Living Together in Peace
(International Day of Living Together in Peace)
By: M Ahmad
Peace is a human need and is one of the important human values that has assured the survival of the human race. It refers to silence or reconcilement and living alongside each other despite difference and diversity. It means to live together in harmony. Without peace, society can’t progress andit is necessary for the growth of society as well as a nation. It is important because it brings unity, optimism and collaboration. No society can exist without peace.
Living together in peace is all about accepting differences and having the ability to listen to, recognize, respect and appreciate others, as well as living in a peaceful and united way. The UN General-Assembly, in its resolution 72/130, declared 16 May the International Day of Living Together in Peace, as a means of regularly mobilizing the efforts of the international community to promote peace, tolerance, inclusion, understanding and solidarity. The Day aims to uphold the desire to live and act together, united in differences and diversity, in order to build a sustainable world of peace, solidarity and harmony. The essence of everyone’s life is to live in peace and no one wants to get disturbed or distracted from the peace of life.
Whoever has attained wisdom in life has always advocated peace and those who are saints and scholars always referred to the holy books citing peace as the main plank of living in harmony. Living in peace is about living harmoniously with yourself, others and all sentient beings around. Living in peace is both an outward and an inward process. Outwardly, living in peace is a way of life in which we respect and love each other in spite of our cultural, religious, and political differences.
Ceasing to seek power over people and outcomes in our life is the first major step to living peacefully. Trying to control people is about seeking to impose our will and reality on others without ever trying to see their side of things. A controlling approach to relationships will keep us in conflicts with others. Replacing a will to control with a broad approach of loving others instead, including their faults and differences, is the way to a peaceful life. A peaceful person does not use violence against another person or animal. While there is much violence in this world, make a choice to not let death and killing be a part of your philosophy of living. Violence starts with our acceptance of its possibility as a solution and often its inevitability. So it’s inside us that we need to go to stop violence and become peaceful. In seeking not to harm living beings, to live peacefully, first we have to change ourselves, and then change the world. We should respect for local culture and belief in the power of local capacities, ideas and solutions.
Living together in peace is the path we take for bringing growth and prosperity to society. If we do not have peace and harmony, achieving political strength, economic stability and cultural growth will be impossible. There are many ways in which we can maintain peace at different levels. To begin with humankind, it is essential to maintain equality, security and justice to maintain the political order of any nation. Further, we must promote the advancement of technology and science which will ultimately benefit all of humankind and maintain the welfare of people. In addition, introducing a global economic system will help eliminate divergence, mistrust and regional imbalance.
It is also essential to encourage ethics that promote ecological prosperity and incorporate solutions to resolve the environmental crisis. This will in turn share success and fulfil the responsibility of individuals to end historical prejudices. Similarly, we must also adopt a mental and spiritual ideology that embodies a helpful attitude to spread harmony. We must also recognize diversity and integration for expressing emotion to enhance our friendship with everyone from different cultures. Finally, it must be everyone’s noble mission to promote peace by expressing its contribution to the long-lasting well-being factor of everyone’s lives. Thus, we must all try our level best to maintain peace and harmony.
Living together in peace is the way that helps us prevent inequity and violence. It is no less than a golden ticket to enter a new and bright future for mankind. Moreover, everyone plays an essential role in this so that everybody can get a more equal and peaceful world. It is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in which there is no hostility and violence. In social terms, we use it commonly to refer to a lack of conflict, such as war. Thus, it is freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. It is the accurate way to maintain love in society and is essential for protecting our society from being damaged. It can make our nation healthy, wealthy, and strong. Without living in peace, It is impossible to imagine a prosperous and developed nation.
We are free to choose our own path but at the end of the day, living together in peace will be our own conscious. Together we can be at Peace in this World because we’re all One. This applies to every angle including wars, pollution, natural disasters and more. To sum it up, living in peace is essential to control the evils which damage our society. It is obvious that we will keep facing crises on many levels but we can manage them better while living in peace.
“In a world in which we regularly witness tensions, acts of hatred, rejection of others and discrimination, the pursuit of peace and the will to live together harmoniously is more crucial than ever. UNESCO, and the United Nations as a whole, is striving on a daily-basis to provide people with the means to achieve peace, not only because peace is one of the major goals of the 2030 Agenda, but also because it is a precondition for sustainable development and for the common good.”— Audrey Azoulay Director-General, UNESCO
The Day invites countries to further promote reconciliation to help to ensure peace and sustainable development, including by working with communities, faith leaders and other relevant actors, through reconciliatory measures and acts of service and by encouraging forgiveness and compassion among individuals.
The writer is former Incahrge Abhedananada Home-Higher Secondary Institution for Inclusive Education, Srinagar, J&K and can be reached at [email protected])
