Why is there a sudden war between India and Pakistan? Is this an economic war or a political war? The war between India and Pakistan is very much human-induced and a result of failures. It was reported that the Pakistani terrorists killed 26 tourists at Pahalgam in Kashmir. Were they really Pakistani terrorists? No one knows. If they were really from Pakistan, then how could they make an easy entry to the tourist spot, kill the innocent tourists mercilessly and disappear from the scene? Is this not clear evidence of a serious failure on the part of India?

To date, not a single terrorist has been arrested. But the Indian government decided to initiate a war. The Indian armed forces successfully executed 'Operation Sindoor' in the early hours of Wednesday, May 7, 2025, carrying out targeted strikes on nine "terrorist infrastructure" sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

As per the UCA news, at least 10 people, including a woman and two students of a Catholic school located in Poonch, India's border region of Kashmir, were killed due to strikes from Pakistan. Who will take responsibility for these war deaths? Most of us born after World War II have witnessed the "horrifying scenes" of a war between Russia and Ukraine. Now we have started witnessing war scenes in India and Pakistan.

I received two WhatsApp messages about war. One message read: "War is a place where young people who do not know each other and do not hate each other kill each other, by the decision of old people who know each other and hate each other, but do not kill each other." The second message by Arundhati Roy read: "Pakistan and India are not at war, but their governments are. Their business communities, film industries, and people are not fighting each other. This war is actually a drama created by the ruling elite on both sides, which benefits from fear and hatred. The Indian and Pakistani ruling elite keep nationalism and the Kashmir issue alive to divert their people's attention from poverty, inequality, atrocities and government failures."

So, the innocent people have become victims of insensitive, egoistic and greedy political leaders. Why do the political leaders become mad and engage in merciless killings? All to acquire more power and control. There seems to be no end to their greed.

At this stage, I wish to quote an incident that occurred 25 years ago. A NASA mission was leaving the Solar System. At the request of Carl Sagan, it was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take one last photo of the Earth across a great expanse of space. Sagan's words spoken and written are still relevant today. His brilliant words will bring us to our real senses.

"That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being whoever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, and hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast, cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilt by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they can become momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds!"

"Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known."

Every human being comes into this world empty-handed and will leave this world empty-handed. This is the truth. If so, why should we lead a greedy life, consuming and accumulating as much wealth as possible at the cost of marginalised communities or depriving someone else? Need can be fulfilled, but greed can never be fulfilled.

The Bhagavad Gita tells us: "What have you lost that you cry for? What did you bring that you have lost? What did you create that was destroyed? What you have taken, has been from here. What you gave, has been given here. What belongs to you today belonged to someone yesterday and will belong to someone else tomorrow."

The important lesson that we must learn from the ongoing war is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—the whole universe is a joint family. All who live in this universe—human beings, every living creature, and nature—are members of one joint family. Lokaha Samastaha, Sukhino Bhavantu—May all beings in the universe be happy and free. Let not human pride and failures pave the way to war.