Cooperation or competition?

Cooperation or competition? Which is better? Most of the modern society pundits say competition promotes improvements in products and upgrades technology, so vital to progress. But let us remember that we are paying a great price for this. Why? Because competition makes your competitors your natural enemies. It is us versus them. They are not us. The NIH (Not Invented Here) complex develops. So, instead of letting the best ideas prevail, and instead of letting consensus prevail, vested interests grow, which always promote their "own” ideas and put down the others. Alienation is the result; strife is the result. Nations have gone to wars on this issue.

My religion is better than yours. You should give up your religion, your faith, and adopt mine. Because it is better! We give you food if you follow our religion. In the olden days, the song was different. "We will kill you if you don't follow our religion, the only true religion in the world," (Ford used to say, "You can have all the choice colors in the world, as long as it is my brand of black color.") " Peace and prosperity if you follow me; death and destruction, eternal damnation if you don't follow me." So. competition entered religion, causing alienation among nations.

Alienation creates boundaries and Berlin walls. On a smaller scale, the walls of our homes alienate us from the rest of the wilderness. Religion came to be blamed for creating wars. "Religion is bad; throw it away. It is an escape from the world; throw it away." "Morals are bad; throw them away. Compete; outshine; become a superman. Gain power; and wield it for your personal gain." This is the path of competition. This is where it leads. If we look carefully, wherever there has been real growth, it has come about as a team effort. Two heads are better than one. Ten sticks together are stronger than one stick, which can be easily broken. 

Cooperation has been the real key, You can have better ideas than me. That does not make me stupid. That only means I am made differently. That may be because I am meant to implement ideas rather than to generate them. I may be better in doing that. How many of the ideas that are coming up can be called entirely your own? You see farther than Newton did because you are aware of what he has done -- you are literally standing on his shoulders. The whole point is that the best ideas come out and the best ideas get propagated with cooperation and encouragement rather than with destructive criticism.

If you grew up all alone in wilderness, had no language and had no education, do you think you could have made earth-shaking discoveries? No chance. You won't even be able to think because you don't have a language to think in. You will only be able to feel; that is the language you were born with. Much of what we are able to contribute comes from the environment. Ignore the environment, alienate the environment and you lose.Cooperation. Resonance with nature and environment. Harmony. Peace. These are the human values approaching divinity. Competition. Struggle for success. Fear of failure. Loss of face. Frustration. Anger. Violence. Neuroses. These are subhuman values. They disrupt peace, stability, harmony and the environment. What is religion? It tells you, "If you do this, this and this, you will be happy and you will make others happy. If not, you will be unhappy and/or make other unhappy. So do this and don't do that." It is a belief, a faith, based on wellconsidered, rational and provable assertions. Religion is an opinion. Its content is usually determined by some local factors and some universal factors. It is an evolving opinion. Like science.

There is no difference between religion and science. Science was originally called philosophy. Physics was published in philosophical magazines. There are parts of religion that are local. They are particular to a culture, to a micro-environment. Clearly there is no point in pushing them on everyone. The universal parts are common to all religions.The universal parts of religion need no pushing on anyone. Every religion says, "You must extend your love to all." But when comes to practice, the local factors dominate. When you forget that local factors should be applied only locally, you start saying things like, "Hindus should love only Hindus and not Muslims," or that Christians should love only Christians and not Hindus or Muslims or Buddhists. This is where things start going sour. Religion itself is not the cause of strife, but the way it is misunderstood and misused. The clash is always a clash of value systems. What is an excellent opportunity to create harmony, a symphony of religions is lost in trying to impose your value systems -- which are local to you -- on others. Variety can create harmony; and is the essence of it. Just as genetic diversity is the essence of ecological balance. Why should we be all clones of one sect? Why can't we have different approaches to God or Goddess? Why should there be only one God? Is not a variety of personal relationships with lower creatures possible? Then why not variety in Gods and their manifestations in God Men and God Women? Why can't we have a hierarchy of helpers? Must we call on the President of the country every time a tap in our house is leaking? It is easier to call a plumber and fix it rather than wait for the President to find time to come and do our personal job. Polytheism originates from this idea of different levels in divine functions.

The solution to world's problems is really very, very simple. So simple that we fail to recognize it even though it is staring at us in the face. We can sit together and decide to erase our boundaries. Just a stroke of a pen! Then all the defence expenditure can be eliminated. Another stroke of a pen! Then poverty can be erased from the face of the earth. Another stroke of a pen! One world. One country. One people. One currency. All it needs is one week perhaps. Or less. Who will do it? The children who are the rulers of tomorrow. I am a dreamer. But we need to dream at this stage.

Love, Amritananda (1992)