Achieving Racial Harmony, Uniting America
The thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery in 1865 and a host of newer laws, policies, rules, and regulations have been adopted since then, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, and yet the experiences of the last year suggest that racial disharmony persists.
In his inaugural address, President Biden called for racial justice and identified racial justice and uniting America as two of his administration’s topmost priorities. He said, anger, hatred, resentment, violence, extremism and lawlessness are dividing America.
In spite of trying for 155 years, why is racial disharmony persisting? The answer has to do with the societal insistence to limit its pursuits to the bounds of reason.
To explain, the eighteenth-century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, widely regarded as one of the most influential in Western philosophy, is quoted as saying, all knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason!
The best-of-the-best products of reason include science, six sigma, laws, policies, rules & regulations, proclamations and the like.
Much of the world continues to subscribe to the philosophy of Kant, and this is one of the root causes for why the world is in such a big mess.
The contrasting view is provided by Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), an Indian monk revered in his native land and widely respected in the United States. Asserts Vivekananda, “Indian thought dares to seek, and successfully finds, something higher than reason.”
Swami Vivekananda’s wisdom can be proved.
Intuition is immediate cognition without the benefit of the five senses and the rational mind. Perfect intuition translates into the capacity to discern truth from falsehood. We all have a certain level of intuition, but the accuracy is generally too low to be of any practical value.
Universal Peace Foundation founded by my guru, H. H. Gurumahan conducts a seven-day yoga program to enhance intuition among children, 6 to 14 years of age. Watch this short video clip showing the children doing several tasks blind-folded, implying that they have transcended the bondage of reason and enhanced their intuition skills, directly contradicting the philosophy of Kant. Science has no basis with which to design this program.
Gurumahan has been going in to three weeks of meditation annually with no food for thirty-one years for world peace. In recognition of Gurumahan’s untiring efforts for world peace, the Governor of Nebraska had proclaimed November 11, 2011 as Global Peace Day.
How does one discover something higher than reason? Obviously, one cannot use reason itself for such an inquiry.
Seers have left behind ample clues in the form of discoveries over millennia that couldn’t have been sourced from previous knowledge, and in every case, the process used is meditation, or more generally yoga, known for thousands of years.
A great example of such a discovery are the four Vedas (Sanskrit, Storehouse of Knowledge) which are acknowledged to be the oldest scriptures in the world. The knowledge therein couldn’t have been sourced from previous knowledge for there was none. It makes sense that they are referred to as “revealed”.
How did the seers know that meditation is the route to progress? They cite their Guru as their source, but how did their Guru know it? If you keep going back, you will eventually run out of Gurus, and the question then would be, from where did the first yogi get this knowledge? That is where the inquiry must come to an end, and the belief in God exponentially increases.
Meditation brings about a rise in internal excellence, inducing positive changes from within. And this hypothesis can be tested as internal excellence can be measured.
Internal excellence has nothing to do with race, religion, gender, political affiliation or national origin. A rise in internal excellence can also come about through bhakti (devotion to God), but bhakti is something that cannot be produced on command. You either have it or you don’t. My mother was intensely devotional, but unfortunately, I am not. Meditation is a suitable alternative in these circumstances.
A rise in internal excellence is accompanied by a rise in positive emotions (love, kindness, empathy, compassion) and a fall in negative emotions (anger, hatred, hostility, resentment, frustration, jealousy, anxiety, despair, fear, sorrow and the like). The net result is a rise in racial harmony and a fall in societal discord.
The ideas shed further light on the BizEd article, The Secret of Exemplary Performance.
In a nutshell, this article is suggesting that the best of the best products of reason must certainly be tried to tackle problems (External Excellence), but when they do not seem to deliver the expected results, we should be cognizant of the possibility that the solution may lie beyond reason (Internal Excellence).
Putting these concepts into action is a pathway to solving a myriad of problems facing businesses and societies and to a more peaceful world.
