War cannot disappear by the efforts of people who call themselves pacifists. War cannot disappear because of Bertrand Russell. War cannot disappear because there are people who are against war – no. The people who are against war will create another war. You can see, if you have observed a pacifist-protest, you can see how war-like they are – shouting, screaming, protesting…. You can see in their faces they are dangerous people. They may call themselves pacifists, but they don’t know what peace means. They are very argumentative, arrogant, ready to fight.

It almost always happens that a peace-protest becomes a battle-field between the police and the pacifists. The pacifist is not really the man of peace. He is against war. He is so much against war that he will be ready to go to war if that is needed. The cause changes, the war continues.

A man of peace is not a pacifist, a man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world, he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way – his very way of life is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. Whomsoever he touches, he creates more love-energy.

The man of peace is creative. He is not against war, because to be against anything is to be at war. He is not against war, he simply understands why war exists. And out of that understanding he becomes peaceful.

Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will the war disappear. But withdrawal is not the way to attain peace. You say, “Peace of mind can be gained by withdrawal….” Never. Never has it been gained that way.

Withdrawal is escapist. Withdrawal can give you a kind of death, but not peace. Peace is very alive. Peace is more alive than war – because war is in the service of death, peace is in the service of life. Peace is very alive, vibrant, young, dancing…. Withdrawal? – that is the oldest way escapists have chosen. It is cheap. It gives a kind of peace – remember, I say “a kind of peace” – the same kind as you see in a graveyard.

You can go to a Catholic monastery – there is a kind of peace, the same that exists in the graveyard. You can go to the Jaina monks and you will see a kind of peace – the same that exists in a graveyard. These people are dead! They have renounced life. The day you renounce life you renounce responsibility, you renounce all kinds of commitments. You renounce all possibilities to live, to relate, to love. They may not be fighting, but they are no more loving either.

So withdrawal will bring a peace which is warless, loveless. But what is the point? You have thrown the baby with the bath water.

Love has to grow. The whole energy that goes into violence, fighting, struggle, war, has to be transformed into love. Peace in itself cannot be the goal. Peace can only be a means to more life, to more abundant life. Peace cannot be the end – just to be peaceful is meaningless, it leads nowhere. It will not satisfy you just to be peaceful – then what is the difference between being dead and peaceful?