When i heard about the Paris attacks, i was outraged. It reminded me of the painful memory of the mumbai attacks in 2008. I remembered how i felt a lot of rage when i saw the visuals on TV and how utterly helpless and powerless i felt. It has been 7 years and the world feels no safer than it did back then.
I put aside this feeling of helplessness and started reflecting on what is it that i can do, no matter how little it is. The one thing that i felt i could do immediately was pray - pray for the victim's families, pray that this does not scar them for life and pray that they get the strength to heal themselves, with time. I truly believe that prayers are powerful, especially collective prayers. The universe will figure out a way to transfer those prayers to the people who are in need of healing. And so i prayed.
But there is something else happening as well. Whenever any such terrorist incident happens, there is a lot of debate and a lot of discussions. There are tons of viewpoints exchanged, about religious terrorism, about religious beliefs, about politics and its impact, and so on. I have been part of these discussions earlier and i have observed many such discussions, and from my experience, these discussions have not played any role to help resolve the problem. On the contrary, the discussion often used to end up as an argument with the parties on either side claiming that they were right and the other party was wrong. Very often, this led to bitter fights, in person and in social media and generally ended up raising the overall temperature, for the parties involved.
How then does that ever help in making this world a better place? How does that end up help create a better future for our generation and for the generations after us? I have come to the conclusion that if at all there is a solution, that needs to come from the heart and not from the mind/intellect. In my heart, i can feel that there can be only one solution, and that too, a long term one. And that is to treat every single person in this world with true respect and compassion and to be tolerant of their beliefs and opinions.
How would the world be, if every person in this world respects the other's viewpoint on religion - either the other person's belief in their god(s) or their lack of belief? How would the world be, if every child in school is taught about respecting and honoring the other person's belief? How much better would the world be, if instead of arguments and fights, there is a respectful discussion?
I strongly feel, that governments around the world should come together and imbibe a common education methodology that is rooted in human values of love, compassion and tolerance for multiple sets of beliefs. The notion of 'I am right' and 'you are wrong' needs to give way to 'I may disagree but i respect your viewpoint'. Violence arises from the individual feeling emptiness, depression and lack of compassion, trust and respect from the world around them. And when every individual feels respected, would not the levels of violence come down?
From a personal standpoint, what i can do? I am making a promise to myself, that no matter how much i disagree with any other views, i will respect the other person's viewpoints and beliefs. I will be compassionate with people who may hold completely opposing views from mine and rather than argue, i will look for the 2% chance that from their perspective, they may be right. This to me, feels so much more empowering than to hold on to the feeling of rage, helplessness and powerlessness. And hopefully, some day, the world will figure out a solution to its problems, through its heart.
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