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What Is the Inner Source of Violence?
Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
What Is the Inner Source of Violence?
Violence is a reflection of lower, instinctive consciousness—fear, anger, greed, jealousy and hate—based in the mentality of separateness and unconnectedness, of good and bad, winners and losers, mine and yours. Aum.
Every belief creates certain attitudes. Attitudes govern our actions. Our actions can thus be traced to our inmost beliefs about ourself and the world around us. If those beliefs are erroneous, our actions will not be in tune with the universal dharma. For instance, the beliefs in the duality of self and other, of eternal heaven and hell, victors and vanquished, white forces and dark forces create the attitudes that we must be on our guard, and are justified in giving injury, physically, mentally and emotionally, to those whom we judge as bad, pagan, alien or unworthy. Such thinking leads to rationalizing so-called righteous wars and conflicts. As long as our beliefs are dualistic, we will continue to generate antagonism, and that will erupt here and there in violence. Those living in the lower, instinctive nature are society’s antagonists. They are self-assertive, territorial, competitive, jealous, angry, fearful and rarely penitent of their hurtfulness. Many take sport in killing for the sake of killing, thieving for the sake of theft. The Vedas indicate, “This soul, verily, is overcome by nature’s qualities. Now, because of being overcome, he goes on to confusedness.” Aum Namah Sivaya.
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Insights on Peace
The recent tragedy at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, is needless to say at the very least heartbreaking. It made me reflect a lot on the source of peace and violence, and this brought me to recall a talk given my guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami about 12 years ago. The talk was title...
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Speaking at EO Alchemy 2012 in Seattle
On October 27th I was invited to give a keynote presentation at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) west coast regional event called EO Alchemy 2012. The event took place in Seattle and the topic of my keynote was “The Art of Balancing Life”. The vision for the event as stated on their web...
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My First Magazine Cover
Last month SpiceRoute, the inflight magazine for SpiceJet airlines in India, reached out to me asking if they could purchase one of my photos for use on the cover of their November 2012 inflight magazine issue. It’s the first time one of my photos has made the cover of a magazine. The artic...
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Expressing Gratitude and Apprecition
During this time of thanksgiving many people take the opportunity to express gratitude and appreciation to the people in their lives and for what they have as well. When we express gratitude or appreciation it’s good to remember to be specific. For instance, instead of saying “thank y...
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An evening with entrepreneurs in Sydney, Australia
Yesterday evening I was invited to present to the Sydney chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). They were holding an event for two days so they had members from other states also present. It was a wonderful evening and I focused on the topic of Balanced Living incorporating the EO...
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Balance Living Workshop in Perth, West Australia
On November 9th I presented an all-day workshop titled the “The Art of Balancing Life – Part 1” to the Perth chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. A little over 30 members attended the event. The focus was on energy management, understanding the mind and relationship...
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