A Point to Ponder-Mahatma

If two laws of compensation and Deprivation are true opposite and equal, would it not mean that the strivings of the humankind shall always remain more or less static by such contrary forces? The fact that there are those who do not merey acquiesce to them as final and are willing to overcome odds against them we ought to consider them as the true pioneers who carry the civilization forward.
Such great souls speak for the entire species. Most of us work far below our full potentials. Where does that energy leftover go to?

*Great souls are those who cover our lapses or shortfall by their solid achievements. Mohandas Gandhi or Bapu as he is affectionately remembered by India was one such. He made non-violence an effective weapon and showed the world the path of Ahimsa. He showed to the world of violence against the growing stridency of fascism in Europe and military Jingoism of Japan a better path. Hitler was a bully and a mad man whereas Gandhi became a Mahatma.
benny

Peace and Truth

Three craftsmen met at a way-station. One was a silversmith the second, a jeweler and the third a carpenter who was more in a daze than the other two.
Having spread their beds for the night they spent time chatting away. Their topic was on hereafter.
The silversmith said the heaven was like a palace with thousand gopuras each shethed in silver and the finials decorated in bells.
“ When the wind blows these bells with tingle and it shall be a signal for me to be escorted by apsaras before the Lord of Three Worlds.”
“Why this special treatment? The carpenter asked.
“ The silversmith without hesitation replied,” I toiled without ceasing in carving images here on earth and through sickness and indigence I did for the honor of the gods.”
The jeweler was sure that he also struggled as much. He was the devotee of the Lord Vishnu. He added the Lord shall specially call him to check the jewels in his crown and assign the chiefest place in his work-room. “ I shall have the best and most precious jewels under my care. Will I not bring glory to my Lord?”
The carpenter who was smoking opium drawled, “ Oh I may not be called to do anything. I have already spared the Lords from all ridicule. Notwithstanding silver one can easily make a god look ridiculous if the design or the quality of silver doesn’t fit the godhead.”
The jeweler was sure that his creations were all well thought of and fitted the crown exactly as it should.”
The carpenter laughed him to scorn. “ A ruby could make the blue-throat( Lord Shiva) look ghastly. You must first know for whom the jewels are meant.”
The silversmith and the jeweler took offense at the carpenter and they removed themselves to the far corner. “ Isn’t it terrible if we were to spent eternity in a heaven in the company of such a foul-mouth?”
The two felt that the paradise wasn’t anymore as brilliant as they had conceived it to be.
The carpenter went on puffing and he thought nothing else mattered than his drug-induced sleep.
2.
Peace isn’t built on external matters; peace is what any one may tease out of one’s inner world, where truth of nature, truth of experience and truth of action can explore the visible world in a constructive manner.
Truth and peace are indivisible.
Thus escaping the present realities by drugs or some other short cuts one doesn’t create peace. The experience has to be genuine by which one may interlock with others in a spirit of peace. There by one tests truth in everday life; truth of nature sounds to each the indescribable Life in a mode one may resonate. The truth give his or her life a special flavor.
Truth of action is where conditions of peace created by you outflow into others.
benny

Peace in Action

My friend had a longstanding quarrel with his eldest brother that was largely on account of their basic personalities. My friend is a bohemian and an artist while his brother is an attorney and very conservative. Their temperaments and politics were poles apart and my friend’s lifestyle, well it had been a bone of contention between the two. In any argument they were sure to take the extreme views. While their parents were alive they somehow tolerated each other but barely.
Years later when my friend chose to step out of a loveless marriage and take a woman of his choice they quarrelled. It was a very nasty one. For years they chose to cut each other off. Each brother pretended as though the other didn’t exist. But how long can they keep their differences unattended?
A time came when they decided to confront.
During this meeting in a spirit of amity the elder brother wanted to rationalize his quarrel and and my friend stopped him from raking over the past.
“ We begin new and I accept you as you are.” My friend said. He wiped off from his mind every injury and spite and his brother also did likewise. My friend said that they could build their affection from that point onwards. Peace among brothers was restored.
My friend was sure memory at best was faulty since time glosses over the real and any analysis over their past would have only skirted over the real issues. By bringing light to what was ages past meant putting different emphases over their clash of personalities and it seemed to my friend a vain exercise. Arguing over the origin of their quarrel or its effect would only made their reconciliation worse. By completely burying the past they could build on the present and allow future to make it grow.
Peace has to do with past, present and future.
benny

Re: Peace

Peace isn’t merely an inert state as though one is thrown into stupor; peace is not merely absence of conflicting issues between two parties.
In one of my earlier posts I had defined happiness as outside circumstances. Happiness is synonymous with Life. Peace is where any man may back up with his inner resources to let happiness has its free working. Is it possible?
In Christian scriptures we read of ‘peace of God that passeth all understanding’. Life is positive and doesn’t care a fig for the issues or the outstanding causes for conflict. Life isn’t legalistic and doesn’t bring up some claims as we hear nowadays from some Jewish quarters that their claim to such and such land is unassailable since God had promised the land to the Patriach Abraham. Yes are we to dismiss their claim as untenable? Since the name of God is invoked I may also quote a verse from the Old Covenant. ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof…”(Ps.24:1) Are the Arabs not the descendants of the Patriarch? Is it an impossble feat in such a case to let your brother live in comfort even as you have been sufficently provided for? No that is impossible for our security, so says some. Security must come from a spirit of accommodation.
Much before the gold rush of ’48 Bozo the Bugger took mining rights from some bank that was going bust. He went west and found gold. Immediately he bought a mule team and some work hands. He in the months to come fenced in lands as far as eyes could see. He put up a notice stating he was the owner and anyone who came anywhere near would be shot.
When one came near and he was seeking gold, Bozo fired a warning shot and said, “ Keep off my land!”
Bozo had acquired rights by possession and he was ready to fight it out to hold what wasn’t legally his. Yes he would need more guns and more fire power to make his false claims stick.
Israel could have made peace;equally the Palestinians could have accommodated their brethren and taken an effort to live in amity. But they didn’t.
How can there be peace when both parties cannot take their eyes off the issues and cases of bloodletting that have occurred since the birth of Israel?
Peace of God (or Peace that life has instilled in every one of us) is outside circumstances and beyond our limited understanding. If there be a statesman who makes peace, overlooking all the past injuries,- with the ‘enemy’ do you think he shall be welcomed as a hero by his own nation?
Issac Rabin, I salute you.
Tailpiece:There have been many such instances. Michael Collins for one and he was shot dead in ambush by rebel IRA members for making peace with the English in 1922.
benny

On Equal Footing

After a spell of wet season the sun came up and it was very hot. A worm peeped out and quickly withdrew to its clammy shelter. The teacher of incomparable wisdom observed: “ a worm can use the whole earth against the sun.” He guided his disciples along the countryside and a storm suddenly raged and the sage safely guided his pupils into the hollow of a cave. “ The entire hill is at our disposal to deflect the fury of elements.” He summed up at the end of the day thus: ” wisdom of man merely works along the grain of his world. Peaceful coexistence allows creatures as lowly as man or worm to live and let live.”
Shortly thereafter they came across a scorched land in ruin. The entire town had been ravaged by war. The pupils expected the master to give an opinion. After a long silence he said, “ Here we see what is unique to us: power disengaged from wisdom.”
Power coupled with wisdom is discretion while power let on its own steam makes the wise conduct themselves as fools and we need not be surprised if fools are made to sit over the destinies of nations.
In order to prove my point I only need to cite the war on terror as waged by the US. When the law givers fall in with immoral course of action proposed by a bunch of ‘chicken hawks’ lest they be seen as weak aren’t they being foolish?
benny