Life for everyone is full of ups and downs.
We often find that where goodness abounds, there also is evil lurking to sow confusion and hatred. This is the reason why we should always be aware of the overall environment we are in – mentally, physically and emotionally to ensure that the goodness is not overcome by evil.
In a similar vein, where evil abounds, there also is virtue lurking to sow harmony and peace. We should be attuned to our sensibilities to recognize the virtue that will bring about harmony and peace where evil abounds.
The tension between good and evil is everywhere we perpetrate one or the other. We should take control of our emotional and thought patterns and be perpetrators of good. The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is apt –
“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.”
The destiny of the world is up to each of us.
Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence revolves around the concept that –
Peace is a more powerful weapon than war
A smile is more powerful than a sneer
A whisper is louder than a scream
The calm is in the eye of the storm
And total darkness recedes when a single candlelight glows.