Human beings are strange creatures. Unlike, other living things, nature gave them an ability to think. Like other living things even they needed food, water and air for their survival but their thinking brain was not satisfied with survival alone. It demanded a justification for that survival. It demanded an explanation for the surroundings. It forced them to think. It cajoled them into believing and thus beliefs were born. By the term ‘belief’ I don’t mean religious beliefs. A belief can be any reflection, belief in oneself, belief in God or belief in any ideology. This belief is a strange thing. It is our greatest strength…and biggest weakness. It can bring the Mahatma out of a Mohandas and it is this belief which can unleash a Hitler on a planet. Human beings live and fight and die for their beliefs. Are they born with their beliefs? Well, going by my mother, the only belief I was born with, was to cry the hell out of my throat and deafen my mom and the poor nurse attending her.
Imagine a situation, somebody coming to me and saying, “ Akbar was the most selfish ruler whose greed for the expansion of his kingdom was so much that he made alliances with the infidels. Aurangzeb was the best; he fought against the infidels throughout his life to establish the will of God.” What would be my reaction? Simple- “Are you nuts? Akbar was one of the greatest because of his religious tolerance and Aurangzeb was an orthodox.” Now I react like that because I have a particular belief, formed during my schooldays, that secularism and religious tolerance are great virtues. We all have a set of such beliefs because most of us are made to believe in those beliefs during our most impressionable years (i.e. 3-21 yrs) or during a crisis.
Similarly, the extremists (not only those who fight in the name of any religion but all those who have resorted to violence) have been made to believe in certain ideologies. As long as this belief stays, their struggle will stay. Thus, to break the struggle, you have to break or modify the belief which I feel is not possible by any war. Wars, themselves are great stimulators in the formation of those beliefs. Then how to do it?
“Alright, enough of this nonsense,” our Mom would intervene, “Now tell me the problem.” Thus, she would sit and sincerely listen to our stands and then would calmly explain to us why and where ‘the right’ or ‘the correct’ was wrong. That explanation would cool us down because it not only solved the issue but it also helped us to rethink and modify our notions, our beliefs. Now, why did this approach work? There are two reasons-
First- because we both had respect and regard for our mother. We knew that she was impartial, sincere and knowledgeable enough to settle our dispute. Second- because there was an open dialogue in a conducive atmosphere where each of us spoke our mind without any inhibitions.
Well, that is exactly what we need today. We need a dialogue. We need a knowledgeable, sincere and impartial arbitrator. We need an open discussion on our beliefs. Wrong notions, of either side, must change. Wrong beliefs, on either side, must be dumped. Going back into time, as far as my history syllabus allows me to go, I can recall hundreds of wars and battles fought in the name of religion or belief but I cannot trace a single sincere dialogue held to sort out the difference in the belief. May be that is where lies the problem and the solution?
Imagine a situation, somebody coming to me and saying, “ Akbar was the most selfish ruler whose greed for the expansion of his kingdom was so much that he made alliances with the infidels. Aurangzeb was the best; he fought against the infidels throughout his life to establish the will of God.” What would be my reaction? Simple- “Are you nuts? Akbar was one of the greatest because of his religious tolerance and Aurangzeb was an orthodox.” Now I react like that because I have a particular belief, formed during my schooldays, that secularism and religious tolerance are great virtues. We all have a set of such beliefs because most of us are made to believe in those beliefs during our most impressionable years (i.e. 3-21 yrs) or during a crisis.
Similarly, the extremists (not only those who fight in the name of any religion but all those who have resorted to violence) have been made to believe in certain ideologies. As long as this belief stays, their struggle will stay. Thus, to break the struggle, you have to break or modify the belief which I feel is not possible by any war. Wars, themselves are great stimulators in the formation of those beliefs. Then how to do it?
“Alright, enough of this nonsense,” our Mom would intervene, “Now tell me the problem.” Thus, she would sit and sincerely listen to our stands and then would calmly explain to us why and where ‘the right’ or ‘the correct’ was wrong. That explanation would cool us down because it not only solved the issue but it also helped us to rethink and modify our notions, our beliefs. Now, why did this approach work? There are two reasons-
First- because we both had respect and regard for our mother. We knew that she was impartial, sincere and knowledgeable enough to settle our dispute. Second- because there was an open dialogue in a conducive atmosphere where each of us spoke our mind without any inhibitions.
Well, that is exactly what we need today. We need a dialogue. We need a knowledgeable, sincere and impartial arbitrator. We need an open discussion on our beliefs. Wrong notions, of either side, must change. Wrong beliefs, on either side, must be dumped. Going back into time, as far as my history syllabus allows me to go, I can recall hundreds of wars and battles fought in the name of religion or belief but I cannot trace a single sincere dialogue held to sort out the difference in the belief. May be that is where lies the problem and the solution?
