War – for what?

By M L Satyan

Bengaluru, Feb 28, 2022: The sudden war news and horrifying war scenes happening in Russia and Ukraine are really heart-breaking. Most of us born after World War-II are really witnessing the “horrifying scenes” of a war. The innocent people have become victims of insensitive, egoistic and greedy political leaders.

A young Russian woman said in her recent YouTube message, “I woke up today and watched in absolute horror as my country invaded Ukraine. Every Russian person, my friends, my family that I have spoken to, we all agree, none of us want this. This was instigated by the government and not by the people. We, Russians and Ukrainians share an intertwined history and culture. A lot of Russians see Ukrainians as brothers and sisters, or at the very least as neighbours. We have been pitted against each other by the media narratives. We have to ask ourselves ‘Who benefits from this?’ One Russian person put it best. He said, ‘I feel like I am on a bus and the driver has gone completely mad’. That is exactly how I feel.”

Why do the political leaders become mad and get into merciless killings? All for acquiring more power and more control over other countries. There seems to be no end for their greed. At this stage, I wish to quote an incident that occurred 25 years ago. A NASA mission was leaving the Solar System. At the request of Carl Sagan, it was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take one last photo of the Earth across a great expanse of space. Sagan’s words spoken and written are still relevant today. His brilliant words will bring us to our real senses.

“That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being whoever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, and hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.”

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast, cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those Generals and Emperors so that in glory and triumph they can become momentary Masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds!”

“Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known.” (Source: YouTube video)

Here is another thought-provoking anecdote. A traveler was passing through a village in search of accumulating more wealth. At the outskirt of the village a hermit lived in a small hut. The traveler got into the hut to meet the hermit. He found the hermit wearing a towel. Another wet towel was hanging on a rope. The traveler noted a mud pot, mud plate and a mud cup kept in one corner of the hut. No other household item was seen. The traveler was surprised to know that the hermit has been living there for the past 70 years happily and peacefully.

The traveler asked the hermit, “Why did you not acquire properties?” The hermit replied, “Well, I am a traveler and this is my temporary abode”. The traveler felt guilty as he owned plenty of wealth which he never shared with anyone and there was no end for his greed. As a result, he never enjoyed peace and happiness.

Every human being comes into this world empty-handed and will leave this world empty-handed. This is the TRUTH. If so, why should we lead a greedy life consuming and accumulating as much wealth as possible at the cost of the marginalized communities or depriving someone else? ‘Need’ can be fulfilled but ‘Greed’ can never be fulfilled. It is high time for us to realize that the Earth is only our temporary abode and respect everyone’s right to enjoy the resources of the Earth, the tiny pale blue dot in the universe.

The Bhagavad Gita tells us: “What have you lost that you cry for? What did you bring that you have lost? What did you create that was destroyed? What you have taken, has been from here. What you gave, has been given here. What belongs to you today belonged to someone yesterday and will belong to someone else tomorrow.”

The important lesson that we must learn from the ongoing war is: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the whole universe is a joint family. All who live in this universe – human beings, every living creature and nature – are members of one joint family. Lokah Samastah, Sukhino Bhavantu – May all beings in the universe be happy and free.