Jiddu Krishnamurti on War and Peace: View Point, Quotes and Inspired Poem

Jiddu Krishnamurti on War and Peace: View Point, Quotes and Inspired Poem

VIEW POINT

Jiddu Krishnamurti, a prominent thinker and philosopher, perceived war as the bloody, cruel, and devastating external expression of humanity's internal greed, fear, and everyday conflicts. He contended that nationalistic, religious, and ideological divisions, which are rooted in the human psyche, inevitably lead to conflict, placing the responsibility for global war on every individual.

His proposed solution called for immediate and radical self-transformation, rather than just political or external changes. War is an intensified result of the conflicts that occur within ourselves. In fact, we are not at peace with our own selves. We often believe that warfare is something 'out there', instigated by others.

We need to investigate whether it is truly possible to live in genuine peace both internally and externally. We must reflect on the very root of conflict and consider if humanity can exist without war. Peace is realized by fundamentally altering the internal causes to create a peace that remains intact despite external circumstances.

QUOTES

• War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life. It is an outward expression of our inward state, an enlargement of our daily action.

• You are responsible for war; you have brought it about by your everyday action of greed, ill will, passion.

• Nationalism is glorified tribalism: my country, my space, my people, my tradition, my God. All such activity is the action of stupidity [war], not intelligence.

• Where division exists, conflict and war become inevitable.

• Every war ends with the hope that there would be lasting peace. Peace is always short-lived.

• War will not bring peace to man. War is intellectually justified as a means of bringing peace, but when the intellect has the upper hand in human life, it brings about

• If you want to root out the causes of war, of barbarity in others, while you yourself indulge in them... This leads to hypocrisy and to further wars.

  
  

INSPIRED POEM

The battle starts within,

A war before it's seen.

Our minds, a troubled space,

Where peace has lost its place.

We're taught to fight and fear,

To hold what is not near.

For war's a sickly sign,

Of hearts that don't align.

The anger burns outside,

But deep inside it hides.

We point a blaming hand,

At others in the land.

War's a sickness, raw and sore,

A symptom knocking at the door.

To cure the world, we must begin,

To quiet down the war within.

If peace takes root, and starts to bloom,

It conquers darkness, fills the room.

A peace that stays, a lasting kind,

When inner wars we leave behind.