and to the beautiful birds that brighten our lives. I wonder sometimes
what these animals and birds think of man and how they would describe if
they had the capacity to do so. I rather doubt it their description would be
very complementary to man. In spite of our culture and civilization in
many ways, men continue to be not only wild but more dangerous than
any of the so-called wild animals.”
The most severe indictment of man has however, come from Bernard
Shaw. Comparing man’s nature with the beast, he says: “I don’t think
much of a lion tamer. At least, during the time he is inside the cage he is
free from man.”
The great philosopher and poet Iqbal paints a heart-rending picture of
modern civilization:
One nation pastures on the other
One sows the grain, which another harvests
Philosophy teaches that bread is to be
Pilfered from the hands of the weak,
And his soul sent from his body
Extortion of one’s fellow men is the
Law of the new civilization.
According to Simone Weil, “Evil becomes an operative motive far more
easily than good; but once pure good has become an operative motive in
the mind, it forms there the fount of a uniform and inexhaustible
impulsion, which is never so in the case of evil.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson paints a beautiful allegory: ”Every man takes care
that his neighbour shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins
to care that he does not cheat his neighbour. Then all goes well.”
Walter Lippmann feels that ”the whole speculation about morality is an
effort to find a way of living, which men who live it will instinctively feel, is
good.”
The quest for self-mastery is the great pilgrimage, the great adventure
of living. In self-direction, not in external rules and controls, not in licence,
lie our true freedom and our greatest growth potentialities. “He that ruleth
his spirit,” says the Bible, “is better than he that taketh a city.” I believe
that if anyone will attempt self-mastery, really seek it, he will find that it is
well within his capability. If enough people would undertake the quest
today, we could wake up in a different and better world tomorrow.
 I believe, in fact, that this world-change is coming. Even though the
moral chaos around us is ugly and menacing, we are on the threshold of a
new era of what may yet be moral greatness. The great souls of history
have always had this basic faith in man. The young girl Anne Frank, hiding
in her attic from Nazi terror, could write: “In spite of everything, I still
believe that people are good at heart.”
There is something in all of us that responds to challenge. What did
Garibaldi promise his little band of followers. Wealth? Fame? Fortune? He
said, “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions, I offer hunger,
forced marches, battles, and death.”
What did Winston Churchill promise his beleaguered countrymen?
Blood, toil, tears and sweat. It was no tangible, material reward that these
great leaders offered, yet they got the sacrifice they called for, on a scale
past all reckoning.
Surely this spark in the human spirit is not dead. Surely it will still
respond to a call for self-discipline, self-control, for a return to honour and
to rightness.
Let us, then, demand these things of ourselves. Let us face up to the
choice that God is offering our generation. Let us move forward, out of
moral confusion and decay, to a new era of enlightenment in which inner-
directed men choose goodness — because they are free to choose.
Voltaire reiterates the same philosophy: “All sects differ, because they
come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from
God.”
Einstein’s views on the moral decay of man are as relevant today as
they were when they were spoken in 1938: “One misses the elementary
reaction against injustice and for justice — that reaction which is in the
long run represents man’s only protection against a relapse into
barbarism. I am firmly convinced that the passionate will for justice and
truth has done more to improve man’s condition than calculating political
shrewdness that in the long run only breeds general distrust. Who can
doubt that Moses was a better leader of humanity than Machievelli?”
Even as the world has grown into a huge, monstrous globe of humanity,
it has become scarce of men who would be considered men in the real
sense. Today it is out of vogue to speak in terms of character, but there is
no more essential aspect of any person. Character is made up of these
principles and values that give one’s life direction, meaning and depth.
These constitute the inner sense of what’s right and wrong based not on
laws or rules of conduct but on who one is. They include such traits as
integrity, honesty, courage, fairness and generosity — which arise from
the hard choices we have to make in life. So wrong is simply in doing
wrong, not in getting caught.
Yet some people wonder if our inner values matter anymore. This
question demonstrates a quandary of our modern life. Many have come to
believe that the only things we need for success are talent, energy and
personality. But history has taught us that over the long haul who we are
is more important than who we appear to be.
 Until about 150 years ago, almost everything in the literature of success
and self-help focused on what could be called the character ethic. Such
eminent figures as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson made clear
their belief that we can only experience true success and happiness by
making character the bedrock of our lives.
But since the late 19th century and after World Wars the basic view of
success shifted to what we could call the personality ethic. Success
became more a function of charm, skills and techniques that, at least on
the surface, lubricate the process of human interaction. Rather than
struggle with thorny issues of right and wrong, we turned to making
things run smoothly.
Some of that philosophy expressed itself with harmless but superficial
maxims such as “smiling wins more friends than frowning.”
With a value system based solely on skill and personality, we find
heroes in athletes, musicians and in powerful business executives. But
despite the admiration we feel for these achievers, we shouldn’t
necessarily look upon them as role models.
We need men who, in the words of Milton are of the type who are:
Unmoved, unshaken, un-seduced, unverified,
his loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal,
nor number, nor example with him wrought
to serve from truth or change his constant mind!
Let us take inspiration from the prayer of an unknown devotee of God:
God gives us Men: A time like this demands
strong minds, great hearts, true faith and
ready hands,
Men whom the lust of office does not kill,
Men whom the spoils of office and will,
Men who have honour, Men who will not lie,
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
And damn his treacherous flatteries without a winking.
We must cast off pride and egoism, individual and collective. The root
evil in human history is pride, that we are the chosen people called upon
by Providence to educate others to our way of life. According to the Greed
poets, hubris, the insolence of pride, is the root of all tragedy, personal as
well as national. It is the nemesis of pride that brought down the Pharaohs
of Egypt, the rulers of Greece, the emperors of Persia, the Caliphs of
Baghdad, the Popes f Mediaeval Rome. It is not necessary to mention
more recent examples. Only the arrogant believe that they have enough
wisdom and virtue to rule the rest. The pride which apes humility is most
dangerous. Providence has a way of teaching those who persist long and
wilfully in ignoring great realities, the dignity of man, the sense of human
equality and the……………….
When we read in Newspapers about some minor being raped, we think
of the horrible things an adult can do. In fact, there is an animal in all of us
which is suppressed through social norms, the Law, the police and the
fear of punishment. This animal through whom the human being is
evolved sometimes wakes up goes wild and does atrocities. The
propensity of violence lies within all of us but lies dormant and
suppressed.
 Tao Te Ching says, “If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight, let yourself be empty.” There is nothing
positive or negative in this world; it is only our interpretation. The law is
that opposing energies cancel each other out. No matter how dark and
foreboding a situation may seem, our task is only to walk the path, set a
goal, take one step at a time on that journey of a thousand miles making
sure that our motives are pure and we are acting with integrity and
according to our beliefs.
The universe will do the rest. Epictetus said almost 200 years ago “you
are a distinct portion of the essence of God and why are you ignorant of
your noble birth? You carry God with you everywhere and knowing
nothing about it, go in search of him wandering and reaching nowhere.
We all have the power to create happiness, the potential for joy and
strength to suffer misery and yet we feel powerless, helpless and crumble
under the least pressure. Brace yourself, stand up and face life boldly not
now but forever.”
Though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that
directs the dream that will eventually startle us back to the state we are.
When we wake up and genuinely lift the veil, understand that we have
taken on the forces that come on various garbs and guises. As we walk
the path of awareness, we will get cleansed, revealing the real self,
hidden so far and undiscovered for a long time. There is a light that shines
in each of us that drives away all the darkness!
The motive of action is as important as the rightness of the act itself.
Unless the action is motivated by respect of the moral law by the love of
God the action cannot be regarded as a virtuous act as the highest sense.
If, for example, a person tells truth because he is afraid of being punished
by God for uttering a lie, he is certainly doing right but the motive is not
the highest motive. The classic illustrator of this stand is the famous
woman Sufi saint Rabia Basri who wanted to destroy both heaven and hell
so that people would learn to act morally without the hope of reward or
the fear of punishment.
One of the greatest tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf
between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent
schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves.
On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles,
but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of those
principles.

Samiullah Khan Marg Sadar,

Nagpur 440 001India
Phone: +91 – 712 – 2533006
Cell: 9049638959
E-mail: moinqazi123@gmail.com