Melody: A Peace of Harmony

MELODY

A PEACE OF HARMONY

"Peace is its own reward." - Mahatma Gandhi

Peace & Harmony seem like the two sides of the same coin. Every nation want's "peace" and "harmony", so is the need of other's in the world. 'Tis essential for a prolonged sustainability & development. But recently, I wanted to dig deep into the words, to know what difference lies in the seemingly synonymous & analogous words - or are they?

Peace, to me meant, the ability to remain calm and not account to actions (or words) that may disturb the rhythm of those around me. In the larger picture, peace means not only the ability to control ourselves, but to divert the destructive energy present within us into some sort of a divine or a holistic act. Philanthropy, I believe is a result of men in search of peace. Often it is said that 'Peace is a state of mind'. Challenging it is a double-edged sword. For eg., imagine a bird sitting on a bark of a tree. Now supposedly, the bird is at peace and if we were to throw a stone at it or even clap in front of it, the bird would move or atleast it shall not be able to maintain it's stature. So, the bird is now not at 'peace'? Some people say that when a person dies, s/he is at peace. Now, is death the absolute truth or the absolute answer? Should a person always 'die' in order to achieve peace? Well, for that we need to know a lot about death and I think I shall reserve that discussion for later. Coming back to the core, in totality we can say that the person who is not at 'peace' is 'disturbed'? It is like an arrow with no target. But an arrow must have a target else it might backfire! So, holistically, as we are the vessels of energy- it should mean that in order to channelize our energies constructively we must be able to have an aim, a target for our arrows. To focus on a particular task, physical or mental, we must be at peace. The brain must see what the eye can't. Try looking at the flame of a candle, with a constant stare and a linear thought process. We need a vision and not a sight to achieve. This is a cyclic process as peace brings focus and vice versa. Ancient practices, such as yoga, emphasizes on the relaxation that brings peace. It makes use of the breaths (air) to nullify or evict negative energy. 

"Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay." - Sallust

UNITY IN DIVERSITY:

Harmony is when more than one kind's of beings (even of same species) live together. Sure there's always a conflict when more than two minds meet together, but it is how we deal with those conflicts that define our harmony. People must be in sync with their surrounding beings, other people, animals, birds etc. The great philosophy of 'Don't harm if you can't help' must be taken seriously for establishing harmony. It is one of the best reasons that beings have survived over the course of time. Unity is what binds us, you can't break a bunch with same intensity as you can break an iota of something. The greatest example of harmony is the orchestra. Can we get a soothing tune without harmony? What if one of the instruments play in a tune, different to what is written? The outcome might not be 'peace-ful', I reckon! Another example is driving. In traffic, people from various families, jobs, various places come through to a single road. No matter how their day went thus far, they must be in a good rapport with their surrounding vehicles. Hence, a rhythm is created. The speed, velocity of one vehicle must match that of others. Any change in this rhythm shall lead to an unpleasant accident. So harmony does, save us and help us carry ourselves forward. Unity is that element of a society that can make or break the morals, question the authority for the just and the right cause. And just as focus & peace are a cyclic phenomena; unity & harmony are also cyclic - so much as to being synonymous! Complicating things a little, harmony is when both the eyes look at the same object, ergo - when eyes & the brain are in harmony that we see what we really see! So in simple words, harmony leads to focus which, in turn, leads to peace!

The conclusion of this post must contain the word 'Melody'. Just as the (momentarily) 'peace'ful musicians / instrumentalists play in 'harmony', we get a melody, for a healthy soul / spirit too peace & harmony is necessary. Melody in pure musical sense refers to a specific motif, such as a flute or a piano playing a 'center-tune', more popularly a 'solo'. Musically again, melody is deep while harmony is about being 'one'. Either way, these concepts are created by us so I am sure we can extend it's principle for our well-being. We are, after all, the most selfish of creatures on the planet!

“The limbo of life is like a song, a melody that comes around occasionally but that sticks in your head and never goes away.” - Leigh Hershkovich