Sacrificing the Self

Sacrificing the Self

1988 7 July 15-16 Sacrificing the Self (594) On August 31, 1987, the national press headlined the arrest in Delhi of Harjinder Singh Jinda and Satnam Singh Bawa. Jinda was one of the most dreaded terrorists of the Punjab, with the rank of General in the Khalistan Commando Force, and scores of murders to his ‘credit’ including those of General Vaidya; Lalit Makin, M.P.; Arjun Das, New Delhi Councillor; and several police officers. He had also had a hand in the looting of the Punjab National Bank, Ludhiana, of 50 million rupees. At the time of his arrest, the many items recovered from him included lethal weapons, gold and 5 lakhs of rupees in cash.

The following are some of the details published in a leading national daily:

The police found in Jinda’s pocket some powder which they suspect is cyanide. Jagdish Singh had swallowed cyanide when he was taken to the police post at Paharganj. If Jinda had died, it would have robbed the police of a chance to interrogate him and obtain vital information.

(Indian Express, September 1, 1987)

The ‘no-holds-barred’ method of police interrogation is guaranteed to elicit information from criminal suspects, no matter how hardened they may be, so that if a terrorist is arrested alive, whatever he is compelled to tell the police can lead to the wiping out of his whole organization. Faced with such a situation, many terrorists immediately commit suicide. In this way, they save themselves unbearable mental and physical torture, and their silence saves the organization.

Whether an organization is constructive or destructive in its objectives, loyalty to it demands the supreme sacrifice of self-annihilation from its members. In this world, it frequently happens that there is a clash of interests between the individual and the organization. In all such situations, the individual is expected to “kill” himself in order to perpetuate the life of the organization. Physical killing is the easier way out. A great sacrifice is the killing of the mind, the killing of sensitivity. This is psychological suicide. Both actions are a form of jihad, the former being of minor significance as compared to the latter.

It happens frequently in congregational life that the individual suffers from the feeling that he is being neglected and that he is not being given his due. At times, such incidents take place as are hurtful to his ego, and his mind becomes darkened by negative thoughts. On all such occasions, he must act with the same rigorous self-discipline as the terrorists, who literally kills himself to save his organization, that is to say, he must commit psychological suicide. He must kill all feelings of sensitivity,– feeding, as it were, potassium cyanide to the negative side of his thinking. Any organization which is made up of such self-sacrificing individuals can always be more certain of success than an organization in which the ‘selves’ of the members are constantly pulling in opposite directions.

Even during the lifetime of the Prophet, congregational life could be established only through the sacrifices made by individuals. It is well known that the Prophet’s companions never spared themselves when it came to making the sacrifice of psychological ‘suicide.’ It could only be on the basis of such a mentality that a powerful congregational structure could emerge that would change the fate of the whole world, leading man into a new and historic era. The willing annihilation of the self gives life to the entire congregation. There is no other path for the individual to tread, if he wishes his congregation to play a meaningful role in the world of today.