‘Non Violence’ or ‘Not Violent--’

If somebody strike you suddenly with the question, Are you violent person? What would you likely answer? Nope (with confidence) or Noh (with little stammer) or oh yea I was But once upon a time and not anymore or etc. etc. All responses would be based on past experience of being not violent or violent. But the quest here is to explore if ‘not violent’ person suffice upholding of the principle of ‘Non-Violence’. If somebody uses ‘Non-violence’ and ‘Not-Violent’ interchangeably it may not grab the attention of many laymen like me. I am trying to segregate formidable synonyms where both appear so similar yet could be ocean wide apart. Let me try to put up my own argument and tore apart the two for both are antithesis of each other though it may sounds alike (according to me with least concern what other thinkers have said).

 Non-violence is a principle. To be in state of Non-Violence is to proclaim to be upholder of non-violence. It means to completely denounce violence, It is proved during tested times, It is to be attained or reached upon, It is a way of life covering every aspect of lives. Its perfection is hard to attain but one may considered attended its astute when domination of Non-violence over all other approach in his life. Non-violence is a principle which is abided by it and it alone unconditionally. But, it is also the victim of its own goodness, it is either museumized or idolized and hardly practice. To be in state of Non-violence is to persuade non-violence in oneself and on to fellow human being.   

My suspicion of the reason when a ‘person is not violent’ goes beyond the code of non-violence mention above. Are we not violent just because our threshold of getting violent has not been tested?  it means lack of opportunity to ignite this threshold? Are we not violent people because of the consequences violence produce? Or for the reason the violence itself is wrong and immoral? If the reason is the former one then we have expertise the art of living a deceiving life. There is no guarantee that our thought is not violent but it is just that it is not acted out which makes us a cowardice with dual face. This means we could compromise so many other aspects of our lives values, standard or moral at opportune time without any difficulty. Being in state of not violent hyper activates our imaginative visualization, at will we may kill or knock down a person thousand times without even make a slightest of angry gesture.  It is like a dormant volcano where its activation is completely unpredictable and just waiting opportunity for its outburst. Being in state of not-violent one can profess it very comfortably and even preach but instigate violence very characteristically. Their imagination and creativity could bring out cases and situation where non-violence could be held at stake, conditioned, superficial or its concept extended. Like in Muna bahi MBBS a Gandhian thrashing the villain blue and black just because Gandhi says nothing about how to treat who slap on the second chin. Many systems in our society may be not-violent yet fails scrutiny of code of Non-Violence. Ironically those systems are the one promoting and polarizing violence and on the other hand even the very reason of controlling much destructible violence that could happen. Prevention or controlling of violence violently is a classic example of the system.

So the question is, are we not violent consciously or unconsciously? It could be very dangerous if we are unconsciously not violent and don’t have the right reason for not being violent. Look at our society today. More people were killed or injured not by the one who profess violent (terrorist or goons) but by the normal citizens. State have mechanism to handle and control violence from the one who profess it but System or law has no solution to control the diverse nature of problem lease out by eruption of not-violent people. The helplessness is for the one who are bearer of the violence yet act out a live of not-violent life. It is hard to be healed as they hardly get activate and it stay in unconscious state. I am equally susceptible to this social virus. After thinking a lot I concluded I am equally helpless and so all I could do is kept myself busy instigating peace consciously for I may outgrow the little devil in me someday.