It was the day of investiture ceremony in one of the battalions in an Army unit in Srinagar. The whole area for the prestigious programme was well-guarded by army officers, and decorated, becomingly for the function. The most important guest was the army general with all the subordinate officers of different ranks till the last one on the ground. All the officers were seated; a classical music concert was to begin. There were nearly 50-60  musicians with various instrument as violin, guitar, accordion, banjo, drums, bugle, cello, flute, French horn, harmonica, harp, key board, organ, table, piano, saxophone , sitar, trombone, trumpet, etc. All the players had one instrument in hand. 

The music master was a young officer. There was spell-bound silence. The master gave the nod at the right time, and directed the performance. Though there were so many instruments, the whole music was one melodious voice in perfect unison. It was wonderful to observe the music master so attentive, alert, sensitive and commanding to direct the whole show. The performance  went on for a quarter of an hour, and all enjoyed the excellent moment. No one could observe any lack of orderliness, domination of any instruments or anything else. It was in one breadth HARMONIOUS. 

Harmonious living is a lovely experience. We can reflect on it in numerous ways.  Harmonious living is gracious; harmony is kind-hearted; it is warm; it is benevolent; it is friendly; it is considerate; it is well-mannered; it is accommodating; it is compassionate; it is human and also divine. To live a harmonious life is a call to everyone; hence it is grace; it is an imparting of blessing; it is living in loveliness; with all these descriptions we can say that it is a wonderful thing to experience harmony and to proclaim harmony. 

Harmonious life diffuses by itself; it is its nature; as perfume diffuses itself so is harmonious life. Gentle breeze under a tree is most lovely and benevolent, so is harmonious life; as cool wind is most resilient, so is harmonious life. Resilience enables us to cope with evil things and ways, so is harmonious life; Harmonious ways are gracious in defeat  and also reserved in victory; no one can come on the way to harmony; as no one can come against  benevolence, compassion and goodness. The fact is that harmony can always recognize the unpleasant things as part of life, but it never confronts the evil in open, it tries to accommodate; in the process the evil vanishes; that is the style of harmony. 

Harmony is practiced in all cultures. The core of Chinese culture is harmony; the essence of Zen and Taoism is harmony; the essence of Hinduism is tolerance and harmony; the core of Buddha’s teachings is harmony; same is the core of Koran; for the Japanese people this is a venerable word or rather a most-kept secret to life-work and for every approach. The most attractive is the teaching of Jesus Christ, where he extols compassion not as an option but as a command; no one can ignore his valuable teaching in which all  are challenged to be forgiving and compassionate without placing any limit.