Yoga on War and Peace

Forward

— True nonresistance is the one true resistance to evil. It kills and finally destroys the evil sentiment.

Leo Tolstoy — My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop nonviolence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more it over- whelms your surroundings and by and by might over- sweep the world.

M.K. Gandhi War is an eternal problem. The question of how a person of conscience responds to war or violence has engaged the thoughts and emotions of many of the wisest people throughout all eras and across a variety of cultures. Is there such a thing as a just war? On what basis does a man or woman decide to participate in taking the lives of others? How do we end war? Is it even possible to do so?

Since the atomic weapons used in World War II shocked the world with their destructive power, great social, political, and spiritual attention has been devoted to the goal of peace. Active, spiritually minded individuals have dedicated themselves to addressing the problems of violence and war in a number of arenas—among them, the civil rights movement, the peace movement of the Vietnam war era, movements to end ecological violence, and the programs for famine relief around the world. All are evidence of a growing sense of kinship and involvement with a larger social community.

And yet wars go on and violence continues to erupt throughout the world—violence between countries and within communities; violence between diverse groups, and within families. In the face of each new conflict we ask ourselves how we will ever stem this tide of hatred, violence, and war.

In this beautiful and timely book, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait considers the implications of yoga and spiritual teachings for the problem of war and peace. What is even more important, he offers the thoughtful reader a program of personal commitment to real peace.

Just as many are committed to involvement in activities that seek to eliminate the seeds of war and hatred in the external social and political world, so also is there a need to extract the internal seeds of war by eliminating those aspects within the human mind and heart that block our progress toward achieving peace. This is a program of inner transformation and evolution for those who are sincerely committed to real peace.

This quiet and inspiring book shares practices and contemplations that will help those working for peace to cultivate peace within while eliminating all seeds of vio- lence. Those who dedicate themselves to this task will find that this process of inner self-transformation is a complement to the external process of engendering political and social change. It is in this internal process of uprooting the causes of war that we will meet our greatest challenge.

**Contents and Sample Pages**