Acharya Tulsi
There are two ways of life—violent and non-violent. The non- violent way has always commanded great virtue in the spiritual field. However, very few have opted for non-violence in social and national contexts. In our age, only Mahatma Gandhi projected non- violence as a panacea for all ills. Many politicians of the day recognized its merit and accepted it as a policy. However, the great movement of non-violence started by Mahatma Gandhi to resolve social and economic problems, subsided after his untimely death. After his assassination, certain people who believed in the power of the gun and made mockery of non- violence seized their opportunity; they found support among certain communist countries who did not believe in non-violence at all.
Nevertheless, non-violence is eternal truth, which the exigencies of time may dim for a while, but can never altogether destroy. The doings of violent people had almost obscured the great virtue of non-violence in our age, but the communique issued after the meeting of the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev with the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, has given the cult of violence a great jolt. The communique issued by them, bereft of their names, might be easily taken for a spiritual invocation.
Irrespective of its origin, the advocacy of, peaceful coexistence as the basis of international relationship is a most remarkable development. If we can really implement it, it would mean a spontaneous dissolution of the horror of the Star War.
The acceptance of non-violence as the greatest value and the basis of social life, and the creation of an atmosphere of goodwill and faith instead of fear and doubt, is possible only on the spiritual level.
An ascetic who has renounced the world may well talk of creating a non-violent world;free from the threat of nuclear weapons, but such a declaration from a political platform is most welcome under all circumstances. For many people it was unimaginable that a communist mind like that of Gorbachev could join in the worship of non-violence. To such people the communique must have come as a pleasant surprise.
America and the Soviet Russia are the two great world powers. Even if one of these powers is inclined towards non-violence, it would greatly strengthen the third-world countries.
Violence breeds violence. The world continues to be dominated by the tradition of armament. In such a world, the growth of an urge to adopt non-violence as a principle of state policy in the mind of a powerful ruler of a big country is a most welcome development for which the right-minded people everywhere have been waiting for decades.
It is now incumbent upon all persons, institutions and countries dedicated to non-violence to work together to ensure that this great proclamation for promoting individual and universal peace does not in any way get stultified or remain a mere document on the shelf to gather the dust of time.
