The World Peace Day has just passed by and world non violence day is approaching on 2nd October. Peace cannot exist till violence is present and without peace, nothing good can be obtained. The world scenario today is an example, how nothing can be achieved with violence. It only leads to misery, hunger, poverty and sickness. Non violence and peace are closely linked.First comes, stopping of violence, peace occurs and development and prosperity follow it automatically. Therefore to make the world a peaceful place, it is important that people shun violence and this would need collective efforts by all individuals. Violence is not only a physical deed. But it is of different kinds. It can be by speech. A person can hurt another person by using harsh, abusive words. An individual can incite riots, even a war by giving hate-filled speeches and provoking violence. This kind of violence is as bad as the act of physical violence, i.e. hitting anybody physically. Another type is violence by thought. A person can harbour violent and bad thoughts about someone in his mind, though he may not have courage to execute them. Such thoughts do not hurt anybody, but are definitely bad. They induce negativity in the person harbouring them and generate ill will with another. The individual having violent thoughts cannot be peaceful mentally and would remain stressed. Such attitude can also harm their physical health causing high blood pressure, heart problems and or other stress related problems. True state of absolute non violence is possible only when violence by words, action and thoughts, all can be removed. The underlying causes of violence are ego, greed and jealous. A person with overblown ego usually does not like anybody opposing his views and may become violent if faced with opposition. Greed for acquiring power, fame, land and wealth has been the basic cause for much violence perpetuated at community as well as global level. Wars have been fought to grab resources of another nation. For promoting non violence, it is necessary that people understand these underlying causes of violence. If every person can overcome ego and greed it will go a big way in curbing violence. Somebody may be a big man in some way, but he should realise that there are millions like him in this world. Religious scriptures teach one to curb greed, not to covet the wealth or resources of others. Jealousy is yet another negative trait which needs to be controlled. Jealousy on seeing another person succeed or prosper, also leads to violence by some persons. If a person learns to be happy in the achievement of others, feels good to see others prosper, he will always remain happy and carefree. No thoughts of violence will ever enter his head. These things are difficult to attain by all immediately because these are inherent weak points in humans. Yet one can overcome them by constant conscious efforts in this direction. All may not become saints but by efforts can become good human beings. Usually, among any population, there are far greater numbers of people who are inherently peace loving, than the violence minded criminal people. This large number of good persons can motivate and encourage the few violent people to shun violence. For this purpose, these individuals have to have moral and mental courage to stand up united against violent persons, howsoever strong and powerful they may be. If majority of people thus become peace loving and are able to stand up, the few with violent intentions would not succeed in their nefarious designs. Thus the violence going around will be much reduced. The world will become a much better place. In a non violent peaceful atmosphere, all shall be stress free and can work better. This shall definitely augment prosperity as well as happiness and good health, world over. Rwanda stands as a model for world to see, how with peace prevailing, it has developed leaps and bounds in all fields.
