Acharya Mahaprajna
The Art & Science Of Living
Chapter 4.
Awakening
28
The Third Eye
[Tolerance is essential for reforms in life. Purity of life, peacefulness and compassion are the foremost requirements of society. The development of compassion and control of desires are essential for change.]
Many people have talked about reforming society. But reform cannot come till one achieves the capacity to withstand pain, oppression and hardship. These qualities are paramount for bringing about reforms.
Different thought processes are going on for reforming the whole society. Marx gave the principle of socialism. He dreamt of a commune and a society, which would not have any ruler. The ideal of communism is the state without administration. Though a state without administration is a dream, the whole society is heading towards stern governance, where more regulations are being imposed. Our whole perception is misguided and perverted. The process of reforming is not starting from right place. Unfortunately, the system of economy, administration and behaviourism are being reformed. As long as the foundation is not reformed, even reformed objects would not be effective. Therefore, the reforms have to start from an individual.
The first requirement for reforming society is to achieve the purity of man. A person with a pious wisdom can reform society because he can perceive the truth. Truth can be perceived only by a person who has commitment towards the truth. The first doctrine for reforming society is to inculcate a deep commitment towards truth. I consider man as the fundamental factor instead of society. Reforming a man means reforming a society.
The second doctrine is a peaceful life. Unless a man realizes peace and tranquillity in his own life, he cannot reform society.
The third thing is compassion. A man without compassion cannot contribute towards the reformation of society. It is astonishing and distressing to know that the people of different sects like Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Hinduism, etc, claim to be religious but indulge in barbaric cruelties. The mind gets agitated on witnessing their ruthlessness. Religiousness is fictitious and adulterated by continuing traits of cruelty. Cruelty encourages adulteration. People are practicing religiousness with cruelty. Are they theist or atheist? When you contemplate deeply then you come to know how much cruelty they possess. On one side, they continue to worshipping and on the other side, they continue to behave cruely. We have become habitual in practicing religiousness and simultaneously perpetuating nefarious acts. We are inclined to use religion to cover our sinister deeds. When I go through the newspapers and read that a young lady has been murdered, burnt to death due to lack of dowry, then I ponder and question whether society is made up of human beings. I feel ashamed to accept this. Even animals are not so barbaric; they do not indulge in violence unnecessarily. Even a lion does not attack unless it is hungry or is being disturbed. But main is an exception because he simply kills another due to some greed. The so called kind hearted and benevolent people, who are afraid of killing an ant, do not hesitate or tremble at all while murdering a man. Is it human and civilized behaviour? Why should we be hypocrites and talk about religion? Today we talk about awakening but man is living in deep infatuation and slumber. It is amazing when we witness a mother in-law torturing or burning her daughter in-law. A woman is humiliating and killing another woman. It reveals how deep the infatuation is. It seems the whole of humanity is heading towards ruthless cruelty.
The first lesson of a religion is to develop compassion and sympathy. A person who has no sympathy and compassion will go on troubling others. He can never be truly religious. We shall have to investigate the root cause of this cruelty. It may be that an individual is cruel, but when the whole society appears to be inclined to become like that, then this seems to be a new development of the twenty first century. Today, generally it is observed that diseases are multiplying. It is said that the non- availability of pure flour, ghee, milk, water, vegetables, etc., is the cause of increase in disease. Has it occurred due to poverty? No, this is not true. Poverty was existing earlier also but adulteration was not prevalent then. Adulteration has not occurred due to poverty. It has occurred due to cruelty. Man is gradually losing compassion and developing cruelty.Infact, the greed for money is escalating cruelty, so much so that a brother is inclined to kill his brother, a son is inclined to kill his father without any hesitation.
Economists have also contributed indirectly to augment this cruelty. Their whole stress is on expansion on desires. They declare that when desire increases only then material development occurs which paves the way for the development of society. The doctrine of development of desire has made people so ambitious that the person having untold wealth cannot sit silently unless he becomes the richest man in the world. His main aim of life is to solely expand his economy and amass wealth, irrespective of ethical or unethical means. This has supported flouting of canons, ethics, morality and humanity with impunity, consequently leading to cruelty. The system of ecological balance emphasizes that matter is limited and impermanent, and that desires are infinite. In order to solve our problems, we have to limit our desires somewhere. Therefore, everybody should control his desires. When desires are controlled only then can social reform be thought of. This change will be truly the change at the right place and root out problems. Without controlling desires, no reform is possible. Today, unfortunately money is valued more than man.
For reforms, the growth of compassion and control over desires is extremely important.