Peace walk
I have been reading an interesting book by Satish Kumar, an Indian, who, along with a friend, took a peace walk from his home country through to America between 1962 and 1964. Along the way, an Afghanistan woman gave him four packets of tea and asked him to deliver these to the heads of four states, Russia, France, England and America as her symbolic contribution to the cause. Kumar was marching against the use of nuclear weapons, the Second World War having finished only two decades earlier. Kumar didn’t meet the heads in each country, rather was assigned a representative, but something he noticed was that each state blamed the other. Not one of these powerful countries would take responsibility for being the instigator of the weapons, rather, they were housing them as a response to the threats the other countries posed.
Kumar travelled without money or food, relying on the goodness of locals to feed him, thus meeting many people on his travels. One woman pointed out that the wars Americans fought were never in their own country. Many of these people had been the victims of the needless destruction the fighting had caused. They were over it, they wanted peace.
When Kumar got back from this walk, he partook in further peace rallies and noticed that often violence was involved in these, the whole thing he had been trying to stop. When he visited his old guru friend, Vinoba, Kumar was told that fighting would never stop until people found peace within themselves. The outlying violence was just a projection of what was going on within.
I have said the same thing, both in The Collective Us and in previous blogs. Peace starts with ourselves. Self-healing is the key. People don’t seem to understand this concept, instead, going through life blaming everyone else for their woes. Here is a quote from The Collective Us P 187. To be able to care for and love others we first need to care for and love ourselves. The more self-work we do, the easier it is to create healthy relationships with others; our family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. The healthier these relationships are, the better the energy around us. Imagine how the world would change if we each concentrated on cultivating the relationships closest to us.
There are two major wars going on at the moment, between Russia and the Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, putting the rest of the world on edge. It is almost 80 years since World War Two ended so there wouldn’t be that many people alive with their own memories of it. Why is it so difficult for people to live with love in their hearts rather than fear and hatred?
Kumar’s walk is long over but did that not count for anything? I am sure there are many people feeling the same way as those ordinary people he met on his travels. People’s needs are not great, safety, health, food, water, peace. Is that not too much to ask for Christmas?