In today’s enhancing and fast progressing world of science and technology, the unsolved quest which still prevails as a controversy is to realise the true cost of peace. The world has 195 nations all solving this crusade of what does peace behold.
Since ancient times the people of our motherland have been fascinated by the term ‘peace’. According to most dictionaries the word peace is nothing but the freedom from disturbances. This extraordinarily simple term has a meaning deeper than the ocean. Very often people across the globe use the words tranquility, harmony, hush and lull which can only bring unity and also comment on various ways to obtain peace. But why is it so that we will have the urge to regret the ways we will use to obtain peace.
Till date we bestow and know the fact that the cost of peace is nothing but life. Several wars have been fought on the pages of history that claim the astronomic numbers of people who laid down their lives by which various nations could obtain peace. It is the inevitable truth of life that peace is written by the havoc wrought by mankind,its letters are scratched on the walls with the red blood of the brave and innocent and the mushroom clouds. India fought prolonged years of battle leading ultimately to peace although with a division into separate countries based on religion and not humanity and not before having scar of riots, loots, rapes and murders. Weren’t the lives lost in the long struggle to outnumber the britishers enough that to maintain peace between two religions another war had to be fought which did not only loose the brave but also the members who were innocent? Why do we still have the fight to claim that Kashmir is our land and not theirs when already such a massive war causing splitting of families, loss of economy and slaughtering of men pleas to restore peace? Since the times of monarchy, even the monarchs understood the true fair that had to be paid for restoring peace. At an instance Ashoka, the great king was shattered after the Kalinga war when the streams were red and the people left with not having a heart that worked and a skin that sensed.That fine day The Great King Ashoka understood what he had to pay for returning peace.
Imagine the world with the threat of nuclear bomb which rewrote the history of devastation and sufferings after the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a monumental blunder of killing with weapons of mass destruction. Whether this can bring peace can be very well imagined with counties now racing for stockpiling nuclear arsenals are fighting battles daily but not having mustered courage to drop another bomb because this well makes a case of devastating destruction of the universe. With inadvertent Chernobyl tragedy happened in the then USSR reminds the cost one has to pay in the process to accumulate, dangerous nuclear materials to be used someday for restoring peace.
Aging back to the times of the legendary story of Mahabharata the ending climax fight to restore peace in the region of their rule costed killing the lives of their own blood and the aftermath prevailed for a long time .We as humans do celebrate ‘Peace Day’ and are very fascinated to speak on the topic ‘Peace’ but whenever we do so we should give ourselves the opportunity to think of slaying thousands of lives, splashing blood on the ground and breaking more than thousands of homes was a wise thing to do? “Nothing succeeds like success and nothing pains like death” the so called peace we plan and programme to restore in our lives and our nations causes the massive loss in population. Clearly the currency of peace is life. The World War one was fought at the second decade of the nineteenth century with massive force and grave battle amongst the allies and centrals to restore peace and harmony with sanction of various treaties which led to the perishing of more than 500 million lives which included children, women and men who laid their lives down. There were wives and children waiting for the men of the house to return knowing that there was no use waiting but that slight hope still flickered in their eyes. And the men who went brave and strong knowing that they would never return but they knew that in the longer run their heart and body would result in peace. This war, Amen, cold war was not enough that we had to surrender to another war which alone again killed a massive number. Innocent, brave, immature and amateur, leaders, slaves and civilians all were pushed into the graveyard or more truly a deep sleep, a sleep from which you can never be awoken, a cursed sleep which wouldn’t even break by true love’s kiss or any secret potion ,a sleep which helps you to dream a future, future of tranquility, freedom and liberty. The most savage yet great Dictator Hitler strongly believed that peace to his Germany would only come with the purification of race and killed millions people to achieve it. Statistics maintain that he killed two hundred thousand children, one million Polish civilians, six million Jews and the rest souls not even maintained. God forbid if this the requirement of bringing peace then what should we do is to slaughter many more or produce more. The present-day scenario of Syria with its land filled with guns, grenades and bullets is in no way different. A place where a common man must be buying his child’s favorite food but will ultimately realize that the child is dead . The various bomb explosions has led to almost all cabins of the houses of Syria do be covered with a gas cloud. Peace is destined to call for war and it is easy to be claimed and the pay is easy to be funded. In the countries directly burdened by war Yemen, Iraq and Syria more than eighty seven million people which constitute of one third of the population has perished for the sake of peace .This war is entitled to long term damage in economy and infrastructure.The fight between Kuwait and Iraq in the olden days, was devastating, it not only caused the death of various Kuwaitis and Iranians but also ruined lives of the youth soldiers only sixteen those boys were in the age they should be using books and pens they used guns and grenades, when they should have been worshipping mothers and women they harassed them, where they should have been dreaming of a lovely country they destroyed their nation in the name of peace. In Pakistan , Saudi Arabia and other countries which are leading in producing terrorists groups have terrorists varying from the age groups of sixteen to twenty one. Strange ,it truly is that how these youngsters, future of the country fall for war? The answer lies within ,these youngsters are blindfolded in the name of God and peace. To achieve the quest of peace and revenge the youth , the builders of economy and infrastructure destroy them because the youth are open to new ideas and are the clay before they can be put into the fireplace to be bakedtheir molds are fiddled with and the shape comes out twisted and unstable. In the name of peace youngsters destroy their own peace and tranquility doing more bad than good.
Even the violence and gruesome killing by Maoists and fierce fight between militants and our security forces in Kashmir causing loss of life and property reminds the cost to get peace. What we fail to understand the actual path of peace is written in all epics, including Bhagwat Gita, Koran and Bible which reminds “though live in peace”, “love ever hurt never” and the age old phrase “Vasudeva Kutumbakam” are the true principles of life where you live and let other live will bring immense peace and the cost though will be negligible and priceless.