Bust up in Brum

My employers are quite generous - although they make me work in Birmingham three to four days a week away from home, they put me up in a serviced apartment right in the middle of the city centre.

I mean - how much more convenient can you get? I step out of the apartment and I am right there in the heart of Birmingham's coolest streets loaded with shops, restaurants, train stations, bus stops, malls, supermarkets, cinemas and all kinds of things a person living alone wants at arm's length.

This morning however I work up with a rude shock.

At around 7.00 AM, there was screaming and shouting outside. I popped my head out of the window, and to my horror discovered a young man (Indian or Pakistani) standing outside the club opposite my apartment covered in blood. He was swaying around while two policemen held him and two other men watched.

I became aware of another group of caucasian men and women standing twenty yards away, held in check by another group of policemen. It was quite apparent that there had been a fight between the two groups and the young Indian (or Pakistani) man had taken a rap.

There was a lot of shouting and screaming going on. The two men who were standing next to the blood covered victim gesticulated rudely at the caucasian men (and women) standing further away and used the choicest of four letter words. Not to be daunted, they responded in a similar fashion, while the police tried to restrain both parties.

In the meantime, the blood covered young man swayed a bit more and sat down suddenly on the ground. A scantily clad girl detached herself from the other group and came running to the Asian group, and I could see that she was actaully crying and pleading about something.

Four policemen had actually cornered the blood-covered youngster into a doorway and he suddenly sprang up and swore at them, "I am the victim damnit... do you hear? I am the victim. And yet you w**kers are holding me from all sides while the guy who hit me is standing there looking completely free."

The Police tried to restrain him back, while he became even more hysterical.

A few minutes later an ambulance roared into the street, and the young man was escorted promptly into it.

Exactly six seconds later, he sprang out of the ambulance without his shirt and started jumping up and down while the police ran behind him.

"Why is the guy who did this to me not getting arrested then ei?" he screamed at the police. "Why are you restraining me while he is free? Why is he not in this police car on his way to the station?"

The police had their best wooden expression, which they had probably spent years perfecting before being let loose on our streets.

In a few minutes the hysterical man was bundled in, the ambulance roared away, and the police hovered on taking a few more notes from both the parties that were left behind.

They put up a police tape all round the club - probably to gather forensic evidence later.

The incident set me thinking - Britain seems to be heading towards an overdrive based on alcohol, sex and drugs. Clubs and pubs have become breeding grounds for violence and frustration, not just entertainment and music.

From what I gathered during the screaming and shouting, the violence had erupted over a girl.

There was so much frustration and anger involved.

The Bhagavad-gita, that book of timeless wisdom spoken by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna declares:

kama esa krodha esa rajo-guna-samudbhavah
mahasano maha-papma viddhy enam iha vairinam

"It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world."

His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder of ISKCON explains in his purport to this verse that when a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for God (Krishna) is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. Or, in other words, the sense of love of God becomes transformed into lust, as milk in contact with sour tamarind is transformed into yogurt. Then again, when lust is unsatisfied, it turns into wrath; wrath is transformed into illusion, and illusion continues the material existence. Therefore, lust is the greatest enemy of the living entity, and it is lust only which induces the pure living entity to remain entangled in the material world.

The Bhagavad-gita scientifically explains how lust and anger lead to loss of intellect and utter bewilderment:

dhyayato visayan pumsah sangas tesupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamahkamat krodho 'bhijayate
krodhad bhavati sammohah sammohat smrti-vibhramah
smrti-bhramsad buddhi-nasobuddhi-nasat pranasyati

"When a man dwells in his mind on the sense objects, an attachment for them arises. Desire is born of that attachment. From desire anger is born.From anger comes delusion, from delusion springs failure of memory. From wrecked memory results the ruin of the understanding and then he perishes."

The incident in the pub arose because a few men dwelled on a sense object which awoke desires. When there were obstacles placed in the fulfilment of their desire their anger led to violence. It was all fuelled by their alcoholic indulgence and in reality this leads to the forgefulness of one's originally blissful and eternal spiritual position.

As I was about to close the window I noticed another young man standing next door. Like me, he must have been a silent witness. He suddenly looked at me and smiled as if to say, "What a fuss!"

I noticed that in the early hours of the morning, he was sipping an alcoholic drink too.

I smiled back.