Buddha’s example shows that it is easier to fight at religious and spiritual level than to fight at social level. What is said above about Buddha can be said about other religions and religious leaders. The reason is that society is a very strong entity on its own. It is not easy to fight the power structure to create a just order. To pursue their own goals, including religious and moral goals, rational people often require making compromises. If they do not compromise they are more likely to fail than succeed. Often they lend up becoming alienated. For an example of this, at the end of his life, Gandhi, who could not make peace with modernity, is known to have suffered from extreme frustration and loneliness, and he often expressed this. On 26th January, everyone was rejoicing. He was sad. More people will agree that there is a trade-off between happiness and acceptance of the spirit of the age.

Advancements in Science

In this course we have not explicitly talked about science. Modernization and industrialization, discussed again and again, however, depend on science. Scientific age is the age of both progress and challenges. Mankind has made tremendous progress on all fronts but this has also posed new questions and new risks. Science has presented a range of possibilities which will depend on human decisions, thus making the question of human values the most central question of our times. Science has also connected man to society in more complex ways and to me it appears that to stand for values is to stand for values at both levels – individual and social. In this context, science has to play two roles:

• a role in which it helps in understanding the complex structures and complex mechanisms of change; and

• a role in which it helps in understanding the probable consequences of human decision at various levels. Scientists need to be more sensitive to values. Science can always appear in the first role but to play the second role it depends on the values.

• What is the meaning of life? This question is closely connected to another question: what is our role in this world?

• What is our idea of a perfect society?