SCIENCE and technology have revolutionised communications and travel and there has been tremendous increase in the production and flow of goods and services leading to globalisation. But all this progress has taken place on a physical level without a corresponding development of the human spirit.

The consequent imbalance has widened the gulf between the speed of change and the individual’s capacity to cope with it. It has also produced a vicious system in which a prosperous few flourish at the expense of the rest of humanity.

There is also crisis in the moral fabric of the society — crisis of values which has led to social instability.

Why is society more fragmented today than yesterday when the world was not so technologically advanced but people were happier then and many of the social ills were absent?

Today people are at war with themselves, there is no peace and materialism rules the mind.

The need of the time, therefore, is a renaissance of ethical, moral and spiritual values. Leaders of the world must recognise that the root cause of the complex problems facing humanity lies in the decline of human values.

Having gone astray, humanity must now find its way back to its roots. This calls for a mass shift in the human consciousness and attitudes.

Values are those concepts which form the basis of our judgement and the motivation for our behaviour. They give direction, purpose and meaning to life.

Thought for reflection: Direction is more important than speed. Look at the milestones, not just the speedometer.