|
Promotion of Human Values and Spiritual awareness Towards
eradicating
the Child-Labor and other problems
The entire duration of childhood of the citizens is comparable to
the
foundation of the human society. Ina completed building, although the
foundation
is not visible, yet the quality and strength of the infrastructure has
a direct bearing upon the society, security, rigidity and longevity of
the building. The childhood should be also known as the formative
period
of human life. All the physical, mental, moral and spiritual defects
that
creep into human system during this tender age tend to ruin life of the
individuals resulting in the destruction of the society and nation.
Cultured,
truthful, obedient, wise and self-disciplined children shall formulate
a worthy society of the nation. Cultured, truthful, obedient, wise and
self-disciplined children shall formulate a worthy society of the
nation.
Anything contrary to this is quite undesirable and harmful to the
welfare
of the country. It is the prime responsibility of the parents, teachers
and the rulers to provide a healthy childhood to the younger
generation.
Unless these guardians of the society are righteous by themselves, they
cannot provide proper guidance to the children.
Among all the worthy instructions, inspiration for good conduct is
known
to be of foremost importance. All care should be taken towards
character
building by discarding all kinds of bad habits. At the absence of good
conduct, all the agencies like legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy,
executive,
defense etc shall miserably fail in securing national welfare and
suppressing
wickedness. Along with the implementation of physical needs and
academic
intelligence, spiritual wisdom is most essential to save the society
from
the evils like violence, hypocrisy, cruelty, mistrust, rivalry, hatred,
greed, anger, lust, envy, selfishness, harshness, intolerance and
impurity.
Unrealistic and unpatriotic behavior of the spiritually ignorant
leaders
submerges the society in an ocean of wickedness. Those who are addicted
to materialism, atheism and fanaticism cannot do any real good either
to
themselves or to the society.
Under the guidance of worthy teachers, in a healthy environment, all
the children should be trained to acquire good conduct, generosity,
kindness,
purity, austerity, patriotism, charity, simplicity, honesty,
contentment,
tolerance, responsibility, wisdom, courage and devotion. This process
not
only makes their lives successful, it also shall enlighten their
associates.
Without spreading the virtue of good conduct in the entire society, no
other shot-cut means can eradicate the prevailing evils. Unless all the
bricks of a building are of good quality, you cannot build a good
building
by bad bricks. Today’s children are tomorrow’s pathfinders. The
stringent
necessity is that, you cannot allow even a single child to be lazy,
cunning,
violent, wicked, anti-social or anti-national.
Due to the increase in selfish materialism and decrease in the
spirit
of patriotism, people are losing human values and becoming misguided.
Even
in our beloved motherland, millions are there to misguide and brainwash
the children to train them as immoral, anti-social and anti-nationals.
Due to the crime of neglecting our age-old cultural heritage of eternal
righteousness, today we are finding crores of selfish, regardless,
thoughtless,
uncultured, intolerant, inhuman, cunning and wicked people. Corruption
is quite rampant in most of the departments, which are expected to be
virtuous
and righteous. As a result of the degradation and degeneration we are
seeing
hundreds of crimes and calamities every day in spite of the
conservation
and regulation efforts by our security, legislature, judiciary,
Para-military
etc. Simply by boasting about some of our technical facts we can no
longer
befool ourselves while landing in to ever-new calamities. Atheism,
fanaticism,
intolerance, riots, violence, terror, deception, misappropriation,
corruption
etc are eating up the vitals of the society. Our country should become
either an ornament of one billion gems or a garden of one billion
flowers.
All should see that it should not become a desert of one billion
thorns,
or a den of one billion beasts. If we desire to establish peace,
happiness
and fraternity in the country, all our citizens should adopt holy
character
and noble behavior.
Spiritual enlightenment roots out sinful tendency in the same manner
as a lamp eradicates darkness. The spiritually enlightened society
cannot
commit any crime; a sit has no tendency what so ever towards forbidden
acts. Because of neglecting the spiritual aspect of human life, we are
facing hundreds of problems; as the present day society is steeped in
sin
and selfishness. Our Godless secularism is doing the work of “caring
for
the cage and neglecting the bird”. When the root of the tree is
neglected,
all other efforts to save its leaves, twigs, branches, flowers and the
trunk prove to be futile exercise. For nourishing the human
constituents
like body, mind and the spirit, the most essential factors are material
affluence, academic excellence and spiritual wisdom. This full-fledged
approach alone can build a healthy society free from evils. Academic
culture
enhances the qualities of the head, whereas spiritual culture augments
the goodness of heart.
Even after securing independence, our academic education has totally
neglected the moral land and spiritual aspects of human life. Nobility
and spirituality should have been the way of life for all our citizens.
Absence of spiritual understanding and excessive materialistic
attachment
has degraded the society by manifesting selfishness, mistrust, terror,
deception, rivalry, cruelty, intolerance and disharmony. Even a little
of spiritual maturity can secure a hundred percent welfare of the
society,
whereas a hundred percent of a Godless secularism cannot achieve even
one
percent welfare of the society. It is nothing but the decoration of the
dead body.
Towards properly bringing up of the children, the moral books say
that
Lalyet Pancha Varshani Dasha Varshani Thadayet
Prapte tu Shodeshey Varshey Putrey Mitravadacharet
Young children should be looked after with a great care and
affection
until their age of five years. Later on, for a period of ten years they
should be well disciplined under strict guidance. When they become a
youth
of sixteen years, they should be treated like intimate friends. The
period
of five to fifteen years is very crucial in the life of Human Beings.
All
the negative trends they learn during this age tend to cause permanent
deformation of their lives to ruin the society. The audio-visual
addiction
that has reached every household of the nation is verily corroding the
social foundation by teaching laziness, crime, terror, lewdness, greed,
mischief, violence and corruption. The children who learn noble culture
during this tender age are saved from all kinds of inhuman attitude. If
you study the history of terrorists, militants, killers, smugglers,
defaulters,
deceivers and brutes, the most prominent factor revealed will be about
their wicked association during childhood.
Honest citizens alone are the real assets of the nation. This
honesty
is a direct outcome of well trained and well guided and well-cultured
childhood
under noble guidance. This aspect of spiritual awareness is quite
indispensable
for the welfare of the society and the nation. This is the universal
solution
for all the worldly problems. Just on watering the root of a tree
nourishes
all the millions of leaves; similarly the spiritual wisdom roots out
all
your problems forever. Since the good olden days, the worthy rulers,
the
worthy rulers of our country were guided by realized souls. Lord Rama
was
guided by Sage Vashistha. King Sivaji was guided by saint Ramadas.
Chandragupta
was guided by Chanakya. The rulers who do not accept holy guidance
shall
degrade the society and destroy the nation.
Extracting of hard, tiresome and hazardous labor from young children
and depriving them from the basic necessities like education and
comfort
is a crime against humanity. This problem of child labor chiefly owes
its
existence to the ignorance and economic weakness of the parents, so
also
to the greed and wickedness of the employers. For the purpose of
solving
this social problems the parents should be persuaded through assistance
and counseling. The defaulting employers should be dealt with the
enforcement
of law, legislation, advice, chastisement and penalty. The best course
available for solving this problem is that, the same work should be
given
to the nearest guardian or a relative of the child by relieving the
children
from their burden and to arrange for their basic education.
Apart form economic weakness, some of the parents earn money through
their working children and spend it for drinking, gambling etc. The
burden
of undue work, misguidance, evil company, lack of education etc finally
ruin the life of the working children to create law and order problems.
An employer may be allowed to extract easy labour from poor children if
he looks after them as his own children by providing them due
nourishment
and proper education. Also due care should be taken to see that the
money
earned by these children is not wasted by their elders in gambling,
drinking
etc.
A note of caution is needed to see that, eradication of child labour
should not mean to make them inactive and lazy. Along with school
studies,
children should be encouraged to engage in various kinds of extra
curricular
activities, including social service, serving the parents and helping
the
elders, involving moderate labour in a pleasant environment. A
reasonable
balance should be achieved between tiresome work and inaction, so that
laziness and unproductivity should not prevail in the society. The
lawmakers
should remember that “an idle brain is devil’s workshop”.
Some motivated people entice the parents of the working children to
see that their children are never trained as labours. They instigate
that
their children should become only leaders and officers. If the
programme
of eradicating the child labour is aimed at outright converting all our
children into masters, officers, managers and politicians who will be
there
to look after the enormous volume of labour activities that are
essential
for the sustenance of the nation? If all our students become qualified
as postgraduates, they will demand only white-collar jobs and no one of
them shall accept to do any manual labor. In fact what we need today
is,
cleaner minds and dirty fingernails. Those who invent unrealistic
slogans
and misguiding ideas shall only succeed in befooling the ignorant
section
of the society to bring about confusion and social unrest. No one
should
hesitate to do manual labour also, because work is dignity. Only one
should
always hesitate to do all kinds of unrighteous works. Expecting for
easy
work, high remuneration, and luxurious amenities all these is a result
of immature thinking. Such people are prone to practice corruption and
criminalization to achieve easygoing life and to become over-night
millionaires.
The natural course of the events is that, there shall be fewer
teachers
and more students; few managers and many labours; a few rulers and more
citizens; less doctors and more patients etc. If everyone becomes a
teacher
who will be the students? If all are politicians where they can get
citizens?
If all become managers, where can they get workers? As this arrangement
is a natural phenomena, its implementation also should be a natural
function.
No one is authorized to forcibly occupy the higher positions without
having
due merit and expertise. The four fold categories like the teaching
class,
martial class, trading class and working class , these are the natural
requirements for the proper functioning of the society. Their selection
also should be conducted on a natural and scientific basis.
Regarding the determination of the merit of a child, the Vedic
System
adopts an aptitude test for the children during their first feeding
ceremony
and their natural inclination is ascertained. Thereafter they shall be
imparted with suitable education as per their merit in Gurukula. For an
effective determination of one’s merit and aptitude, a proper
scientifically
arranged test should be conducted upon every child of our country after
the completion of minimum education. Then alone one’s inclination and
merit
should be declared as belonging to either teaching class, martial
class,
trading class or working class. These four groups are known as Brahmin,
kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. The faulty identification purely on
hereditary
ground should be discouraged. This is the right kind of merit
determination
to prevent incompetent people degrading the social standards and also
to
extract the best of our human resource capabilities.
Without determining the exact merit and aptitude of a youth,
directing
him or her towards any kind of specific career is most unscientific and
amounts to a crime against the humanity, as it shall degrade the social
order and efficiency. When the teachers are inefficient in the mission
of teaching; the ruling class if fails in the act of righteous ruling,
protection of the citizens and in arresting the anti national and anti
social activities; the trading class if fails in abundant production
and
distribution of consumer items at reasonable rates; the serving class
if
fails in offering honest service to the society, such a human society
shall
be deprived of its progress and welfare.
Ina nay case a person lacking in necessary merit should never be
appointed
for a particular office. This is most essential for the social
well-being.
Some of our politicians strongly condemn the caste system and strive to
root it out all together. Let them know that, removing the head is not
the remedy for the headache. By discarding this four fold division of
the
society, these rulers have created hundreds of classes to divide and
ruin
the society. This forcible disintegration has resulted in mistrust,
rivalry,
greed, duplicity, discrimination and unrest. Integration of the nation
can be done only through unification of the society. In that case,
there
are two ethical divisions such as honest people and dishonest people;
other
two economical divisions are the poor people and the rich people. Any
other
further classification of the society by the politicians is most
unscientific
and destructive.
It is often said that “ the law makers are the law breakers “. It
sis
quite funny to note that most of these champions of reformation who
hate
the hereditary caste system try to engage all their children in the
line
of politics as they know well that, it is the only industry which
bestows
easy name, extensive fame and huge returns beyond measure. Let them
correct
themselves and act reasonably. It is often seen that, many politicians
when ascend to the rank of the rulers often facilitate their
well-wishers,
relatives, friends and supporters to reap the highest benefit of the
occasion,
even without the required merit and eligibility. Thos who do not follow
righteousness in their own lives lose the right of pointing towards
others.
A righteous person alone can spread righteousness in the society. It is
often seen that, in the appointment of social, academic, political and
other offices often dishonesty plays a role through favoritism,
corruption,
selfishness, nepotism, hegemony, haste, unscrupulousness etc.
The social problem of exploiting the poor children is a result of
the
erosion of the human values in the society, a s direct consequence of
neglecting
the spiritual aspect of human life. Spiritual awareness roots out the
seed
of wickedness and easily establishes peace, welfare and universal
brotherhood
with utmost grace and goodness. Instead of wasting millions and
billions
in fruitless programmes, our rulers should adopt the sense of spiritual
wisdom to prevail upon the society. This shall make every citizen
honest,
responsible, wise and brave. For achieving this magnanimous result ,
all
our ruling section should shed off their own wickedness, selfishness
and
duplicity. Righteous rulers alone can spread perfect righteousness in
the
society. They should stop criminalizing the politics, glorifying the
culprits,
supporting the hypocrites, favoring atheists and helping fanatics. All
the righteous, noble and saintly people should be duly honored and
requested
to guide the society towards spiritual righteousness and to acquire
devotional
love to the Supreme Lord.
A human being needs to avail food, shelter, medicine, information,
education,
recreation and spiritual wisdom to lead a worthy and prosperous life on
earth. A proper guidance towards providing these basic amenities should
always exist in the society. The procedures of law, legislature,
government,
security, penal code etc are needed only to regulate the miscreants and
punish the defaulters. They are of no primary concern to human life.
Maha
Bharata says that, in the beginning of Golden age, the human beings
were
so much righteous that , they never had any kind of government,
kingdom,
rulers, police, penal code or judiciary. All were mutually helping and
protecting each other and striving for mass welfare, being actuated by
eternal righteousness. This is the spirit of real democracy. India is
the
biggest democratic country of the world. If the national situation is
analyzed,
one may wonder how many citizens and politicians are aware of the
duties,
responsibilities and commitments of real democracy that may provide all
the democratic guarantees to one billion Indians!
All of us should strive to spread nobility, honesty, sanctity and
spiritual
wisdom in the hearts of all the one billion citizens of our country.
Although
the task seems to stupendous, we should know that, “ where there is a
will,
there is a way”. Instead of wasting our time in selfish optimism and
degenerative
pessimism, we should adopt a realistic course of spiritual awareness by
observing nobleness in our own lives and inspiring all others. This
shall
work like lighting a lamp in utter darkness. Each lamp can eradicate a
considerable amount of darkness as well as succeed in lighting hundreds
of other lamps. Simply by developing commercial, selfish,
discriminative,
insincere and defective attitudes our rulers can never uplift the
society.
Criminalisation, corruption, misguidance, injustice, riot, violence,
mistrust,
etc are often a net result of defective governance. If the rulers are
lacking
in patriotism, how can they teach honesty to the citizens ? All should
adopt right kind of action by avoiding inaction and evil action.
Similarly,
proper knowledge should be cultivated by avoiding ignorance and
perverted
knowledge. If the educated people do not possess good conduct, they
shall
become clever devils to ruin the society, which is conveyed by the
saying
Sakshara Vipareetatvey Rakshasa Bhaved Dhruvam
All should learn Honesty and Nobility in associating with holy
Persons.
The meaning of being religious is to achieve the highest excellence
is the worthy human qualities, attain self realization and God
realization,
and also to ensure eternal welfare of all the beings like men, women,
animals,
birds, trees, creepers etc. When we find that, some people in the name
of religion engage in violence, terror, sabotage, looting and crimes to
destroy innocent lives of human beings, we can imagine their devilish
down
fall to the hell of unrighteousness in the name of religion. This is an
example of gross irreligion and misuse of religion. As it is said that
, “Little learning is Dangerous”. Our politicians think that, religion
is a “Pandora’s box” which should not be opened. By such an attitude,
our
ignorant politicians are indirectly encouraging the irreligious
wickedness.
If we think on logical grounds, the real purpose of religion is to
bestow
universal welfare of all the living beings through devotional service
to
the Supreme Lord. Just a beloved mother sometimes chastises her erring
children for their real welfare , religion also sometimes chastises the
ignorant people to achieve their reformation. A mother can never do any
harm to her children , so also religion never destroys any living
entities.
True religion is eternal righteousness. Anything that is unrighteous is
irreligion. Thos who perpetuate violence, crime, discrimination,
butchery,
intolerance, hatred and vengeance are gross irreligionists. It is most
unfortunate that, in the name of religion, hundreds of devilish
ideologies
are committing crimes against humanity and thriving in this world,
being
patronized by wicked rulers, uncultured leaders and wicked brutes. All
such inhuman and diabolical activities are fit to be terminated by the
righteous rulers. The ruler of a country should look after all the
citizens
just as his own children and take care of everyone’s welfare by
protecting
them from all kinds of dangers and calamities. Unless the spiritual
righteousness
is established in the minds of all the younger generation, it is not
possible
to achieve real welfare of the society. Simply taking care of the
secular
aspects and disregarding spiritual values is nothing but a foolishness
of decorating a dead body. Instead of solving any problems, this type
of
anti-spiritual attitude shall create hundreds of national problems to
ruin
the entire country. In Gita and Bhagavatham we learn about the super
excellent
qualities of spiritually enlightened persons. Due to the mere presence
of such devotees of glorious character, all their associates and the
entire
human society can achieve total success and permanent well being of
Human
Life.
Genuine spiritual wisdom should be imparted to the young children
from
their very young age by the help of holy personalities. This process
shall
make their lives brilliant, blemish less and successful. Also it
prevents
their downfall under the influence of selfish materialism, mad atheism
and diabolical fanaticism. Accepting the philosophical doctrines, only
in words and not implementing them in practice, proves the immaturity
and
hypocrisy of the so called jnanis. It is not enough to merely accept
the
goodness as view of life. One should accept all the great teachings of
the spiritual science as a complete way of life. Then alone the real
benefit
of divine wisdom shall be avoided by the human society.
Spiritual awareness is the rot of eternal righteousness. Neglecting
the spiritual values overcomes the society with ignorance and
unrighteousness.
Unless all the citizens are trained to be honest, responsible, wise and
brave by the help of spiritual inspiration, all the welfare activities
of secularism are bound to fail miserably. The material affluence and
academic
excellence can really help the society, only when they remain
absolutely
allegiant to spiritual wisdom. Then alone our temporary earthly
existence
can bestow us permanent success. Godless secularism and atheistic
learning
are nothing but a curse for the society.
Now let us try to understand the higher ideals of the spiritual
process.
Among the human beings, the spiritualist is an wakened person, the
materialist
is a sleeping and dreaming person. A waking person alone can awaken
others
from their sleep. Those who do not associate themselves with an
enlightened
person can not understand about spiritualism, just as a person
traveling
on a boat cannot easily understand his own movement as well as the
movement
of other boats. Similarly, those who are subjected to the mundane
relativity
of nescience can not have any idea about the absolute situation
of
the pure spirit. The realized souls and the revealed scriptures alone
can
provide the information regarding the absolute reality. For the highest
welfare of the humanity, Lord Sri Chaitanya advised to chant the divine
holy names in holy company by acquiring the four fold merits such as
1. Humbler than a blade of grass
2. Forbearing like a patient tree
3. Not seeking any respect for oneself
4. giving due respect to one and all
A devotee first of all possess all the best of the human qualities
and
yet should not have any vanity for the same. He should know himself
humbler
than a blade of grass. The second quality is to have utmost patience in
all the situations, like a benevolent tree. The tree which gives its
all
belongings to the sustenance of the life on earth, never demands
anything
in return. Even by tolerating rain, hot sun, storm etc the tree
protects
others by providing shade and shelter. Even a stone-thrower is rewarded
with sweet fruits ! It never asks even a glass of water when dying due
to dry spell. It silently tolerates all the tortures inflicted by
animals
and men. A devotee should be free from all kinds of envy and
retaliation
like a silent tree and protect and help everyone just as a tree does.
He
should never cause any kind of anxiety to others and feel happiness at
the welfare of others. The third quality is to remain free the desire
for
name and fame. Egoistic people always covet name and fame, even without
having nay kind of greatness. Those who are really great never run
after
publicity. The fourth merit is to offer due respect to all the living
beings,
knowing the presence of God in the hearts of one and all. When every
one
is the progeny of the God, How can you commit harm to them ? Hence, the
slaughterers and meat eaters have no eligibility to chant the Divine
Names.
These four fold merits mentioned above are capable of spreading
universal
welfare and eternal well being for all the living entities, when
sincerely
followed while chanting the Divine Names.
|
