World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 966

Culture of Peace from the Veda-Vedantic Philosophical
point of view
- Prof. Dr. Yajneshwar S. Shastri. Peace is the desire of the human heart. It is the necessary requirement for the people, society and nations to grow and reach the height of their potential. But it would seem that peace has become rare thing in our times. Twentieth century was bloodiest century in human history. It has seen two world wars. Beginning of this century is also not far behind in the matter of violence, conflicts, and wars. We are witnessing violent clashes, horrible act of terrorism, communal violence, civil wars and guerrilla war fare in the world. Lust, greed and anger dominate the human life, which are the real sources of all our trouble. Modern civilization is in the grips of these tentacles which have turned it into a frightening void of spiritless beings, vulgarization of culture, aggression, violence, genocide, futile wars, strives, corruption, world wide tension, heightened by distrust and rationalized insanity. All these have brought life to shambles. In such deplorable condition of the world if humanity has to survive, promotion of peace has to be given top priority. Philosophers, intellectuals, academicians, statesmen and even every human being ought to be concerned about establishment of peace culture. It is, again, foremost duty of the Philosophers to reflect on this problem and try to find out, whether our philosophy or philosophical systems can provide some kind of guidelines to promote culture of peace .Importance of philosophy lies in its living contribution to global culture. Indian Philosophy
Indian way of looking at philosophy is quite different from that of Western Philosophy. Philosophy is not just concerned with analysis of concepts or reasoning or just clear thinking processes In India, Philosophy is never viewed as merely an intellectual exercise for an educated elite. Arm chair philosophy is inconceivable in India. All philosophies of India are basically philosophy of life. Indian philosophers firmly believe that every acceptable philosophy should aid human being in realizing the basic ends of human life ( Purusharthas]. It must have practical application and work as a guide to eradicate the sufferings of men and women. It must help human beings to lead an enlightened life with foresight and insight. It is a demand of the Indian minds from the ancient times that ideas and ideals preached by the philosophy should be capable of being practiced and thus every philosopher is expected not only to paint a glorious picture of the ideal world but also to give the topography and route to it in all detail. Real philosophy should have the power to transform man's life from one of ignorance, darkness, misery and bondage to one of knowledge, light, wisdom, freedom, happiness and peace. A philosophy which makes no difference to the quality and style of our life
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