Make Human Habitat Happy

LET US BE HAPPY

I am indeed happy. Members of my immediate family are happy. My neighbours are happy. However, the Al Qaida and the Taliban operatives in the area are NOT happy because they have had no kill so far. They blame the people of the locality for not cooperating with the Islamist terrorists. Strange logic. Happiness is a state of the mind. The state of the mind of an individual depends on the circumstances, the environment and the factor called cause 'n effect. What is the cause that will effect happiness? The cause may be personal, social or political. It may be physical or mental or spiritual. It may be social at the local level or the national level or international level.

DHARMA FOR HAPPINESS

What is Dharma? Dharma means the totality of thought and action. It is the sum total of all that an individual does in life in a day, in a week, a month or a year. The character and conduct of an individual depend on the Dharma that he observes in life. Dharma is NOT religion or a ritual as some people wrongly interpret. MANU Maharaj, the greates law giver of ancient India defines Dharma as comprising TEN elements: Patience, Pardon, Righteousness, Abjure Stealing, Cleanliness, Sublimation of Desires, Sharp Brain, Knowledge, Truth, Eschewing Anger. An individual - male or female - who observes the Ten tenets of Dharma as given heretofore will be happy in day-to-day life. He or she will be able to have inner satisfaction of living a life as prescribed by the Vedas on the individual plane and the social plane. With a view to be Socially Efficient an individual has to learn to adapt, adjust and imbibe the spirit of sacrifice for promoting togetherness. Should there be a clash between the interests of the individual and the group he belongs to, the interests of the group will prevail.

The last three Mantras of the last sukta of the Rigveda are the best guide to help an individual observe the Samajik Dharma or the Social Ethics. It is togetherness - physically, mentally, spiritually that makes the cornerstone of the edifice of a human being's Samajik Dharma. That indeed is the basic ingredient to hold the society together.

NATIONAL DHARMA

Having risen from the basic unit of a family and progressed to the Social level, we now graduate to the National level and discuss our Rashtriya Dharma. The basic principle for fulfilling our obligation to the Nation is that we assimilate the concept : NATION ABOVE ALL. The Indian Army has made it its motto. If the Nation exists, we exist. If the Nation is obliterated by the enemy, we as individuals cease to exist. With a view to letting the Nation exist and prosper, we as individuals, must not think of ourselves as Numero Uno. The basic teaching given to a Gentleman Cadet at the Indian Military Academy is as follows:

The honour, safety and welfare of your country comes first always and every time;

The honour, safety and welfare of men you command come next;

Your own honour, safety and welfare come last always and every time.

If the leaders of a Nation at various levels follow this Mantra, they will help the fellow citizens prosper, be happy and make the Nation grow from strength to strength. Happiness will prevail and depression will disappear from the dictionary of the Happy Nation. On the contrary, not observing the Rashtriya Dharma and not putting Nation Above All will spell disaster for both the individual and the Nation.

IDENTIFYING THE ENEMY

Our Rashtriya Dharm enjoins on us to preserve, protect and defend our motherland from enemies, external and internal. In order to protect and defend the nation from the enemy, it is essential that the patriots identify the enemy. The patriots also develop the art of Threat Perception. Where from is the Threat to the Nation developing? In 1999, none in India could perceive the threat from Pakistan in Kargil. The enemy kept on building bases in our territory and we were oblivious of it. It cost us dearly in the form of human lives and a dent in our military preparedness. Thanks to the young officers and Jawans we could save the day. As many as four Param Vir Chakras were awarded, two posthumously to officers and two to Jawans who are alive and continuing to serve the Nation while still wearing uniform.

The Internal Threat is sometimes as deadly as the External Threat. The fifth columnists and traitors collude with the enemy to weaken the country by blowing up ammunition depots and oil dumps. These activities weaken the national morale, deplete our war material and bolster enemy’s morale. The threat from traitors must be identified and the elements sympathetic to enemy must be brought to book and put behind bars after a summary trial. The enemy agents or terrorists caught by police and people should be tried summarily and hanged. A repetition of Kasab trial will make us a laughing stock in the eye of the world. Similarly not hanging Afzal Guru till death despite the Supreme Court order shows that some politicians give precedence to the vote-bank politics over national interests. Such mind sets weaken the will of the nation.

Chanakya, the great master of statecraft even advocated making the short shrift of the enemy brass through use of Vish kanyas or the poison girls whose one kiss was enough to put the enemy general to sleep for ever

The situation developing on borders must be under constant review. Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati says in Satyarth Prakash that the national defence is a continuous process. The ever growing bon-homie between China and Pakistan is a cause of concern for the Indian Nation and the State.

Security leads to Prosperity. If the Nation is secure, it will become prosperous. There are a number of roadblocks to achieve our goal of a prosperous Bharat. Among them CORRUPTION at all levels walks away with the cake. The Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary form three pillars of our democratic state. Unfortunately, all the three pillars are infested with corrupt men and women. With the result the Nation is weakened beyond redemption unless there is a People’s Uprising and the corrupt people are hanged by the nearest lamp post after a summary trial.

The second roadblock is: Ignoring the Constitutional provision of EQUALITY BEFORE LAW. However high you may ever be, the Law is above you – that is the guiding principle. The politician-cum police-cum bureaucracy nexus has rendered the constitutional provisions ineffective. SPS Rathore, DG Police of Haryana turned a molester of a teenage girl and he negative provisions of law for 19 years. The big shots of the State colluded with the criminal to harass the complainant and drove the poor girl to committing suicide. Can a nation like ours be strong when a shameful saga like that of Ruchika is swept under the carpet. Thanks to the Judiciary and the Media, we see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The third but not the last roadblock is Ever growing population of Bharat. The votebank politics prevents effective family planning. The less said the better it would be.

Thus a weak nation with a weak army whose fighting capacity is reduced 50 per cent for lack of weapons and equipment and increasing corruption do not augur well for our Bharat that was once called Mahan or Great. A people’s revolution is needed to resurrect the Nation from the dark abyss that it has sunk into. May Param Pita Parmatma help us!

WIDENED HORIZON

Of course, after the stage of the Nation, there is entire mankind to be taken care of. The sixth commandment of the Arya Samaj says that it is our duty to look after the welfare of the humanity, their physical,spiritual and social welfare. The Sanskrit sloka goes thus :

AYAM NIJ PAROVETI  GANANA LAGHU CHETSAM;

UDAAR  CHARITANAM  TU VAUDHAIV KUTUMBKAM.

Rendered into English it would run thus - to call an object mine and another yours -that is done by the narrow minded. The broad minded people treat the whole world as ONE FAMILY.

Let us proceed from the known to the unknown. Let us begin with reforming Bharat and curing her of all ills before we proceed to cure the entire humanity. Swami Ramdev, the Yoga Guru, has launched a movement Bharat Swabhiman – under which the sense of pride in our motherland that is presently in slumber will be awakened. The ills like corruption and flouting of provisions of the constitution can be cured by changing the system that breeds the ills. Frankly speaking, for six decades plus we have been carrying on with the old British system of administration where welfare of common man had no place. Unless the system is changed through constitutional means, the Nation will not be strong. Let us launch a people’s movement to bring in Change for the Better.

There lies the real happiness of Man. Happiness lies in giving away and not in coveting. Earn with one hundred hands but give away in charity with a thousand hands - that is the root of Human Happiness emanating from observing Dharma at the social and national planes wherein the Common Man will be in focus and not the police or politicians. Thereafter we will be able to say with a sense of pride in the nation:

SATYAMEV JAYATE.

AUM SHANTIH SHANTIH SHANTIH.

By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

UPVAN  609, Sector 29, NOIDA – 201303,INDIA   

Email – upvanom@yahoo.com