My Chance
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 22 Jul 2024
Dr. Ravi P. Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service
I am waiting for a chance whereby I can post some messages that would have cultural or spiritual values. The reason I am looking for such messages is that there is violence around me everywhere — near where I live and around me. In fact, violence in any form — human or animal or environmental is present everywhere and the newspapers or social media highlight it.
Perhaps the reason for highlighting it is to make people aware of the harm caused by violence and adopt a peaceful approach in life to keep violence at a distance.
How did I think of violence and what means or procedures are available to me to keep violence away?
For this purpose, I relate a simple scene or action that I saw that helped me with the objective to keep violence at a distance.
I was sitting in my home and saw something that displayed a situation which affected me intensely. I saw two small children — about eight- or ten-year-olds who were coming in the direction of my home. Both these children were carrying large green leaves on the palms of their hands. When they came closer to me, I looked at the leaves — why they were holding them so delicately and carefully. The leaf in the hands of one child had an insect sitting on the leaf and the child was very careful that the insect on his leaf remained on the leaf — it should not fly away if it was alive. If it was dead then it was a different situation altogether.
The other child also was holding a leaf on his palm but there was no insect or any other entity on the leaf. But even he was holding the leaf carefully as if there was an insect sitting on it.
The child who was holding the leaf with the insect sitting on it was very careful for obvious reasons. He wanted to show the insect to his family or friends. Why would he want to do it? He may not have had a specific reason but he may have been encouraged to be careful while holding the leaf with the insect seated on it.
Is an insect such an important or interesting creature that the child felt the way he did — by being careful — by walking slowly.
If one was to ask the child why be so careful in holding the insect on his green leaf, he would not be able to explain his action. Perhaps he had been taught in his school that all life is delicate and important and so the life of the insect is also useful and critical. The example of an insect would not be so clear but still would be appreciated as being important.
I hope that the example of an insect sitting on a leaf clearly represents the importance of life — even that of an insect on a leaf on the child’s palms.
One would like to give other examples but the present example is simple and can be understood and appreciated even by young children.
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Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, an educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, A Garland of Ideas—Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi. ravipbhatia@gmail.com
Tags: Values System, Violence, Violence against Animals
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 22 Jul 2024.
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