Question: What do you mean when you speak of peace and tranquillity?

Sri Chinmoy: Peace is infinitely more powerful than tranquillity. tranquillity is in the mind, and you can have it for five seconds or five minutes or five hours. But peace is found inside the central heart, inside the entire being. When you have tranquillity, you feel it in the mind. But when you have peace, you feel it from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head; it inundates your entire being.

Let us take the entire being as a tree. If you look at a particular leaf and see that it is not moving, then you can say that the leaf is tranquil. But if you look at the whole tree — the solid trunk and branches — then you will feel that it is peaceful.

Inside us there is the mind, the vital, the heart and the soul. There are so many things inside us. tranquillity only applies to the physical mind or the mind proper. But peace applies to the whole being. Peace is infinitely more significant than tranquillity. But if someone is very restless, then even an iota of tranquillity will bring him some satisfaction.