A Personal Experience

I am a vegetarian. I am also a born pacifist. My life has been an eventful one and all the events of my life have, directly or indirectly, borne some relation to my peace-loving nature. 

Here, I would like to narrate a story which I still vividly remember. It was the year 1984 when I went to visit my elder brother A.A. Khan, who lived in Allahabad, India. His interests were very different from mine. He used to have in his possession two licensed guns and would sometimes go out hunting. When I went to see him, he organized a hunting expedition and asked me to accompany him and his friends. Although hunting was not in accordance with my temperament, I nevertheless agreed to go when my brother insisted.

We reached the outskirts of Allahabad in two cars. The environment there was like that of a jungle with many birds perched on tree tops. My brother wanted to hunt for a certain type of pigeon which was called kahlak in the local language. While he and his companions went off hunting, I stood to one side as an unwilling onlooker.

Then my brother approached, handed me a loaded 12-bore gun and urged me to aim for a kahlak with it. So I stood underneath a tree and sighted a kahlak perched on one of the branches. I placed the gun on my shoulder and tried to take aim. When the bird came within range and I had to simply press the trigger, a question suddenly came to my mind: why was I killing the bird? My conscience answered that I had no right to kill the bird. When I realized this, I could not press the trigger and returned the gun to my brother. I felt so disconcerted that I immediately left the place and travelled back alone to the Allahabad city by bus.

The culture of violence is apparently directed against someone else. But in fact it is against reality. When a violent person tries to kill another, he is not aware of the grave reality, that is, of the Angel of Death standing behind him. When he has killed others, he too, will, sooner or later, come into the grip of the Angel of Death, who will take him to the Lord of the Worlds to be held accountable for his deeds. If a person holding a gun were to remember this reality, he would never – for any reason whatsoever – aim it at anyone or press the trigger. He would only engage in peaceful struggle to achieve the purpose of his life. 

Whenever I hear news of terrorism, I always remember the above experience I had at Allahabad. I think that terrorists are also human beings just as I am. They have the same conscience as I have, so why does not their inner voice ask them why they are killing their fellow men? What right do they have to kill a person whom they did not create in the first place? They would not like anybody to kill them, then why perpetrate this crime against others? Are the terrorists made of stone? If the gun I was given to kill the bird fell from my hand, why do the guns not similarly fall from the hands of these terrorists when they are about to kill other people?

This thought troubles me time and again. I find that terrorists have become negative because they base their actions on a one-sided study of events. For example, a news report lists the books that are read by terrorists, most of which are on war.

This is evident from the collection of documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. These included the books which Bin Laden and his people had been reading. Some of them are America’s “War on Terrorism” by Michel Chossudovsky, Guerilla Air Defense: Antiaircraft Weapons and Techniques for Guerilla Forces by James Crabtree, Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward, The U.S. and Vietnam 1787-1941 by Robert Hopkins Miller, Bloodlines of the Illuminati by Fritz Springmeier.¹

This shows that the terrorists have become conditioned in negativity towards others. Perhaps they never come into contact with people who could decondition their minds. If the terrorists ever met such people, I am certain that they would rethink their philosophy and abandon their violent culture. Once their conscience became activated, they too would abandon their guns, just as I did.

There are many young people who have read my writings on peace and have been influenced by them. They have then decided to lead a peaceful life.

I have had many such related experiences. For example, in 1993 an extremist group put me on their hit-list. At that time, a young man entered my office one day in New Delhi when I was alone. I surmised that there must be a revolver in his pocket, as his hand never left his pocket. I thought for a moment and then I went up to him, and sitting next to him, I placed my hand on his head and said to him: ‘You see, I am like your father. My advice to you is to take admission in a school. I promise you that I will pay for your education till you have completed your studies.’ The young man fell silent and then he got up and quietly left with his head bowed.

There are many young people who have read my writings on peace and have been influenced by them. They have then decided to lead a peaceful life.

Terrorists are not basically corrupt individuals. They are rather wrongly conditioned human beings. We should try to alter their thinking by applying reason, and without doubt terrorism will disappear.