Establishing Peace

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Dear Lovers of Peace in TBP,

 

Love and Love alone...

 

Hereunder I am reproducing the answer given by Mother, Arurobindo

Ashram, Pondicherry, taken from " Spiritual Exercises for Everyday

Practice " All India Magazine, April 2007, on how the practical way

to get Peace of Mind. Please and practice. Wish you all the best.

 

Love and Love alone....

 

P. Gopi Krishna

 

 

Q. How can we establish a settle peace and silence in the mind?

 

A. First of all, you must want it. And then you must try and must

persevere, keep on trying. What I have just told you is a very good

means. Yet there are others also. You sit quietly, to begin with;

and then, instead of thinking of fifty things, you begin saying to

yourself, " Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, calm, peace! " You

imagine peace and calm. You aspire, ask that it may come: " Peace,

peace, calm. " And then, when something comes and touches you and

acts, say quietly, like this, " Peace, peace, peace. " Do not look at

the thoughts, do not listen to the thoughts, you understand. You

must not pay attention to everything that comes. You know, when

someone bothers you a great deal and you want to get rid of him, you

don't listen to hi, do you? Good! You turn your head away (gesture)

and think of something else. Well, you must do that: when thoughts

come, you must not look at them, must not listen to them, must not

pay any attention at all, you must behave as though they did not

exist, you see! And then, repeat all the time like a kind of -- how

shall I put it? -- as an idiot does, who repeats the same thing

always. Well, you must do the same thing; you must repeat, " Peace,

peace, peace. " So you t ry this for a few minutes and then do what

you have to do; and then, another time, you begin again; sit down

again and then try. Do this on getting up in the morning, do this in

the evening when going to bed. You can do this.... look, if you want

to digest your food properly, you can do this for a few minutes

before eating. You can't imagine how much this helps your digestion!

Before beginning to eat you sit quietly for a while and say, " Peace,

peace, peace! " and everything become clam. It seems as though all

the noises were going far, far, far away (Mother stretches out her

arms on both sides) and then you must continue; and there comes a

time when you no longer need to sit down, and no matter what you are

doing, no matter what you are saying, it is always " Peace, peace,

peace. " Everything remains here, like this, it does not enter

(gesture in front of the forehead), it remains like this. And then

one is always in a perfect peace .... after some years.

 

But at the beginning, a very small beginning, two or three minutes,

it is very simple. For something complicated you must make an

effort, and when one makes an effort, one is not quiet. It is

difficult to make an effort while remaining quiet. Very simple, very

simple, you must be very simple in these things. It is as though you

were learning how to call a friend: by dint of being called he

comes. Well, make peace and calm your friends and call them: " Come

peace, peace, peace, peace, come! "

 

Thy peace, O Lord, a boon within to keep

Amid the roar and ruin of wile Time ....

 

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, p. 696

Gopi Krishna <gopi