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Monday, January 3, 2011

Kaliyuga's "Akshaya Patra"

Most of us are in the quest to understanding the meaning of life, our reason to live. This quest might seem unending right now, but for sure, it does have benchmarks of understanding. I believe that these benchmarks of understanding and the subsequent translation of this understanding into action help us in defining a person as a wise, good or bad part of the society. Misunderstanding is dangerous though!

My understanding also has a few benchmarks; the first is of considering a man/woman (not mentioning woman is a benchmark of misunderstanding life) as a living organism. By considering a man/woman as an organism we get to know the importance of food. As an organism, we need only three things to survive, food, water and air. All these three were initially provided to us free of cost by nature. Today, sadly, food is a commodity which is not available free of cost (we recently heard our economist PM teaching food economics to the country when food was rotting in government godowns), water is getting commoditized which is visible by the number of disputes over river water and soon in the future, looking at the pollution levels, we will have to buy air! In any case, we all should acknowledge the understanding that the organism side is the primary side of any man/woman.

Second benchmark of understanding is of considering a man/woman as a human. Here i would define human as an organism which lives in the society and follows a some rules and leads a specific way of life. These rules are a result of the thousands of years of evolution which transformed a man/woman from being a mere organism to being the dominant organism called Human. As our life span is limited, all these rules cannot evolve in a life time. Thus, human innovated the education system! This system compresses all the evolution into a structured program which is then taught to men and women so that they transform into humans.

Keeping apart the success or failure of our education system which is an unending discussion, we will have to appreciate the fact that a man/woman is first a living organism and then a Human. One has to qualify as a living being and only then can he or she can qualify to be a Human. Sadly, we have forgotten this! Despite knowing the fact that "Empty stomachs do not understand any ideology", we preach without considering the earlier mentioned fact.

Post independence, Government of India realized the fact and launched a mid day meal scheme for children going to school. This scheme has contributed significantly in raising our levels of literacy from 12% in 1947 to about 68% today. But, as we know, we are home to about 17% of the world's population and government's efforts alone cannot solve the purpose. A literate and educated India will contribute positively to the modern world. Thus, working for a better India is like significantly contributing for a better world.

Pandavas were blessed with unlimited supply of food by the Sun God. In Kaliyuga, we believe that god resides within us. Thus, let us bless the "Kaliyuga's Akshaya Patra" so that we meet the ambition of transforming the world into a better place by ensuring that children do not study empty stomach.

We might also be doing this at an individual level. But, joining hands with likeminded people will surely act like a shot in the arm. Supporting people like Mr Madhu Pandit Das, who have unquestionable and unyielding integrity, in their life's mission in the easiest means of contributing towards achieving the goal.

I hope that the readers appreciate the idea and support Akshaya Patra. Kindly click here to donate http://www.akshayapatra.org/individual-donors .

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