The whole world is but one family - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

forces of adharma led by Duryodhana,
Dhritarashtra and others. He guided the
Pandavas to victory without ever wielding
a weapon during the 18-day war. Through
his Bhagavad Gita discourse to Arjuna on the
battlefield, Krishna provided guidance to the
whole of humanity on leading a holistic life of
Karmayoga and Bhaktiyoga for securing release
from the bonds of samsara.
The new role of the Avatar as Jagadguru or world
teacher which opened up with Krishna’s Bhagavad
Gita has been continued by the Mahapurushas
who have come in the present age of Kaliyuga.
Gautama Buddha was the apostle of non-violence
and prevention of cruelty to animals and animal
sacrifice. In his teachings he highlighted human
greed and desires as the cause of all suffering,
and he outlined the eight-fold path of right action,
right attitude, right meditation, etc. Mahatma
Gandhi who has been unanimously recognised as
the Father of Indian Nation, restored India’s pride
by driving out alien rulers through a non-violent
revolution based on Satyagraha and personal
sacrifice. He advised his countrymen to adopt
simplicity in life style and live in villages instead of
crowded cities. His philosophy reflected concern
for conserving the earth’s resources for future
generations. No wonder that he has been voted
even by the western world as the greatest man of
20C along with Albert Einstein.
20C could well be described as the century of wars
between nations. There were two World Wars,
1914-18 and 1939-45, which were brought about
by the over-reaching hegemonic ambitions of two
German rulers—Kaiser William II and Adolf Hitler,
and Italy’s Mussolini. The Allied powers led by
England and France and later joined by the US had
no option but to wage war for safeguarding their
territories.
There were also other wars during this century like
the Korean War, Vietnam War. Indo-Pak conflicts,
Arab-Israel confrontation etc. It is estimated that
42 | Bhavan Australia | February 2012
nearly 100 million people
were killed in these wars.
This is a cruel way of reducing the
burden of earth’s population as had been foreseen
by 19C British Economist Thomas Malthus. In
his famous essay on the Theory of Population,
Malthus asserted that population would increase
by geometrical progression whereas resources
to sustain it can only be increased in arithmetical
progression. Due to this mismatch, the balancing
will come through wars, disease, pestilence,
famines, starvation etc. Malthus advised his
countrymen to adopt sane ways like celibacy,
continence, delayed marriage etc. to restrict the
population growth. In the present century, the
polarisation of the world due to rivalry between the
US and China for superpower status has brought
about diverting of resources from peaceful uses to
the production of weapons of mass destruction,
including nuclear bombs.
This is the most frightening scenario of our times
which calls for statesmanship and a spirit of give
and take on the part of enlightened leaders of the
world so that another World War does not break
out and cause death to millions of innocent people.
The earth cannot afford a repeat of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
But who knows? Perhaps that may be God’s way
of reducing the burden of population on Earth yet
again as it happened in previous Ages. For, God
wants the Earth to last for millions of Mahayugas as
the abode of numberless varieties of living forms,
including above all the human species. Man alone
has the mind and intellect to discover his soul
as eternal and make the effort to reunite with the
cosmic soul or God.
S.T.V. Raghavan
Source: Bhavan’s Journal November 15, 2011