It often happens that if one person is hurt by
another, or one group suffers at the hands of
another, revenge is perceived as the immediate
goal. Those who are bent on revenge tend to forget
the warning of history—a warning inscribed on
every wall in silent language: Think before seeking
vengeance, that vengeance will be met with
vengeance. In this way a chain of violence is built
up, continues, and is brought to a conclusion only
when both sides are so depleted in energy and
resources that they are no longer able to exact
vengeance.
Whenever an individual or a group has any cause
for complaint, the solution lies not in retaliatory
activities, but rather in continuing to move forward
by adopting a policy of avoidance of conflict. Such
avoidance puts an end to the problem at the very
outset, while refusal to ignore the problem leads to
an unending chain reaction of hatred, revenge and
violence. Thus, the policy of avoidance of conflict is
the way of the peace-loving, while that of revenge is
the way of the violent.
Revenge is always directed against another but, in
actual fact, the greatest victim is the one who opts
for this course. The heavy price to be paid for this
revenge policy is that his mind becomes a
storehouse of negative thinking. Instead of
expending his resources on building his life, he
begins to squander them on the destruction of
others.
Say, an antagonist had caused him to use up fifty
percent of his energies, resources, etc., he would
himself, as a result of his policy of revenge, fritter
away the other 50%.
Taken to logical extremes, revenge would imply
that after an attempt on one’s life, one would launch
out on a course which would end in one’s own
death! The truth is that revenge is an evil, whatever
the circumstances, while refraining from revenge by
ignoring the matter at issue is at all events a virtue.
If the taker of revenge is your enemy, after
returning revenge for revenge, you become your
own enemy. And those who turn their own enemy
cannot be saved from destruction by anyone.
Ref -The Ideology of Peace
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
