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Bhakti As A Source Of Harmony In Society

‘Bhakti as a source of harmony in society’ is excerpt from the speech by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam while releasing A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism at Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore, on 31 May 2008.

In Meerut, I came to know of a functional joint family system called Grihastha Ashrama having nearly sixty to seventy members. This system is working on three important principles:

  1. treating everyone as a manifestation of God;
  2. implicit faith in the mercy of God; and
  3. steadfast dependence on the chanting of His name.

Since I had heard so much about this spiritual family, I visited it during my recent trip to Meerut. I saw the family consisting of grandparents and grandchildren. The extended family — from the young to the experienced — had come from different parts of Meerut. All of them explained how their life got transformed after coming into contact with this family. I was observing how they had achieved this transformation. When I observed them during their bhajan, I found that they all enjoyed every verse and were bubbling with enthusiasm. In short, during the prayer period the whole family was in a new state of cheerfulness. When I interacted with the members, there was a revelation: whatever
they did, they did for God. Their work is highly interlinked with divinity.

For example, the gardener feels he is gardening to get flowers for worshipping God. The decorator of the divine place has the mission of beautifying it. The kirtan group of the family composed the vocal music and used musical instruments to generate appropriate tunes to suit the divine environment. A divine rhythm emanates because they are singing the glories of God with passion.

For the head of the family, all the family members, and whoever assembled there, were images of God. Regarding their profession, each member — whether undergoing education or pursuing a career — felt that the divine family environment had enhanced their performance in every activity and made them happy and contented.

This type of divine environment of the joint family system may be existing in many places in the country, in many religious environments. Such harmony in homes will definitely bring order in the nation and thereby peace in the world.

SourceEdited excerpt from the speech by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam while releasing A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism at Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore, on 31 May 2008.