THE QUEST FOR PEACE ... 1

The situation is not that simple, Juthika Sarkar. In a world of terrible iniquities with gross violation of human dignity by the inglorious gratification of desires pertaining to the capital, impoverishment of the teeming millions does not leave enough space to deem that mere individual inner peace without addressing these major issues is going to solve the problem arising from absence of global peace or that it can sufficiently conduce to the creation of conditions on a global scale to foster peace.

If peace is to be achieved, it has to be on the basis of curtailment of individual desires and the provision for the collective good thereof. Besides, territorial greed of nations, trying to better the condition of their own people, leads to war. We are stuck up still in the 19th century ideal of nationalism which has already caused two world wars and threatens a third yet again.

Mere verbal effusions on social media or on political platforms will not transform the consciousness of the men in power. A vaster idea emanating from the depth of the illumined individual and activated en masse by vast numbers of dedicated followers with only human benefit in view without any tendency to proselytise and gain in numbers for political purposes is the call of the hour even as the hour flits by into the penultimate phase of a vast destruction on a global scale.

Forget not the depletion of the ozone layer and the warming up of the planet, the drying up of rivers and the extinction of so many species. These will all have to be addressed along with meditative inner peace of the individual.

Differentiation at the fundamental level of Nature is the scheme of phenomena and to address it well for harmonious living is the programme for peace. It is a much more complex issue than is apparent and has consumed the attention of thinkers since antiquity. Thus, to posit simplistic solutions on the spur of the moment, while understandable on behalf of individual involvement in the whole episode that concerns all, is not going to be the way out of the current mess in which evolving humanity is entrapped.