Violence does not arise in a vacuum. It comes about when there is separation. Separation breeds conflict. It begins the moment we divide ourselves from others—by race, by religion, by language.
We start to believe that “we” are different from “them.” Worse still, we begin to believe that we are superior. When a group proclaims, “Only we possess the truth. Only we walk the righteous path. Only we shall reach Heaven,” that claim, in itself, becomes an act of violence.
It may not shed blood immediately, but it fuels the fire that eventually will. To eradicate violence committed in the name of religion, we must examine the very foundations upon which such violence is justified.
When religions elevate themselves as the exclusive gatekeepers of salvation or divine truth, they implicitly devalue the rest. That seed however pious it may appear is dangerous.
Some say, “Violence is human nature. Everyone has a violent side.” But what if that isn’t nature—it’s conditioning? We are born into a world that divides. We are taught, whether subtly or explicitly, who belongs and who doesn’t. What’s sacred and what’s profane. Who’s saved and who’s damned. We grow into the roles expected of us. We act out the violence we’ve absorbed, often without even realizing it.
To truly overcome violence, we must go deeper than just "being peaceful." We must understand the roots of violence itself.
To understand violence is not to suppress it, ignore it, or pretend to be non-violent while seething inside.
To understand violence is to see where it begins in our minds, in our thoughts, in our identifications. This requires a radical shift. One must step outside of the identities that fuel division: No religious allegiance, No nationalistic pride, No racial superiority.
Only from this place of inner clarity where we no longer belong to any ideological tribe can we begin to see violence for what it is: a conditioned response, not an inevitable one.
Peace, then, is not the opposite of violence. It is the quiet that comes after truthful seeing. It is the space that remains when separation is no longer needed.
