Public Talk, Bombay, 3 April 1948

[Handwritten note at top by?: ‘Radio talk given by Krishnaji on 3-4-1948’]

[Handwritten edits in what looks to be K’s handwriting are shown in square brackets. WS-06]

THE WAY OF PEACE.

Wherever we may live, each one of us is aware that there is in the World an ever mounting confusion. This loss of orientation, this degeneration of values is not restricted to any particular class or nation. Wherever we live, at whatever level of Society we move, we are aware in our relationship to the outer World and to the inner [world of ideas] that there is conflict and misery that seem to have no end.

Many solutions have been offered for this confusion, solutions economic and political, Social and Religious. And yet no system can bring about Peace. Systems, with their ideologies and their patterns for action are merely concerned with outward changes and adjustments. They are unable to bring about a radical transformation for they strive towards a result, a goal which is the outcome of superficial knowledge, calculation and frustration. Their knowledge is not integrated. The experts who offer well thought out formulas are obsessed with preconceived achievements and are incapable of understanding the psychological complexities of the human mind and heart.

The systems, being entirely concerned with results and not with the means, can only offer patter[n]s of action and variations of ideas. As long as peace is conceived in terms of opposing ideologies, there cannot be peace. As long as peace is a matter of which side wins, the victor is invariably faced with disaster, because in order to conquer he has to let loose powers which enslave him. The way of peace is to understand the fallacy of the idea that peace is the result of strife, the outcome of a physical or mental conflict between military or ideological antagonists. Peace is not the result of a struggle; peace is that which remains, when all conflict is dissolved in the flame of understanding; peace is not the opposite of conflict nor the synthesis of oppositions.

Systems, philosophical and economic are turned out in large numbers by the experts [Last 2 words ‘the experts’ crossed words crossed through] the specialists and these various systems compete with each other for power. After all Experts and Specialists can only offer their opinion they can not offer the true solution, for the true solution is completely outside all systems. A system may be technically sound and yet inapplicable except by compulsion and there cannot be peace through compulsion. There can be no peace without the removal of the courses [Word crossed through and replaced by: causes] of chaos. And the roots of sorrow must be seen by each one before they can be cut off [Last 3 words crossed through and replaced by: wither away]. Yet we do rely on Specialists, because each one of us does not want to think out for ourselves [Word crossed through and replaced by: himself] problems of peace but prefer to rely on the experts, the Politicians, the Economic Planners. But surely Peace is not the realm of ideas. You can see for yourself that Peace is not the product of a thought process. Our thinking is conditioned and therefore limited. Limited thinking is invariably erroneous and always a source of conflict. To reply [Word crossed through and replaced by: rely] on systems however technically perfect is to avoid the responsibility of being directly concerned with Peace.

The War, this evergrowing tragedy, is after all merely the spectacular and bloody expression of our daily life. War is not an accidental result of an irresponsible Society. This misery, this violence, this appaling chaos in the world is the result of our daily actions in relationship to things, to people and to ideas. As long as this relationship is not fully and deeply understood, there can be no peace in the World. Peace and happiness do not come into be in by themselves, or by chance. To be happy and peaceful, one has to pay the price. This price may appear enormous, but in reality it is not so very great; the only price to pay is the clear intention to have peace in ourselves and so live in peace with our neighbours. This intention is essential. The price of peace is the freedom from the causes that bring to [Word crossed through and replaced by: in] their wake strife and violence, antagonism and envy. Peace is a way of life, not the result of strategy on the part of the individual or of a group. It is a way of life in which violence is not suppressed by [the ideal of] non-violence but in which violence in its effects and causes is deeply understood and therefore transcended.

To understand violence there must be clear awareness of violence in its various expressions. The causes of violence are complex and various. Nationalism, Class antagonism, acquisitiveness, the lust for power and the innumerable beliefs, from which our minds suffer, all bring about violence. Acquisitiveness which is the basis of our present civilization has divided man against man. In our desire to possess, to dominate peoples’ thoughts, feelings and work, we have divided ourselves into classes, class Governments, Class struggles, Class wars and also into Hindus and Muslims, Americans and Russians, workers and peasants.

The power over things made by the hand is the least disastrous; it is the mental, the psychological slavery of man to man that is so brutalising and disintegrating. The real causes of War are hidden in our unwillingness to keep inwardly, psychologically free. As long as we are not ready to abandon our beliefs dogmas, ideologies and systems of thought, patterns of behaviour and the various compulsions, which are merely chains provided by Society in order to control without understanding the problem of violence will continue. These chains will bring about inevitable chaos and misery, into all the schemes for Social or Political, economic or religious transformation.

And yet we can live extremely simply and wisely, and therefore peacefully, if our minds and hearts are unburdened by possessiveness, whether of things made by the hand or by the mind. What we need in the way of food, clothing and shelter will come to us easily and sanely when our lives will be free from violence. This freedom from violence is Love. The expert, economic or religious, political or Social, is leading us to disaster. Each one must concern himself with the creation of a new Society or a new culture, free from the causes which are destroying and disintegrating the World in which we live. So it is for you, the individual, to realise that it is by your own transformation, by freely paying the price for peace, by your gladly abandoning nationalism and class security, ideologies and organised religions that you can bring peace to the World. Your own transformation is of the utmost importance, because you yourself are the cause of the confusion in the World in which you live and the way of your life will immediately transform the World about you, or continue [the] further [‘the’ crossed through] chaos and sorrow.

What you are in of the highest importance and not the assertions of [‘the’ crossed through]experts. It is your every day conduct that is decisive in bringing about peace to [Word crossed through and replaced by: in] the World; it is not mass movements impelled by physical and psychological compulsions that can bring about peace and happiness to man. Unless you cease to yield the pressure physical or mental, religious or political, you will continue to be the creator and the victim of this apalling misery throughout the World [Last 3 words crossed through and replaced]. Therefore you the individual are the World problem. You are the only problem because [Word crossed through and replaced by: ;]all the other problems are created by your unwillingness to tackle yourself first and to understand yourself deeply and fully.

The problems of the World are your own problem, merely magnified and multiplied. They are not in any [way]strange to you — they are the same problems of food and shelter, of affection and freedom, of peace and happiness. You are a path [Word crossed through and replaced by: part] and an expression of the World and the World is reflected in you[‘r’ crossed through] fully and completely. You cannot separate yourself from the World because the World affects you and you affect the World, whether you like it or not. All attempts to estrange yourself from the World will inevitably lead to decay, to the withering of the mind and the heart. You have made the World and you have to transform it. It is by you conduct by your way of. living, by fundamentally regenerating yourself that you can create a new World free from want and strife, from exploitation and War.

This fundamental regeneration, [Last 3 words crossed through and T capitalized] This complete transformation will come if you are aware of your thoughts, feelings and actions. Be aware of how you behave in your daily life, how you are conditioned by the past and [by] the surroundings; how you act from memory, from greed, from imitativeness and submissiveness. Do not condemn your life. Be compassionate to yourself, but do not justify yourself. Without condemnation and justification, see yourself as you are, watch yourself, thinking feeling and acting, until you begin to understand yourself. This flame of understanding brings about disentanglement which makes for true simplicity. It is this simplicity of mind and heart that will bring about the transformation of the individual and will immediately transform the World in which you live.

You will become aware of violence in your daily life. If you condemn it, you will create the opposite the ideal of nonviolence which only perpetuates violence by involving you in an endless conflict with violence. To remain in a state of conflict is itself violence. To cultivate an ideal of nonviolence while all the time living in violence is hypocrisy — a betrayal of the truth of the actual — and so the greatest form of violence. An ideal is always something that is not; it is an imaginary fiction [Word ‘this are’ crossed through and replaced by: the] opposite. The actual is the only thing that exists. Being fictitious, the ideal is non-effective and therefore sustains violence in some form or the other. But in the full and pliable awareness of the [Word ‘the’ crossed through] violence with its various implications, there is freedom from it and not merely substitution by another form of violence.

Love alone can transform the World. No system either of the left or the Right, however cunningly or convincingly devised can bring peace and happiness to the World. Love is not an ideal but it comes into being when there is respect and mercy which all of us cart feel and do feel. We must show this respect and mercy to all. It is the way of our being and it comes with the richness of understanding. Where there is greed and envy[there cannot be love;]where there is belief and dogma, there cannot be love; Where there is nationalization [nationalism] or attachment to sensate values there cannot be love. And yet it is love alone that resolves all our human difficulties, without love, life is crude, cruel and empty. But to see the truth of love each one must be free from those self enclosing processes that are destroying the individual and disintegrating the World. Peace and happiness come when the mind and heart are not burdened by those ways of life that are constantly isolating.

Love and truth are not to be found in any Book, Church or Temple. They come into being with self knowledge and self knowing is an arduous but not a difficult process. It becomes difficult only when we are trying to achieve a result. But to be just aware from moments to moments of the ways of one’s thoughts feelings and actions, without condemnations and justifications, brings a freedom. a liberation in which alone there can the Bliss of Truth. It is this Truth that will bring peace to World. It is this Truth that will make each one of us a blessing in our relationship a source of happiness.

This War which seems so catastrophically imminent, cannot be prevented by any spasmodic effort of diplomacy or by the game of Conferences. Pacts and Treaties will not stop the War. What can put an end to these recurring Wars is Goodwill. Ideologies in their very nature cause conflict antagonism and confusion, and so Goodwill is destroyed.

Ideologies become all important when the individual and his inward happiness are denied. Then you and I become merely pawns in the game of powers-seekers and where there is hunger after power whether it be individual or collective, there must be bloodshed and sorrow.

The way of Peace is simple. It is the way of Truth and Love. It starts with the individual himself. Where the individual accepts his responsibility for War and violence, there peace finds a foothold. To go far one must begin near and the first actions are within. The sources of peace are not outside of us and the heart of man is in his own keeping. To have peace, we must be peaceful. To put an end to violence each one must voluntarily free himself from the causes, of violence. Diligently [each]one must put himself to the task [Last 4 Words crossed through and replaced by: be concerned with the] of self-transformation. Out minds and hearts must be simple, creatively empty and watchful. Then only can Love come into being. Love alone can bring peace to the World and then only the World will know the Bliss of the real.