What is corruption? Corruption can be defined as anything that is not clean suffers from corruption.

This uncleanliness is a hindrance to the otherwise smooth path of duties and ri ghteousness. In my understanding, corruption is just like a termite which when i nfests a wooden block would not leave it until the very core of the block is des troyed. The same I can see happening in India since I have started understanding the system. People around you, right from the milkman to the provision store ow ner, from your school to the universities are in one way or the other corrupt. F or milkman it is addition of water in milk, for a provision store owner it is th e usage of wrong weights or impurities, for education systems taking donations i n exchange for a seat is corruption. All these type of corruptions can be drille d down to a single root cause which is ofcourse monetary. But are all types of c orruption have monetary motives underlying the actions. This brings us to altoge ther a new aspect of corruption that we need to find out the different motives b ehind such corrupt actions. Let us take the case of Mr. Ramalinga Raju of Satyam . What was the pressing issue that made him fudge the accounts upto 6000 crores. Was he not rich? Was he not respected in the society? Was he not satisfied with his achievements? There must be something other than monetary factor which led such a respectable and accomplished person to do such a fraud. In my opinion, it was the desire to meet the expectations of people and keeping Satyam among top competitors under all circumstances. If this is true then the underlying motive of this act of being corrupt was fuelled by the hunger for ego, self-respect and being superior to others. Have we not seen children fudging their report card t o remain loveable to their parents. That is no monetary motive to perform such a n act but mere the fact that upon looking at bad result he/she might loose the l ove of his/her parents. This child wants to meet the expectations of his/her par ents but does not have resources necessary to achieve the goal. So far with what ever I have discussed, at this point we can define corruption as an act which an individual or group performs when that individual or group does not have means necessary to meet the goal or desired objective and thus indulging in the practi ce of offering something of value to an individual or group who have means neces sary to accomplish the goal. This something of value is again dependent on the u nderlying motive of an individual or group. If we take a deeper look into the is sue of corruption, can we say that the ultimate motive of corruption is to prove superiority over others. I will take all the motives one by one and drill it do wn to this ultimate motive. The most popular reason behind corruption is monetar y benefits one gets by doing this act. Now let us take a hypothetical situation when all of us are in primitive age when all the resources necessary to sustain life were free and there is no money in the world. Can corruption exist in such a world? I bet it can still conceive and take birth in the human mind. The reaso n behind this is natural instinct of humans for competition. This when understoo d in light of the theory of survival of the fittest by Mr. Charles Darwin, we ca n see that humans have this programmed in their DNAs that competition is a way t o go ahead and grow. Everybody wants to grow even when it requires taking an une thical means to the end. This hunger for growth is to prove one's own capabiliti es and superiority. The parameter to evaluate one's success, power and superiori ty has remained the same for a long long time and that is nothing but "Money". P eople judge other person by the amount of money he/she has. It is a common belie f that money begets power and capability. Thus we can say that money is just ano ther means display superiority over others. Have we not seen religious groups fi ghting against each other. That is not for petty cash but the act is done in an attempt to satisfy the ego that one's respective religion is better or superior. This is not corruption but influencing people by using religious affiliations t o get some work done is. How can this be traced to race for superiority. One can say that this must be done for the greater good of their religious community an d thus a race begins for growth and superiority. An individual working starts ac cepting bribes in order to be in the race may be with the neighbour, friends or colleagues. If competition or a race for superiority is the ultimate reason for corruption then can we relate it to the Maslow's law of need for recognition. Ma slow has stated different stages in human life starting from physical needs, sec

urity needs, need for affiliation, need for recognition and finally to self actu alization state. Hmans have already surpassed the first three stages and we are in the need for recognition state. Why else there is no corruption and competiti on among animals because there is no need for recognition. Humans in this stage are self centered and thinking about their own good. It seems that the problem o f corruption is inherent to the nature of humans evolved over time to satisfy th e need for recognition. In my opinion, there is no particular solution for this problem. But once people move into the self actualization state, they will reali ze that the purpose of their life is to do greater good to the society and the c ommunity they live in. They will realize that everyone is made for a greater cau se than just join the race for recognition and drive as the system makes them to drive. They will realize that one must stick to certain human virtues and value s which are worth fighting for. Many people who in the past have surpassed this stage of need for recognition and have cleansed themselves have shown that the u ltimate goal of human life is to grow together not individually.