Mastering Power or Being Mastered by It?

It’s a known fact that the pursuit of power is a fundamentally human drive which knows no exceptions. From the scrolls of time in history to the here and now, man’s quest for power has been fueled by greed, desire to acquire more with time, envy, jealousy, control and by so many more negative traits humans by nature seem to possess. Most of us are aware of the famous dictum that say’s “Power corrupts man; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” History also is replete with many examples of such people who were corrupted by power. But still many people recklessly seek power!

Initially, most people think that they will work for the public good if they have political, economic, administrative or some other kind of power. However, they forget the fact that man’s weakness for seeking mundane power, by its very nature, results in blurring his judgment of what is good and what is bad or what is fair and what is foul. This weakness or loss of proper judgment results in vitiating his intentions. It allows corruptive tendencies to enter his mind or to manifest. It changes his focus and modus operandi and makes him seek more and more power even by dishonest means. We should understand that it is in the very nature of things that when a person acquires power, he is moved more and more away from the common people because he does not have time to meet them or to listen to them. Thus, his very aim of acquiring power for public good is defeated because he is cut off from the public for various reasons. He meets only the VIPs or VVIPs and this further inflates his ego which had already become puffed up by the pressure of power. In this state of mind and mood, he is unable to know whether the use of power by him is really doing some public good or it is doing exactly the opposite, for he is now surrounded generally by sycophants who expect to win favours by praising him for whatever he does — good or bad. This constant praise further inflates his false ego and alienates him from his real well-wishers and sincere friends who’s plain-speaking he now cannot tolerate. He adopts all sorts of methods to silence or subdue those who attempt to point out to him the pitfalls and dangers in his ways. He begins to suspect everyone and uses his power to silence all opposition and finish all opponents. He loses all sense of propriety because power has so strongly gone into his head. Blinded by it, he rushes towards one pitfall after another and yet he does not learn his lesson.

Power also creates the tendency to help friends, relatives and those who praise or who helped the individual in the seat of power to acquire power even though these persons do not deserve help. This tendency further gives rise to criticism of his ways and, then, with a hurt ego and malafide spirit of vengeance, he uses his power vigorously to suppress or eliminate such elements. It is not that only individuals work for attaining seats of power; cultural, ethnic, racial or economic groups, certain classes, dynasties, religious communities and nations also make all efforts to gain power without taking adequate and effective precautions against its corruptive influence. Whatever the name of the group, the net of power is so wide that all get entrapped and entangled in its corruptive meshes. Hence, the only safety measure to save oneself from this devastation is to be free from the ambition of name and fame in the power game & listen to those learned souls who have views that are different from ours. Whilst keeping in touch with reality as it is, one should also try to maintain sanctity of character & mind through Meditation which facilitates our intimate contact with the Supreme who is the ultimate source of Power. Remember! The closer we get to the supreme source, the safer we get and live a life that’s uncorrupted and without any kind of illusion.