Of Good and Evil

Of Good and Evil

Durga, the goddess, is said to be known by as many as one hundred names, and one among them is Durgati-nashini – literally meaning the one who wipes out or removes distress and hardship. She is also revered as shakti-rupa, the incarnation of power, one who would empower the devotee with such power that he or she would be able to overcome all hardship and overpower the evil. Yet another name by which Devi Durga is known is Mahisha-mardini, one who subdues and crushes the Mahisha, the buffalo that resembles evil. Durga puja, it is said, was originally observed in spring – Basanta – and thus Devi was originally known as Basanti, and her worship at that season referred to as Basanti puja. It was Ravana who had actually resorted to an untimely invocation of the goddess in order to garner strength to face Ram. And, even as one refers to numerous stories about Durga, the theme again and again revolves around the triumph of good over evil.

Looking at the society today, one finds that every commoner is faced with numerous hardship. If prices of essential commodities have gone up, so have the educational expenses of one children. Likewise, the cost of even the most ordinary ailment has sky-rocketed, while the price of petroleum products has begun creating a new world record every passing day. The crime graph too has gone up sharply, and as one looks at official statistics placed in the recently concluded autumn session of the Assam Legislative Assembly, one finds that the total number of cognizable crimes registered in the state has gone up from 64,640 during 2016 to 1,11,118 during 2017. During the first nine months of 2018 on the other hand, the number of cognizable crimes registered in Assam has crossed the 84,000 mark. Even if one crime is believed to have been committed by at least one person, then Assam, during the past 33 months have seen as many as two lakh sixty thousand acts of crime committed by the evil, all of whom are required to be subdued, crushed, and eliminated by the Mother Goddess in her incarnation as Durgati-nashini or Mahisha-mardini.

What is more interesting is that those who have committed these 2.60 lakh crimes or evil acts not only include thieves, burglars, murderers, kidnappers, dacoits, cheats, rioters, child abusers, rapists, molesters, but also by young, so-called educated and brilliant persons who were chosen to elite class of Assam Civil Service (ACS) and Assam Police Service (APS) too, and those again by ‘eminent persons’ who were nominated by the state government to the Assam Public Service Commission as members and Chairman! Some of those selected for the ACS and APS also belong to families of ex-ministers, ex-MLAs and at least one sitting MP, apart from one who had earlier worked as a journalist.

The question at this time of the year when the community is engaged in the worship of Durga is: will Devi be able to empower the common person so that he or she can stand up and face the real-life Mahishasuras and overcome the durgati – hardship? Will the Goddess listen to the cry of the common citizen who has been at the worst receiving end, who has been passing through the hardest of time, especially when those who are into politics are gearing up for the next general election only to indulge in acts of making false promises – which too are acts of crime because they also amount to cheating?

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