Being used
by others for their own ends or becoming the means for someone’s ends is
one of the worst that can happen to any human being. It is true that our
life is not always in our own hands. Some say it is destiny and some
others say it is just chance. In any case, the overall achievements and
outcome of any human life is not necessarily a sum product of his or her
efforts alone. Even if we admit that destiny prevails, most of us do not
like to be pawn in other’s hands in our day to day lives. But there are
people who do get used or do not mind being used by others. It is this
breed of people who do get used by others (whatever be the reason) that
needs to be classified as Cikhandis in the twenty first century.
If we bother to probe further, we can come across at least three types
of Cikhandis.
Intentional
Cikhandis
Cikhandi
in Mahabharata was an intentional one. Though a great warrior himself,
he was content to be used as a shield for Arjuna to kill
Bheeshma. The background story is very famous and it needs no
repetition here. Cikhandi fulfilled his own life’s ambition by
being instrumental in the killing of a great warrior like Bheeshma.
He was fully aware of the underlying reasons for his birth as
Cikhandi and he was only living up to it in whatever that happened
in the battlefield. It is possible that there are people who do this
even now. Some of the noble souls in our midst are born with noble goals
and they struggle to do exactly the same during their life time. In the
twenty first century, we also find this true of fundamentalists who are
willing to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of some ideology.
Right or wrong, the belief is so very strong that even the prospect of
acute physical pain does not deter such people from destroying
themselves. Suicide bombing is a growing phenomenon with no antidote in
sight.
Innocent
Cikhandis
There are
people who are gullible and innocent enough to be tricked into
situations, and they can be classified as the Innocent Cikhandis.
It is not always true that such people are unintelligent. In the present
day world, any of us can turn out to be one such Cikhandi if we
are not careful. Conventional knowledge is not enough to escape from the
tricksters in this highly competitive world. Scores of lottery scams on
the net is a classic example of this. There are several highly qualified
people who fall easy prey to the ‘scamsters’ and end up losing their
entire savings in no time. It is their greed and desire that take them
to their doom. Innocent Cikhandis end up as failures and it is
rare to see them realising and recovering from making blunders. But the
damage is limited to the individual or his own family at the worst.
Almost
all characters from our great epic Mahabharata have the unique
quality of being alive and around at all times. One of the most
significant and symbolic among them is Cikhandi, the king of
Kasi.
Quite contrary to the popular perception, Cikhandi was
an outstanding warrior. In the 17th sloka of Chapter 1 of
Bhagavad-Gita, while describing the line up on the Pandava side,
Cikhandi is rated as a maharatha (‘kasyas ca
paramesvasah Cikhandi cha maharatha’).The rating is meaningful when
we learn that even Karna is ranked only as ‘ardha-rathi’.
But Cikhandi’s calibre and bravery were of no use in the war. On
the contrary, he was used by Pandavas (and Lord Krishna) is a
negative way to kill Bheeshma. And by all indications Cikhandi
was happy too with all that happened. History repeats and we find so
many Cikhandis in our midst today. Currently a syndrome, the
tendency is bordering on a full fledged ideology and Cikhandism
may soon evolve into an ism in the days to come.
Indifferent
Cikhandis
The worst kind of Cikhandism is displayed by the Indifferent
Cikhandis, who does not care about what happens to others when they
are well aware that someone else is using them. Their philosophy is to
lay back and enjoy if it is inevitable. Enjoyment is their only
intention even if it is at the cost of others. They do not care for the
long term destruction of their land or people for enjoying the short
term benefits. Generations after generations will have to pay the price
of having a leader who turned an Indifferent Cikhandi. During the
cold war era, it was not uncommon to find such leaders in the African
continent where even ground rules for democratic governance were set by
foreign colonial powers. Many a time we used to find a leader who is
stooge of one super power or another. But the disease has spread and we
now find more such in Asia. In the present world it is no more the evil
super powers who hijack the Indifferent Cikhandis. There are
dangerous institutions with hidden economic and religious agenda who are
buying up the Indifferent Cikhandis to meet their own targets or
agenda. Only individuals and nations with inherent vitality can survive
the scourge of rule by such Indifferent Cikhandis.
In short,
Cikhandi
Syndrome
is AIDS that affect the mind of the victim. There is no sure medicine
except for internal realisation and sincere attempts to overcome the
syndrome. This should necessarily come from the afflicted individuals
when they apply their god-given intelligence to realise that they are
being used. Cikhandi could have become the hero of Mahabharata if
he had fought and killed Bheeshma himself. But by becoming a mere
tool in the hands of others he denigrated himself to the level of an
effeminate good-for-nothing in the eyes of generations, though he was a
highly qualified professional himself. Those who refuse to learn from
history or mythology are condemned to repeat the mistakes in a much more
ridiculous fashion than the original.
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