Tulsi Prajna 1997 10

SR No.: 524593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 188
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 8 MB

Page 183

Vol. XXIII, No. 3
149
Development must be seen and pursued within an evolutionary perspective. Whereas evolution a slow process, autonomous, unplanned and unconscious, development is a fast process, induced, planned and conscious. It attempts to recapitulate centuries within decades, and thereby creates many disturbances in nature's own rhythms and movements as also in its messages and missions. The hallmark of evolution is creation of infinite diversity out of primordial unity. To exist in infinite forms seems to be the logic of the evolutionary spirit. At the same time, evolution also means creation and intensification of a "within" in the heart of matter. Man represents, so far the highest development of this with in" where it has acquired a new quality of self-direction towards still higher sta ges. Development, whatever its model, tends to steamrolling all differences and uniqueness, the products of millenniums, into a globalized homogenization. In this process, it is creating an acute identity crisis in all areas of life-racial, ethnic, cultural, regional and even national. The fear of identity erosion and effacement has set-off violent reactions manifesting themselves in myriad forms at different levels. The groundsel of strife and unrest which we countenance on a global dimension so disgustingly, is a desperate attempt to resist this threat to identity posed by this sovereign development. "Similarly, the neglect of the inner resources of man in our obsessive preoccuptoin with the where withals of life is leading to an atrophy of all human sensibilities and value orientations. Development thus, is as much destructive of man as it is of nature.
The exponential growth rate of gross national product in many cases, is inversely related to gross nature's product. Whereas the lion's share of the former is appropriated by the rich, the benefits of the latter accrue to the poor. In this sense, development is a great polarizer of wealth, creating a dual and dichotomous society of plenitude and penury.
Jo fine, one can say that the millennium that development had promised, is a mirage whoso further pursuit within the existing paradigm of living, is virtually an invitation to apocalypse.
-Prof. Musafir Singh Jain Vishva-Bharati Institute
Ladnun,