The debate has been on for the last couple of years about the Indian society hitting the rock bottom in terms of values and characters. Every possible evil seems to have its root cause in the way society is developing (deteriorating). Ask any responsible person the reasons for rising corruption in Govt including defence and judiciary, road rage incidents, lack of compassion, corrupt and a criminal landing in Legislature – the pet reply is we only draw them from the society. Pretty solid and valid argument!
What is the way out? We need to find the root causes for this pathetic state. Shruti says “jaisa aanna – vaisas mana, jaisa paani – vaisi vaani”. India remained a cultured society for so long because of focus on these factors – not only organic food but even how it was prepared and eaten. Whether water was fetched from a hygienic source and stored in the vessel of copper or alloy of copper & brass. Alas, we have left behind the distilled knowledge and are moving fast to make ourselves sick and sickening!
The second main cause seems to be the kind of influence our children are growing with during the childhood and the formative years. Good old days the key influencers/tutors were the elders in the family – people who had seen it all and understood it all. And they were the teachers of their own future generation – they didn’t want them to follow anything wrong. No one wants their future generation to be spoiled. Now there are no joint families – post marriage children don’t want to stay with parents and parents too are happy to stay alone! The influence today is mainly media, internet and schools. Parents are leading a busy life and are themselves infected with the ills of the society.
Human life is unique – no other form of life is gifted with the kind of intelligence, knowledge and organs capability humans are gifted with. Using them wrongly can culminate in a hellish society and using them correctly to a heavenly state. Human beings are also borne like animals with basic need of food, sleep, security and sex. In fact animals in a way are better compared to uninitiated human beings as they come with embedded values befitting their role in the world. They only eat what is designated for them, their mating seasons are fixed, the domesticated animals do fight but don’t kill each other and they are far more considerate. It is the sanskaras – values imparted which make human being different.
Schooling therefore seems to be the only factor which can help build a good society. There is hardly any focus on the character building in the school curriculum. The age of 9 -13 is the best time for inculcating right values and build characters. If the values are not built during this age group, children will start experimenting with all kind of things including lies, theft, violence and so on. On the other hand, if the purpose of human life and the importance of values are drilled well in the minds during this impressionable age, the values will get practiced and reinforced. This will also lead to migrating to old – time tested values and improve the body, the mind and the speech. Our primary and middle school education system therefore needs rebooting.