Mother of All Conflicts: Analysis and Resolution.

The root of all conflicts in life is this – I wanted the whole world to follow me. We at all times and all throughout our lives are doing this, that we wanted the whole world to follow suit. We at all times project our energies in that end. Man always want to expand in infinite mode and that is the reason he wants the whole world to follow him. He considers himself as an ideal. But man because of his entanglement in Prakriti or material phenomena, wanted to project the ideas of material in the infinite plane as well. There lies the root of all conflicts. The root of all conflicts always happens in the material world in the areas of politics, power, economy and other areas.

For example, take our great freedom fighters. Each had their own ideal, and each wanted their ideal to be followed by our countrymen. The great Mahatma Gandhi wanted to achieve his goal of freedom only through the method of non-violence and not by any other means. Whereas, our great Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose wanted the non-violent struggle to mature into a form of a violent end for achieving freedom. Each followed their own course and had their results as well. India achieved its freedom through the combination of non-violent and violent struggles, and each learned their lessons in turn. The ideals of Gandhi suffered a setback when India was partitioned and the ideas of Netaji suffered a setback when the INA and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), were routed in the battle of Imphal.

Gandhiji and Netaji

It is because of the same reason that our great Mahatma Gandhi failed to intervene when Shaheed Bhagat Singh was handed over a death sentence. Fall in line with my ideas or fall out. Sorry, I cannot help you. This is the problem. 

Again there is a struggle between the capitalist and the communist countries. The whole world, as a result, was on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. The Russians found the ideal of communism suitable for them and, in turn, wanted the whole world to follow suit. The Americans want it in the other way. They wanted the whole world to be democratic and embrace capitalism. The conflict of these ideologies resulted in a series of cold war conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Cold War

This happens at the individual level as well. I wanted the whole world to embrace the ideas of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. Whereas my friend wanted me to get married and another friend wanted me to continue my studies and so on. Each one wanted to reform the whole world. The struggle between a husband and a wife, the struggle between parents and their children, the struggle between students in a class, and all forms of struggle is nothing but the struggle of ideas overwhelming each other.

This reminds me of a flash video game played a long time ago. A fish growing bigger and bigger by eating smaller ones. Ultimately you win the match by swallowing everything and grow bigger. This is what we are doing. We wanted to swallow each other by our good and bad thoughts. The criminal wanted to swallow us; the saints wanted to swallow us and so on.

Fish eating smaller one.

As I said the root of all conflicts lies in the material phenomena. In the spiritual arena, the material world comes to a naught and has no effect on it. The spiritual ideas are just like the law of physics. They cannot be changed or destroyed. It remains forever. If people try to advocate it they remain, and if people try to destroy it they remain, and, therefore, they are called truths. The fundamental truths cannot be altered. Only in the spiritual arena, we find these fundamental truths. The four noble truths, the immortality of the soul as described in Bhagavad Gita, The divine nature of man as mentioned in Upanishads and the freedom of Purusha as mentioned in Samkhya and Yoga are nothing but truths. They cannot be changed or altered.

Immortal truths in Bhagavad Gita

The lower ideas in life are always conflicting in nature because of the association with the material phenomena. As soon as a material object enters in our life conflict begins. For example: How to use the material? When to use the material? Rules and regulations. How to preserve the material? And finally who should own it and so it. Right from simple material object to objects of wealth, conflict arises. Adding every new material raises an issue in our lives. Our real nature is that of pure consciousness and therefore, we cannot hold on to the material phenomena for long.

           It is not that man should not possess wealth or the objects required, but he should be well aware of the conflicts arising from them. Aspiring for higher wealth is good as long as it helps others in the form of charity or a man has to simply face these conflicts. Shedding the material phenomena altogether is possible but it needs tremendous sacrifice.

Therefore, live a life based on higher ideas. Try to find out the higher ideas in your own life and put into practice. It needs tremendous sacrifice as I said. We have give up certain claims and privileges and work from the grass-roots level.  Whenever conflict arises, pull yourself into higher ideas and sacrifice the material part. It is said that Immortality is attained only through sacrifice and not through material phenomena.

Thank You.

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