Man-Making and Planet-Building...
In the course of his lectures from Colombo
to Almora he would have urged on his countrymen,
the preservation of the purity of the Ganges, the sanctity of the Himalayas and
the quality of our earth, water and air. He would have drawn endlessly from our
grand mythology and enriched and expanded our global awareness. We would then
have not slipped so miserably in our ecological responsibilities. We would have
shown how a religion can be man-making and
planet-building...
True to the demands of time, the Chicago
Parliament of World's Religions 1993, in its centenary celebrations addressed
itself not only to matters of spirit but also to many down-to-earth problems.
The Millennium Institute which was a co-sponsor of the Parliament took up this
issue on the second day itself. Though their entire paper "Global 2000
Revisited"-"What shall we do" is worth serious study, for the
sake of brevity just a few points are presented here.
1. The spiritual leaders have a vital
contribution to make to a country's reflections on sustainable possibilities
for the future.
2. There is an urgent need for a more
substantiative dialogue between "secular" issue experts and spiritual
leaders of all faiths and traditions.
There are many pressing issues that need
thoughtful holistic attention integrating both the spiritual and the secular or
scientific perspective. When we study the world religions from this angle we
find that a holistic approach has not been a significant part of all
traditions. The result is, that secular people are convinced that religions
have ruined the earth. Attacks on religion by the so-called wise secularists
are not infrequent.
In one form or other, virtually every
faith tradition is being criticised today for not having a thoughtful,
informed, penetrating analysis of the issues facing Earth and Earth's human
community in the 21st Century."
The Director of the Millennium Institute
Dr. G. Barney raised several questions before the Parliament. The first one of
them was directly connected with man, his essential nature and his
interrelationships with everything around. To quote: "The task before us
is fundamentally spiritual in nature, to discover who we humans are, how we are
to relate to each other and to the whole community of life and what we are to
do, individually and collectively here on Earth."
We in India are fortunate in having
preserved (though not well enough) a tradition that has answers to all these
fundamental questions - the Ultimate Truth of our real identity - a philosophy
to comprehend this Truth and a way of life to actualize it in day today life,
the dharma - or holistic approach to relate ourselves with everything on earth, a
mythology revealing the multifarious facets of this dharma in action and the extensive rituals to concretise this philosophy and
to reach it out to all and sundry. In the totality of Sanatana Dharma there lies the blueprint for the survival of mankind and preservation
of our Planet Earth.
This is truly a great challenge for spiritual leaders and religious
people. Hindu Dharma can fortunately provide very many clues which everyone can
adopt irrespective of caste, creed, race or any other differences.
Need
for a universal Blueprint.
If only we had a Blueprint how to
co-ordinate the affairs of the Universe, we could have kept the five elemental
forces in a proper form without contaminating and polluting them ........
We
could have taken care not to disturb the natural rhythms.
We
could have assured that the flora and fauna would not become
extinct at this fast rate of 100
species a day.
We
could have prevented the formation of holes in the ozone layers
due to the accumulation of CFC in our atmosphere.
We
could have avoided the 'greenhouse effect' and its serious global
repercussions and ,
May
be, we could have assured mankind of health, happiness and
harmony through a new World
Order and possibly guaranteed its survival
as well!
Unfortunately, most of
the Blueprints which the modern man has managed to put up have pushed the world
and with it mankind, nearer to the brink of a global disaster. Somewhere, man,
in the course of his progressive evolution, has misplaced it, if not lost it
altogether. Suddenly, his progression is proving to be a
"retrogression".
Mother
Earth - the lessons she imparts
The blueprint just
cannot get lost, because Nature never entrusted this to the custody of the
foolish man alone. The first clue that a blueprint for survival exists comes
from the fact that without taking the aid of the so-called intelligence of man,
Mother Earth has preserved life for millions of years. Behind this truth lies
the wonderful interdependence this planet has established with the other
planets and the elemental forces around her - water, air, space and fire,
energy, sun, moon and so on. Together, they have created a near perfect system,
referred to by modern man as the Ecosystem, which is the best public service
available to man, but of which he is almost totally ignorant. Creating a series
of checks, levers and governors, planet Earth and the other elements have
together created a climate of great diversity, an atmosphere of carefully
chosen contents, geared to provide for the growth and metabolism of all that
lives, a soil system with its dynamic equilibrium of moisture, air, minerals,
flora and fauna which together maintain simple but nourishing soil fertility; a
variety of mechanisms for energy absorption, pollination and fertilization in
its magnificent plant kingdom through which it links up man with the five
elements around and also provides the wide variety of food, clothing, shelter,
medicinal herbs and so on and the most important of all, a perfectly harmless
way of decomposing dead matter and keeping the place clean and tidy so that man
has a cozy place to live! All this and more have been gifted to man by Nature
and her self-renewing Ecosystems.
It is this wonderful life - creating -
supporting – destroying capacity of
planet Earth that we, the so-called wise and learned men, are tampering
with. In our greediness we are consuming more than the 'income' kept at our
disposal, which in turn is supplied to the Earth by none other than that giant
power station, the SUN. By interfering with the natural fertility of
agricultural soil, groundwater resources, biodiversity, and various
energy-transforming cycles in Nature, man is heading towards self-annihilation.
Need
for a holistic answer
The survival of mankind is no longer a simple issue but is closely
interlinked with the survival of the entire planet. But, who can give a
holistic answer? Materialistic philosophy can, at best, provide only an
economic world-view. Profit-oriented as it is, it will continue to harp on
'taking more out of less', of boosting production, enhancing desires, needs and
consumption. It just doesn't know how to go beyond 'well-having' to
'well-being'. 'Survival' is of least importance to those who are habituated to
looking at forests for its timber, at rocks for their ores, at landscapes for
their real-estate value and of course at men and women as 'resources'.
Disrespect and total lack of concern have become the hallmark of modern
man. This has to be contravened and a new respect towards the entire creation
has to be generated in the human mind. Only then will we learn to treat each
other and our environment with respect and understanding and in that lies the
first seeds ensuring survival of our human race.
In ancient cultures and value systems, though survival was not a prime
value, it certainly became the net result or by-product of man's greater
achievements in human life, reflected in his knowledge of the Whole and the
adjustments he made to co-exist peacefully with the Whole. One is reminded of
Sri Krishna's words in the Bhagavad Gita
"parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ śhreyaḥ param avāpsyatha" (BG 3.11)
By
cooperation between humans and the celestial gods, great prosperity will reign
for all.
In tune with this, the Indian blueprint
insists on a different vision, an attitudinal change and a cultural
reorientation. Time has come for the world to study the Indian Blueprint and
the valuable information contained in it so as to adjust our lifestyles with
global survival in view.
The Indian Blueprint is very simple,
eloquent and grand in its sweep. It is as ternal as Truth and as nourishing as
Life. It starts with man as its centre and endlessly unfolds as the
ever-expanding universe, never for once snapping its ties between the
individual and the Total. Only such a Blueprint can help the West to shift its
attitude from the "well-having" to the "well-being" and
help it learn the primary lesson
of seeing the Whole in the part and part in the Whole.
At the very outset it helps man to
visualize Life as a Whole, Infinite and Eternal, far superior to the grasping
power of human intelligence. Therefore, it holds that humility is the key, not
aggressiveness, to unlock the mystery of everlasting life.
It also emphasises that Truth, the
fundamental and prime basis of the Universe, the value behind the values is
ONE, manifold though its expressions be. Seeing
Unity in diversity, therefore, forms yet another clue for understanding Life in
its totality.
From these two basic assumptions the
blueprint unfolds revealing the grand vision of the universe with all that
exists in it as ONE, interconnected and interpenetrated by one Divine Essence.
The quintessence of the Indian concept
regarding the laws of the Universe and the adjustments man must make to
accommodate himself within it peacefully and harmoniously is effectively caught
in the supremely meaningful opening stanza of Isavasyopanishad.
What does it say? To start with, there is the emphatic
declaration that all that exists is pervaded by Divinity or Truth. To realise
that Truth, making it a part of our life in knowledge, love and action is the
surest way to achieve immortality. This tantamounts to recognising divinity
everywhere and to one who has realised it in oneself; it is a question of
seeing oneself, projected in the entire Universe! Thus, should man break the
barrier of "otherness" which is the cause for spoiling our
relationship with the world outside.
When man starts recognising the intrinsic
worth of all that exists, naturally he will modulate his behaviour with love
and respect towards all. Then would man learn to take from nature only what he
needs for his well-being and not to exploit nature for his well-having.
The next step enjoins man - 'to enjoy with restraint'. Behind the crisis at all levels that we face today is a lack of
self-restraint in thought, words, work and enjoyments. To stop overutilisation
and exploitation there is no other way than to practise "frugal
consumption" and "voluntary simplicity". Global awareness
resulting from and based on the above concepts, can undoubtedly reverse the
self-annihilating trends that we find widespread today.
An ultimate warning also is incorporated
in the stanza to hold back man from destroying himself, that is 'to refrain from covetousness', unwanted competitions and petty jealousies that mar human
relationships. So long as we are not ready to change our lifestyles, so long as
we go on pampering ourselves in sensual delights and indulgences, so long as
austerity and simplicity do not become part of our lives, we will not succeed
in stemming the root of degradation that is threatening the life of this very
planet. A reversal of the trend is a must.
Swami Vivekananda wanted this message of India
to reach far and wide before modern civilization irreparably turned this world
into a graveyard through its blind passions, ignorance and morbid surrender to
mechanical and materialistic culture and forces that are bent upon destroying
the human race, nature and possibly the planet earth itself. He clearly foresaw
that the only hope for the survival of humanity lies in renewing the
macrobiotic vision of the ONE UNDIVIDED TRUTH in which everything in creation remains interconnected, interpenetrated
and interdependent. Through his speeches and writings, he has drawn the
attention of the entire world to this all-encompassing vision of truth or
reality which is the cornerstone of the magnificent Indian spiritual heritage.
If mankind, not in the far away future
destroy, itself, it will not be due to lack of a blueprint, but because man was
too egoistic to learn his elementary lessons spelt out in the blueprint. In
such an impending global catastrophe the major share of blame would be on us,
Indians in whose custody this blueprint had been lying from time immemorial.
Through the three volumes of Kendra
Patrika, Vivekananda Kendra-NARDEP has brought into focus this global problem and has also opened several
windows to study it indepth. One comforting factor is the arrival on the scene
of a large number of people belonging to all sections of society who are keen
to study how to correct the imbalance in nature. It started in last century with several authors studying the book of
Nature differently with a new meaning and purpose to help man find the right
place in nature's magnificent gallery.
Many a heart has been touched and now they look at life and nature with
a new deeper understanding. Examples of such wonderful studies at individual
and collective levels including the state level are brought out in this volume.
Also included are reviews on some of the publications by great thoughtful men
and women who through their writings changed the human approach in remarkable
ways.
Let me conclude this foreword with the
wonderful blessing uttered by the great Saint Paramacharya of Kanchipuram, who
made the world listen to India's message through the unparalleled melodious
voice of India,
Smt. M.S. Subbalakshmi in the U.N. during its 50th anniversary, which dealt
with Universal Brotherhood and peace as enshrined in the Sanathana Dharma which
ends with this last prayer.
śreyo bhūyāt sakalajanānām
May all people be happy and prosperous.
Dr.M.Lakshmi Kumari
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