Beyond self-interest

We all wish to live in a society that is peaceful and harmonious. However, a society in which every individual or group is self-centred is not a society in any true sense of the word, for it lacks enduring unity of minds or commonality of abiding interests among its people. Thus, it falls short of an important cohesive force or uniting factor that should give it solidarity and integrity.

Even if the groups constituting it have some common set of customs and social norms, these groups or individuals often break the norms when their self-interests clash with those of others. Such a society is, at best, a loosely-knit network of communities, classes, institutions, or nations, each one of which thrives by using the others for its own growth.

In such a weak-kneed society, pressures exerted by each ego-centric cultural, religious, ethnic, caste, or political group naturally create social, political, and economic tensions. These further affect law and order and stability, setting back united efforts to attain common goals. Thus, these tensions work as obstacles and cause stagnation, disturbance, deadlock, and, at times, even destruction.

The individuals and groups in such a society may, in common parlance, be known as civilized, and they may, in their daily lives, show manners and etiquette. However, obsessed by their narrow interests, they can go to any length and adopt any means to achieve their coveted goals, even though these may be to the detriment of other sections of society or humankind as a whole.

For example, a self-centred individual who has high influence in power circles may get a piece of prime land or a flat allotted to him by manipulating or using some kind of pressure, even though more than a hundred persons, equally entitled, may have been waiting ahead of him in the queue for years.

Similarly, a self-centered community may demand certain advantages or benefits from the people sitting in power, promising, in turn, to vote en bloc for that outfit, paying no heed to the fact that these demands are unreasonable and may cause communal disharmony.

Thus, the fact that a person or a community is civilized, according to the common usage of the word, is no guarantee of stability and progress if the people are not prepared to make even a little sacrifice for the common good of all, in which their own well-being is also ensured.

So, the mantra for peace, progress, and prosperity for all is to tune our minds to the wisdom summed up in the famous Sanskrit slogan: “Sarve bhavantu sukhina, sarve santu nirāmayā,” which means ‘Let all be happy and prosperous, and let all be healthy.’

Unless and until these forms the basis of our politics, economics, and business or industrial management, conflict, confrontation, tension, and turmoil will always remain. But the question is, how can we cultivate this attitude? For this, the second mantra is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ which means that the whole world is our family.

Without working in accordance with this ancient spiritual wisdom, neither can we have principled politics nor can we have value-based economics, and neither can we have peace nor can we make such constant progress as should give us real happiness. By embracing this philosophy, we can create a society where empathy, cooperation, and mutual respect are the norms, leading to lasting peace and prosperity for all.

In short, without following these two precepts or mantras, we cannot have a value-based society. Let every home become a centre of peace, every school a cradle of values, and every workplace a model of fairness. The future of world and of humanity depends on how earnestly we implement these eternal values today.

(The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, USA, UK, Australia, South Africa, Canada & Mauritius. 9900+ Published Columns have been written by Him.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rajyogi Brahma Kumar Nikunj Ji

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