A bleeding three-year old boy's horror-struck, tearful eyes peered over his motionless dead father's blood soaked shoulders. The naive little eyes had just witnessed his entire family being wiped out by the masked evil barbarians, who wreaked havoc, executing the whole city. Those tiny innocent petrified eyes gaped at the demons with red bloodshot eyes that were blazing with anger, hatred, resentment, searching for any trace of life to terminate; searing eyes scouring through the piles of dead bodies that had just been blast to shreds; eyes craving cruel joy and thrill at the ruthless massacre of thousands of vulnerable women, infants, men, aged and young bred. Those innocent mortals who were left with some breath of life were waiting to be ripped to pieces at the merciless hands of these savage demons yielding sharp weapons, guns and long bladed swords . Welcome to the cruel world of terrorism!
The above is a dolorous and repetitive tale of atrocity faced by thousands of innocent souls across the expanse of the globe, which reminds us of the gross reality of the vulnerability and fragility of our existence.
My father would often share how he felt a sharp stinging pain when he unfolded the newspaper each morning or switched on any news channel, to encounter the unnerving melancholy at innumerable acts of violence in the world. Incessant fear of the deplorable occurrence of another unsuspecting terrorist attack has crept into our system.
The fundamental question that arises here is - what is the need to resort to such abbhorrent acts of violence? What drives such animalistic instincts to violate another? Is the greed for power, ego or false pride so overwhelming that it crosses all boundaries of humanity?
Ghastly acts of ruthless devastation by terrorists have resulted in moral breakdown of society and psychological aberrations of the individuals involved. These effects catapult from the terrorists’ desire to mould the existing system as per their whims and desires. It is characterized by ill-motives of frustration, revenge and a syndrome of hate.
The universally touted generic objective of human life is the pursuit for happiness. To the degree we do not acknowledge the existence of God, His supremacy, His divine, inconceivable power and surrender unto Him, the ignorant souls continue to be blinded by a false sense of dominion and ownership over dead matter in this material world. We continue to revolve endlessly in the dark well of oblivion. The quest for happiness then degenerates into a vile struggle for corporal enjoyment. Such a misguided and flawed conception of life is individually frustrating & globally disastrous.
Is sectarianism the driving force?
The masses generally relate terrorism to a particular faith, caste or religion. However, those who lean towards violent means to commission ideological causes in the name of fanatic religious beliefs rely on sole verses without understanding the deeper context in which they have been transcribed.
As Kaliyuga progresses, we can see how authentic religious principles given in the bona fide religious literature are being sacrificed at the altar of secularism and ulterior motives. This has resulted in the rise of killer brigade who cunningly use religion as a tool for selfish purposes. They choose gullible youths as recruits who are easily brain-washed and made to believe that killing people will please God. Such benighted souls fail to realise that those who have truly comprehended the essence of their respective Holy Scriptures would never degrade or resort to such abominable acts. The absolute fact remains that their inhuman activities bring disrepute to God and His genuine followers.
On deeper study it is evident that every sacred literature advocates the message of peace and harmony.There is not a single sacred scripture that promotes murder, warfare or massacre of fellow living beings.
For instance, the Islamic text - Quran 6.151 explicitly states, "...that you do not kill any soul, which God has made sacred and forbidden".
The Bible further urges us to refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart. The sixth commandment in Exodus 20:2-17 reads "Thou shalt not kill"and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 promulgates that "You shall not murder".
The globally revered, epic manual for life - The Bhagavad-Gita As It Is and other Vedic literatures give injunctions for alleviating the distorted sectarian mentality. Describing the essence of Vedas - 'Sri Isopanisad' states that all land and resources are ultimately the property of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and while we may lawfully use these resources, we must conform to a God-given quota. World leaders need to acknowledge, recognize, accept this and act accordingly. In the event that countries disregard the proprietorship of God and thus exploit the laws of nature in a sectarian way, then the brutal acts of violence will continue to raise its ugly head. Futhermore, the Shrimad-Bhagavatam reveals that when people are enlightened with absolute knowledge, they will understand that material or ideological issues are not at all worth hating and killing for.
To a spiritually awakened soul, the basic principles of God consciousness are not sentimental, theoretical, or dogmatic but are facts of nature and life. A devotee is capable of applying those principles to the most complex situations of daily living. Elevated self-realised spiritual practitioners -the torchbearers, who do not identify with sectarianism, who come in bonafide disciplic succession, who see the spirit soul in all beings irrespective of the type of bodily coverings, are the most qualified, for guidance to be sought, when a nation’s leaders are considering how to avert terrorism.
Identifying the Root-Cause
The current civilization is encompassed by acts of extreme violence in every fibre of it’s construction. The root cause of this evil is misguided youth and lack of bonafide absolute knowledge.
The Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) - His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has proclaimed that people should not expect to do away with terrorism as long as the vast majority of human beings were behaving as animals. If one ferocious beast fights with another in the jungle, he said, we should not be surprised. Similarly, as long as humanity lived as animals, without knowledge of self-realization, then we could not expect an end to terroristic violence.
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras quoted, “As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
The rebelliousness on the values and culture of a sustainable past propagated by scientists, athiests and leaders combined has entered the blood of every citizen of the modern world. It has taken the form of violence against nature and living entities. The need of the hour is a change in consciousness, a change that will lift the vengeful parties above their trivial concerns of sectarianism. Just like each ray of the sun immediately swallows the darkness similarly each message inscribed in our holy books has the potential to ignite the virtuosity within the heart and devour the ignorance.
How to Transcend this?
On a deep-seated platform, terrorism is manifest at three levels - our thoughts, speech and action. Let aside the hardcore weapon-yielding sinners, at an individual level, let us look within. How many times have we thought ill about someone? How many times have we spoken negative about someone or to someone? How many times have we raised our voice or engaged in offensive acts that may have hurt someone? We must remember that each intention and action has its karmic repercussions.
So the key to world peace is to stop rampant animal-slaughter, to harbour compassion for every soul, to re-kindle our lost connection with our Creator and to understand the real purpose of our life. It is not to be wasted by identifying with bodily, material attachments which are temporary. As time progresses, our bodies will perish while the mundane petty things we have been fighting to gain proprietorship over all our lives, will continue to remain in this mortal world, as they never belonged to us, nor will they ever belong to any mortal creation. Higher intelligence is to discern the fact that every fragment of matter belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead - the one who created this Universe.
Yes. We must nurture the thrill to kill. The catch is what should we kill? We must kill the tendency to find faults in others, we must kill the propensity to scrutinise the bad qualities in others, we must kill the untamed greed, envy, hatred, ego, pride that are residing within our hearts. On the contrary, let us magnify the positivity in every soul, let us inculcate a spirit of compassion and forgiveness, aspire to purify our consciousness by developing empathy towards living entities, looking beyond the classifications of race, culture, caste, creed, colour, religion etc. We can win over terrorism both at a larger, global platform and at a deeper level- within our hearts - by purifying our consciousness, taking shelter of the Holy Name, following footsteps of saintly souls and seeking refuge in the wisdom of our sacred texts. The Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.21 confirms that once a man’s mind is enlivened by the knowledge of Personality of Godhead the knot in the heart is pierced and all misgivings are cut to pieces. In material existence, a living being creates his own chain of fruitive work and enjoys the good and bad effects of those actions life after life. But as soon as he engages himself in the loving service of the Lord, he at once becomes free from the chain of karma. His actions no longer create any reaction. Terrorism is a deadly virus that needs to be killed using the weapon of Vedic wisdom and a broad vision to go past the fundamentally diminutive material differences and supercede them, eventually arriving at higher values that unite us in spreading love, peace and harmony.
Article by:
Meghna Choudhury
(H.G. Mathura Vasi Devi Dasi)
Life Coach | Spiritual Counselor | Author | Social Activist
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