________________
EPILOGUE
At the start of the new Millennium, humanity stands at the critical crossroads of history. In the midst of tremendous strides in scientific and technological progress as well as increasingly wider reach of material comforts, there is urgent need for spiritual and moral resurgence in a violence free environment for stabilizing progress, for promoting all-round development based on justice and equality, for ensuring the well-being of all strata of human family, for preserving the larger living world and for creating the urge to make the entire world a zone of durable peace.
Escalation of violence in all walks of life and the emergence of terrorism as a much-dreaded monster has sent shockwaves in the lives of innumerable men, women and children. The entire world was stunned when on September 11, 2001, a hijacked plane crashed into the 110 storeyed Twin Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York and it came tumbling down like a pack of cards. Part of the mighty Pentagon in Washington was also destroyed. Many innocent lives were buried in the debris. To those who saw or felt it happening
"It sounded like an earthquake... It was like World War III... it was horrible, the panic, seeing people jump out of windows like rain from a cloud. They looked like planks of Wood but with limbs. It was sixty minutes of hell. When
the smoke cleared the twin towers were no more".
It brought home to the dazed world that even the most powerful country on earth - the only super power USA was no longer immune from the impact of terrorism. US President George W. Bush reacted saying, “We have just seen the First War of the 21st century”.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
