A Note on Hate

By Sadho Ram

Image Courtesy Google

In one way or the other we are all filled with hatred. No matter how much we proclaim our love for fellow human beings, at the end of the day it all comes down to this - hatred. Whether we realize it and accept it or not, the truth remains the same. It cannot change, so can't we. Hate is the opposite extreme of love, and till there's love in us, hate is bound to be. Men are growing intolerable towards women more than ever, and women aren't far behind. We hate their guts, they are hating us.

Religious fundamentalists are on the rise and so is their religious bigotry. Intolerance has become their religion and their religion has become intolerable. To speak against their bigotry, rationalists all around the world are on the rise. Rationalists of all kind and tribes and vibes. But instead of rationalizing or giving rational views, rationalists too are turning bigots, coming up with new types of bigotry. The teachers are hating students for thinking freely, the students are hating teachers for their old-thinking. Parents are hating their kids for their life-style, the kids are hating their parents for trying to control their way of living. Hate, it seems, has become the central force which moves people these days. Hate, it seems, has become the tool to get things done quickly, which everyone of us is hatefully happy to use it as frequently.

Although, as old as any emotion inside us, it would not be wrong to say that HATRED has emerged as a whole new religion among us.

Our intolerance towards each other is baffling and dangerously alarming. Hiding behind the masks of society, we are coming down on each other filled with more hatred than ever. Some even dare to come open. That's the kind of change our hatred has brought in us. We hate progress, labeling it as we please. We hate those who have succeeded, labeling them after the terrorists and thieves. We hate those who are trying to succeed. We hate everything that is moving forward. Then to top it, we hate everything that isn't moving.

In our journey filled with numerous kinds of hatred towards numerous kinds of things, we have all turned into chronic haters. So much so that, we have started hating ourselves. Therefore, hate isn't just another religion anymore, in fact, hate has become us and we have become hate.

I myself am a pretty hateful person. A major portion of my life so far has been devoted to hatred. And so has been of majority of others around me. Coming to think of it, hatred was the reason those people belonged to me and I to them. But hate is not immortal. There is an expiry date to it. It does die but only if we let ourselves free from its clutches. I think that's the reason that those people do not belong to me anymore and nor I to them.

Last words, as I see it, the combined hatred of all of us, is only growing, spreading itself, more and more. It can't be stopped, but it surely can be kept under control, if and ONLY IF we learn to adopt and accept each other for who and what we are. But that too can never happen. Realities as such do not exist even in dreams and books.