When You Win, You Sometimes Lose

5th March 2006
When you win, you sometimes lose!
There is strength in peace; there is strength in calmness; there is strength in love — which goes unnoticed. What you cannot win with a stick, you can win with love. What you cannot win with guns, you can win through love. This power of love needs to be realised. The most powerful
thing in the world is love! We can win the hearts of people through love.
The victory that comes out of ego is worth nothing. Even if you win in ego, it is a loss. Even if you lose in love, it’s a victory! Making people realise this innermost strength that we all have is the
challenge!You cannot talk about love when a terrorist is at your door, but is there some way in which we can transform the world? Is there any alternative method that can bring sense to people who
do not listen to anything, other than force?
We can only start thinking along these lines when we realise that there is enormous power in love, that there is enormous strength in inner peace. When we are peaceful, we radiate that peace around us, to the people around us... and they also become calm. In these times, when there is war and disease in the world, it’s so important that we all
meditate a little bit everyday for when we meditate, we nullify those vibrations, creating a more harmonious environment around us.
I would call War the Worst Act of Reason: W. A. R.
For every war there is some reason. Sometimes it becomes unavoidable. Like an operation.There is a wound, a scar, a cancerous cell in one’s body. We operate, but after the operation,the nursing is so essential. We need to nurse that part which has been operated.Don’t think, ‘‘What can I do?’’ When the world has a problem, don’t think you are insignificant. You too have a role to play. You know a tiny homeopathic pill, which has a
1/100th or 1/1000th potency, makes an impact on a body, which is 70 kilos! In the same way, every individual — everyone who is breathing, talking, walking, thinking — has an influence on this cosmos, on this planet. So we can all radiate peace, good thoughts, good vibrations, good wishes. And that will definitely make an impact on the planet.
There is beauty in non-violence; there is beauty in non-aggressive behaviour. These, unfortunately, have not been highlighted either by our media or by our surroundings. This ishappening everywhere in the world. Children take pride in being violent. If they lose their temper, they feel that its normal.
One who is very aggressive in the classroom gets more attention than one who is peaceful, isn’t it? So children grow up feeling: ‘‘If I am aggressive, then I have my way.’’ We need to bring back the pride in being non-violent, the pride of Mahatma Gandhi’s, ‘‘I’ve not hurt anybody in my whole life’’. If we could instil this pride in being non-violent in children, then their entire lives will take a new direction.
Also smile more!Look at a teenager or a boy (or girl) who goes to college. Do they really smile? See the heaviness in their faces, the heaviness in their hearts. A child is so happy — walking, moving,
jumping around, and then that same child goes through college to become so sad, upset and depressed! Is this the purpose of our education?
You know, sometimes I feel like shaking everybody, ‘‘Ay! Come On! Smile!’’ I read some research recently that said, a baby smiles 400 times a day, an adolescent only 17 times and an adult doesn’t smile at all! If you smile, you think something might be robbed from you! What is it that you lose?
I think we need to shake ourselves up! Wake up! Just do something to our lives! When we wake up from this slumber, when we have peace in our hearts, we can radiate that peace and love around us.
Only a few people in the world cause terror, not the whole population. Of the six billion people on this planet, there’ll be a handful who cause problems in the world. There are hardly a few thousand who cause crime, but the whole world is affected. Don’t you think that with the same law the reverse will also work?Just a few of us, a few thousand of us, being really peaceful, loving and caring for the whole planet — can we not bring a transformation? If we all have one habit — of giving smiles to people, of smiling at all the problems that we may face, can we not bring about a transformation?

Jai Gurudev.