Peace on Earth: Explode Spiritual Bomb of Compassion

By DAISAKU IKEDA

Visiting Raj Ghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi, I bowed my head before the black stone platform. I pondered Gandhi's brilliant spirit. I thought of his ceaseless struggle to douse the fires of hatred with water drawn from the pure springs of love for humanity. And I thought of how alone he was in his quest.

Wherever communities were locked in conflict and reprisal, Gandhi would reach there, calling for the killing to end. But people, crazed by hate, did not listen. They demanded to know whose side he was on. But he wasn't taking sides. He was on both sides. To him, people are brothers and sisters. How could he stand by, a silent witness to mutual slaughter? Gandhi declared that he was willing to be cut in two if that was what people wanted, but not for India to be cut in two. What good, he demanded to know, could ever come of hatred? If hate were returned with hate, it would only become more deeply rooted and widespread. Suppose someone sets fire to your home and you retaliate by setting fire to theirs, soon the whole town will be in flames! Violence solves nothing. Fire cannot extinguish fire.

For Gandhi, non-violence meant an overflowing love for all humanity, a way of life that emanated from the very marrow of his being. But for many of his followers, non-violence was simply a political strategy, a tactic for winning India's independence from Britain. The more earnestly Gandhi pursued his religious beliefs, the deeper his love for humanity grew. This love made it all the more impossible for him to ignore the political realities that shaped people's lives. At the same time, contact with these political realities strengthened his conviction that nothing is more essential than the love for humanity that religious faith can inspire. He walked the middle way.

It is high time humankind came together to put an end to terrorism. The question is, how can this be achieved? Humanity must be guided by the overriding principle that killing is never acceptable or justified under any circumstance. Unless we realise this, unless we widely promote and deeply implant the understanding that violence can never be used to advocate one's beliefs, we will have learned nothing from the bitter lessons of the past. The real struggle of the 21st century will not be between civilisations, nor between religions. It will be between violence and non-violence. It will be between barbarity and civilisation in the truest sense of the word.

What distinguishes us from brute beasts, Gandhi said, is our continuous striving for moral self-improvement. Humanity is at a crossroads and must choose, he asserted, violence or non-violence. Now is the time to make the following declaration: We regard terrorist attacks to be a challenge to the law of humanity... We declare our determination to find a solution not by military means but through extensive dialogue. Rather than further fuel the flames of hatred, we choose to douse them with a great flood of dialogue that will enrich and benefit all humanity.

King Ashoka was a wise and virtuous monarch of ancient India. After witnessing firsthand the cruel realities of war, he converted to Buddhism, deciding that he would base his rule not on military force but on the Dharma, the principles of Buddhism. When Gandhi was asked whether a non-violent state was possible, he replied that indeed it was. He pointed to Ashoka's reign as an example, and asserted that it must be possible to reproduce the ancient king's achievement.

Jawaharlal Nehru, on a visit to Japan in 1957, voiced his profound concern over the escalating violence in the world. He stated that the only truly effective response to the hydrogen bomb was not a bomb of even bigger destructive capacity but a spiritual bomb of compassion. This was just one month after Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, made his own declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Violence is born from a wounded spirit: A spirit burned and blistered by the fire of arrogance; a spirit splintered and frayed by the frustration of powerlessness; a spirit parched with an unquenched thirst for meaning in life; a spirit shrivelled and shrunk by feelings of inferiority. The rage that results from injured self-respect, from humiliation, erupts as violence. A culture of violence, which delights in crushing and beating others into submission, spreads throughout society, often amplified by the media.

Non-violence is the highest form of humility; it is supreme courage. Jawaharlal Nehru said that the essence of Gandhi's teachings was fearlessness. The Mahatma taught that the strong are never vindictive and that dialogue can only be engaged in by the brave.

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)