HUMAN VALUES - PEACE (SHANTHI)

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PEACE (SHANTHI)

 

 

 

 

[Extracts compiled from

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's Discourses]

Shanti denotes the

capacity to bear success and failure, joy and misery with perfect equanimity.

It is there deep down as the very core of our being. Only thoughts of God and

intense love for Him bring peace. As worldly thoughts diminish, thoughts of God

increase. Normally, the mind desires these worldly things all the time. As the

desires are cut out, the peace becomes stronger.

The external peace is a reflection of your internal peace; it

is an echo. Peace alone is eternal Truth. It has great power. It confers

eternal bliss. It is man's principal treasure. You may be of brilliant

intellect, or a wealthy person or a physically strong person, but all this is

useless, if you do not have peace. By absence of attachment, desire and egoism,

you can achieve peace. To gain peace is the only aim of life. Not name, fame

and wealth. By leading a life of contentment, one achieves peace.

Endurance with joyful resignation of the ups and downs of

life is the royal road to Peace. Everyone craves 'Sukha' and 'Shanthi';

but there is no one to instruct Youth how to win them. The Ramayana and the

Mahabharatha are reservoirs of knowledge for the seekers of Peace. They are

replete with examples and precepts, which are inspiring and timely. By taking

the teachings to heart, Purity can be attained. The pure heart directed towards

God and reflecting His image is indeed Heaven, Vaikuntha or Kailasa.

You must discover your identity; then only can you have

peace. You are like a man who has forgotten his name; his address and his

mission in life. Realize it and try to delve deep into yourself; so that you

may know who you are. Then you get security and peace. Sharpen your intellect

for this purpose; and cleanse your consciousness for this purpose through Sathsang, Japa,

Dhyana, Namasmarana etc.

Perfect peace means the type of peace derived as a result of

the absence of desire, anger, greed and hatred. Pace must be expressed in

feeling, word, posture and action; also in mind and the performance of duty -

all in uniform measure. Then peace becomes perfect, the highest and most stable

type. Genuine peace is won by control of senses. Pure love can emanate only

from a heart immersed in peace. The realization " Everything is God "

then becomes natural to you.

Peace is another name for steadiness of the mind. Peace is a

sacred virtue; it is the embodiment of the Self. It is an ornament to man; the

heart of the selfless one is its abode. Accumulation of riches and power cannot

endow peace. Peace can come only from the fountain of peace within. How do you

get Shanti (inner peace)? By

knowing that you are the Atma,

which has no birth or death, no joy or grief, no up and no down. Faith in the

fact that, man is an instrument in His hands for the execution of His plan, is

the key to genuine peace. Only when God is the goal and guide can there be real

peace. World peace can be achieved only by people investigating their inner

world, removing the junk therein and setting evil urges at rest.

The foundation for real peace is, according to the Vedas, the quality of Maithree. Maithree

means amicability, friendship, compassion, and kindness. It can also be taken

to mean, " My Three " that is to say, my word, deed and thought shall

be in accordance with words, thought and deed; that is to say; we shall speak,

think and act together, without friction or faction, in an atmosphere of love

and understanding. That is what is wanted in the world today: My three.

-Bhagavan Baba