“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”.
This quote, attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, reminds us often that the real threat to the world today is not only violence, by itself, but 'violence' that begets more violence.
When ‘revenge’ is high on the minds of the perpetrators of violence, ‘reason’ gets thrown out of the window. When ‘killings’ are retaliated with more killings - as if, it will solve all problems – it is ‘sanity’ that dies a horrible death.
But, if we consider ourselves civilised humans of the twenty-first century, and if we consider ourselves as sane creatures with the gift of reason, we must strongly condemn the murder and the mayhem that struck Sri Lanka, on Easter Sunday.
We must resurrect the value of reason, and revive the spirit of sanity. We must preach, and we must practice. We must say ‘No’ to violence, in the name of religion; actually, we must say ‘No’ to violence, in any other name.
With 321 people killed, after those seven suicide bombers had struck three churches and three hotels, we now hear that Sri Lanka has arrested over 40 people.
Is it not worrying, that a large network of devious and depraved minds seems to have hatched this deadly plan? Is it not worrying that these heartless brutes were completely insensitive to the value of ‘life’; as they unleashed this deadly carnage -- killing hundreds of innocent worshippers?
For all that we know, the poor victims had probably hurried to church happily, that morning, tugging along their families, in their festive best --- only to be met with this sudden horrific death.
But we must also be worried, by this latest news: “The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” said Ruwan Wijewardene, the Sri Lankan defence minister, to a special sitting of the country’s parliament, on Tuesday.
Though the minister has not given us any evidence for this hypothesis, the fact that the New Zealand terrorist had targeted two mosques, and that these terrorists have now targeted three churches, makes the assumption a plausible one.
And the level of detailed planning, that these alleged revenge-seekers clearly employed, shows us the level of hatred, and the mania for revenge, inside them.
According to a news report by ‘The Guardian’, “terrorism researchers have said the sophisticated nature of the attack and the equipment used would probably have required months of preparation, including target reconnaissance, recruiting of the suicide bombers and obtaining explosives” (The Guardian, 23 Apr 2019).
If these attackers’ justification is the New Zealand incident of attacks on their community, and if the New Zealand attacker’s justification is an earlier attack on his community, and if this twisted justification keeps going on and on, where will the ‘revenge’ cycle ultimately lead us to? Will there be an end?
Ironically, it happened on the day when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who's called the ‘Prince of Peace’ for his radically serene life, and for teachings of peace, which include, ‘love your enemies’ and ‘turn the other cheek’ when you are slapped upon one!
In Jesus Christ’s ‘sermon on the mount’, are these words: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also” (Luke 6: 27-29).
Mahatma Gandhi, who loved this passage from the Bible, popularised these words’ of ‘turning the other cheek’, in India. Even more than the Christian missionaries had done.
In fact, that is why many people think it was Gandhi who said it. And not Jesus Christ, from whom Gandhi actually took the words.
Forgiveness is better than revenge. But, we know, it is easier to preach it than to practice it. That should not however deter us from trying hard.
Because, only by practising love and forgiveness can we make this world a peaceful place.
No comments:
Post a Comment