It is said of very old or ancient times that there was harmony of man with Nature and harmony in the relation of living beings so much so that war was unknown and the lion and the goat sipped water side by side from the same lake. Some sceptics say it is merely a myth but many others say that it was a reality which is recorded in ancient books and has been passed on to us by tradition and folk-lore.
Even if the sceptics were true and
the saying represented not the reality but a dream, it is a beautiful dream and
a cherished vision which everyone would like to see realised. World-wide
efforts, now being made to restore environmental harmony, to preserve wild life
and the vanishing species, to have national and international reconciliation
and to end the cold war and the hot wars for ever, indicate that this is the
true ambition of the people of all climes and that it is considered possible to
have such a state of universal harmony.
But the question is: ''How can that harmony of the
Golden Age be re-established? Have we to turn the wheels of history backwards?
Presently, we are living in the of the century which is a Hi-tec Age and has
its own peculiarities. How can we now have an age of harmony as we had in the
olden times?
Self-change is required for the world-change
Let us remember that, as wars are born in the minds of men, so also disharmony is born in the minds of men and it is there that the firm foundations of harmony have to be laid again. We have to bring Golden Age to our minds, turning out from there the ideological trash and moral junk or rust of the Iron Age.
Also, we have to remember that we have come from Golden
Age to Iron Age through downward change and we have to think whither do we go
from here? Undeniably, after the Iron Age no other Age but the Golden Age has
to follow and, so, we have to work our way again to the Golden Age, i.e. the
Age of Harmony, via change.
Change is a process which no one can totally stop.
Change is a fundamental law of Nature and it is inherent in the very nature of
things. ''The old order changeth'', they say, ''giving place to new''. So, as
golden day begins to dawn after the darkest hour of night, the Golden Age has
to dawn after this darkest period when people, who are now in deep stumber
about the true nature of the self, the world and God, spiritually and morally
awaken and open the Third Eye to see the light of truth.
New ideas will bring the New Age of Harmony
People generally call the present Age as the New
Age. Every Age, as compared to the past, is New Age but, actually, the present
is the Old Age or the Iron Age at its climax, and we have now to cooperate to
establish the Golden Age which, in real terms, is New Age, for it is the first
Age in the World Cycle.
How can that New Age, the Age of harmony, or the
Golden Age, be established again? Can it become a reality through use of old
ideas and old knowledge? No, certainly not. Our old ideas, old concepts of
human indentity and reality have brought us to our present predicament. We will
have to have new ideas. For bringing about Golden Age, we require golden and
revolutionary ideas, which are very different from what we know now. We have to
change from the old to the new. We have to be reborn. Change in ideas will
change the world. A world of harmony can be established by ideas that have
seeds of harmony.
Golden chance especially for the Youth
Now though everyone has the chance to learn these new ideas and to change the attitudes and outlook and to usher in that new Age, the Youth, in particular, are better suited for it because that is "the age when one has more open-mindedness, learner's attitude, zest for study, the stamina and energy to do experiments, and to have the courage of conviction.
Those, in whose mind old ideas are deeply ingrained, or who have lost the enthusiasm and the energy, they either resist change or, if they accept the ideas and the change, they lack the courage to stand for the idea in the face of special storms, public outcry on their own mental lethargy.
And, this is what precisely denotes the importance of the role of the youth and places a great responsibility on their strong shoulders: The youth have to accept the challenge of affecting a change in the social,, economic, and political atmosphere through new and powerful ideas and higher moral and spiritual standards and practices.
They have to work for self-transformation and through
it, for world-transformation and, have to carry.this message across to others
so that the transformation may become world-wide in its expanse.
Responsibility of the youth
In that vision of working for universal harmony and freedom from negativities, the first responsibility of the youth would be to learn this totally new knowledge which will wash away all traces of disharmony and negativities, by giving them the firm basis for self-identity as souls. This re-discovered identity will establish a loveful relationship, among all souls, as of beloved brothers.
They would have to learn new lessons which
liberate them from all forms of selfishness and distinctions of caste, class,
religion, etc., and cultivate, in themselves, such values as should root out
corrpution, nepotism, drug-addiction, hatred, violence, etc., and, in their
place, create sense of human dignity, co-operation etc.
The responsibility of the youth now is to have the awareness that the nation has high hopes in them and they are not belie those hopes. The elders and seniors wish them to be paragons of moral and human values and to have full development of all the dimensions of their personality and, so, they will not betray their these well-wishers.
They will work day and
night to create love, amity and harmony. Never will they even dream of a
communal riot, a regional violence or acts of arson and destruction. Instead,
they will know and realise the self, cultivate great spiritual values and
practise deep meditation so that there is perfect harmony in their own mind, in
their family and in the whole society.
You are whole heartedly welcome to
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
