Differences and unity 1

One of the main reasons that we lose our peace is that we perceive differences. When there is an opinion which is different from that of mine, we tend to lose peace. As long as our opinions are same we are happy. We are hostile to other people, from different religious background, political affiliation, different castes, creeds, races, spoken languages, body colours, cultures etc. In these entire cases one thing that repeatedly crops up is “difference” or atleast the perceived difference. We hate a different religion because they do not follow our avowed path and principles promulgated by our great man or men and we think that they are bereft of God and thus will have no salvation. We hate people from other races and having other body colours/cultures because we think they are either inferior or are vain. If we look around we see that nature begets difference. We see countless manifestations in nature – fishes, insects, birds, lower animals, higher animals, plants, trees, shrubs, mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, flowers, fruits, even stones and rocks, bacteria and viri and other microscopic organisms. If nature would have been of one variety life would have been as dull as ditch water. Because there is such a wide variety that life is interesting. However when it comes to human beings we tend to think that if every one would have been like us, things would have been much better. If everybody belonged to one religion (now a days there is much talk about a universal religion, without knowing that such things have been attempted in the past and are failures) probably there would be no religious strife or hatred. People tend to easily forget that even within one so called religion there are so many sects and sub sects and each of them is fighting with the other for supremacy. So the whole question of religion becomes nothing but demonstration as to who is more powerful than others. Naturally it’s the numerically superior or militarily mightier who has more power and who is keener to bring others along the same path. The poet rightly said, “In this world one who has a lot wants more and more.”  Since there are so many varieties in nature and yet we do not lose our sleep over them but differences in human nature and affiliations tend to make us restless, it is clear that the differences in human world are more of a perceived difference than natural difference. There are so many different faces and body shapes and sizes and yet, what we are more obsessed with are differences of opinion, be it religious, social or political. Thus we perceive differences when we follow our ego. Those who are keener on leveraging the differences are the politicians of various hues.