TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

objective. After the emergence of nuclear weapons, war has become a thing to be abhorred and abandoned. When we can see that resorting to war shows no positive results, waging it, far from being a wise step, is nothing short of madness. It is believed by some that the establishment of peace requires a world government. This would require an armed police force and an army, on the strength of which peace would be established all over the world. But this concept of world government is impracticable, for it would only serve the purpose in a very limited way. The scheme of world government for establishing peace is far from ideal. Let us suppose that such a world government were to come into being. It would be able to establish peace only at the level of administration. In other words, this projected world government could at best establish social peace. But what is more important than this is mental peace, which cannot be brought about by any world government. Peace in the form of social stability, as enforced by established governments, was prevalent in the monarchies of ancient times. But the desired results could never be achieved. The Roman Empire provides one such example. During its rule which lasted for more than a thousand years, it established peace over a large area of the globe. This was known as the Pax Romana. But in spite of the establishment of peace for such a long period of time, no scientific or intellectual progress could be made. This shows that, in spite of the desirability of social peace, it would only be partially useful for human progress. The real process of human progress is set in motion only when the individuals making up society have the capability for peaceful thinking. Along with peace as an external manifestation, it is essential for human progress that people have internal peace, so that they do not live lives full of unnecessary tension, stress and contradictions. The most essential condition for human progress is that the thinking process once set in motion, should not in encountering obstacles, become perverted. This is essential to the development of one’s personality. Only by this process can the individual attain to the highest spiritual and intellectual level. So far as external peace is concerned, it is necessary for everyone to cooperate in order to maintain it. But any individual can achieve inner peace of mind, by one's own personal decision.