War is nothing new to this world. Thousands of years ago wars were being fought, such as the one at Kurukshetra, to resolve the differences between good and evil and for the purpose of material gain. From ancient times to our modern era, practically not a day on this Earth has passed when someone, somewhere, was not fighting over something. Throughout history men have gathered on the field of battle to fulfil their greed for wealth and glory, sometimes nobly, but more often ignobly. The same is happening in the 21st Century. War it seems is an unavoidable karmic destiny of human civilisation.
Peace, on the other hand, is rather elusive. Peace is talked about and even prayed for, but seldom makes more than a momentary appearance. Most of our lives, even for the humblest of souls, are spent struggling for existence either socially, politically, financially, mentally or physically. For most of us the temporary absence of any major crisis is what we would call peace. However, peace (or shanti as it is known amongst yogis) is a state of consciousness and not a condition relative to the external affairs of the material world. Peace is an internal experience.
The wisdom of the Vedic literature, Srimad Bhagavatam says, jivo-jivasya-jivanam – one living being is food for another living being. From the minutest forms of life to the most complex, one life is sustained by the loss of another. Thus, the basic principle for material existence is fundamentally flawed with violence. Peace then, for most of us, comes in doing what we have to do and believing that we have done the right thing. Therein lies the fine line between war and peace. Is what we think to be good, or what we are conditioned to believe, actually right?
The ability to discriminate between right and wrong, or in some cases good and evil, largely depends on the extent of knowledge from which we draw our conclusions. A poor fund of knowledge naturally results in faulty conclusions. Therefore, it is in our best interest to seek out the greatest source of knowledge – knowledge of the Absolute Truth, and familiarise ourselves with that.
Bhagavad-gita is perhaps the most widely read book of theistic knowledge in the world. Whatever knowledge one finds in similar books such as the Dhammapada, the Bible, the Torah, the Koran etc. is also found in the Bhagavad-gita. But in the Bhagavad-gita, one will find knowledge that is not present anywhere else. Consequently, the Bhagavad-gita surpasses all branches of knowledge.
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