Page 39 - SocialHarmony

Harmony Instead of Strife 43

Harmonious Approach towards Political System

Swami Vivekanand showed the path for eradicating the
evils of society on the basis of religion, love and mercy. He also
envisaged a political system based on harmony for the progress
of society. If we look at the politics of our country in the five
decades post-independence, we will see that rulers from the
higher castes created their own different groups and enjoyed
power by exploiting people. This has changed slightly now.
Some of the forerunners from each caste are exploiting people
from their own castes for their personal benefits and ensuring
that the shackles of caste distinction stay rigid. This means that
caste distinctions are not removed and exploitation does not
come to an end; only the persons responsible for the exploitation
have changed. This cannot be the solution to the problem.
Hence, Swami Vivekanand predicted:

“Over the ages, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas have
been in power. It is now time for the lower castes to come to
administrative power and nobody will be able to thwart it.” In
the context of the nation’s character and with a view to pointing
the right direction for solving the problem, Swami Vivekanand
says: “If we can create a state, where the knowledge of the ages
comes from the Brahmins, the civility of the ages comes from
the Kshatriyas, the distribution of time from the Vaishyas and
the ideal of equality from the Shudras, this combination will
eradicate all the evils of every age and result into a model state”.

As a result of being under slavery, our country and its
people have also become mental slaves; the feeling of self-respect
had disappeared. When our social reformers and our thinkers
have to worry only about social evils, it definitely points to a
defect in our fundamental thinking. We live in the illusion that
our systems, traditions, culture and religion are at the root of
all disease; only the Western countries are the best; and we will
not be able to progress until we come out of our traditional
culture. Such depressing thoughts have become a way of life.
Even today, there are many people with the mentality of slavery.
Swami Vivekanand says about the mental weaknesses in society:
“The boat of our nation has helped many souls to cross the