Peace is not just the absence of conflict, nor is it something that you can buy from the market or achieve by making some lofty policy. It has to be nurtured within oneself. Peace is your nature. Peace is needed at three levels. The first level is peace within oneself; the second level is peace in our surroundings like our family, our friends and workplace; the third level is peace between countries. In fact, without personal peace, peace is not possible either in our environment or in the world.
Now peace here does not mean that you remain inactive. Peace warriors remain active with the will to stop any wrongdoing. They expose the wrongdoings and wrongdoers in the society and stand against them. So each one of us should become a peace ambassador and a peace warrior.
Until each and every member of our global family remains peaceful, our peace is incomplete. The challenge before us is to reach out to those people, countries and parts of the world where there is no peace; where conflicts are taking place. It is our responsibility to bring peace to every corner of the world. Most peace lovers remain passive and silent but today peaceful people need to be active.
Once around 1940 Mahatma Gandhi was travelling by train in Darjeeling. He was accompanied by Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi who used to be his secretary for the South Indian region. We took lessons from Pandit ji after many years. Somewhere in the middle of the journey, the engine and the coaches got separated from each other. The engine went ahead and the coaches started moving backwards.
As soon as this happened, there was panic among the other passengers but at the same time Gandhi ji told them to concentrate on noting down some important things which Gandhi ji was telling them at that time. Pandit ji found this very strange and he told Gandhi ji that “at this time people are worried about saving their lives and you are asking them to take notes.
Gandhiji told his secretary that if any accident happens at this time, none of us will survive but if we survive then we will always regret that we wasted so much time worrying about useless things. In life, situations keep coming up which can disturb you but when we are calm and focused from within, we spread waves of peace around us.
People often unite in times of crisis, but can we unite for something positive, constructive and harmonious like spreading peace? If we are mentally strong and do not get influenced by misinformation, then we can do it.
In today's time, social media is like a double-edged sword. It can provide correct information and also spread a lot of rumours which can cause unrest somewhere, so this scenario needs to be used wisely. There is immense power in collective voices supporting peace. Colombia was suffering from civil war for 52 years. We talked to their main rebel group and they agreed to ceasefire.
They abandoned years of armed conflict and chose the path of non-violence. Everyone was very happy that the war was over, they supported peace but did not participate in the referendum. As a result, the peace proposal was rejected in the first referendum.
Although the people of the country later woke up and chose peace, it took many more efforts. Thus history is proof that even a small percentage of the population can bring about a big change. So those who stand in support of peace should raise their voice and inspire others to do the same.
A calm mind can communicate effectively; this understanding is very important for establishing peace between countries and communities. We all need to be aware today that through community efforts and mutual understanding we can create a harmonious and compassionate world; let us all support peace, stand for peace in this spirit.