Acharya Tulsi
Violence is a problem. It is such a problem that has no connection with any special person or community but is associated with the entire human race. When is violence caused? Why is it caused? How is it caused and what form do its consequences take? All these questions need solutions. There is no particular time when violence is caused. It may take place anytime and anywhere. It is so because the ingredients of violence are present within human beings. It just needs an excuse and then it expresses itself grotesquely. If a small fire is ignited in the heap of grasses then the entire heap catches fire and soon turns into ashes. The flame of violence also glows steadily for any small excuse. It becomes difficult then to control the fire.
The main reason behind violence is the values of violence. Such values get accumulated not merely in one birth but numerous births. So whenever anything is said that goes against such values and one’s welfare such values assert themselves. Excitement is a sort of violence in it: For it the violence becomes gross.
It is not necessary that violence has to be caused by means of any armour, violence can be caused by mind, and it can be caused by speech and body as well. Violence may be caused in the political arena in the field of business and in philosophical realms also it can be caused in the context of social issues also violence may be caused and it is often caused on the basis of parochialism. These are so man was available for the journey of violence that it is becoming very difficult to understand.
Lord Mahavira has said—'उड्ढं सोया अहे सोया तिरियं सोया वियाहिआ'—the current of violence flows on the surface as well as it flows underneath. It flows horizontally as well. The grossest form of it is taking someone's life seeing the sudden death of even an unknown person, a person of keen sensitivity gets agitated. In a situation like this killing innocent men and women is to cause terror or human race. In my view this is a yardstick on cruelty. Cruelty is also a sort of wine that sucks the fluid of compassion in a person and turns him into a demon from being a human being. In ancient time wine was considered to have three forms-
प्रमदा मदिरा लक्ष्मी विज्ञेय त्रिविधा सुरा |
द्रुष्टवैवोन्मादयेदेका पीता चान्यातिसंग्रहात् ||
Wine has three forms—Women, wine and money. A woman is so intoxicant that merely discerning her tums the seer lascivious. Wine makes one intoxicated shortly after having drunk it and the intoxication of money takes place when one accumulates too full of it. The intoxication of all these three is the experienced truth of human beings. There are certain factors which are even more intoxicated than all these three factors. The intoxication of ego, the intoxication of cruelty can also be incorporated in this category.
In this world there is yet another addiction. That is of parochialism. The creation of any community or cult may have been done with a positive purpose but the way it is applied is perverted and gruesome. It seems that introduction of cult was a very wrong step in itself. The second mistake is being done and that is to consider cult and religion as the same thing. A cult is a cult and religion is religion. Only those people can understand this difference that can discriminate between the juice and the outer skin of a fruit and perceive them in the context of their utility.
Parochialism is one of the causes of violence. The trading of parochial violence is not something new. The history of the world is full of such mishaps that testify practical violence. The different religious cults and the conflict within them have been lethal and in a similar way the cults of the same religion are not lagging behind in causing violence that is equally lethal. On the one hand the fire of violence has been ignited between Vedic culture and Shraman culture while on the other hand the conflict took place between Aryasamaj and Sanatan Dhan, Digambar and Shwetambar, Shia and Sunni, Protestant and Catholic and so on. At the time of such conflicts anti- social elements get the full opportunity of causing havoc. The riot started by the parochial factors and anti-social elements, ends in violence, separation, jealousy and disrupting the social life. The wrong elements go underground after having fulfilled their vested interests but the stain of disgrace sticks to religion whereas no religion ever indulges in violence.
India has been a victim of communal violence many times. The peace loving people of this country had to witness the mishaps of coming frenzy. Even now where violent incidents are taking place in our country are they inspired by the public? The public wants to live peacefully. In the placid lake of their consciousness the ripples are being created by those people who are slaves of parochial bent of mind. Whenever they get intoxicated with parochial feeling they ignite the fire in the heap of grass and hide themselves. Such people are not merely the assassins of innocent human beings but are also the killers of human values. I feel that this intoxication of parochialism is the dangerous most intoxication of all. People must understand this factor, root the parochialism out and take a vow of forming a secure and peaceful future. This would be the simplest solution for the problem of augmenting violence.
