More thoughts on Democracy

I came to know that in my friend’s joint family, the Grandpa again got elected the head of the family. When he is all powerful it is practically not possible for anybody else to get elected. Losers can only sulk and come out with lame excuses.

Before Naradaa introduced democracy in his country, he decided he should have a model. So Naradaa decided to watch more closely what is being done in the friend’s joint family. After all, that is the latest experiment in democracy and they must have studied many different systems. Isn’t it too much duplicate work if Naradaa starts studying the whole thing from the beginning?

But somehow, the sulking and excuses did not impress Naradaa.

A story about Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa comes to mind.

Mother of a small boy came to Sri Ramakrishna requesting him to advice his son not to eat too much jaggery, of which the boy was an addict. Ramakrishna thought for a while and requested her to come back with the boy after a fortnight.

So, they came back after 2 weeks. Ramakrishna duly adviced the boy not to eat too much jiggery and told the mother, ‘hope now he will come out of this addiction.’

The mother, a bit annoyed, asked, ‘all you did was to ask him not to eat. Couldn’t you have done the same thing two weeks back?’

Ramakrishna said ‘I am sorry, madam. I used to eat jaggery everyday until two weeks back. That time I had no right to ask the boy not to eat it. I wanted to stop eating jaggery before I asked your son to stop eating it.’

Has this story got something to do with democracy?

Well, Naradaa thinks democracy can be successful only if everyone practices what he or she preaches.