True peace begins within, and only by dismantling the barriers in our hearts can we hope to restore harmony in the world

Today, social media, newspapers, news channels and websites are all filled with depressing and sad news about conflicts, violence, war, bloodshed and destruction all over the world. There seems to be no end to the long-drawn Russia- Ukraine and Israel-Palestine wars which have heaped untold misery with unprecedented loss of human lives.

Elsewhere in the world, extremist and terrorist activities are taking a heavy toll on not just human life but also on our economic progress. When the Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989 for the unification of East and West Germany,  we had envisioned a world without walls, a world of peaceful co-existence. However, over the years, the clock turned back as instead of erecting bridges of love, we raised the walls of division, with growing hatred and hostility shattering the world peace.

Today, the world is facing the biggest ever threat of division of humanity on the lines of caste, colour religion, culture, ethnicity and nationality.In this prevailing scenario,  we are faced with the moot question- Why has the world become so hostile, strife-torn, insecure and devoid of peace? World peace is nothing but the reflection of inner peace among humans. If we find the world embroiled in conflicts and peace eluding us, it is only because we humans lack peace within us. Vedas say that we need to have peace within ourselves before we can hope to establish peace in the world.

We will not be able to bring down the walls of division in the outside world unless we first dismantle the walls of hatred and hostility in our minds. Human greed and unending desires are creating tensions, conflicts and subsequent unrest as we don't think twice about riding roughshod over fellow humans for our selfish gains. History is a witness that wars and bloodshed took place because of human lust for dominion, power and pelf. Today,  instead of loving and respecting fellow humans, we are discriminating and running them down to establish our supremacy. Even Swami Vivekanand questions it, " When we can love ourselves with all our shortcomings, why do we fail to accept others with  their drawbacks ?"

Love is a sure recipe for peace. What we need today is a world of love and not hatred, a world of light and not darkness, a world of association, not isolation, a world of harmony, not hostility and a world of peace not war. It is spirituality that fosters love, peaceful coexistence and unity of mankind. When we realize our original divine nature and connect to the Self, we are freed from all kinds of delusions, false notions and religious fundamentalism and as an enlightened person, we are in a state of harmony with the Creator. We then tend to embrace the qualities of love, kindness, compassion, tolerance, humility and patience and the vices that shatter love and peace,  get dispelled.  With that, we can develop a broad outlook with an inclusive attitude and become open to the thoughts, beliefs and faiths of others. And the feeling of 'otherness' gives way to a sense of oneness, promoting goodwill for mankind. Thus, by understanding the essence of spirituality and by adopting it in day-to-day life, we will be able to shun the feeling of jealousy and hatred-the root cause of disharmony, unrest and strife. Instead, we will develop the feeling of fellowship, with artificial walls of caste, creed, religion, and nationality, giving way to the bond of belongingness. Then, in the true sense, we will be able to build a world based on the equality of humans with the spirit of social cohesiveness and peaceful coexistence. 

(The writer is a senior journalist; views are personal)