When we make an attempt to understand the nature of man and the state of society, we find that all actions of man are goaded by one or the other of his four basic desires. One of the desires concerns the fulfilment of physical or economic needs which includes food, clothing and shelter. Nobody can argue with that; a hungry man cannot think of anything else. And to fulfil these desires, he requires money or wealth. But the difficulty is that man does not stop at fulfilling these basic needs; his desire for comforts takes the form of greed, and that is when the real struggle starts.
The goalpost keeps moving, and then yesterday’s luxury becomes today’s necessity. His excessive demands and the endlessness of his longings come into clash with the longings of other people. It also takes him to enter into conflict with the law of the land and with his relatives and society and even with his own self. This, therefore, becomes cause for his peacelessness. It is mainly because of this that the world today has millions of people whom the World Bank calls the ‘Absolutely Poor’.
It is this unchecked desire of man which has caused the class war or the conflict between the ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots’. Besides these, man also has emotional needs, like he wants love, care, attention and understanding, he wants an honorable living. But if he stretches this desire also to an inordinate extent, then his longings for prestige, position, privilege, and power takes the form of jealousy, hatred, etc. and he again comes into conflict with others. So, it is because of this unbridled desire of man to society that there is power struggle everywhere and cold war or armed conflict or endless craving for military supremacy.
Nations behave much like individuals, only with larger consequences. The peculiarity of all this is that man desires to be extricated from the situation of conflict and peacelessness. He desires peace, liberation or freedom. It is for the fulfilment of this desire that various religious or secular attempts are made. Societies are formed, constitutions are framed and religious institutions are established but when the desire gets mixed up with the aforementioned desires, again there arises a conflict situation. Hence, the tool meant to bring peace becomes one more thing to fight over. History has no shortage of examples wherein faith, flags and even good intentions have been turned into reasons to draw swords. There are clashes between the majority and minority communities or between institutions with opposing ideologies. And so, there has to be a rational acceptance of self-control.
Not imposed by law or fear, but chosen by each person from within. This does not mean giving up ambition or living without comfort. It actually means knowing where need ends and craving begins, and having the honesty to stop there. Without it, every solution we build will carry the seed of the next problem. Remember! Peace is not something we find; it is something we practice, one restrained choice at a time.
The writer is a spiritual teacher and a popular columnist; Views presented are personal.