4.3 PEACE


WISE SAYINGS FROM DIFFERENT FAITHS

"Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them His children."    Jesus Christ

"Peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."    Jesus Christ

"As into the ocean  -  brimful and still  -  flow the waters, even so the sage into whom enter all desires, he, and not one who is desirous of enjoyments, attains to Peace."    Sri Krishna

"Serenity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-control and purity of heart, these constitute the austerity of the mind."    Sri Krishna

"Those who spend of that which Allah has given them in ease and adversity, those who control their wrath and are forgiving towards mankind: Allah loveth the Good."    Mohammed

"The winner causes the loser to harbour hatred in his heart, and the loser in sadness spends his days: the one who is tranquil forsakes both victory and defeat, and lives in joy always."    Buddha

"Sublime Peace in the inner world of man is Happiness."    Zarathushtra

FROM DISCOURSES OF SAI BABA

OUR TRUE NATURE

In fact you are, each one of you, the Nilayam of Prashanti (the abode of supreme peace). That is why I often address you as "Embodiments of Peace"! My object is to remind you that your real nature is equanimity, peace, unruffledness, non-attachment. Peace is not just an external polish, which can be put on or brushed off. It is not the same as fortitude. It is not resignation which comes of frustrated ambition or satisfied desire. It is an ennobling, elevating experience which comes when one attains the merger with the very source of one's being. It is the stilling of the waves; the calming of the mental activities and agitations. (290962)

Many people come to me distraught and pray, "Swami! I have no peace. Give me peace." But peace cannot be got from the outer world; it has to be sought in the heart. Wicked desires breed misery; beneficial desires result in joy. The removal of desire ensures peace. When desire after desire multiply in the mind, how can peace be gained? After devotional singing and meditation, you repeat 'peace' thrice, praying for physical, mental and spiritual peace. But awareness of the Atma, being the reality of all, can only confer Peace. (050481)

Man is seeking joy in far places and peace in quiet spots; but the spring of joy is in his heart, the haven of peace is in himself. Even when he walks on the moon he has to take with him his fears, his anxieties, his prejudices, and his pet aversions. Have faith in God, and in the correctness of moral living. Then you can have peace and joy, whatever may be the fare that fortune offers you. (April 73)

You must have the skill to swim across the waves of joy and grief, of pain and profit. You must be master of the art of being fully at ease, perfectly calm and unaffected, whatever may happen to the body or senses or mind; they are all inert when they are not urged by the inner I, which is intelligence, awareness. Learn the skill of achieving and maintaining inner peace, the art of being ever aware of the Atma, as the inner Reality, and then you can safely gyrate in the world as fast as you care. (070768)

ELIMINATE EGO

Today, in spite of all his wealth, man is unhappy. He is perpetually rocked by lack of peace. Devotees come here from all parts of the world. Each of them asks: "I want Peace". Here are three words: 'I', 'want', 'peace'. 'I' is ego, 'want' is desire. Remove the ego and desire, you will have Peace. When the covering is removed, peace will manifest itself. (030695)

To foster such an attitude, you should resort to the path of inquiry and thereby develop the firm conviction, "I am neither the body nor the sense organs. I am the ever-blissful Atma". Only when you are unshakeably established in this conviction, will the sense organs cease to trouble you. It is only through the pursuit of the path of inquiry accompanied by the constant contemplation on the idea that you are nothing other than the Atma that you can transcend the human limitations, and experience your Divine Self under all circumstances. (SSB 90,58)

Peace cannot prevail in the individual and society until he develops faith in the unity of mankind, in spite of the apparent differences. Once has to renounce all thoughts of differences and derive delight from the vision of the One, in the tiniest and the most tremendous of God's Glory. This is the real detachment. (260287)

In order to restore peace to the individual and in society, the mind, where desires are born and resolutions are framed, has to be purged of its attachment to the self. The mind has desires, as its warp and woof. When desires are ego-oriented, time and effort are wasted, duty is neglected, the body and its skills are misused. And all this when life is being shortened every day. (April 1981)

DEVELOP DETACHMENT

A clear mirror reflects the rays of the sun. We can see the sun's image reflected by the calm surface of clear water. Likewise, the sacred vision of the Universal Soul is revealed to an unperturbed and tranquil mind in which all thought-waves have been calmed. A pure and holy heart will mirror the golden glory of the Universal Soul. A man with a wavering mind can never experience the Divinity of nature. (SSB 79,13)

Let the dull-witted man hug his delusion that happiness and peace can be secured through slavery to the senses. Those who know that the world is a mixture of truth and falsehood, and therefore a big conundrum or false, will leave off the outer attractions and concentrate on the inner joy of attachment to God. If you are declared "passed", you have Peace; if you are declared "failed", that too solves the problem for some little time and puts a stop to worry; but if your results are not announced but withheld (for it is not quite certain whether you have passed or failed), you suffer the maximum restlessness, is it not? So also, this world which is neither Truth nor Untruth (unreal) but false, breeds profuse disturbance in the mind. Non-attachment alone can grant undisturbed inner peace. (060362)

It becomes clear that the senses can enjoy peace only when they do not come in contact with sense objects. On the other hand, one should be able to maintain a feeling of equanimity without giving way either to elation or agitation in spite of a contact between his senses and their objects, and irrespective of whether the outcome of such contact is pleasant or otherwise. (SSB 90,58)

Peace is the best treasure, without which power, authority, fame and fortune are all dry and burdensome. Thyagaraja has sung that there can be no happiness without inner peace. To earn this peace and to be unshakeably established in it, man must develop steady practice and detachment. From birth to death, man is the slave of urges and hesitations. One must examine these, and rely more and more on those that lead him towards subjective joy rather than objective pleasure. Subjective joy can be acquired by harmony at home, mutual co-operation among the members of the family and community, acts of service to others and concern for the welfare and prosperity of the society in which one is living. (200475)

Gain internal peace, internal joy; that can be done only when you act without an eye on the gain. The act must be its own reward; or rather, the act must be according to the prompting of God within, so that its consequence is left to Him. Practise this attitude consistently and you will find great peace welling within you and around you. (260365)

CULTIVATE LOVE & PURITY

Peace of mind cannot be gained by wealth or fame or scholarship or skill. For that, you have to clean the mind, purify the heart, yearn for service of the divine forms that move around you. Do every deed as an act of worship, make every thought a longing for Him; change every word that comes from your tongue into a hymn in His praise.

It is essential that we cultivate tolerance, forbearance and peace. The three Ps of Peace refer to Purity, Patience and Perseverance. At present we do not have patience and purity. Why? Because we do not have full faith. (201193)

If the disease of peacelessness afflicting man is to be cured, he has to take the medicine of love and adhere to the diet of following the injunctions of the Divine. Only then will the mental unrest go. It is true that many love God. But they do not live up to the dictates of the Divine. Those who follow the Divine injunctions in a formal manner, do not act with love for God. It is only when there is a union of love and obedience that man can recover peace of mind. (200293)

Peace of mind is the most desirable thing in this world. It gives us physical and psychical euphoria. In order to develop this Inner Peace, an aspirant must develop a thirst for spiritual wisdom. He must also acquire the qualities of love, sympathy and compassion, and do selfless service to others. Peace should not be regarded as a part-time virtue to be cultivated during meditation. It is a constant state of inner tranquillity. It should become habitual and instinctive.  ...  Meditation and peace are inseparable. Meditation promotes peace and peace intensifies meditation. (SSB 79,91)

Purify your hearts, your thoughts, feelings, emotions, speech; strengthen your nobler impulses; then, no panic can unnerve you; nothing can shake your stability, your Inner Peace. (040362)

Sow the seeds of Love, after preparing the soil of your heart, removing the weeds. Let them grow, watered by faith, and yield the blossoms of fortitude; later, you are assured of the fruit  -  Inner Peace. This is the task; this is the duty; this has to be the vow. (070768)

BE THE WITNESS

Ride safe on the raging waters of worldly life; be a witness, do not crave for the fruit of action, leave the consequence of all acts to God's will. He is the doer; you are but the instrument. Pursue nobler ends; have grander ideals; sensory pleasures are trinkets, trivialities. The sages have discovered the disciplines that will keep you unaffected by defeat or victory, loss or gain. Learn them, practise them; establish yourself in unruffled peace. (040768)

So long as man is attracted by outer nature, he cannot escape the blows of joy and grief, of profit and loss, of happiness and misery. But, if he is attracted by the glory of God within him as well as within nature, he can be above and beyond these dualities and in perfect peace. (180568)

The treasure that is unmistakably precious is the quality of Peace, equanimity, unruffledness. Practise this and make it your natural reaction. Why be put out when you see wrong? Why be attracted when you see evil? Remember, evil has in it the potentiality to become good; good has in it the liability to turn evil. There is no fire without a wisp of smoke; there is no smoke without a spark of fire. No one is fully wicked, or fully infallible. Take the world as it is; never expect it to conform to your needs or standards. (030958)

Man condemns the world and calls it a seat of wickedness and war. The fault lies, not in the world, but in himself. He has war in him and so, he sees war; he is inherently wicked and so, he observes wickedness all around him. A brilliant lamp cannot remove the darkness which a blind man has always around him. For those who have eyes to see, it is brilliant, the light around them. The darkness the blind man swears by is in him, not outside him. So too, the man who is at peace with himself, will discern peace all around him. Nature is beauty, truth, peace. Man sees it as ugly, false and violent  -  that is all. (251074)

BE DELIBERATE & STEADY

As soon as a thought arises we should not rush into action but should subject the thought to the scrutiny of the intellect for a correct decision before implementing the thought. But now-a-days people have the tendency to be in a hurry to put their thoughts into action without any such deliberation. That is the reason for the statement, "Haste makes waste, waste makes worry, so do not be in a hurry." Therefore, action undertaken after deliberation results in peace. (SSB 90,75)

Inner peace does not mean that a person should not react at all, whatever others may say or however they may abuse him. It does not mean that he must be silent as a rock. It involves mastery of all the senses and all the passions. Inner peace must become one's nature. Inner peace has detachment as the basic quality. The sea, which likes to gather and possess, lies low; the cloud that likes to renounce and give up is high in the sky. Inner peace endows man with an unruffled mind and steady vision. (061081)

The flower of peace should not be interpreted to mean that you should be silent whosoever is attacking you, or whoever is blaming you. It is not that. If you are unmoved and unperturbed in spite of anyone finding faults in you, this can be called real peace. If you can fill your heart with love, then peace will come into you from outside. Through bad qualities, to some extent, we lose peace. With truthful thoughts, a man will have peace. With untruthful thoughts, a man will not have peace. If you can get rid of all thoughts, you will become a saint. It is only when you can be free of all thoughts that you can have peace. (120581)