Acharya Tulsi
When the child, symbolizing his mother’s dreams of the future, goes to school for the first time, the mother's ambitions grow new wings. She thinks her son is now set on the path of progress. Buoyed up with the yearning of seeing her son become great, she is willing to forgo her own comforts. She already sees in her son a man of noble character and disciplined living. During this period of character—building if any child moves towards violence, displays a criminal tendency or Licentiousness or becomes a drunkard and falls unconscious after taking a drop too much, it highlights certain questions which demand a solution.
The first question arises as to why the child is so ill—bred. ls it because of the influence of heredity or environment? Is it the domestic situation which pushes him into crime or it is the result of bad company’? ls it because of the influence of the cinema and the television that the future generation of the country is being spoil or the degeneration is taking place without any cause. Looking at the existing trends, it seems the teenagers of the 21st century would turn out to be even more unruly. The mind staggers at the mere thought of the perverted faces of the family, the society and the country.
An analysis of the causes of ill-breeding would bring to the fore a number of factors. The absence of a spiritual environment; lack of contact with religious preceptors; the scarcity of character-building literature and want of interest in such literature the absence of the cultural influences generally transmitted through tales and stories told by the grandmother lack of vigilance on the part of parents in the sphere of character-building; sights and sounds exciting criminal urges—these are some of the elements which blunt the children's sensibilities. Blunted children could do anything!
At present, the specter of terrorism is perpetrating new atrocities every day. The soil of Punjab is already saturated with blood. Every now and then we hear of and witness incidents of violence in Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Shri Lanka, etc. Other problems arise here and there. It is possible that terrorism is uprooted in the near future, violence fails, and other problems also get resolved, but how are we going to cope with the new terrorism born of ill-breeding?
The Latest instance of such terrorism is the kidnapping and killing of children by other children. This in the country of Gandhi, where people swear by the doctrine of Mahavir! This macabre dance of violence in the environment of none—violence is truly horrifying. Two adolescents aged 17 and 15, kidnapped two children, five and seven years old. Why? Because they had witnessed a movie only a day before— "The Sinful world"-and what they saw there filled their boyish mind with excitement. Accordingly, they made a plan and executed it, too. lt has been found that the killing of the little children was not their objective, They only kidnapped them with a view to collect ransom. And this too not because they were brought up in poverty and needed money. Without any idea or motive like revenge, etc." those teenagers put an end to two innocent lives. This incident is moving, but also thought-provoking.
If a note of protest rises anywhere against the cinema and the T.V., people are apt to instance the latest T.\/. Serial, Ramayana, which they hold is so very instructive and uplifting. As far as Ramayana is concerned, it is so deeply embedded in the national consciousness, that the very name of it inspires faith. But if we look into the matter deeply, what do our children really get from it? It was reported in the newspapers that some children after witnessing a Ramayana episode on the T.\/., got themselves boss and arrows and started shooting arrows right and left, as a result of which a person lost his eyes. On another occasion, a child, while enacting the role of Hanuman, set fire to a neighbouring house. There is the possibility of many more such incidents. Can we remain indifferent to them?
lt is not our purpose to question the utility of modern means of communication. But, at least, this much is certain that without awakening in ourselves a sense of propriety, all our traditional values are apt to be ruthlessly swept away by the flood of modernity, leaving not a trace behind. The destruction of ancient values poses a great danger, not only to a particular individual or society, but also to the entire human civilization.
At the crucial time of awakening.in our children their creative impulses, the upsurge of a destructive mentality is symptomatic of a total loss of direction. The parents, the teachers and religious preceptors must rise to the occasion and discover a new direction which could help the future generation become good citizens, if not anything else, free them from the clutches of beastliness and set them firmly on the ground of human values, and which would help refurbish the blurred vision of education. If no steps are taken in this direction while there is yet time, the prevention of such incidents would become, not only difficult, but quite impossible.
