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Spirituality   
War! 

We make war for historical, ideological or religious reasons.

But, does the past (history) live now ? Does past matter so much that we are willing to kill and inflict suffering on fellow men ? History teaches us what has happened in the past when such actions have taken place. Yet, like children who do not appreciate the purpose of the lesson, we keep making the same mistakes, only with greater vigor.

Ideology, we make war to prove "our theory" on life as being the only "right" one. Is being right so important that we are willing to kill the opponent ? Are we so "right" that we can judge someone's life worthless and useless enough to annihilate it ?

Religion ! We make war in the name of religion and that proves us the greatest of hypocrites ever !! Religion is meant to teach us peace and take us from the turmoil of life to the bliss of God. Yet, in the name of this very blissful God, we inflict turmoil and misery on fellow humans ! We ignore the very foundation of religion, all religions, "the universality of GOD". God is by, it's very nature, omnipotent and omnipresent (it - for God is neither man nor woman). If that is the basis of all our religious beliefs, we have to acknowledge that our so called enemy is also imbibed with the spirit of the same God as us.

If that is not the case, and our enemy is not imbibed by the omnipresent GOD, than we have negated the very nature of God !! Does such an omnipotent being need us to fight its battles ? If so, once again, we have negated the very nature of the being we believe to be all powerful. More importantly, we have introduced chaos and suffering in the name of that blissful being, into someone else's life. By that very action of destroying someone's peace, we have insulted that basis tenant of religion - that belief system which introduces peace and spirituality into our lives.

In wars, the losers are the widows and orphans - kings and solders who limp off into history have only lost their face or fortunes. Widows lose all - husbands, houses, relations, sometimes their honor, children and often, their reason to live. Orphans lose everything. All this for what ? An ideology that may or may not be right ? A religion that was meant to instill peace and spiritual upliftment to the community!  Or worst of all, to settle scores our ancestors have failed to settle, perpetuating hate and bitterness for yet another generation.

For human sake ! Live and let live.

– Bhagwat K Shah
November 9, 2000

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