Across the globe, almost every leader, today, articulates the need to base the educational system, politics, trade and commerce and all other professions on moral and human values. But when these leaders are themselves faced with real life situations, they discover that there are dissensions galore, even among the elite, about the right type of values and also about who should observe which value.
For example, heads of many countries, which are members of the UN or its Security Council, stress upon withdrawal of one powerful country’s troops from a less powerful country, for it is an act of forcible occupation of the territory of another member country and is against the accepted morals or principles of international amity, cooperation, co-existence and non-covetousness, etc. They, therefore, call on the powerful nations to observe moral norms and maintain the status quo ante. But those nations argue vehemently that the UN Security Council and its member nations, do not themselves put into practice the values of being just and fair in their treatment of all nations because, if they did, they should have earlier declared military blockade of, and economic sanctions against, many such powerful nations who have time and again illegally occupied territory of another member country. In short, there is dispute as to who is not observing which value and yet everyone is trying to emphasise that grave moral degeneration has taken place. Each one is raising his or her accusing finger at the other without realising that the rest of the fingers are pointing at him or her and that the real remedy for transforming the society and basing it on cherished values is to work for self-transformation and to fulfil the onus of observing values in one's own life first.
Transformation as we all know and have experienced it ourselves, is in fact a natural process of life wherein there are tons of ups and downs. It's a journey of self-discovery where there are moments on mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair. One single seed, when sown into the ground and watered and nurtured, grows into a tree, every branch of which gives so much fruit year after year for so many years. Imagine, if one transformed seed can thus fulfil the hopes and aspirations of so many fruit lovers, what would our world be like, if each and every person starts transforming positively from within? So, never think that if X, Y, or Z will change only then will I change, because ‘If I change, others around me will definitely change’.
The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal and the UK, and has written more than 8,000 columns. He can be contacted at nikunjji@gmail.com / www.brahmakumaris.com
