"The Will To Peace" Mrs. Rhys Davids

Summary

The article contrasts India's spiritual heritage with Western materialism, emphasizing India's historical prioritization of ethical and spiritual values over worldly power. It cites examples like the Jina, Buddha, Chandragupta, and Ashoka, who renounced power for spiritual pursuits or ethical governance. In contrast, the West, driven by militarism, economic values, and Nietzsche's "will to power," abandoned ethical considerations, leading to soulless civilizations and catastrophic wars. The author critiques science and philosophy for enabling this shift by denying spirituality in nature and life. Post-World War I, the West remains trapped in old political paradigms despite the devastation. The article calls for women to lead a peace movement, starting in nurseries by removing war toys and fostering spiritual values in future leaders. It advocates using psychology, akin to how physical sciences served war, to build an "army of peace." The author stresses the need to integrate spiritual principles into psychology, moving beyond mechanistic explanations to embrace Upanishadic ideals, fostering mental training for global betterment and replacing the "will to war" with the "will to peace."