All power is delusional where the individual can be led astray, lost in the gratification of desires and accumulation of material rewards. The hunger for power seeks to control , manipulate , destroy peoples will with disastrous results as time and history have been witness. It is the failure to recognise that all power is transient and power can depart from the powerful in a blink . It is the wise who understand the futility of power and the ultimate impotence of those who exercise such power. Christopher Marlowe , a contemporary of Shakespeare, says in his Tamburlaine, “What are kings when regiment is gone but perfect shadows on a sunshine day?”
It is the authority that draws from love and empathy that truly empowers a human being rather than the pursuit of malefic power. Behind all power lies the ego that drives all desire. Alexander the Great asked a Hindu Yogi ”How best may a man make himself beloved? A man will be beloved if possessed with great power he still does not make himself feared “ It is obvious that men can capture the minds of their fellow beings through an overwhelming compassion. The power of influencing other’s minds and the course of events is a vibhuti (yogic power) mentioned in Patanjalis yoga sutras which explains it as “universal sympathy”.
Rock Edict 3 of King Ashoka contains a personal confession of his remorse at the carnage and suffering that indiscriminate exercise of power can bring.” The monarch has recorded on the rocks in imperishable words the suffering of the vanquished and the remorse of the victor. The record is instinct with personal feeling and still carries across the ages the moan of a human soul.”
Talking about the impermanence of power Confucius states “ The wheel of power is incessantly turning . Which of us can say I shall be uppermost?” We are all destiny’s children and destiny has the last word. When we do not have control over our own lives and survival all power over others is ephemeral. Long after wars have been fought and victories won what remains in the human mind are the innumerable crimes of men against men, a slur on mankind. Baba Farid, the Punjabi Muslim mystic and poet, reflects on the delusions of power, “Farid revile not dust , there is nothing like it. When we are alive it is beneath our feet; when we are dead , it is above us.” So what is power except the power of empathy.