The Power of Love 1 - Peace

by Stefan Shavulev
(Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria)

The story of civilization may sometimes be conveniently summarized as the story of man's search for more and more sources of power. Almost every major movement in the history of human progress was brought about by the unlocking of some mighty source of power in nature.
The power of the wind, the power of water in motion, the power locked up in coal and in oil, steam power, magnetic power, electric power, and now, atomic power - man has tapped them all and harnessed them to the service of his needs and his desires. He has learned, in fact, to use even the mysterious power of thought, as shown by its increasing employment in war and peace.
There is one power, however, which people, in general, have not learned to use at all, or have refused, somehow, to use, in solving their individual as well as collective problems. This is the power of love. Either they have no faith in it, or they do not know how to use it effectively. One reason, probably, is that most people usually identify love with sex. As a consequence of this wrong attitude, they lose contact with its higher dimensions and superior possibilities, and thus find themselves unable to release its hidden and inexhaustible stores of energy. These people do not know that sex is but one of the many possible expressions of love, and that love has powers more abundant, more profound, and more significant than the power of procreation or the propagation of the species.
History has proven, time and again, that the gains of war are temporary in nature and have no lasting value. Small conflicts lead to bigger conflicts; bigger conflicts escalate to war; and war creates global consequences and turmoil, only non?violence and love from the heart can diffuse all conflicts or wars.
The principles of love and peace, Ahimsa (Non?Violence), forgiveness and sacrifice existed hundreds of years before modern times.
Ahimsa (non-violence) has not merely the negative and restrictive meaning of “Non killing” or “Non violence”, but the positive and comprehensive meaning of “Love embracing of all creation” with purity of heart, mind and speech. Lord Buddha (560 B.C) was one of the greatest teachers of non?violence.
Jesus Christ was the Prince of Peace. As a Jew, he crossed religious boundaries. He repeatedly reached out and embraced Roman conquerors, other Gentiles, and even the more despised Samaritans. When they crucified Him, He prayed for His tormentors, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Gandhi sacrificed his own life so that Hindus and Muslims could live in harmony and peace. Speaking on Mahatma's death Einstein had said, "Tomorrow, the world may not even believe that such a man ever existed. "
What greater sacrifice than those of Anwar Sadat and Yitzak Rabin who gave their lives for the cause of peace in the Middle East. What greater sacrifice than that of Dr. Martin Luther King who believed in making change, even radical change, without violence. On the steps of Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King said: "I have a dream that on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. "
His son continued: "Only unarmed Truth and unconditional Love will change the world"...

In South Africa the story of Mandela and de Klerk (one was the oppressed and the other was oppressor)is inspiring indeed. After having been imprisoned for 28 years, rather than choosing violence, he chose reconciliation and forgiveness…in a spirit of give and take. Needless to say, both sides had to sacrifice and a new more prosperous South Africa was born.
It is no secret that we live in a world where we need to open prison gates not for free men to go in, but for those imprisoned to come out. We need to start reducing the prisons and adding new institutions of learning, medical facilities and research centers to create new jobs by teaching them the new technologies and new skills and services to heal bodies, minds and hearts now. We live in a world where the terrorists and the soldiers need to stop their fire now. We need to win the much larger struggle, worldwide, for the emancipation of the human spirit and to restore self?respect and human dignity from political tyranny and mass scale oppression now. We have to begin by changing the hearts, winning their hearts and healing the hearts. This has to be done now.

In an age where violence, strife and tension have become a way of life, I applaud the modern day seers, the likes of Dalai Lama, Dada J.P. Vaswani, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer…I call them the global visionaries, who are spreading the word of unconditional love, higher spiritual values and peace.

The only secure and lasting foundation of peace is not through weapons of mass destruction or making of powerful military alliances but in solving the problems of human existence. When every race on this planet is united by the common bond of love from the heart and brotherhood of mankind, then it does not matter whether it is civilized or uncivilized, black or brown and white or yellow. When social institutions of various countries will not discriminate between man and man, when privileged classes would not claim undue privileges, when various religious faiths will live in harmony and shake off fanaticism, intolerance and bigotry and when the only religion they practice is love that stems from the core of their hearts; love that spreads love through thoughts, words and actions, then only we will have peace.

What is needed is the unity of all religions in Universal Brotherhood and family of mankind, where love becomes the chief tenet of all religions, in the service of mankind.

Look deep within the inner recesses of your heart and see with the eyes of compassion, kindness and humanity, to realize that while a few of the privileged among us live in absolute luxury, while half the world subsists on less than $30 per month, half the population of this planet has never used a modern toilet or a phone or much less drank clean water or been out of the village they were born in. Wars have been fought in the name of peace or domination of one group of people by another. Take a recent example. The perpetual war machine in Iraq and Afghanistan is not only hurting the most developed nations on this globe and bankrupting their economies and in the process devastating the entire planet.
We have been engaged in precarious and greed filled projects to control global energy resources in the name of “national security”.

It is crime against humanity of catastrophic proportions, where cruelty, violence, mass murder and social upheaval is being perpetuated in the name of “stabilization” and cracking down “terrorism”.

It is the diversity of this global village that gives us it real beauty and its vibrancy; the rainbow without its effulgent nine colors would be just light without its splendor of cosmic beauty, which it is. Globalization has become the most fashionable buzzword of contemporary times. Aided by internet and information technology, humanity stands at the threshold of one single unified community. Of course we have to watch and be aware of the greed of the multinational corporations especially in the western world at the expense of local merchants or common people.

The need of today is not just globalization but globalization from the wisdom of the heart. Real globalization is not running around the world in corporate jets or selling some products or services world?wide or opening up franchises in every country. It is a product of a higher mind, not of the lower mind, that of fear, insecurity, greed and lack of heart?held qualities of kindness, compassion and unselfishness. What is needed is a change from the heart, a change from mind?based life to heart?based life. The moment the mind merges with the magnetic zone of the heart, the ego or the mind loses its selfish mode, much like a river that loses itself in the oneness of the ocean. Albert Einstein said so beautifully: “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. ”

When the economic health of each village will form an integral part of the whole country and the economic health of each country will form an integral part of the entire global economy, based on us as undivided mass of humanity, without regard to caste, creed, religion and national origin, as One World, One Planet, One Goal, with the goal of world peace and prosperity for one and all. This I call true globalization.
There is no difference between two human beings, the only difference is the wisdom and purity at the heart level, highly expressed or poorly expressed, radiating with His light or missing of His glow…the difference is only of degrees not of kind. There is no difference between the rich and the powerful or the poor and the weak. The universal spirit is ever present in the depths of every human heart. Only a few know this secret and those are pure of heart and true in deed. You don’t have to believe in God to be spiritual. Spirituality is the development of the consciousness of the heart, where the spirit dwells. Our true self is neither body nor the mind, but it is the knower of both.