Gaikwad Milind Raghuvir, India Secretary: Bahujan Sanskritik Kendra Why is the mankind sinking into deep crisis? War and Hatred is badly affecting the life of people. Mankind is loosing its Values and the world situation is facing reckless and irresponsible exploitation and destruction. Each group of society and for that matter each individual is facing the problem of inner contradictions. The effect of this is not limited to that group of Society but it spreads through out the World Society like abnormal growth of Cancerous Cells. This inner conflict is the conflict between Cognition and desire. Mankind must remove this inner contradiction , keep one self in control and eradicate various wrong notions . Because it is causing harm , not only to the individual but to the society and the Humanity at large. Our dreams for making this world a better place to live can become illusive and unreachable if we do not find any honest and practical solution to this inner conflict.
Mankind is facing a historical problem .
The strength of spiritual culture and its practice in day to day life for the betterment of the humanity is diminishing. The feeling developed by the growth of technological advances and the blind pursuit of man for material prosperity results in neglecting the spiritual dimension of human culture. Globalization , technological developments and pseudo National Spirit do not fulfill the internal and spiritual aspirations of mankind. Technology has become a tool of greed and hatred. The technological development is used to lull the humanity into needless consumption , dullness , and intoxication and not for the growth and quality of life of an individual with society at large. They have been used as tools to seek objects of desire and in doing so this is further enhanced by the greed and struggle for material resources.
The world is observing the serious conflict between philosophical doctrines and spiritual (religious) systems. The root cause of all the modern day conflict is due to people giving importance only to “I” and “Mine”. They are not flexible in their behavior. They adhere to very extreme views about “I” and “Mine”. Many religious traditions , political doctrines and civilizations today are fighting for supremacy . This act of mankind to have Supreme Control over everybody by means of perfectionism and try to becoming sacred to others , so that all will respect and worship them, creates the atmosphere of confrontation and not that of “Peaceful Co- Existence”. Hence so long as the minds of the people are not remedied , it is impossible to eradicate the cause of suffering and alienate such man made disasters. Hence if the world really desire to have prosperity , peace and steady development of all Humanity then Mankind needs to accept the principal of “Peaceful Co- Existence” propagated by Buddha.
The modern day needs and aspirations of the people are not achievable by the present philosophical or religious path. The Self-Centered attitude , expansionism and non-compassionate behavior is in full force in today’s life. These are the basic causes of hatred , wars , separatism and various other problems faced by us. Similar situation prevailed at the time of Buddha. The culmination of tireless search by Buddha realized in Loving and Compassionate religious path which he propagated and has become the only ideal solution for the divided and hatred filled society. The path of Buddha has now become the one which can fulfill the religious and spiritual need of modern man. I feel that BUDDHISM might become the reasonable solution to all the problems of mankind related to Stress , Fatigue , Competition, Globalization and more specifically “I” and “Mine” culture. In short BUDDHISM can provide solutions to all the problems faced by Mankind i.e. Religious , Cultural , Ethical , Educational , Economical and will definitely bridge the gap between rich and poor, developed and under-developed . The Buddhist way of life can eradicate discriminations among races and social classes , ideological conflict and terrorism, destruction of environment .
Buddhism helps individuals to socialize and find out the essential nature of various things in life and show us the path and it’s scientific methodology ( Buddhism allows to change this methodology as per the progress of science - PARIVARTAN) to act in the society and world at large that will be conducive to an individual as well as the society. It teaches us to establish harmony within ourselves. It teaches us to use our own wisdom to find the solutions to various problems faced by humanity. It concentrates on Human Being and did not believe in rebirth or soul. For this it provides us the training of MIND by way of VIPPSANA. It deals with our greedy and egoistic approach and embed Selflessness in the individual which ultimately leads to harmony and happiness in Human Life. It also teaches us the principle of Self – Healing i.e. individuals own ability to heal themselves of individual and social problems. It compel us to have firm and secure moral foundation and inner purity. Here psychological factors makes large difference and hence training of MIND becomes critical. Therefore one must adopt a life style of freedom which is free from physical and mental ailments. Healthy and harmonious individual can only build the healthy and harmonious society.
Buddhism as the religion and as the global Social Philosophy , demonstrates the unending relationship between Democracy and Social Justice. It offers practical and theoretical doctrine for Democracy and Social Justice so that society at large can get maximum benefit out of it. Buddhism do not discriminate between individual welfare and Social Welfare ; on the contrary it stresses on close relationship between Individual , Social and Spiritual Welfare to create a happy world for humanity. It emphasize on positive linking between Democracy and Social Justice to discard destruction of oneself , the society and the nation. Thus Buddha developed the above concept , among others , to have a Just and Peaceful co-existence in the society . Buddhism emphasizes and encourage people to develop such a Socio-Political and Economic system which will positively benefit the humanity in the development and creating peace , harmony and social justice .
Democracy is understood as a moral way of life in Buddhist thought process.
It questions who the rulers are?
What qualification they should posses to become ruler?
It also examines what constitutes the freedom in all walks of life.
Hence the Buddhist concept of Democracy, as an instrument for developing Human Good , comes from the Buddhist Socio-Political Philosophy. Also Buddhism values human personality with dignity and moral responsibility , it treats every person being qualified to have sovereignty.
In pre-Buddha era in India the social structure was having Caste system in which human being were segregated in upper and lower Castes and it was by birth and not by the individual’s performance. This artificial barrier does not allow lower caste people to have Socio-political and economical relationship with upper caste people. It does not allow lower caste people to have the basic rights such as education and healthy living. Therefore Buddha found the process to purify the Mind by removing inner contradictions. Hence Buddha’s teachings became more popular at that time in India.
Therefore Buddha deals with mental tendencies that are the cause of this social evils. It is because material well being alone can not bring the changes necessary for the moral development of human being. In any Socio-Political structure if the people do not follow the path of “Welfare State” then they will not be able to govern themselves and Democracy will not work and people themselves will suffer exploitation . The basic aim of Democracy and Social Justice is to create a Social Order to benefit all the humanity irrespective of Class, Caste and Creed so as to bring peace , harmony and development of the society at large.
Hence the Buddhist thought process of Democracy , which is strongly based on morality of each individual , is totally in conformity with modern Democratic principles and filters down to Social Justice. In view of this thinking an ideal society is one which would be based on Justice and the face value of each human being is determined by the strength of their character and not by their Caste or class and provide equal opportunities to all. Hence in Buddhist thought process the society is based on Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity free from exploitation.
In democracy the people are the head of State and also the administrators. Its quality depends on the quality of the people to govern. In Democracy the responsibility of quality of people that governs therefore lies with the people themselves. Therefore the Democratic system must provide ample opportunities to all for their Socio – Political , Economical and Mental development so that people can live in peace and harmony. A well developed Democratic government will try to give maximum opportunities to its people to fully utilize their potential according to their ability for the purpose of a just Socio-Political and economical development. If people are provided with such an opportunity then they will also contribute to the constructive growth of the society.
All these that I have said has meaningful bearing in Indian context. Here I want to highlight the work done by Late Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar – Maker of Constitution of Independent INDIA and his contribution to Indian Democracy and Social Justice by pronouncing India as a “ Welfare State”.
His contribution to Social Justice for the downtrodden and have-nots of the society is unparalleled in the history of our planet. The people in India are guaranteed by Constitution to perform and to have peace and harmony among people and can thrive for better Socio-political and Economical development based on justice, equality , liberty and fraternity.
For furthering this cause he embraced Buddhism – A way of Life, along with his millions of followers in the year 1956.
He enshrined this basic principles of Buddhism in the Constitution of India which is reflected in the “PREAMBLE’ of the constitution as given below.
People all over the world must look into this gigantic work of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar and adopt these policies of Democracy and Social Justice in their form of Governing of the nation so as to develop society on the principals of Justice , Liberty , Equality and Fraternity – “ A WELFARE STATE ”.