Positive
Aids to Peace of Mind
In life, the person who desires peace of mind should learn to
discriminate at every stage. What is right? What is wrong? What is possible?
What is not? In a particular situation, what is the course of action suggested
by wise men? By the scriptures? By your own conscience? How have great souls
reacted in like situations? Introspection at every stage is necessary to
clarify the vision and to gain right direction. A mechanical life where one
follows the natural call of the senses and emotions is only to walk straight
into the trap set by Maya.
Constantly discriminate between the Preya-Marga and the Sreya-Marga,
the Pleasant Path and the Good Path. You will have to do this again and again
every time the mind tempts you to follow the ways of the world, to imitate
others. This desire to imitate others is exceedingly powerful and overpowers
even a wise man. Worry not about finding money to buy a scooter (when you have
no need for a scooter) just because all your friends come on scooters. Do not
bother about how to send your son to the States only because your neighbours
have sent theirs to California and Cambridge.
Keep away from temptations of all sorts. Do not walk into places of
temptation and then struggle to resist temptation. It will tax your will
unnecessarily. Even if you succeed in resisting the temptation, it may leave a
craving in the mind. Craving induces restlessness.
Do not multiply your wants and then feel like a beggar. Reduce your
wants and feel like a king. Why should you enter a cloth shop and see many
varieties presented before your eyes when you have enough clothing at home?
Either you will buy unnecessary things. Or feel sad, "Oh, I don’t have
this. Ah, how I wish I could buy that!"
Peace of mind and material greed are incompatibles. They do not go
together. Make your choice.
Reduce your wants to the barest minimum consistent with your general
external activities. The fewer the wants and possessions the greater the peace
of mind. Possession gives pain. The point is so obvious that it needs no
explanation. Hire a taxi rather than own a car. Live in a rented flat rather
than possess your own house.
Most of us suffer, not for want of right knowledge or wisdom, but for
want of exercise of that wisdom in our daily life. If you want peace of mind,
at once stop doing all those things which you know you should not do. And,
equally important, start doing all those things which you know you should do.
This will set you on the right track, and when you are on the right track,
God’s Grace will flow into your life and make it more and more sublime. You
will gain peace of mind and radiate peace all around you.
Faith has to be exercised. Love has to be exercised. Selflessness has
to be exercised. Charity has to be practised. Dispassion has to be practised.
Devotion has to be cultivated. These qualities, these virtues do not arise, in
you over night. They have to be assiduously cultivated before they can become a
natural, a habitual, an integral part of your being.
If you hate others, if you injure others, if you abuse your servants,
if you taunt your children, if you ill-treat your wife at home and subordinates
in the office, if you cheat people in business—if you do all these and much
more and still expect peace of mind, you are asking for the impossible. Also,
you do not deserve it. A man who disturb the peace of others has no right to
expect peace of mind for himself. So, mend yourself.
Peace of mind arises out of spiritual growth. It is true that
spiritual growth is an inward process that spiritual life is an inward life.
But it is equally true that such growth is greatly aided by external support
and greatly marred by external incompatibles. Hence they prescribe Sattvic
diet, Sattvic dress, Sattvic reading, Sattvic company, Sattvic environment,
Sattvic habits in general. Hence they prescribe prayer and pilgrimage.
Svadhyaya and Satsanga, fasts and festivals. Do not give up these powerful
external aids. Rather resort to them purposefully for quicker evolution. When
you have advanced enough, they will drop off by themselves.
When you are in utter despair, turn to our lofty scriptures. Or read
the works of great souls. Or take leave for a month and go on a pilgrimage. Or
visit a holy place and stay there for a fortnight or a month—spend the time in
prayer, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, long walks. These are the methods to revivify
your shattered mind and body and give yourself a new joy and confidence. Some
people take to drinking and loose living, vainly imagining that they can forget
their worries this way. Impossible. Their cure is worse than the disease.
Sleeping tablets? They solve no problem. They only perpetuate your weakness of
will to face up to realities. Suicide? Utter foolishness. You will turn into a
ghost. More trouble than being a human being.
Keep on adding to your peace of mind. Do not stagnate. Do not worsen.
Stagnation is also bad, because it often leads to worsening at some point.
Improve the quality of your life. Inward richness is real richness. Let your
wealth be in-built. Let the wealth of your children be in-built. Great teachers
say that a man has to be judged not by what he does, but by what he is. Cut out
all worldly ambition. In its place, develop intense ambition to grow
spiritually, to grow in saintliness. Replace all petty desires and ambitions by
this one ideal.
Once you have set the ideal for your self, begin to be true to
yourself. Bring about a greater and ever greater measure of co-ordination
between your thought, word and deed. Say what you think and do what you say. Shed
all hypocrisy. Remove all hypocrisy from your life. Hypocrisy is the sworn
enemy of peace of mind.
On the material plane, compare yourself with those who are less
fortunate than you and on the spiritual plane compare yourself with those who
are more fortunate than you. This will induce material contentment and awaken
in you spiritual discontent. That way lies progress and peace. But if you do
the other way round, viz., compare yourself with those who are materially more
well-off and spiritually inferior,—and many do just that—it will bring in the
disastrous effects of material discontent and spiritual pride. A sure way to
hell indeed.
Stick to a few tested friends. Do not multiply acquaintances. Do not
become intimate with anyone. Familiarity breeds contempt, disturbs emotions,
upsets peace of mind.
Talk only with purpose. Abstain from all unnecessary talk. Speak
measured words. Even innocent, well-meant words, are quite often misunderstood
and they produce discord. Never go to advise any one in anything, unless you
are asked to. Mind your own business.
Harih Om
Tat Sat
(To be Continued....)
Excerpts from:
If you would like to
purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual
knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
No comments:
Post a Comment