Amrit Kaal Bharat: Hits and misses – Need for a Spiritual Bharat rather than anything else

As the country is poised to celebrate its Amrit Mahostsava i.e. 75 years of pure

independence, it becomes necessary to review these 7 decades of our existence,

sustainability and development. We have indeed come a long way. There are other

countries too who have similar stories and almost the same number of independent

years, yes you got it right we are referring to China and Pakistan.

Lets us compare the three countries on the basis of these 3 criteria to understand

where we are and where we are going. All three countries have continued their

existence at least as of now. If we compare development, China is at number one

position, followed by India, and last is Pakistan. And the third criterion of sustainability

is more exciting. What guarantee is there that the three countries will continue to

sustain and exist say for the next 10 to 100 years with the same speed of development or

even otherwise. This is the million-dollar question that needs to be asked when we are

going into the Amrit Kaal that everyone is talking about.

We doubt that all the three-nation will exist in the same way in the next 100 years

which is indeed quite far so lets say 50 years which also looks far so let us keep it at

25 years which is reasonable. That will be also the 100 years of celebrations for all

three countries more or less. We will talk of Pakistan and China may be some other

day, but will continue the discussion on our country India for the moment.

Our existence, sustainability, and development have two different aspects. One the

physical or outward and the second is the hidden or moral side of it.

India has done well for itself in the last 75 years albeit a bit slow but nonetheless on

a positive trajectory and more importantly we are now on the right course after some

turbulent and challenging years in between. We were forced to keep our gold

reserves as a security for loans, we survived multiple attacks by our neighboring

countries to cut us off, we have internal security issues on our own and last but not

At least our moral standards have dipped a lot in all these years. To give an example,

there was a time when as a kid the three vices of drinking, visiting brothels and

gambling was considered a strict NO NO and highly substandard or what can be

called as Kukarm or Neech pravarti Insaan. Going to prison was the ultimate

degradation of a person that one could have in a lifetime.

However in these 50 years when I have become a full-grown adult in late 50s, all

these 4 things have become sort of routine. One can add Drugs also to it if not

smoking through smoking was also strictly taboo then. But it was allowed atleast for

senior persons. Honesty was considered an important aspect of overall human values

and was taught right from school to your home. If there is one thing that my parents

taught me was perhaps being Honest. We never talked about the other vices and they

were like understood. You cant even imagine drinking or gambling etc.

Love marriage was still rare and a subject of hush-hush things that was not talked in

the family.

In 50 years we are accustomed to all these 4/5 things so much that when someone

goes to prison on corruption charges, a ‘Julus” is taken out for him and the person is

garlanded. I have not seen any more kind of hypocrisy in the world than this

a particular thing happening in our country. Forget the United States or Europe such things

dont happen even in many Asian countries except for Pakistan and maybe

Bangladesh.

I am sure by now one has understood how low we have gone. Therefore it will be

easy to fathom the depth of further down gradation in the next 25 years or so.

If we talk of physical development then of course we can take a deep breath. After

stagnating for almost more than 6 – 7 decades the real development in the physical

domain has started kicking for sure. We can boast of world-class roads, Infra and

other amenities. India is changing at a very fast rate and with this kind of work we

are going to reach the development index of powerful countries of the west. I have

witnessed how localities and cities change with time and prosperity. The area where

we live in Delhi was old and was considered backward just a few years back and is

now part of posh south Delhi. Yes I am talking of Adhchini, the back side of IIT

delhi etc. Yusuf Serai and Green Park are now more upward. All these has happened

because we have been prospering.

Our industries and economy is doing good. We are safer on the borders than

ever. We have been successful to keep Pakistan at bay after Balakot strikes. What

else? Defense, Economy , and living standards are all up with people having more money

and cars have become an important aspect of everyone’s life. Last time I was a bit

surprised when the carpenter that we hired for my house in Indore, came into a

Maruti car. Good for the country.

With G20 under the belt, we are now a well-respected country globally. So on Foreign

policy and affairs we have risen phenomenally.

The Future Trajectory:

The writing is clear on the wall. While we have developed well on the physical or

outward criterions the story is different on the moral side. Therefore the question

that is to be asked is can we exist, sustain and develop in the real sense for next 25

years. This is where we have our doubts. The moral index of our country (besides

others) has gone so low and so rapid that it poses serious questions on our future and

on the three criteria that we just spoke about.

We all have become more or less more liberal. Even the Sangh people and

pracharaks who had difficult times earlier have gone through tremendous changes. I have

taken Sangh becasue that is the ultimate standard of our moral values. But compare

the pracharaks say 20/ 30 years back and the pracharaks of now. I wont say say

anything beyond that. There is a distinct difference between pracharaks who are

above 60s, above 50 s , and below 50s and more so below 40s. Sorry to write about

Sangh but we have used Sangh because its the ultimate standard of morality in public domain.

We wont talk about political parties because they are not supposed to show high

MORAL INDEX anyway so its wrong to expect from them.

But yes top leadership always matters and we are fortunate that an able ,

competent and spiritually inclined Person Narendra Modi is our Prime Minister in

such difficult and challenging times.

However with the degradation of politics in general where the opposition leader goes

to foreign nations speaking anti-national things and yet he and his party defends

him whole heartedly shows our standards.

Therefore it’s obvious that if we wish to sustain ourselves let alone develop and

remain intact we have to improve spiritually and morally. Only then our physical

borders will also remain safe.

Solution

WE recommend the following for the country during the Amritkaal.

1. Focus on the Spiritual and moral side of life besides materialistic.

2. Need for complete overhauling of a system that we have received from

Britishers and previous regimes.

3. Revamp our educational system, especially at the Primary level of education and try to

bring Spirituality and Gurukul padhati of Eductaion in them.

4. Make Vedas and other scriptures sacred and a must-know, teach them compulsory in schools.

5. Bring Sanskrit in mainstream more passionately.

6. Declare Corruption as a Major Offence. Thr system needs big time cleansing. A

a person found in corrupt values must be debarred from any public or government

position forever. Of course, the tyoe and value of corruption has to be also looked

into. Go for BIGGER FISHES and SHARKS rather than the smaller ones.

7. The police and other important law enforcement system must be given HIGH value

based training. Similarly Municipal corporators need to be trained as they look after

day-to-day life of our country. Jal Board, Electricity boards, Hosuing boards, etc

which are all hubs of serious corruption and must be strictly disciplined.

8. Train the teachers who impart education to our future generations. Without Good teachers, no country can become strong.

9. Bring more stories about our brave hearts in school education. Every primary student must know about Shivaji, Pratap, Laxmi Bai, Shri Ram, Shri Krishna, and the like in detail.

10. Make Yoga, moral education, NCC and physical training mandatory in the

primary education. Atleast six months of the Gurkul education system be brought into

practice.

Conclusion :

In short, make India spiritually strong through school and primary education

besides cleansing the system from top to bottom. People with integrity and

honesty needs to be promoted everywhere. Transparency has to be part of all

positions. Let our institutes and organizations become more autonomous and

strong but with very tight vigilance and rules. No one should be allowed to

bypass the system. Get Army discipline into atleast some walks of civilian life.

Municipal Corporations which are all filled with degradation must be reined.

IN short focus on spiritual and moral values only then the country can sustain

and hence exist and also develop in one piece in the next 25 and more. Else the

future looks bleak.

Best wishes

Dr Asheesh Shah

Samanvaya

samanvaya.org.in

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