“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” (Quote by Martin Luther King Jr.)

Introduction

​Considering the turmoil that the world is currently experiencing, this is perhaps the most important virtue to develop. Nurturing brotherhood involves giving space, love, and respect to people belonging to all cultures and not just our own. It means you recognize that each and every cluster of people characterized by certain outlooks, traditions, or faith deserves an equal chance at living a good life filled with abundance and prosperity. It is a need of the hour that we have so imprudently neglected for so long.

​Significance

​Humans as a species love to form communities. We are ethnocentric creatures who remain at constant war with each other simply because we share different opinions, traditions, practices, etc. We tend to belittle those with dissimilar ways of life, call them names, criticize them, blame them for our failures, disrespect their faith, harm their dignity, create schemes to fulfill some misplaced notion that we are inherently better than them, purer than them. One fine example of this would be the Holocaust. Ethnic cleansing is a practice that has stemmed from lack of this very virtue. 

​Developing a sense of universal brotherhood will make us better human beings. It will help us create a peaceful world, wherein people of all religions, races, genders, colors, castes, and creeds will have equal opportunities, and access to basic human rights. It will also help us move away from all the unnecessary atrocities being committed across countries for no visible reason whatsoever. The world cannot afford another global war. And yet we continue to commit acts of uncalled for provocation. We know we share the same blood, the same roots, the same ancestors. And yet we continue to live in this state of senseless superiority.

​Cultivation

​What we fail to understand is that if we continue fighting over petty differences, we will eventually cause our own extinction. With several nations now equipped with weapons of global destruction, it’s only a matter of time before one starts it and the rest join hands to make sure they end it. Sadly, there is no affirmation in this world that can teach us to live harmoniously amongst ourselves. It will have to come from within. We will have to make certain sacrifices, we will have to become tolerant and forgiving. We will have to start respecting other religions, cultures, linguistic groups, tribes, and communities. There is no other way.

Knowledge can serve to be a powerful agent of change. Getting to know how other groups function, how they view the world, how they form their rituals and customs can take us a long way. As we strive to familiarize ourselves with perspectives other than our own, we subconsciously tell ourselves that “this is important and deserves to be respected and preserved”. Surely not everything that we’ll find will be in line with our morals and virtues, and we don’t actually have to agree with all of it blindly. We just need to learn to not look down upon anything we find to be different.

​Resources

​Coming soon!

​End Note

​If you don’t feel like putting in conscious effort in developing any of the other mentioned virtues, work on this one at least. The simple act of trying to understand the other person’s perspective irrespective of his or her ethnic association can prove to be liberating beyond imagination. It can work wonders when done consistently over an extended period of time, and shall inevitably lead to the fostering of many other virtues like empathy, love, and altruism without you having to use any of your own sentient will. The everlasting harmony and the all-pervasive ability to work collectively, which shall follow once we have successfully eliminated all the non-essential differences between the various communities that populate this beautiful planet, shall nevertheless allow us to witness the human race advance and progress at an accelerated pace like never before.

​PS. If you wish to become an accomplished human being, equipped with the right values and ethics, you should work on cultivating brotherhood as a virtue. It is one of the nine most important virtues of all times for promoting self development and growth.