Prof. M. P. Mathai

Non-violent Alternatives to Terrorism

At a conference of The Malayalam Society of America in Houston Texas on Sep 16, 2007

Ours is a time in which we see violence at its climax.  There are terrorist activities on one side, and there is war on terror on the other side. In between these two evils lies the humanity with its existence at stake. Some people think that this is going to be the end of the world or this age as predicted in the religious scriptures. Based on their eschatological view, they claim that there is nothing that we can do but wait for the impending doom.

But there are a few people who are still hopeful about the survival of humankind. Instead of joining the prophets of doom, they are willing to seek the root causes that has made our world such a violent place.

Seeking the root of violence, one reaches the human mind. Wars begin in our minds. It is the internal violence within our minds that take external form to become terrorism and war. We can’t eradicate wars without eradicating violence and hatred from the human minds. It is easy to see external violence. We always hear about wars happening all over the world. But we often fail to see the violence hiding within our own minds.

The current way of facing violence is by resisting it with a more massive violence. We either fight or flee as if the only options available are fight or flight. Violence has never ended violence in history. Violence has never been a solution, but it only creates more problems. One month after the 9/11 incident, the US did carpet bombing in Afghanistan. Bombs worth billions of dollars were dropped there hoping to kill Usama Bin Laden. But he is still alive. Thousands of innocents lost their lives in the carpet bombing. Saddam Hussein was smoked out in Iraq, and he was killed. But the violence in Iraq is still on the rise. Violence breeds more violence.

Someone behaves violently based on a certain point of view. You can’t change his point of view by being violent to him. You have to help him change his point of view in some other way without being violent. Physical violence is unable to make a mental change; it can only make the mind more rigid. All wars ended by talks and agreements. How did the world wars end? By a dialog among the parties involved.  

It is often asked how it is possible to do dialogs with the terrorists? But it is possible if there is a willingness to do it. When terrorists hold people as hostages, we know it is possible to have a dialog and an agreement with them. If it is possible in such a situation, it can be possible in other situations as well.

Where do these terrorists get their armaments from? The armaments they use to kill the American soldiers have been made in America. The bullets operated out of the body of the US soldiers have been verified to have their origin in America. Now the question is, how do they get these weapons? Do they just fly through some invisible pathways and reach the hands of these terrorists by some magic? Not at all! There are channels through which the weapons move from USA, France and Germany to the hands of the terrorists.

It is often argued that nonviolence is impractical. But we can cite any number of examples to show that nonviolence is the only practical and effective means. The downfall of the Marcos regime in the Philippines in the Eighties is an excellent example of the victory of nonviolent mass movement. The countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union got freedom through nonviolent mass movements, not by armed struggle.  We also know how the British Empire knelt before the nonviolent struggle in India.

Often it has been remarked that India got independence not because of the nonviolent struggle but because of the decency of the British people. They further argue that if it had been Hitler’s Germany in Britain’s place, India could never have become independent. Such people forget that the British were very cruel and oppressive in India. They were not that decent as often thought.

Martin Luther King learned about God’s love in theological seminary. But he admitted that he found a way to apply it only when he saw how Gandhi did the nonviolent struggle in India.  

The basis of nonviolent approach is the belief that all human beings are basically good. Goodness is the fundamental nature of humanity. There is evil, but that is not a fundamental characteristic. This implies that an evil-doer does not do the evil from his basic nature. I can assert that just as every saint has a past, every sinner has a future as well. No sinner is irredeemable. This statement can be supported with scores of examples. Our Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana, was a killer and a robber. Francis of Assissi was a notorious criminal.  If these sinners could become saints, it is because goodness was their basic nature.

If we want to get rid of violence from our world, it needs to start within us. Let us look within our own hearts for traces of violence. If we feel hatred for a fellow being, that is violence. Is there violence in our own families? Is there violence in our immediate surroundings? That is where we need to start from.

Nonviolence is not passivity. It is a very active struggle that requires a lot of courage and determination. Gandhi remained as a one-man army in Calcutta and achieved what an army of 56, 000 couldn’t do in Punjab in the post-independent India. What he had was the strength and courage required for a nonviolent struggle. 

What is behind Saintliness?

In Houston TX on Nov 11, 2006

I am happy to be here with you all today when we are celebrating Parumala Thirumeni’s Perunnal. I take this opportunity to pay my prayerful tributes to the hallowed memory of this great saint of Malankara. I believe that this celebration offers us a precious opportunity to think about what really made Parumala Thirumeni a saint. I believe you will agree with me that Parumala Thirumeni’s saintliness was rooted in a spiritual power that he attained through a life of intense prayer.  

This would lead us to the question of what is prayer, and how we should pray to attain spiritual accomplishments.

For Christians, the supreme example of prayer is the one that Jesus taught his disciples-- the Lord’s Prayer. Although we Christians repeat this prayer almost ad infinitum, we seldom try to understand the real meaning and deep significance of this prayer of prayers. I believe that the Lord’s Prayer provides a kind of Meta- paradigm of prayer. A careful deconstruction of its deep structure would enable us to develop the right attitude towards prayer and construct a life of prayer.  

It may be said that every prayer is a petition. In the Christian tradition petitioning is a vital part of prayer. But the question arises: What shall we petition for? And is there a priority for this endless list of “give us”? Here again we have to turn to the Lord’s Prayer for guidance.

What I consider to be the most important insight in the Lord’s Prayer is that it is a prayer for US and not for ME i.e., for humanity and not for the individual. The subject is plural and not singular. Note that nothing is sought for the individual person. Let us ask ourselves: whom do we pray for?

The first thing we ask for in Lord’s Prayer is: Thy kingdom come! Actually this should be the be-all and end-all of our prayer. It is our earnest wish and prayer that a new heaven and a new earth be created here in our midst. This should be the first thing that we ask for. It is really a petition for the COMMON GOOD. Jesus was making it unequivocally clear that common good should precede individual good. It is important to remember here what Jesus said elsewhere: Seek you first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto it.  

The second thing sought for is: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The new era or millennium that we long for and try to build in our midst shall be totally in tune with God’s will and plan. Anything that is not in conformity with God’s grand design has, at best, only a very short life and will collapse like a pack of cards. We have seen empires and socialist republics crumbling down as they ignored the unifying principle of dharma that should form the very foundation of a world order. When we have a sincere and earnest wish for God’s will prevailing in our lives and in the world, and as we try to achieve the same, life gets transformed. People usually want their own will to be done not only in their own lives but in the lives of the communities as well. Saints were those who surrendered their own will totally to the will of the Almighty, by emptying themselves completely and reducing themselves to mere cyphers.  

Humans, of course, have their physical existence and, therefore, have material needs. And there is a genuine need for material goods and services. But how much do we really need and how much shall we ask for? If we are men and women of faith i.e., if we have a living faith in God’s dispensation, we shall ask for only our daily bread: “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we really believe that God knows what we really need and is capable of taking care of the welfare of His creations, this is all we need to ask for. Let us do an earnest soul-searching and examine the nature of our petitions/demands before God, and assess whether they are in tune with the spirit of what Jesus has taught us.

The next blessing we ask for is God’s forgiveness for our trespasses. Weak as human nature is, it is only natural that we trespass the divine injunctions and transgress His laws. We commit violations. So we need to seek forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, we pray.  Before asking God to forgive us, we must have forgiven our fellow-beings. Forgiving those against whom we have anger, those who have offended us, is a sine qua non – an essential pre-condition -- for gaining eligibility to seek God’s forgiveness. It is implied that if we are not willing to forgive our fellow-beings, we cannot expect God to forgive us. This constitutes the first and foremost of Christian ethical principle.

The world today, more than any other period in human history, is full of tempting things and forces. We are pushed and pulled from all around. I need not have to elaborate on that as you are experiencing them much more than any others. So the prayer ‘lead us not into temptation’ and ‘deliver us from (the worst of tempters, namely) evil’ assumes a special contextual significance in the contemporary world situation. Unless we acquire the strength (achieved through prayer) to extricate ourselves from these temptations we will be condemned to a life of rudderless ship in a stormy ocean, an ocean of sensuous enjoyment and vulgar ostentation. 

Devotion is an intense feeling of attachment to God. It is a kind of God-intoxication for many. Love is its basis. Jesus had pointed out that love of God and love of fellow human beings constitute the quintessence of the laws. Devotion or bhakti, therefore, is an expression of our love of God and our fellow-beings. Devotion is not only vertical, it is also horizontal-- it has to be so. Real devotion is such, and it is a mark of saintliness. Parumala Thirumeni was such a God-oriented and God-saturated person. People’s devotion to Parumala Thirumeni also seems to scale new heights. However, in today’s world we see around us a lot of fake and shallow devotion which is not an expression of a true love of God or one’s fellow human beings. In the age of global economic- marketization, bhakti is also getting commoditized. Sometimes, devotion is even vulgarized and people use it as a means for gaining selfish ends.  

I believe we need to make occasions like this to critically examine our traditions and practices. This I believe would only strengthen our faith tradition. It is important to remember that Jesus was not a conformist. Not only did he think critically, but also encouraged people to do so. His was a faith praxis. That was why and how a new testament could be created. It is our responsibility in the present times to carry forward this vital mission of our lord Jesus both within our community and in the larger world without.

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