Monday, February 12, 2007

Love thine enemy!

The world is yet to come across a message more powerful than these these words put together 'Love thine enemy'. At the outset, the message appears as though it is directed to naive weaklings who cannot address injustice. But humanity is yet to find a remedy as powerful, as effective and as peaceful.

In this world torn by strife, pain and distress, our only hope is love. When saints proclaim love as the basis of human existence, we choose not to comprehend the depth of their message. 'Love' sounds like a word, that should at best be left to rhetoric and not to reality. We choose to blend love and hatred into a single tune and let it play through our lives. We are glad with our ability to give back love and, with greater force, hatred.

Can more darkness ever remove darkness? Wont an eye for an eye make the whole world blind? We are wise people with a lone weakness: we can very successfully choose to ignore age old wisdom. In our quest for justice, we reciprocate hatred with more hatred, pain with more pain. Where does this ever enduring process culminate? Our ability to grow and celebrate the life we spend on this earth will very much depend our our ability to adhere to time tested ideals of non-violence, love and peace.

War and peace are rooted in fear and courage. Fear fosters hatred and hatred leads to violence and enmity. Courage fosters love and love, non-violence and peace. We do not and cannot choose war or peace, we only choose to be struck by fear or courage, we only choose to hate or love our enemies.