The Devil Within

Sunil Garodia, TIR: There is a devil in all of us. As long as we keep it in check, we remain social. The day the devil takes over, we become anti-social. Persons who are perfectly normal can demonstrate a devilish streak sometimes. The grey in us surfaces now and then to twist our minds and make us do things that we would not normally do.

It is not that the devil is a one-off thing and would pop up one fine day and turn us into a monster. That could also happen. But the devil crops up on a daily basis.

In each of the decisions we have to take daily, several streams of thought present several solutions to us. Some of the solutions are devilish. Each day, we fight with the inner devil to keep our sanity. We try to choose the answers that keep the devil away. Most times we win, but there are times when we lose to the devil and do things that we regret later.

The devilish streak is manifested in several ways. For some, it takes the form of violence, where they cause bodily harm to others. For others, it will be by misleading, cheating, defrauding or doing any such thing that will put others in trouble. Mind you, it is not always for personal gain. It may be for a supposed cause or it may be just for kicks, to borrow the title of the successfully running Salman Khan starrer. Or, for a thousand other reasons.

An advertisement for an insurance company illustrates this point perfectly. An insurance salesman is shown talking to a prospective client, explaining to him the intricacies of the various products and suggesting to him one that would best meet his requirement. The client asks him whether that one policy would suffice or he has to take another one.

See the ad, here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHG8S_PyrXE

At that point, a devil is shown popping up and telling the salesman to suggest one more policy as that would increase his commission earning. The salesman is shown fighting off the devil. He tells the client that one policy would cover all his requirements. The client is pleased with his honesty. The salesman keeps his integrity intact and earns the respect of the client.

If he had listened to the devil and sold two or more policies to the client, he would have earned more from that particular client. But the client would have realized sooner or later that he had bought more than was required. Then, the salesman would not have got any referrals from him. His income stream from that particular contact would have reached a block.

But by fighting off the devil and being honest, the salesman earned the respect of the client, who might give him several leads that would result in exponential earning potential. It would also result in increase of self-esteem and professional standing. A kick to the devil gives many long-term gains.

Then why do people fall to the devil’s temptation? The easiest explanation is that it takes all kinds to make society. But on a serious note, the devil puts before us a plethora of temptations which, to some, are hard to resist. The short-term versus long-term set off does not come in the mind of the one who is tempted. One does not realize that to gain in the short run on devil’s advocacy is to lose in the long run. One would be branded a self-seeker, a greedy person, a person who cuts corners and a risk to society. One would lose friends, be damaged professionally and lose self-respect. The devil would be rolling with laughter.

It is clear that more people fight off the devil more times than the people who succumbed to its temptations. Otherwise, the world would not have been livable. With changing social mores, the old saying that “kar bura toh ho bura” (the closest one could come to this in English was “as you sow, so shall you reap”, but a transliteration of the Hindi idiom will be like: if you do evil to others, evil is bound to happen to you too) is losing its meaning for people as they see many people being permanently evil in their dealings and yet enjoying life to its fullest. For them, the consolation is in the old Hindu saying that “iske paapon ka faisla agle janm me hoga” (he will get punishment for his evilness in the next birth).