Need for a philosophical approach towards life

There is absolutely no doubt that we have a crisis of character in most parts of the world. The rich nations continue to plunder the poor ones through a series of controls and trade restrictions. There is always something called "political economics", the reach of which makes the rich people richer and the poor, all the more poorer day after day.

In our country, we have our atrocious politicians who have managed to exploit our masses through a plethora of excessive controls that have bred corruption all the way. No more is corruption a bad word, since all of us indulge in it day in and day out.

All this disgusting series of events begs one question: do we have a conscience at all? Are we still a nation that mercilessly exploits the poor, where we have IT professionals earning upwards of a lakh of rupees a month at the age of twenty-five but also have hundreds or even thousands of farmers commit suicides,and more than 60 per cent of people in a city like Mumbai do not have accommodation to live.

One answer to all this misery around us is to have a philosophical approach towards life. This philosophical approach towards life can perhaps make people think, and can prevent them from behaving in ways that are essentially unethical.

We have philosophy in every epic like Ramayana or Mahabharatha. The Bible and the Quran have a huge amount of philosophy and lessons for universal brotherhood.

Increasing urbanization of India, coupled with a rapid decline in agricultural growth can only add to the misery that we now see. For, it is only in India's villages that we see some amount of philosophy, some honesty, some basic belief in things that are morally upright and meansingful for the human being.

It is essential that we teach our children that life has its own limitations, and death takes it all. One does not carry anything from this world when he or she dies,much in the same way he or she did not bring anything when they were born. However, the horrible inequalities of life that are always centered around economics, makes people so narrow-minded, evade taxes, pick up the smallest of quarrel with neighbours, friends and colleagues and so on. There is a rapid commercialization of human relationships, with disastrous results.

If the basic philosophy that death closes all is dinned constantly into the ears of our children, inspite of all other environmental influences, we will still see some balance between spiritual and commercial life in them.

Similarly,parents should explain the horrible effects of cutting corners or acting selfish. We should educate our children who would study in standards eight and above, about the bad effects of corruption, and try to tell them that being corrupt is a very bad thing, for it not only makes us insensitive, it also spoils the chance of others who are denied opportunities, just because we are corrupt. We should also din into their ears as to how corruption only widens the inequalities.

Sometime ago, there was an excellent Tamil movie called "Anbe Sivam", which had excellent acting by Kalalahassan, who makes an young software engineer understand that compassion for an unknown child who unfortunately dies in a train accident, is equivalent to acting God. He makes the young engineer understand that compassion for the other human being is the essence of life.

Very recently, there have been some excellent Hindi movies centered around compassion. Such experiences will positively remove the muck in our minds.

Our children would be future leaders. We should atleast produce some Sam Pitrodas, some Abdul Kalams, some Meda Patkars, some Bahugunas, some Narayanamurthys and some Azim Premjis. People who have taught us what it means to have the big picture in mind, people who have contributed so much to the nation, through their lives, from which we can learn quite a bit of philosophy.

We need to be alive to societal trends that are very negative. Unless the decline in agriculture is stopped, we would be facing a food crisis of unmanageable proportions. Some people laugh this off by suggesting that most vegetarians are becoming non-vegetarins, and that the animal kingdom will save us.

But we have also had bird flu, and we might as well have some goat flu in the years to come. Nothing can sustitute agriculture, and we are turning the very idea of an agriculture upside down, by encouraging farmers to literally sell their lands for a song, to build what are now known as "Special Economic Zones".

In each of our actions, there is plunder, there is some displacement of the poor. This should stop, and our turning to philosophy can help to some extent. For, from among the socially-conscious youth of tomorrow,there will emerge some leaders who will fight for the cause of those who are badly affected by Government policies, so heavily loaded towards industrialization, which is no doubt essential, but is now sought to simply eclipse every other alternate industry.

Philosophy transcends religions, cultures, different languages and distances. Let us make our world, our country a far better place to live in, through philosophy that teaches compassion, and concern for the wellbeing of all.

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