Human civilisation on planet Earth rests on the foundation of true knowledge. This primeval knowledge comes from the Supreme Creator, who created the first human beings on Earth. This knowledge, in the form of the Vedas, was passed down orally by the first humans to their successive generations and much later recorded in manuscripts and printed books. Elements of this right knowledge highlight what are known as human values, virtues, metaphysical precepts and principles of peaceful and harmonious living, besides strands of true, core knowledge of physical elements and phenomena. While the Creator of man is omniscient, His creation is innately deficient in knowledge, intellect and understanding.
Human history tells us that man has—over hundreds and thousands of years—absorbed, understood, assimilated and practiced elements of this divine true knowledge. Recorded history shows that human beings understand and experience this knowledge in a large time frame, frequently stumbling and stuttering in the process. Some of these elements were in the nature of codes and directions to human beings for maintaining peace and harmony in the world. This code of conduct also included points which were like guidelines for human happiness, peace and progress. These were given different names in various regions of the world inhabited by different civilisations and cultures.
The human being is limited by physical strength, mental capacity, intellectual prowess and understanding power. But his divine creator is all-powerful and omniscient, and quite logically so. Because of the inherent deficiency of understanding and intellect, human beings created many different philosophical or ideological sects and cults in the world, their number presently crossing three thousand. Though agreeing on basic human values, many of these ideological schools have stark dissimilarities in their philosophical tenets. Today, one cannot dispute the fact that truthfulness, honesty, justice, love, compassion, patience and perseverance are values common to all these ideological schools. However, in spite of the fact that these core values are preached by all these schools, there exists a lot of disharmony in the world. There is, palpably, lots of tension, violence, fear, crime, corruption, poverty and economic disparity. This suggests that human beings are still faltering in their understanding and application of many core metaphysical truths and even basic human values.
We observe so much dissonance in ideologies and practices that in some cases, truth for one section of peoples is seen to be falsehood by another section; righteousness by one section is viewed as unrighteousness by another; mode of worship of the creator God by one popular section is viewed as blasphemy by another; just action by one community is seen as unjust by another. Since human beings’ dwelling on the earth are all alike with common desires and predilections, they are parts of one family with fraternal ties. This conveys that humans are still wanting in their clear understanding of core human values and metaphysical truths.
It is a fact that we have, out of our sheer ignorance, distorted and complicated the core truths handed down to us by our common Creator. We talk of secularism but have failed to harmonise the principles of one ideological school with those of another. We talk of a just human order, but many of us continue our exploitative ways in dealing with other humans. We talk of righteousness or dharma, but many of us indulge in unabashed unrighteousness. This irony has become most conspicuous in the present century when people across the globe are seen to be wallowing in confusion about the common, unique and true ideology of peaceful human existence. With peace-disrupting phenomena rising rapidly and natural disasters on the surge in the wake of rapid environmental degradation, today’s human beings appear to be at a loss to understand the right course of action and behaviour. What is the way out of this conundrum? The answer again lies in a very simple, logical argument.
We need to go back to our fundamentals and core metaphysical truths, which are supported by rationality and logic. We need to harmonise and thread together the strands of humanistic ideologies on the premise that all humans are the children of the one Creator and the rules of peaceful co-existence, harmony, happiness and progress apply uniformly to all. We need to re-adjust and correct our course of existence to check problems that are leading to impending catastrophes. This is possible by embracing the basics and simplifying the divine truths that we have unnecessarily complicated.