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SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC PERSONALITY /229
Embed the thought 'Nation is bigger than the Individual' in the minds of the leaders and people. Oh God, bless the people to work with perseverance, to transform the country into a peaceful and prosperous nation."
SPIRITUAL COMPONENT OF RELIGION
In our country, certain regions are presently being subjected to tremendous stress due to violence in body and mind. If we study the history of India over 3000 years, we will find that the country has always stood for peace. It worked for peace; it prayed for peace and lived in peace. But these days, peace seems to be endangered due to societal dynamics described briefly earlier. So, how does one bring back peace? Paradoxically, the I' in us wants peace. Nevertheless, to get peace one has to first get rid of the ‘l' and 'me' as per our scriptures. This may be a tough proposition. For, in virtually every sentence, every thought we are dictated by 'l' and 'me'. As said, if we remove 'l' and 'me', the ego will vanish. When the ego vanishes, hatred fades away. When hatred goes away, violence in mind and body will disappear. Therefore, peace comes when you forsake 'l' and 'Me'. The spiritual goal of every religion is indeed violence free individual in mind and body and thereby a peaceful society. Removal of poverty is one of the components for realising peace. REMOVAL OF POVERTY
We realise that the 300 million young citizens who are below 20 years of age in India want peace, prosperity, happiness and safety. It is our responsibility as religious and spiritual leaders to carry out this mission of removal of poverty from our people.
Fortunately, there is a road map to go to the 'India 2020' of our national dream. That entails working intensively on five important areas that have been identified. These are agriculture and food processing, education and healthcare, information and communication technology, infrastructure development including networking of rivers and providing urban amenities in rural areas. If the villages prosper, the states prosper; if the states prosper, India can prosper. Such a network of prosperity is extremely important to realize the vision of the nation. Removal of poverty means addressing several related elements like removal of illiteracy and providing good governance as it is vital to ensure that funds allotted for the poor and the earnings by the poor people are not frittered away in various forms of social evils like corruption. This is where making of an enlightened citizen comes in. This acquires a moral, ethical and spiritual
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