GOING AGAINST THE
CREATION PLAN
Subscribing to the notion that violence is a viable method of gaining one’s ends and then launching oneself on a violent course of action are against the creation plan of nature. Neither the concept nor the deeds stemming therefrom are in accord with the divine scheme of things. That is why the violent way is destined to produce no good results and serves no end save that of destruction.
If a farmer has a fertile piece of land, he can grow crops in abundance. But this will be possible only if he follows an appropriate method which is in consonance with nature. If, however, he mindlessly starts pelting his fields with stones or dropping bombs on them, he will never be able to harvest the desired crops. In spite of being the owner of fertile acres, he will be no better off than one who has not a square yard of land to his name. The same is true of human life. Human life flourishes in an atmosphere of peace, but is destroyed in an atmosphere of violence.
Violence is the outcome of differences between people. One who believes in violent methods considers differences as evil or an obstacle in his path. For this reason, he becomes bent on obliterating evil, for he thinks that he can achieve his objective only when he has removed the differences between himself and others. This is a great misunderstanding, for differences are not man-made. They are ordained by the Creator Himself, and are an essential part of nature. And something which is an essential part of nature cannot be brought to an end. We can only accept nature. Eliminating it is beyond our power. That is why when one group is annihilated in the name of differences, another such group immediately takes its place, and so it goes on and on quite endlessly. That is why this chain of action and reaction over the issue of differences can never be halted.
The method of violence goes against the plan of nature, which ensures that each individual has full opportunities to perform his or her role in human progress by exploiting his or her capabilities to the fullest extent. This benefit can be availed of only in a peaceful atmosphere. The perpetrators of violence, by categorizing people as enemies, attempt to obliterate the precious lives of human beings, even before they have had the opportunity to utilize their potential and benefit humanity.
According to the law of nature, any great task always requires the support of society as a whole. Without collective participation, no one can accomplish great feats. And this can materialize only in a peaceful atmosphere. Mutual co-operation is just not possible in an atmosphere of violence. In such an atmosphere people tend to be psychologically unbalanced. How then can mutual co–operation become possible in such an environment?
One of the evils of violence is that, in the vicious atmosphere created by it, there is no possibility of any sustainable development. Any great task of progress becomes result-oriented only after long-term planning and action. This kind of planning can make headway only in a peaceful atmosphere. In a violent atmosphere such plans face setbacks time and time again, without any progress being made: on the pretext of killing the enemy, the process of human progress is dealt a death blow.
The worst ill effect of the use of violence is that one receives nothing in return, and perhaps even forfeits previous gains. Any victory earned by means of violence is actually a defeat.
What is violence? It is a wrong choice made by one suffering from the feeling of deprivation. Any group, rightly or wrongly, may suffer from this feeling. There is only one useful way of getting rid of it and that is by peaceful means. The violent method is so lethal that it is no choice at all for anybody. Violence, from the point of view of its result, only adds to this feeling of deprivation, instead of putting an end to it. Violence is nothing but an outburst of a provoked person. Violence provides no positive solution to any problem.
Victory is also a defeat
King Pyrrhus, a Greek king of the third century BC, went to war with the Romans. Ultimately, he won a complete, but costly victory over the Roman army. In this prolonged battle his armies were destroyed, and his country’s economy was totally devastated. For King Pyrrhus it was apparently a victory, but its result was nothing more or less than a defeat. It was his costly military successes which gave rise to the now current phrase “pyrrhic victory”.
When we look into the history of different wars, it would be no exaggeration to say that most victories are pyrrhic in nature. Each victor has to suffer two losses. Firstly, he sacrifices life, wealth and resources, and secondly, he loses the love and respect of the vanquished. No victor can avoid suffering these losses. The only difference between one victor and another is that while some victors suffer their losses sooner, others suffer them later.
This matter of loss relates only to the violent method. A peaceful method leads to a totally different outcome. Once the peaceful method has been employed, victory and victory alone ensues: there is no room for defeat. Even if a peaceful method does apparently lead to a defeat, the final outcome is even then a victory. For, by using a peaceful method, one might lose a war, but one does not lose opportunities. One still has opportunities and possibilities, by availing of which one can start one’s life all over again and reach the destination of success.
The age of war has come to an end
In ancient and mediaeval times, military encounters took place in the form of hand-to-hand fighting between soldiers wielding swords. But in modern times, highly sophisticated weapons such as nuclear missiles are used. The basic difference between early and modern warfare is in the extent of the carnage in each case. The wielding of swords could sever the heads of only a few of the combatants, but now in the atomic age the equation has totally changed. For now war means general destruction. Moreover, the bomb aimed at the enemy is destructive to the user too. When we face up to these hard facts, we have to concede that war has become a futile exercise. War is now only a manifestation of madness, instead of being a measure calculated to enable one to achieve one’s objective. After the emergence of nuclear weapons, war has become a thing to be abhorred and abandoned. When we can see that resorting to war shows no positive results, then waging it, far from being a wise step, is nothing short of madness.
It is believed by some that the establishment of peace requires a world government. This would require an armed police force and an army, on the strength of which peace would be established all over the world. But this concept of world government is impracticable, for it would only serve the purpose in a very limited way. The scheme of world government for establishing peace is far from ideal.
Let us suppose that such a world government were to come into being. It would be able to establish peace only at the level of administration. In other words, this projected world government could at best establish social peace. But what is more important than this is mental peace, which cannot be brought about by any world government.
Peace in the form of social stability, as enforced by established governments, was prevalent in the monarchies of ancient times. But the desired results could never be achieved. The Roman Empire provides one such example. During its rule which lasted for more than a thousand years, it established peace over a large area of the globe. This was known as the Pax Romana. But in spite of the establishment of peace for such a long period of time, no scientific or intellectual progress could be made.
This shows that, in spite of the desirability of social peace, it would only be partially useful for human progress. The real process of human progress is set in motion only when the individuals making up society have the capability for peaceful thinking.
Along with peace as an external manifestation, it is essential for human progress that people have internal peace, so that they do not live lives full of unnecessary tension, stress and contradictions. The most essential condition for human progress is that the thinking process, once set in motion, should not in encountering obstacles, become perverted. This is essential to the development of one’s personality. Only by this process can the individual attain to the highest spiritual and intellectual level.
Peace is undoubtedly an essential condition for human progress. It is, indeed, the basis of all human progress. If social and political peace accounts for 50% of this basis, then mental and spiritual peace accounts for the other 50%. The establishment of peace on national and international fronts appears, in practice, to be difficult. Perhaps, in the ideal sense, it is not attainable at all. But in all situations, peace of mind can certainly be attained. So far as external peace is concerned, it is necessary for everyone to cooperate in order to maintain it. But to achieve inner peace of mind, little or no external cooperation is required. An individual, by his or her own personal decision, can attain such peace, even when all others have turned inimical to the idea. This advantage possessed by the individual is undoubtedly the most fortunate thing. Indeed, there is no blessing greater than this.
