Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, says that “all human beings are endowed with reason and conscience” and it asks all “to act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. This forms the very basis of the Declaration and has been numbered as Article 1. The Preamble to the Declaration says that “the people of the United Nations have, in the charter, re-affirmed their faith in the dignity and the worth of the human person”. These three important truths, namely — that the human person has reason and conscience that it has inherent worth and dignity and that the human beings should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood, together — meaning that the human person is a soul and a child of Supreme, for then only can human beings act towards one another as ‘brothers’ and then only do they have inherent worth and dignity. All human beings cannot be termed as ‘brothers’ on the basis of their physical relationships nor is their worth and dignity based on any physical consideration because the moral dimension is related to the non-physical soul. The soul has inherent dignity not because of any gross possessions but because it is a child of Supreme Almighty who is the most exalted and illumined one. The soul has worth also because it is the inheritor of His treasures. So, in a way, the Human Rights Declaration and all the Laws that declare justice an obligatory act of all human beings have a spiritual basis. Furthermore, the Law, whether it is international or national, asks us to discard all kinds of distinctions, based on race, colour, nationality, sex, social origin, property, language, birth, etc., because these are based on the body of a person and not on the person. This means that a real person is a soul in a human body. It makes distinction between body and soul, and wants us to keep in mind the soul and forget his/her physical attributes while treating another person. Now this aspect of law has been forgotten in course of time and it has become a mere ritual or a formality to say that there should not be any discrimination, based on body. The present-day deterioration in moral values is because of this. It should not be difficult to understand that there are certain laws that govern our mutual relationships or behaviour. These are known as moral laws or ethical principles. Based on these are certain norms, codes of conduct or rules and regulations to be followed in life in an organised society. If we follow these laws, the quality and quantity of happiness in our life is enhanced and if we violate these, then we have to face so many problems and disturbances. The observance of these moral norms is of great value if we wish to be happy with ourselves and wish to build a society which is free from friction in human relations and tensions in day-to-day life. These are, therefore, called values. Our present sorry state is the result of neglect or violation of those values. We have gradually lost the human aspect of our life and have become more or less like machines, as a result of which there is no spirit of friendship, fellow-feeling and love in our life. Our knowledge of science, technology, communication skills, managerial skills, etc., has not been able to bring inner happiness because our level of honesty, sincerity, cordiality, fellow-feeling, fair dealing duty, discipline and mutual trust are fast vanishing. In other words, there has been rapid erosion of social, moral and family values. It is not that people do not know that moral values are necessary to build a happy and peaceful society. People wish to have moral qualities in their life but they do not have that spiritual knowledge that should enable them to follow successfully these values in their life nor do they know that kind of meditation which should make the values stay in them and give them a deep sense of peace and happiness. Thus, the need of the hour is to create a mass awareness among people for values like tolerance, humility, mutual respect in order to realise our dream of a world where there is peace, happiness and harmony. — Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj

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