BBC Radio 4 2015-11-17

Good morning. Yesterday, millions of us across Europe observed silence for the victims of the senseless killings in Paris. And, in those moments of contemplation, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person plagued by the question – what can we do to make things better?

President Hollande has declared that France is at war and will destroy IS. Britain and America are negotiating with Russia a strategy for Syria. And various European countries wish to tighten border controls and security measures.

These are normal political reactions and, in Hindu terms, perhaps in keeping with the dharma or duty of government to protect its people and gain justice for victims of violence. Indeed, it’s stated in the Purana scriptures that the perpetrators of aggression should be dealt with by force, lethal if necessary. Dharma defines this duty in a specific way: it is not that aggressors deserve to die; it’s that they deserve to be protected from committing further aggression.

But, in the Hindu texts, wherever force is accepted as the appropriate expedient course of action, it is balanced by the caveat that it contains the seeds of future karmic consequence. Hence, the more precisely and carefully force is exercised, the less it may contribute to fuelling hate, vengeance, radicalisation and the desire for retribution.

In the Puranas, the saint, Prahlad, warns that, even when necessary, using force to resist aggression remains problematic because it relies on the concept of defining who are our “friends” and who our “enemies”. Prahlad witnessed his own father being violently deposed because of his tyranny – so he understood the need for lethal action in exceptional circumstances. But, he saw this tendency to define “us” and “them” as the perpetual cause of conflict in human society.

Hindu texts encourage us to see with the vision of the oneness of all people, indeed all life: a concept known as ekatvam. Like sparks from a great fire, we are all created from the same divine source and share the same spiritual identity. In the outpourings of solidarity with the victims in Paris and their grieving relatives and friends, we can sense this mood of empathy and connectedness. Of course, it is far harder to extend such vision of oneness to those who are avowed to kill us for what they see as the liberal freedoms and the imperialist crimes of our countries.

If we are to mitigate the spectre of such terrorism, we will undoubtedly need the resolute use of force to curb immediate threats. But, to achieve long-term resolution and peace, I would hope that we invoke the mood of universal oneness - and demonstrate the power of our own civilisation to rise beyond “friends” & “enemies” and to promote and uphold the material and spiritual welfare of all people.