Passage 4

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In plain words

Why has the Buddhi of the young women and young men sunk in this way? The reason is simply that there are no leaders with right faith in the culture of Bhārata who give right teaching. Not only in dress and language, not only in custom and conduct: at every step, from daybreak right through till night, all that we see is the culture of Bhārata itself. Without this culture itself, there is no human life at all. It is a way of life. Defying this very way and following the wrong road, we are drifting far from peace and security.

Every single person keeps longing for this thing called happiness, happiness, happiness. They do not try to recognise what this happiness means. To eat four times a day, to sleep soundly, to watch television or a film three or four times, to stay forgetful of the world itself: this they regard as happiness. Eating, drinking, forgetting the world: was it for this that one had to be born a human being? Do not the beasts, the birds and the animals too eat, and sleep, and forget the world? What need was there to be born a human being for this much alone? 'Jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabham'. Today we keep forgetting such noble humanness. That is why they cannot make the least attempt to recognise what our culture is. In the culture of Bhārata are divine ideas that have described, explained and taught well not only how to make a living but the principle of the supreme goal of life.

What has been refined is culture. This culture has also arisen from Sanskrit. Culture is to refine every single substance that arises naturally in the world, and then to enjoy it. A small example. Every day we eat rice. But before it could be eaten, before it could reach this stage, how many kinds of refining did it go through! Separating the paddy from the straw, removing the husk from the paddy, boiling the rice so separated, and then our eating that cooked food. It is only because so many kinds of refining take place that this rice becomes fit for us to eat. Through refining we are raising their value as well.