How to Live in Harmony with Each Other

In human life, there are many different types of experiences. There are those times when conflict arises between people. You have one opinion; another has another opinion. You have a judgment of the actions of another person. 

Conflicts can become collective when leaders assume positions opposed to the ideas of another and then the conflictual tension of the leaders is reflected through the masses that follow those leaders.

When those conflictual situations where different ideologies, different approaches, come in contrast and in conflict with each other and the people that hold those ideologies or approaches, then there is hostility and even war. War can be between two people, it can be between two groups, or two political views, or between two nations. There are different levels of war depending on the situation.

The fundamentals of conflict are that two separate views are held, be they between two feuding people, two feuding families, two feuding political systems, two feuding nations: between any two entities with opposing views. Some conflicts are easily solved by finding common ground. But there are conflicts where the common ground is not there.

And in today's world, there is a polarization of people. You will notice there is one side and another. Some want the globalization of the planet. They hold ideologies that put focus on humanity and going forward to save the planet. Some want to maintain the era of capitalism, the Vaishan era, and maintain the values of that system and have the successes they have seen in that system of that thinking approach in the past.

Naturally, these two forces clash and as the strain of the situation grows people are polarized—they are in one camp or another camp. And it seems that the amount of people who can be in the middle is becoming almost non-existent because there is such differentiation, such pull to opposites. This happens between people. It happens at all levels. And soon if it goes on, there is an entire separation between people who are of another ideology, another way of thinking.

So what to do? One wants to eliminate the other. When this happens between large bodies of people it leads sometimes to physical violence because they can find no way of settling their differences. They find no common ground, and the only solution they can see is to eliminate the other because the other is a threat.

This approach has been common in certain phases of human development. And it is common today. Family members do not talk to each other; they do not work out their differences. This is more common than in the past. Children not speaking to their parents, unwilling to sit down and find their common ground, to find their way through to harmony and love.

It happens between groups of people. It happens between political ideologies. And unfortunately, the very commonality of humanity and the love divine which binds all life together becomes forgotten in the conflict. What is seen is the other; someone different, separate, and to be disliked. The commonality of your feelings towards your children, the commonality of your love in your heart becomes unreachable because the opinions, beliefs, and actions vary so greatly.

​What to do when polarization dominates the field of the human mind, individually or collectively? There is only one true solution, to realize that everyone is connected to you. You are all part of the same whole. You are all children of the Great. Differences may be there in beliefs, ideologies, and definitions of right and wrong, but the supreme loves everyone.

The Divine showers grace on all. The Divine does not care if you are a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or an atheist. The Divine loves all equally. The shower of grace is there for everyone.

 The rituals and the customs will vary, but in the heart of the rituals and customs is the love of the human heart, is the devotion, is surrender, not to ideologies, but to the infinite one.
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How to Live in Harmony with Each Other Cont.
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In that surrender comes the ability to realize the Great, to know that the divine is with you, to feel that you are in all beings and all beings are within you. When you surrender your ego and the rational mind to the love and grace of the infinite, that unconditional love fills you. You realize there are not two. There is no separation. There is only one, one being, one truth, one infinite Self.

 You do not simply abide in the body, in the mind, in the rational thinking, in the judgments, in the beliefs. You abide in the feelings in the heart of all that is. The pain of everyone is your pain. The love, the joy, is your joy. The animals, the plants, they are a part of you.

This is where your unity lies from which compassion flows, compassion for the pain, the suffering, the blockages. Can you love your enemy deeply and fully as the embodiment of the infinite? Can you listen to the heart of that one, even if they cannot listen? Can you see the pain, the wounding that causes ill action towards other living beings, and perhaps see it reflected in your body-mind existence? Find compassion for others for their faults and failings as for your faults and failings.

Take your lead and your ideology not from leaders, not from what is popular. Go deep within to the unity and wholeness of being and there find your dharma. There, find your way through the failures of human society, through the conflicts that plague the world. There, find the true self which includes all beings great and small, those who fight for dharma and those who fight against it. They are all part of your own self. Those who walk in harmony and truth and those who walk in ignorance and do harm due to their ignorance, are all part of yourself.

Can you find the depths of compassion to love even as you may stop someone from harmful action or criticize that action? To do it out of love, to do it with kindness for that person? Can you find your love and commonality even through your differences? Act for dharma so that there may be kindness and love between living beings. Do not be part of the problem.
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enforcing dharma and knowing you are on the right side, as so many have acted in the past. Rather, see this complex world of shades of grey, shades, and hues of many colors, not simply black and white. Follow the complexity of the human mind and live in compassion for the suffering of living beings.

In so doing there is right action. If great harm is being done to the welfare of living beings, it is the right action to turn that harm away. It is not the right action to try to hurt and harm the soul, the spirit, and the wounded person doing the wrong action. Rather, turn that action, turn that person out of deep love and care for them. If you cannot find that care, if you cannot find that love, then go and meditate on that person and on finding the love, finding yourself in them, walking in their shoes until you find your compassion.

It does not mean to not act but it means to act in a different way out of a different motive. Anger is a natural thing. It comes, it rises in defense. There is no harm in anger. It is a natural human emotion not to be criticized by yourself or others. But you cannot remain in defense. You must go back, look at your defenses, and go into yourself, where you are feeling the need for defense. Where are you feeling threatened and therefore wanting to strike out, and surrender that to the infinite. Surrender it in your sadhana.

Let the divine be your defense. Let that flow into you. Wash your heart clean. Let you see your own self in the other, so there is not I and Thou, there is only the one. And the action that is right you will do, not to harm but to prevent harm. Not to crush but to prevent crushing. Not with hate but with love, with care for the other. Then right action comes. Not all conflicts find the common ground unless they come to the warmth of humanity—the pain and the weakness that causes ill action and the kindness that can heal that pain.

This is wisdom. Apply it in your daily life. Live in truth, kindness, and wisdom and you will walk the path towards the infinite, towards the unbound love. The peace that comes in the human heart when all of this restlessness of spirit and conflict is resolved and you are at peace, in kindness and compassion for all living beings. And that means all. Understanding those who you may see as different, those who you react to, and those whose ideology you disagree with. 

Namaskar

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