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Ahmadinejad doesn't get it: you can't crush the human spirit
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There is something happening in Iran that cannot be denied. Even if it is true that President Ahmadinejad won the election by a large margin--doubted by nearly everyone except Ahmadinejad and his cronies--the staggering photos of the latest protest surrounding Ahmadinejad’s re-election claims are astonishing.
Feeling the pressure, election authorities have agreed to a partial recount. Evidently, Mir Hossein Moussavi, rejected a recount and called for a fresh election. Fueled by their conviction the election was rigged, hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to once again converge on Tehran's Azadi Square.
The plot thickens.
What will happen next? No one can say. To a person, knowledgeable commentators answer this question the same way--'I don't know but there will be more suffering and bloodshed', they say.
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As reported by CNN. “Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi told followers Monday he will "pay any cost" to contest the country's election results, but he had little optimism. Moussavi made his first appearance since the vote during a massive Tehran rally. The largest protest in Iran since the 1979 revolution was mostly peaceful, but at least one person was reported shot dead near its end.”He will pay any cost. In other words, if need be, he will become a martyr, believing as all martyrs do--a sacrificial death is sometimes a necessary price if the cause of truth is to be advanced.
Something is happening in Iran that is bigger than Ahmadinejad, bigger than Moussavi, bigger even than the people in Iran. The hundreds of thousands protesters taking to the streets are the latest example of the living tableau of history that embodies the resilience of the human spirit. Their spirit mirrors the words of that early American heroine of freedom, Anne Hutchinson “truth is my authority, not some authority my truth.”
Ahmadinejad, who lives by the dogma of domination, seems to lack appreciation of the invisible yet powerful force on earth--the quest of the human spirit for truth. This spirit, rooted in the divine source, cannot be quenched--not by the powers- that-be, nor by principalities. Even when this flame is extinguished--the embers smolder only to flame up again.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who coined the term satyagraha, which is Sanskrit term typically translated to mean “soul force.” Rather than submitting to the whims of the current culture and the conditioning of the mind, satyagraha means selfless service without any thought of personal gain. A satyagrahi is someone who has surrendered to a truth greater than one’s self interest.
Dag Hammarksjold once said, “I don't know Who - or what - put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone - or Something - and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”
To what exactly was Dag Hammarksjold surrendering himself? To what did Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela surrender themselves? We see this same light once again in the illumined life of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. In a moment of self transcendence, each of these luminaries turned away from self importance through self surrender. To not surrender was to pay a higher cost, even if meant losing their lives. They didn’t surrender to make a difference. they became the difference.
I do not know if Mir Hossein Moussavi has the grit or the grace to join this cloud of witnesses but he appears to be finding his way. he seems to understand there is something in the human spirit that cannot be crushed. He does seem to understand that his campaign mirrors the longing of Iranians to be citizens not only of Iran, but the world. He does seem to understand that human beings share a deeper unity, one not rooted in the mere allegiance to a leader or blind obedience to an ideology.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
By all appearances, Moussavi gets it.
I am reminded of Victor Frankl who was a doctor deported to a concentration camp during World War II. He wrote about the many hellish things that happened while he was living in that camp. Reflecting later on the experience, he wrote, “What was really needed was fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves, and furthermore, we had to teach those who despaired, that it really did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”
What does life expect of us? To this question, Ahmadinejad has yet to rise.
President Ahmadinejad appears to be so bloated with self importance that he is rendered incapable of serving this human spirit not only in Iranians but in everyone. Even if he manages to win this election—he has yet to win the hearts and minds of not only many Iranians but the people of the world. .
The greatest gift of global consciousness is to teach us that the human spirit is One. All over the world, the human spirit is joined together in one great symphony.
This is why Ahmadinejad, or for that matter, any 21st century leader must sooner or later face the music. The evolution of consciousness awakens us to the undeniable truth of our radical interdependence--the future of the world belongs not to some of us, but to all.
The weight of history is on the side of those who raise their hearts and voices in the streets of Tehran. You may kill the body but you can’t kill the spirit—it’s indomitable and resilient—it lives within but also transcends each and every human life.
Herein lies the hope that lives within each and every human being. Whenever we see this Spirit in others we learn how to see it in ourselves. This Spirit is rising in Iran. No matter what happens in the short term, this Spirit cannot be quelled.
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