May God Protect the Whole World

We know that God, who governs the world, is all-present and all-powerful. Without his will not even a leaf on a tree stirs. But what appears now is that God sees everything and yet behaves as though he has seen nothing. We have read in the Bhagavata: 'It is I who act and cause to act; without me there is no other course.' So all the instability, the unrest, the sorrowful events and accidents, the corruption, the cruelty, the violence and the rest of it that go on increasing across the world — is God bringing all this about, or are wicked men doing it without his knowledge?

In this situation certain expansionist powers of the world, grown strong on nuclear capability, count the earth as theirs for the taking. In God's own creation they contrive every kind of scheme to keep the weaker nations under their control, and they threaten war as well. What they want, for their own ends, is that the weaker nations should sit and stand at their word; and if they will not, unjust economic sanctions and embargoes are laid on them, and it is the ordinary people who feel the effect and are forced to pass their days in hardship.

The black clouds of war have now appeared over the whole world. These past few years have brought powerful Russia's assault on Ukraine; Israel's repeated missile strikes to take Gaza; and, with the encouragement of the United States of America, the gathering war between Israel and Iran in the Middle East over Iran's nuclear installations — through all of which a great many innocent people have gone to their deaths. Beyond that, North Korea, strong in nuclear and biological weapons, threatens the community of nations, and that is a cause of anxiety for everyone. Above all, the way our neighbour Pakistan sends terrorists into our country, wages a proxy war and brings about a great deal of violence creates a grave danger for the whole of Asia and for the peace of the world.

The fierce competition now under way among the nations of the world to become possessors of nuclear weapons carries with it the fear that it will in time create a grave danger for the whole of human society and for every living thing. In the view of some scientists, if the quantity of nuclear armament now stockpiled by the various nations of the world were used all at once, the whole world and everything living in it would be destroyed in a few minutes.

Another danger facing the whole world is the man-made rise in global temperature. As a result the vast glaciers of the polar region melt away, the level of the sea rises unnaturally, and through floods, tsunamis and other natural calamities the coastal cities and settlements will be wiped out. Knowing all this, man — who calls himself the highest and most intelligent of all living creatures, a man of science — still has not come to his senses.

So much for the story of the danger closing in on the whole world. Let us now think about our own country. In our country corruption, injustice, the torment of women, sexual violence against young girls, gang rape and criminal activity of every kind go on increasing. Wrongdoers have set about looting the wealth of the forests, the mines and the quarries. On the pretext of a modern way of life, civilised man has cut down the forests to raise great cities and blocks of flats; and through the excessive building of mills and factories and the movement of vehicles, the poisonous vapours and chemical substances they give off pollute the whole atmosphere, while the rivers and streams too are turning poisonous.

One more matter for disquiet: certain wrongdoers, without fear of the gods themselves, are carrying off their ornaments. Some steal the precious images of gods and goddesses being worshipped in one temple and another, sell them on the international market and take crores of rupees for them. And now a question rises in our minds: what sort of action is God taking to set all this disorder right? Is he, like Dhritarashtra, silent though he knows everything?

God himself said, in the Gita —

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata / abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham // paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām / dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge //

Whenever righteousness declines, O Bharata, and unrighteousness rises up, then do I send forth myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, and for the firm establishment of righteousness, I come into being age after age.

What, then, is his plan for good people to survive in this society? When such terrible disorder appears in society, let him use the power that is his and, by means beyond our understanding, put an end to the wicked. Let him save the whole world from the mouth of destruction.

Keshrapur, Cuttack — 753001