Family and Nation

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya, A P J Abdulkalam
Publisher: Harper Publications India

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THE DYNAMICS OF INDIAN CULTURE
a superhuman grasp of a cosmic principle, is Dharma. An intelligent investigation into the structure of this pattern, namely, the coming together of Artha, Dharma, and Kama, will reveal to us the profundity of this research and its final finding. The spiritual value of life, we may say, is what people generally think of as Moksha, a difficult term to properly understand in its linguistic form or even in its philosophical content. When the individual rises to the level of a spiritual aspiration, he ceases to be a limited individual social unit but becomes an embodiment of a call which is above all individual values or social relationships.
The concept of the values of life as Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha is a masterstroke of the genius of the Indian soil. It does not exclude from its consideration even the lowest aspects of human nature, but is also not satisfied with any of the aspirations of human nature. While all our desires are permissible in one way, none of the desires is finally permissible. While all that we need and call for, and every thought, every feeling, every vision of life is a permissible and valid evaluation of things from their own point of view, none of them is final. All angles of the vision of life are valid from their point of view-every religion is a right religion, a correct vision of things, every faith is valid in its own way, every vision is complete, every viewpoint has a validity of its own—anything that you think is valid thinking.
VISION OF SELF-RULE In ancient times, India was known as the land of the Rose Apple (Jambu Dvipa). Both Buddha and Mahavira were born, and lived all their lives, in north-central India, in the area known as the Middle Land, so called because it was believed to be, by the people who lived there, the centre of the earth. The whole area consists of a vast fertile plain through which flow two great rivers, the Ganga and the Yamuna, and many