According to legends, early in his carrier, Dsingis Khan the Mongol, was taken as a war prisoner and they kept him in a cage. A buddhist monk visited him, saying that I have seen You in my dream to become one ofthe mightiest emperor the world had ever seen. Please, when You will be free again, spare my monastary from destruction. Dsinghis answered that all right, I will spare it, but first you have to kill the guards and hand me over the keys of my prison. The Monk said , maybe I can handle the keys, but I can not kill the guards, my religion bans it. Dsingis said: All right then fetch me the keys, I will kill the guards myself, my religion forbids killing.
You shall not murder says the Bible. It sounds as an absolutum. However this commandment is a little bit different from a general and full ban of killing. And the organized killing, called war is a permanent phenomenon of all time in human history. It does not seem to go away very soon.
In India they developed an attitude. called Ahimsa. It is a major precept in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism... which means that one shall not cause injury to others by deeds, words, and thoughts. However even in Hinduism or Buddhism, Ahimsa does not imply pacifism. Even in East Asia they had to create rules for the so called just war when war is unavoidable. They also had to create the rules for self-defense, the rules of criminal punishment. Although war was many times unavoidable, at least they maintained the ideal concept of the non-harming, non-hurting principle, and it was commonly held that peace itself is more desirable than war.
It can be surprising but some socities, like the Vikings, the mediaval Mongols and Turks, and some others they worshipped war, and were engaged almost in permanent warfares.
Once upon a time there was a warrior nation, called the Szekler, settled in Eastern Transylvania, as border guardians at the Eastern Gates of the Hungarian Kingdom. Every single male was a soldier. When they were called under the war flag, whosoever did not show up, unless they were bedridden sick, they lost their heads. They fought endless wars against the enemies. Their military training started at the age of three.
In the very year of 1241, the Mongol army showed up to conquer Eastern Europe. The Mongols, led by Batu Khan, the grandson of the legendary emperor, Dsinghis Khan, who had already crashed the Russian and the Polish forces and he was determined that he will take Hungary, including its Eastern Door, Transylvania. The Szeklers barricaded the mountain passege-ways, but after a while the Mongols brake through. At this time also the Hungarian Royal Army had been already crashed. No other regular forces remained standing in the country, but the Szeklers.
When the Szeklers faced the mighty Mongols in a valley between two mountains, a very young warrior saw a contemplating shadow on his father’s forehead. His father was a veteran of the so called crusader wars, as two decades before he had served in the expeditional Hungarian Royal Army fighting for the reposession of Jerusalem, alongside with the English, German and French troops.
'Hey dad, what is it about', the young men asked. 'Are you afraid of the Mongols? It looks like they have a million soldiers and we hardly have one thousand.'
' I am afraid my son' he answered 'that in this case we really have to arm the women too, just as in ancient times. Poor Mongols, I pity them, they will not know who and what will hit them, but son, what I am really anxiuos about, is that: where in the land we will bury one million dead Mongols? That gives me a headache.'
The Hebrew commandment says You shall not murder, however it is clear from the Bible that the Hebrew concept is also not pacifist. There are the rules established for the just war, for capital punishment, for self-defense. Justice and mercy in balance.
In the Bible the Lord says that the vengeance is mine, you just let your ways be adjusted by me and do not be annoyed by the wicked because they seem to be blossoming and seemly avoiding deserved punishments.
I take vengeance says the Lord. Yes, all is right, when the Lord do justice himself. We will triumph with him. It is satisfying, and moreover beautiful. However some claim that at least sometimes the Lord is late with justice and re-compensation. Or there seem to be nothing at all regarding divine judgment, solution, resorting of rights, creating justice. It looks that the solving ways of Heaven and the Divine methods differ from what we expect. It is written in the second letter of the Apostle Peter that The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The scripture says it again that the Lord pays to everyone according to their merits. It should mean that everybody gets just what they deserve.
But what about the children losing legs on minefields, babies starving to death with their parents together, workers enslaved for low wages, citizens imprisoned by dictatorships. Is it fair, is it just, is it right, or moreover we can ask, is it divinely fair, divinely just, divinely right ?
Often it does not look right but the calculations in the accounting books of the Lord is complex, it is multigenerational, it is community sensitive, and it is going deep into the souls, not just scratching the visible surface. It is a huge job maintaining and sustaining the wholeness of the creation including the animated and inanimated, and keeping a balance among powers and forces in our bodies and minds, on the Earth, in the Solar system, in the galaxy, in the whole universe, in the physical and in the spiritual realms.
The LORD keeps records of everything, regardless if they are tiny or huge things or personalities, occurrings, happenings, deeds and speeches, thoughts or desires, wishes, wills and even temptations. In the creation there is a great divine law that every consequence has a cause, and every cause has a consequence, or even multiplied consequences.
If someone hates an other person, it immediately affects the hater himself creating a micro-hell in his own heart and his own mind person. No doubt that a wrongdoer usually doing wrong to the others, but first of all he is harming himself, injuring and destroying his own soul, and consequently his entire entity, sooner or later including his body. This is the law, as it is written: Whoever sows injustice, he will reap calamity.
If you do anything wrong you can not avoid calamity. If you kill, you become a murderer. If you steal, you become a thief. If you committing adultery, you become a marriage breaker, if you lie you become a liar, and the earthly hell is just created by you for yourself and for the people involved in it. You are what you do.
Moving into the opposite direction is not only possible or recommended, it is commanded. If you did anything good, like feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty, you become the generous and also the blessed as it is written for ever: Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. If you save lives by risking your own, you become courageous and caring, if you work hard for the common good, you become unselfish, and so on, you are what you do.
Creating a small EDEN in your heart and around you for the people you make involved, is a must, though we shall take heed that earthly hells, OR our peacefilled, good will hunting, earthly edens are both temporary, they are only a transition room toward eternity.
Thus as long as we are here, we are here to prepare ourselves for the full admission into Heaven, the Kingdom of the Father, living through the acts and deeds of true love, honesty, goodness and the AHIMSA, by the merit of Jesus Christ our teacher wp, in the Holy Spirit,
AMEN.
