Finding Peace Within

Have you ever observed what punctuates a typical day in your life? If you have, you will have noticed how your mind and hands buzz with a lot of unnecessary movement – words and actions that clutter your thoughts and decisions.

The five senses of human perception toss us around like feathers in a whirlwind. We receive multiple stimuli from our senses every minute of our lives. Inevitably, and perhaps unknowingly, our mind ends up accumulating a lot of clutter, negative thoughts and attitudes.

As we rub shoulders with the world, we create new mental blocks; we keep grudges towards people through old family quarrels, political issues, and misunderstandings that challenge our relationships and circumstances, creating a long list of issues to overcome. We are constantly bombarded by turbulent desires, particularly those that give pleasure to our body. Family and friends bog us down with their demands. Duties and responsibilities threaten to overwhelm us day in and day out, and the more we try to extract ourselves from this rigmarole, the further we are entangled in it.

Finding ourselves derailed from our course, we seek our centre -and try to focus on whatever will raise us above the din and clatter of the world, and open our eyes to the conspiracy which the world shares with our mind. The Masters in their infinite compassion for our dilemma teach us: “The human body is the temple of the living God.” We merely have to turn within to find peace and happiness. This is a simple and unfailing remedy given by the Master to help us alleviate the tensions of this world; yet we are so unwilling to make the effort.

We forget that the world will go on and on, and leave us behind, for our stay is only temporary. We urgently need the Master’s help as we try to tame our chaotic mind. The Master says we have to discipline ourselves.

If the mountain guide accepts you as his charge,
he will insist upon your travelling light.
_{The Mystic Philosophy of Sant Mat}

Similarly, we must lighten our emotional baggage – what is required on this path is simplicity of mind, faith and love.

One of the Master’s toughest tasks is to convince us that nothing should deter us from the daily practice of meditation, and that we should try desperately hard to go within. He extends his hand to us in so many unmistakable ways. What matters is that despite everything we face in life, we must never give up; we must continue to carry out the spiritual discipline with regularity and punctuality. After all, the Master happily accepts both our triumphs and failures.

Meditation is nothing but knocking at his door for mercy, to seek forgiveness from him. Meditation is nothing else – it is just our expression of gratitude towards the Father, just to tell him how anxious we are to become one with you, how restless we are to be with you, reach you.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III}