The relevance of Gandhian philosophy in modern world

If the beginning of the twentieth century was to signify anything then the world would have been destroyed by now. There as violence and counter-violence everywhere. The world was reeling under the pressures of two world wars. Imperialism was resulting in violence everywhere. Everyone was practicing his mental and physical power to overpower the others. The time was ideal for the birth of new philosophy that would take the world by surprise, which would change the thinking of whole world, which would regenerate the humanness of human being and kill their baser instincts. No points for guessing the country of birth of the philosopher and philosophy i.e. INDIA, yes the same country which has solution to each and every problem of the world. The philosophy is ‘ahimsa or ‘non violence’ and the philosopher was ‘Mahatma Gandhi’.

Gandhiji realized that the world was being tested of its patience, tolerance level and its ability to accept failures. People simply didn’t accept that they are not the best in every field. And in order to prove themselves better than others they indulged in violence which resulted in counter-violence. Gandhiji analyzed the situation at that time to perfection and propagated anew philosophy of Satyagraha, that took the whole world by surprise. He propagated a path that was hard to follow but then seldom in history has greatness been achieved without difficulty. His’ was the path to take people to greatness.

Productive old ageing

It is a common believe that old age people are luggage. In modern India most of the people will deny it but when it comes to their own head they feel the brunt of it. Modern people have become total hypocrite in this regard. They shed tears for other people parents but when it comes to their own parents they think it would be better for them to leave the world. Thus our elders are deficient of respect they ought to get from our side. In order to maintain their dignity and respect, the elderly ones need to be aware of productive old aging.

Today’s world is full of hypocrites. People are themselves not able to perform to the level they expect others to perform. People watch movies in which elderly are ill-treated by their children and feel sorry for them but they themselves commit the same crime when it comes to their own parents. Parents as they have been doing throughout their life, forgive them don’t give too much thought to them partially because of their love towards them and partially because of their need of them. But now is the time for the parents to understand that they ought to fight for the respect they deserve. Hence, comes the importance of productive old aging.

The only hindrance in this concept of productive old ageing is that old people are tired of working all throughout their life and want freedom from the difficulties of day to day life. They aren’t willing to work again. It is this rest factor coupled with the love for their children that old people become tolerant to the disrespect shown to them. The second problem is that there is a very small range of jobs that they can do. Perhaps education is the only line they can work with their real value and dignity.

There is only one solution to all these problems. They have to count on their experience if they aren’t willing to rest why to test their patience. Patience can pay in every field but not in this field simply because when the time will come they won’t be there to reap the fruits of their patience. Though there is only a little range of things they can do but whatever they will do will be the best simply because of the loads of experience they have along with them.

Thus, it’s high time the elderly people should be aware of productive old ageing, which will bring happiness to everyone’s life.

Are we human?

Are regularity, reliability, seriousness, punctuality and certainty human nature? Any human possessing these qualities is thought to be the best among his race. Are we changing the definition of human? Are we forgetting the anarchic and spontaneous side of human beings? Are human qualities becoming extinct? Will the human race survive the most dangerous threat it has ever come across in its long and happening history that threatens to destroy its anarchic and spontaneous side?

                   Dr. Walter F. Stromer has suggested a century ago that machines will increase the ferocity of wars, destroy the anarchic and spontaneous side of human nature and hence will deprive humans of happiness, the quality for which they were developed. How right was he in this context! People are doing from anything to everything to curb their natural instinct.

                The result of people’s willingness to curb their natural instinct will be too dangerous to predict. It might destroy the whole human race. People today have forgotten how to smile. People today wear different faces for different occasions. It has increased to such an extent that people have forgotten what they really are like. Every star is today asked the question what they are like in their real life! This has made the ever-haunting task of differentiating between good and bad even more daunting. More and more people are cheating others and are getting cheated.