Pledge to Non-violence....

Found a nice article worth this blog in today's editorial section of Times of India... The author Arun Gandhi is president, M K Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, Rochester. The article in some what abstract shape reads as

"It is a pity that much of humanity never did learn the art of forgiving because they were brought up on the misguided notion that one must ‘forgive and forget’. No wonder the reaction of victims of violence such as 9/11 is one of anger, frustration and desire for vengeance. The true meaning of forgiveness is to build a society where such violence would never occur again. To understand this concept it is important that we understand the difference between the culture of violence and culture of non-violence. On this day 100 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi came to the conclusion that to preserve humanity we must abandon the culture of violence and adopt the culture of non-violence.

The culture of violence has its roots in the materialistic society that has become the preferred choice of nations of the world. Gandhi said that a concept so heavily dependent on exploitation of human and natural resources and everything else in between is hardly conducive to building a civilised society or, for that matter, building peace in the world. It is like attempting to put out a raging fire with equal parts of gasoline and water. The fire rages ravenously and humanity comes to the conclusion that this is what life is all about. Recall the Biblical injunction — ‘Those who live by the sword...’

Conversely, if we had spent all those resources on discovering civilised ways of conflict resolution mankind would not be so full of hate, prejudice and the desire to kill each other. The kinds of societies that we have chosen to build depend on the law of the jungle — survival of the fittest. Gandhi said violence might seem to resolve conflicts but when it does it is only temporary. Ultimately, in violence no one wins because the winner leaves behind a bitter enemy. In the present war on terrorism, this is becoming increasingly more evident. For every terrorist killed we have raised hundred new ones. In the name of all those who died on this day five years ago and all those who died in violence over the centuries, let us pledge to eliminate conflict without sacrificing more human lives. Will Rogers once said: ‘‘When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging’’. Humankind is in a hole today and the more we dig the deeper we will sink. Forgiving in the Gandhian tradition is about laying aside anger and frustration of loss and dedicating oneself to changing ways of the world. To become the change that we wish to see in the world all it requires is for every individual to replace anger, hate, prejudice, frustration and such negative attributes with love, respect, understanding, appreciation, acceptance and the positive attitude that these positive emotions generate."