Not many of us are aware that peace is truly our original nature, but when we arrive on the earth, we act through human bodies and lose our original energy in the cycle of action, interaction with proximate matter and souls. When we strip off of our original positive energies, negativity manifests in our mind, then to actions that finally result in suffering. When there is suffering, we badly seek our original truly peaceful and blissful state of being.
However, our endeavours to attain that peace are limited by certain human constraints, of which the first and foremost is the constraint of the human body. We neither know past lives nor can we know what our future is. The only thing that we know is what we are in our present life. Hence, we do not understand the implication of the laws of karma to discipline us in the present. Apart from this, we are constrained by geographical, environmental, cultural and religious barriers in addition to individual personality traits. All these constraints make it difficult for us to develop universal empathy; as a result, we cannot think or act globally, resulting in a very limited understanding of our world and ourselves too.
Our skewed vision has led us to believe that the massive army and weapons built up will make us more secure. This approach has led to unhealthy competition, malpractices and misleading the whole generation, thereby killing our feelings of sympathy, compassion and cooperation, the fundamental human quality. One wonders, then how can we bring peace to the divergent universe? For that, we need to first understand that peace is a composite phenomenon. Hence one cannot hope to live in peace without hoping the same for his/her neighbours. Therefore, our positive actions that ensure peace for self, society and the environment alone can generate and sustain universal peace.
Today, if we look around then how many people would we find who are spending their time, money and energy for peace and harmony in society? Unfortunately, there are not many. It's high time that we all make a resolution to put our time, money and energy for peace and harmony, because if we wish to have a peaceful and harmonious world around us, then it should begin with each one of us.
(The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal and UK. You can write to him at nikunjji@gmail.com or visit http://www.brahmakumaris.com/)
