Practise Celibacy, Reduce Population
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man - Thomas Malthus”
Someone has rightly said that, if we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control, then the nature will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not. It’s a fact that majority of the countries around the world are today facing the biggest human crisis - population explosion.
For a country like India , population explosion is nothing but a curse which is retarding the true development of the country as well as of society. With 17.3 per cent of the world’s population, India has become the second most populous country in the world and shortly, it’s going to top the list for very wrong reasons. Such a rapid growth of its population over the past one hundred years has resulted from from increased birth rate and lowering of death rate.
With rapid scientific advancement resulting in decline of death rate, more people are now being added each day than at any other time in human history. Modern man, in spite of all the technological advancement, is ignorant of his real self-interest and is unable to see beyond his nose, at least in time if not so fully in space. He has no foresight to see that anything he indulges in today, has an effect far deeper and far wider than what he chooses to take into account. While irresponsible sex-indulgence is the sole cause of challenging population growth, celibacy is the only effective solution to it. But, the tragedy of the present age is that men and women seek too much liberty for their lustful behaviour, leaving love to remain a show piece. Today, we all know that love is a play of selfish carnal urge rather than soft emotions between two hearts, from which may sprout spirit of sacrifice and a burning desire to share pain. Governments all over the world are spending billions on family planning programmes, just for avoiding population explosion and to reduce the extra burden on economy. But to their dismay, success, however, has distinctly eluded the planners of population. Then what is the way out to contain this dreadful crisis?
Today saying ‘I Love You’ has become quite casual and common among youngsters. There is no regard for emotional harmony, no care for cordial relationship and no sincerity of purpose behind the act of show, if any, of helpfulness towards the so-called beloved. Relationships of the present day are so fickle and short lived and that can be clearly seen in growing number of divorces and desertions within the wedlock and criminal assaults on erstwhile beloved. Marriage, which was once taken to be a sacred union for performing sacramental rights, has debased itself into a license for legalised exploitation of the feminine gender. Feminine beauty, which is a thing of adoration and appreciation, is now looked at as a proud possession to be used as desired. It is said that love is divine and lust is devilish, but unfortunately humanity has fallen down so deep into morass of lust, that today it has made difficult for the women in society to live a dignified life. Bodily union of the two sexes is no more a process for procreation, but a mode of dirty and dangerous recreation, in course of which child comes as an offshoot with no place where it can be thrown much less cared for. Isn’t it a ghastly crime to indulge in such bodily pleasures and produce children that cannot be fed from the available resources on earth ? Today, millions are already starving and yet multi-millions are added every year to swell the number of hungry mouths and starvation death. Shouldn’t we think about their plight?
Modern man may probably laugh away or reject this cure or remedy of celibacy as impractical, but he can do so only at his own peril, for the subtle laws of nature will not pardon him.There is a perverted notion prevailing in society that believes physical relationship to be a basic human and biological necessity.
The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across
India, Nepal and the UK