Swami Chinmayananda
Personally, I am no advocate of
violence. But violence, too, has its rightful place in life, life does not
preclude death. The average Indian has been moulded into a particular national
mentality of quixotic tolerance. His attitude is shaped into its distinct
pattern by the ideologies and moralities preached in our national literature.
And no single work in our classics has gained such a wide influence on our
people as the Bhagawad Gita: and in, this century, no other single message had
such a universal appeal to our countrymen as the single line, "Ahimsa
Paramo Dharmah" -- "Non - Violence is the greatest Dharma."
This line in its over - emphasis,
has sapped both initiative and energy in our millions, and, instead of making
us all irresistible moral giants, we have been reduced to poltroons and
cowards. And banking on this cowardly resignation of the majority, a handful of
fanatics have been perpetrating crimes which even the most barbarous cave
dwellers would have avenged. To clothe our weaknesses, we attribute to them
glorious names and purposefully persuade ourselves to believe that they are
brilliant ideologists!
Let us for a moment go to the
original sacred verse and investigate the significances of the moral precept:
Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah. This is the opening line of a stanza, and the very next
line reads: Dharma himsaa tathaiva cha. "So too is all righteous
violence." Indeed, non - violence is the supreme policy to be adopted by
man to foster enduring peace in the world; but there are certain dire moments
in the life of individuals, as of nations, when we will have to meet force with
force in order that justice be done.
To every individual his mother,
wife and children are the nearest dependents and to guard their honour and life
is the unavoidable first moral duty of each head of the family. This is an
obligation whether the victim be a member of the majority or of the minority
class within a country, province or city.
By the over - emphasis laid on
non - violence we have come to witness the pathetic situation of today, when
thousands, in cowardly fear take to precipitate flight, leaving their innocent
children to be butchered and their unarmed helpless women to be dishonoured or
converted or killed. Under the cloak of glorified non - violence, an entire
nation of cowards fly from their homes, when a small sect of fanatic barbarians
boldly stalk in and out of their open undefended thresholds to kill, to rape,
and to loot. When will we learn to fully interpret our Vedas, scriptures and Upanishads.
If only we all learn that dharma - himsa is equally noble as ahimsa.
To me it seems that the only
solution for the day's internal chaos is to bring home to the people the
significance of the much neglected teaching of dharma - himsa. As it is, a
misled and over - excited minority in the country has the sole monopoly of
violence; and non - violence is a dangerous folly. However ideal a moral
precept may be, so long as, in a society, innocent children, helpless women and
defenceless old are left to be butchered dishonoured and tortured, while the
youth of the land is made to watch impassionately the hellish scene, we are to
conclude that either the idea is a dangerous one, or that we have not rightly
understood the full meaning of the precept.
Under the present available
scheme of chaos in this country, when under the planned instigation of a few
power blind, reckless men, a minority community is rendered into a murderous
gang of fanatics, it is the duty of the majority to win back the erring thousands.
The cure depends upon the disease; the potency of the medicine is decided upon
the virulence of the illness. Today when looting, arson and rape are the dharma
of a few, it is rank cowardice for the many to suffer the tyranny of the
unprovoked violence in meek submission. In the battlefield, when violence is
rampant, it is the dharma of everyone to meet that maniacal violence with
determined, restrained, violence not only in self - defence but also to
convince the aggressive vicious few that 'it rarely pays to be violent.'
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