Meher Baba on War

[Guest guest]

"War and the suffering which it inevitably brings cannot be avoided

by mere propaganda against war. If war is to disappear from human

experience it is essential to destroy its root-cause. The life of

illusory values in which man is caught is the breeding ground of the

chaos that precipitates war. Individual and collective egoism and

selfishness, that hold most of mankind in their grip, are its root-

cause.

 

Man alone is responsible for war. Through his greed, vanity,

selfishness and cruelty he brings the recurring evil upon himself.

God, in His grace, transmutes this man-made tragedy into a channel

for the quickening of humanity to a recognition of higher values.

Appalling as it is, man's war is thus saved by the Infinite from

remaining an unmitigated evil.

 

To purge himself, man has to become conscious of the redeeming God-

Design in man-created war. To understand the real significance of

violence and non-violence in this god-transmuted pattern of spiritual

values requires a true perception of the meaning and purpose of

existence. man's actions in war, therefore, should not be motivated

by slogans, however high-sounding, that are based on erroneous

concepts of violence or non-violence.His actions require the

prompting of spiritual understanding, which is above men-made rules

of Divine Love, which is above man-conceived duality.

 

God's design infuses man's war with the capacity to generate and

foster many qualities of divine importance, preventing it, therefore,

from being wholly without spiritual significance. When man's mania

for possessions or dominance forces a peaceful people to take up arms

for the sake of higher values or for unselfish considerations of

general well-being, war becomes not merely inevitable, but

spiritually defensible.

 

Under the stress of imminent danger, war inspires behaviour that is

free from the limited self. Action results that is kindled by an

impersonal spirit of willing sacrifice for the welfare of others. It

is better that such unselfish qualities be at least partially

released under the stimulus of danger than that they remain wholly

dormant. It is preferable for the pressure of collective calamity to

free man if only temporarily from his petty self, than for him to

remain permanently enslaved by the ignoble pursuit of personal safety

and the ruthless perpetuation of his selfish existence.

 

In war the people of the earth are roused to make unlimited

sacrifices and to endur untold agony for the sake of their countries

or principles. In doing so they demonstrate their latent capcity for

great sacrifice and endurance for high stakes, all of which is a

triumph for the soul.

 

To claim special dispensation in war, for any particular race,

religion or idiology is indefensible. All such assertions are based

on the false doctrine of division and duality. Since the Law of the

Universe is synonymous with Oneness, and Oneness precludes separation

of one soul from another, of one part of mankind from another, there

is no justification whatsoever for any side to claim in war that God

favours it exclusively. God does not scale His Grace to suit man's

temporal quarrels and prejudices, His vaour knows no discrimination;

His Love is all-embracing.

 

The time has come for man to acquire new vision and proclaim the

ultimate truth that all life is one, that all life merges in God Who

is the only Reality, that God alone is worth dying for and only God

is worth living for, and that all else is a vain and empty pursuit of

illusory values.

 

The spiritual oneness of all souls remains inviolate in spite of all

wars, and from the point of view of ultimate Reality; no soul is ever

actually at war with any other soul. War is a conflict between

different ideologies and concepts which extends to and involves not

only the minds, but also the bodies of people. But the undivided and

indivisible soul of mankind remains one in its unimpeachable and

integral unity. The divine catalyst that keeps the Soul-oneness of

all Creation intact even in the midst of the most devasting war, is

love."

--Meher Baba: MEHER BABA ON WAR, p. l-3

Note: there is a lot more in this chapter..this is only a sampling

from it.

 

Peace and love,

Kathy