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 associated 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 necessity, but one can say, religiosity is even a social necessity.

Sarvam krishNArpaNamastu.

dAsOham,

SrIperumbUdUru vEnkaTa vinOd.