SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Eddie Viegas
In the book of Genesis, we read that God made the Heavens and the earth and all that is in it and ordered Adam “Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth." God surely created man to be happy and contended. But what do we see today? Man with his ego, selfishness, desire to dominate over others – superiority complex, and of course greed has managed to bring the world down to her knees filled with hatred, crime, terrorism, war-fare , disease, etc. Our own country India, which is blessed with so many resources, a tolerable climate, plenty of Sunshine and a culture of Ahimsa and non-violence should have been one of the most happiest nation in the world. But as per the 2020 survey, out of the 156 nations we stand at 144 in the Happiness Index. While a war torn country like Israel is at No. 14 and our neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh are at 66 and 107 respectively. Bangladesh has been climbing up the ladder, we have been sliding down from 111 in 2013 with a score of 4.8/10 to a score of 3.6/10 in 2020.
Fact is, to be happy one does not need much. The natural laws emulated in the Ten Commandments such as- Honour your Father and Mother, Do not Kill, Do not steal, Do not commit adultery, Do not covet your neighbours goods are the finest guidelines for a happy life. In fact if all these natural laws were followed by Humanity, our world would have been devoid of any Police or Military forces. On the other hand activities like mob-lynching, raping and assassinations for the purpose of silencing opposition, imposition of one’s dictates by legislators upon those who are to maintain law and order and provide justice, sadistic treatment of those accused even before the fault can be proved are some of the perceptions that the common man finds himself engulfed with. The whole atmosphere appears very caustic and devoid of any humanitarian approach. The recent case of how Rhea, the young lady and the others were dealt with by the media, the authorities and the crowds around her was at best deplorable and has sent all the wrong signals about how we treat a woman in our country.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Yes it is time that we put this philosophy into practice rather than just boast of our old culture but behave in a most intolerant and ill mannered ways when it comes to dealing with persons, communities or religious freedoms. While introducing the new education policy it would be a good idea to instil in our children the values of real spirituality and not rituals, good manners that unite people and not divide, the natural laws that will lead them to abhor violence, disrespect towards others, acquiring of ill-gotten wealth or corruption, good relations with other humans irrespective of caste, creed, community or religion so that our country can some day come of the dumps and be one of the happier nations on this planet.
