Sustainable Development and World Peace: An Indian thought

OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.

Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.

I find this shloka so encompassing. Essentially it means that you are one with the every particle of the universe, ever transforming.

                                            Industrial revolution brought with it a rapid technological development with deep impacts on socio-political order of the world. Its devastating ecological impact is also alarming. This doesn't means that this development was uncalled for. but the motive is to understand that we are now moving to the next level of evolution where our biggest challenges are, Sustainable Development and World peace. 

This is the issue that has taken the attention of world, where every earth summits had a set of objectives, which seems to be failing.

Starting from "One earth" idea of stockholm to the Rio DE Janeiro Declaration consisting of 27 principles intended to guide future sustainable development around the world or the Johannesburg Declaration, which says,  "to focus on the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of our people, which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis." Let it be Kyoto or Copenhagen, it has yielded little success.

Indian Thought

When we decided to establish peace, we got even more violence and terror strikes, we have been failing to attain the objectives of ecological balance and thus prevent global warming and climate change.

Actually whereas alternative technologies may provide part answers of climate change & global warming , certainly they have no answers for enduring peace. At best Technology can be a deterrence.

Model of System as developed by the west has been largely successful till now. Here system is developed by the intellegentsia fit for most of the people.

But the larger question is system so deveoped is sustaible or not?

System driven by desires and greeds of human beings . In a sense this is a level of egoism, that cosiders itself superior to all other beings and exploits indiscriminately.

Dire need of the hour is the paradigm shift of approach from System centric to the People centric model of the society. It is now, not the system that should build the people but people growing as a systemic success. 

Where the basic belief of people will be inclusive of the starting shloka of this article and we are just the form of panchmahabhootas.. "Ten Tyakten bhunjeetha" is the core of indian thought which means even the consumption should be just to satiate your hunger and not the greed, with a sense of sacrifice and dedication.

The Atharva Veda says, “We may believe in different religions … yet we share the same home - Our Earth … we must learn to happily progress together or miserably perish together. For man can live individually but can only survive collectively”

Bhartiya Value system and it's challenges-2

Now Be very sure that, I am not a social scientist, and my observation may not be entirely scientific. But I am here to express my opinion.

Strong Family values mean that, Family is a strong and independent entity, knitted loosely to the society. For a lot of people, With Family, comes a sense of insecurity from the external environment. Also, any primary obligation is towards family. Then, Different families differ in the values they adhere to, skills, knowledge & set of experiences, which they transfer to their offspring.

This I feel, definitely, is one of the reasons why we failed in bringing cohesiveness, as a nation state in 12^th and 13^th century, accompanied by rigidities of cast structures, leading to autocratic rule. Ancient India didn’t preserved most of its knowledge in the documents, or even if it did so, it remained with the few families. I strongly feel that Indian scriptures do not prescribe, cast as an inborn quality, but values gained over time.

Now, Still It doesn’t mean that we have to adopt western values, but we have to look for genuine Indian solutions. Because, We did perform marvelously well with the same set of values. But difference is in the institutional structure that has changed over time.

To me revival of Gurukula system holds the key. Then, Gurukula meant to be an institution best in class, governed by the best of the masters, infact next to the King, same for all. This ensured uniformity of values, being transferred to the disciples. There, they learned to share and contribute. Knowledge was free, & was a state responsibility. Today if we can do this, I am sure, we will be a step closer to a castless society producing best in class people.

Numerous division of Indian society has to be taken over by the intense nationalism of quality people. Democracy has to be driven by nationalism. & Believe me, Indian nationalism can never be chauvinistic, by the virtue of its fundamental principle of universal love, brotherhood and infinite tolerance.

Bhartiya Value system and it's challenges

India's started a historic march toward's glory after the era of liberalisation. It brought with it a sense of self confidence and a hope for survival, after the chaotic 80's. Today,As We look forward to be a super power, There is both a Confidence and some sense of disbelief too. But there are larger questions to answer. Questions which are uncomfortable, challenging our value system.

Emancipation of Bharat lies in the emancipation of its 80 crore people, who are not living on the greener side of the fence.

Question of Corruption is fundamental, it demands reflection into the Indian psyche. It demands answers to the question which Raghunathan ji raised in his book "Games Indian Play", That is, "Why We are a failure collectively", Like wise Sister Nivedita, Disciple of Vivekananda ji once told that "West has to learn the family values of indians, and indians have to learn working as a team from the west (based on memory). For a common cause westerners can set aside thier differences, and this is what we have to learn from them, in order to become a collective success rather than being an individual brilliance.

But, A million dollar question is, How?

We are not born the way we are, So there is something in the way we are nurtured. Having a great Family values, is of course, a good thing, but personally i feel, It is this, Where we fail as a community, as a society, at a micro level.(to be continued)

NOTE

my posts are based on my understanding of the principles of sanatan dharma & liable to fallible. any comments are therefore welcome

Happiness

Happiness lies in moments, rooted deep within us, along the constant journey of dharma

(cherished mission & not ambition). happiness therefore is not to be misunderstood with pleasure, likewise mission with ambition.

real happiness is source to the higher level of realisations, that comes, not out of expectation but selfless action & knowledge. & above all love...

Dreams (contd..)

While on shores, thought of the other end is the most important to us. we start on a boat with passion & plan to beat the sea. Challenge of the tides raises the emotions of both despair & valour.

Winner through the long sail may be the one who "loves the sailing" over the sea, more than idea to cross it or mere the idea of the shore at other end. Remember, we are in sea and not in pond, during the sail, many a dreams may be lost, but our mission or our dharma is to sail, a karmyogi (master of the tides) will sail without bothering consequences.

Now doing itself is not important, if we dont know swimming, we may drown. the sailor who can even dive into see, will have a survivavibilty.

knowledge and action therefore bear fruit, still this may not be sufficicient to bring happiness. so where does the happiness lies?.....

Dreams

We are dreamers. Its such a gift to have dreams. Dreams are the boat that sail over mighty waves in lives. Men of fortitude rode over them to find new lands.But there are times, when we get so engulfed in them, we forget life.

We have turned the things the other way around, the way we live. Its the life that keeps dreaming possible, like it's not the boats that make the ocean, but ocean that keeps boat afloat....

thoughts ........here and there

when i say life, i make it in a sense that it continues irrespective of our physical being. what is annihilated is our body, so the view can be contested by people who take life in its physical sense.

soul is a object, and when i say life( the best word that comes close to the sense ), i intend it to be a process. so our physical existence is futile but we extend beyond it.....in eternal life...

the great cause for us is now to realize our dharma. The duty we are endowed, that possibly existed in us across ages.

there is constant urge in us... to better ourselves, to do good, and more good, to make our existence ...meaningful. and therefore we analyse and act, our acts are reflected unto us, and the process continues , as we again analyse , and then act...

the process is realisation....self realisation.

the best in us, the highest achieved at the highest level of self realisation is parmatma.

life is a series of experiences. there is no real losses or victories nor that can be carried forward, what is carried forwarded is expectation. an event may be lost or won or an experience can be good or bad, life is above this, above wins and losses,....life is eternal.