Family and Nation

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

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THE FAMILY AND THE NATION
The twentieth century has gone and the twenty-first century has arrived. In every age, one comes across both the good and the bad. The weakness of the twentieth-century man was that he was more concerned about his own generation, neglecting the interests of the future generation. His comfort-oriented outlook and tendency to sow the seeds of destruction in the name of development were highly dangerous.
The present world needs a balanced mix of intellectual and spiritual growth. Only through spiritual development can the concept of development be balanced. There are five dimensions of the concept of development: (1) How does development affect an individual? (2) How does development affect society? (3) How does development affect various lifeforms? (4) How does development affect environment? (5) How does development affect the world?
In order to strengthen the balanced concept of development, there are similarly five dimensions requiring effort: (1) materialistic, (2) economic, (3) intellectual, (4) moral, (5) spiritual. The main cause of an unbalanced concept is an incomplete system of education. The modern system of education is fully concentrated on enriching knowledge and earning one's livelihood. The important aspects of learningto live together and with others, and learning to be one's true self-are almost neglected. The result is that while knowledge is increasing and economic development is taking place, peaceful coexistence and the identification of the inner wealth are being lost sight of. This situation has also paved the way for the evolution of this book.
Intolerance is a propensity that triggers violence. Just as industrialization is adding to global warming, so is our own intemperateness increasing. The individual, social, racial, communal and international problems are increasing on account of heated-up brains. We will have to find out the