Can I Let It Be?

‘And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agreeThere will be an answer, let it beFor though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will seeThere will be an answer, let it beLet it be, let it be, let it be, let it beThere will be an answer, let it be.’.These are some verses from one of my most favourite songs from The Beatles, aptly titled, Let It Be. I listen to it every now and then to seek solace. Turns out these days that I am listening to it quite often.But how can I let it be when thousands of human lives are lost as consequence of wars raging on for months now? When a mountain just slips away, and in a neighbouring state, over four hundred die, and a hundred more go missing? When a ruling Prime Minister is forced to resign and go into exile, while rioters go on a rampage harassing women, raping adolescents, desecrating temples, burning homes of Hindus, and forcing people to flee their homes and countries overnight? When soldiers far from their homes are mercilessly wounded and sacrificed in terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir? And honestly, this is just a tip of the mounting pile of news items which force me into self-doubt and cynicism every day.If Time alone can give an answer, why is there no sign of peace in the Middle East, despite decades of unrest? And if I were to trust governments and experts and media, why did no one pay heed to the ecological surveys which explicitly called out the fragility of the Western Ghats and the imminent dangers of flooding and landslides in Kerala? Can I, an able bodied, sensitised and educated individual, in my personal capacity change any of this?.These are not new questions that are plaguing me. I have wondered the same ever since I began to follow the news in some form or the other. Some days it would be potholed-roads and on other days it would be the malnutrition of children. Some days, girl children are being trafficked, on other days, foot overbridges collapsing with a hundred people. The range of issues would give anyone willing to take action all the necessary impetus to abandon cause. It is not possible for one person to fight hunger, illiteracy, poverty, fundamentalism, or depravation in its many forms. But it is possible for one person to become the best at whatever they are doing, so that together you and I can build a community of doctors who care, engineers who build with integrity, cooks who nourish empty stomachs and farmers who bring in sustainable harvests. We can be government clerks who never take a bribe, teachers who instil the right values, parents who raise noble children and friends who do not indulge in any vices.We have about as much power to stop wars, landslides and governments from falling, as we have over stopping a flower from withering. We do, however, possess enough and more power to transform ourselves at an individual level. And as Swami Chinmayananda promised, world redemption begins with individual transformation. With faith in myself, my Guru and God, perhaps I will let it be. Perhaps, in the long run, because of that individual transformation, I will not let it be.