We need to take a lesson from natural disasters and work to develop a sense of universal brotherhood in people, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj
Natural disasters are such a phenomenon that whenever they occur anywhere in the world, majority of people in all nations sympathise with the victims and try to aid them in whatever way they can. The scale of natural disasters overawes humans, making them feel helpless against the forces of nature. In most people it produces the question — what if it had happened to meIJ
The fear of a similar disaster striking them prompts many to help the victims of disasters elsewhere, as they believe that they, too, will need the help of others, if such a tragedy strikes. At such times, barriers that divide people in normal times like nationality, religion, ideology, race, social status et al get dissolved and old animosities are forgotten as everyone comes together in the face of a calamity. Isn’t it tragic that it takes a major disaster to bring out humanity in humansIJ Why must it be soIJ Why cannot we show the same charity and compassion for fellow humans in normal timesIJ
Majority of us would not be able to answer these questions because we have all become too selfish and short-sighted. That is why today a lot of rich people are willing to squander their wealth wastefully but not share it with the less fortunate, let alone help others. Greed, selfishness and hatred, born of chauvinism, and religious bigotry have so much blinded humans that they are not even helping themselves. India and Pakistan are a case in point. The two countries, created by the partitioning of what was one country, today figure in the lower rungs of any international ranking of social or economic development. WhyIJ
It is more than 60 years since these countries gained independence from British colonial rule. One of the aims of driving out the British was to end their economic exploitation of this land and to decide our own course of development for the maximum benefit of our people. But what happened thereafterIJ The partition itself was accompanied by a communal bloodbath that created bitterness on both sides. But instead of putting it behind them and getting on with the task of nation-building, the two countries fought a war soon afterwards, and two more wars later.
Over the past five decades, they have spent billions of rupees to arm themselves against each other. Today, while both countries have big armies, they don’t have money to educate, clothe, shelter or even provide clean drinking water to their people. Isn’t it patheticIJ
Such a deplorable state of affairs would not have existed had the two countries been friends from the beginning. Hence, natural disasters like the 2014 earthquake in Kashmir, reminds us that we are all in the same boat.
Remember, Nature knows no political boundaries. When rich and poor, the powerful and the weak, and countries all over the world are all rendered destitute by a hurricane or earthquake, the irrelevance of man-made distinctions of class, creed, race et al becomes clear. But sadly, this realisation doesn’t come to us in normal times. It has to be forced upon us by natural calamities. And it lasts only as long as the memory of the wreckage remains fresh.
Therefore, we need to take a lesson from these disasters and work to develop a sense of universal brotherhood in all people. So let us come together in our times of tribulations, forgetting all our difference and help each other to build a universe where our future generation can live in harmony and peace.