If we want all sections of society to have moral values, we need to educate people about the right religious beliefs, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj Ji
Offlately, there has been a lot of buzz around the topic of values in every profession and area of learning. It is being said repeatedly and vociferously that our education should be value-based, science should not neglect values, politics should observe some moral principles, business and industry should follow some ethics, media should have a code of conduct and administrators should have a set of values to put into practise. Thus, inculcation of values is being stressed upon everywhere. This need for values in all walks of life and human activity emanates from the growing realisation that all conflicts arise from infringement or dissonance of values and that the problems of deterioration in the state of law and order and the lack of harmony have arisen because of violation of values by people. Therefore, we must not miss the essential moral dimension if we want to have peace and happiness in our life and harmony and synchronicity in the society. However, it is little realised that values are derived from our beliefs. Hence, our visions and aspirations determine the set of values necessary to realise our goals and ideals.
There is no human being, however remote from the civilised society he might be living, who has absolutely no beliefs as they are basic to life. Even a cave-man has some values but there is no value which is not derived from some belief knowingly or unknowingly. So, we should be clear in our mind as to what do we mean when we talk of a particular value. In other words, we should be aware of the particular ‘belief system’ that is behind that value. For example, when Mahatma Gandhi talked of non-violence, he included Brahmacharya also in his concept of Ahimsa. He said that a person, who aspires Ahimsa as a value in his life, must follow celibacy. So, when he pledged himself to it, he announced that he would consider his wife as his mother. So, his understanding of the value of non-violence was pretty different from what many others, professing the observance of these values would say.
Similarly, if we were to ascertain what ‘tolerance’ as a value meant to different communities, we would have to know their religious beliefs. Like, in some religions, the concept or definition of tolerance does not include tolerance to the condemnation of, or even adverse comment on their sacred book or a derogatory remark about a revered person in the history of their religion. In such matters, they feel that they are under attack and hence they feel highly provoked and throw tolerance to the winds. So, tolerance has a limited scope in their value-system because they think that their beliefs are such.
History is witness to many events where numerous places of worship of a religion were destroyed by people of another religion. They initiated attacks on and acts of destruction of, what was a holy place to followers of another faith, because, according to the belief of the former, ‘the holy place’ of others was a place of false beliefs and practises and, therefore, it was natural for them to destroy such places. Thus, the value, called ‘respect’ for the faith and the holy places of other religions or sects had a very narrow scope.
The above mentioned examples should make it clear that all do not talk of human values with the same background and implying the same virtue because their belief systems are different. So, if we now wish to transform the world and have moral values in all sections of society, we will have to work to educate people to have right beliefs because, without transforming them, you cannot have a changed value system and, without the latter, you cannot have a better world.