by Swami Radhanandaji

It is not surprising that today, as in the past, we are victims of our own pride, ego, jealousy, sex, passions, anger and greed.  We are the victims of our own education, society system, commerce, politics, religion and all aspects of our lives including our environment.

If we consider ourselves an advanced society, we should measure our progress not by how much we eat, procreate or prevent procreation, not by the amount of comforts we enjoy, nor by how much selfishness, unlimited greed and pride exist in us, but by how peaceful, loving and tolerant we are towards others. This is the true measure of our scientific and technological progress.

Parents will be answerable to God on how they performed their duties towards the children that they have bought into this world. If we parents do not truly sacrifice our passions, greed and idiosyncrasies for the good of our children, it will come to haunt us in the end. 

We have created a so called “standard of living” where mothers have to work to keep up with the foolish imaginary status at the cost of true love to the family. How can she keep up with the duties around the house and the duties on her job without paying a heavy price for it? The results of such a heavy price are obvious. Unless the wisdom of Gita or Spiritual teaching prevails in the world, we are headed towards our own self-created devastation. 

Parents, by not truly dedicating their lives to raise their own children, have become a liability to their own children, much more to themselves. Mere eating, sleeping, earning a living, breeding and raising children and at last, dying is not a big achievement for human beings. Even animals and birds do that and, much to our shame, they do it better than we do. We have created the need for baby sitters, thus denying our children incomprehensible love of their mother. Love cannot be replaced by toys or comforts of house, furniture or any other material provisions. Love cannot be bought by paying a baby sitter to look after our children. 

We have a solution to all problems that exist throughout the world, but this solution is not in any religion, neither is the way to resolve these problems in the manner and direction in which we are headed. We are headed towards our own destruction. We are only headed to the rock of Gibraltar. Only Spirituality has all the answers, and only Spirituality can truly bring Universal love, brotherhood, joy and peace. Spirituality is not a prerogative of any specific country, people or system. God is all pervading and is equally in all of us- irrespective of our beliefs, traditions and behavior.

The Upanishads and Gitaji are available to all of us for learning, understanding and practicing the Truth that can bring back joy into our lives. India’s specialty is in her Spirituality. If we lose its practice, we have nothing to show or count on. We have inherited Lord Krishna’s Supreme message of Gitaji. Despite this treasure, India is in a pathetic state. If the Lord questioned us about this, how shall we answer him? How many of us have read, understood and practiced Gita? Will the Lord be proud of us and our society as it exists today? Let us all sit down together and truly reverse the “trade” before it takes an even more tragic turn. There is no need to suffer when the Compassionate Lord has created such a beautiful, perfect and joyous world for man, His finest creature.  

Can we say that we treat animals and nature as responsibly as God had intended for us to do? Have we used the intelligence that He instilled in us and the guidelines He laid for us through His scriptures? We have become a liability to ourselves. Let our pride yield to humility, and let us faithfully listen to Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus and all the noble prophets and saints so that this planet can become one roof under which we can all live joyously. We must quit living like frogs in small wells. Frogs do not realize that the water in their well is the same as the water in the other wells because it comes from one source- the Ocean, of course! Similarly, we do not realize that there is only one God.

There is total unity in this world. We are just like branches, leaves, flowers and fruits that belong to the same tree, and we all share its roots. here is always hope! We must exhibit true faith in the scriptures we worship, and live according to them. At least we can try our best, and leave the results unto the Lord. We will all be answerable to our conscious in due time; I hope it is not too late to change then. Even the worst of the evil doer can reorganize life for the better; no one is eternally condemned. If we listen to the inner voice and not make a business out of religion as we have allowed it to be, Spirituality will prevail and falsehood will fall off.