religiosity is even a social necessity

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Religiosity is even a social necessity

 

 

SrI:

SrImatE rAmAnujAya nama:

SrI lakshmI narasimha parabrahmaNE nama:

 

Dear vaishNavAs,

 

The human society is a huge complex system, with its

innumerable parameters. Different well-wishers of the

society try to understand its nature, sothat they can

provide fitting solutions to the problems attached to

it. When a disease outbursts, some try to produce a

drug to subdue it; when a natural calamity trembles

human life, some try to find ways to predict such

calamities and rescue people from them;…. Yet the

solutions are limited and problems are unlimited. We

do have our own reasons why society at large is

suffering on the face of earth. Some say large

population, some say illiteracy, some say corruption,

some say criminals, some say lack of resources, and so

on so forth. But if we are genuine in our attempt to

understand the real cause, the answer is very simple.

Let us make an enquiry in that direction.

 

The theory of evolution says that the increase in the

population of a specie in a specific locality is due

to favorable conditions of that locality for that

specie. To agree on this point, we just need a little

commonsense, and nothing more. The Indian

subcontinent, including china contributes to the

maximum percent of world’s population. It is a fair to

argue that this it is due to the favorable conditions

for life in these places. The higher the population,

the greater the productivity; resulting in the

prosperity of the community. However, practical

observation is contrary to this seemingly fair

reasoning. Many people in the subcontinent suffer with

poverty stricken life. This indicates the problem of

disproportionate productivity and/or disproportionate

distribution of products. Disproportionate

productivity? Yes, when our farmers produce tobacco in

place of groundnut, acqua culturing in fertile(rice

producing) coastal fields; when most of the engineers

work to produce non-agriculture related products; when

doctors become ‘beauty surgeons’; when our most

valuable youth wants to talk about cricket/hockey/….

Players, models, actors/actresses; there is a

possibility of lesser productivity of essential

amenities. When we produce objects other than what is

required, we run the risk of not producing the right

ones, leading to disproportionate production. This can

be attributed to wrong directors of the society,

including politicians and media. A film actors’

influence on the general public shows how much our

people are receiving information from wrong people.

 

 

Disproportinate distribution? Yes, There is no

hardship in agreeing to the fact that the products are

not distributed among the masses evenly. But the real

question is why this should take place. The answer is

also very transparent, corruption. But most people

opine that there is no fool-proof anti-corruption

system existing which can prevent such malpractices.

But if we honestly investigate the real problem is not

with the system, but with the individuals. If we have

a tougher corruption checking system, people find much

more intelligent ways to abuse it. The problem is the

intention of the people to corrupt. Even the crimes

take the same logic.

 

Are the problems of the society attributable to the

low literacy rates in the society? If we trace back

our history, we will find it wrong, because just a 500

years ago the same land used to prosper with gold and

grains with the same illiterate people.

 

Let us even assume that we transcended the problems of

huge population, illiteracy, corruption, crimes,….;

are we then happy?. We can analyze this by taking an

example of such a nation, Sweden. Sweden is a huge

country in European standards with a very minute

population (less than the population of a metro city

in India), every one atleast finishes high school

education, least corrupted nation of the world, least

crimes in the world as well, beautiful natural

surroundings, sophisticated appliances, very big

per-capita income, zero poverty (as government

provides all allowances for disabled, old and

unemployed people); YET THE HIGHEST SUICIDE RATE.

 

So a genuine investigator of problems of the society

has to come to the basic question of the problems of

individual. As we have seen earlier, disproportionate

production is due to misdirection and greed; crimes

and corruption are due to the arishad vargAs

kAma(mis-directed desire), krOdha(anger),

lObha(greed), mOha(dillusioon), mada(pride) and

matsara(envy). Above all these, dissatisfaction of the

self as we have seen in the countries like Sweden.

 

Society needs a good direction, for which society

needs people who can direct it with unselfish motives

towards prosperity. Society needs distribution of

wealth, but by those who are not greedy and disloyal

or corrupt. Society needs administrators who monitor

the whole transactions. And society needs non-lazy

producers, who produce objects that are needed by the

society. These four essential classes of men can be

called brAhmaNas, vaishyAs, kshatrIyAs and sUdrAs. Not

just we need these four classes of men, but who are

non-corrupt by nature. We can have preventive systems

to stop selfish motives of men, but with rules crime

cannot be stopped, just it can be post-poned or

disguised. So, morality of the individuals is the real

solution to all the problems of the society. Where do

we develop morality other than a RELIGION?

 

Religion inculcates morality in its followers, and

people are guided towards the almighty. For a follower

of a religion, he knows that he is being witnessed by

God, and is mindful of his actions. Even if he forgets

this for a while, his spiritual teacher’s mercy can

correct the fouls of the faithful. Most importantly,

righteous activity is the natural ornament of a true

believer of God. Hence, a true philanthropist or a

social well-wisher is intrinsically theistic. Non

religious men who are inclined towards righteous

action, although acting generously at times and made

his/her mind to behave good, because they do not have

any strong reason why they should act righteously,

they will soon fall from righteousness.

 

A fitting example to this scenario is Buddhism,

although Buddhism was accepted by many people in the

beginning days for moral reasons like non-violence,

vegetarianism,.. soon it lost its principles. Now

including the dalai lamas almost all budhists are

non-vegetarians.

 

A non-theistic moral person may restrain himself from

drinking alcohol, but he doesnot have a strong reason

for maintaining such a strong resolve. At a weak

moment, he may fall prey to it; whereas for a theistic

person, he has every reason why he should maintain his

righteousness. A religious person also has a purpose

to his life, i.e. cultivating love of God. Hence, he

identifies the purpose associates with it, unlike the

void visualized by god-less men. Hence in a strongly

religious community, situation of Sweden doesn’t

arise.

 

 

Although religion is not the result of social

necessities, but one can say, religiosity is even a

social necessity.

 

Sarvam krishNArpaNamastu.

 

dAsOham,

SrIperumbUdUru vEnkaTa vinOd.

 

 

 

 

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