NEED OF RAM RAJYA TO FULFILL THE VISION “DREAM INDIA 2022”

by

A.N. Pandey, Director, Spiritual Awareness Program (SAP), Hyderabad (India)

Web: www.yogicconcepts.in

Keywords: Ram Rajya, Gandhiji’s vision, Society, Yogic approach, Vibrant, Disparity

Abstract

      The article deals with what is Ram Rajya? The visions of Mahatma Gandhi about Ram Rajya and Dream India 2022 have been examined. The analysis is carried out on the subjects like Message of Ram Rajya, Modern Concept of Ram Rajya and the Structure of Original Ram Rajya. The need to implement the concept of Ram Rajya depends on the Fabrics of Healthy Society which in turn needs the analysis for Asset (Sampada) development. To achieve the concept of Ram Rajya, the investigation on this subject has been carried out. The methodology to achieve Ram Rajya has also been explored in presence of existing scenario. It is perceived that the yogic concept is the best suitable method for achieving the same. The topics like vibrant individual and vibrant society with the help of yogic concept have been studied. It is observed that least disparity in society encourages achieving Ram Rajya model. The development of Emotional Quotient (EQ) is an important factor for the growth of individual to establish the foundation of Ram Rajya. The paper provides the analysis for established model of Ram Rajya, which was visualized by Bapu ji after Independence.    

1. Introduction

      Ram Rajya has been defined in every Ramayana and most prominent are Valmiki Ramayan, Tulsi Krit Ramayan and also in Kambaramayanam. According to the definition given in Ramayana, Rama’s reign is known as the Rama Rajya which lasted for about 11,000 years or more. During this period, people were healthy, holy, satisfied and lived with complete peace and harmony. There was no evil, no wars, no natural calamity and no diseases. Rama ruled the whole earth without using military force as all kings submitted themselves to him. Rama acquired a rare gem from Rishi Agastha which entombed the powers of the gods Indra, Varuna, Yama and Kubera, which helped the king rule efficiently.

1.1 What is Ram Rajya?

      Ram Rajya is the land of Dharma, poetically described as a realm of peace, harmony and happiness for young and old, high and low, all creatures and the earth itself, in recognition of a shared universal consciousness. The message of the Ram Rajya is the need to hold to Righteous duty (Dharma), perfection in action (karma yoga) and respect for the sacred nature of all life.

      The modern concept explores that Ram Rajya is said to be the type of ruling in which all the citizen are happy and are employed able to feed themselves, no terrorism, theft, communal riots and no citizen ever need to sleep hungry and the ruler is wise and honest and able to protect its citizen from the foreign invasions and also selfless and hardworking.

      The stepping stone like development of every segment of society along with all (“Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ke Sath”) has been initiated by the present Government. This in turn, will establish a strong foundation for Ram Rajya in due course provided all other factors related to Ram Rajya are met.  

2. Vision of Mahatma Gandhi about Ram Rajya

      Ram, Allah and God were convertible terms to Mahatma Gandhi, and his concept of Ram-Rajya represented not Hindu rule but principled rule. Gandhi Ji meant Ram Rajya as Divine Raj, the Kingdom of God. He stated that Ram Rajya of my dream ensures equal rights alike of prince and pauper. Bapu has visualized that Ram Rajya is a system where the society is run by principles of Lord Rama. Mahatma Gandhi talks about some of the key features of this Ram Rajya: They are

i) It is a democratic system where the ruler rules with the pleasure of people ii) There are equal rights for everyone iii) Violence cannot be the means to achieve justice iv) The justice is swift, accessible even by the poorest and at the lowest possible cost v) The rules are based on moral principles and the stress is on moral authority than real politics vi) Government should uphold truth in its own actions and also expect the same from others vii) Army doesn’t have a major role to play in governance viii) Respect for all religions and faiths.

  The key features of Ram Rajya have been briefly described in the image.    

      All the important features of Ram Rajya should have the reinforcing effect of honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability so that the manipulation and corruption in the field of administration, judiciary and business are eliminated. To achieve the goal of vibrant India in coming years, we have to make a specific mission like “Dream India 2022”.

3. DREAM INDIA 2022 NEEDS RAM RAJYA

      Indian Nation is going to celebrate 75^th year of Independence with enthusiastic manner. Naturally, the vision of Gandhi Ji must be remembered and an attempt should be made to achieve Ram Rajya by the government as well as the by people of India. Some of the thinkers have visualized the vision of Gandhi Ji as the basis for modern Ram Rajya. They have nicely elaborated that Gandhi’s Ram Rajya does not mean Hindu Raj. Hinduism teaches us to respect all religions. Gandhi Ji has acknowledged only one God, which is Truth or Absolute. Gandhi said the withdrawal of British power does not mean Ram Rajya. How can it happen when we all have been nursing violence in our hearts under the garb of non-violence?

      In his vision, Gandhi wanted to see each village as a little republic, self-sufficient in its vital wants, organically linked with the larger spatial bodies and enjoying the maximum freedom of deciding the affairs of the locality based on the principal of “simple living and high thinking”. Gandhi had suggested that decentralized democratic political system is the only means to resolve the worldly problems. 

3.1 Modern Concept of Ram Rajya

     Generally, what is the need and object of establishing kingdom, government, rulers, executives, and arm forces? In brief, the answer could be
i) To save the money of country one needs establishment of government and ii) To safeguard government, government needs arm forces and arm forces need the money. This means that everyone needs the money to perform business.

          To achieve the concept of Ram Rajya, we certainly need a new ideal of Ram Rajya to fight the many new factors (Ravana) of corruption, manipulation and materialism that seem to have a thousand heads these days. To defeat Ravana (wicked and selfish nature) we must gain Hanuman (selfless vibrant personality) as an ally, meaning selfless personality having Divine nature and full of enthusiasm to work for the society.

4. The Structure of Original Ram Rajya

      Original Ram Rajya based on Kishkindha (environment and culture for heritage) and Lanka (economy and education). These factors (environment, economy, education and culture or heritage) are the basic fabrics of healthy society. Lord Rama has strengthened these factors taking the model of then Kishkindha and Lanka. The healthy fabrics of society consisting the factors like environment and culture or heritage where taken from Kishkindha kingdom. Likewise, the economy and education (high technology) were taken from Lanka kingdom. Keeping the proper development on these factors, then Ram Rajya of Ayodhya (capital of Rama) was established.     

      Original Ram Rajya was based on truth. Dharma was its foundation. Shastras were the guiding principles. Rishi, Yogi, Muni and Brahma Gyani were the guiding lights. The Vedas were respected and followed. Therefore, Rama Rajya endured and prospered. And it is even now spoken of as the most perfect form of government. The ancient ideal of Ram Rajya is undoubtedly one of true democracy in which the meanest citizen could be sure of swift justice without an elaborate and costly procedure. 

5. The basic elements of Ram Rajya

      In 21^st century, the basic elements which can provide the sustainable form of Ram Rajya are i) Vibrant Individual and ii) Vibrant Society. To eliminate corruption, materialism and manipulation (the root cause of non development or weakening the society and country), honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability are to be followed by the people for achieving the best possible development in the society. The analysis indicates how the vibrant individual and vibrant society can make the strong foundation of Ram Rajya.   

 5.1 Vibrant Individual and Vibrant Society

       Normally, common people are having weak and need based personality. This means that they are always hankering for bread butter, shelter and cloths. For this, they adopt the means of manipulation and corruption. In Ram Rajya, these needs are automatically met; hence they will be free from this kind of hankering. But, next to that is materialism. When the basic needs are fulfilled, the people become materialistic. To eliminate or minimize the materialistic approach, they need spiritual or yogic approach so that they can work for others or selflessly. This kind of personality can perform the job of vibrant individual. To achieve this, the identification of two poles existing in human system like i) civilization and ii) cultural or heritage wisdom is to be integrated. The civilization part consists of pollution free environment, adequate economy and balanced education; whereas, cultural part consists of prevailing heritage in the society.           

Integration reveals that in ideal situation, where both the poles (civilization and cultural wisdom) get unified, the interface result (interplay of two) will yield maximum value.  The achievement of conducive and sustainable quality of any domain (like economic development, good governance, sound social structure and strong individuality) can be armored with moral, ethnic and virtuous values. Many great thinkers of India including Pandit Deendayal have visualized the same.

5.2 The Fabrics of Healthy Society

      Even today Healthy Society needs the balancing of four fabrics of society namely Environment, Economy, Education and culture. Each unit of Healthy fabrics of society depends on development of an individual having  decision making capability, Excellence or Sharpness in duty, and asset (Sampada) of Higher qualities of Human being, Social development and Divinity (Manvik or Humanity, Samajik or Equality in society   & Daivik Gunas or Divine quality).         

      Decision making capability of individual will lead the social development with proper planning, organizing, leading and controlling the each and every aspect of the fabrics of society. This means that individual has to be trained in such a way that they should have the leadership quality with Ancient Indian Wisdom concept like uplifting of energy or prana, space or mind and consciousness or spirit in the background.    

5.3 Least disparity in society encourages achieving Ram Rajya model

There should be complete development of all elements of social fabrics. The healthiness of all can be achieved in balanced way by any other means, but application of Raj–yoga seems to be most effective and easy one. Balanced society in Ram Rajya model will have least disparity in social elements. The image indicates the functional aspects of fabrics of society in order to have least disparity in the social structure in brief. 

      For example, to keep good health, the growth of awareness of Yogic practice is developed. Also, it should have proper investigating approach in medical research. Likewise, there should be effective management to distribute the wealth in proportionate way so as to reduce the gap between Rich & Poor. This will eliminate the disparity feeling among the members. For proper employment, modern education should be devised with Job oriented skills. This will help to evolve inner skill and creative approach so as to reduce unemployment problem. Similarly, Preservation of cultural heritage (music, arts, dance etc.) will be retained in the society to achieve creative entertainment atmosphere. By this way the model or concept of Ram Rajya could be achieved.

      There could be many approaches for achieving the concept of Ram Rajya. Among them, the yogic concepts seems to be the most effective and ideal approach for achieving the principle and process of Ram Rajya. This is because; the yogic concept provides overall development of an individual to provide selfless service in the society. Yogic concept also develops the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual level of an individual.  

6. Why to integrate Ram Rajya model with Yogic approach?

      Many models could be analyzed, but the best holistic approach would be adopted by integrating Rama Rajya model and Yogic model together. Role of Yoga in environmental, economic, education and cultural development have been analyzed separately. The special features of Yoga could be utilized to maintain the sustainability of Holistic model during its implementation.

      We have understood that the factors like vibrant individual and vibrant society are very important for Ram Rajya. Among the two, the first one (vibrant individual) is the most important which will be responsible for implementing the rules and regulations of Ram Rajya. Generally, people are intellectually developed having high IQ (Intelligent Quotient) but lags behind EQ (Emotional Quotient). There are many methods to develop or evolve EQ but Yoga seems to be the easiest one. When IQ and EQ are equally developed there will be least possible chance of corruption in the society. This is because, corruption exists whenever IQ is more but EQ is less.

      Similarly, another factor which is dragging the society is materialism. The people become more materialistic and trying to hoard the wealth whenever there is large disparity in financial condition between rich and poor. By developing EQ, this disparity will be minimized or eliminated. Likewise, the problem of manipulation (another factor of poor society) depends on caste, language, area and religion. When EQ is developed the factor like manipulation is minimized or eliminated. The analysis indicates that whenever these factors (corruption, materialism and manipulation) are minimized or eliminated, the favorable atmosphere of Ram Rajya will prevail. By this means we can conclude that development of EQ of individual is very important for establishment of Ram Rajya and the same can be built up with the help of Yogic practices.      

Reference

i) Website: www.quora.com — Siddhartha Abhimanyu Kuber, Balaji Vishwanathan, Mr. Aditya Pareek (Former Software Engineer 2015)

ii) Website: www.dailyo.com

iii. Complete works of Swami Vivekananda Volume I

iv) Yoga – A Solution for Post Nuclear Leakage Crisis (PNLC) by A.N.Pandey

v) Paper related to Vedic Education by A.N.Pandey