Peace is More Than No War

May 21, 2002, 12.49am IST

B K Ashima Sachdeva.


Most world leaders, international organisations and so-called peace summits tend to define peace in the shadow of war, as ‘a situation where there is no war’ between nations.

By doing so they are actually taking a negative view. By viewing the positive element in contrast to the negative, we will end up underrating the former’s potential.

By defining light as the ‘absence of darkness’ or, life as the ‘absence of death’, we assign greater importance to the powers of darkness and death, or in the case of peace, to war, rather than peace.

It is widely acknowledged that it is easier to appreciate what is good when one has already experienced the ‘bad’. But the question today is not of ‘experiencing’; the challenge today is in creating peace, and not in appreciating peace as a concept. And this cannot be done if we keep concentrating on destruction.

It’s time now to literally construct peace. But, peace is intangible. Peace is not just a feeling or a state of being. It is not just something that one would achieve only during long hours of prayers or meditation. And it is certainly not end-of-war alone. So, what is it?

Peace is life itself. It is our original religion. It is like an eternal spring within us. Even a little child likes peaceful surroundings: a child starts crying when he hears violent arguments, even though he is unable to understand the meaning of the words being uttered in anger.

Peace, therefore, is a natural instinct and if we wish to construct a peaceful world, then all we’ve got to do, is to let it manifest in our lives.

Whatever a peaceful mind comes in contact with, undergoes a positive change — be it our family relations, our workplace or even the material things that we use. How does this happen? Let’s use the analogy of a tree. If we look upon human life as a tree, then the soul is its seed. The soul comprises three main faculties: the mind, the intellect and the sanskars (sub-conscious).

The first two determine the quality of our thoughts and actions and the third one reveals the kind of energies or virtues and powers we have in store.

While our actions sprout shoots, becoming branches and leaves, symbolic of the relations and possessions in our lives, it will be the quality of energies supplied to them by the mind, that’ll determine the quality of fruits and flowers the tree shall bear.

Thus if the mind has been conditioned to think positively and peacefully, it will have a similar effect on its connections with others. This explains the tangibility of peace in an individual’s life.

However, how feasible is peace at the macro level? Can we really create a world of peace? Going by ancient mythology and scriptures worldwide, we are led to believe that there is, indeed, such a world, whether it is the Indian Satyug, the Islamic Jannat, or the Biblical Heaven.

All these places have been described variously as the land of peace, the land of happiness and paradise, where inhabitants are free from any kind of worry, aggression or unhappiness. Paradise is called so not just because it is believed to be a place of scenic beauty; it is also where the divine virtues of love and peace prevail.

The motto of the Brahma Kumaris is that when we change, the world changes. To achieve peace, three things have to be borne in mind: that peace is our natural religion; that all that we do affects those who surround us; and that to recharge our pure energies, we need to connect to the Supreme Source.

A life operating on these three laws of peace will tangibly transform everything to a peaceful state and recreate the one culture that we all wish to re-establish in the world — that is, the culture of peace.
 


SACRED SPACE

Wealth is Not All


I have forgotten you, O Lord.

What a shame! I have time only for making money, not for you.

How can a dog who loves rotten meat, relish the nectar?

Basavanna, Vachana 313

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No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6.24

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Anyone who is stingy, is stingy only with his own soul. God is Wealthy while you are poor.

Qur’an 47.38

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Busy not yourself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.

Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah, Arabic 54

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The master said, “A superior man takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay.”

Analects 4.16

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You have no reason to feel proud when you are able to help another, for your skill or wealth or strength or courage or official position that gave you the chance to serve was the gift of God, whether you recognise it or not.

You are only offering this God’s gift to another God’s gift, namely the poor, the illiterate, the weak, the diseased, the grieving, the broken-hearted, who seek your help.