If a country gives more importance to spirituality instead of worldly development, then other barbaric or materialistic countries might attack and destroy it. [If we adopt an educational system in which spiritual knowledge is given more importance than worldly education, it will lead to a society which has less interest in worldly development and more interest in a holistic development in which spirituality is given more importance. The country and its people will be less aggressive in various areas such as economy, defense, foreign policy etc. This is a great risk since the country could be invaded by barbaric and aggressive countries. India has historically been highly advanced and cultured. But, we were invaded innumerable times and finally, we became slaves.] ------------------------------- Answer to the above question Swami Replied: If you see the previous history, the countries like Islamic and Christian etc., also had very strong spiritual knowledge and very strong divine traditions. Such countries developed more in science and technology not at the cost of their spiritual and religious education. The development of science and technology in our country was in lower level not because of the higher devotion and spiritual knowledge. The development of technology is not affected by the development of spiritual knowledge in any country. In fact, the fear for sin and God is more in the foreign countries even now. Due to this, there was in built ethical conduct in the public and injustice was absent to a great extent. I am stressing on the point that the chaos due to corruption and injustice can be eradicated by developing the ethical values through spiritual knowledge. This concept is true in any country at any time. The growth of technology in foreign countries is also blessing from God, Who was pleased with the sincere practical sacrifice. In India, the devotion is more theoretical and hence, India was not blessed in wealth and technology by God. Science and technology are also practical fields and our masters in theory naturally failed to develop the practical science. The practical approach is absent in our country not only in the spiritual knowledge, but also in the science, which is highly practical by itself. When ethics supported by spiritual knowledge are absent, the applications of technology will not reach all due to corruption and this resulted in lesser strength of the country. Swami Vivekananda cried asking God Why my country is so poor in spite of high spiritual knowledge? If you explain this concluding that India is poor due to high spiritual knowledge and other countries are wealthy due to lower spiritual knowledge, it is not correct. The ethics and devotion based on spiritual knowledge are strong in other countries also. In such case, why is India poor in spite of higher spiritual knowledge? This is the actual sense of Swami Vivekananda. Answer for this is that practical devotion is more in other countries where as theoretical devotion is more in India. If this mistake is rectified, India also will be rich. The point here is not about the quantum of the spiritual knowledge, but the defect in the spiritual knowledge that spoiled the progress of technology in this country. The quantum of theoretical spiritual knowledge is very much in India. But, the practical implementation is zero. In other countries, the theoretical spiritual knowledge is less but the practical implementation is full. Due to this, the other countries were blessed by God and became strong. Our country remained weak in practical spiritual knowledge due to more selfishness. Such defective spiritual knowledge based on practical selfishness is the reason for strong corruption that weakens the entire country. In the present time, invasions are almost nil and the atomic weapons are ready to destroy the entire world. The concept of world peace is an urgent subject, which can come fully through right spiritual knowledge. In ancient India, Spiritual knowledge could control corruption and the administration of Government was very easy. In the present days, the absence of the spiritual knowledge leads to corruption and benefits of technology are not reaching all and the administration of government is also failing completely in controlling the corruption. Now, wars and invasions are very rare and day to day administration of the government to build up the country with uniform strength is essential, which is possible only in the absence of corruption. In this general context only I stressed on the spiritual knowledge to eradicate corruption for the uniform development of the society. www.universal-spirituality.org Universal Spirituality for World Peace
Sounds like a nightmare. Imagine living in a place which gives more importance to fairy land than to the welfare of its people and its natural environment.