I used to say, “no.”
Now, I’m finding “yes.”
1. Violence comes from stress and mis-education. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Guruji!) gives the example of a terrorist who happened to take an Art of Living Course while in prison in 2001 and discovered that there is heaven on Earth as he dropped his stress through the learning of breathing techniques (pranayama) & meditation & Sudarshan Kriya (the rhythmic breathing technique that is – miraculous! For relieving stress).
The terrorist had been promised heaven only in the afterlife and so with finding heaven now while alive, he announced the end of his terrorist activities and began a life of service to all of humanity – not just his “own” people.
All violence comes from stress in our system. Even if it’s yelling in our car at another driver (who can’t even here us). Or kicking the cabinet when we trip over something on the floor. If we are relaxed, calm and cool, we don’t react with such extreme bursts of anger and aggression.
2. Violence comes from the glorification of aggression in society. When Sri Sri was a child Mahtma Ghandi was revered for his nonviolence. He says that in school children who lost their temper weren’t thought highly of by the other students. Today, anger and aggression has been linked with prestige. Can you imagine when the time will again arise that a child exhibits centeredness and calm in the face of ridicule or an experience of disappointment, etc.? And other children revere that child.
3. Violence against women arises because of the identification with the body. If you think you are just the body, then you are addicted to the whims of the body. But we are much subtler than this body. Beyond the body we are the breath and my breath is your breath is the world’s breath. It flows in and out of one being to the next.
And beyond breath even subtler is the mind, intellect, memory and then the ego. And beyond the ego at the most subtle level is the Spirit, the Self. When we experience ourselves at this subtle level – through meditation, Sudarshan Kriya, - then we drop our obsession with the body.
I am inspired by my understanding to reach children and teach them meditation and yogic breathing (pranayama) and their version of the Sudarshan Kriya so that they can manage their anger, anxiety, fears, etc. And so they know themselves on these subtle levels from an early, early age. Oh, what a world this will be!
Awwww, shucks. Here I go again… Jai Gurudev! Victory to Our One World Big Mind!
