With the launch of Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan by our P.M Narendra Modi whole of the country people is trying to make
Bharat a clean place, swachh place. Even in our campus at IITG we see the Swachh
Abhiyan works being carried on by people participating from diverse background.
Faculties, student, staff are doing their lot in keeping the campus neat and
clean.
But cleaning cannot mean externals
only, its counterpart internal must also be taken in to account. One process is
that of cleansing the externals roads, surrounding areas, office etc. and the
other factor which we hardly notice is to keep clean, what we See, Hear, Feel.
The cleaning and purification of emotions by following the proper moral and
ethical code of conduct. These days whole of our creativity seems to have
concentrated in one spot i.e exploring sensuality, newspaper, television
signboards wherever we see it is full of things that evoke the animality,
carnality inside. The country Bharat which in its yonder, glorious ancient
period believed in directing the senses to capture something sublime seems to have
forgotten its own self. Thousand years of slavery, subjugation, humiliation has
made us belief in a progress that apes western culture. India which has
contributed to world the best of ethical and moral code of conduct seems to
question its own antiquity. Science, Arts, Fine Arts, Music, Mathematics
wherever we see and study the glory of our civilization shines in golden color.
The seven notes in the octave were first known to us long before any other
nation had them. The Chinese had only five notes, while the Greeks had seven
notes in the octave only after they came in to contact with our country. In Mathematics
the contribution of Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya and more recent S. Ramanujan
stand tall. In the field of science the contribution of Homi Bhabha, C.V.
Raman, Meghnad Saha, Stayendranath Bose, Sisir Kr. Mitra, J.C Bose are
acknowledged by the world. In fine Arts a great thinker says, the world which
is yet to understand fully and in time to come will know what a master India
was. In medicine and Surgery we have developed ayurveda system which is still
continuing and compared to that the allopathic system of medicine is just a
developing branch which is yet to come to a conclusion about human body and its
personality. In the field of Philosophy our country has reached the
culmination. The soul inside the human body was discovered and language was
manufactured to explain the unexplainable. The only work left for its
generation is to realize the soul inside the diversity of human body and its
says, when realized the secret chamber of heart opens and ancient text predating
CE says, “Realizing him one becomes free from all miseries”.
2500 years back in the book
of Patanjali Yoga Sutra we find mention of Yama and Niyama as prerequisites for
any undertaking. Yama is abstention from harming others, from false hood, from
theft, from incontinence, and from greed. The niyamas (observances) are purity,
contentment, mortification, study and devotion to God. Swami Vivekananda
commenting on the sutras says, “External purification is keeping the body pure,
a dirty man will never be a Yogi. There must be internal purification also. Of
course internal purity is of greater value than external but both are
necessary, and external purity, without internal, is of no good” Although we may reject all this as antiquarian
but the present situation like non-transference of nuclear technology to
countries supporting terrorism, increasing collaboration of developed and
developing countries to keep some know-how’s under exclusive proprietary right
so that civilization is not destroyed makes us believe what purpose can be
served by a libertine, selfish knower.
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
with which the topic was started, we can extend beyond material cleanings. The cleaning
of media from appealing to masses by something gross, the cleaning of
signboards etc whereas Ashoka the king of ancient India raised royal pillars to
make the public aware of its duties and responsibilities for generations our
present media with more technology is only making people think gross. Walking
on roads with elderly friends one will not fail to be embraced on spotting some
filmy activity of lovers, couples in some dark spaces displaying their personal
emotion. One fails to wonder if this can be done in personal spaces or we need
a park especially devoted to the purpose. We can’t fail to notice the murmuring
activity near some hostel but the silence pervading the opposite one. Although
not an enemy of people displaying public emotions but this does not stop the
thought that can we have some guidelines on this public display of emotions. A
signboard of do and don’ts inside campuses, roadside, public corners that
restrict the limit to emotional display and fines for breaking these limits. Stricter
rules at night may catch any one trying to escape in the cover of darkness.
Swachh Bharat cannot be imagined as clean roads, places, and surrounded by
private emotional activity along the sides which bring in the seer the urge to
replicate the same and in absence of sufficient restraint thereby committing it
criminally. After all the highest person or institution is the role model in
any branch it may the public etiquette or morals. May Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
help us become a better person each day.
