Vedanta - Peace More Than No War
B K ASHIMA SACHDEVA
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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 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 -it is not just a feeling or a state of being; nor is it something that one would achieve only during long hours of prayers or meditation. And it is certainly not end of war alone. Peace is life itself. It is our original religion. It is like an eternal spring within us.
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.
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 -it is not just a feeling or a state of being; nor is it something that one would achieve only during long hours of prayers or meditation. And it is certainly not end of war alone. Peace is life itself. It is our original religion. It is like an eternal spring within us.
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.
