It’s a proven fact today that disharmony in human relations gives rise not only to wars but to almost all other problems—directly or indirectly related to us. The phenomenon of split in families, the rising number of divorce cases, and even most of the psychosomatic diseases caused by stress or mental tension, are only due to disharmony in human relations.
One cannot deny the fact that today, the forces that are leading to the disintegration of nations, communities, and political parties crop up primarily from disharmony. In the recent past, we have witnessed how a border conflict between two countries resulted in the exodus of people from their homeland as well as deaths of innocent people due to continuous bombings.
We see that extremism and fundamentalism in many parts of the world—especially in Asia—is mainly due to religio-political disharmony. In fact, most problems of law and order and even the commotions and disturbances in major legislatures are also due to disharmony in relations between political parties or various linguistic groups or religious communities.
It is, thus, very much essential to find a solution to eliminate this problem lest it eliminates us. But what is the way out? How does one move ahead? Well, it is quite clear from examples of contemporary world events that these problems are mainly the creations of our mind, our attitudes and our own negative thinking.
Hence, to create harmony, we first need to disarm our minds to further dismantle the forces of disharmony. In other words, we need to learn new ways of thinking to create a new world for ourselves because our age-old negative thinking will create more problems and make our lives worse instead of liberating us from our problems.
It is estimated that countries around the world spend about $2.7 trillion annually on ‘defence’ or ‘security’—yet insecurity continues to grow. What’s more saddening is that all the diversion of resources to war purposes deprives the underprivileged in society the help which they need and, in fact, deserve.
In this context, it is essential to redefine security and break the link between security and military. We need to understand that our security lies not in an armed state with readiness for war but in friendliness, love, and peace with others. Our real enemies are not men and women, but suspicion, fear, hatred, violence, and feelings of revenge, which cannot be eliminated by military force.
It has, therefore, rightly been said in the Gita: ‘Arjuna, the soul is its own best friend and it is its own worst enemy.’ We must, therefore, know that it is love that can eliminate hate, kindness that can kill cruelty, and compassion that can calm down destructive passion.
Nevertheless, there must have been a time when the world population was smaller, the environment was clean, and there were no wars and people lived with amity in peace. An in-depth study of human civilization reveals that there was an era when there were fewer wars and also a time when we were free from all forms of disharmony. It was the time of universal harmony. The old scriptures call it Satyuga, the Age of Truth, or the Golden Age.
This further conveys that certain wrong beliefs have shaped today’s negative culture, lifestyle, and attitudes. One such belief is the idea that the world has always been in a state of disharmony, and that there was never a time in human history when complete harmony prevailed. If this were so, why do we have a greater number of devastating wars and mass killings today? Why are we inventing more and more deadly weapons today?
These are some questions to ponder upon while we strive to again usher in the new-old world of the Satyuga, with the same attitudes and ways of thinking which can restore harmony in human relationships.
So, how can we bring about this change? It’s actually very simple—we need to realise that most of our problems arise from our spiritual illiteracy, which has to be eradicated. If we can get rid of this kind of illiteracy, we would have a new lease of consciousness beyond war and enmity, and then eventually open ourselves up to a new paradise. If not, we must know that we will end in eternal darkness.
