India tops in human values: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

New Delhi : Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said India tops in human values, although the country is now divided into ?slum? and ?scam?.

?A complete human being is one who adopts the teamwork from Japanese, precision from Germans, marketing techniques from Americans and human values from Indians,? said Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living foundation, during a lecture at the Indira Gandhi National Open University?s (IGNOU) convention hall.

?Go to any small village in India and you will find human values embedded deep inside every nerve of the rural country,? he said at a special lecture on ?Human Values: A necessity for sustainable development? at IGNOU.

He began the lecture by emphasizing on the needs and responsibilities of human beings.

While differentiating it from animals, he said that animals have needs sans responsibility.

?Your quality of life depends upon the proportion maintained between your responsibility and needs. You lead a good life if your needs are less than your responsibilities,? he said.

Recapturing the period from the Gandhian era, he said that our needs have multiplied manifold since then. From needs they have catapulted to unending needs due to which we have scams and slums.

?In either case, the responsibility factor is missing. Those involved in scams shoulder nil responsibility while those living in slums play the blame game. The attitude, ?I am poor because you are rich? prevails throughout due to which India can be summarized into scam India and slum India,? he added.

Explaining and juggling between needs and responsibility, Ravi Shankar said, ?Human values can take you from a state of dependency to total responsibility and carve out a responsible citizen in you.

When you shoulder responsibility, your needs will automatically be met. It is our vision which needs to be broadened for any development to take place.?

Motivating towards a more humane system, he emphasized upon the need to uphold a strong set of values, consisting of love, passion and dignity which is the need of the hour.

?It is necessary to preserve these values which are slowly evaporating from urban India. We have diluted our own system due to anger and greediness. There can be no development until and unless certain values are restored,? he said.

Concluding his lecture, Ravi Shankar said, ?If we do not stand up for the cause, how can the change happen? There shouldn?t be any mis-match between the values which govern an individual and society. It is thus necessary to increase accountability for a sustainable development of human values.?