04.02 Power Needs To Be Kept Out Of The Hands Of Those Who Worship Power

Power needs to be kept out of the hands of those who worship power. We need power to do anything, be it raise our hand or see at night with dark or change a governmental policy. Given how much can be done with power, on seeing how much can be done with power, some people become so power hungry that they think that power is everything.
They start worshipping power as if it were God. They are ready to sacrifice anything and everything to gain power. And once having gained power, they are ready to set aside any ethical restraint to the extent they think they have the power to get away with it.
Power corrupts in proportion to one’s devotion to power. And such power hungry people can cause monstrous abuse to others. Still, every functioning society needs to have some hierarchy and someone at the top of the hierarchy.
If those at the top start worshipping power, they will abuse their power and exploit others. What then is the solution? It is cultivating spiritual vision. The Bhagavad Gita 4.2 indicates that though the heads of state need to be Rajya Rishis.
Evam parampara praptam imam rajya rishayo viduhum sakaleneha mahata yoga nashtah parantapa. Krishna says that in the past there was a system by which those in power were given spiritual knowledge. Yoga, it is the knowledge of connection.
What does that mean? It means that those in power had a spiritual vision to see the connectedness of everything with the ultimate source. They understood that they, like everyone else, were at their core spiritual beings. We all come into this world with nothing and we carry nothing except our consciousness.
During our life journey, the only good we can do for ourselves or for anyone else is to increase the devotional attachment of our consciousness to the divine, who is the source of all satisfaction and who is life’s ultimate destination. All our assets, including our power, are meant to be used for serving him. And the less we seek from the world, the more we can use worldly resources such as power for doing good in the world.
Only with a devotional vision can we serve selflessly and use power without becoming corrupted by it. If society is to flourish, if society is not to go down a chaotic disastrous path, then those who worship power need to be dethroned and replaced by those who worship God with power. In fact, the Gita says, God himself descends to effect such a transfer of power.
And then Bhagavad Gita states that what do we do if we don’t have the power to bring about such transfer of power? Actually, we can bring about the transfer of power in our own hearts. We can enthrone God in our heart, displacing whatever it is that is reigning over there presently. By that inner devotion, we can get strength and succor even if outer power is in demoniac hands.
And that inner spiritualization, that inner transformation is, will contribute at a grassroots level to sustainable social transformation. Thank you.