“All of us have certain desires blossoming in our hearts. So had this man. He made a great fortune during his career for himself, his family, his enterprise, and at a stage in his life – for people. He realized his duty towards humanity. He realized that every person on this earth had a right to live with dignity and that many were being denied this right. We have long heard of interdependence of men on each other. That is what forms a society. Similar people club together. There is a multitude of classification: rich, beggars, women, children and old people.” |
What makes us all human is our capacity for language, empathy, internal dialogue and emotions. However, before we were capable of such characteristics, we first needed to develop consciousness. It is consciousness that establishes our understanding of ourselves and others. How we interact with others depends on our upbringing, our inherent nature, mood and surroundings.
70% of India’s population lives in villages. The villagers live in societies. Togetherness and brotherhood has been a basic human need. But the social consciousness among the villagers has changed. Society is divided in to castes. The villagers have become superstitious and self-centered. A wide gap has appeared between rich and poor, higher society and lower society, upper caste and lower caste, male and female, etc. The dowry system is prevalent in rural society and has become part and parcel of every person. Today, there are lakhs of people in authority or engaged in politics, business or other walks of life. Almost all of them are concerned only about themselves and their families and few are have a social conscious. What is the cause of all the evils plaguing society? It is the lack of sense of social responsibility. Every individual has to recognize his duty to society and understand that without society he cannot lead a peaceful and happy family life.