The Ultimate Concerns of Man and India's Response

Abstract

Before we can speak about the ultimate concerns of man today and India's response to them, it is important that we first of all understand clearly the very concept of the ultimate concerns of man at any time. By ultimate concerns we mean those objectives and aspirations of humanity which on the one hand control human activity as a whole, and on the other hand enable human society to face the various challenges in its historical march. These concerns include freedom, equality, dignity of the human person as well as other factors which make life peaceful and meaningful. The various forms of the social life of man endeavour to analvse these concerns and suggest ways to tackle the problems which hamper the realization of these concerns and aspirations. The family, the society at large, the state and, above all, the various religious traditions have been committed to this task over the centuries. But what has i happened, however, is that a convergence of these concerns at the various levels has not been achieved. Whereas the state has stood for a welfare society as its ultimate concern, religions have had a somewhat spiritual and otherworldly goal of human life as their ultimate concern, leaving aside its material and this-worldly dimension. They understood freedom and equality as well as the dignity of human person exclusively from a spiritual point of view.