The Cause of Violence and the Solution to Stop It
“If we do not put out the fires within the human being, you cannot put out the fires on the street.”
—Sadhguru
Questioner: What would you say is the solution to ending violence for good?
Sadhguru: A few years ago when I was in California, I saw a bumper sticker which said, “Our governor can beat up your governor.” That really shows where the culture is being taken. Today’s movies are all about someone shooting someone else. Video games are mostly shoot-em-up games. If you walk into a toyshop, half the toys are guns. We eulogize wars and smart bombs which can go through the window and kill someone. Almost everything in the world today is becoming violent. Our music, our dance, our culture, the very way we move and do things in our lives is becoming violent. We shouldn’t be surprised if it spills over onto the street once in a way.
Look at yourself as an individual and see how many moments in a day do you feel you simply cannot stand the person sitting next to you? Trying to hold yourself back is going to work only for a certain period of time. It is bound to explode somewhere when certain situations allow it because the violence is within the human being. That is the violence that needs to be attended to. If we do not put out the fires within the human being, you cannot put out the fires on the street. Today or tomorrow it will light up again.
We need to understand that a human being is enormous energy and tremendous potential. If he doesn’t find expression to his energies and harness and direct them properly, he will invariably perform violent acts. Violence does not necessarily mean you go out and kill someone. You are angry, you are irritated, you cannot sit still – this is violence. If we do not root it out from its innermost core, peace will not happen. The science of Yoga is just this: learning to harness and direct your energies in the right way, so that who you are finds its ultimate expression. If you do not allow this energy which you call as life to find its expression, it naturally tries to find its way out in violent ways.
Unless there are movements which work towards individual transformation, there will be no peace. This is not something that can be done on the street with a crowd. It needs a committed approach to individual transformation. It is not slogans and statements that will bring peace to the world, but a lifelong striving to produce peaceful human beings on all levels of human society. Is such a thing possible? Do not think of the future on the basis of existing realities. Existing realities on the planet could be changed in a moment, because existing realities do not take into consideration people’s will, commitment and what is beating in the human heart. If only we can stoke that, if only we can stir up what is happening in individual hearts, peace is definitely a possibility. If we dedicate ourselves to making this happen around us, we can see something tremendous and dramatic happening on the planet in our own lifetime.
Editor’s Note: Download the Free EBook "Culture of Peace" for more on creating peaceful human beings and a world free from violence.
