How can we create an ideal world?

 An ideal world is one where there is peace, where people love each other, and where there are no conditions to anything. Let us look at how we can create such a world.

The first step is to begin with our own selves. We may speak of ideals and it may all sound wonderful. However, those ideals need to be supported by pragmatism. If we talk about peace, let us ask ourselves: are we peaceful and kind? If we talk about honesty, let us ask ourselves: are we honest and non-corrupt? Let us first make the change within ourselves and then expect it from the world.

The feeling of love that we refer to—what we think is love—is not real love. It may be a part of it but it is not absolute. The reason being that true love is not an emotion; rather, it is a state of being. And if we are in that state of being, we will love anyway and regardless. The reason we are not in that state of being is because when we say we love something, we want to possess it and keep it so it doesn’t go away. For example, if we spot a beautiful rose in the garden, we want to cut it and keep it inside our house. Even though we know that we will kill it, yet we can’t leave it alone; we have to possess it. Similarly, for the people we love, we want to possess them and hang on to them and not let them go. We are selfish because we are so fearful that we may lose them. Our possessiveness is based on fear; because our love is so conditional.

We are conditioned by our family, and the society at large. As children, if we give away our toys or belongings to some other child who likes them, our parents call us stupid and say that we were foolish to give away what belonged to us. So they teach us that selfishness is wisdom and generosity is stupidity.

Have we ever wondered as to why there is violence in this world? Let us look at the nursery rhymes that we are taught in preparatory school:

Three blind mice, who cut off their tails with a carving knife. . .

Rock-a-by baby, on the tree top; when the bow breaks the cradle will fall. . .

Peter-Peter pumpkin eater . . . we wonder who is a wife beater!

The smash-bang cartoons that our children watch; the toy guns that we buy them . . .  we inculcate all this in our children and then wonder where the violence is coming from! Here is how we introduce our children to the concept of corruption. We tell them that if they eat their food, they’ll get a chocolate.

We are not actually responsible for introducing violence and corruption to our children because we ourselves have been conditioned in a similar manner from our own childhood. That is the way of the society. So it is this consciousness that has to change. And we are the ones that have to bring about that change.

Towards this end, let us look behind at the past with understanding, live in the present with courage, and look forward to the future with faith.