Peace⁴

What is peace? Is it just a magic word? Is it a reality that will always remain a far cry, that will always be beyond our grasp? No, it is not. Is it a quality that will never abide permanently in the inmost recesses of our heart, or is it some heavenly treasure, a blessingful gift from above, which we can never have here on earth? No, it is not.

What, then, is peace? Peace is a reality which is at once self-revealing and self-fulfilling. When can we have peace of mind? We can have peace of mind only when we surrender our ignorance-night to the Wisdom-Light and Compassion-Height of our Beloved Supreme.

We can say that we are very clever or we are very wise. We offer our Beloved Supreme our ignorance-night and, in exchange, we invoke His Compassion-Light and His Satisfaction-Delight. Our Beloved Supreme takes our ignorance-night and, in return, out of His infinite Bounty, He gives us His infinite Light, Peace, Wisdom and Compassion. But again, we see that quite often, when we do not surrender to Him, our Beloved Supreme Himself surrenders to our ignorance-night. We are like a child asking for something unhealthy. Because of the child’s constant insistence, the parents at times give him what he wants. But when the child realises that it is something harmful, then he stops asking for it. Again, our Absolute Father knows that it is He who is experiencing this unhealthy thing in and through us. Also, He knows that one day we will indeed surrender our ignorance-night to His Wisdom-Light and have peace of mind in infinite measure.

If we do not breathe in life energy, we cannot live. Similarly, without peace we do not and cannot live like true human beings. We desperately need peace — peace within, peace without. So how is it that we do not have peace, which is so important in our life? We do not have peace because of our hunger for possession. We want to possess the world, but when we increase our material possessions, we come to realise that we are still veritable beggars. No matter what we acquire in our life, when we look around we see that somebody else has that very thing in greater measure, and we lose our peace of mind. We become victims to worry, anxiety, depression and frustration, which is always followed by destruction.

As soon as we come to realise that possession is not the answer, that possession will not give us peace of mind, we go to the other extreme. We try to renounce the world. Sooner or later we see how fruitless it is to try to renounce anything. What are we going to renounce? We can renounce only the things that we truly possess. But is there anything on earth which we can claim as our own, very own? We can consider something to be our possession only when we have the last word about it, only if whatever we say goes. But even the members of our own reality-existence — our body, vital and mind — don’t listen to us and are not within our control. Instead, they try to control us.

We want our body to be active, but our body wants to wallow in the pleasures of lethargy. We want our vital to be dynamic, but instead our vital becomes aggressive and tries to destroy others. We want our mind to be inundated with faith, but instead our mind always doubts and suspects. It is inundated with doubt at every moment. It not only doubts others, but it also doubts its own capacities, its own achievements, its own realities, its own realisations. This moment the mind will say that you are a very good person. The next moment the same mind will say that you are very bad. The following moment the mind will wonder, “Am I right in doubting that person?” First we say that someone is nice; next we say that that same person is bad. Then we start doubting our mind’s capacities. Once we start doubting the reality and the authenticity of our mind, destruction starts. When we doubt someone else, we may not gain or lose anything very significant. But when we start doubting ourselves, then our reality-life comes to an end.

If we can’t control our own body, our own vital or our own mind, then how do we dare to claim these as our own? Even if we say that they are our possessions, we see that death will eventually come to snatch them away. The things that we cannot keep permanently, we cannot claim as our own possessions. So how can we renounce them? The very idea of renunciation is ridiculous because we do not have anything to renounce. If we dive deep within, we see that we are veritable beggars. How can a beggar renounce anything?

So possession brings frustration, and renunciation is fruitless. What, then, can give us peace of mind? Only acceptance of God’s Will can give us true peace of mind. By accepting God’s Will as our own, very own, we can get peace. Then only can our life be fruitful. In God’s Eye there is no such thing as possession and renunciation. In God’s Eye there is only one thing: acceptance — acceptance of God’s Will. In our heart, in our life, there is only one ultimate prayer, the prayer that the Saviour Christ has taught us: “Let Thy Will be done.” Millions of prayers have been written from time immemorial, but no prayer can equal this one: “Let Thy Will be done.” When we accept God’s Will as our own, at every moment peace looms large in our life of wisdom, in our life of aspiration and in our life of dedication.

How can we know something is God’s Will? When something is God’s Will, we will feel a kind of inner joy or satisfaction even before we start doing it. While working, we will also get joy. Finally, we feel that we will be equally happy if our action is fruitful or fruitless. In the ordinary life we are happy only when success dawns. Only when we see victory at the end of our journey are we happy and delighted. But if we can have the same kind of happiness, joy and satisfaction whether we succeed or fail, and if we can cheerfully offer the result of our actions at the Feet of our Beloved Supreme, then only can we know that what we have done is God’s Will. Otherwise, when there is success, we feel that what we did was God’s Will, and when there is failure, we say that what we did was the will of a hostile force. Or when we succeed we say it is because of our personal effort, our will, and when we fail we say it is because God does not care for us.

We can blame God at our sweet will. We can misunderstand Him at our sweet will. When we fail, we can blame God, and when we succeed, we can try to get the glory for ourselves. But if we are sincere seekers, and if we want real abiding happiness, then we shall do the things that we feel are good and right, and the results we shall offer to the Supreme. Success and failure are two experiences. These two experiences we have to unify, and whichever experience we get at the end of our endeavour, we have to offer to the Supreme with tremendous joy. If we can place the result at the Feet of our Beloved Supreme soulfully, cheerfully, unreservedly and unconditionally, then without fail we will have true peace of mind. At that time peace of mind will come and knock at our life’s door. We will not have to wait for peace of mind; it will be waiting for us.

To have peace in abundant measure, we have to surrender our earth-bound will to the Heaven-free Will of our Beloved Supreme. We have to cheerfully, soulfully, devotedly, unreservedly and unconditionally surrender our limited human reality to the universal or transcendental Reality. This surrender is not like the surrender of a slave to his master. This surrender is based on the wisdom-light that recognises a difference between our own highest height and our own lowest depth. Right now, even as seekers, we often embody the lowest depth of consciousness, whereas the highest height of Consciousness is represented by our Beloved Supreme. Both the highest and the lowest belong to us. When we surrender our will to the Will of the Supreme, we offer our lowest part to our highest part, for the Supreme is none other than our own highest Self.

We are like a tiny drop, and the Supreme, our Source, is like the vast ocean. When the drop enters into the ocean, it loses its limited individuality and personality and becomes the ocean itself. Again, it does not actually lose anything; it only increases its existence-light unimaginably. Similarly, if we maintain our own individuality and personality, we will always be assailed by fear, doubt and other negative and destructive qualities. But when we enter into the Source, which is all light and delight, at that time we acquire all the divine qualities and capacities of the Source. In this way, when we surrender our lowest self, which we now represent or embody, to our highest Self, we get peace of mind and our entire being is inundated with joy, light and delight.