The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man… Thomas Malthus
Someone has rightly said that ‘If we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control, then nature will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not. ‘It’s a fact that the majority of the countries around the world are today facing the biggest human crisis called ‘Population Explosion. For a country like India, population explosion is nothing but a curse that is retarding the true development of the country as well as of society. With 17.3% of the world’s population, India has become the second-most populous country in the world & shortly it’s going to top the list for the very wrong reasons. Such rapid growth of the world’s population over the past one hundred years has resulted from increased birth rate and lowering of the death rate.
With rapid scientific advancement resulting in the decline in the death rate, more people are now being added each day than at any other time in human history. Modern man, in spite of all the technological advances, is ignorant of his real self-interest and is unable to see beyond his nose, at least in time if not so fully in space. He has no foresight to see that any nonsense that he indulges in today has an effect far deeper and far wider than that he chooses to take into account. While irresponsible sex-indulgence is the sole cause of challenging population growth, celibacy is the only effective solution to it. But, the tragedy of the present age is that men and women seek too much liberty for their lustful behaviour, leaving love to remain a showpiece of the museum. Today, we all know that love is a play of selfish carnal urge rather than soft emotions between two hearts from which may sprout a spirit of sacrifice and a burning desire to share the pain. Governments all over the world are spending billions on family planning programmes just for avoiding population explosion to reduce the extra burden on the economy. But to their much dismay, success, however, has distinctly eluded the planners of the population. Then what is the way out to contain this dreadful crisis?
Today saying ‘I Love You’ has become quite casual and common among youngsters. There is no regard for emotional harmony, no care for cordial relationship and no sincerity of purpose behind the act of the show, if any, of helpfulness towards the so-called beloved. Relationships of the present day are so fickle and short-lived and that can be clearly seen in the growing number of divorces and desertions within the wedlock and criminal assaults on erstwhile beloved. Marriage once taken to be a sacred union for performing sacramental rights has debased itself into a license for legalized exploitation of the feminine gender. Feminine beauty, like any other beauty, which is really a thing of adoration and appreciation, is now looked at as a proud possession to be used as desired. It is said that love is divine & lust is devilish, but unfortunately humanity has fallen down so deep into a morass of lust, that today it has made it difficult for the women in society to live a dignified life. Bodily union of the two sexes is no more a process of procreation but a mode of dirty and dangerous recreation, in course of which child comes as an offshoot with no place where it can be thrown much less cared for. Isn’t it a ghastly crime to indulge in such bodily pleasures and produce children that cannot be fed from the available resources on earth? Today millions are already starving and yet multi-millions are added every year to swell the number of hungry mouths and starvation death. Shouldn’t we think about their plight?
Modern man may probably laugh away or reject this cure or remedy of celibacy as impractical but he can do so only at his own peril, for the subtle laws of nature will not pardon him. There is a perverted notion prevailing in society that believes a physical relationship to be a basic human & biological necessity. It is this wrong belief that has becomes the greatest hurdle in the application of this remedy. The way to its adoption will open only with the realization that it is not a basic human necessity but a mentally ill, which has made this world into a hell. Like all other mental ailments, this too can be corrected through proper psychiatry which will immunize the mind from this sensuous desire.
The practice of celibacy has so far been considered a preserve of those who have enunciated their hearth and home and have taken the path of the jungle; but it is high time that this wrong notion is wiped off and people are made to feel and experience that it is perfectly possible to make celibacy a norm of life within the fold of the world of activity by simple mental training, whereby man cultivates soul consciousness as against presently prevalent body consciousness. This change in consciousness will not only check population growth but would also have a curative effect on other vicious propensities of which the man is presently a victim because celibacy goes deeper than the flesh. So, let us make celibacy a way of living and relieve mother earth from the burden of the ever-increasing population.
