Ten Days Journey Into The Self

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Jain Meditation International Centre

Page 22

would be of little value. Every individual is likewise a member of society, and we are all interdependent. If each one acts only with selfish motives without contributing to the whole, there will be no unity, no strength, no progress, no happiness.
Love and hope lead to concord. Fear leads to divisiveness and strife. Love and hope start in the home. We have to give our children basic trust. Concord between husband and wife shows the child a world united and not divided. In a world that is divided and hostile, the individual becomes divided; and without love of self and for others, distrust and fear prepare for defensiveness and vengeance.
TO sing the song of concord gives us a sense of well-being that we can have no other way. As the poet William Blake said, "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship." This is what we have when we meditate together. In Sanskrit, it is called "sat-sang", the company of people with permanent values. This helps greatly to develop the personality, and to bring it closer to the realization of the true and permanent self.
We can often observe far more concord in a herd of deer or a flock of birds than in people on a city street, or even in the suburbs or a small town. Man seems to act in concord only if he is facing an enemy, or is in some emergency, such as a black-out. According to the Darwinian theory, man is an animal; and psychologists have presented the aggressive animal in man. However, man has capacities for both creativity and destructiveness far beyond that of animals! Animal species do not torture, burn alive, draw and quarter other animals.
There is an Indian folk tale about a lion cub who came stealing out of its den and caught sight of a large army marching by. The sight of men carrying rifles and bayonets scared him so he slunk back and sought the warm shelter of his mother's side. Feeling him quake, she asked, "What is wrong, my pet ~ You are a lion cub. You will be king of the jungle." "But mother, look out," quavered the cub. Glancing out, the lioness saw the army marching past. "Oh, that !" she said disdainfully. "That's the species that has an army to slaughter its own kind."
However, it is man's nature that he can confront his nature, and the nature of nature. Still, some people project their creative potential onto gods, and their potential for evil onto the devil and evil spirits! When we project evil onto Satan or evil spirits or an enemy, we cannot recognize and overcome it in our-selves. And while we are worshipping a god, we cannot become like him. We propitiate him, and beg him to defend and protect us, instead of making ourselves responsible for building peace and unity! We must be love, be responsibility, be the power of love and light.
We shall have to actualize concord in recognizing our true nature if humanity is to be saved from self-destruction by the weapons that science and technology have produced. It is said that the basic law of all biological life is, "Grow or perish." And we will have to see our inner enemies, and sing in concord the song of light and love, in order to grow and build a unified world based on co-operation. The path which leads from barbarism and savagery to civilization is a path of non-violence, of amity, of appreciation, compassion, equanimity, concord.