World Non Violence Day

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A lot of us are getting ready for celebrating, when the millennium comes to an end. Some will celebrate on January 1, 2000, the end of the millennium. Some will celebrate on January 1, 2001 the beginning of the new millennium. The champagne will flow, the party hats will roll and lots of food will be consumed.

But what exactly are we celebrating? A date on the calendar? Maybe we should take stock of our accomplishments first?

By the year 2000, there will be six billion people living on the Earth. That's quite an accomplishment worth celebrating, isn't it? Or is it? On the other hand they also say there are only 1000 Royal Bengal Tigers left in the jungles of India. Jungles of India? Actually there aren't any. Just some patches of green left. The Indian Cheetah is now extinct. The African Lion may not survive.

There are many wars going on throughout the planet. These are violent conflicts using the latest weapons technology which kill, maim and make people homeless. The world is awash in nuclear warheads. There are enough warheads to wipe out every man, woman, child and all the animals and the trees.

But acid rain is already killing all the trees. We also cut them down faster around the globe using chain saws. From Brazil to Indonesia forests are disappearing.

There are no fish left in the grand banks off Canada. There are no salmon running in rivers where they swam only fifty years ago.

The ozone layer, which protects life on Earth, is in grave danger. There is global warming due to excess carbon dioxide released. Agricultural land is being paved over at an alarming rate. Every day we lose agricultural land, the size of Nova Scotia, to development.

When a tree is cut, an eagle or an owl loses its home to provide for a comfortable home for us. When oil is spilled on the ocean it defiles the home of the whales but it provides us energy to drive our cars. When a plane hits bird the bird dies. We build tall buildings in the path of migrating birds. At night their lights disorient the birds who hit the glass windows at full flight and fall wounded to the ground. Migrating birds are dismembered by guy wires of Television towers. In one Television tower in Maryland, USA, 140,000 dead birds were found around it over a period of two years. But we keep watching our favourite show un aware of this. Whales are caught in nylon fishing nets and die. We buy our fish unaware of this.

We are supposed to be civilized now and aware of what happens around the world. Yet our collective actions do not bear that out. Our civilization is more violent, more destructive and more ruthless to all other species than ever before. We consider civilization as detachment from the cycles of nature. Our obsession for collective survival and domination has left other species completely defenceless.

We pour chemicals on our lawns and down our flush toilets, we cut trees down with chain saws, we bulldoze the homes of beavers and other animals, we hit animals on the road with our high speed cars every day without any remorse. And we feel civilized in the comfort of our homes, in the comfort of our air conditioned cars and converse endlessly in meaningless phrases.

Those people who live in the jungles we call savages, are actually able to live more in peace with nature. All our language, culture, arts, books are abstractions which lead us down a path of increasing destruction of nature and other species.

All of man's civilization and cultures are based on the premise that Man is the most important species on earth. As an individual and his actions become extremely destructive when he becomes self centered and believes that his priorities are paramount, so has Man collectively as a species beocome extremely destructive by focusing on its own needs and beleiving that they are paramount. By taking this approach neither Man has been able to resolve its internal conflicts nor its conflicts with other species in nature.

We must understand that it matters little if man survives as a species or if the icons of man's civilization such as the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal or the Mona Lisa survive.

What matters most is that life as we know on Earth must survive and continue to flourish. For that to happen we must ensure that all species have an equal chance of survival, not just one or a handful of species. Man is but one of many species that inhabits this earth.

Man must learn to live in harmony with nature and all its inhabitants who share and breathe the life force in nature. The trees, the corral reefs, the fish, the animals, the insects, the butterflies, the Eagle all breath the same air and absorb the warmth of the same star.

Man must learn to reduce its intense and relentless self focus and accept the primacy of nature. This is the last challenge for mankind. This is the challenge of the new millennium.

As a first step we should declare the first day of the new millennium as the World Non Violence Day. On that day we should strive to live non violently to all other creatures and living beings with whom we share the Earth. We should also strive to live the rest of the year according to that principle.

We must recognize that we cannot rid the world of violence if we are selective about our approach to non violence. We cannot expect to be non violent with our fellow men when we are collectively and exceedinlgy violent to our fellow creatures. No policy works if it is exclusive. In order for non violence to work it has to be inclusive and it has to include all life on earth.

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

Ottawa, May 20, 1998.

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March 1, 1999