Recent Terrorism in Mumbai (Reader Comments)
If you did not read my original message, published on December 2, 2008, you can find it at www.YourSpiritualJourney.net .
Here are some comments that I received from subscribers in response to that message.
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“I am in total agreement with you when you say violence is met by violence.This attack has brought out so much of hatred and anger in the people of India it is frightening. It is I guess justified, but my question to everyone is What are you going to do with this anger? Is it going to be used productively…Is everyone going to reflect on their own attitudes? I feel it is time for all of us to seriously take stock of the way we have been living. This “Eye for an Eye” approach is just not working!”
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One subscriber wrote in response to this sentence in the initial newsletter article:
“Violence will always be met with violence - it’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t lead to
peace.”
Subscriber’s comment:
“Tell me about the very violent bomb in Japan that led to a vicious cycle and no peace.
It was a horrendous option that was used to save lives on both sides and it seemed to work if you ask me. If you go by the more novel-style rewrite of history you will undoubtedly come to a different conclusion.
Anyway, don’t you have to test your theories in the real world?
We don’t have violence with Japan or Germany anymore not because we allowed their evil to overtake us while we showed them how loving and non-judgmental we could be, but absolutely we used violence to curb evil.
My opinion, since you asked, is that those who train themselves not to see evil may not cause evil to continue to expand, but they certainly would gladly benefit from those who are willing to stand up to it. “
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“When I think of terrorists such as these - or even the person in my office that was yelling in the most denigrating and belittling way to someone a few desks down from mine - I just always feel that these are people that are totally lost in egoic mind, and that makes me realize they are almost under some kind of sick spell. It is only by the grace of the Divine, for some reason unknown to me, that I was put in a culture and a family and a place where I was given the gift of being able to learn about my egoic mind and to read and learn and find tools to work towards loosening its grip on me.”
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“I concur with you in regard to not harbouring hate and I fully support your wish to spread compassion and love in any way that we can. If you look at the converse there must be a place for restricting evil and allowing mankind’s innate spirituality to flourish.
I think you will agree that we tend to get what we focus on. I wonder how prevalent this violence would be without the hysteria created by the media. I know some media people and I must say I am disappointed at their attitude. As long as it’s a good story let’s beat it up.
My second point is in relation to overcoming evil. As you say, terrorists have no regard for life, their own or others. Evil must be confronted. It has been said that evil can only flourish if good men do nothing. I believe that the crying need is for education. Knowledge frees people and, unfortunately, there is too little knowledge in the darker corners of the world. This then allows radical and destructive beliefs to flourish.
We can all do something, at least sharing what we know and trying to ’spread the good’.”
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“The recent events in Mumbai have brought about feelings of helplessness and frustration as well as, I have to admit, anger. Setting the anger aside, I fell helpless (and you mentioned it in your article) due to the fact that the perpetrators seem to be saying, “Our way of thinking is the only right one and if you don’t agree with us we will destroy you…and, by the way, we don’t mind killing ourselves to do so.” How does one show those that choose this path that even though we have different beliefs and choose to live our lives differently it’s okay to live together on the same planet? To me it’s stunningly ignorant for anyone, or any religion, to be so arrogant as to believe they have a “lock” on God. I mean that to ALL religions.
Religions were formed by men. Perhaps men who were inspired and intended great things but many, if not most (if not all) have become corrupted by men who seek power and control. Until we give up the greed of power and realize that we are ALL the same in God’s eyes, and that we are ALL equally made up of the same God source it seems to me were doomed to continue on the horrific path we seem to be set on. There can be little doubt that there is a higher power and I don’t care whether you call her Allah, Jehovah, Jesus or any other name you choose…it’s all the same entity and it loves us ALL and wants us all to have everything we want, including love, happiness, health, prosperity and peace.”
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“In today’s political climate of new-found HOPE (with the results of recent elections here in the U.S.), one only wonders how our new group of leaders will approach the many challenges they will face–I, for one, pray that they take OFF the blinders and approach all actual and potential threats for what they are, and not as “pie-in-the-sky”, wishful thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just get along” situations. I am not a typical “sabre-wielding” type of individual. If anything, I lean much more toward the “let’s all just get along” philosophy. But, do you actually believe, for one second, that those holding the machine guns have the capacity to STOP and HEAR the person in front of them, who might have been a follower of GHANDI for heaven’s sake?
As you have pointed out, this type of situation is not uncommon, and has gone on for centuries, and will certainly not be resolved in a short period of time. For my part, Peace through Strength (strength of purpose, strength of will, strength in understanding that evil is real) is preferred to the “softer” message that we (in the West) are “nice guys” who value “getting along” more than we do our own survival.”
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I appreciate all those who took the time to submit comments even though I was not able to publish all of them.
– Jeff Keller