जीवन विद्या एक परिचय

Question: You have talked about “development”. So far development has meant construction of a road, getting electricity to a village or an increase in household income. What is “development” according to you?

Answer: - Development in humans fundamentally means the development of consciousness. However, we have been calling the construction of roads and buildings development. Moreover, the construction of a jail in every district is also called development! A bright new house is called development. I am not against this material development because these are part of humans' common and special aspirations. However, using these developments rightly requires social consciousness. With mechanistic consciousness, we will inevitably fall into errors and crimes. Humans need social consciousness, behavioural consciousness, and orderliness consciousness. The Jeevan Vidya proposal is about understanding developed consciousness. After this, there is a proposal for the humanisation of education and a family-based self-governing system. Considering these three proposals, we can see that the lesser the damage we inflict on Earth, the longer we will last on it. After all, where will humans live if we ruin this Earth? Therefore, humans are “developed” when they live with resolution and prosperity in their families, identify all humans as one race, have harmony in their behaviour, and evaluate one another rightly, i.e., when they are social. Orderliness in humankind means their being able to participate in all the five aspects. This is what I call human development or awakening. This is the meaning of being social. We haven’t yet found happiness in our notions of “development”. Resolution, prosperity, fearlessness, and coexistence all should be accomplished for continuous happiness. Happiness will not be found without this.

Question: Darwin also gave a theory of evolution which is still widely accepted. How is your principle of development different from Darwin’s theory?

Answer: Darwin’s presentation is limited to describing the evolution of species based on their bodily structure. For example, the body of an insect, a leech, a horse, a cow, and similarly, the body of a human. He made the skeletal structure the basis of his study. He has tried to explain evolution in terms of how the bones in organisms have become longer and stronger, considering the human body as the most evolved and placing prior species in a chronological sequence. The Darwinian narrative about the evolution of the body has a few issues, but his description of humans is completely wrong.