Where is peace?

A holy person asked, “What do you want?” and the devotee responded, “I want peace”. The holy person responded “Remove ‘I’ and remove ‘want’ and ‘peace’ is the only thing left”. It looks like a word puzzle on a peripheral vision but when one carefully reviews the depth behind this statement, one can understand that invariably one refers to body conscience when he/she refers to “I” and ‘wants’ are unfulfilled desires that one keeps adding every day. These two are the root causes for us losing peace. When I contemplated on this subject, the following practical solutions came to my mind. This is more of sharing my introspection with all of you than advising anyone about how to conduct life.

Life is never going to be ideal as projected by my mind. I don’t control 90% of what happens in my life and only 10% I can control. However, it is 10% of what I control makes significant contribution in changing my life. Therefore, my initial objective towards peace is to know what I can control and change. I have to build my life based on opportunities presented to me. I have to set realistic and achievable goals that I can attempt to fulfill. While I practice contentment in what I want, I should relentlessly pursue what I need to accomplish.

Most importantly, I have to learn the good habits of role models I idealize in my life but I should never compare my life with others. Whenever I compare my life with that of others, my mind will set unrealistic goals for me and when I try to accomplish them, my life invariably will end up in disappointment. I have to constantly be grateful for what I already have in life and feel good about those blessings. When I have nice pair of shoes to wear, I should think of those who have nothing to wear and for that matter even think of those who don’t even have feet to walk. My blessings are the ones that show me the way to achieve peace in my life.

I have to take one day at a time and live always in the present moment. Thinking too far ahead is dangerous and living too far into the past is meaningless. Going into the past should be only to do introspection and identify the lessons learned and going into the future should be only to plan the best use of my resources. I have to find time to relax and conserve my energy. To the extent possible, I must be able to enjoy the nature around me. The nature around me teaches me how to accept the reality and achieve peace.

I have to understand the life is not independent and it is interdependent. While my character development, spiritual growth and peace are very important, I have to realize that most valuable contribution for all of that comes from my relationships/friendships. It is my friendships/relationships with others that make the difference in my life. I must be able to help others who are in need without expecting anything in return and I have to keep nurturing my relationships/friendships consistently. Wherever necessary, I have to speak my mind to my friends, relatives and acquaintances and accept their criticism respectfully with determination to change myself. Keeping our surrounding and network of people we have friendships/relationships with happy, we can achieve happiness and peace.

In the company of right people, my life gets influenced by right thoughts resulting in good actions, and in the company of nature around me, my mind synchronizes with my heart to achieve peace. While self improvement is my goal, it is inclusion of essential others in my accomplishments and exclusion of my excessive passions that will help me achieve peace in life.

 

Dear Vijiakka,

Thank you for your first response to this post.

There is nothing wrong in having too much love for people as long as we have no expectations. It is our expectations that brings disappointment. However, it is good to discard desires as much as possible. I always like the term ceiling on desires as it is difficult for me to eliminate all of my desires.

Leading a simple life is a gift and your husband is a Yogi just for that attitude. Don't worry about providing the best amenities to those who are visiting you as long as your day to day life is happy and you did everything possible to make the guests comfortable within your means.

It is so humbling to know the gratitude showered by Zavere to Ganga. He is definitely a role model for many how to shower our gratitude. I remember an incident when an elderly person sought to stay in an Ashram with a holy man and he told that no one could stay in the ashram without any work. She suggested that she would fetch water from the river everyday and heat them. She did it for over 20 years. One fine day, she had lost her eyesight due to cataract and the holy man took her to a doctor in the middle of the night and stayed outside of the clinic until the doctor could operate her eyes. When asked to leave, the holy man said the old lady would seek to see him immediately after getting her eye sight and hence he stayed with her throughout the surgery. He could have asked anyone to accompany the old lady but he showed his gratitude by doing it himself.

In life, even smallest of all gestures should be acknowledged with gratitude.

Viswa

 

Dear Mrs. Srinivasan:

Thanks for sharing the apt quote of Mahatma Gandhi. When we fulfill our desires, we feel a great sense of accomplishment resulting in ego and when we could not fulfill our desires, we get disappointment and hence feel angry. We develop attachment on everything we have resulting in the feeling of 'mine'. The feeling of mine is worse than wine and dine.

Anandamaya Kosha inside of us is always peaceful and blissful and it is the distance of our mind from it that causes agitation and restlessness.

Viswa

 

Dear Alyssum,

Most of us struggle to accept the life as it comes. We alternatively get humbled when we face failure and tribulations and feel elated when we face success and happiness. Equanimity of mind to accept all events gracefully comes by practice. That is why learned people say that we should not do excessive celebrations after success nor become depressed by failures.

The plants and animals follow dharma without any deviation and it is our human mind that takes us to places that brings more and more pain. Discrimination power, if properly used, can guide us towards eternal peace that resides in our Bliss Sheath, i.e. the core of our being.

Viswa

Viswa

 

Dear Sabitha,

Who is a better person to talk about nature than you? What a calming effect it gives by simply watching the movements of branches of a tree or even activities of animals. Even wild animals hunt for food only when they are angry thereby practicing their dharma. For human mind, it would appear violent but actually it is not. They all lead an ideal and purposeful life with great sense of fulfillment.

I was reading a New York Times Bestseller "The Hidden Messages in Water" written by Masaru Emoto. This book is all about how a specific pattern is formed in water when we express our emotions and feelings around them. The whole world melts for love. When there is love in all our thoughts and actions, peace comes automatically. Our environment whether it is human beings or animals or plants, all of them influence our lives so much everyday.

Like knowledge, I also feel peace resides in us and if we learn how to discover it by aligning our grey material, we can achieve peace forever.

Viswa