THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ESTABLISHING UNIVERSAL HARMONY
We can clearly see that man's ways of living have created disharmony not only in his relations with Nature or environment but have caused social, political, ethnic, racial and communal disharmony as well.
There is, therefore, pollution not only in the environment now but another kind of pollution also has penetrated into all aspects and fields of life. The cases of arson and killings that occurred due to outbreak of communal discord in the recent past, and the turmoil between various racial, ethnic, communal, regional or cultural groups elsewhere in the world, are clear reminders of the truth that the disharmony is spreading.
Today, the human relations have deteriorated to such an extent that it has become extremely difficult to maintain law and order in many countries. It is, therefore, being felt that it is very essential to take some urgent steps to restore harmony, for otherwise the very existence of society would be endangered.
One could discuss the question of harmony from many angles and in its many aspects, but it would be appropriate to discuss the question of harmony in human relations first, because, once the harmony in human relations is established, other problems can be solved by unity, Love and mutual co-operation.
Family is the basic unit of society. Moreover, it is during childhood, in family life, that the foundations of a person's future are laid. And undeniably, women have a very important role in that regard and at that formative age of their children. A little contemplation would lead us to the understanding that there are mainly six positive qualities or moral and human values which are essential for restoring and sustaining harmony. It would be proper to discuss these six values in the context of family-life.
1. Love, Affection and Goodwill
Life, without love, is a burden. As sugarcane, without juice, is merely sapless cane, so is life without love tasteless and without essence. It is, therefore, essential that one should learn, in one's early childhood, how to lead a life of love and affection with one's sisters and brothers and other members of the family. If a person does not allow hatred, enmity, bickering and quarrelsome habits to enter his life-style at that early age, he will find that, in the later period of his life also, he will be helped by this positive attitude. If, on the other hand, jealousy and habits of getting things done by creating fear, giving threats and adopting dominating and obstinate attitude, get set at that age, or one gets spoiled by too much of fondling, this would continue to live in an unsocial way and would be a problem to the society.
2. Justice, Honesty and Sensitivity
Justice is another factor that sustains harmony. If someone feels that people intentionally continue to be unjust to him he will one day, decide to confront them, take law in his own hands and will throw to winds all discipline and norms and traditions. If then people allege that he does not observe discipline and does not give regard to his seniors, they will be speaking only half the truth because they too have been unfair and unjust to him. If, therefore, one gets training, from the early age, of being fair to others, with transparent sincerity and honesty, and if the atmosphere at home, is of justice and impartiality towards all, without any bias, a person who has been brought up in such an atmosphere will be fair to all and will honour the rights of others later also in life. He will never think of being dishonest or of grabbing what belongs to others. On the other hand, he will have sensitivity for the needs of others and so, there will be no cause for confrontation and quarrel. Obviously in this task of training at an early age, women, as mothers, have a very important role.
3. Co-operations and Sympathy
Co-operation and Sympathy are other important factors that contribute to unity and harmony. If one feels jealous and puts obstacles in the ways of others, the feeling of animosity and the inclination to quarrel will get a fillip. If on the other hand everyone follows the principle of giving and having co-operation, life will run smooth. A quarrelsome person, who puts hurdles in the ways of others, will always work for putting obstruction into others' smooth sailings. If the seed of the qualities of co-operation and sympathy are sown in one's early childhood, these will, grow strong, bear fruit and work well in later life. And, obviously, mothers have an eminent role in this.
4. Service and Simplicity
To feel concerned for the wellbeing of others is a great thing. To think of merely one's own wellbeing is selfishness where as thinking of the ways of doing good to others is service. If one practices this noble quality from an early period of one's life, this good nature of his will be an asset to him and to the society. If the mother cultivates this attitude in her children so that it gets set into their minds that it is the sacred duty of a human being to serve others, especially when they are in distress, then this will work well in bringing unity and harmony. If the citizens of a country are narrow-minded and selfish, each serving his own ends, such a country remains backward and its people fighting always among themselves for small odds, waste away their efforts and energy. So, it is necessary to cultivate the qualities of service and simplicity because simplicity helps to save something from your needs and when you save, then only you have something to serve others with. A greedy person, on the other hand, hardly feels motivated to serve others.
5. Co-existence and Adjustment
One finds that, at times, views of members of a family differ. Their habits and their sensibilities also differ. But, the family-members try to adjust and accommodate and maintain family unity and coherence, rejecting any negative idea of getting separated. So, if during the early years, a habit is formed of giving a helping hand to others and of co-existence even in the face of differences, this, in due course, serves to maintain and promote harmony in the society, If the policy, enunciated by the phrase 'live and let live' gets rooted strongly in one's mind since early times, there would not be any cause for fights in the future, It is evident that people have different life-styles, ideologies, languages, dresses and cultural backgrounds. But that is no reason for any hatred or clash. These differences are like the difference in colours and fragrance of various flower-beds in a garden and this variety is beauty rather than a cause for bitterness.
So, it is necessary to learn this lesson from the very beginning that there are two kinds of families--one is constituted of our close relatives or kith and kin and the other is the wide family of human kind; and the smaller family is the training ground for the success of the society-the bigger family. This leads to constant and lasting harmony in the world. So, it has to be explained to children that we all are the progeny of Brahma and Saraswati, also called Adam and Eve or Adam and Hauva and, we therefore, belong to one same great family, for the Father of us all is one, God, the Supreme. So we all should live in the spirit of love, co-operation, sympathy and co-existence.
6. Tolerance and Good-will
If the members of a family differ among themselves or if some members shout at others or misbehave, then others, thinking that they belong to one same family, tolerate this and forgive and forget it. Knowing each other's sanskars and nature, they close that chapter and march forward, helping each other and living happily again. They do not cease to have good wishes and good-will towards each other.
Likewise, there is a vast variety of people in this world in respect of their life-styles and cultural background. We have to tolerate if there is anything not entirely to our taste and we have to march happily together.
Lack of realisation
We have seen how important is the role of women in preparing children for the future years in the society but it is found that many women have not yet awakened to that kind of responsibility. They pay little attention to such responsibilities. Perhaps, they think that a child would naturally pick up these from his exposure to T.V, Radio, School, College, etc. Hardly do they realise the truth in the saying, viz. "Mother is the first teacher or preceptor of a child." It is not understood properly that if the child does not get any love at home, he will not learn to live in peace with others and, so, at college also, he will indulge in acts of destruction or will fall a prey to cigarettes or alcoholic drinking and may even become a victim of AIDs, etc.
But it is regrettable that, instead of creating a congenial atmosphere at home in which children can have proper moral and spiritual growth, some of their woman as mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law lead a cat and dog life. The mother-in-law, instead of considering her daughter-in-law as Lakshmi, makes heavy demands of dowry or asks her to bring more money or goods from parents. The result of this kind of fighting is that there are cases of bride-burning. It is clear from such unfortunate happenings that the place of love has been captured by money, and justice has been replaced by considerations of one's family background or of one's high or low social and economic status. This then shows that if women play well their important role in the sphere of the family, many of the problems, which our society faces today and much of the struggle we see around us would not arise at all.
The importance of women's role in creating harmony
After having discussed briefly women's role in creating harmony in the family, let us now see how important women's role is in bringing harmony to the society.
Someone has truly said that, hidden in every girl, is a mother. And every mother, of course, is a mother. Every mother is a mother because she has motherly love and affection. She cannot see the children crying in pain. She cannot sleep or rest if a child is restless. She would sacrifice her own comforts, rest and happiness for the sake of her children. She would do anything and everything to wipe dry the tears of her children. She has such slender feelings as keep the family united and sustain harmony at home. Her unique role is because of her awareness, denoted by the words: "I am a mother"
In the same manner, if now this awareness dawns on her; '1 am the mother of the world; she would be able to play the important role of creating and sustaining harmony in the society. About 50 percent of the world-population is constituted of women and girls. So, as a mother stops quarrel among children at home, if women of the world unite and resolve that they would not allow men to take missiles or weapons in their hands to fight, then would communal riots be possible? Would there be any act of destruction by the use of cannons or tanks or bombardment? But it is a pity that, instead of stopping men from building up militaries and waging wars, they have now themselves started getting commissioned into the fighting forces!
Women can teach lesson in non-violence
Women are, generally, kind-hearted and full of motherly love; how can then women give help and co-operation to killers or war-mongers? When a brother is indulging in acts of bloodshed of a brother, can a woman, i.e. a mother, aid or abet such a crime? No, never, for she is full of kindness and affection and loves all as she loves her children. Thus, women, because of their natural quality, can be very successful in teaching the lesson of non-violence or non-killing. But their success in this role depends upon the awareness encoded in the words: "I am the mother of the world; love is my natural quality, kindness and tenderness are in my very blood."
If women sustain this awareness, they can do what all the founders of religions have not been able to do because they did not take their help. Women also, in this male-dominated world, have been dancing to the tune of men and playing as puppets in their hands. But now, if they unite for this noble cause, they can wipe out violence from the face of the earth and can restore harmony in human relationships. Will it not be a great step towards harmony?
Disharmony-based on injustice & corruption
Today, there is high-rise in corruption and crime and man is bogged down in drug-addiction and in use of alcohol. If, in such a situation, women unite & resolve that they would certainly not allow the poison of ill-earned money into their homes even if that means heavily cutting down their budgets, they would be able to achieve, in course of time, what the government, the police, the courts, etc., have jointly not been able to achieve. They would be able to end corruption, crime and addiction.
Actually, it is the ill-earned money, which is being used in drug-traffic and on purchase of weapons by the criminals. No one would say that the weapons are being purchased from honest earnings. So, if women now decide that their role is not merely to keep the floors in their homes clean but also they have a role to play in cleaning the society of bribery and all these evils, and to wash clean the minds of men with the use of spiritual knowledge and to burn the social evils with the fire of their Tapasya, then all these killings and crimes and the disharmony would ultimately end.
Let, therefore, women now give to the world these slogans: -
(1) "Break the bottle of wine: have a cup of the knowledge divine".
(2) "Throw all the drugs down the drain; let only spiritual intoxication remain".
(3) "Let all the weapons of war be burnt and lesson of pure love be learnt."
Harmony with Nature and Environment
Everyone is, today, worried about environmental pollution. All are stressing the need to establish harmony with Nature and Environment. But let us realise that this is possible only if nuclear tests are totally stopped and no atomic weapons are made and we cut down heavily our burning of petroleum, diesel, etc. This is possible if we lead a life of friendship and also of economy and simplicity. If we do not do that, and instead, go on adding to our population and to the consumption of these polluting sources, we will either live with heavy pollution in lungs and our breathing canal, coughing all the time or we will die of suffocation or asphyxia. If we still do not change our attitudes and life-style, we will lose 'money' and have only 'harm' out of 'Harmony'. So, if women decide that they are not machines for child-production but are human beings who have some aims to fulfil and they cannot see their children dying of asphyxia then you will see that harmony with Nature will be restored. Nature does not permit population to grow and cars to be added at such a rate. Nature would be at its best if there are many gardens and orchards and there is only a small population of good human beings who live in peace, harmony and love.
So, what is required is that we understand our role and cease to have a very narrow view as of a frog in a well and, instead see things in a wider perspective and take a broader world-view and make an action plan to educate so that they learn to live with love, non-violence, co- existence and simplicity. These are the values that would definitely lead to universal harmony. Our own purity and love will end this Age of Disharmony, i.e. Kaliyuga and bring in the age of Universal Harmony; i.e. Satyuga. This is the wish of God which can certainly be fulfilled through our self-awakening.
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