Spiritual Balance- the way to Unity.

Somehow I have come to dread arguments and hot debates, I once fell sick preparing for a class debate- Is technology a curse or a blessing? While the beautiful use of grammar, eloquence and the intelligent findings of debaters get me excited, I prefer to be a fan than to be a player in this battle of intellect finding expression through the words. Instead of heated arguments, I find myself being more inclined to calm, intelligent discourse, then I dont have to shout, to curse , to swear, to open wide my eyes or to stretch out my neck. My partner and I can calmly present our findings, and calmly try to make the other see reason instead of forcefully trying to impose ones idea on another. This brings me to the topic of today.. Spiritual balance. Spiritual Balance is about respect for the opinion of others, condescending to the truth that, our opinions may not always be accepted; not because they may be inaccurate, but because the world thrives on ideological differences. Spiritual Balance is conceding to others the right to state their own opinion: be it contrary to popular held- beliefs or not. One of the major causes of disunity in our contemporary world is caused by intolerance of diverse ideas. There is a continuous disparity between the whites and the blacks, the Christian and the Muslim, the capitalist and the communist, the Buddhists and the Hinduists etc. This disparity is caused by ideological differences and stubbornness and unwillingness to accommodate an opposing view which may seem to threaten the very foundation of our belief system. Truth is, no two people in the world of about 6 billion people are same, everyone is perpetually rare, and so to force someone into accepting your idea- its accuracy or inaccuracy notwithstanding is to be a psychological terrorist. God himself created a beautiful blend of variety. The universe itself self-acclaims that it successfully survives in the presence of

opposites- sun and moon, day and night, fire and water, winter and summer, harmattan and dry- season. No tall man has died out of shock of the shortness of a dwarf so to force a short man into wearing heels out of his own will so as to measure up to his lanky tall colleagues to be a terrorist- a psychological terrorist. To see another race, tribe, religion, as inferior is to be spiritually imbalanced. -

We need to come to the understanding that no race, tribe, religion, society, has all of the answers to lifes questions. Individually, we must come to the enlightenment that every man is trying to make a sense of the world around him; every man is vulnerable as another in the quest for higher knowledge. If you are a step higher than your counterpart, or non- counterpart, instead of seeing him as inferior or his ideas as sub-standard and baseless, you can stretch out to be a light to that fellow guiding him in meekness and quietness of spirit and a willingness to teach, not an intention to subdue. If the Individual has an opposing view to your own, he shouldnt instantaneously turn your enemy or a representative of an inferior tribe. We should give room for intelligent discourse, never getting offended at opposing views. It would in fact do the peoples of the world a lot good to find our similarities and focus on developing it, instead of concentrating on our differences and remaining at eternal loggerheads. Now, granted, there may be universal acceptable truths which one may dutifully ignore; out of wiring or out of ignorance, but like has been noted before, effective and intelligent discourse would prove effectual. I know fanatics may see this piece as disturbing and maybe un-intelligible, but before you go one step further I want you to think of what It would be like to have the power of choice forcefully taken away from you, think of the benefits of spiritual imbalancesenseless civil wars, political tyranny, disunity, social oppression, mind oppression etc. Recently a scholar friend of mine updated on his face book page that he didnt

believe that the whole was hatched by two people- Adam and Eve. He refused to accommodate the religious idea that everyone in this world came from the loins of Adam, and his argument was, If we all came from Adam- why do we have different skin color, races etc. A good number of scholars applauded his idea and then they took it a step further by debasing the Christian religion, the Holy Book and its believers. To defend her faith, Christian intellectuals also came up with their explanations and in record time- we had warriors of different tribes and ideology aggressively seeking to out-do one another in a battle of words. I tried to explain to them that people have a right to their opinion, arguing with one another or seeking anothers idea as inferior or his mind as myopic will do greater wrong than good. Nobody wants to feel oppressed, no one came from his mothers womb tied so freedom has always been the inherent nature of man, so to impose your idea forcefully on him is to threaten him and everyone who finds himself in such a position would always go to the defensive. The world is large enough to accommodate billions of ideas, lets give room for spiritual balance, walking with one another in wisdom and understanding. The Good Book says Follow peace with all men.. Lets embrace spiritual balance, holding on to the golden rule- Do as you would be done by!