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How KC solves world problems. Political: Corruption Psychological: Stress Ecological: Climate Change Familial: Relationship Conflicts Social: Poverty Economical: Recession Religious: Sectarian Violence Cultural: Sexual Violence. Corruption .
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How KC solves world problems
Political: Corruption • Psychological: Stress • Ecological: Climate Change • Familial: Relationship Conflicts • Social: Poverty • Economical: Recession • Religious: Sectarian Violence • Cultural: Sexual Violence
ACP, pl add pages 2-3 & 26-29 from corruption in India pdf file
The Bhagavad-Gita (16.8-15) explains how a materialistic worldview leads to insatiable lust and greed, which impel corrupt actions. Most people feel that, by being moral, they stand to lose a lot (“Pleasure? That’s what life is all about!”) and gain nothing tangible. (“Principles? What are they going to give me?”)
Our godless scientific education gives us no knowledge about any higher order natural laws of cosmic accountability. And the fallibility of our human penal system is all too well known.
Result? Morality appears entirely dispensable, especially for those who feel they are sufficiently shrewd or powerful. In such a socio-cultural environment, how can we expect mere platitudes to inspire people to be moral?
Corruption, Gita wisdom says, has • Psychological genesis: “Material things can give me happiness” • Spiritual nemesis: “Real happiness comes by enriching my spiritual credits”
Lokpal –Material Kshatriya measure – use power of fear of human law Gopal – Spiritual brahminical solution – use power of: • Fear of divine law: “I can never get away with corruption” • Higher taste: “I will be more happy by honest God-centered lifestyle than by a corrupt materialistic life
The Bhagavad-gita (3.21) points out that political leaders being default role models for the citizens play a decisive role in shaping the values of society. Social trends seep rapidly from the top to the bottom, so corruption at the top inevitably perpetuates, even multiplies, by the time it reaches the bottom.
The disciplinary body will help combat corruption at its psychological genesis, curbing the temptation for quick monetary gains with the fear of sustained punitive retribution.
Spiritual education broadens our vision with the insight that we are accountable to the inescapable cosmic order, which will give us our karmic due sooner or later. Those who recognize that choices are pregnant with consequences naturally become more circumspect about short-term pandering to long-term self-defeating choices.
Spiritual education can become the launching pad for authentic spiritual experience and an eventual re-spiritualization of human consciousness. Brings the realization that real fulfillment in life comes through gratitude, not greed; through service, not exploitation; through sharing, not grabbing.
A socially-supported and individually-motivated redirection of the human quest for happiness from the material level to the spiritual level
Hurry: In youth, we are mostly in a state of hurry, having so many things to do and imagining that we can bend the world to our will. • Worry: In middle age, we are mostly in a state of worry, having learnt through life’s hard lessons that so many things may go wrong and fearing that we may not be able to control them. • Sorry: In old age, we are mostly in a state of feeling sorry for ourselves, lamenting all the things that we did wrong or all the things that went wrong despite our best efforts.
In material existence, change is unstoppable, uncontrollable and unpredictable • Changes: financial, familial, social, academic and physical.
Atma-Jnana (Self-awareness): Understanding that we are, at our core, spiritual and, hence indestructible, fills us with an unshakeable self-security; we recognize that worldly upheavals that affect our material assets have no power whatsoever to hurt us.
Bhagavat-Shraddha (Faith in God’s protection): “Things may not be going according to my plan, but they are not going wrong; they are going according to God’s plan. Understanding that a benevolent God is ultimately orchestrating all material happenings helps us to see order amidst change, plan amidst chaos.
Atma-santushti (Inner happiness): “I don’t have to own & do everything enjoyable to become happy; remembering & serving Krishna bring far better and greater happiness”
Counter Hurry by clarifying our priorities so that we focus on life’s most important things without trying to do everything that everyone around us feels we should be doing,
Worry by giving us the conviction that the Lord is always in control and will guide us to safety even when things appear to be going disastrously wrong.
Sorry feelings by showing us how even when material opportunities are lost irrecoverably, spiritual opportunities still remain available inalienably.
Can I meditate? If we can worry, we can meditate. During worry, we let our thoughts take us away from our circumstances to a problem – real or imagined. And letting our thoughts take us away from our circumstances is the essential ability required for meditation.
A World Watch Institute report put it poignantly, "Environmental super-disasters are no longer a doomsday prophecy; they are an imminent reality." • ACP, pl add stats
Reduce our consumption, especially of non-biodegradable products, • Reuse the commodities we have instead of repeatedly purchasing newer ones and • Recyclethe items we carelessly discard after use
Most people are unable to muster the will to implement these measures as the temptations for instant gratification often appear irresistible. • Moreover, many people presume that as lone individuals they are too small to make any substantial difference in a global crisis and so they neglect the problem.
Raise: we need to raise our consciousness from the material arena to the spiritual realm. • The current environmental crisis originated from a lowering of human consciousness several centuries ago.
For millennia before the Renaissance, people worldwide saw nature as a sacred Mother acting in tandem with the Divine Father to provide us our earthly home and bodily necessities. Indeed this worldview is stated explicitly in the Bhagavad-gita (14.4) and echoed in many other wisdom-traditions. Consequently people in the past reverentially took their necessities from nature and scrupulously avoided tampering with her balances, knowing those to be of an intricacy and delicacy beyond human comprehension
When the reductionistic worldview depersonalized nature, seeing it as an inanimate, even inimical, object to be harnessed for human profit, then people started plundering natural resources indiscriminately. Thus began an unfortunate history of what has been euphemistically called "unintended consequences": myopic attempts to exploit nature that snowballed and boomeranged, eventually precipitating the present crisis
"In a fragile biosphere, the ultimate fate of humanity may depend on whether we can cultivate a deeper sense of self-restraint, founded on a widespread ethic of limiting consumption and finding non-material enrichment.“ - Alan Durning, senior researcher of the Worldwatch Institute
The Gaia hypothesis: The earth is a conscious organism. The current ecological problems can be seen as her defensive responses to our excesses and abuses of her resources.
Nonetheless the earth has a mother's heart; when she sees us reforming, she can save us in ways that we may not yet foresee. The earth, like all organisms, has a healing mechanism, which will promote recovery once the hostile stimuli are removed. So let us do our part by cleansing the ecologically hostile germs of godless materialism from our consciousness and nature will do her part.
"The sufferings of humanity are due to a polluted aim of life.“ - Srila Prabhupada
Relationship Conflicts
Unrealistic Expectations: “Others are meant for enjoyment.” • The monomania of • Machines, • Mechanistic thinking and • Mechanical behavior
We habituate ourselves to watching images of perfect persons in action on the screens - images that do not talk back, images that we can summon, change and dismiss, by the mere flip of a button. These images go deep into our hearts and form our subconscious expectation of others
Whether we like it or not, the real people around us are imperfect, as are we ourselves. When they fail to live up to our expectations, we become irritable and hot-headed. Moreover, when they disappoint us repeatedly, the resulting frustration causes us to constantly dwell on their faults and ultimately makes us cold-hearted towards them.
Unaware of our allotted role, we expect people to act as per our own plans. When we succeed occasionally, we become euphoric; when we fail repeatedly, we become devastated. But while struggling to make our plans work, we miss out on the lasting fulfilment that comes by playing our part in the Divine Plan.
The Divine Plan has brought us together with others: Not for our material gratification, but for our spiritual evolution.
When we understand this purpose of our relationships, we develop a cool head in dealing with others' (and our) imperfections.
When we notice and appreciate others' struggles to overcome their conditionings, our hearts warm towards them – and theirs towards us.
This combination ushers in: • Material harmony, • Emotional fulfillmentand • Spiritual upliftment.
Overview Let the facts speak... Greed causes starvation… How can Greed be removed The secret of compassion Are good intentions good enough?
Let the facts speak… • To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion - what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year !
Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 Let the facts speak… • Billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 % of the world's people.
