When for a moment I cast aside all rationalism and transport myself into the clear mountain air on the solitary rock, I spontaneously go into silence.

Solitude keeps me alive in a society that knows no laws of love and harmony.

Violence, violence, violence everywhere.

I do not understand the law that prompts mortal beings to injure each other.

How do they forget that all creatures are breathing one and the same breath?

Why are they ungrateful and why do they forget that all breathing beings are the children of one Father who is giving the life breath to all equally?

From where arises this violence Which is that power that instigates them to annihilate each other’s existence?

I return to my silence without any reply and with a simple conclusion that human beings have not yet really found out the art of living harmoniously.

The evil that forces one to commit such heinous crimes is because of himsa, the absence of love, consideration, kindness, and awareness that we all belong to One.

By killing others we are cutting the roots of the same tree whose limbs we are.

Editor’s Note

This passage has been taken from the book The Essence of Spiritual Life, pp 104 – 105, by Swami Rama, Published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust.

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