Awakening Compassion

History shows that since ages man has been exploiting man and other living beings on distinction of gender, caste, creed, race, physical or mental power, economic power, organisational abilities or unity. In the same way powerful & mighty nations and communities also have been exploiting weak & poor nations and communities because of their weaknesses.

Exploitation of illiterates and poor people is a known phenomenon all over the world, as we all are very much aware that powerful or so-called educated men have long been using uneducated, illiterate and backward people as slaves or as bonded labour and have been forcing them to work hard under inhuman conditions so as to make things easy and life comfortable for the former.

As land-owners, men have been exploiting the tillers of the land. As industrialists, they have been extorting labour from the working class at cheaper rates and, as capitalists and money-lenders, they have been pressing for higher rates for their money and real estate.As heads of multinational companies, they have been importing raw materials and labour at cheaper rates and exporting manufactured goods in markets all over the world to fill their coffers at the cost of semi or un-industrialised nations. In fact, no limits were kept barred for exploitation.

Not only has there been grave exploitation but also persecution of the weak by the powerful. Even if a man gave something to someone, the hidden aim behind this act was to get name, fame, praise or credit for it and to be rewarded for it sooner or later. There have been only rare examples of such men and women who made sacrifices for the wellbeing of others because of the noble sentiments of love, sympathy, compassion or concern for them.

All these make it quite clear that the power of money, machines, means, military and also mental and political power have been used by greedy, egoistic and selfish men to exploit others. Thus, exploitation has been a major factor, causing so much trouble and turmoil to the whole world, so couldn’t something be done to eliminate it and save mankind from its ravages?

The answer to this would be that if universal love replaces the negative tendency of exploitation, then only many social, economic, political, administrative and interpersonal problems can be solved. Also, if there is so much abundance and affluence that no one feels the inclination to exploit, then only the problem of exploitation can be solved.

So how does one ignite the feeling of universal love in men & women across the world? What’s the key? It’s indeed very simple, this aim of awakening and strengthening the emotion of love in humanity can be achieved only by educating men-women and giving them training in ennobling their emotions.

Without educating people in values and giving them a technique of divinising or spiritualising the emotion of love, all kinds of crimes in the society would constantly increase and there would be no rule of law. Hence, all talk about human rights would be meaningless and empty if the education in values, especially education for purification of love is not imparted. Remember!! A society, however developed and ‘civilised’ it be, would always remain a society that is rife with crime, hidden and visible if people living in it are not educated enough.

However, it’s a great misfortune of the common man that the people in power in most of the countries do not realise the fact that how intimately our progress, peace and happiness are linked with education in values and training of emotions, particularly love. Trillions and Billions are spent every year by various governments and non-governmental agencies on solving social, economic, political, administrative and other problems without achieving the goal of ending exploitation of all sorts and thus ending class-conflict, caste-conflict, family-conflict and other kinds of conflicts.

This is mainly because we only talk of conflict-resolution without real and practical moral and spiritual education. It’s high time that the governments and the people in power realise this and seriously do something about it & save our future generations from devastation.