== BABA'S MANDATE ON MYANMAR SITUATION ==
~ PART 2 ~
Namaskar,
A 75-year-old man survives one of the worst storms in the history of his
country, yet due to weeks of not getting proper food and water, he
contracts dysentery and nutritional deficiency and ultimately dies.
A young pregnant woman of 23 spend her days wading through water and mud
in hopes of keeping her family alive. Tragically her husband died in the
cyclone and now she is the only one to care for their 3 & 5 year old
children. Exhausted by days and days of the sheer effort of survival,
her dream of giving birth to a third child vanishes as she has a
miscarriage due to being overworked.
A young boy of 8 walks around his village unable to find his parents or
his siblings. Looking around he feels totally lost as his home is in
shambles and his family members gone forever.
Accounts like these and more are but a few of the tragic tales that are
coming out of Myanmar in the wake of the devastating cyclone.
JUNTA REGIME UNMOVED BY VICTIMS' SUFFERING
All the while, the reigning junta regime is neither allowing sufficient
foreign aid to reach its suffering population, nor are they trying to
rescue the survivors. Rather the crude military regime is more concerned
with keeping themselves in power by holding elections and exploiting
their own people by making those cyclone victims work long hours in
exchange for food-- and low-quality food at that.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
In that case, what are the world's nations to do? Should they give up
trying to send food & supplies like branches of the US military have
done? Should the United Nations continue to be silent observers of the
horrifying situation? Shall we just let the Myanmar ordeal fade as other
news makes the headlines? As witnesses, as a humanity, should we just
watch silently and think that the problem is not ours?
Is helping too troublesome in the wake of the obstacles put forth by the
Junta regime? Shall we just admit our own limitations, and follow the
precept that we should not interfere with the sovereignty of Myanmar
(Burma)?
What exactly should be done? To what degree should we try to help, or is
it not our problem and beyond our control? Should we just sit quietly
and observe? What is our duty in such a circumstance?
WHAT IF...
Before answering the above, let us consider this:
What if you yourself were walking down the street in a big city and all
of a sudden you were being robbed at gun point?
What if one day your child was sent to school and was kidnapped along
the way?
What if your husband had a heart attack on the street or your pregnant
wife fell down the steps of a large office building?
What if any of the above things or more happened to you? Would you want
someone to help? How would it feel to be left stranded by your fellow
humanity?
WE MUST TAKE ACTION IN MYANMAR
Seeing the suffering and dreadful conditions in Myanmar, we have no
other option than to take strong action. Regardless of where national
boundaries are drawn or where the city limits lie, our duty as a
humanity is to come forward-- at any and all cost-- and help our
brothers and sisters in Myanmar. That is Baba's direct mandate.
Baba says, "One who does not come forward to help when seeing a person
in distress is unworthy to be called a human being – he is a slur on
Ananda Marga." (CC-2, 'Society' #12)
Thus, to live up to the code of AM, to realise what it means to be
human, the governments and citizens of the world are bound to do
whatever is necessary in order to save the cyclone victims in Myanmar.
Unfortunately this is not what we see happening. Governments are in
quandary, military personnel are giving up, and citizen groups are left
wondering what can be done.
A mere small percentage of what could be done is getting done. And, as a
result, the people in Myanmar are suffering terribly.
SOME ARE DOING BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH
By Baba's grace our AMURT relief teams are working day and night to
help; plus various NGO's are involved in giving aid; and no doubt other
good works are going on. But none of it is enough to ease the pain and
save the people.
Due to selfish governments around the world and lack of family felling
and spiritual outlook, mostly the big governmental entities are being
completely passive and not treating the problem as their own, but rather
as some distant affair. That is the essence of the problem.
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace we are one human family. People are not just the
property of a particular regime, everyone is our brother and sister.
This is our teaching in AM and this is what we feel in our hearts; and
it is our bounden duty to spread this neo-humanistic message to one and
all, lest we witness more tragedies like the Myanmar incident again &
again & again.
Baba says, "When everything comes from the same Progenitor and moves
along the same path towards the supreme culminating point, then should
there be any cordial difference between man and man? No, there must not
be. Everybody should be given the scope, or circumstances should be
created, such that nobody gets the scope to feel that their future is
sealed forever, is blocked. So let everybody feel that everybody in this
expressed universe belongs to the same big human family." (AV-3)
Namaskar,
Tapeshvar
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Secret Behind...
Everybody knows that devotion is the highest thing in human life. And Baba's below teaching discloses the reason why our most devotional scripture has been composed in the genre of poetry: Because poetry is easy to memorise. For this reason Baba has composed our devotional
scripture-- i.e. Prabhat Samgiita-- in poetic verse.
Baba says, "When anyone says something, the eyes are engaged in seeing, the ears in hearing, and the mind dances in rhythm. In the absence of rhythm it is difficult to memorize. That is why since ancient times, for 15,000 years, the common practice has been to bring every valuable branch of knowledge within the scope of rhythm. Human beings do not easily forget rhythm. One may forget the contents of knowledge, but not the rhythm. That is why all Vedic Rks were composed in 7 meters. All literary compositions were brought within the gamut of the seven Vedic metres...as they are valuable for the memory." (APH-5, p.353)
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