THE SUM-UP

• India, the Golden Sparrow of yore ― the symbol of contentment, happiness, peace, harmony and prosperity; and the guiding light of human intellect and spiritual nirvana is today neither. The present India is one of the most corrupt nations of the world world. There is clearly a general decline in moral values in today’s India. Degeneration is noticeable in almost all walks of life. The great sacrifices of our reformers and freedom fighters stand shamelessly betrayed.
• The root causes for the rise of this situation are: One, man's endless desires, greed, selfishness, reckless attitude, erosion and compromise of values, perversion, and misuse and abuse of democratic rights. Two, ignorance, idleness, passivity and indifference of the citizens and non-performance of their duties.
• All higher human intellectual endeavour has been undertaken basically with two objectives: One, to overcome or cope with the misery, and to find happiness and contentment in life; and then, to attain self-realisation and to find peace of mind and soul. This is what is generally termed as the spiritual quest of man. Two, to lay down the basics or fundamentals for the individual and for human organisation or society, so as to facilitate the material wellbeing of man and the achievement of the first objective.
• For man to be happy and mull over anything higher, the basic material necessities like food, clothing, shelter and some pleasure are to be met first. Order, harmony and fair-play are prerequisites both for the material wellbeing of man and for his spiritual quest to begin. Thus these constitute the most fundamental basis of any human organisation, culture or way of life. This being the case, it is necessary to have a system based on the spirit of live & let live to establish and preserve order and harmony in the society and to create and maintain fair-play conditions so as to enable every individual to endeavor for his material wellbeing and to engage in his spiritual quest / development.
• Modern laws are based on principles of liberty, equality, justice, fraternity, common good, rule of law, democracy, etc. There are also certain eternal values like honesty, integrity, compassion, universal love, brotherhood, sacrifice, peaceful co-existence, selfless service to the society and the country, etc. and conventions, which cannot always be reduced to laws, but which nevertheless form the spirit of the society. The adoption and promotion of these principles, values and conventions, amount to the establishment and maintenance of order, harmony and fair-play in the society. These principles, values and conventions can be collectively taken as dharma or righteousness or the righteous duties. Upholding and promoting dharma and confronting adharma is the natural and bounden fundamental duty of every human being, both individually and collectively with fellow human beings in the society. And it is not a matter of choice. If a society or generation fails to perform this basic duty, no wonder, it will degenerate to find itself in the grip of adharma or unrighteousness and consequently disharmony and chaos. The lead in this ought to be taken by those who are more awakened and understand the things better than their brethren.