In a bid to dominate and extract benefits, there is tendency to usurp power. This insatiable desire for power has grown in different fields from environmental affairs to societal interactions, from economic dealings to geopolitical relations. Such love for power is detrimental for peace.
Love is a universal value. In contrast to other non-universal value, it is permanent. Love is worth pursuing for every individual and in every period of time. Ashoka, the Mauryan King, applied it in his Dhamma philosophy, so have we done in modern democratic system to bring peace and ensure people welfare.
But, at many times in history such noble idea of power of love has been relegated and it continues to be so today also. Its place has been taken up by love for power. Result of which has been World Wars, environmental degradation, poverty, gender injustice, oppressed castes among other things.
Such power intoxication is not limited to institutional level. In fact, it starts from a single person who becomes a bully or a criminal and enjoys privilege emanating from other's fear, helplessness and submission. Then, some people idolize that bully(criminal) for his power, privilege and dominance. They desire such power and in this way culture of power seeking germinates at the cost of other's dignity and global peace.
But, tilting the balance in favor of power of love, individual dignity and world peace can be ensured. One might argue that, can love for others eliminate the power hungry nature of an individual? How will love act as an antidote to power intoxication?
The best answer to this lies in the wisdom of Aristotle - A person does bad because he lacks true knowledge and is not aware of all the facts. He might be looking at only one side of the story. Like a child who breaks a vase lies to the parent, because child is not aware of consequences, which he presumes to be dangerous for him. Similarly, the power hungry person is not aware of the El dorado of peace and prosperity to be offered by the love and is equally unaware of the deleterious impact of power dominance. Ashoka, The Great, had this realization after Kalinga War and subsequently, he followed the path of Buddhism.
Love is inherently intertwined with peace. When we love someone, we care for them, we develop sympathy for them, we respect and adore them. With this comes tendency to solve their problem to keep them protected and thus, peaceful co-existence kicks in. If people have love and sympathy for different communities, if they care for them, there would be wonders. There would be women empowerment, no marginalized section and no social stratification. Such inclusive vision of society will experience peacefulness.
In similar way, if we have compassion for our environment. We would look after its well being. We will provide them the condition to flourish. We would ensure animals live in their habitat, they are not hunted and poached. We would ensure sufficient forest cover and prey base. All of this will not only lead to reduced man-animal conflict but also to a resilient environment with less damage and chaos due to disaster.
This is all the more important when we are witnessing climate change. Cyclones which are expected to come in India after Summer (July onward) are arriving in the month of April and May, like cyclone Amphan and Fani. Cyclone are becoming furious and frequent as well. Even as monsoon is becoming erratic, so much so that both drought and flood have become a recurrent phenomenon. But, it is not only the environmental aspect of such climate change that is worrisome. Equally worrisome, if not more, is the social aspect of such disasters. With each disaster, many family lose their livelihood, house, livestock and other material possessions. They stand at the verge of slipping into poverty. It is this peace and stability for disaster affected people that love for environment can bring.
On much wider scale, the need for love arises in international relations. Globally, there has been a rising hostility and erosion of mutual trust among countries. China has been flexing its muscle in its neighborhood, Middle East has developed many theaters like US-Iran rivalry, Saudi- Iran rivalry, Yemen civil war, crisis in Libya. There has been political and economic turmoil in Venezuela. Where as, North Korea is increasing its nuclear capability. All this points to the growing appetite for power which threatens world peace.
Now that love in relationship can bring peace is known, our focus should be on basing our relationship, be it personal, community or international, on compassion. For this, love should be inculcated as universal value specially among the children, for they are the future of humanity and are of impressionable nature. Furthermore, international organisations with their participating members should come together, bury in their differences, and chart out framework for an impartial rule based order for trade, security, geopolitics issue, climate change, technology. The rule should not be based for power projection rather than accommodation. It should not be to dominate but to liberate.
Keeping love at the center of our relations and dealings, by recognizing the power of love over the love of power, we can make the world a better place to live in. After all, a good life is about living healthy in peace, enjoying life to the fullest and allowing people to become the best version of themselves, but not at the cost of others.
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