Addressing the fear of war breaking out

On the fear of war.
Now, we seem to be moving towards greater and greater fear of war because of standoffs or confrontations in various parts of the world. For example, we have a confrontation happening between India and China for the Dhokla area. While India is not resorting into any rhetoric, but China feels that India is the aggressor and is threatening violence.
Similarly, the rhetoric voiced by US President Donald Trump has also increased tensions between USA and North Korea. Since all these four countries among which war may take place have nuclear weapons. So, that has led to greater anxiety.
The use of atom bombs in Japan by USA during the Second World War has shown more than adequately horrendous devastation that such weapons can cause. And that has led many people to question, to view the prospect of such a war with great horror. And rightly so, because after all, we are not meant for, human life is too precious for such casual destruction at such a mass level.
And nuclear deterrence has indeed worked in avoiding wars over the last few years. Last few decades, we could say, we see that India and China had several confrontations in the 60s. India and Pakistan had confrontations in the 70s.
But after the nuclear weapons have been acquired by both the countries, then it has become, a war has become untenable. Because escalation of hostilities could mean that either party may feel at particular point justified using these nuclear weapons. And then that would break untold devastation.
So, if we consider that the potential for destruction is enormous through nuclear weapons, it actually means that deterrence does work. There is fear, which is an important factor in the conduct of human relationships. Although it is far from the highest factor, just like citizens are meant to abide by the law with their intelligence.
You know, when we all live according to our law, then we all can live cooperatively. We all can flourish and prosper by that. But not everyone has the intelligence or the integrity or the inclination to live this way.
And that is why when justice is done, it should not just be done, but it should also be seen to be done. There are some things such as charity, they no need to exhibit them, doing them. But in contrast, justice is something which has to be shown to be done.
Because only when justice is seen to be done, the people feel reassured. And then people take things seriously, that is, they appreciate what is happening. And they feel fearful, hesitant to break the law, to take the law in their own hands.
Now, the same principle of fear can be applied at a national level in the form of deterrence. And deterrence enables us to avoid the escalation of hostilities to a full-pitched war. At the same time, while nuclear weapons have been acquired by a few countries, and most of these countries have abided by, either officially or unofficially, have agreed to abide with a policy of no first use, most, not all.
Still, there is a great fear that nuclear weapons may fall in the hands of those who are not mature enough to be leaders, to those who may not have the self-control to not use it impulsively, without thinking about the ghastly consequences that are going to result. In fact, it was the fear that the Middle East, especially Iraq, may have nuclear weapons that was used by the US to justify aggression against that country. And eventually, it was that aggression and the destabilization of the local government that happened because of this, that led to the formation of the ISIS.
So, moving on, the nuclear weapons can act as deterrence. At the same time, if they somehow fall in the wrong hands, then they can cause untold devastation. From the Bhakti perspective, perspective of Bhakti wisdom, fear, desire, duty and love are the various levels at which people act.
So, the lowest is fear. And in various relationships, whether it be interpersonal relationships, interstate relationships, inter-family relationships or international relationships, these four levels are operational. So, of course, we may not see much love between countries, more of camaraderie, but fear we do see.
So, if the heads of state are not mature enough, if the heads of state do not end up using nuclear weapons, then they can cause enormous destruction. So, what is it that can help us to have sanity and feel security in such a situation? Actually, sanity and security can best come from spirituality, from a spiritual vision of the self. The Bhagavad Gita explains that at our core, we are spiritual beings and our ultimate purpose is spiritual, to grow spiritually and to find fulfillment internally through our spiritual growth.
So, when we do not give due cognition, due attention to this purpose, then our consciousness gets abducted and sidetracked by many other peripheral purposes. Amongst the superficial purposes are the purposes of acquiring more and more territory, acquiring more and more power, acquiring more and more prestige. And often these are done by bullying others, by threatening us, by crushing others.
At a personal level, understanding that we are souls who are at our core is indestructible can calm us down. Danger and disaster are always possibilities. But if we obsess over those possibilities, then we subject ourselves to unnecessary, excessive, disorienting negativity.
So, yes, the possibility of nuclear war is there. But that way, there are many other possibilities also. A big earthquake can occur, a big tsunami can devastate coastal areas, a tornado can occur, a huge disease outbreak can take place that can take a huge toll.
So, the possibilities of things going wrong in this world are practically endless. We need to move beyond looking at possibilities to looking at probabilities. And even if we look at possibilities alone of all that may go wrong, such dystopian thinking is characteristic of a very ignorant mode of mental functioning.
The Bhagavad Gita in 18.35 states that, it says that whenever we give in to compulsive, obsessive, fearfulness, bhayam, or moroseness, nishadam, pessimism, or lamentation, shokam, then all this characterizes ignorant thinking and ignorant living. So, the ignorance is at multiple levels. At one level, fearfulness comes when we are ignorant of our spiritual identity with its associated instructability.
The more we intellectually understand that we are souls, and the more we practically realize this through our yoga practice, through practicing various yoga, such as bhakti yoga, and the more we feel security internally, and the more we also experience sanity, because the wild emotions, whether they be fear or anger or whatever else, which tuggers into self-destructive action, those wild emotions decrease when we sense our core indestructibility and thus do not feel impelled by insecurity and paranoia. So, at an individual level, at least we can avoid excessive fearfulness by realizing our spirituality. Beyond that, when we have spiritual self-understanding, then that brings illumination, clarity of thoughts.
With that understanding, we can clearly see what are the things in our control and what are the things not in our control. And worrying about the things in our control helps us to make those things better. Worrying about the things outside our control simply makes us worse.
It makes us feel more and more insecure, more and more fearful, and more and more helpless. So, at an individual level, we cannot do much about whether the hostilities escalate among any countries or not. But at a social level, we can be the voice of sanity, security and spirituality, if we ourselves become spiritual by studying and applying the principles of timeless spirituality given in the Bhagavad Gita.
And thus, we can ourselves go beyond the fear of the war to calmness and help others also to similarly become calm.