OUR PERSONAL PEACE SHOULD BE OUR PERSONAL PRIORITY















“Good things happen when you get your priorities straight.”
- Scott Caan

I believe, that our personal peace should be our personal priority. Unless we make it a top priority in life, the unrest within will continue.

From my own personal experience, I have learnt that the incessant need in me to prove myself right and someone else wrong… yes, this need in me is the biggest roadblock for my personal peace. Therefore, the choice before me is very clear: Should I strive to be right or should I strive to be peaceful?

As I go along my life, I encounter many people… strong disagreements and, even, friction, often, throws up the challenge before me: Should I go all the way to prove myself right and him wrong… or, should I drop my need to be right and settle for peace?

There is another challenge, even if I decide to settle for peace: What if the other person is unwilling to concede? What if he is hell-bent in not only proving me wrong but also to defame me, get me punished and so on?  In such case, should I not go all the way to defend me and defeat my opponent’s sinister design?

There is answer to this question in Gita. A contentious person will never opt for war… He will try all means to avoid it… Not because he is a coward… But, war should be last in one’s priorities…

In real life, our ego-tussles are akin to battle fields… If we are dragged there by our opponents – just the way Arjuna was – then, there ‘is’ going to be a great Charioteer like Krishna by our side. I am not just saying this for the sake of saying… The core of my heart tells me this: “Fight only those battles which are forced upon you… There is justice at the end… There is Protection.”

Often, when I look at my own life, I do see myself waging ‘small wars’ on someone or something… All these wars stem from my ego… I want to prove myself right and the other person wrong. Mercifully, I do not take these wars far… that are, I do not thirst for my opponents’ blood, his destruction. A thin boundary-line saves me from such obsession!

True, for peace to reside in my heart, I must make peace my top priority… I must stop waging battles not worth fighting… And, above all, when I am forced to defend, I must do it like a true valiant… an Arjuna…

Else, what is the use of believing in a Krishna?

GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Suyog Surte



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