“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”― Jimi Hendrix
Peace is a spiritual goal that can never be achieved without love. A number of courses are available on health, happiness, joy, and mindfulness to create peace and tranquillity. I stumbled across a course on Udemy taught by Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, a world-famous peace activist, poet, and teacher who helps people find happiness and access God’s Kingdom. In the good old days, people did not possess lots of wealth but their peacefulness came through simplicity in life. In modern days, we find that it is easy to be successful and wealthy but it is difficult to be calm, unpretentious and humble. The egos and fits of anger are high and happiness is sought through work, food, alcohol, movies, shopping, money which is temporary.
The sufferings, the crimes, and the protests around the world make one wonder how far we have come. Marcus Tullius once said, “Peace is liberty in tranquillity.” Recent bombings in Afghanistan have killed innocent women, children, and men. Afghanistan surrendered itself to the Taliban without a big fight. Billions were spent on training the Afghans but the collapse was precipitated with the withdrawal of the American troops after two decades of support. Afghanistan’s invasion has been a slow one, and the preparation does not appear to help, since the will to override a lurking fear has not yet been manifested. Trade has suffered due to the border closure, and common people await a change for food and peace of mind.
Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” was written after the First World War in 1919 and addresses how human actions and history create a revelation in which we are led to the outermost gyre of life currents and then urged to return to the centre. According to Yeats, the world stands on the cusp of an apocalyptic revelation. We find this poem relevant to our lives even today as we face the chaos of crimes, protests, wars like those between Israel and Palestine, Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and China and numerous others. Lives are lost and resources destroyed in the bargain of gaining power over fellow human beings.
Things fall apart in Afghanistan as the forces that bring order are failing to bring peace. Yeats’ poem was written to describe the anarchy that grew in the world as an aftermath of the Second World war and today we are almost on the brink of destruction despite the progress in life. The poem has been a reminder to writers whenever they wrote about a society facing political and social disorder.
Another example here is the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe that speaks of things falling apart in the Igbo community. It addresses problems in emergent Africa after the invasion and intrusion of the Europeans forming a colonial government. The novel unravels the fall of its leader Okonkwo and the fall of his village after he accidentally kills a clansman and faces an exile for seven years. When he returns back he finds his village ruled by Europeans. The turmoil and humility make him understand that his tyranny has left the people helpless in defending their country. This book was published in the 1960s and it created a literary renaissance and spread its wings. This African English novel is a part of the African curriculum and is widely read to understand the realistic beliefs of a tribal community and the social unravelling. It speaks of the force, strength and physical violence of the protagonist Okonkwo of the Igbo community on gaining power depicting that it is forceful power and not virtues that triumph.
Pride and violence can bring can never usher peace or prosperity. Saint John told his followers to love one another as the love for each other fills their minds and lead to other good qualities. The human body is made up of elements namely earth, water, fire, air and ether that are antagonistic in their properties yet they disintegrate in each other to form a homogenous living matter in every cell present in the human body. There is love in the universe, human cells and in nature but the human brain devices destruction, pain and agony in the name of conquering boundaries and spaces.
We have grown technologically over the past few decades and have come closer to the world but the rationale and understanding remain the same. People have begun contributing globally rather than nationally yet we keep look on expecting a messiah to help when a neighbouring country suffers.
The pandemic brought us closer to understanding human emotions in situations beyond man’s control. We kept our morale and inspiration going on as we did not want our nations to topple. One must grow their nation’s strength and perhaps the strength has to be strongly balanced like the suspension bridge that doesn’t crumble under an eight-lane highway even as the dam holds back water in thousands of gallons.
As I write this, I wish for us to be filled with quiet moments of peace.
“How beautiful the sky looked, how blue and calm and deep! How brilliant and majestic was the setting sun! How tenderly shone the distant waters of the Danube! And fairer still were the purpling mountains stretching far away beyond the river, the convent, the mysterious gorges, the pine forests veiled in mist to their summits.
…There all was peace and happiness. ‘I should wish for nothing, wish for nothing, for nothing in the world, if only I were there, thought Rostov. ‘In myself alone and in that sunshine there is so much happiness’…”― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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