The assassination of Benezir Bhutto of Pakistan compelled this blogger to understand why a cause, based on right ideas, is unstoppable.
Can a cause live on when the reformer gives her life? The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, devastated her countrymen in Pakistan and stunned the international community. Bhutto was a force for democratic change.
Visionary? Yes. Committed? Absolutely. Bhutto returned to the upheaval in Pakistan from relative safety in France to lead the charge against the current regime. What is it that always seems to put reformers in harm’s way…and threatens to jeopardize the progress that they represent?
The simple answer is that reformers create enemies who insist on stopping reform by whatever means. Reformers know this. In her life Bhutto likely received numerous death threats. But clearly, this was not enough to stop her from engaging in the fight.
The reformer and his enemy are inverted images: the reformer disregards the prospect of physical harm in the interest of the greater good, while the enemy looks to preserve his own power base, regardless of the pain and suffering of others. One is selfless, the other selfish.
Mary Baker Eddy , herself a 19th century revolutionary in the fields of theology, medicine and women’s rights, wrote: “The reformer has no time to give in defense of his own life’s incentive, since no sacrifice is too great for the silent endurance of his love. What has not uselfed love achieved for the race? All that ever was accomplished and more than history has yet recorded.”
There is no doubt that violence is a shock, but can it truly stop progress? Not if the force impelling the reformer is spiritual, divine. For then it is a living and eternal idea.
Several years ago Benazir Bhutto herself observed: “You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.”
Bless you, Benazir Bhutto. For therein lies the protection and superior power of the reformer’s vision. Ideas that advance a civilization, bless the citizenry and bring an improved view of enlightenment spring from humanity’s inevitable evolution to a higher state of consciousness that more fully embodies our unity with God. Wouldn’t it be clear then that God is supporting — even causing — this progress?
Who, then, could successfully oppose this power?
Whatever Benazir Bhutto stood for, in the direction of good and progress, remains. She knew it and we can too. The world's spiritual community can stand with her followers in this difficult time, praying to know that the power of good -- God -- is supreme. This is our act of unselfed love for the Pakistanis, and for the entire world. The progress will continue.
