How Yoga Can Stop All Wars
By Sanjib Mukherjee
If you look high up in the skies, or deep beneath the grounds, or across the infinite oceans you will notice one thing they all have in common; there have no boundaries or divisions. The only differences on earth are drawn up by humans based on the lands we live in.
Currently I live in London, to the East lies Asia, to the West is America and South is Africa. Every piece of land in this world has been divided and apportioned by mankind himself, not by nature. The sun shines with the same radiance wherever it goes; it makes no distinction between people, race or colour. In fact, if this phenomenon is investigated a little further, you will realise every single division in this world has been taught through man-made concepts.
A baby is told its family name and then its race, creed, colour, religion, beliefs etc all dependent on what their societal upbringing will have them believe. It’s the division of mankind which causes separation, and thus, ultimately, a competitive struggle between one set of doctrines as opposed to another.
We see Jews and Muslims killing each other in the name of their beliefs, yet how many Jewish and Muslims babies bear the same animosity towards each other? (I don’t ever recall any six month Arab or Jewish babies wanting to murder each other). So what happens between birth and adulthood that causes a human to grow so much hatred towards another? It’s simple; education, beliefs and a lack of awareness of one’s infinite nature is the root cause of all such issues.
In an age of the Internet, mobile phones, cable television and instant, on-demand information, we seem to be more and more reliant on the outside world to give us our knowledge. We have almost forgotten the concept of finding real eternal truths by looking deep within ourselves. The further we look to the outside world for our sense of purpose, the further rooted we become in the misguided knowledge being thrust upon as at every given opportunity.
A human being has an infinite capacity to love, honour, cherish, respect and blossom his or her innate divine qualities no matter where they come from. Whether someone identifies themselves as black, white, rich, poor, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, atheist, American, Chinese etc, it really doesn’t matter. First and foremost, the ultimate truth is that we are all divine human beings with an absolute birthright to living a happy, prosperous, healthy and enlightened modern day life. Our worldly identities come later, but not before we see ourselves as a part of one united consciousness.
Let me further clarify what I am saying,pick up your right hand and punch yourself on your leg as hard as you can. Now try again, even harder, and keep on trying. Very quickly you realise the futility in trying to harm yourself. Why would one part of your body try and harm another part of your body, what is there to be gained? It’s because you acknowledge the whole of your body as one entity, that the notion of one part being at odds with another is absurd.
Using the same concept, let’s look at this entire creation. If we all see the world as being an extension of our very self, then, how on earth could we ever harm another being or another creature? The same way most soldiers would not be able to kill their own children, so how in their minds can they justify the act of killing someone else’s child?
The whole notion of identity and separation is a sad indictment on how corrupted the behaviour and conspicuousness of this world has become. No one person, government or group can be blamed for the current state of affairs. We must all take collective responsibility for how the world has been shaped. We can’t change what has already been done, but we can change the way we move in the future.
Don’t get me wrong; I am the proudest Indian you will ever come across! However, my sense of “Indianness” enhances my appreciation of other cultures. Somewhere down the line, most other people have used their sense of identity to propel themselves further away from everyone else.
First and foremost, we need to firmly establish within ourselves, our true identity and unlimited powers. There are many spiritual paths to accessing these hidden truths, of which the wisdom of yoga is one such path (as Ramakrishna so beautifully spoke, all rivers lead to the same ocean). Yoga is a sanskrit (ancient Indian language) word meaning the union of one’s body and mind to the higher consciousness. Study of the scriptures will reveal all of these hidden truths that already exist deep within our own minds. Once we become firmly established in knowledge ourselves, then we become ready to share this wisdom with the world.
As of today I see conflicts between America and Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, North Korea and South Korea, governments and people, capitalist against socialists etc, the list just goes on and on. Enough! It’s time for all the spiritual soldiers amongst us to stand up and raise the global consciousness.
A new era is about to dawn, where the world moves into a heightened awareness of spiritual growth. Already we have begun to see its effects with the rising popularity of sensations like “The Secret,” and the growth in spiritual organisations around the world. Use every opportunity to grow, and take responsibility for what you can change around you.
If we all start to elevate each other, the false walls of separation will begin to crumble and rather than fighting because of our differences, we can begin to live in the name of what unites us all. “Love is the ultimate power in this universe”, and Yoga brings us back to this fundamental sutra. By understanding who and what we really are, only then can we begin to end all the terrible fighting around the world today.
Yoga will ensure you maintain the correct mental balance between innocence and intelligence. When we can begin to accept what already is, but take responsibility for what can be; this is how Yoga can put an end to all wars around the world.
Om Shanti.
Love,
Sanjib
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JGD.wonderful…one world family………so what can be done today towards this……..
WOW…beautiful thought as ever!!!
birds,river,winds they dont know any limits or boundaries.. but all boundaries are made by men for the men..and because of that all disputes
hey sanjib..u have raised a very nice aspect today..all differences are becos of d differenced made n told by mankind only to next generations…
and enlightenment and spiritual growth really helps in accepting as all world as one family..n removing d mental n physical boundaries of states regions or countries n can surely effect to bring peace n harmony n stop wars…!!!! keep it up in thinking of welfare of mankind !!!!!!
it’s all in the mind….and the mindset…. reminds me of Lenon’s” Imagine”…….if all say i cud…it will b a better world…but wud our revered leaders agree to stop the various lobbies????
great thought
Just like the air inside the balloon and outside the balloon.
Beautiful thoughts Sanjib!!…soul stirring!!
I liked the term ‘spiritual soldiers’.. great post, keep it up!
Wow…..Really u Rock…..
awesome…………
Sanjib Jai Gurudev !!!!
‘Yoga will ensure you maintain the correct mental balance between innocence and intelligence..’
How true. We first have to go back to our innocence. There is a lot of unlearning to be done, before true learning begins.
Excellent sanjib. Most of the wars in the world is now caused due to excessive possesiveness to their respective religions. As Sri Sri says ” Like we have globalised technology, food, music….we need to globailise wisdom and make religion secular”. we need to move from exclusiveness to Inclusiveness. Every one should have some deeper insight in to all the religions in the world and its origin.
Broadly speaking there are three aspects to all religions. There are sacred symbols, there are rituals and there are values. Symbols across religions will vary, while some consider Om as sacred, some will consider the Star of David holy, other will consider the cross holy, still others will consider the fire worthy of worship, etc. Rituals too will be different at least on the surface. Some will face east and pray, others will ring bells, some will bow down, many fast on certain days, etc. There is a great variety of symbols and rituals among all the religions of the world.
The value systems though, of mostly all religions are almost the same. ‘Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt tell the truth, etc.’ Friendliness, compassion, love, brotherhood are the values stressed by almost every religions text.
It is interesting to note that all the major religions of the east, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Shintoism have managed to exist pretty harmoniously together, respecting and celebrating the diversity among the symbols and rituals. There may have been a few fiery debates, but never has there been loss of life over the religious beliefs of the east. The religions of the west Christianity, Islam, Judaism however have been forever fighting, and now have managed to bring their fight to the east as well.
When the value systems of religions are almost exactly the same, what are people fighting about? When I pray, I face east, you face west, so, let me kill you. For me the cross is sacred, for you the crescent moon, so let’s fight. These fights over symbols and rituals are so childish. All these quarrels also stem from a childish concept of God. People all over the world need to realize this. Religion is the banana skin, Spirituality is the banana. Religion is important and can take you up to a point in your evolution. After that for Religion to make sense, you will need to get to the core of Religion which is Spirituality. I like to say, As guruji says: Spirituality is what Religion wants to be when it grows up!
Spirituality is the uniting force. Spirituality accepts that there are many, many ways to the same goal. And so accepts all and celebrates life in all its glorious diversity and never ever puts a human life as more valuable than an idea. When you practice Spirituality, yoga, meditation, then you do focus on one way, but you also respect all other ways. As Guruji says, broaden your horizons but deepen your roots.
Terrorism comes from the seed, ‘only my way is right, all others are wrong’. To weed out this seed and destroy it forever, a broad based multi religious and multi cultural education system needs to be put into place. The division in the whole world has been done on caste and beliefs by corrupt politicians and religious leaders for their own short-term gains will crumble away only when Spirituality is given utmost priority. Otherwise, like so many foolish people, we will be left wildly waving the empty banana skin of religion after having thrown away the fruit of Spirituality!
Fear may work for a limited period of time. Love may take a lot of time to begin its work, but for the long haul, it’s the only choice.
“LOKA SAMASTHA SUKHINO BHAVANTU”.
JAI GURUDEV
Good article, Sanjib!
In Mahabharatha, Arjuna refused to fight because he felt so much belongingness with Kauravas. Krishna says Arjuna is wrong. On the other side, Duryodhana did not feel any belongingness with the Pandavas.
I now have more questions than answers!! May be.. let life be.
Thanks guys for all the amazing responses, please keep them coming..:)
Sajeev, feel free to ask as many questions as you like, this forum belongs to all our family of readers..:)
Dushyant..once again..wow, we are all learning so much from your knowledge, everything is truly appreciated…
Awesome post. I so good to see someone taking the time to share this information