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Religiosity is even a social necessity


SrI:
SrImatE rAmAnujAya nama:
SrI lakshmI narasimha parabrahmaNE nama:

Dear vaishNavAs,

The human society is a huge complex system, with its
innumerable parameters. Different well-wishers of the
society try to understand its nature, sothat they can
provide fitting solutions to the problems attached to
it. When a disease outbursts, some try to produce a
drug to subdue it; when a natural calamity trembles
human life, some try to find ways to predict such
calamities and rescue people from them;?. Yet the
solutions are limited and problems are unlimited. We
do have our own reasons why society at large is
suffering on the face of earth. Some say large
population, some say illiteracy, some say corruption,
some say criminals, some say lack of resources, and so
on so forth. But if we are genuine in our attempt to
understand the real cause, the answer is very simple.
Let us make an enquiry in that direction.

The theory of evolution says that the increase in the
population of a specie in a specific locality is due
to favorable conditions of that locality for that
specie. To agree on this point, we just need a little
commonsense, and nothing more. The Indian
subcontinent, including china contributes to the
maximum percent of world?s population. It is a fair to
argue that this it is due to the favorable conditions
for life in these places. The higher the population,
the greater the productivity; resulting in the
prosperity of the community. However, practical
observation is contrary to this seemingly fair
reasoning. Many people in the subcontinent suffer with
poverty stricken life. This indicates the problem of
disproportionate productivity and/or disproportionate
distribution of products. Disproportionate
productivity? Yes, when our farmers produce tobacco in
place of groundnut, acqua culturing in fertile(rice
producing) coastal fields; when most of the engineers
work to produce non-agriculture related products; when
doctors become ?beauty surgeons?; when our most
valuable youth wants to talk about cricket/hockey/?.
Players, models, actors/actresses; there is a
possibility of lesser productivity of essential
amenities. When we produce objects other than what is
required, we run the risk of not producing the right
ones, leading to disproportionate production. This can
be attributed to wrong directors of the society,
including politicians and media. A film actors?
influence on the general public shows how much our
people are receiving information from wrong people.


Disproportinate distribution? Yes, There is no
hardship in agreeing to the fact that the products are
not distributed among the masses evenly. But the real
question is why this should take place. The answer is
also very transparent, corruption. But most people
opine that there is no fool-proof anti-corruption
system existing which can prevent such malpractices.
But if we honestly investigate the real problem is not
with the system, but with the individuals. If we have
a tougher corruption checking system, people find much
more intelligent ways to abuse it. The problem is the
intention of the people to corrupt. Even the crimes
take the same logic.

Are the problems of the society attributable to the
low literacy rates in the society? If we trace back
our history, we will find it wrong, because just a 500
years ago the same land used to prosper with gold and
grains with the same illiterate people. 

Let us even assume that we transcended the problems of
huge population, illiteracy, corruption, crimes,?.;
are we then happy?. We can analyze this by taking an
example of such a nation, Sweden. Sweden is a huge
country in European standards with a very minute
population (less  than the population of a metro city
in India), every one atleast finishes high school
education, least corrupted nation of the world, least
crimes in the world as well, beautiful natural
surroundings, sophisticated appliances, very big
per-capita income, zero poverty (as government
provides all allowances for disabled, old  and
unemployed people); YET THE HIGHEST SUICIDE RATE.

So a genuine investigator of problems of the society
has to come to the basic question of the problems of
individual. As we have seen earlier, disproportionate
production is due to misdirection and greed; crimes
and corruption are due to the arishad vargAs
kAma(mis-directed desire), krOdha(anger),
lObha(greed), mOha(dillusioon), mada(pride) and
matsara(envy). Above all these, dissatisfaction of the
self as we have seen in the countries like Sweden. 

Society needs a good direction, for which society
needs people who can direct it with unselfish motives
towards prosperity. Society needs distribution of
wealth, but by those who are not greedy and disloyal
or corrupt. Society needs administrators who monitor
the whole transactions. And society needs non-lazy
producers, who produce objects that are needed by the
society. These four essential classes of men can be
called brAhmaNas, vaishyAs, kshatrIyAs and sUdrAs. Not
just we need these four classes of men, but who are
non-corrupt by nature. We can have preventive systems
to stop selfish motives of men, but with rules crime
cannot be stopped, just it can be post-poned or
disguised. So, morality of the individuals is the real
solution to all the problems of the society. Where do
we develop morality other than a RELIGION? 

Religion inculcates morality in its followers, and
people are guided towards the almighty. For a follower
of a religion, he knows that he is being witnessed by
God, and is mindful of his actions. Even if he forgets
this for a while, his spiritual teacher?s mercy can
correct the fouls of the faithful. Most importantly,
righteous activity is the natural ornament of a true
believer of God. Hence, a true philanthropist or a
social well-wisher is intrinsically theistic. Non
religious men who are inclined towards righteous
action, although acting generously at times and made
his/her mind to behave good, because they do not have
any strong reason why they should act righteously,
they will soon fall from righteousness. 

A fitting example to this scenario is Buddhism,
although Buddhism was accepted by many people in the
beginning days for moral reasons like non-violence,
vegetarianism,.. soon it lost its principles. Now
including the dalai lamas almost all budhists are
non-vegetarians. 

A non-theistic moral person may restrain himself from
drinking alcohol, but he doesnot have a strong reason
for maintaining such a strong resolve. At a weak
moment, he may fall prey to it; whereas for a theistic
person, he has every reason why he should maintain his
righteousness. A religious person also has a purpose
to his life, i.e. cultivating love of God. Hence, he
identifies the purpose associates with it, unlike the
void visualized by god-less men. Hence in a strongly
religious community, situation of Sweden doesn?t
arise.


Although religion is not the result of social
necessities, but one can say, religiosity is even a
social necessity.

Sarvam krishNArpaNamastu.

dAsOham,
SrIperumbUdUru vEnkaTa vinOd.



                
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