We are totally disassociated from the world of nature, from its Creator.That which you call peace, which you erroneously identify with some fancy of yours, is a little different from what you think it to be
A person with no peace of mind does not actually live, but just exists. Living is different from just existing. First and foremost the purpose of life has to be understood why you want to be alive at all. Do you want to continue living in this world with distorted feelings, insecurity from all sides, fear that is gnawing into your vitals and dissatisfaction everywhere? Would you like to live such a life?
Every person has a common complaint that things are not as one would like them to be. This complaint is without foundation because things are exactly, even now, as they ought to be. You are not actually as you ought to be. The complaint,therefore, has to point in your direction and not in the direction of the world outside.
We somehow forget that we belong to this wondrous structure of creation, which we look at as something that is staring at us as if we are outside it. The world, taken in its totality, never does wrong. It has its comprehensive vision directed towards its own goal. However, much our learning and erudition, we cannot give up the prejudice of feeling that we are standing outside the world, outside everything; we are inside nothing.
We are totally disassociated from the world of nature, from its Creator. That which you call peace, which you erroneously identify with some fancy of yours, is a little different from what you think it to be. Can you define what you really mean by peace? When there is no noise, when nobody talks to you, when there is nothing for you to see in front of you, when everything is calm and stands still is that peace? When everything is dead silent from all parts of the world nothing moves, no sound is created and nobody speaks is that peace? Naturally you will hesitate to agree that this kind of thing is peace. When there is no disturbance from anything in the world, nobody speaks to you,no sound is created, nothing happens anywhere,why should you not regard it as peace? It may be felt subtly from within. Peace does not come from outside. If the external world is the cause of your disturbance, then the dead silence of everything in nature, or in general, should be considered as peace.
So, the world is not the source of your distraction and suffering. The reactions that you set up in respect of the atmosphere outside are the causes of what you are, basically. I have been telling you many a time that you must regard the whole universe as a single organism. When it is said that the universe is an organism, a living, single unit, complete in itself, it goes without saying, simultaneously, that everything connected with this total organism also is an organism. Little organisms make large organisms, but nevertheless even the little ones are organisms only; they are not dead fractions. Your self is a complete organism. The society outside also is an organism by itself. The governmental setup itself is an organism. Everything is to be viewed in the sense of a totality and a completeness in itself.
“So, the world is not the source of your distraction and suffering. The reactions that you set up in respect of the atmosphere outside are the causes of what you are, basically”
Thus we have a series of organisms, or forms of completeness, until we reach the completeness of creation as a whole. The peace that you are speaking of, or want to have, is the extent to which you are in harmony with the organism with which you are inextricably related. What are the things, actually, with which you are connected in this world? With those things, you have to be in a state of harmony.
The agitations of the mind, caused by various factors, produce repercussions in the external atmosphere, and it looks like social conflict. There cannot be social conflict unless there is individual disturbance and conflict in one's own self, because society is nothing but many people like you, like me, like anybody. If every individual is filled with inner peace, society will have a completely peaceful atmosphere around. It is no use saying society is bad.
The source of peace is the balance that has to be struck in your own mind. The balance is disturbed on account of the mind working as the medium of the sense organs, which move towards objects outside. The agitation of the mind is caused by the necessity to think in terms of external objects distance itself. That which you call peace or harmony of existence is the situation that you establish between yourself and that to which you belong namely, the universal whole. It begins with lesser wholes and then enlarges itself into larger wholes until it covers the whole universe. Until the whole creation is in peace, you cannot be in peace, because it is not possible for a limb to be healthy when the organism is suffering.
If completeness is the nature of the entire creative pattern, the peace spoken of in terms of this pattern of creativity is integral to itself. The universe does not require anything to happen outside it in order that it may be in peace. Remember what I told you: every part of the cosmic organism is also an organism by itself including yourself. The universe does not require anything to happen outside it in order that it may be in peace. If that is the truth, then it applies to you also. There is no need for anything to take place outside in order that you may be in peace, because the law of the universe applies to every individual. The law of the universe is such that it needs nothing external to it. Then how do you expect anything to take place outside yourself, for the sake of your peace of mind? It is, therefore, actually a meditational activity taking place when you are aspiring for peace of mind.
By Swami Krishnananda
