Why doesn’t a man learn even after he has fallen once? Man keeps on falling and does the same mistake again and again and still does not learn. Though mistakes are in the path to get knowledge about the right path but man has this uncanny habit of falling for the same stuff again and again and veering away.
Do you think the man who drinks and is an alcoholic has no idea that what he is doing is wrong? Or the woman who succumbs to a voracious sexual appetite has no idea that she is doing something bad to her own while sleeping around outside? Or a man who sells everything by robbing to do his drugs? Or that person who mugs people around? Don’t these people have any qualms? Do they have any conscience or not?
If you think they have a conscience and should listen to it, then you really have no clue. The first or the second time that they did what they are now habituated to do, their conscience actually pricked but then they succumbed to the sin. Thereafter the going was very easy. They never listened to the voice again. It was lost in the din of the thrill of the action and the subsequent feeling of triumph. Later, they had remorse. Now don’t mix the two- conscience and remorse! Remorse comes after the action is done. It may come because of some other reason. Maybe it’s about society, fees to be paid and money got used up in liquor, next day lecture and still having a hangover, police action or breath analyses tests or whatever the guilt they have including pregnancy!!! The only reason to feel bad is what could happen later but when the act was perpetrated the same didn’t exist. It was the heat of the moment. The lust and greed dominated. No god came in the way too.
Now that these folks have the clear mandate of performing the same actions over and over again, they have emboldened and have no qualms at all. There is no conscience at play anywhere.
Unless and until there is a bigger fish to catch or kill. Then the part of repentance comes in but only for a moment. Say the drunkard has to land a job where he has to mention that he doesn’t drink. Then the trick is to land the job and stay away from drinks till they have crossed the hurdle. Or the sexual offender, waits to land a great catch and then restarts the same act all over again. This happens so many times that the word called promise, swear or trust never exists in these hapless peoples life. The conscience having died a normal death, nothing comes in the way to perform another deed.
You will often find these people attend church or religious places, meet priests or help groups but once again they land in the same place. They will swear that it is the last time they have ever done the act, but the next day they are back on the path, again asking for pardon, then again perpetrating the same action. The reasons given by these people are worth writing a book on. Maybe it’s about tensions, pains, hurts, pressures, etc.. The psychology book has tones of such names that they can throw around.
Diseases like anxiety neurosis, partial amnesia or complete amnesia and whatnot are cited by them. They have clear idea about the reasoning part of life but not about the acceptance of their misdemeanor.
So coming back to whether they learn from their mistakes or not? They never learn since there is no inhibitory gene in them to stop their actions. No god on earth can stop them from falling again and again. Even the best of psychiatric help doesn’t work. No amount of jail sentences. No shamefacedness or societal damage works.
Can a tiger become a vegetarian? He will hide the flesh he so relishes in the greenery to have it. So there is hardly any point in telling these hopeless cases to change. If they do then it’s a bonus. But bonuses never come easily. So why not just change your attention to far greater things in life than waste time and energy over turning them into new and clean beings? No, I am not telling you to give up. I am telling you that your energies can be better used for other things that need attention. So go on. You are not here to change the world. Go change yourself first before you decide to become Mother Theresa!!!
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