If you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be - Essay Example

339101 Topic: If you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be? Half-hearted measures and incomplete approach to any problem, will only give temporary results. The final solution is to go to the root cause of the problem. The industrial and internet revolutions have contributed to the growth of materialistic civilization where the human beings give priority to aggrandizement of wealth. The erosion in the human values has given rise to social evils like drugs, crimes, conflicts in the name of religion etc.

If this trend has to be reversed and if the concept of ‘the world is one family’ has to become an attainable reality,’ the only alternative for human beings is to search within—take to the path of spirituality. Today, the inner world of the man is in shambles. Accumulating more and more wealth is not the solution to find peace within. Spirituality is not the domain of any particular religion. It is all-embracing, and concerns each and every individual. It is about reforming the evil tendencies by changing one’s thought processes.

When the thoughts are changed, the mind is changed; when the mind is changed, the man is changed; when the man is changed, the society is changed; when the society is changed, the nation is changed. When the nations change for the better, one can claim that world peace is attainable. Turn the pages of human history, one finds that systems of political philosophies have failed to deliver permanent peace for humanity. An individual is the unit of the society. Changing the individual is the safest and surest of the options for total change.

The suggested steps to take spirituality within the reach of the common man are: a) Spiritual education should be made compulsory at the primary school level. It is the wrong notion that spirituality is an after-retirement project and one should take to path of spirituality when one has nothing else to do. b) It should be taught at the higher grades and universities. c) Periodical interactive sessions must be held at all levels to enable the students to have a good grasp of the spiritual truths. d) Nature is benevolent and all powerful.

Modern man should try to learn to live in co-operation with nature by respecting its laws. Forests are the great economic assets of the nation and they are the balancing factors that contribute to the environmental protection. Hence, proper education should be given about protecting the natural assets. Any revelation by the Realized Souls is good enough to practice spirituality. Spirituality needs to be practiced in the college of self-education. Mere book-reading is not spirituality. It is the science of direct experience.

That which is not practical can not be spiritual either. Every spiritual principle must stand the test of practicability. What is essential is to grasp and assimilate the teachings of our Great Masters and make them part of day to day activities. Man should never disregard the Cosmic Supreme, intoxicated by the intellectual achievements. The results of leading life adopting the spiritual principles will be precedent-shattering. The inner world is the fountainhead of bliss, the communion with it paves the way for eternal happiness.

Happiness and unhappiness are the outcomes of our positive and negative tendencies respectively. Despite being the possessor of the divine riches, an individual, under the spell of ignorance, squanders one’s life without taking advantage of one’s innate affluences. In fine, by taking recourse to the path of spirituality, one goes to successfully tackle the root causes of human misery, both physical and mental! **************