How do I get Peace?

 

How do I get Peace?

It is said that Gautam Buddha had asked this question – How does one get peace? Everyone loves to say ‘I want peace’ – but do not know how to find that peace. He had mentioned that the answer lies in the three-word statement itself!

So, do you know the answer? I have mentioned this several times doing various talks in various fora. If you drop the first two words, then you are left with peace! What does this mean? Well, let’s take the second word first – ‘want’ represents the desire. First get rid of the desire and then you can tackle ‘I’ representing the ego. Easier said than done, right?!? Human beings have cravings and wants and they desire most things which are useless. This starts from a very young age, with modern day parents enticing children and promising them a whole gamut of goodies to get them out of their hair! The children cry or are making a nuisance of themselves – which is natural at that age – but parents start pampering them with stuff so that they keep quiet and allow their parents to do their ‘thing’ so to say! So, the kids develop a desire for goodies which they really don’t need – as they grow up it builds up into a kind of peer pressure – if ‘x’ has this brand then I want ‘y’ brand which is superior – now remember - nobody is looking at needs, your ‘I’ pops in to say ‘he/she’ has that so ‘I’ must have this which is better! With this attitude and passage of time it becomes very difficult to get rid of this unwanted desire – one always forgets a fundamental rule that Paramatma always provides for your needs but not your wants.

The next aspect to tackle is more difficult – ego, the ‘I’ – that is a huge challenge! The only way to get rid of your ego is to become more and more humble, more and more accepting, keep on checking on what you say, how many times in a day you use sentences with ‘I, me, myself’! At the subconscious level these words are pushed into your conversation by your ego. Consciously try to become more inclusive – start using ‘we, us, they’ etc and over a period of time you will consciously notice that your ego is subsiding. This is the most difficult to get rid of as it keeps changing form.

Start meditating, be regular, make meditation your hobby as Swamiji says, make it second nature to you, so that you feel incomplete if you do not have your daily dose of charging of your battery through meditation. Be conscious, be aware, become a witness and always make a mental note about your desires and your ego manifestation and slowly you will witness for yourself that you are being filled with inner calm, inner peace, inner silence – that is because the unnecessary noise in your mind – the desires, the negative emotions, the ego are slowly and steadily being wiped clean. When all this happens, you will be left with only ‘PEACE’. May all of us find that silence within us which is so deafening that nothing is heard but that beautiful SILENCE!