This paradox can be reduced only by changing ourselves from within and the society around us. Says Swami Chidanand Saraswati: “Be the example. Others will follow.” It echoes Mahatma Gandhi’s sage advice: “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” With the passage of years, I have become convinced that one’s own inner transformation is far more important than concepts of ‘social revolution’ that impress and motivate sensitive people in their youth. Mega transformations in society, if guided by noble personalities, are important but they happen once in centuries. What society needs, for its own enduring progress and for the happiness of its members, is nano-evolution happening each day, through the smallest of actions, among individuals, families and communities.

As quantum physics teaches us, all that is happening in the womb of the sun — and also inside the cells of the green grass, the darting squirrel, and the human body that delights in the touch of the winter sunshine — is the work of sub-atomic processes. Life and happiness, too, are the outcome of nano phenomena.

Happy New Year to all my esteemed readers.

Postscript: 2007 ended tragically. Benazir Bhutto, a courageous leader who fought for democracy and against Islamist terror in Pakistan, was martyred. Martyrs don’t die.