Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination: A Very Sad Day For All Peace Loving People in the World

Anytime someone kills a world leader such as Benazi Bhutto, a woman fighter, a mother and a wife, it is a sad day for all women around the world. It certainly is also a sad day for all peace loving human beings, no matter their political or religious orientation. Let us all take off our beautiful garments and mourn the death of a great world heroin. Let’s all stand and sigh at how cruel the world is, and yet, how in all of the ashes of heroes, more powerful leaders spring forth much stronger than before.

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A Garden Beyond Paradise Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same. Every wondrous sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade. But do not be disheartened, The Source they come from is eternal— growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy. Why do you weep?— That Source is within you, and this whole world is springing up from it. The Source is full, its waters are ever-flowing; Do not grieve, drink your fill! Don’t think it will ever run dry— This is the endless Ocean! From the moment you came into this world, a ladder was placed in front of you that you might transcend it. From earth, you became plant, from plant you became animal. Afterwards you became a human being, endowed with knowledge, intellect and faith. Behold the body, born of dust— how perfect it has become! Why should you fear its end? When were you ever made less by dying? When you pass beyond this human form, no doubt you will become an angel and soar through the heavens! But don’t stop there. Even heavenly bodies grow old. Pass again from the heavenly realm and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness. Let the drop of water that is you become a hundred mighty seas. But do not think that the drop alone becomes the Ocean— the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan is a very sad day in the world. This brutal bloodshed comes at a time in history when women are venturing out to take on more roles as world leaders. She was not only a powerful political person in the world and could have been the next President of Pakistan had she lived, but she was also a mother and a wife.

I came to Chicago to attend a conference and arrived in my room here downtown Chicago after a long flight from Pittsburgh. As usual, I turned on the TV to find check up on the news in this Midwestern town before getting out on business, and to my surprise, there is the grim news of the death of another world leader, a woman, and a mother of tremendous courage. As a woman myself, a mother, a wife, a peace loving individual, I take this time to salute a heroin who died for what she believed. She may not have been the most perfect person on earth, but her death is a loss to the world and to the Middle East.

May her soul rest in peace.

Poem taken from Jelaluddin Rumi, “A Garden Beyond Paradise”,
A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi
(translated by Jonathan Star), Bantam Books, NY, 1992, pp. 148-149