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60: śramana, Vol 63, No. 3, July-Sep. 2012 strongly rely on the atomic power as our true rescuer. For us human being is either a complicated machine or at least a developed animal, governed by his instinct and endowed with some faculties of mechanical reasoning. Thus, we have developed a totally materialism and selfish outlook?
Undoubtedly science and technology have increased our knowledge of the universe and has conquered over the dreadful forces and many of the hidden secrets of nature. Advances in computer science and telecommunications have made it possible for all of us to have immediate access to one another and to the information and knowledge accumulated over many centuries. Satellites constantly orbiting in space provide us with a continuous view of every corner of the earth. The study of genetics has reached the point where the most basic building blocks of life have been revealed to us, presenting the possibility of conquering many diseases, aging and increasing the length and quality of life. Development in science and technology has not brought only blessings to the mankind but the secular culture ushered in by science has broken the unity of existence. It has replaced co-operation and interdependence with fierce competition and the struggle for survival. It has ignored the Socratic teaching that knowledge is virtue and replaced it with its own paradigm that knowledge is power. The trend towards globalization that had the prospect of bringing about global peace and shared prosperity has instead greatly increased inequality, injustice and economic disparity and exploitation. The divinity of the human soul has been completely ignored and this has set in motion a chain reaction of alienation from reality, from nature and from our true self. We have lost sight of our highest aspiration of the unity of humankind through love, compassion, and democratic equality. The war-worm world is lacking in spiritual values, which are the most precious heritage of each and every great religion aiming at serving the humanity and uplifting the divine in man. Fortunately the human society has been having amidst itself from
