Wise Words
Divide And Rule
Chongeswar
Like This Article
**Divide and Rule** Divide and Rule first heard of this startegy in a school in the context of British rule in India, its atrocities, and their cunning manoeuvres. A question popped up: a principle used for such an atrocious purpose--could it also be used for a constructive and beneficial purpose? (Though it was highly beneficial and profitable for the British.) As a very young student, I observed that books are divided into chapters, chapters into subtopics, and subtopics into paragraphs, paragraphs into lines, and lines into words. This division can be used to great advantage in learning and understanding. It was an interesting breakthrough. The principle of divide and rule has been used in politics, military warfare, problem-solving, computer programming, analytical tasks, and everyday life--for time management, work distribution, and even the management of emotions. The core idea is to break a larger problem or group into smaller, manageable parts and deal with each separately. Historically, similar strategies can be traced to ancient rulers and military leaders, including Philip II of Macedon and Julius Caesar, who used it to weaken their rivals and to manage their territories . The British, however, took this principle to greater heights in their colonial rule.Over time, humans have managed to divide this one Earth into different nations, states, districts, tehsils, blocks, villages, and localities. Not only have they divided the land, but Homo sapiens--the wise humans--have also managed to divide themselves according to regions, practices, cultures, religions, castes, colours, languages, beliefs, and countless other distinctions. Whatever is being divided or classified--land, books, birds, animals, emotions, or human beings--is experience. Actually, this division keeps happening .This tendency developed out of the need for survival. It is very natural. Separation, categorisation, comparison, and labelling of experiences keep happening in the form of distinctions such as dangerous/non-dangerous, useful/non-useful, pleasant/unpleasant, positive/negative, familiar/unfamiliar, certain/uncertain, good/bad, relevant/irrelevant, expected/unexpected, easy/difficult, and so on--depending on preferences, criteria, or parameters. Yet what begins as an adaptive survival tool soon becomes a psychological prison. Long after immediate threats have vanished, division keeps happening driven/compelled by habit, the craving to repeat past pleasures, or an instinctive dread of the unknown. In its quest to insulate itself against uncertainty, the urge for control creates the very friction it seeks to avoid. It triggers an exhausting loop of finer divisions and compulsive anticipation, where the effort to govern every variable only multiplies the divisions waiting to be controlled. Those who find themselves overthinking might pause and ask: What am I trying to achieve in the outside world right now? Is my thinking helping me achieve it, or am I still responding to the needs, fears, or experiences of a previous phase of my life? After all, the distinction between the inner and outer worlds is itself worth examining.Before we move further, let us consider a story. I am quite sure you have seen something similar in Indian cinema. Two families have been fighting each other for generations. Then, a boy and a girl from the two families fall in love. As expected, their families oppose the relationship. But then one of them asks the elders a simple question: Why are we fighting? Why are we against each other? And strangely, neither family has an answer. Somewhere along the way, they have forgotten the reason, the purpose, even the original trigger of the conflict. They remember only that we have to fight . Something similar keeps happening in the mind. We forget our original purpose or starting point and continue dividing for the sake of dividing. Classification and categorisation can be based on numerous criteria, and division can keep happening endlessly. We are completely unaware why such divisions are happening . Hence, unification/integration of experiences never happen. Coming back to the endless activity of division . let it happen but the seeker can bring this dividing activity within the field of attention and observation, treating it as just another experience, without resistance or an immediate urge to control it. Unfortunately, we have been indoctrinated into thinking that attention means exclusive attention, focusing on the single object. In contrast, inclusive attention requires widening of the attention and being aware of the experiences that are happening . Imagine! You are sitting in a beautiful garden café filled with the pleasant smell of flowers. Amid the murmuring of other guests, you are talking to your loved ones. and enjoying the manoeuvres of birds in the open sky. A fly is sitting on your arm. You are relaxed.A friend calls your name from behind. What do you do? You politely answer. **Can you observe this dividing activity, just as you observe the fly on your arm?(1)** ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. By this point, true seekers may be asking themselves: How can I use this principle for my own benefit? A seeker can extend the principle of division to their sādhana and spiritual practices by breaking them into smaller steps or sections. One can take one program at a time, one step at a time, one lesson at a time. Similarly, if a seeker has a goal or target to achieve, they can begin with one unit, increase it to two the following day/week, then three, and continue progressing incrementally, according to their capacity. A seeker on the Path of Knowledge can leave with better questions to contemplate: **Why is division happening? What is dividing? What is it trying to rule--or control?** Peace. ................................................................................................................................................................................. For any errors, feedback and suggestions on this article or past articles and for suggestions of topics for the next articles Please mail chaitanya.seeker@gmail.com 1. The ability to witness or the remembrance of the fundamental knowledge can help a great deal in this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AaVwon0Fv8&list=PLB-JSAbBz5B5liIzNWTirIcbDtFUroMyv Fundamental Knowledge | Path of Knowledge ज्ञानमार्ग https://gyanmarg.guru/ww/view.php?id=52995902&con=95295672&lang=en .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................