Development or Destruction?
By: Hari Bansh Jha

Abstract
There is a race all over the world for development. One nation wants to surpass the other in this effort. But in quest for development what is largely happening is the construction of structures in various forms, which quite often is external factor. The journey to achieve peace and prosperity through the development of external structures, however, has proved illusion. As a result, the individual, society or the nation has become more violent despite the fact that they have in their possession so many external objects made possible through the development activities. So much so that even the existence of the world is threatened through the developmental - be it in the form of construction activities, manufacturing units or even the growing production of war weapons and nuclear arsenals. It is only through the promotion of spiritual feeling of 'oneness' that many of the problems related to development activities could be addressed. Therefore, it is the primary responsibility of the educational institutions to prioritize spiritual knowledge rather than the knowledge for the development of eternal objects in order to save the world from further chaos and destruction.

Literally, the word development symbolizes progression from lower to a more advanced, mature and complex stage. In the visible form, it denotes activities related to the construction of roads, bridges, buildings, railways, airways, shipping, irrigation, etc. By all likelihood, development is an external phenomenon. It has become symbol of wealth creation, livelihood support, employment and above all base for the survival of the human beings. So there is a race for development all over the world. Human beings today cannot even think of living in the pre-development era where most of the modern-day development activities were lacking.

Undisputedly, many of the development activities have made life easier. So it appears as necessity. Its acceptability has grown - be it at personal, family, social, national or international levels. Because of the factor of value addition, a great importance is attached to development. Virtually, development has become barometer for the measurement of cultured or civilized society. Hence, the more the development in a country, the greater is its recognition. However, what is often forgotten is the cost at which the pillars of development are made in a society. Many of the development activities carry the seeds of destruction.

There is a famous story of Kailas in the Indian sub-continent. The story is that a princess in a state emerged as the most talented and highly educated person. No scholar in her time matched her knowledge power. Her glory spread far and wide. But this was also a source of embarrassment for many of the men, including the courtiers and scholars of her time. So they became jealous of her. In order to teach her a lesson, the scholars decided to hatch a conspiracy against her. They finally found out a clue to punish her when they saw a man cutting the twig of the tree on which he was sitting. They impressed upon this person to get down from the tree. He was then taken to the father of the princess i.e. the King and was presented as a scholar. An arrangement was made for debate between the princess and Kalidas amidst a great fanfare. A pre-condition was made that the princess would have to marry the man if she was defeated. As the princess was super talented, she initiated the argument by pinpointing through her index finger that there was only one God in the universe. The foolish man, Kalidas, however, thought as if the the princess meant that she would take away one of her eyes. In reply, he immediately responded by showing two fingers thinking that he would take away two of her eyes, if she at all dared to target one of his eyes. Since all the courtiers and the so-called scholars around were jealous of the princess, they came in support of Kalidas and twisted the interpretation. They interpreted the pinpointing of two fingers by Kalidas as if the latter meant that there was existence of 'two' Gods. They supported Kalidas stand and elaborated that there was really the existence of two Gods i.e. jivatma (the God existing in the celestial body in the form of soul) and parmatma (the God having its presence in the entire cosmos). Ultimately, the princess had no option left but to accept the defeat. As there was none to support her, she was almost forced to marry with Kalidas. Following the marriage, the princess understood that she was the victim of conspiracy and so she kicked Kalidas out. Later on, Kalidas reached a school in search of livelihood and there he received blessings of Goddess Kali and then he emerged as the greatest poet of the world!

Why I deliberately chose to narrate here the story of Kalidas is not without reason. In fact, we the development practitioners all over the world are not different from Kalidas - the one who was cutting the twig of the tree on which he was sitting. Take any of the case of development activities and we find the consequences of it are so severe. We make roads. But just think of the pollution that the automobiles are creating on it. The concretization of activities in the forms of buildings is blocking the sipping of water into the earth, apart from destroying the prospect of greenery around. Building dams and diversion related activities in the rivers for irrigation or hydropower production brings enormous ecological disturbances. Aeroplanes flying in the sky are responsible for so much of pollution. Manufacturing industries and workshops have added so much of air, water and earth pollution. As if development activities on the earth were not enough, we created certain infrastructures even in the space and spoiled much of its quality. Air pollution caused by manufacturing industries, automobiles or even the aeroplanes has been creating havoc in the world.

There is now a need for someone like a tiny child who could innocently dare to speak the truth in the same way as a child in the story The Emperor's New Clothes revealed the truth that the emperor was naked. After the child revealed the truth, the other people around began to murmur about it. And finally, all began to shout that the emperor was really naked. As the child, someone among us must dare to tell the TRUTH that most of the development activities in our time are self-suicidal.   

In the name of development, unprecedented level of deforestation has taken place. Such activities are going on unchecked out of greed to earn money. Towards this end, we destroyed many of the animals, flora and fauna at the global level. We polluted earth beyond any measure. Never before in the history, was the earth as much polluted as it is polluted now.

In the name of development, vulgar consumerism is promoted. Certain groups of people have been consuming more food at the cost of the others. They want to possess and use more and more goods to satisfy their ego or lust. If a person can be satisfied with two pairs of clothes, s/he will possess ten pairs of clothiers. If a person can be satisfied with one vehicle, s/he tries to possess more of vehicles. If a person needs to have one house to live, he will make several houses. The greed and lust for hoarding more and more - be it in the form of food, clothes, houses, automobiles and other objects is always at the cost of the nature or other fellow beings.
Global warming in the present day world is the outcome of development activities. Now it has started showing its impact through the climate change and other natural calamities. Many of the rivers are getting dried or highly polluted due to this problem. There is news that even the Ganga river in India and Bangladesh will dry up in next 50 years if the glacier meltdown due to global warming continues and the present level of pollution of the river is not checked. Never before in the history there was Tsunami as it has been happening for last few years. The sea has always been known for its stableness and tranquility. But it is disturbed now. Volcanoes and earthquakes of unprecedented magnitude have been occurring. Perhaps, there is hardly any part of the world, including in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, America or even Antarctica that is not affected through global warming.

Unfortunately, the nuclearization activities is also treated as sign of development, though the world today has become more threatened than at any time in the past due to this factor alone. What will happen if the terrorists have in their possession nuclear devices? What will happen if there is nuclear war between or among the nations? The world somehow managed to heal itself up from the catastrophes in terms of killings and destruction of property during the first and second world wars. But will it be able to survive if there is the third world war when the capacity of nuclear powers to kill each other has grown beyond any measure?

Interestingly, the noted scientist Albert Einstein was once asked to make prediction about the likely happening of the third world war. Einstein replied that he was clueless to give any time for the third world war. But he added that he could definitely make prediction about the fourth world war. He categorically mentioned that there would be no fourth world war as nobody will be left to survive during the third world war. What Einstein said is more than true! There has been so much stock of nuclear arsenals that they are able to kill the living instincts in the world hundreds of times over, when the killing for one time is more than sufficient.

Unfortunately, neither the politicians who possess state powers nor the scientists have any clue to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons. What is that the NGOs, INGOs or other bodies have been doing about it? What is that the journalists are doing about it? What is that the social scientists are doing about it? Trillions of dollars are still being spent on the production of war and nuclear weapons which is going on without any check for the destruction of humanity.

What is that the educational institutions or universities are doing to check the havoc likely to be created through the use or misuse of nuclear weapons? In the educational institutions, there is no time to create ideas for saving the world from the development of nuclear arsenals. The centers of learning or excellence do not appear to be that concerned about the safety of the humanity. As such, many of the graduates obtaining degrees from the educational institutions are selfish lots. Most of the terrorists today are not fools or illiterate people. They are educated people and are even the products of some of the best educational institutions in the world. Many of the individuals feel threats not so much from the animals or other instincts, but largely from their fellow beings.

Many of the educational institutions or universities at the global level produce brains who have little interest in 'self' and so they are hardly inward looking. Their outlook is outward. Quite a few of them have zeal to purify their souls, their families, the society or the nation. Many of them are rather slaves of desires, anger, greed, ego and attachment. Today's education system is such which does not tell us to control such unwanted aspects in life. Instead of it, some of these institutions promote slave-making instincts. This is the reason that there is so much of violence in the society. The society can be free from violence and permanent peace could be established only when the inhuman instincts such as extreme desires, anger, greed, ego and attachment are controlled. Such inhuman instincts are the root of most of the troubles in the life of an individual, family, society, nation or global community. The more is the magnitude of some of these inhuman instincts, the more is the level of violence in the society or a nation.

Because of the lack of proper education, many of the health institutions today produce doctors whose motto is not service, but exploitation of the patients. In stead of saving the lives, such doctors are taking the lives of the patients. Millions of babies, particularly the girl child are being butchered in the womb of the mothers. This is one of the primary reasons for the decline in the girl population in different parts of the world, particularly in India.

Also, corruption is growing in the modern society on a massive scale. This too is the product of defective education system. Perhaps, there is no word other than corruption that is talked so much. In fact, many of the countries in the world have declared war on corruption. But is the corruption declining? Hard to say that it is on decline, despite the fact that more and more people are being educated and there is proliferation of anti-corruption institutions. In fact, it is the educated people who are involved in corruption. Illiterate and poor people at the grassroots hardly do have means to be involved in corruption.

Recently, Anna Hazare in India is known to have caught the sentiment of the mass in his war on corruption. Many of the youths and other sections of Indian society support him. In fact, there is a feeling that the war against corruption unleashed in India by the Gandhian leader Anna Hazare is the fall out of the Jasmine revolution that began from Tunisia or Egypt and later on flared up in different parts of Middle-Eastern countries, China and now more recently in India.
It is appreciable that war against corruption is declared and many of the youths are involved in it. But I personally doubt if such war against corruption will prove successful. In many of such wars, what is often forgotten is the root cause of corruption. We want to fight with symptoms, and not with the basic cause of corruption. Therefore, corruption will continue to exist no matter thousands of Anna Hazare stand firm against it. For controlling corruption, supply of goods and services has to be increased; for which production will have to increase. But more than that what is most essential for controlling corruption is to help grow the feeling 'oneness.' Since all the instincts on the earth share the same spirit, any activity at the cost of the other will be self-suicidal. Following the emergence of such feelings, people will take care to see that they consume only what they need. They would then hardly go for hoarding. In such a state, they would not do anything that would bring about destruction of life and property and invite miseries to the people.
Let us see the life of the sages and saints and all those enlightened souls. Did they ever bother to hoard for themselves. Be it Rama or his wife Sita, Krishna and hosts of saints like Dadhichi, they lived not for themselves but for the humanity. Dadhichi even donated the bones of his own body for global welfare.

As per the Ramayanic story, Rama's father, Dasarath, ordered his son, Rama, to live in the forest for fourteen-long years. Rama immediately accepted the order and proceeded towards the forest, the next morning when he was expected to get to the throne and become King of Awadh state in ancient India. Rama and his wife, Sita, renounced all the state power and proceeded towards the forest. Even Bharata, the brother of Rama, who was given the state power did not have any lust for state power. So he wanted the state power to be returned to his elder brother, Rama. One brother threw state power and all the possessions of the state to the other. There was, in fact, fight or love between the two brothers for giving and not taking the power and possessions. Sita who was not even obliged to go to the forest followed her husband, Rama, without taking any object from the State.

As the ideal persons like Rama, Sita, Krishna or Shiva in Hindu mythology, Buddha is also the source of inspiration for his devotees. Buddha renounced his state and made rigorous penance to achieve enlightenment and work for the spiritual awakening all through his life. Christ also lived not for himself, but for millions or billions of people. So was the life of Bhagwan Mahabir among the Jains and Guru Nanak among the Sikhs. Prophet Mohammad is also known for sharing his enlightened ideas with fellow beings.     

The saints, sages and Gods had also vision for the development, but their concept of development was entirely different from the one that is promoted now. They helped the development of inner self unlike what we are doing through the development of external objects.
Of course, enough is mentioned about the problem related to the development in the modern world. But the solution of the problem also lies where there is problem. In my view, the only solution to the problem created by development activities is to restore peace of mind. Peace of mind will come when there is peace in the heart. There will be peace in the heart when one will find the existence of 'self' or soul in the heart. Realization of soul in one's own body will create a feeling of the existence of the same 'self' or 'soul' in another body. Peace and real peace will develop only in such a situation. This kind of realization at the individual level will enlighten many other souls. But if such a realization comes at the mass level, it is likely that the golden age will return.

Therefore, our educational institutions must focus on spiritual education in order to save the globe from further destruction. In the absence of spiritual education, there is no hope for peace to return in the world. When peace is restored in the mind and heart, a person naturally becomes more in-ward looking and least out-ward looking. When such a state is reached, a person can hardly do any crime or engage in violent activities - be it at the family, social, national or international levels.  One will loose all the interest in hoarding for oneself. One will also loose interest in consumerism and possession. One will make effortless effort in one's quest for global welfare. In fact, one will become universal. Such a person will then not do anything to concretize the structure in the name of development and make nuclear devices for killing purposes. The person by all account will become green and will like to see greenery everywhere. In the environment of greenery, there will be no global warming and consequently there will be no melting down of the glaciers. Let us all try to save the world by promoting spiritualism at all the levels - be it at the political, economic, social, scientific or cultural levels. It is only spiritual revolution that could unite the world and save it from further degradation and destruction. Spiritualism is the creation and development that we see in the world today is self-suicidal and death.

Copyright 2006 - Journal of Globalization for the Common Good - www.commongoodjournal.com