Understanding Power: An attempt at defining it.

 

Since the beginning of recorded history, there have always been multiple struggles and conflicts to find an establishment of position or authority in any existing hierarchy. Wars have been waged; people have been killed. Not just people, moving back in time, even around 54000 years ago, it was Homo sapiens that played a significant role in erasing Neanderthals from existence as soon as the early humans spread across the world, from Africa. Even though the former had superiority when it came to physical strength, the latter still came to thrive and ultimately erase them from existence. This was mainly thanks to the use of the then-advanced weaponry of bows and arrows. To make it more contextual, bows and arrows handed them ‘power’ over a physically more powerful species. The answer to any sort of power struggle has always been ‘War’.

But why wars? Well, the answer to that might be trickier as we dig down as to what exactly is “Power”? You see, ‘Power’, the term itself is a simple yet, very complex one. You ponder around for its meaning, and you come across a whole lot of diverse answers. Your task is to converge them. If you wonder about it in the realms of elementary electronics, you find its recognition as “the direct product of current or voltage in an Ohmic region of operation”. Glide through other branches of science, and move a little towards optometry, power is the degree of your eye's ability to see or not see. Deviate a little bit towards finance, and you stumble across a word, ‘Market power’ which is then defined as “the ability of a firm to profitably elevate the market price of a good or service over marginal cost.”. Move further wide and you will be overwhelmed with all types of answers to this simple question.

So, the question remains unhinged,” What exactly is power?”.

Well, to be honest, I believe there is no precise definition of power. You just can’t define power. One that might have come close is terming it to be “the ability to ease the completion of a certain work”. Essentially, it’s one’s ability to do anything that makes them stand out amongst others.

Whenever there is a question of existence and identity, people align themselves with the one they feel most secure, most recognizable, and more comfortable. It’s the true nature of living beings. We seek benefits. We seek comfort and the one who provides a sense of comfort, or at least gives an illusion of a sense of comfort sits at the height of power. But is that very comfort easy to attain or provide? Is it even feasible to sustain?

One’s comfort is at the cost of someone else’s misery. Even in today’s world, where one gets richer, someone gets poorer. When one is given an opportunity, some other is being stripped of it. Where one is getting lauded for standing out, someone’s effort is being completely ignored and forgotten. That brings up a contrast. If not solved, it becomes conflict, and conflict breeds catastrophe. In the end, people have chosen revolts, uprisings, and wars. To some extent, wars have given meaning to power for us. War has brought urgency. War has given us the boon of technology. It was the war of intellect that gave us computers. It was the war of the wise that gave us philosophy. It was the war of creative minds that gave us beautiful literature.

In fact, war is simply choosing to struggle over remaining in comfort.  It’s always been the greed for power, that has driven mankind into war. War has brought up questions and war has solved them. Out of such wars, one war stands out to have answered a lot of questions. 

 

  

 

You see during the epic war of Mahabharata, Lord Krishna says,

 

“The greed of power always surrounds one’s heart. Power is a struggle that a human always vows to seek, whether it is dominance in society or be it as small as being dominant in the family. The power struggle is omnipresent. People try to build a nation; build armies for the dominance they seek to have over others. But have we wondered what exactly is power?  In that way, power becomes the level of control you can have over someone’s independence and freedom. The more you can limit it, the more you have power. The more people you have depended upon you, the more powerful you are.  Power is influence, the more you can sway in your way, the more powerful you seem. The true meaning of power is having one impact on others' life. But isn’t real power built upon faith, kindness, love, mercy, forgiveness, and religion? Whenever a man tries to attain the summit of power through struggle, force, and violence, he brings misery and greed as a company. In the very people over which he seeks to have control, he gives birth to opposition and revolt in their hearts. And the result? The result shows. It’s obvious that, for a certain time, he will find himself influential and powerful but that isn’t true power. That is the very reason why people worship saints like Bhrigu and Vasista, not the kings like Ravana and Hiranyakashyapu.”.

In face of the question, definitions of such vast terms are quite challenging to put up in form of a few words phrased into a sentence. Even if done so, those are mere attempts to shrink the universe into an atom. As simple as it seems, power is incomprehensible to us as we are the measly beings of this vast universe. Power is perception for it defines who we choose to be. Power is creation, for it provides to people whom we want to influence. Power is love, for it provides an emotional security to the ones that need it. Power is a passion for it drives us to achieve what we want to. Power is money for it buys anything. Power is an illusion for it provides happiness. But power as a single term? The real definition of power is built upon those who sit on top of the epitome of power hierarchy, wherever it exists.