The General Assembly of the United Nations Organization passed a Resolution on September 7, 2001, to observe September 21 as the International Peace Day. The Assembly declared that the Day be observed as the day of global ceasefire and non-violence. It invited all member-states, U.N. organizations, government and non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate the Day through education and public awareness. It is a tragic commentary on the state of moral sickness of the world that violence continued unabated in all the troubled parts of the world on the day of the International Peace Vigil.

The twentieth century has been a century marked by phenomenal progress in the fields of science, technology, communications, trade, commerce, transport, etc., but it has also been a century of wars and violence on a scale of destruction unprecedented in the history of the world. The devastation of the First World War moved the leaders of the warring nations to come together to discuss ways and means of ending wars and to resolve international disputes peacefully, as a result of which the League of Nations was formed. But it did not last as was expected because member nations were not prepared to sacrifice their national pride and selfishness for the larger—international—good. Robert Crosbie, the founder of the U.L.T. [United Lodge of Theosophists] said in one of his talks:

A league of nations could only fulfil its purpose by a common aim and by a like ideal. Such do not obtain. The nations are not alike. None of them have high ideals—not even our own nation, which should have the greatest ideal of humanity and of nature. Instead, our ideal is one common idea—of trading, of gaining dollars or possessions, of getting advantage and prestige over other nations. Such an ideal will never give us peace, will never bring happiness, content or right progress, and there will always be struggle until we change that ideal. A league of nations among similar selfish nations can only bring what self-interest always brings—disasters of some kind. The seeds of war are in it. (The Friendly Philosopher, pp. 306-7)

True to this prophecy, another (the Second) World War broke out on a scale and intensity far more devastating than the first, in which millions perished. Apalled by the death, destruction and misery unparalleled in history, the leaders of the warring western nations again got together to find ways and means to end wars. The result was the birth of the United Nations Organization [U.N.O.]. Reforms often follow bloody revolutions and wars, as a result of stirring of the conscience. The bitter experience of the two bloody world wars made the world leaders realize the truth that the seeds of war are in the minds of men and that it is from the minds that the causes of wars need to be eliminated. The U.N.O. was meant to resolve all international disputes peacefully by the collective wisdom of the member nations. A number of branch-organizations were founded in the U.N.O. to promote international co-operation in the field of health, education, culture, social and economic development, poverty alleviation, safeguarding human rights and so on. International laws and treaties were signed by member nations. Statesmen dreamed of a world-state governed by international law under which all nations would mutually co-operate for the common good of all. Desire for peace was evident.

Yet peace seems to be eluding the world. If in the field of science and technology astounding progress has been made for the benefit of mankind, the same science and technology have been used to forge more sophisticated and deadlier weapons of mass-destruction with which savage wars have been fought. To make things worse, the ugly head of religious fanaticism and terror has risen all over the world.

Not only war but many other man-made ills are threatening the stability of the life-supporting system of our earth. Polluting effluents and gases, discharged by global commercial and industrial activity, have destroyed many thousands of plant and animal species, and are threatening to exterminate many thousands more. Warning of the scientists regarding drastic alterations in the global climate leading to dire consequences like cataclysms is not heeded because nations pursue their narrow selfish goals of short-term gain. The gulf between the poor and the helpless, and the rich and powerful, is widening every day, and the former are made to bear the burden of a system designed to serve the interests of the latter.

It is evident that no lessons have been learnt from the two devastating World Wars. The follies of the past are repeated. The root of the problem, clearly pointed out by Robert Crosbie, remains. What is the remedy? How can selfishness of individuals and nations be restrained and their energies directed towards nobler ends? Ideas and beliefs that have no basis in truth and reality should inevitably lead mankind to bewilderment and sorrow, till truth in all things is learned and acted upon. One chief cause of strife, struggle and mutual exploitation in society lies, among other things, in the predominant western idea of "struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest," propounded by Darwin as the law by which evolution of species takes place. By it, man degrades himself and retrogresses to the animal level. Theosophy shows that it is only when this idea is seen to be invalid in the moral plane of being, in which absolute justice reigns and which is at the core of man's being, that man may raise himself higher to godlike perfection.

As the great French Orientalist Émile Burnouf, shows, "struggle for life" operates in the plant kingdom and less so in the animal world as they rise on the ladder of evolution in which the Law of Sacrifice begins to manifest itself. Burnouf writes:

In man, these two laws counterbalance one another, and the law of sacrifice, which is that of charity, tends to assume upper hand, through the empire of the reason. It is reason which, in our societies, is the source of right, of justice, and of charity; through it we escape the inevitableness of the struggle for life, moral slavery, egoism, barbarism, in one word, that we escape from what Sakyamuni poetically called the power and the army of Mara. (Lucifer, August 1888)

As man evolves higher, morally and spiritually, the more the Law of Sacrifice becomes the ruling impulse in his life. It is the teaching of the ancient Wisdom-Religion that the Universe originated and is sustained and evolved by the Law of Sacrifice—Yajna, and Man, the highest product of evolution, is the exemplar of this Law. Hence, Shri Krishna says, "Adhiyajna [Great sacrifice] is myself in this body" (Gita VIII). Theosophy says that at the present stage of man's evolution, selfishness and brutality are abnormal.

It is the mission of the Theosophical Movement to cleanse the race mind of false ideas and sow seeds of right ideas based on true knowledge of Man and Nature. H.P.B. writes:

It is not the policy of self-preservation, not the welfare of one or another personality in its finite and physical form that will or can ever secure the desired object and screen the Society from the effects of the social "hurricane" to come; but only the weakening of the feeling of separateness in the units which compose its chief element. And such a weakening can only be achieved by a process of inner enlightenment. It is not violence that can ever insure bread and comfort for all; nor is the kingdom of peace and love, of mutual help and charity and "food for all," to be conquered by a cold, reasoning, diplomatic policy. It is only by the close brotherly union of men's inner SELVES, of soul solidarity, of the growth and development of that feeling which makes one suffer when one thinks of the suffering of others, that the reign of justice and equality for all can ever be inaugurated. (Lucifer, August 1888)

A person may teach a truth and yet may not be that truth, by virtue of living it. But he cannot impart a truth in its vitality, so that it fructifies—an energetic impulse of power—in other lives, unless he possesses that life-impulse by reason of his having become it. He cannot give what he has not.

—J. Campbell Ver Planck