THE WAYS AND
MEANS OF PEACE
Just as violence is a way of life, so is peace a complete culture in itself. Just as there are methods of violence, so are there clear principles and methods of peace. Here, we mention certain methods which are of relevance to the conduct of peaceful activities. This will show how the culture of peace can be established and how one’s course of life can be planned, in all matters, so that all human beings may find the opportunities to realize their ambitions.
Tolerance is Peace
The result of intolerance is violence and the result of tolerance is peace. This sums up what peace and violence essentially are. An atmosphere of peace will prevail in any society which is characterized by tolerance, while an atmosphere of violence will prevail in any society in which the majority of the people are lacking in tolerance. And, according to the system of nature, violence is neither beneficial for its perpetrators, nor for those who have been subjected to violence.
Tolerance is a high moral and human quality, while intolerance is a descent to the animal level. The act of tolerance is not a matter of compulsion: it results naturally from the doer being of an elevated moral calibre. Any goal one strives to achieve by brute force, can always be better achieved by displaying tolerance. When an individual becomes intolerant in unpleasant situations, he considerably weakens himself and hence is unable to deal effectively with problems. But when he maintains an attitude of tolerance, he conserves all his energies, and is in a position to deal more effectively with the matters at hand.
Not descending to intolerant behaviour, in spite of facing unpleasant situations, is a clear proof of self-control. One who has this ability becomes so strengthened by it that no one can defeat him.
Avoidance, not confrontation
It is certainly possible to avoid violence, even although there may be reason to justify the option of violence. This is possible through the peaceful strategy of avoidance of conflict. Such avoidance is the most effective way of checking violence and is, indeed, the most important principle of a peaceful social life. Treading the path of avoidance keeps one within the peaceful sphere, while it’s very opposite, the way of confrontation, leads one into taking violent action against antagonists.
In the present world no individual or group is alone. There are many others with their own objectives, and they have their own separate agendas. For this reason, they often find themselves in confrontation with others.
In such a situation, there are two paths for man—avoidance or confrontation. There is no third option. Now, if man opts for the way of confrontation, the result will be a clash. It is evident from the entire history of humanity that an armed confrontation only intensifies feelings of animosity in people’s hearts. It does not benefit either side in any real way. Therefore, the policy of avoidance should be favoured over that of confrontation. The way of avoidance not only saves one from further losses, but also allows one to continue on the path of progress without any hindrance. Indeed, any act of avoidance, appears to be benefitting the other party but its actual aim is to save one from the futility of confrontation, thus enabling the journey of one’s life to continue without encountering any obstacle.
The approved method
A violent method is adopted only by those who have no patience or who do not believe in perseverance. Those who opt for a peaceful solution find that all the laws of nature come to their support. On the contrary, those who opt for violent methods can hope for no such backing. And those thus deprived cannot look forward to anything in this world of realities but failure and ruination.
What is meant by ‘treading the path of peace’? It means that, even in the face of unpleasantness, no individual should lose his patience. In this way, his positive train of thought will not be upset and he may then clearly differentiate between the possible and the impossible.
Only then will he be able to set the possible as his goal. He should not expect immediate results. Rather, in going about his task, he should opt for the gradual way. He should not be depressed by his losses, but should rather engage himself in purposeful activities, with his eyes on the future. He should be content for the moment with what he receives at the moment and patiently wait for future blessings. He should keep his desires subservient to the laws of nature rather than try to keep the laws of nature subservient to his desires. The truth is that, patience is a totally positive attitude. It is neither negative nor passive.
A friend in the enemy
The way of violence only increases the enmity of opponents. On the contrary, the way of peace puts an end to such enmity. It even converts enmity into friendship. The study of human nature shows us that a potential friend could be there inside every enemy. We have to discover this friend, and accept as a miracle the fact that one who had at one time appeared to be our enemy became our closest friend.
The truth is that enmity is not something natural. It is an artificial reaction. Whenever for any reason anyone apparently becomes your enemy, you should remain mild-mannered in your dealings with him and try to behave well, even if you have to do so unilaterally and in the face of provocation. This peaceful response on your part will result in the subsiding of negative feelings in your enemy. Your unilateral good behaviour will serve to awaken his dormant humanity, thus turning him into a new and better human being.
The truth is that the same temperament is common to every newborn child, which is why everyone is first Mr. Nature and only later on, becomes either Mr. Enemy or Mr. Friend. This means that the nature you possess is also possessed by your supposed enemy. Therefore, one must seek in an apparent enemy the common man in him, and each individual should expect from others what he expects for himself. The law of nature gives a guarantee that his expectations will not go unfulfilled.
The System of Cause and Effect
Violence is, to put it differently, laying the blame for one’s own mistakes at the door of another. But this world is based on the principle of cause and effect, and when anyone suffers from some affliction, he should try to find the cause within himself, rather than attempt to find it elsewhere. As you sow, so shall you reap.
When this reality of life takes root in the mind of a human being, he will never hold anyone else responsible for his own afflictions, and take to violence against them. No, indeed, he will analyse his own actions objectively to discover his own shortcomings and rectify his mistakes in order that he may be saved from being the victim of unnecessary suffering.
Engaging in subversive activities against others, using one’s own woes as a pretext, is like a patient holding his neighbour responsible for his illness and starting a fight with him. In a city where the traffic has to keep to the right, anyone who thinks he can flout the rule of law by driving his car on the left will certainly have an accident.
This accident would apparently have occurred due to the collision of another’s car with him, but he would have no justification in saying that another motorist had injured him by hitting his car. On the contrary, he should have to admit that his car had collided with another, because he had been driving on the wrong side of the street, while the other motorist was on the right side.
The same is true of all other aspects of human existence. Whenever you have to face any loss in life, you must consider that whatever happened was due to your own shortcomings. This is the way of peaceful thinking—the correct way of thinking in the affairs of this life. If you can think along the right lines, you will be able to set yourself rectifying your mistakes, which will save your future. If you take the opposite course, you will put all the blame for your feelings of distress on others, and then, by taking a violent option, you will destroy your future, having already destroyed your past and present because of choosing the same violent course.
Let the law of nature take its course
According to the law of nature in this world, truth lives on, while falsehood is destined for obliteration. Given this state of affairs, it is enough for the destruction of falsehood that we observe a policy of silence. Speaking out or holding protest movements to stir up agitation against falsehood is to give life to it, while adopting a policy of avoidance results in its dying a natural death.
Keeping quiet about falsehood means ignoring it, not giving any violent response to it, not launching any protests against it. However, opting for such a policy is possible only for those who are aware of the power of nature and who place their trust in it. Those who are unaware of it give life to falsehood by demonstrating against it.
Often people engage in violence in the name of obliterating falsehood. This is nothing but foolishness. Falsehood has no firm root. It is destined to vanish. In such a case, there is no need for unnecessary violence to obliterate it. The adoption of a peaceful course to counter falsehood is as good as extirpating it.
Anachronistic Policy
The present age is one of globalisation. The entire world has become a global village. Looked at from this viewpoint, violence or armed struggle in the present- day world has acquired the character of an anachronism. If you were to ask those engaged in armed confrontation why they had adopted this course, they would say that they had done so in order to overthrow the existing government. They would further say that they aimed at building a new system, and to attain their objective it was necessary to seize power. But all such thinking is the result of their being totally unaware of the spirit of the age.
The present age has undergone such a great transformation that the seizure of political power is no longer required. Even without possessing political power, those who aim at changing social systems can achieve anything that they want to through non-political institutions. Modern communications and industrialization have relegated government to a secondary position, signifying “administration” rather than monarchical or oligarchic rule. Now any task of reform or nation building can be done without aspiring to political eminence.
The truth is that political power has been reduced to little more than a headache for those who wield it. You should, therefore, leave this headache for others and set about peacefully realizing your goals. You will then see that you have won the war without going into battle. Without possessing political power, you have managed to receive all possible benefits, or perhaps even more than were formerly associated with political power.
Violence is the result of hatred
One of the chief reasons for violence is hatred. And hatred is mainly the result of negative thinking. Positive thinking and hatred do not go together. This being so, to maintain a peaceful society, it is essential that positive thinking should never be discouraged. Events should be explained in such a way that people do not lapse into negative thinking, but on the contrary, feel stimulated to think along positive lines.
The Politics of Religious Violence
Emotional politics is one reason for hatred and violence, especially when based on the slogan: ‘Religion is in danger!’ By presenting a wrong or exaggerated picture, certain writers and speakers try to give the impression that their religion is under threat from others. Now an emotional campaign is launched with great fervour in the name of safeguarding religion. Far from saving religion from danger, such politics only endangers society as a whole by destroying peace.
This concept of religion being at risk clearly implies that a community other than one’s own is to blame. This fosters hatred in one group for another. And when a policy of confrontation fails to put an end to the supposed danger, frustration sets in. This leads to violence as a final strategy. And when violence does not give the desired result, suicide is resorted to. Youths, surcharged with emotion, resort to venting their ever-increasing hatred for their supposed enemy by carrying out suicide bombings. The politics of religion being “under attack” in its final phase turns into the politics of “religious” suicide. Launching their movements in the name of the revival of religion proves to be the death knell for themselves as well as for others. The truth is that the only way to extricate oneself from such destructive politics is to hold violence as a form of action to be rejected in all circumstances. No excuses, however weighty they may appear, should be treated as sufficient to justify the use of violence.
The present world is a world of differences. Every man is Mr. Different and every woman is
Ms. Different. That is why all kinds of differences exist among people. But when these differences take on an emotional aspect, it leads people into malevolent conduct. And then society as a whole becomes wracked with violence.
There is only one possible solution to this problem. And that is to inculcate the notion that all members of society must work within a peaceful sphere, irrespective of general conditions. In no circumstances must they go outside the arena of peace. The correct mentality can be formed only when people are brought fully abreast of the fact that, in this world, any task can be performed through peace. No task can be performed successfully through violence. Violence contributes only to destruction—not to construction. A religion is never in danger. Any religion which appears to be in danger is no religion at all.
From revenge to violence
It often happens that if one person is hurt by another, or one group suffers at the hands of another, revenge is perceived as the immediate goal. Those who are bent on revenge tend to forget the warning of history—a warning inscribed on every wall in silent language: Think before seeking vengeance, that vengeance will be met with vengeance. In this way a chain of violence is built up, continues, and is brought to a conclusion only when both sides are so depleted in energy and resources that they are no longer able to exact vengeance.
Whenever an individual or a group has any cause for complaint, the solution lies not in retaliatory activities, but rather in continuing to move forward by adopting a policy of avoidance of conflict. Such avoidance puts an end to the problem at the very outset, while refusal to ignore the problem leads to an unending chain reaction of hatred, revenge and violence. Thus, the policy of avoidance of conflict is the way of the peace-loving, while that of revenge is the way of the violent.
Revenge is always directed against another but, in actual fact, the greatest victim is the one who opts for this course. The heavy price to be paid for this revenge policy is that his mind becomes a storehouse of negative thinking. Instead of expending his resources on building his life, he begins to squander them on the destruction of others.
Say, an antagonist had caused him to use up fifty percent of his energies, resources, etc., he would himself, as a result of his policy of revenge, fritter away the other 50%.
Taken to logical extremes, revenge would imply that after an attempt on one’s life, one would launch out on a course which would end in one’s own death! The truth is that revenge is an evil, whatever the circumstances, while refraining from revenge by ignoring the matter at issue is at all events a virtue. If the taker of revenge is your enemy, after returning revenge for revenge, you become your own enemy. And those who turn their own enemy cannot be saved from destruction by anyone.
Formula for Social Peace
Peace is nature. In any society, peace is disturbed only when any violent activity causes man to deviate from his nature. The truth is that every one of us has his ego. It is a state of mind which, if provoked, takes no time in flaring up and wreaking havoc. But by nature, in accordance with the system of creation, it generally lies dormant. The easiest way, therefore, to have a peaceful society is to let this ego remain undisturbed. Social peace is disturbed by those whose egos have been provoked. If we refrain from such provocation, there will be no disturbance of the social peace. This shows that the establishment and maintenance of social peace are within our control, and are not at the mercy of anti-social elements. This shows that if you do not provoke the ego of others, you will certainly remain safe from their violence.
The possession of weapons is no guarantee of social security. The principle of social security is to become a peace-loving neighbour for others. Perpetrate no violence upon others and you will, of necessity, be safe from the evil and violence of others. If you hate others you will receive hate from them in return. If you have feelings of love and well-wishing for them, you will receive the same from them. In this world, peace is received in return for peace and violence is received in return for violence.
Terrorism—a barbaric course
The evil of terrorism has come to be a present-day affliction. It is widely condemned, but what terrorism is has not yet been clearly defined. After a great deal of thought on this subject, I have come to the conclusion that terrorism is definable as armed action carried out by non-governmental organizations. Certainly, the public have the right to peacefully present their point of view, but on no consideration do they have the right to engage in militancy, for armed movements of this sort run counter to accepted national and international principles. What is known as terrorism in present times is the result of armed action by NGO’S.
Moreover, war can be waged only by an established government. And even for an established government there are a number of essential conditions for launching armed campaigns. For instance, it can only fight a defensive battle. It cannot commit aggression. Similarly, even a lawful war can be fought only after making a formal declaration of war. There is no room for undeclared war in civilized society. Then, even in a lawful defensive battle, a government must issue strict orders that only combatants may be attacked. Killing or injuring non-combatants is not lawful even in a state of war.
According to established humanitarian principles, only one form of war is acceptable and that is one waged unavoidably in self-defence. Any other kind of war, for instance, aggressive war, proxy war, guerrilla war, undeclared war—are all totally unlawful according to international ethics. On no consideration can these wars be held lawful.
According to the above definition, any movement based on terrorism is certainly unlawful. It cannot be justified simply by giving it a high-sounding name. Any attempt to achieve human objectives by engaging in terrorism, rather than using lawful means to do so, is to transgress all bounds.
Modern terrorism must, therefore, be brought to an end. But this cannot be done through counter attacks. For one thing, this would be like trying to quell non-state terrorism by state terrorism. And for another, modern terrorism derives its strength less from guns and bombs than from its ideology. That is why a counter ideology rather than counter-bombing would the more effectively put an end to terrorism.
The terrorists’ self-styled ideology gives them the conviction that, by dying in battle, they become martyrs and that, as such, they will have a new and far better life in paradise. It is this belief, which has made suicide bombing totally acceptable to them. Given this situation, it is only when their self-styled ideology is shown to be baseless by producing a counter ideology that their violent actions will ever come to an end.
It should be appreciated, moreover, that the present terrorists, many of them very young people, would never be able to continue their efforts without the vast monetary contributions, public sympathy and adulation as heroes, which as “active militants” they receive from “passive” militants, that is to say, from those who are not actively engaged in violent activities.
The passive militants are, so to speak, the second line of terrorism. Their role is an important one, that of providing infrastructure and logistic support. A war can be successfully waged only if the supply lines continue to provide all military requirements without any disruption. If they were to be cut off, war would automatically come to an end, just as a man would die if his oxygen supply were stopped. But, ideologically, passive militants regard it as their duty to give full assistance to active terrorists. And if such terrorists are in their thousands, the number of their supporters runs into millions. This being so, the annihilation of known active terrorists would not suffice to put an end to the phenomenon of terrorism.
It is essential, therefore, that the issue of the enormous support given by the world-wide network of passive terrorists be immediately addressed. Their minds must be changed. Their violent thinking must be transformed into pacifism. Only then will it be possible to rid the world of the menace of terrorism.
