An ethical way of life

Er. Vinod Verma
What is democracy and democratic way of life ? It includes good faith, tolerance, respect for opinions which we do not share, equal justice for all, the power to speak one’s thoughts, to act according to one’s conscience, do one’s duty as one sees it, to live under a Govt, (discipline) which has a voice in making and unmaking, to promote the causes, and advance the reforms which command his devotion however repugment they may be to the rulers.
Some nations are born great, Others achieve greatness and still others have greatness thrust upon them. Let us diagnose what India is up to. Presently Democracy has become of the few, for the few and by the few people. Elections are held but same people get elected again and again  through different parties. Here litigants die but not litigation. Political parties work for their vested interests. A huge lot of money is wested in birth and death anniversaries, jayanties, etc. – but funds are not there. There are songs, but only to be sungs. Fair price shops are there  but  they are never fair. There. are meetings and meetings but demands are not met. Every religious issue gets deteriorated by making it a political issue and every political issue is deteiorated through religion. Developments are there but largely in the population size and authorities are silent about their inability to produce good democratic leaders and groups amongst a hundred crore citizens.
Democracy if it is to survive must be born again. Democracy requires us to respect and develop free spirit of man which is responsible for all progress in human history. Parliamentary Democracy is a political arrangement which helps us to governed by our chosen leaders. But now peace is much too fragile to be entrusted to politicians. The intellectuals must become aware of their mission to bulid a universal society which is truly free and democractic; based on the laws of humanities. It is in our power to end the fears which afflict humanity and save the world from forth coming disaster. The threat to our civilization can only be met on the deepest levels of consciousness. Democracy is still an ideal through whic we are trying to put some social and economic content into it and what is called socialistic pattern of society  is nothing more than a persistent and consistent attempt to give all our people the where withal for keeping body and soul together.
Before we tell the world to live in peaceful coexistence, we should settle the problems of our country.  When you try to put your house in shape many of the things/ problems will be rectified and will automatically come in proper shape. We have problems starting us in the face, linguistic  feuds, provisional  jealous ie, domestic quarrels which have undermined our stability. It seems we have not learned anything from history. Time and again on account of our feuds, jealousies and quarrels, we have lost independence. We seem to be again falling apart. To make our country great a truly democratic faith, hard  work, efficiency and organization are needed. When an American was shown a beautiful farm in India he exclaimed, ” ”Look, what  a magnificant work is possible if God and man cooperate.” The owner of the farm said,” you should have seen the farm when God  alone was running it.” God expects us to put in hard work and honest labour. He helps those who help themselves.
Not gold but men can make a nation great and strong, Men who for truth and honour’s sake stand fast and suffer long; Great men who work while others sleep, who dare where others flee, They make a nation’s pillars deep and lift them to the sky.
Democracy must adhere to the moral, social and spiritual values of entire mankind. But a positive patriotism, a  dynamic fellow feeling, a sense of belonging to this great country, of being proud to belong to it, these things are yet to come. We need to develop a sense of great traditions for which the country has stood for nearly forty- fifty centuries. It is the need of the hour to develop a democratic set up in the society. It has different sides to it; it is a political arrangement; it is an economic approach, It is a an ethical way of life. Democracy is a faith. It asks us to adopt persuasion, restraint and mutual consent in the in the settlement of our problems. Have we understood the implications of the principle that freedom means restraint? Whenever we have a quarrel, we resort to direct action. We are full of anger, we have violence, we exhibit passions and do not behave like human beings. When we emphasize the ethical character of democracy we mean that every human being has an element of rationality. We must believe that we may not always be right, or opponents may sometimes be right or that there may be some virtue in our oppoments also. It is this sense of humility, this sense of restriant that democracy imposes upon us.
Whenever there is a conflict there are many people who would stand on their prestige stand, on their honour, stand on some kind of dignity, when the life of humanity is a stake. Are we again going to be the victims of same separatist tendencies? Because third person will definitely take undue advantage in a two party confict. Let nobody take away India’s peaceful-existence. It has been said in our country that the whole extent of territory south of the Himalayas and North of the seas- is India. That country is called Bharat and all people who live in this geographyical area, whatever may be the their caste or creed, race or religion are citizens of this country. That our nation is one and indivisible; is what we are taught. It today we forget those lessons and exaggerate our group loyalties, the future is undoubtedly bleak.
It follows that we should enable all indivisible to live a full free, rich life and help them to bring the burried treasure in each individual without breaking any of it. We have an immense intensity to work for this  country and cultivate a sense of partriotism in the right direction, inculcate the democractic way of life  with a postive faith in every soul and re-generate, re- produce, re-incarnate the fundamentals of democracy in every individual with a broader and collective out -look. Only then we can say- Mera Bharat Mahan.

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