From Inner Peace to World Peace

(The title of this blog is borrowed from Mr. Kawada’s lecture series for want of being able to come up with a more appropriate one.)

“To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.” - Confucius

More than ever the human desire is turning towards peace and happiness and harmonious coexistence with fellow humans. And these are some of the current solutions floating in the minds of people to achieve everlasting peace - Hang Ajmal Kasabs and Afzal Gurus, Gun Down all the terrorists living on the face of the earth; bomb the militant outfits springing in different parts of the world. Ban the use of weapons, arms and ammunitions, nuclear bombs. Arrange a dialogue between the nation heads which most often prove futile; Any more ideas that you can come up with?

To my mind none of these mentioned above is a plausible solution to achieving world peace. It is far more complex and deep rooted than these simplistic ones. It requires an ideological change and a fundamental reform in the human heart because that is where the seed of hatred and war originates. Only when we are at peace with ourselves and one another, can we inch closer to the dream of creating a peaceful world. Therefore inner peace is the roadmap to achieving world peace.

To begin with, the whole idea of ‘World Peace’ sounds a distant dream, elusive and unattainable.  So it would be helpful to narrow it down to something more achievable and realistic.  Let’s look at it this way –  world peace begins at home. If each one of us makes efforts to create peace and happiness at home and then extend it to our neighborhoods, through ripple effect we will have many more happy households and soon a happier world.

Even in order to create a peaceful environment at home, we first need to be happy and peaceful within. That inner joy will radiate outward and create an amicable environment. On the contrary, if we ourselves feel gloomy and unhappy within then there is very little that we can do to enliven the environment around us.

It is natural to encounter people in our environment with whom we will have differences of opinion. But it is respect for another human life transcending and rising above any differences that will help us look beyond the differences. We need to base our actions on this fundamental principle of respect for the other person. And yet this simple act of respecting another human life is the most difficult problem before humanity.

And till we have inculcated this as a habit in our daily lives, a peaceful world will remain merely but a wish.