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Peace Through Meditation Is Possible
by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj All our lives we are tying to acquire things that we think will give us peace, but what we are seeking does not exist outside of ourselves. Peace lies within. A survey was taken once by a British newspaper to find the happiest people in the world. When the answers came back they narrowed the list down to four people. One was a child who enjoyed playing with sand castles. Another was an artist who had found fulfillment in his artwork. A third was a mother spending time with her baby. The fourth was a doctor, who after completing a dangerous operation, had saved a man’s life. What startled the news people who conducted the survey was that there was not a single person amongst them who was a millionaire or a person in a powerful position. If we investigate further into the lives of the rich and famous we find few among them who are truly happy or peaceful. What is the secret ingredient to attain peace within ourselves and peace in the world? What is the secret to true happiness? A couple set out to find a place in the world in which there was peace. They found that wherever they went there was some conflict. They moved from city to city, country to country, but did not find a place that was not ridden by either war, community unrest, crime, or violence. They finally began to pray to God to find them a place in the world in which they could live in peace. One day God spoke to them and said, “There is only one place in which peace can be found, but you need not move your home to find it.” “Where is it?” they asked. God told them, “Look within your own soul.” If any of us could look down at humanity from a higher vantage point, it would be revealed that within each of us is a precious treasure. But few people realize they have it. We are wildly searching for treasure outside, but do not realize that we carry it within ourselves. Once a little boy was given a special possession from his parents. The boy’s grandfather had died but left him a rare gold pocket watch. The boy kept it as a treasure with him. One day, while playing in a hayfield, he lost the watch. He searched high and low for it and became frantic when he could not find it. He was crying and asking everyone to help him find the watch. Suddenly, a friend of his who was very wise said, “You are looking high and low for this watch, and all the time making noise. If you want to find the watch, sit in silence and the answer of where it is will come to you.” The boy took his friend’s advice and silently sat down, waiting for the answer. There in the stillness he could hear the ticking of the clock, and the sound led him to the place where the watch lay! All the time the answer to peace lies within us. We merely need to sit still, in the silence of our soul, to find it. Throughout the ages, saints, mystics, prophets, and enlightened beings have come to tell us that same message. Let us consider whether we wish to find answers to the mysteries of life and finally find eternal peace. If so, Shabd meditation (meditation on the inner Light and Sound of God) is the way of gaining self-knowledge and God-realization. Today, we have an opportunity to experience a study in which we not only gain knowledge as if we were going to college, but we can also have firsthand experience for ourselves of the Light and Sound within us. By finding the Light and Sound, we can travel on that current back to God. This method of meditation is a simple one that does not require any difficult postures or rigid positions. Meditation is focusing one’s attention at the seat of the soul, located between and behind the two eyebrows. Spending two hours concentrating on the eye-focus each day, with help our attention withdraws from the body. Generally our sensory currents which give us sensation of this physical world are spread out through the body. As we concentrate at the seat of the soul, the sensory currents start withdrawing from our extremities. They come up from our feet and legs to our trunk. Eventually they are totally concentrated at the seat of the soul. Once at that point, a vista of divine Light and celestial sound opens up for us. We witness the Light and Sound which emanated from God at the dawn of creation. Like a current, this stream flows out from God through all the regions. It also returns to God. When our soul comes in contact with this stream, it can travel on it back to the Source. Today there are hundreds of thousands of people practicing meditation on the inner Light and Sound. It is a great blessing that we can transcend body-consciousness and see for ourselves that there is not death. What greater peace is there? What greater gift can we give to ourselves than inner peace? What a relief it is to solve the mystery of life and know for certain that our soul lives after the demise of our body. If each person found inner peace it would not be long before outer peace would prevail. Every person who finds inner peace provides the world with one more person who lives peacefully. By learning meditation, peace in the heart, peace in the soul, and peace in the world are possible. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj is the author of Inner and Outer Peace through Meditation and Empowering Your Soul Through Meditation, both from HarperCollins Publishers. An international spiritual leader and teacher of meditation, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj affirms the transcendent oneness at the heart of all religions and emphasizes prayer and meditation as building blocks for achieving peace. For more information about his schedule, contact the Science of Spirituality Center in Naperville, Illinois at 630/955-1200, or visit our website at www.sos.org.
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