Qualities determine leaders

The rare virtue of selfless actions exemplify the giving of power to people, say spiritual experts.

Where, if anywhere, do religion and politics come together? Mahatma Gandhi was sometimes called 'a saint among politicians and a politician among saints'.

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'Separation of Church and State' has long been a hallmark of democracy, giving secularism the pulpit from which it can bestow benevolent tolerance on all faiths and equality to all forms of worship.

Heroic leaders like Gandhi and Mother Teresa showed us that austerity and purity can raise people like them to the status of 'legends in their own time'. And King Bharata, the father of India, to the chagrin of his mother Shakuntala, appointed a qualified ruler, not of his own bloodline, to succeed him. In a similar way, John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to become President of the United States, was seen as qualified for the job. He entered the realm of super-stardom, chequered as that lofty position often is.

The general deterioration of monarchical rulers has contributed to forms of government that rely on ability as opposed to heritage or caste.

In a sense, selfless actions like those exhibited by King Bharata, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa and, exemplify the giving of power to people - essential in any true democracy. The qualifications of Gandhi and Teresa outshone their bloodline, birthright and official inheritance processes.

Krishnadas Kaviraj has enumerated 26 qualities of saintly persons, among them magnanimity, truthfulness, cleanliness, peacefulness, friendliness, and expertise. Many saints work among us unseen. But the lives of King Bharata, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa remind us that that true leadership is an act of service. They demonstrated us that living for others is the basic principle of any democratic state.

(The writer is emeritus member of the ISKCON governing body commission)