Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
Does your life ever feel noisy? Maybe you don’t have that much actual noise in your life, but the fact of the matter is, there’s a lot of noise in our lives. It looks a little bit of difference for all of us but most of us have nearly constant noise in everyday life that hinders the prosperity of individuals and society at large. Peace is the path we take for bringing growth and prosperity to society. “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it” – Eleanor Roosevelt. Moreover, before we transmit the notion of peace to others, it is vital to possess peace within. Long ago our ancestors created religions and spiritualities that promised inner peace, love, fellowship, goodness, and connection with what’s most sacred. Inner peace does not have a one-size-fits-all definition. There is no standard process or mandatory steps to follow to find peace of mind. Finding inner peace is more challenging with our busy schedule, hectic lifestyle, and everyday stressors, but it’s completely possible. “Peace can become a lens through which you see the world. Be it. Live it. Radiate it out. Peace is an inside job.” – Wayne Dyer (an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development). The importance of peace is far beyond just understanding it. It is important that we understand how to be peaceful at all times regardless of the circumstances. Peace is the synonym for bliss. Having peace within and around makes us happier. There is no standard process or mandatory steps to follow to find peace of mind. Finding inner peace is more challenging with our busy schedule, hectic lifestyle, and everyday stressors, but it’s completely possible. Peace is not an idea nor a theory nor a formula, finding peace is achievable, and we don’t have to spend a fortune on a wellness retreat or meditate on a mountainside. It is not something for which we have to traverse into the texts, explore the holy caves, hang out with preachers and to run for the religious circuits, but it is in us only and only there to be sensed, felt and experienced. To explore peace we have to tune out the external clutter and have to disconnect ourselves from the noisy world we have tuned into and have to seek out quiet time. Without peace, other aspects of negativity will rise. If we begin to assemble qualities that promote peace within us, eventually our surroundings will be filled with peace.
‘The book inspires and elevate the reader with wisdom and a practical approach to finding peace within, rather than seeking it in this crazy world’ – these are words of Michael Bolton, a German award winner writer about the book titled ‘How to Find Peace in a Noisy World – Hear Yourself’ authored by Prem Rawat presented to me in a function ‘Welcome Zindagi’ an auspicious event to celebrate ‘Humanity and Peace’ organized by ‘Youth Peace Foundation’. The insights into life provide the answers I have sought for decades. Take a walk in nature and listen for the sounds of harmony, Prem Rawat suggests, or set aside a few minutes each day to feel gratitude, which comes from the core of our being. He challenges us to embrace our thirst for peace and let go of expectations for how it should feel. As a curious reader my traverse into the book enlightened me about various aspects of life. Hear yourself gives the gift of peace and gratitude in a time when we sorely need it. Prem Rawat teaches us how to turn down the noise to “hear ourselves”-to listen to the subtle song of peace that sings inside each of us. Once we learn to truly “hear ourselves” and the voice of peace within, then we can hold on to that as we face all the noise of the world. We have unnecessarily synchronized ourselves with worldly affairs to such an extent that we can’t find the time to be alone and to have stillness and silence. We have to take a journey from the outside world we live in everyday to the world of peace within us. The noise is just not happening to us; we are allowing it to happen to us. We can choose how to manage our mental box. We can choose who we listen to, care about, and respond to. Just a moment of positive choosing can be the start of a life changing journey through self-knowledge to inner calm, focus, contentment, and peace. We heed toward inner peace when we choose to turn our attention inward.
When we are always looking for what’s next, when what makes us human starts to disappear, when we start relying on something so much that we lose touch with ourselves. Here we need to close the door temporarily to the outside world and reconnect inside. That is where we find our true freedom. When we quit the noise of the mind, the heart can be heard. “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” – Lao Tzu (Chinese philosopher). To experience today, we need to remove yesterday and tomorrow, and then we are left with what is real. It is today where magic happens. Modern life can be deafening, making us feel frazzled and overwhelmed. The noise of our thoughts and our fears tends to overtake us on a daily basis. In the society in which we currently live; inner serenity might be difficult to obtain in this fast-paced society. There is no universal concept of inner serenity, to find your peace of mind, there is no set procedure or set of requirements that must be followed, with our busy schedules, hectic lifestyles, and everyday worries, finding inner calm is more difficult, yet it is quite attainable. In modern world of lusty and crazy life we find everyone wants to get ahead, want financial freedom, want to be rich, want to build multi-million dollar businesses, want to travel the world, want to become a Facebook or a YouTube celebrity, want to develop a successful career, and what not. Everyone seems to be attracted to the ‘shiny objects’ and are chasing them because that is what everyone else is doing. It simply means that we have no time for ourselves. If one wants to achieve greater results and produce outstanding success in life, he must first learn to find the inner peace within himself. We fail to understand and realize and underestimate living our lives with inner peace. If we want to find inner peace within ourselves, we have to spend time to be with ourselves. Nobody can bring us peace but only ourselves. “Only a self-satisfied person, who is content within, can live in peace. Such persons are comfortable with what they have and hence do not get overly upset when they do not have any material possessions’ ‘ – ‘The Bhagavad – Gita’. Imagine a world where everyone lives in peace. Imagine what would spring from that peace, the beautiful flowers of kindness. “Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa. “The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress is the easiest type of existence” – Norman Vincent Peale.