Our humanity is sick and withering away and unless its moral fiber is regenerated and strengthened and human character and behavior motivated by love, compassion, mercy and selfless service to fellow human beings the complete disintegration of ‘our existence on this planet is not very far. On one hand our knowledge of the Universe is becoming staggering, our scientific and technological achievements wondrous, and our journey to Moon already accomplished and our flight to Venus and Mars not so very far. Paradoxically on the other hand our conquest of ourselves is getting more and more remote, our greed and selfishness increasing and return to primitive life with its concomitant reactions, emotions and impulses and impulses more and more manifest.
One would expect that religious affinity, common political and ideological philosophy and common heritage in color, caste and culture would lead to respect, regard, harmony and cooperation amongst the sharers of these common patterns of life but in reality it is not so, You have simply to glance through the pages of a day’s newspapers to find the cruel truth of people sharing all these common values Killing one another all over the world, whites killing whites, blacks killing blacks, Muslims killing Muslims and Christians killing Christians, It is a well-known historical fact that more deaths are caused in the name of religion than all the other causes of death put together, including the two World Wars of this century. In general it is said that men will write for religion, wrangle for religion, fight for religion and die for it, anything but love it, it is not the profession but practice of religion which is essentially the spirit of all religions and all preach love, compassion, understanding and service of humanity. Thomas Fuller said “A good life is the only religion” and that is the essence of all religions. With regard to common color, culture and language things are no better. Look at what is happening in Bosnia where Serbs are committing pogrom against their own countrymen, in Rawanda where Tutsis are killing Hutu and vice versa and In Somalia where Somalis are killing Somalis.
Our society today can be divided ‘economically into two classes, the affluent one possessing plenty of everything and the needy who are short of basic necessities of life. Let us ‘consider the affluent class first. In this class there is plenty of money to purchase the means of happiness such as houses, motorcars, beautiful furniture and nourishing and tasty food. ‘There is ample guidance for keeping good health and time to relax, read ‘and travel, Science and technology has provided them with the means of tapping resources of wealth from the earth mountains and deep sea, There is mastery over sea, air and the high sky and every device is at hand to make life comfortable. I do not see ‘any conceivable means Which are not available to them to feel happy but what do we notice, This very section ‘of the population suffers from it: health like indigestion, mental depression, high blood pressure and diabetes, There is increasing incidence of suicide and alarmingly increasing Tale of divorces due to infidelity, it appears that affluence makes people miserable and unhappy and is nor the thing to have.
Now look at the other extreme, poverty, disease and ignorance, Mors than half the people in this world do not get a square meal a day, cannot have sufficient clothes to cover their bodies not to talk of protecting the same against inclement weather. There are no houses and the quite majority lives and sleep under the canopy of stars. They suffer from malnutrition and die of diseases which, in the advanced countries, are preventable and curable, Over and above all this there is ignorance which breeds superstition which adds to the tragedy. So it is a curse to be poor.
‘Now common to both these classes, whether we are rich or poor the present day environment is such that we suffer from jealousy, bigotry, suspicion, prejudice, religious fanaticism, racial hatred, dishonesty, and selfishness. Cheating a person is called cleverness, deceiving is covered by the word diplomacy, overcharging in business is called tact and acumen and telling a lie is called shrewdness and discourtesy and rudeness is interpreted as straight forwardness. Exorbitant fees ‘are charged to keep up the prestigious professional standards symbolic of status.
Let us try to correct this sordid situation and bring sanity to the human race, Most of the problems are caused ‘by our attitude of mind. Milton in “Paradise Lost” said “The mind is its ‘own place, and can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven”. The Bible says that the kingdom of happiness is within us. So if we tune our mind to think and act in terms of love, affection, compassion and mercy towards all irrespective of caste, color, creed and religion our society can survive ‘and sustain in happiness, harmony ‘and cooperation. All are creatures of God’s dispensation and must be considered equal and we must do away with surface distinctions with an all-embracing love and behold our fellow beings as our kith and kin. G.S. Sandhu, M.D, Ex. Kenya.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 15, 1995
