I want peace and I'll tell you how

My T-shirt got ruined because someone holding coffee bumped into me. It was my favourite!

I’m so worried about my childs’ grades. How do I help her? What will happen next?

Cancer shouldn’t have taken him away. Why do bad things always happen to good people?

How many times in a day do you feel worried, sad or angry at someone or something? Reflect a bit. Has it always been because of something you love or vehemently dislike? If it’s not either of those, you don’t care, and it doesn’t affect you. Attachment in all forms, I believe, is the main reason behind lack of peace in our hearts and mind. It could be attachment towards materialistic things, towards living beings, greed or power. Your attachment to your T-shirt that got ruined will affect you and not anyone else. But when the attachment levels multiply exponentially towards anything, like power for instance, peace gets disturbed at a larger level and many people get affected.

What we need for world peace is a world without war, hate, racism and religious discrimination. And to achieve that, we need peace in our hearts and minds first.

What do you want? What is that one dream you’d work relentlessly for and wish it came true?  And till which extent will you be ready to go? An important cause of peace is satisfaction. When you don’t achieve what you ultimately want, you feel restless. Hitler wanted to create in Eastern Europe what he thought of as the equivalent of the American West – a kind of bread basket for Germany. He didn’t mind going through a world war to achieve that. In fact Hitler always intended war. You have to make sure that your dreams and means of achieving them don’t disturb peace.

Lord Mahavira says,

“If you kill someone, it is yourself you kill. If you overpower someone, it is yourself you overpower. If you torment someone, it is yourself you torment. If you harm someone, it is yourself you harm.”

Similarly, every good deed done for someone is something you do for yourself. Random acts of kindness are for you. Appreciating others is something you should do for yourself. Because when you do that, all envy and negative emotions you feel for that person go away. You make them happy and yourself happy as well in the process.

 You must cultivate the attitude of forgiving people because it gives you closure. Fire can’t be put off by adding more fire. It’s our duty to stop adding fuel to it. If Nelson Mandela could forgive someone responsible for 27 years of his imprisonment and torture, can’t we find some compassion in ourselves as well?  I feel that neither ISIS nor Paris will stop bombing each other till one perishes. The revenge cycle will never end.

You need to have gratitude for what you can give as opposed to what you receive, because at the end of the day, giving is receiving. You have to create the attitude that whatever happens is for the best. That way, even if you feel wronged by someone, you’ll be able to let it go and move on.

The world is an ever changing reality with infinite viewpoints that depend on time, place, nature, the viewer and the viewed. We need to realise that the truth is relative to different viewpoints and learn to respect every person’s beliefs.  We must believe in universal love for every living thing on Earth.

Universal love reminds me of this Sanskrit shlok.

“Shivamastu sarva jagataha,

Parahita nirta bhavantu bhootaganaha,

Doshaha prayaantu nasham,

Sarvatra sukhibhavantu lokaha.”

The writer extends his well wishes to the entire universe. He hopes that everyone is happy and their sorrow is taken away.

And that’s what we all need to hope for. We need to hope for peace, we need to hope for love, we need to hope for hope.

Thanks for reading!

Kanksha :)

PS maybe the sanskrit shlok got too much but meh.

I think this one is about trains and society

My dad asked me why there's only been one blog post in three months and while that's probably exaggerated, it's true that I find myself having nothing to write about. Essentially I could write about anything and post it. But the level I've set for myself is so high that it's becoming harder and harder to live up to it. I realised that I had stopped writing for myself and started writing for an audience and although that's important, I'm going to try writing for myself again.

With that being said, I'm actually typing this in the train on my way back from Lonavala. I was supposed to be travelling with someone but that girl ditched me so I'm all alone without a book to read or earphones. It may sound sad but tbh, it has been two and a half hours and I don't know how time flew. There's this queer peace one gets by being alone in the company of cockroaches and a box of pizza in your bag. You can spend hours watching them dodge their way through cars, taking in the AC and sips of leftover chai under the seat. They watch the ticket checker wake people up with a 'heylo' and charge three times the money for the arrangement of a seat. It's pretty amusing.

Trains fascinate me way too much for it to be normal. The speed with which it rushes messing up your hair, the variety of people you see and interesting conversations you have with old friends you just happen to meet are all a part of them. To me they aren't just a way to beat the traffic anymore. They're a getaway from the real world, a place where I spend a couple hours in the day, where my lap becomes a desk for assignments due submission and where nobody cares about anything. You want to eat? No one will stare at you. Applying makeup? Go ahead. Finishing your work? Feeling melancholy? They'll give you your space. Because here, everyone cares but no one meddles. 

Trains are like a mini temporary society within the real society. There's this poem about society that I came across written by Erin Hanson.

Welcome to society,
We hope you enjoy your stay,
And please feel free to be yourself,
As long as it's in the right way,
Make sure you love your body,
Not too much or we'll tear you down,
We'll bully you for smiling,
And then wonder why you frown,
We'll tell you that you're worthless,
That you shouldn't make a sound,
And then cry with all the others,
As you're buried in the ground,
You can fall in love with anyone,
As long as it's who we choose,
And we'll let you have your opinions,
But please shape them to our views,
Welcome to society,
We promise that we won't deceive,
And one more rule now that you're here,
There's no way you can leave.

I love the contrast between the attitude of people in the real and temporary society. Maybe it isn't the attitude but the circumstances that make the attitude seem that way. Or perhaps all of this is just a figment of my imagination.

Thanks for reading!
Kanksha :)