Nature sets the Example by Swami Budhananda

This may easily escape our notice but the fact remains that to provide for the food – the cereals, green vegetables and fruits, milk – that we eat and drink, for sustaining and nourishing our bodies, the whole cosmic process is at work. We seldom think that the mango or the apple that we eat and admire as delicious, in its growth and ripening process, there is so much work done by the good earth and the sun in the sky. But neither the sun nor the earth clamour for recognition of their service to man. Quietly they have been working on for time out of mind. The whole universe, factually speaking, stands at the back of every individual to make his life in this world possible. Have we or have we not anything to learn from the cosmic process? If we stop a little to think, we shall find that there is a profound lesson for every one of us to learn.

Take India, for instance. Here we have a vast land guarded in the north by the eternal snow-peaks of the Himalayas; the feet of the country are washed by three oceans. There are vast forests, mighty rivers, fertile soil, rich natural resources, an ancient people whose ancestry and civilization are counted in millenniums. And yet we are a new nation governed by a modern constitution guaranteeing basic human rights. We are now more than one billion strong. But it would appear that all these that could be counted as endowments and sources of pride, solace and strength, and a feeling of a self-assurance, often enough turn out to be so many problems to be faced. True, these one billion people can turn out to be many times more problems when we do not know how to put these endowments to good account. So, we must learn how not to make problems of our assets.

The first point to remember is the glory of man. That was one thing that Swami Vivekananda, time and again, taught us: ‘Never forget the glory of man’, and this ‘man’ is ‘you’ and also all your ‘neighbours’. When we live all for ourselves, think too much of ourselves, and think that the whole universe is accountable to us and we are not accountable to the universe, we are at the wrong end.

Therefore, two things must go hand in hand. They are:

(1) Awareness of the great potential of every human being; and that

(2) We have to grow towards attainment of self-fulfillment, not by each of us singly, but together.

We must also believe that all these one billion people can be looked after well. Our sorrows and sufferings can be minimized and there can be ever so much more happiness for all, of all, if only we own all of us as our own.

The important point to remember is that to help manifest everyone’s great potential is the business of every advanced civilization. Our ancient teachers taught us to set in motion within oneself a self-chastening process to go together with a keen ‘other-regarding’ process. In other words, self-development and the development of everybody else should go on simultaneously. It is not enough if we have a vast land, rich natural resources, mighty rivers, highly talented people and other endowments. What is important is to learn the art and science of turning all these things to good account, in the service of man. To learn to do this and to teach to do this are the business of enlightened citizenship which is of supreme importance for every nation in this world, particularly, India. As the Buddha says, that which is most needed is a loving heart.

Courtesy: Enlightened Citizenship, Published by Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi

Grateful thanks to the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi