Assistant Prof. Asutosh Pradhan
VII. Conclusion
Social service is intrinsic to human nature. Man cannot live without it, realise his true being without it. Man is a cosmic being that is why he undertakes service to relate himself with other beings of the universe. Spirituality is the basic human urge that seeks purpose, meaning, and connection between the self, the universe, and the ultimate reality and impels man to realise them in experience and action. It is the sum and substance of life that cannot be ignored and viewed as regressive, neurotic or pathological. On the contrary, spirituality is a universal force that alters the existing configuration of the mind and reorganizes it into a higher and healthier form of consciousness. Professional social work governed by the modern scientific paradigm of instrumental rationality has failed to recognise this fact. It has thrown away the baby with bath water.
Postmodernism has landed man in an unenviable predicament. He has been caught in a maelstrom of doubt and uncertainty. He has lost his anchorage in eternal values and absolute truths. His identity and integrality are being smashed to pieces. He has become a homeless nomad and every thing seems alien and unfamiliar. Life has become a farrago of hopelessness, powerlessness and meaninglessness, a wasteland full of cacophonies and dreadful nightmares. Man cannot survive and retain his sanity under these circumstances. Spirituality, the ultimate weapon of defence in his quiver, alone can rescue man from this tragic fate. Spiritualism is a bastion made of granite which no waves of scepticism or anarchism can dismantle, howsoever mighty. Social Work must erect its edifice on this citadel of spirituality in order to fulfil its vision of ushering in a society free of ills and ailments and full of love and life.