My Manifesto

Sometimes it takes a little heartbreak or disappointments in life to show you the bigger or the clearer picture that you’ve been missing or just forgot because you had the luxury to. One of the hardest lessons I have learned as one might in spirituality is that bad things or unfortunate events can be part of very good karma. But that’s beside the point I am making here, I think I lost my path again and we often lose our paths, our visions, our faiths and our goals in the capitalist fancy we’ve all surrounded ourselves with or the world that wraps around us. So here’s a tiny manifesto of my visions and goals, lest I forget them again engaged in the mirage of a world.

I am not a communist, I consider myself an anti-capitalist. I do not concern myself with the ideas of communism, though I do believe in them but I still think there’s a lot of correction of ideas and theories, revision of past consequences and actions, that communism will need to grow and rise again, hopefully when the time comes, we’ve got it right. But for now, my work remains focused on anti-capitalism. I recently realized being trapped in the third wing of the capitalist dream (doing a job, travelling for leisure & studying for leisure - because I am privileged enough to do so because my family and company rode & are riding the capitalism wave smooth and successfully) & my anti-capitalistic stand was in itself very bourgeois.

I was somehow more concerned about how long my working hours were or when the evil capitalistic government would open the border so I could meet my fancy friends or how capitalism makes you fetishize people who are rich or alienation from work. How bourgeois of me to talk about how bad the environment was or if dengue was a bigger problem in Delhi than COVID within the safety of capitalist blankets all around me. When did I genuinely forget the real cost of capitalism, the real reason why I was spiritual and anti-capitalist. The capitalist system might prove some inconvenience to me and you, but leaves countries filled with people marginalized, in the middle of wars they don't wage, creates famine, hunger problems, dismantle millions and millions of people from their homes, and makes people flee entire countries!

At what point did I and the world forget that people suffer and die everyday not because of god or because of mysticism, but because of very real reasons like war, hunger and famine; all things that can essentially, not fully (maybe someday), be solved if the entire world was involved in findings solutions and not defending their 0.005% of income (figures used for figurative reasons to showcase that you’re income is nothing when compared to the 1%, the people we & capitalism serves). You know what's great about Elon Musk challenging the UN to showcase if his billions could solve world hunger, is that he has the time, money, backing by lawyers and a government to keep & protect his side, to do so! The one in every thirty-two refugees in the world trying to cross the border into first world countries while losing their lives, can’t. The people in Somalia who can’t get access to water & food, while dealing with terrorists and pirates, can’t. This is a very long list, but at what point did we lose faith and vision?

That together we are powerful and can move systems. Together we can fight for justice, peace and love. Together we can tear down systems of oppression, solve world hunger and try to reverse or better the effects of climate change! When did spirituality only start meaning love of god and a vision towards a more aware form of self, while completely ignoring the bodhisattva vow or nature to do good, to make sure that your entire life is dedicated to people and the world's well being because we are one!

I think it was somewhere between that Maldives trip I took in December and earning a bit more than minimum wage income last month.

People Are Good, repeat it with me five times if that is what it takes to truly understand that sentence. We are all connected and only through hard work, togetherness and love can we realise the goal of a better world. Our prime purpose in life is to help others, let us not forget it. That's it for now