Right Response to World Conflicts

Can’t start a fire without a spark

A friend recently asked the following question regarding the current world conflict and what is the right response to it:

“What do you feel about the issue of impossible evil powers dominating this world in the face of which the innocent are standing helpless and brutally victimized? Some say it is all God’s will, who are we to judge what is good and evil etc. Even when small babies get butchered for no fair reason and the cunning and the cruel killing the meek and the innocent, even when evil is so obvious, many wash off their hands, and remain silent spectators by feeding themselves some abstruse philosophical outlooks that this life and this world is mere cosmic illusion etc. Of course, it’s an illusion, but does that outlook of a mere transitory illusion discount the question of fairness and justice? Can it compensate for the pain of someone who lost their child or beloved in a foul play meted out by the evil ones?”

Answer:

The theme of many great epics has been this very play of seemingly impossible evil powers dominating over helpless innocents and committing gruesome acts (including even literally the killing of newborn babies by Kamsa before the advent of Krishna) and then eventually the evil getting vanquished. And what all these epics teach us is that neither should evil be justified with escapist philosophies nor can it be dealt with by the egoic mind working at the same level as the problem. It can be defeated only by invoking the Highest Truth within us. That alone can bring about the right response full of clarity and compassion.

Because it is clear that any short term response, that may even be necessary, also has a risk of only increasing the long term problem and therefore has to be dealt with utmost care. But the real question is, what is the right long term response?

It is to spark an awakening in human consciousness to be rid of identities and the venom it creates in the mind. It is tribal identification which feeds on the us vs them attitude that is at the root of all such terror. So we have to act toward helping human consciousness be free of egoic identification. And for such right action, we have to be free of egoic identity first completely. This is why Ramana Maharshi said the greatest service one can offer to the world is one’s own self realization. Because, without being free ourselves, we cannot act in the truest sense of helping others be free of the root cause of such violence. This requires self-inquiry, which is as the ancients from all traditions put it, to first know thyself and realize the kingdom of heaven within. Hence self-inquiry is not some theoretical, escapist philosophy but the most practical and necessary approach to solve one’s own miseries and thereby also help awaken others out of misery.

This will help us recognize that we are not who we take ourselves to be as a finite body/mind complex floating aimlessly in time and space looking for scraps of pleasure but the infinite Universal Intelligence itself that has manifested as one interconnected web of life. Such realization alone will bring out the right response which is of a totally different order.

The question that many might then ask is, if this is at all practical with the eight billion people who seem so hopelessly caught in various identities of nation, religion, race and so on. But this question is actually the real escapism to justify the continuing of the status quo. The real question is, am I serious enough to see this problem and what can I do about it starting in my own little corner. Because if enough serious people, and especially those with leadership roles can pursue this inquiry, it may be enough to dramatically change the course of the entire society just as a small spark at the right time and place may be enough to burn down an entire forest.

After all, as the lyric of an old song goes, you can’t start a fire without a spark. The right response then is simply to be the spark and not worry about when the fire will catch on. It does when it is meant to. But it can’t happen unless there are enough sparks.