The Global Village, A Social Snapshot of Our World

The earth is home to 6.4 billion people who live in the cities and villages of 192 nations. To gras the social shape of the world, imagine for a moment that the planet's population is reduced to a single settlement of 1000 people. In this global village more than half (610) of the inhabitants are Asian, including 210 citizens from the people's republic of china. Next, in terms of numbers we would find 130 Africans, 120 Europeans, 85 people from Latin America and the Carribean 5 from Austrailia and the South Pacific, and just 50 North Americans, including 45 people from the United States.

A study of the settlement's way of life would reveal some startling facts: The village is a rich place with a seemingly endless array of goods and services for sale. Yet most of the inhabitants only dream about such treasures, because 80 percent of the village's income is earned by just 200 people.

For the majority the greatest problem is getting enough food. Every year the village workers produce more than enough to feed everyone; even so half the village's people, including most of the children do not get enough to eat, and many fall asleep hungry. The worst-off 200 residents (who together have less money than the richest person in the village) lack both clean drinking water and safe shelter. Weak and unable to work some of them fall victim to life-threatening diseases everyday.

Villagers boast of their community's many schools, including a fine university. About 50 inhabitants have completed a college degree, but almost half of the village's people can neither read nor write.

We in the United States, on average, would be among the richest people in this global village. Although we tend to credit ourselves for living well, the sociological perspective reminds us that our achievements are largely products of the previldged position our nation holds in the worldwide social system.

A STEP FURTHER

There was a sage, resting under a tree
Great and he was, wise and free
Preaching there as the soft breeze blew
To scholars, life and its secret clue

After he finished, one of them uttered
Now truth's white pure, soft as butter
If this is the nature of life, so simple
Why do most men, hobble and tumble?

Bright with wisdom, the sage's eyes grew
A warning in life, to scholars he threw
Only brave hearts on paths of truth tread
Who love to suffer blows, than evade instead

Where the thunder of fools causes no tremble
Before merciless life who still stand humble
Smiling at the fate of people who play
Wrong games, and what fickle tongues say

They are the players of the unmoved game
Where they inscribe the rules of the same
Untainted they stand when truth is on scaffold
In eternity, to hear their triumphal echoes bold

Truth they say isn't for clamor glamor petty
It's dedicated for the lovers of eternity!!

Sushant Kulkarni

Progress versus Security

From the "Discovery of India" by Pandit Nehru::

We have been an exclusive people, proud of our past and of our heritage and trying to build walls and barriers to preserve it. Yet inspite of our race-consciousness and rigidity of caste, we have, like others who take such pride in the purity of the racial stock, developed into a strange mixture of races-Aryan, Dravidian,Turanian, Semitic, and Mongolian. The Aryans came here in repeated waves and mixed with the dravidians; they were followed in the course of thousands of years by successive waves of other migratory peoples and tribes: the Medians, Iranians, Greeks, Bactrians, Parthians, Shakas or Scythians, Kushans or the small groups and found a home in India. 'Fierce and warlike tribes' says Dodwell in theIndia, 'again and again, invaded its (India's) northern plains, overthrew its princes, captured and laid waste its cities, set up new states and built new capitals of their own and then vanished into the great tide of humanity, leaving to their descendants nothing but a swiftly diluted strain of alien blood and a few shreds of alien custom that were soon transformed into something cognate with their overmastering surroundings.'

To what were these overmastering surroundings due? Partly to the influence of geography and climate, to the very air of India. But much more so, surely to some powerful impulse, some tremendous urge, or idea of the significance of life, that was impressed upon the subconscious mind of India when she was fresh and young at the very dawn of her history. That impress was strong enough to persist and to affect all those who came into contact with her, and thus to absorb her into her fold, howsoever they differed. Was this impulse, this idea, the vital spark that lighted up the civilization that grew up in this country and, in varying degrees, continued to influence its people through historical ages?

It seems absurd and presumptuous to talk of an impulse, or an idea of life, underlying the growth of Indian civilization. Even the life of an individual draws sustenance from a hundred sources; much more complicated is the life of a nation or of a civilization. There are myriad ideas that float about like flotsam and jetsam on the surface of India, and many of them are mutually antagonistic. It is easy to pickout any group of them to justify a particular thesis; equally easy to choose another group to demolish it. This is, to some extent, possible everywhere; in an old and big country like India, with so much of dead clinging on the living, it is peculiarly easy. There is also obvious danger in simple classifications of very complex phenomena. There are very seldom sharp contrasts in the evolution of practice and thought; each thought runs into another, and even ideas keeping their outer form change their inner contents; or they frequently lag behind a changing world and become a drag upon it.

We have been changing continually throughout the ages and at no period were we the same as in the one preceding it. Today, racially and culturally, we are very different from what we were; and all around me, in India and elsewhere, I see change marching ahead with a giant's stride. Yet I cannot get over the fact that Indian and Chinese civilizations have shown an extraordinary staying power and adaptability and, in spite of many changes and crises, have succeeded, for an enormous span of years, in preserving their basic identity. They could not have done so unless they were in harmony with life and nature. Whatever it was that kept them to a large extent to their ancient moorings, whether it was good or bad or a mixture of the two, it was a thing of power or it could not have survived for so long. Possibly it exhausted its utility long ago and has been a drag and a hindrance ever since, or it may be that the accretions of later ages have smothered the good in it and only the empty shell of the fossil remains.

There is perhaps a certain conflict always between the idea of progress and that of security and stability. The two do not fit in, the former wants change, the latter a safe unchanging haven and a continuation of things as they are. The idea of progress is modern and relatively new even in the west; the ancient and medieval civilizations thought far more in terms of golden past and subsequent decay. In India also the past has been glorified. The civilization that was built up here was essentially based on stability and security, and from this point of view it was far more successful than any that arose in the west. The social structure, based on the caste system and joint families, served this purpose and was successful in providing social security for the group and a kind of insurance for the individual who by reason of age, infirmity, or any other incapacity, was unable to provide for himself. Such an arrangement, while favouring the weak, hinders, to some extent, the strong. It encourages the average type at the cost of the abnormal, the bad or the gifted. It levels up or down and individualism has less play in it. It is interesting to note that while Indian philosophy is highly individualistic and deals almost entirely with the individual's growth to some kind of inner perfection, the Indian social structure was communal and paid attention to groups only. The individual was allowed perfect freedom to think and believe what he liked, but he had to conform strictly to social and communal usage.

With all this conformity there was a great deal of flexibility also in the group as a whole and there was no law or social rule that could not change by custom. Also new groups could have their own customs, beliefs, and practices and yet be considered members of the larger social group. It was this flexibility and adaptability that helped in the absorption of foreign elements. Behind it all were some basic ethical doctrines and a philosophic approach to life and a tolerance of other people's ways.

So long as stability and security were the chief ends in view, this structure functioned more or less successfully, and even when economic changes undermined it, there was a process of adaptation and it continued. The real challenge came to it from the new dynamic conception of social progress which could not be fitted into the old static ideas. It is this conception that is uprooting the old-established systems in the East as it has done in the West. In the West while progress is still the dominant note, there is a growing demand for security. In India the very lack of security has forced people out of their old ruts and made them think in terms of a progress that will give more security.

In ancient and medieval India, however, there was no such challenge of progress. But the necessity for change and continuous adaptation was recognized and hence grew a passion for synthesis. It was a synthesis not only of the various elements that came into India but also an attempt at a synthesis between the outer and inner life of the individual, between man and nature. There were no such wide gaps and cleavages as seem to exist today. This common cultural background created India and gave it an impress of unity in spite of its diversity. At the root of the political structure was the self-governing village system, which endured at the base while kings came and went. Fresh migrations from outside and invaders merely ruffled the surface of this structure without touching the roots. The power of the state, however despotic in appearance, was curbed in a hundred ways by customary and constitutional restraints, and no ruler could easily interfere with the rights and privileges of the village community. These customary rights and privileges ensured a measure of freedom both for the community and the individual.

Among the people of India today none are more typically Indian or prouder of Indian culture and tradition than the Rajputs. Their heroic deeds in the past have become a living part of that very tradition. Yet many of the Rajputs are said to be descended from Indo-Scythians, and some even from Huns who came to India. There is no sturdier or finer peasant in India than the Jat, wedded to the soil and brooking no interference with his land. He also has a Scythian origin. And so too the Kathi, the tall, handsome peasant of Kathiawad. The racial origins of some of our people can be traced back with a certain definiteness, of others it is not possible to do so. But whatever the origin might have been, all of them have become distinctively Indian, participating jointly with others in India's culture and looking back on her past traditions as their own.

It would seem that every outside element that has come to India and been absorbed by India, has given something to India and taken much from her; it has contributed to its own and to India's strength. But where it has kept apart, or been unable to become a sharer and participant in India's life, and her rich and diverse culture, it has had no lasting influence, and has faded away, sometimes injuring itself and India in the process.

ONE OF THE GREATEST DISCOURSES ON INDIAN LIFE ! HATS OFF

Felt like sweet-lime

I read a lot about neuro-philosophy. That was a story of human brain. I am astonished by the way people are considering man. And this is posing a problem in life, and trying to tell us that man is nothing more than an evolved monkey. And there it all ends. But there still prevail those things called "values" in this world which are not totally physical in origin. They of course have a mental origin purely from the mental world. So, does that all mean that there is to be a different mental world altogether, just like there is a platonic world of geometry. Well, thats not the need here. The need here is to check the validity and reliability of this "so called" new rational thinking, and that whether it houses the potential sufficient enough to explain these things called values. It need not never happen that a person who believes in evolution shouldn't believe in love, or respect and regard for his parents as high, or to have some duties done for his society. It is not so, and hence its time to learn that there definitely is a self sustaining world of feelings and art which never can have a direct physical origin!

TWINS are to be studied for a better explaination of this genetic stuff,, its fun as n experiment..

Now,, "CAN GENES EXPLAIN FEELINGS ?? "

you see, blogs are really interesting stuff, as as far as i can say,, they are the things which you can call as the best pack of utility on the internet. People wishing to know what is freshly cooking in the world, they can just simply surf in, scroll up and down and finally shoot their own say in the blink of an eye the world over. Well, that some other time,, coming back to the story,, I read another article, written in the 90's about genes and morality. It, to a great extent said about the fact that genes arose from nature and morals never arose from the bible! Now that is quite obvious a fact. The writer who claimed of himself as an atheist, quoted that morality what is, results from that thing called "evolutionary instinct". So morality definitely has a natural origin according to him, and I myself feel that its not anyway a mere philosophy he is talking bout. Accepted fact that it is. Even gorillas and chimps feel and care for family and children. Morality has its presence in this physical world, "but" only in the presence of life however.

In another blog i read, it was written that there is a genetic foundation of morality. The natural obligation, or the same i will call as an evolutionary instinct, that morality has a genetic origin, and every creature irrespective of the species, has a tendency to preserve its share in the gene bank of life, and as a result, its share of genes go hand in hand with its moral obligation and responsibility towards that creature,, whoever and whatever it may be. Thus, it provokes us to believe that to some extent, genes, guide our morality and values, at least to its grass root level. And all the levels above this prove to be the prime ones. Some basic evolutionary instincts may be sufficient enough to prove the scientific origins of morality, but the remaining values, and the rest of this vast ocean called life, as we see, cannot be called totally gene centered,, except at the grass root levels.. there is this whole beautiful world of art,, this empire of morals and values in which not genes are the heroes but, the noble men, strength and honor and the truth still is not all about these chemical pinches but about the dignity of honest men, who will forever silently blink like the beautiful star line in the black endless sky of time!!

ANTHOLOGY

FED-UP OF ILLUSORY LIFE

O what could be the blaze of that light
almighty brilliant, zealous and right
O, teacher, kindly lend me those rays
where liberation arises from ambiguous ways

and always , i feel this empty life
as a magic work, or an illusion of strife
O, you now told me that we're spirits nice
that seldom perish when pierced by knife

which nowhere born, and never to die
that goes and goes though millions lie
GOD, GOD, and there's no other cry
thats the goal for every other try

i rest there upon that single truth
now serene and pure is that old little myth
August, ascetic now is my reign
i touch with my hand that deity i had seen

Sushant Kulkarni

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

I tried, toiled, crawled and ran straight
some good came my way, some happiness made me wait
but that the goal's far, from a distance i saw
so blew the bugle again, for bitter is a flaw
upon tumbling down, man always rises to move
here every mistake gives away a clue
when easy winning comes, man foolishly flies
and crashes against truth, for blinded were his eyes
a dared attempt now sets him to fly
a mistake's advice, so he'll surely soar high
Truth came to those,
who all their odds fought
mistakes you are great teachers,
everything you have taught

Sushant Kulkarni

THE INTRODUCTION TO TRUTH

real things, real truth, real life
is free and away from all strife
neither does exist the tingling word I
nor does the laze or the desire's cry

Seldom do we hear the word status
nor prestige stands as an impetus
life here's selfless, free from all scars
the omnipresent verity beyond the stars

once you taste this creamy brim of truth
the bliss behind all this holy mirth
you'll soar and soar and seldom see low
with that almighty LORD you are already in love

Sushant Kulkarni

INSIDE TRUTH

there at that place, there's no you and me
things are not counted as one two and three
you are me and i am you
unity absolute, and its simply true

the number one is all that exists
other numbers are all illusory and blemish
don't touch the numbers two and three
you'll fall in a dungeon, how'll you be free?

enjoy unity and a dazzle will come
with pompous march, like the beats of a drum
beat after beat it'll march on and on
with miseries left behind, far you'll have gone

Sushant Kulkarni

TRUE IDENTITY THERE

no identities are nurtured there
titles and coronets are found nowhere
you aren't measured on worldly machine
no subjects then, no king and queen

Muse, He is, that divine may-pole
like streamers on it, stream our souls
always we've been fluttering in merry
in timeless bliss so forget all flurry

Sushant Kulkarni

INTRODUCTION TO FREEDOM

and there i utter, be selfless
attachments none, be selfless
don't try to win, nor to lose
nor dream of any glory to ooze

nor dream of victory, or good fate
do your duty, just don't wait
stop dreaming to start your run
Bliss, Bliss its real fun

hey, is it not about dream true?
as, bowers where climbers of light grew
why can't we dream if this is the case
for every great thing, it's the base

yes O hero, I tell to thee
dream it big to become free
but dream not small, and seek for rest
aim at the sun and dream the biggest

the biggest dream is that dream
where jealousy and comparison are not seen
dream not about silly power
dream the almighty, the emperor

if thats the dream, thats the dream
truth flows to you like brooks and stream
fall in love with the impossible
eternal truth is then visible

Sushant Kulkarni