Editor

Humanity is not a race, it is a value.
And we have lost it in our blind
pursuit of success and prosperity.
Anand

In this age of falling moral standards and near-absolute absence of the sense of discrimination between good and evil, we find that the structures which imparted values to humanity have been erased out of existence, or distorted so that they stand only in form, while their essence is essentially lost. Let us look at religion. All the goodness that it preaches remains restricted to the holy pages, while what we see going on in society is utter lack of divinity even among the holiest of holy people. Religion has been reduced to a habit, a custom, a rite, and its spirit has been taken away. In the same way, the second structure which was supposed to maintain morality in the system was the teaching profession. It has been dropped from the list of ‘noble professions’. It is not a matter of choice with our youngsters. It is only a matter of employment, a dry attachment to a job from which we extract monthly salary to support the family. The systems which decide the content of teaching subjects want that there should be no literature in the syllabi, students should learn only how to write a letter, a quotation, and how to draft advertisements. The third structure that has fallen, absolutely, is the presence of the grand parents at home. Need I mention the broken family system, and the single-parent families where old people have been exiled from homes and quarantined old age homes? Who is there to teach the stories of Raja Harish Chander and Shakuntala, and even the Ramayana to the young minds? They have been replaced with the TV which has tumbled them into a world of consumerist culture, day and night telling them, eat this eat that, making them obese in body and mind too.

Man or a Perfect Manipulator

With all the moralizing structures gone with the wind, we are now in a helpless state, in which the modern generation is exposed to market values. It is commerce, success, wealth, power and fame that rule the minds of men. In fact, let us agree that in a society, what happens is decided by the government and these days, governments want smart men who look charming, and intelligent, and who can be masterminds. In other words, modern society needs manipulators, who have mastered the art of success, because ultimately, it is the success that matters in a competitive conglomerate to which our society has been reduced.

The culture of corruption that has made inroads into human society on a spectacular scale has increased the pace of humanity towards self-destruction. Philosophically, we appear to be at the end of the cycle of Kalyuga, and this being the last phase of the epoch, we can see signs of an imminent disaster waiting for us, when every value has been lost. Humanity is not a race, it is a value. And we have lost it in our pursuit of success and prosperity.

What do we require today?

We are opening universities, and colleges, and sending our kids abroad for education.
It is all a surcharged exercise to make money, and then, more money so that you can lead a life of comfort and luxury. I wonder if there is any other passion which works with our younger generations. I want to underline what makes India different from western cultures. India stands for a life which believes in God, in godliness, in religion, in scriptures like Ramayana and Mahabharata, in Guru Nanak, in Tulsi Das, in Rabindranath Tagore and in Mahatma Gandhi. There is no India if you drop even one person from your search. India never dwelt on BARE LIVING PRACTICES as we are now going to imbibe in our upcoming generations. Earning money or a job makes 20 per cent of a man’s life, the rest of it is leading a life in love, compassion, family, believing in goodness, working hard and praying.

And what we are now preaching is a lifestyle which is shorn of all values. Which has only money as the first and the last value. It is a destructive passion that we are teaching to our younger generations. How many old couples are now taking care of each other, because their kids have migrated to US or Canada? And how many when die, remain unattended by their sons at their funerals?

Man is not body, nor bones. Man is his emotions. His family. His love. His likes his dislikes.
His peace. His time. His vacant hours. His dreams. We deny all these things and force them to live on money and impractical dreams of a high life. If we remove our flesh from our bones, can we sustain ourselves? Where are emotions in our blood? In our flesh? Where are dreams in our minds? And visions in our eyes? We are much more than bare bones. No science can dissect us. Let these people who decide our fate know this fact.

THE COUNTER-BLAST

We, all those who wish well to this society, who want values to return to our younger generations, who want that we must rise above crass commercialism, and turn human again, need to join heads together. Certain things are clear. We cannot look for correction towards religion. Education has been destroyed by masters of commercialism. And family system has gone down the drain. Our worry is how to inculcate Humanism among our growing children, who are going to make our world tomorrow. How to bring them to realize that this society needs certain values of goodness, humanity, honesty and integrity. That wealth is not the last value. That fame, power are glittering illusions only.

We can do so if in each state, we have a University of Ethics, which should be beyond the pale of all religions, regions, and creeds. We need to teach literature and philosophy, and issue 6 month certificate courses in Moral Engineering and make them compulsory to pass Higher Secondary. No person who does not possess a degree can get into a job. A three year degree programme in Moral Engineering may give us Ethical Supervisors to be placed, one in ten schools in a cluster. In Universities too, we need to open Department of Ethics, and make the study compulsory in every department.

Let us take the cue from Shanti Niketan. That is a University with a different mindset. Let us in each state open a University of Ethics, so that the world knows we have taken the much needed U-turn. It will be India’s pioneering effort to push the world back from the brink of moral disaster.

Article by
Dr. JERNAIL SINGH ANAND

Dr. Jernail Singh Anand is an Honorary Member of the Association of Serbian Writers. He is Prof. Emeritus in Indian Literature at The European Institute of the Roma Studies and Research Belgrade. Dr Anand has authored more than 150 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, spirituality and philosophy. He is credited with the theory of Biotext in critical theory. His work has been translated into more than twenty world languages. Author of 9 epics which are regarded as modern classics, Anand has organized 4 International Literary Conferences, latest of them, in Chandigarh. He was conferred Franz Kafka Laureateship 2022 and International Aco Karamanov Poetry Award 2022 (Mecedonia).

More about the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jernail_Singh_Anand?

This year is the centenary of the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922. It is a time of remembrance for those whose lives changed from one minute to the next through no fault of theirs. A time of remembrance by their descendants, who are now the third generation of those first
refugees that came from all parts of Asia Minor Turkey: from far away Cappadocia,from  Ionia, from Thrace, and the Black Sea area. A time of remembrance for the cruel and planned genocide of first the Armenians and then the Greek population by the Turkish armed forces and the chetes irregulars that took place between 1914 and 1923.

Over one and a half million Greek Orthodox natives were forced to leave their ancestral homes that had been the home of the Greeks from ancient times, go on forced marches where many died along the way and cross turbulent seas to reach safety. Such memories can never be forgotten, and they have been passed down from generation to generation as is the case of the first refugees that came to Anavyssos and made it their new home.

On Wednesday 10th August a church service was held followed by the unveiling ceremony of the monument to commemorate the first Greek refugees from Asia Minor who settled in what was at first an arid and inhospitable area. The service took place in the small, restored church, which had formerly been a house. When it was first built as a church, it was given the name Agioi Theodori (Greek: Άγιοι Θεόδωροι) by one of the first settlers who also covered most of the building costs. The other settlers helped by offering their labor and their knowledge. The bell was made by a well-known bell maker from one of the villages of Cappadocia.

Today, the church is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Greek: Κοίμηση της Θεοτόκου), whose Name Day we celebrate on 15th August. It is referred to as the Summer Easter of the Greek Orthodox Church to show the importance of the day and the dedication that the Greek people have towards the Virgin Mary. A panigiri (open-air local celebration) is held after the church service to celebrate this important day with local food and music. It is a time of reunion for those that have left their place of birth and who return for this special occasion.

Besides the clergy, the Metropolitan of the area Nicholaos was present as well as the Mayor of Saronicos and other officials. The honorary guest was Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the former President of the Greek Republic, who unveiled the monument to the first refugee settlers of Anavyssos. On one side of the monument are the names of the first refugees that settled in Anavyssos and on the other is a tree with its deep roots symbolizing the anchoring of the refugees in their new homeland.

Their determination and tenacity helped them overcome all difficulties and brought new life to the area, developing it both culturally and economically. The location that had been chosen for them was the famous ancient Greek Dimo of Anaphlysto. It was the homeland of Cleisthenes (Greek: Κλεισθένης, c. 570- after 506 BC), the ancient Athenian lawgiver, who is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it along democratic lines in 508 BC. This new homeland has also been described in the book ‘Serenity’ (Greek: Γαλήνη) by the well-known author Ilias Venezis, also a refugee and one of the first settlers in the area. It describes the journey of a group of Greek refugees from their homeland in Asia Minor who settled in the summer of 1923 in a desolate corner of the coast near Athens.

Today, a time span of a hundred years from the first generation of refugees to the third generation of their descendants has passed. The unveiling of the monument dedicated to these first settlers in their new homeland is the torch that will keep alight the memories so
that their forced departure from their ancestral homes and their struggle in their new homeland will always be remembered by the generations to come.

The Asia Minor Cultural Museum ‘Makis Agkoutoglou’ in Anavissos houses the history of the refugee settlers and visitors can read excerpts relating their experience as well as see artifacts and other documents of the area.

Despena Dalmaris
©Despena Dalmaris