Peace is a state of restfulness and tranquillity, a quietude of mind with freedom from any disturbance or respite from distressing or oppressive emotions and thoughts. Everyone needs this peace.
Dwell on how to be more peaceful, what disturbs your peace and the causes that affect peace at all levels. Not causing disturbance to anyone and also not getting agitated due to others is being very spiritual. It requires development, regular practice, harmony, forgiveness, empathy and addressing the causes.
What brings peace?
When you address other’s need, plan your time well, utilise the time properly, avoid hurriedness, you get peace. You get peace by helping, nurturing or healing someone.
Peace gets disturbed due to lack of planning. In some situations, you must rush. Peace is then disrupted. That is ok. But it must not become a routine. For example, watch how you get ready and head out. Do you pressurise others at home, create panic and restlessness?
Always hope for the best and be ready for the worst. Give yourself time in hand, for say, catching a train, bus or completing a job. This avoids hurriedness. With hurriedness, you lose energy, get into stress and restlessness. This affects heart rate, bp and health. See if hurriedness could have been avoided. Sometimes it may not have been, but 90% of the time it could have been avoided.
Examine the way you walk or leave your footwear, etc. Swiftness and hurriedness are different. Actions can be swift, but not hurried. This needs training of physical, emotional and mental bodies. It requires alignment of these bodies. We have discussed this in the article on Calmness. If not checked, hurriedness becomes a habit. Even if you have time, you would eat hurriedly or rush out hurriedly by delaying unnecessarily till the last moment. It becomes a practice. Hence, you radiate hurriedness to people around you, in turn disturbing their peace too. Instead, if you are peaceful, you exude peace. People around you also become comfortable.
When you do things which are not right, you cannot be in peace. When you get triggered or trigger others, you get worked up. When you transform hatred to love, you get peace. Likewise, when you transform any lower emotion to a corresponding higher emotion, you experience peace and quiet. When you forgive, you are in harmony and at ease with yourself and others. When you utilise the opportunity and help others or address their need, you get peace too. Whereas, if you do not utilise the opportunity, you get disturbed. When you manifest your capability, you get peace and contentment. If you don’t, then to that much degree you are in distress.
Be present in each activity. Have a good time with your partner or friends, take pleasure in learning or studying, enjoy meditation, purification, exercises, service, eating food, etc. Appreciate and cherish life fully by being in the present.
Check: In general, people around you are comfortable or disturbed by your presence? You must be approachable. Heart must be open! At times you may have to take action or use force. In such cases show yang mercy. That is, taking action out of necessity, like, surgery. But this is required only 5 to 10% of the times. 90% of the times or more, deal with politeness and courteousness.
Be tolerant. Practice high degree of tolerance to others opinions, customs, traditions, races, sex, age, kingdoms of nature, class, creed, nationality and increase your ability to listen. Observe, your tolerance level. You may have certain level of mental agility and development. Others may not be the same. Do you have patience to deal with people, family and children who are slow from your point of view? Are you perturbed due to lack of flexibility and unrealistic expectations?
Best way to come back to peace when disturbed is to do affirmations, such as, “I am a soul with bodies”, “I am radiating goodness in thoughts, emotions, speech and action”, “Everyday in every way I am becoming better, better and better in all aspects of my life”, etc.
Conflict Resolution
Learn to accept people as they are. While in a conflict situation,
- View from other’s point of view. Or
- Perceive from neutral point of view in order to pull yourself out of the situation and observe. This way, you do not give too much significance to the issue at hand. It then appears like a common or a less significant concern.
- For important issues, comprehend from higher point of view.
Overall, in 80-90 % of the situations, see from other’s point of view. In 10-15 % of the occasions, examine from neutral point of view to handle or resolve the issues. And in case of the few crucial instances, analyse from higher point of view.
Watch out for self-conceitedness. This is due to pride. You are not able to listen or view from other person’s point of view. You are not receptive. Heart chakra shrinks with this attitude. Unless you work on it, you cannot open up the Crown centre to go to the Intuitional plane, which is beyond the Higher Mental plane.
By practicing Planetary Peace Meditation, Great Invocation, forgiveness, aligning with the group and right company, doing service or healing, you might shift to the Intuitional plane, even if temporarily.
When you go there for a prolonged period of time and maintain that state without getting disturbed, triggered or coming down to lower emotional condition and if peace is pervading you throughout, then you have achieved deeper inner peace that surpasses understanding. This state is beyond logic. You are peaceful internally, while still being in a situation. This requires, sadhana, persistent effort and discernment.
Teachers who have brought down the teachings have experienced and achieved it. That stage of always being in peace is Samadhi. Deeper peace is also called serenity.
Overcoming Reactive Tendency
If you observe your inner state, reactive tendency diminishes. Observing inner state is Jnana yoga. If you know it, you can modify your response, else you can be hijacked. By pausing for a few seconds (with little patience), you can take better action. Peace requires patience. Then, the way you act changes.
If you do not pause, you might impulsively react. This comes spontaneously. Impulsive reaction causes pain. Hold for a few seconds and you may respond better.
After the pause, if you still want to do what you were about to, then maybe that’s the right action, though a little harsh. Learn to use right kind of force, right amount of force and at right time. But, in case after a pause, you realize that your action could have been excessive, then, it was a reactive tendency; you can change the response now. Therefore, you must observe, develop patience, have high degree of tolerance, flexibility and develop the ability to view from other’s point of view.
Do not be in a denial mode. Take help from a spiritual buddy or two. There are multiple solutions. Sit down and brainstorm for better ways of dealing with the situation. View from multiple points of view and come up with creative solutions.
Lot of things appear complex. Check your intention and all complexities will dissolve. If you have clarity of thought and intention, you can penetrate all difficulties and do what’s right. You can even get inner guidance if you maintain peace, inner strength and power. You are not alone. You are a channel for the Divine!
Chanting of the mantra “OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti Hi”
Why is “Shanti” repeated 3 times? It is because, we need some degree of peace in these lower 3 quarters of OM, i.e., the Physical, Emotional and Mental planes.
Another perspective is that we need peace due to 3 different causes:
i) Peace is disturbed due to known causes, like, you are not able to forgive someone or somebody is not able to forgive you, that you know about.
ii) Peace is disturbed due to unknown causes, where you hurt someone without your knowledge. Someone is disturbed because of you, which you don’t remember or it happened unknowingly or unintentionally or indirectly due to certain action taken by you, may be even in your thought or feeling.
iii) Peace is disturbed within ourselves.
By chanting this mantra, you become a channel for peace; you radiate peace.
Bringing Peace on Earth
Bringing peace on Earth means you must bring peace to Mental, Emotional and Physical planes. That perturbation which is there in these three planes must be lessened. Check how you walk, eat, chew or drink water. Observe your heart beat and breathing. Watch your feelings. Notice your thoughts. Peace must be brought down to all the three lower planes.
Bringing peace on Earth involves virtue development, discernment, development of chakras (Heart and Crown for wisdom; Ajna for discernment; Basic for the ability to manifest or perform) and upgrading yourself to help others. For example, if you are a healer, you upgrade yourself to become a better healer to do fantastic and faster healings! You will feel peaceful by healing, utilizing your capability and extending help.
People must be lifted to higher emotional state and also develop some wisdom and discernment, so that they appreciate their freedom, but do not disturb other’s freedom by their speech or action and also at a subtler level in feelings or thoughts. Remember that energy follows thought! Intention matters the most. Intention behind an action is the cause, which has karmic implications. Hence, you must check your good reasons and the real reasons. Greater development and deeper peace require discernment. This in turn requires greater development of Heart centre and expansion of aura.
When you become a channel, energy flows through you. The disturbance is removed. You feel peaceful. As you channel peace, peace within you becomes more intense. You internalise peace and become a reservoir of peace.
Peace, love, sharing, giving are all interconnected. By developing them to a higher degree, your operating centre remains in the Intuitional plane for a longer time. You experience bliss which is possible only after attaining peace. Bliss is achieved there, but can be brought down here. Bringing heaven on Earth means bringing down the bliss of the Intuitional plane.
As you channel (by service, sharing, giving, meditation), your Crown opens up and you experience bliss. Possibility to experience bliss is high when you are in the present, for which you must be aware. In every action you must be aware and be alert as required, depending on the activity. For instance, in channelling meditation, be present and alert to channel better. Similarly, while healing, be in the present and aware! Being in the present is connected with the Heart.
Peace kills the sense of separation to a certain degree. Also, addressing others need, flexibility, tolerance and patience kill the sense of separateness.
Bliss and Oneness are connected. Oneness means you have killed the sense of separation. Only then you can experience bliss. Both bliss and Oneness come from peace. Though we are physically separate, the essence is one. Spiritually there is only Oneness. There is no “We”. Only “One”! Only ek OM, the Supreme Parabrahman. Everything is within Him and He is in within everything. In all forms, life is One!
Understand that it is in giving that we receive. As we give and share abundantly, we shall inherit the kingdom. We are responsible to bring peace into ourselves, radiate it, bring that change in people around at work, home, and our area of influence and bring in greater peace every day. If our intention is clear, it can happen!
You can realize peace, bliss and oneness by joining our daily live sessions on Facebook where we practice breathing exercises, forgiveness, Planetary Peace Meditation, Great Invocation or Metta Meditation in a large group to bless Mother Earth and the affected areas in this pandemic situation. You can also experience very powerful, guided Divine healing during these sessions. These live sessions are now extended up to 31st December 2020 @ www.Facebook.com/ShriNJReddy. Timings: Morning 7.15 AM, Afternoon 1.00 PM, Evening 6.30 PM.
You may also try our YPV Sadhana app which is available in various languages for the guided tracks on breathing exercises, forgiveness and Planetary Peace Meditation. These techniques also help boost the immune system and maintain it.
