Curriculum for Peace (12 March 2008, Gargi College, Delhi) - Track 8

So one day Shiva Ji was with about two hundred soldiers and moving leisurely in a certain area and suddenly a messenger comes running on his horse and says: that a huge army of ten thousand people is chasing you, it’s not very far, they are all on horseback and within a hour or two they will reach here. Now this is a crisis. Ten thousand people who can reach here in an hour or two hours and you can’t reach in that much time to your place of resort then death is certain, you will be killed there was no question about it. One soldier called Baji Prabhu, he stands out and says: Give me fifty people out of one hundred and fifty. We shall stand here, you start now, we are sure to die, we shall lose the battle but we shall stop the army here because they have to fight with us that fight with us will give you the time, in that much time you will reach your destination. Two other soldiers also came out and said: give the chance to us that was the bravery and heroism of these fighters. Ultimately Shiva Ji agreed with Baji Prabhu and said: you stand here, all the others ran away to their fort. In the meantime this army had come, they gave a tremendous fight to this whole army, they were maimed, wounded, fallen, crushed.  Baji Prabhu lost his breath only when he heard the bugle of arrival of Shiva Ji in his fort where he was save. He lost a losing battle but he became the pillar of success for Shiva Ji. Similarly within ourselves also, we choose the same thing. Fight a losing battle and you will find there is one great reward in the universal economy the real strength comes out to fight a losing battle – so fight. So fight is not something to be condemned in our peace education, you must know the true meaning of fight. Second is the question, fight with what attitude, out of envy, out of violence, out of anger, – no. Even Sri Krishna tells Arjuna: ‘you fight but yogasthah but established in yoga, fight but yogasthah, without any envy, without any violence in your consciousness. This was the teaching of Sri Krishna, he didn’t tell him kill your people – no, he said: fight but fight without envy, fight without anger, fight without violence.

Now the question is by what instrument you fight. It is here there is a big debate. Fight without violence is a universal principal which must be announced. Violence is surely to be conquered, envy to be conquered, first and foremost. So while you teach elimination of envy, you do not necessarily teach elimination of fight, education for peace does not mean education to eliminate fight, but you must understand the different meanings of the fight. It’s a matter of greater detail. Fight for what of what kind there can be a fight which is debating, which nobody at present doubts in any democracy parliament is only a debating society and debates are the only means of fighting and nobody says: you should not. The question is only whether when you fight with what instruments you are fighting and there the question very often comes whether you should fight with a bomb, with a sword, with a gun, what do you fight with and what means do you employ. There the answer is , you should try to minimise, this is the important point, minimise any physical means of fighting. That to why, why should we eliminate physical means, because if a human being has the most important instrument it is his physical. Anything that you possess fully in your own being, the most precious thing in a human being is his body, this is not sufficiently realised in our country because we think sharir is tuchcha, not true. The physical is extremely important. If you don’t have the body śarīramādyaṃ khalu dharmasādhanam, the body shariram, it’s a dharmasādhanam, if you want the highest ideal to be realised, you have to bodily realise it, body is extremely important that is why any instrument by which your body is hurt, body is maimed that you should avoid and that is the only definition that you should use for violence, violence is that kind of fight in which the physical is wounded. And that comes only when your extremity of anger also rises to the highest tempo. When I am debating with you and suddenly you don’t believe what I say and I become angry and I catch you and say now do you agree with me or not, comes to physical fight. So the advice is – fight becomes violent, truly violent, otherwise violence should go, I should be able to talk to you nicely, sweetly, lovingly, embracingly and I should not greed of that kind where I want to win over you. It should be a joy of living all of creation is joy. But then injustice is involved, when you are trying to get rid of injustice and you find that injustice cannot be eliminated except by physical war, then what can you say whether you should have it or not. It’s not a question left to you, it’s a question of time available to you, injustice is before your eyes, your child is being kidnapped before your eyes, you are not trying to debate with him, with the kidnapper, you should slaughter him on the spot. Not that you are envious or angry, it’s the only instrument by which you get rid of him, there is no cowardice in it – strength, fight against injustice. That was the reason why Mahabharata was fought; it was non-violent war because Sri Krishna says ‘fight without anger – yogasatha’ that’s why it was non-violent war. Sri Krishna taught war but it was non-violent, that’s the only meaning, violent or non-violent is not a question of inflicting on the body a wound. A doctor also wounds you by operation, you don’t call it violence, it’s a means by which the disease can be taken out of your body, that’s all. If Duryohdana’s injustice can be taken out only when his body is taken out, if this is the only means available then what do you do? And that was the only path available to Sri Krishna at that time. Therefore Mahabharata war is a great example of a war which was fought with an idea of peace with the highest value of non-violence. But you should be sure, you should not justify your own mind that I am fighting the war my love is in my heart, I have no envy, I have no anger, don’t deceive yourself. When you fight you should be really sure that you are in your mind there is really no violence. Once somebody had written a letter to the Mother which I had read out to the Mother at one time – in the present context of the world is violence justified, if so to what extent? So Mother said to me to answer him saying: violence is not justified to any extent. So the question of violence and non-violence is first of all first established all violence arises out of envy that must go, no justification but whether you should this instrument or that instrument it’s a question of the ..... We should not debate on that question so much because it is where many people fight on this question. Depending on a situation if you want to cure something on a given situation what is the practical means of doing it. Very often it is said don’t use any physical weapon unless you are attacked.  Armies in many countries are raised for self-defence, not for attacking but for self-defence. Somebody is going to kill you now; you have to defend yourself before you are destroyed. So while you make a curriculum these questions have to be answered properly and rightly with correct examples. All right.