LOVE
AND HATRED
We live in a world of dualities such as life and death, good
and bad, success and failure, now and then , fast and slow, body and soul,
flowers and thorns, great and small, love and hatred, etc.
These
dualities co-exist in every part of the world. It is for the people there to
choose either of them and reap the benefits or disadvantages of their choice.
Love is affection, fondness, regard,
warmth, intimacy, togetherness, attachment,
etc. Hatred is dislike, ill-will, enmity, animosity, repulsion, antipathy, etc.
Love unites, hatred divides; love
attracts, hatred repels; love breeds peace, hatred generates discord; love
creates warmth, hatred produces cold; love promotes strength, hatred nourishes weakness;
love means harmony and togetherness, hatred stands for disharmony and
separation.
In a multi-religious and multicultural
society, harmony in social life depends upon love for one and all. This
phenomenon is better known as unity in diversity. Here, one has to sincerely
believe that we all are the children of the same God. Our religions are different, we worship God
in diverse places of our belief but our
objective is not unidentical. We live under the same sky and receive light from
the same sun. We have a common earth and a common divine law about life and
death. So our survival rests on love, not hatred.
A Sufi saint defines love as wisdom
and wisdom as love.
Finally, the
following words of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) : “When we voluntarily embrace healthy
rules – both socially and in our personal lives – we can ensure peace and
harmony in the world.”
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G.R.Kanwal
23 July 2024
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