It is with much pleasure that the Satyam Gyanam Anandam Society (SGAS) is offering to you the 26th edition of the Know Thyself magazine. Once more, His Holiness Swami Paramananda is imparting words of wisdom to help us rise from the mud of sensuality and unconsciousness to become like a blossoming lotus.
Yes, that is what we need, a new approach to politics. Politicians have failed us, failed the whole society. It is time to get rid of them and bring some fresh minds in this field. The aim of politics is to create a better society, which should be a base for the flourishing of the heart and the expansion of the mind, but it has failed. Why? Because politicians represent the peak of greed and selfishness. Animals are selfish, and so are human beings, but the latter are supposed to transform the selfishness into altruism. However, being entangled in it, they have become extremely materialistic, sensual and ignorant.
It is natural for animals to be selfish; in fact it is the force that motivates their survival and evolution. But people are selfish and greedy at the same time. And from this marriage, all the known human evils are born. From greed and ambitions, selfishness is strengthened and this gives rise to lust, jealousy, competition, anger, hatred, violence and so on. Power in the hands of such human beings is extremely dangerous and risky. Contemporary society bears testimony to my statement. Politicians and governments have failed to create a better world. They are the most corrupted people who use power and the state for their own selfish motives. Their main concern is not good governance and common good, but rather the gathering of wealth, name and power.
