Power, prestige, luxury, affluence... These aspects seem to possess some extraordinary magnetic pull, that man in every era is found 'madly' running after them! This 'madness' has the tendency to touch high degrees and magnitudes, as has been expressed through the writings of the wise and also via real incidents in the history of mankind.
In 'The Republic' (Book II), Plato mentions the story of shepherd, named Gyges. As a customary practice in their community, the shepherds were required to report about their flocks to the King every month. One day, while feeding his flock, Gyges found a golden ring. He wore the ring while going to attend the meeting. Everything was going as usual. Gyges was sitting with the other shepherds while various issues were being discussed in the meeting. During those discussions, Gyges happened to furl around with the ring casually. However, a strange thing occurred the moment Gyges turned the collet of the ring round to the inner side of his hand, i.e. towards himself.
People around him started talking as if he was not sitting there. Yes! He had, all of a sudden, become invisible to others. Gyges was left astounded! He just could not believe his eyes! He then turned the collet to the outside. Aha! He was visible again. Gyges tried it once again. And, it happened this time as well. Wow! It was a magical ring that could make Gyges turn visible or invisible at his will... just at one flip of the collet!
Now Gyges had a whole new world before him, with such stupendous magical power! Simultaneously, life offered him a cherry on the cake when he could succeed in seeking the position of the messenger of the king. However, Gyges soon got blown away by the wind of materialistic and carnal pleasure. He developed illicit relations with the king's wife... Gyges broke all codes of morality and humanity! After getting to the king's throne, he did all kinds of heinous acts, succumbing to his instincts of greed and lust... Driven by his whims and fancies, he killed anyone he wished to, tortured the ones he dislike and trespassed all heights of characterlessness and covetousness!
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Indeed, times have witnessed such tales of downfall of mankind quite often. These have protected the tendency of a human being to go deeper into the abyss of immorality and inhumanity...
... In order to save the life of humanity, several things are done by the thinkers on a continual basis. However, the condition of humanity on the whole is suffering continuously from a drastic downfall! Why? To know this and further more read the complete article of monthly magazine of English Akhand Gyan July'2018.
