Even one single member, because of some ill-will, negative motives, bad habits or unfair dealings may create havoc in the whole family and may, ultimately, bring a split. This disharmony in the family also may cause peptic ulcers, high blood-pressure, and even cancer to some members whereas others may feel that life is a burden; it is not worth living. Disharmony among neighbours or between tenants and their landlord may make one’s life difficult and joyless and may give a person constant headache.
Disharmony in the relations between students and teachers may spoil the educational atmosphere and may lead
to indiscipline and unruly behaviour on
the part of the students. Similarly, lack of harmony in an Administration may lead to lack of
co-ordination, non-co- operation, delay, inefficiency and many other maladies. Disharmony at workplace may kill the team-spirit and may cause
emotional turmoil and make job a mill-stone round one’s
neck and lead to outbursts.
Disharmony
may manifest in the form of communal
discord and strife and may lead to riots, arson and destruction. It may leave
seething scars or simmering sores on the mind of the members of the two communities. It may
keep the law & order situation in
many towns and cities severely tense and may put the whole legislative,
governmental, administrative and judicial machinery under great strain and may give a strong
feeling of insecurity to the citizens. It may even lead to
disintegration and endless hostilities.
Disharmony at the international level
may also find expression in the form of suspicion and fear or anger and vengeance between two countries or two power-blocks and may lead
to manufacture and stock-piling of deadly weapons of mass-scale
destruction or to cold or hot war. The use of these weapons may bring doom to the whole world. And, until then, it
may cost trillions of dollars every year and may keep millions of able-bodied youths and thousands of
top-class scientists busy with preparations for
weapons and war.
In the field
of politics, it may cause in-fights and split in a political party or constant confrontation,
battle-like situation or bitterness and
hostility among various parties and may
thus result in political instability,
absence of a stable government and a
state of deterioration in law and order. It may make a nation weak, torn by
internal strife, and may make it vulnerable to external aggression or internal
criminal elements.
Disharmony
may also raise its ugly head in the form of racial feuds, gender-discrimination,
caste-conflict or class - conflagration and may thus generate a state of constant social
upheavals. Social disharmony
may rip apart various constituents in a society and cause a situation of
constant conflict.
In a
nation’s economy, disharmony in
growth and living-standards of various
States, communities or tribes may cause great disparities between various sections and may result in vast
cleavages, imbalances, disequilibrium,
commotion, grave injustice and its
consequences. In the field of business
or industrial management, it may result in loss of many working days
and in closure of a factory. Disharmony between the rich and the poor or the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ or the bourgeois and the working class may lead
to serious repercussions of various kinds,
including loss of human rights and basic freedom.
When man
leads a life in disharmony with Nature
and with other forms of life, then the
result is ecological imbalance and
environmental pollution.
Disharmony with Nature and with living
beings of different kinds may lead to a great
catastrophe of unknown dimensions. When
man ruins or ravages the environment,
the environment rebounds on him with
full furry so as to return to its state
of harmony and, in this process, there is a devastation, deluge and destruction on a global scale.
Unbearable strain on society because of disharmony
We have given above examples of only some few forms of disharmony and that too in a
very simplistic manner. The simple words, used above, in explaining them may,
perhaps, make disharmony appear less dangerous, less harmful and less problematic
than it actually is. But the fact
remains that trillions of dollars are lost in the world everyday over
preparations for war or for controlling
various kinds of confrontations or crimes
or for meeting the demands
of litigation, law-enforcement or treatment of psychic disorders or
psycho-physical diseases, caused by disharmony of one or the other kind. In many homes, the situation is that of a trauma and in many
parts of the world, it is that of a
holocaust due to ethnic, racial,
regional, linguistic, territorial, communal, political, social or economic disharmony and all this is costing mankind very dearly in terms of
life and property or health, wealth and happiness.
Harmony is the Prime Value
In the present situation, the world is faced with many problems and each one of these is considered to emanate from the loss of some moral, human, social or spiritual value. So, from that point of view all values are important. But from what has been said above, it should be amply clear that harmony, as a value, stands distinct from all the rest at this juncture of history, for due to its absence, even the whole human civilisation may be lost either due to a nuclear catastrophe or through world-wide environmental calamities or through racial, ethnic, regional linguistic or other kinds of strife and these, as has been explained earlier, are due to disharmony in inter-national and inter-communal relations or in man’s relation with Nature and ecosphere.
So, harmony becomes the first priority
because the very existence of humankind is threatened by forces of disharmony.
The present situation may be compared to the critical condition of a patient who is suffering from various diseases. The patient has been admitted for
a surgery but he has high blood pressure and blood - sugar and
certain other ailments, some of which
need more urgent attention as compared to surgery because those other ailments
threaten the very survival of the
patient. Similarly, even if harmony is
not the most fundamental or most
important value, it is presently to be
given a high priority because, without it, the human-kind is in danger of
being lost.
It should further
be seen that though Harmony seems to be
one single value, yet, in truth, it is
the group name or corporate name given to a set of values. For, ‘Harmony’ has love,
unity, concord, amicability, sociability, friendliness, spirit of co- existence
and reconciliation, proper communication, openness of mind, self-control,
non-violence, sweetness, tolerance,
consensus, etc. as its essential components. Without these values, there cannot be an enduring and holistic harmony.
Harmony does not imply absence of diversity
The word ‘harmony’ implies concordance, agreeability and a pleasing blend of diverse colours, diverse musical notes or diverse designs; it does not imply negation of diversity. All the colours of a rainbow are different and yet their pattern is harmonious. In an orchestra, different musical instruments are used and yet a happy blend of the tunes and tones of all creates a concordant tune and has the harmonious effect of music.
Similarly, there may be flowers of
different kinds and colours in a
garden and yet their arrangement in the
garden may create a harmonious and a beautiful design. Similarly, people may live in different parts of the globe, have different colours
of their skin and different facial features, yet they can live with a
spirit of amity and in a state of harmony. There may be certain kinds of
diversity which create discord but all
kinds of diversity are not inimical to harmony. So, harmony in human relations
in the present-day world is
possible to a great extent if the
basic components of harmony, namely, love, goodwill,proper communication,
spirit of co-existence, tolerance, sweetness, etc., are there.
The causes of disharmony
Above, we
have said that the essential components
of harmony are goodwill, love, unity, friendliness, spirit of
co-operation, tolerance, non-violence,
etc. Naturally, it implies that the negative forces that cause disharmony, discord or conflict are hatred, anger,
enmity,intolerance, greed, selfishness etc. But the question is what gives rise
to these negative tendencies or harmful attitudes?
A close look
at the problems, facing us to-day, would show that their different names give
us the wrong impression that they are of different nature or have a different
origin or they are the result of a different kind of disharmony. The truth,
however, is that they are like branches of one same tree and, therefore, their roots
are the same.
The root cause of all kinds of disharmony, or of negative forces that give rise to various kinds of disharmony, is that man, is ignorant of his real identity and his basic relationship with others. Presently, he identifies himself with his race, region, language, etc. It means that he considers himself a body, for these former are the epithets that are based on various particulars of the body. The truth, however, is that the self is not a body; the self is an ‘embodied’ being; the self is a soul in a body.
As is the difference between a house and its occupant, or a chariot and its charioteer, even so is the difference between the body and the soul. There is another, more fundamental difference between the two. The body, in its very nature, is material or physical. So, the laws of physics and chemistry apply to it. It is an organic whole and functions as a physiological organism. Therefore, the laws of physiology and biology apply to it. But the self, which uses this organism is of the nature of ‘consciousness’ to which laws of chemistry, physics or biology do not apply.
No doubt, the self manifests through this organism and its existence is inferred or known mainly, though indirectly, through this organism but, as an entity, it is altogether of a different class, genre and nature. It is not material or physical or even terrestrial; it is metaphysical, supermundane and transcendental. So, laws of natural or biological sciences do not apply to Thought, which is one of the manifestations of Consciousness.
In
this essential nature, namely, consciousness,
awareness, or as moral beings, our identity is known as ‘souls’, ‘the beings of light’,
‘the eternal and immortal selves’, ‘the divine or spiritual entities which are
subtler than the subtlest form of matter or energy and are conscient.’ If man
knew this real identity of his,
as distinguished from the identity of his body, then the distinctions of race,
region, caste, country, etc., would become only superficial, for the body is the carnal form whereas the self is a
soul that incarnates. The differences based on body are as differences
between outer dresses of persons and the
persons themselves or between houses
and the residents or between cars and their owners.
How to re - establish Harmony?
So, if man did not suffer from this basic ignorance or amnesia as to his real identity, then all things would appear in their true light. The delusion, confusion or illusion about the self is the start of all our troubles. This spiritual illiteracy has deprived us of harmony and of many rewards and joys of life. If we knew or if we did not forget that we are souls and, as such, we are divine children of the Immortal and are conscient stars of light, then our attitudes, outlook, tendencies, behavioural patterns and life - styles would be different.
Then our relationships would be of love, for we, as souls, are spiritual brothers; we are denizens of the same world-of-light namely the Soul World. Then we will transcend the mundane differences of racial colours and contours, etc., for we, in our real nature, are light and might; we are neither flesh nor bodies, neither skins nor skeletons.
Our this divine awareness would transform us into gods who give rather than demons who grab; we would live as lights or angels rather than as shadows or devils. Harmony would be the natural result of our this kind of life and life-style because, as brother angels, love, kindness, goodness and co- operation would then become our natural traits. It is only when we consider ourselves as shadows that the negative tendencies of hatred, anger and their dark habits become manifest. Secondly, we have to recognise and to understand that whatever exists in this world, has a purpose and whatever happens has a cause.
We, out of our stark ignorance, begin to hate certain things and certain events, for we do not realise that there is the basic law of Karma operative in this world and, according to this, we reap as we sow; We have more to blame ourselves for our Karmas rather than blame others. It is the bondage of our negative Karmas that has brought some negative reactions from our neighbours’ adversaries or relatives in response to our acts.
Or, if they cause us insult or
injury not as a reaction to our karma but
because of their own spoiled nature, then the law of Karma will take its
own course and we must, therefore, observe patience and not behave in the manner in which we do not
wish others to behave with us. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that it
is love which eliminates hate; it is kindness that kills cruelty; it is compassion which calms
down one’s passion, it is co-operation that brings help
and draws out love and when we bow, then only we bend others. These are the
factors that create harmony.
Contd....Part 2
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
