US Gov should pursue Vedic injunctions

[Guest guest]

US administration should pursue Vedic injunctions

 

BY RAMESH SHARMA

 

Buddha said, "He who fills his lamp with water will not dispel the

darkness, and he who tries to light a fire with a rotten wood will

fail." This is what is happening with Bush and the Iraqi dictator

Saddam Hussain. Trying to punish Saddam Hussain the Bush way is just

like filling the lamp with water. In a similar vein, the manner in

which the Bush administration is trying to proceed with its policy of

disarmament can indubitably be likened to an attempt at lighting a

fire with rotten wood.

 

No doubt contemporary world is fraught with widespread tensions and

conflicts. Relations among the nation states are touching the lowest

ebb. There is hardly any region in the world today that is free from

internecine standoffs. The legacy of the great wars that marked the

twentieth century is threatening to bedevil our existence.

Proliferation of weapons, both conventional and nuclear, has added to

the escalating woes.

 

The way apocalyptic politics has been unfolding itself seems to have

warranted an urgent intercession on the part of spiritual realm.

Spiritualism, in the present context, needs to be redefined against

the perspective of twenty-first century realities. It should not be

confined to the four walls of Mandir, Masjid, Church and Gumbas. In

essence, spiritualism is something that wields the potentiality of

bailing the world out of present smoldering impasse.

 

Lord Krishna had promised: "Whenever righteousness declines and

unrighteousness prevails, I manifest." In order to translate Lord

Krishna's declaration into a reality, it is the duty of spiritual

world to rise, awake and revolt against the all-pervasive anomalies

and distortions that have already threatened to jeopardize our

civilization. Spiritualism cannot remain aloof when it comes to

combating atrocities that are insidiously eating into the fabric of

human existence.

 

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain is alleged of having used lethal gases

against his own people. Western governments and the media have

projected him as the most opprobrious incarnation of Hitler who is

virtually a nonpareil in the realm of cruelty and ruthlessness.

Besides, the Iraqi leader is also accused of having embarked on a

nuclear pursuit that, the present US leadership believes, can be

extremely detrimental to their interests. America is apprehensive

about the possibility of Saddam following in the footsteps of al

Qaeda that notched up an unprecedented record in the history of

terrorism by crashing airlines into major US targets.

 

President Bush's apprehensions are not unjustified. It is equally

discernible that Saddam needs to be disarmed. But the million dollar

question is: 'How to persuade Saddam to relinquish the obnoxious

pursuit?" Should the Bush-Blair combine be allowed to ride roughshod

over international norms and practices in the name of weeding out

Iraqi dictator? Should the international community reduce itself to

passive spectator when the Anglo-American forces make a blatant

mockery of the United Nations by making unilateral decision to go to

war? Isn't it imperative that the entire options get exhausted before

declaring war against any country?

 

Millions of people across the globe have been demonstrating against

war on Iraq. Perhaps it is not because they love Saddam. Certainly,

it is because they don't want to ensure that an odious precedence of

preemptive strike is established. Meantime, they have a strong

contempt for the emergence of an order wherein 'end justifies the

means'. Therefore, it is their tacit demand that even Saddam be given

ample opportunity to prove his bona fides, if he desires so. It is

true that while dealing with the UN inspection team Saddam is not

found to have been in a 'material breach'.

 

On the flip side, the United States should also rectify its foreign

policies underscored by supercilious overtones. The US administration

should cease to harbor any discrimination when it comes to treating

Israel and its Arabian neighbors, Palestinians being the prominent

one. The way the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East have been

pampered is also responsible for subjecting the US to endemic

reproach. American administration should not expect the United

Nations to play second fiddle to its eccentricities. Most important,

the US approach itself virtually premised on 'clashes of

civilization' should undergo perspicacious transformation to ensure

that the Islamic world begins to develop some sort of predisposition

towards cordial and fruitful coexistence with the

West. 'Sangachchhadhwam, Sambadadhwam!' (Let's walk together, let's

speak together). The US, however a hyperpower on earth, should not

veer from this Vedic injunction.

 

Swami Vivekananda said, "Do not care for doctrines, do not care for

dogmas, or sects, or churches or temples; they count for little

compared with the essence of existence in each man which is

spirituality and the more this is developed in a man, the more

powerful is he for good." Politics today has lost this vision. It has

been an instrument of tyranny and despotism. It is primarily

responsible for ongoing degeneration. Therefore, it has to be

rejuvenated by its solemn intermingling with spiritual values. The

synergy thus created will certainly pave the ground for enduring

peace and harmony in human society. Apparently, having been driven by

entrenched vengeance the US, instead of unleashing diatribes against

alleged 'axis of evils', should concentrate itself in giving a solemn

direction to international politics. Because, violence cannot be a

solution to violence. And war cannot be a precursor to peace and

stability. It has been amply demonstrated by what is happening in

Afghanistan that had almost been destroyed by US in the Aftermath of

September 11. The Iraqi leadership will also suffer a devastating

nemesis if it fails to comply with the will and aspirations of

international community and disarm itself as per resolution 1441 of

the United Nations Security Council.