Guiding Light: Mantra for peace, prosperity and progress

Guiding Light: Mantra for peace, prosperity and progress

Without working in accordance with ancient spiritual wisdom, neither can we have principled politics nor can we have value-based economics, and neither can we have peace nor can we make such constant progress as should give us real happiness

Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj jiUpdated: Wednesday, February 16, 2022, 04:40 PM IST
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We all wish to live in a society that is peaceful and harmonious. However, a society, in which every individual or group is self-centred, is not a society in any true sense of the word, for it lacks enduring unity of minds or commonality of abiding interests of its people. Thus, it falls short of an important cohesive force or uniting factor that should give to it solidarity and integrity.

Even if the groups constituting it, have some common set of customs and social norms, these groups or individuals often break the norms when their self-interests clash with those of others. Such a society is, at best, a loosely-knit network of communities, classes, institutions or nations, each one of which thrives by using the others for its own growth.

And, a logical consequence of this is that, when a situation arises for a group to choose between what is of benefit to all and what is of greater benefit to that group, it opts for the latter, thus unleashing the forces of disruption, conflict and split. Thus, the fact that a person or a community is civilized, according to the common usage of the word, is no guarantee for stability and progress if the people are not prepared to make even a little sacrifice for the common good of all, in which their own well-being also is ensured. So, the mantra for peace, progress and prosperity of all is to tune our mind to the wisdom, summed up in the famous Sanskrit slogan: “Sarvay bhavantu suhkina, sarvay santu niramaya...”, which means ‘Let all be happy and prosperous, and let all be healthy’.

Unless and until this forms the basis of our politics, economics and business or industrial management, conflict, confrontation, tension and turmoil will always remain. But the question is how can we cultivate this attitude? For this, the second mantra is 'Vasudhaiv kutumbakam...' which means that the whole world is our family.

Without working in accordance with this ancient spiritual wisdom, neither can we have principled politics nor can we have value-based economics, and neither can we have peace nor can we make such constant progress as should give us real happiness. In short, without following these two precepts or Mantras we cannot have a value-based society.

(The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal and UK. You can write to him at nikunjji@gmail.com or visit http://www.brahmakumaris.com/)

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