Jai Jagat

asudhaiva Kutumbakam is a philosophy that inculcates an understanding that the whole world is one family. It is a philosophy that tries to foster an understanding that the whole of humanity is one family. It is a social philosophy emanating from a spiritual understanding that the whole of humanity is made of one life energy. If the Parmatma is one how then an Atma can be different? If Atma is different how then can it ultimately be dissolved in the Parmatma? If the whole ocean is one how then a drop of the ocean be different from the ocean? If the drop is different from the ocean how then can it ultimately be dissolved in the ocean? It is a Sanskrit phrase meaning that the whole earth is one family.

The first word is made up of three Sanskrit words – Vasudha, Eva and Kutumbakam. Vasudha means the earth, Eva means emphasizing and Kutumbakam means family. It means that the whole earth is just one family. The concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam originates from Hitopadesha. Hitopadesha is a collection of Sanskrit fables in prose and verse. According to the author of Hitopadesha, Narayana, the main purpose of creating the Hitopadesha is to instruct young minds the philosophy of life in an easy way so that they are able to grow into responsible adults. It is almost similar to the Panchatantra. The whole philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is an integral part of the Hindu Philosophy.

It is a cosmic organization. And it is an organization by the people, of the people and for the people. It is absolutely organic and existential. It is basically built on the very need of the existence. I strongly believe that the very need of the existence has to be the need of every individual. We are all here to fulfill that individual need and in turn fulfill the very need of the existence. We all in our lives have seen and come across many organizational structures. There are organizations that are commercial and profit making. Their very purpose is economic in nature. Their very objective is profit making. There are organizations that are social organizations. Their very objective is to achieve some kind of social objective by helping people who are not well economically.

They all are ultimately dependent on the support of the commercial and political organizations in some way. There are organizations that are political in nature. Their very purpose is to assure and ensure good governance to the people of their country. The very word governance is wrong. Who is governing on whom? The whole purpose of the Government is welfare of the society and peace in the society. The whole objective of a Government is to work towards the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The moment there is a gap in the feeling of oneness in the society it may give rise to injustice and depletion of peace in the society and the same may have many other repercussions.

The mind and body are the servants of the Soul or Atma. The Atma or Soul is the servant of Parmatma. Just like there are so many families in a nation, in a similar way the Government is a family of the nation. The Governments have to serve its people. Only few servers serve the requests of many more computers. All the efforts of the society should ultimately move towards digital and virtual governance. There are some organizations that are purely devoted to scientific research. All the progress that is there today is due to the progress of the science. Had there been no science we would have been back to the dark ages. These organizations are also in some way dependent on the support of the social, commercial and political organizations. There is also an effort going on world over to make science a social phenomenon.

That is the people should fund the scientific projects instead of the governments. There are also some organizations that talk about fulfilling the spiritual needs of individuals. These to me should not in any way actually depend on the support of outside organizations if the spiritual objective is to be met without any dilution. There are also some clubs that fulfill some of our social, entertainment and recreation needs. Social bonding, entertainment and recreation are a part and participle of the whole society. There are also some organizations that are working on a co-operative framework. These are ultimately influenced by the political organizations in some way. And now there are NGOs which are new and emerging and fulfill some of the social needs of the society. These must grow to do some good work for the society.

There are also now organizations at the International level like the United Nations Organization (UNO) to create a common theme among the various nations of the world and try to unite them together. Each organization serves its own different purpose. And then there is another organization which we don’t call an organization. And we call this as our family. Each one of us belongs to some family at an individual level.

We have our parents, brothers, sisters and many more relationships. But this family is really not an organization. It is a cohesive group of people living together on the foundations of mutual love and trust but not an organization in that sense. We all live in that family. We all belong to that family. And we all come out of that family and associate with one of the above organizations and fulfill in some way our various individual needs.

All our needs are basically three-fold: Business, Social and Spiritual. We all want to basically fulfill our Survival, Social and Spiritual needs. We all act and interact with one another in some way and try to make this world a better and beautiful place to live. We are all a World Wide Web of so many relationships. Can this whole world be just one cosmic family? This could only be an imagination and hope at this point in time. This seems and appears to be a distant possibility and a greatest challenge. To some Vedic and Upanishadic sages, Buddhas and Mystics this has been a great dream.

Computer scientists and information technologists have been successful in tying all the computers and all the information of the whole world in one common thread of a network. This is where Scott McNealy of the Sun Microsystems has once said that the Network is the Computer. The computer network of the whole world has become one big computer. It has become a digital nervous system of the whole world. This has been made possible at the level of a machine but the same is not becoming made possible at the level of all the human beings of the whole world. Can this be possible? Can the whole world be just one cosmic family and how? Perhaps there are no straight answers to this.

The existence functions at four different levels: Mechanical, Biological, Psychological and Spiritual. The mechanical level means at the level of matter, its laws and its forces. The biological level means at the level of biological life and its laws and forces of behavior. The psychological level means at the level of the psyche of the human beings. Human beings are at the highest level of evolution. There is no other evolution after the human beings. If there is any higher evolution or consciousness possible it has to be within the human beings only. This higher awareness can be our revolution. And the fourth level is the spiritual level.

Spiritual level means at the level of a Buddha-hood. That is the world of the Buddhas. Scientists have practically proved Quantum Entanglement. In a simple sense quantum entanglement means bringing two photons at the same level of behavior. The behavior of one automatically changes the behavior of the other and in the process both come to attain the same state. Now this is possible scientifically. Why not then the other possibility exists at the spiritual level? Why not then Buddha-hood possible scientifically? That is, coming of two and many human beings at the same level of consciousness. Why one Buddha can’t change the behavior of the other? This is what I call Quantum Consciousness.

Why can’t this be scientific? To me, anybody who thinks that this is not possible is an unscientific person. This is exactly where the Upanishads and Vedas come into the picture. In ancient India the sages of the Vedas and Upanishads, the mystics and the Buddhas have seen this dream of tying the people of the whole world in a common thread of mutual love, trust and friendship. They have attained this to a great extent in ancient India. This was possible only through Yoga and Meditation. This was the only common platform. They have called this dream Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. It is in Sanskrit and when translated means that the whole world is just one single family. Are we all different and dependent?

No, we are not. Are we all then independent? No, we are all in fact interdependent. It is now after a scientific progress of 400 years that even the scientists of the whole world are of this view that the whole cosmos is an inter-connected oneness. The whole existence is inter-woven and inter-twined. This is the result of quantum physics. This is also the emphasis of the string theory that the whole cosmos is a web of inter-connected vibrating energy strings. The whole existence is a web of potential photons, vibrating strings and super-strings. The insight of the quantum physics is that the whole existence is an unbroken wholeness.

The greatest discovery of the quantum physics is that the Universe can neither be continuous, that is infinitely divisible, nor discrete or discontinuous, that is made up of finite and indivisible parts. The Universe is neither discrete nor continuous. It is now called a participative Universe. It is an inter-dependent, inter-twined, inter-woven, inter-related and inter-connected Universe. This is the discovery of the outer world and outer science. The Vedic and Upanishadic sages, the Buddhas, the mystics and the Zen Masters have discovered this truth long back in the ancient past in their inner world. This was the result of their inner search and an inner revelation.

This was the result of their Yoga and Meditation. On the basis of this realization they have called the whole existence a Parasparam Abhyantaha. This is in Sanskrit and when translated means that inter-dependent and inter-connected we all live in some way or the other and we can never live anymore as separate islands. This is the dream of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Enlightened Leadership is a small experiment in that direction. This is where I am saying in a modern adage of the 21st century that the whole Network of the people of the world can become their Net-Worth. Let us take a quantum leap towards that Quantum Consciousness. You and Me together means ‘We’. We means the whole world. We means Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. We are all inter-connected with that common thread called Consciousness.