Positive Aids to Peace of Mind

By

Sri N. Ananthanarayanan

IntroductionDo Not Criticise Anybody or AnythingBe HumbleForget and ForgiveDo Not Aspire for Worldly ThingsNever Be JealousPurify YourselfBecome Self-ReliantMeditateDo Something PositiveNever RegretMake Others HappyIntrospect to Gain Right DirectionPreya and ShreyaReduce Your WantsDo Not Disturb the Peace of OthersGrow SpirituallyMind Your Own BusinessNever ArgueHave No ExpectationGain God’s FriendshipPray to GodObey the Will of GodBelieve Utterly in the Unreality of the World

Introduction

It is common knowledge that good health and economic security are a "must" forpeace of mind. But having both, many are still in a state of perpetual mentalrestlessness. Do you belong to this category? If you say "Yes," then read on. The

chances are that your trouble is mostly of your own making and thereforeavoidable. Let us see how.

Do Not Criticise Anybody or Anything

Do you interfere too often in the affairs of others? May be they are wrong. But whyshould you be disturbed on that account? Do not criticise anybody or anything.God has not delegated to you the authority to sit in judgment over others. All menact the way they do because they are prompted that way by the God within them. Itis a good rule to mind your own business to keep your peace.

Mind your own business. An excellent dictum to follow for the man who prizespeace of mind above everything else. Nothing in this world requires your attention.There is a God to look after everything in fact. He looks after you as well. Do notforget this fact.

Let me repeat: Mind your own business. Do not criticise anybody or anything.Criticism is tantamount to blasphemy. Why? Because whatever happens happensby the Will of God. Nothing can happen without the concurrence of God. The factthat something has happened—no matter whether it is good or bad from your pointof view—is in itself proof positive that it has God’s approval. And if you criticisethe happening, you are questioning the Will of God, the Wisdom of God, thejustice of God. Do not do that. You will keep your peace.

Be Humble

God sees things by the whole. Man sees things by parts. God sees happenings overthe three periods of time. Man sees events only in the present, isolated from thepast and the future. That is why man sees discord where God sees harmony. Mansees lack of logic where God finds perfect logic. Put yourself in the place of God.Feel you are God. Feel that the entire universe is your creation and operates byyour will. At once you will feel tremendous peace and strength surging within you.

You say others insult you without reason, injure you without cause. Even if that istrue, do not get agitated. Face the situation calmly. You will find that calmness canbe a powerful weapon to overcome difficult situations. Shut your eyes to insults.

Let others think what they like, say what they like. This is a world of ignorantpeople. You be wise. Be humble before everybody. Be humble in every situation.This will be possible if you give up the idea of inferiority and superiority and learnto see God in everybody and everything "God wills it so. So be it.": Say that toyourself and keep quiet in the face of insults. Be unruffled. If you put up withinsults, you will grow in humility and purity. You will grow spiritually rich.

Forget and Forgive

Do not develop ill-feeling inside your heart for the man who has insulted you orinjured you. This is worse than open anger. This is mental cancer. Do not nourishgrievances. Forget and forgive. This is not just an idealistic maxim. This is theonly way to retain your peace. The habit of nurturing grievances is highly injuriousto one’s own self. You will lose sleep. You will poison your blood. You willdevelop blood pressure and neurasthenia. After all, the injury or insult was done toyou once. Now it is past. It is all over. It is spilt milk. Why do you want toperpetuate the misery of that injury or insult by constantly remembering it? Whydo you want to feed the dying embers of hatred and ill-will? Is it not highfoolishness? The span of human life is so short that you cannot afford to wastetime and life in such trifles. Get over the bad habit. The best way to do so is tokeep yourself ever busy in any work which absorbs your interest. You can gainpeace of mind if you actively follow a calling or profession, or even hobby, whichholds your interest. You will then have a sense of fulfilment, of achievement.Remember the proverb: Man does not live by bread alone. If you can afford it, andif you value peace of mind more than money, you would even do well to take to acalling or job which you like but which is monetarily less rewarding than onewhich you dislike all the time but monetarily more rewarding.

Do Not Aspire for Worldly Things

Do not aspire for worldly glory, worldly recognition. This is the surest way tomental and physical restlessness. Why do you crave for recognition by others? The"others" are mostly ignorant people. The most successful men of the world areoften men of little real wisdom. Why do you place so much value on theirrecognition? Instead, aspire for God’s blessings, the blessings of wise men ofsaintly souls. That is worth earning, worth striving for.

Do not attach much importance to public opinion. Public opinion is often wrong.Attach importance to moral values, codes of conduct, scriptural teachings, opinionof saints and holy men. You can never go wrong.

Never Be Jealous

Jealousy often disturbs peace of mind. Are you jealous of somebody? Jealousy is acanker. It is incorrect to imagine that A has blocked your promotion in office orthat B has ruined you by competing in the same business. Again and againremember: no one can make or mar your career. Your career and your life areshaped by your previous Karma. If you are destined to rise, not all the world canstop it. If you are not so destined, not all the world can help you to come up either.Each man is governed by his own destiny. Each man’s life is independent, thoughseemingly interdependent with the lives of others. Remember this. Understand thispoint well. Never again be jealous of others or blame others for your misfortune.

Purify Yourself

May be, you are fed up with your environment which disturbs your peace. Insteadof trying to change the environment—the chances are you may fail—changeyourself for the better. Purify yourself. As you do this, even the environment whichhas remained bad for you, may be for years, will mysteriously begin to dance andchange for the better. The more you grow in purity, the more congenial andharmonious the environment will become. Do not ask. "How?". Try andexperience. Try and experience, friend.

Put up with things. What cannot be cured has to be endured. Endure cheerfully.Learn to live with a hundred inconveniences, annoyances, irritations from morn tillmidnight. You will gain in patience, in inner strength, in will-power. You will turndisadvantage into an advantage.

Become Self-Reliant

A prime cause for losing one’s peace of mind is dependence on others even forone’s basic needs. Paradhinam Prana Sankatam. Dependence is pain.Independence is bliss. Become self-reliant. As far as possible, of course. If you

earnestly try, you will discover that there are many areas left in which you canbecome self-reliant. Learn to wash your clothes, sweep your room, cook your food,type your letters. You need not do them daily, but in an emergency, these smalltalents will come to your rescue.

Do not evade responsibilities. Do not shirk. You cannot gain peace of mind thatway. You will only gather more worries, because the thought that you are shirkingyour duties will corrode your mind and take away what little peace there is. Rather,face your responsibilities to the best of your ability. But—and this is important—do not add on to your responsibilities every day by taking additional loads on yourown egoistic initiative. In colloquial terms, this is what is called purchasingtrouble. Do not purchase trouble. Rather, cut down your external activities moreand more consistent with your responsibilities. Yearn to spend more and more timein an inward life of prayer, introspection and meditation. Perfect peace of mindarises when the mind itself dies down. Mind means thoughts. Thoughts meanrestlessness. The lesser the activity the fewer the thoughts. The fewer the thoughts,the greater the peace of mind. Thoughtlessness is the highest state where perfectpeace reigns.

Meditate

Have regular hours of meditation. Meditation calms down the mind. It inducesquiescence in the mind. If you meditate earnestly for one hour, even duringremaining twenty-three hours, the tendency introduced by meditation in the mindpersists and the mind does not oscillate as much as before. Gradually increase theperiod of daily meditation. This will not interfere with your daily work, becausemeditation increases your various faculties and gives you the capacity to turn outmore work in less time.

Do Something Positive

Always be doing something positive, something worthwhile. Do not waste timewondering, "Shall I do this? Or shall I do that?" You will spend days, weeks,months—why, years—in that futile mental debating and end up doing nothing.Don’t plan too much. The planning is done by God. Be doing something good allthe time. Allow no gap in your concrete activity. You can never do enough to take

time for rest. Let there be no spare moments, no wasted moments in your life. Evena few careless moments can pull you down in life. Time is life. Value your timeand spend it most profitably.

Even if you are resting physically, do not keep the mind vacant. Occupy yourselfin healthy reading or Japa or mental prayer. All havoc starts in the mind. Harshwords and evil deeds originate in the mind. Keep the sources clean. The river ofyour life will flow as crystal.

Doing things gives self-confidence. It does not matter if you fail the first time. Youcan rectify your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back in the chair andworrying will lead to nothing. It will only make you a total pessimist.

Some people get upset when they attempt to do something good and obstaclescome in. It is natural for obstacles to crop up in the way of any good work. Theycome to test the mettle of the performer of the good work. They come to test hissincerity, his patience, his faith. You will experience that the stronger your resolveto do something worthwhile, the more powerful the opposing forces. Do not feelfrustrated. Do not give up. Do not yield. Overcome the obstacles by faith in Godand faith in yourself. You cannot win laurels in any field without undergoing testsand tribulations. It is unfair to expect a Degree while showing unwillingness toundergo a qualifying test.

Never Regret

If you fight shy of obstacles, then you can do nothing worthwhile in life. You canat best vegetate, but that is not living. Living, to be true, must be purposeful. Youmust have goals to reach, ideals to strive for. And goals cannot be reached withoutencountering opposition. Such opposition should not upset your peace of mind, butshould strengthen your will to fight the battle of life heroically. It will be possibleif you learn to accept these opposing forces as an inevitable part of phenomenallife, as unavoidable evil.

Never regret. Learn the lessons from your past experiences. Remember the lessons.Let the lessons guide your future actions. But do not brood over the past. Do noregret "If I had done that, I would have become this... If only I had."—it is all futile

thinking, waste of time and energy. Because worry depletes energy. Does nothingmore. The fact is whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Itcould not have happened in any other way. Everything, from the tiniest movementof a particle of the mightiest disturbances in the universe, everything in the past,present and future, every cause and every effect, has been ordained in certain wayby the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Will of God. Things happen asthey are destined to happen. Whatever will be will be. No man has the power toalter the course of God’s Will.Que sera sera is eternally true, universally true. Toregret, to brood is to show your cowardice in the face of the inevitability of eventsand to disturb your peace of mind for nothing. Wisdom lies in seeing the workingof God’s Will in every happening and remaining at peace with your self and theworld.

Make Others Happy

Are you utterly selfish or do you think of others at least sometimes? A selfish mancan have no peace. On the other hand, if you are selfless, if you serve otherswithout motive, you will feel great peace... at once. Motiveless service yields purejoy. Make others happy. You will begin to delight in their happiness. This issomething which is open to everyone to experience. Serve others in a small way ora big way as is given to you but without thought of reward or recognition. Servicefor the sake of service. Service at every turn. Whenever opportunity offers itself.

Almost twenty years ago, late in the evening, in a big city, out on my eveningwalk, I was stopped by a girl in a quiet comer, in an imploding tone: "Bhai Saheb,Dar Lagtha Hai." In a moment, I sensed the situation. In that lonely place, she wasbeing pursued by a Tongawala. In her fright, the girl had lost all sense of directionand was searching for her house. I reassured her, and in a little while wediscovered that the house she wanted to reach was well within a furlong of wherewe stood. I escorted her to her place and went my way. A trifling good turn thatcost me nothing, but the fullness and joy that I felt that day lingers fresh in mymemory even now. There are many ways in which one can help others at little orno cost. Only a pure heart is required.

Introspect to Gain Right Direction

In life, the person who desires peace of mind should learn to discriminate at everystage. What is right? What is wrong? What is possible? What is not? In a particularsituation, 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 rightdirection. A mechanical life where one follows the natural call of the senses andemotions is only to walk straight into the trap set by Maya.

Preya And Shreya

Constantly discriminate between the Preya-Marga and the Sreya-Marga, thePleasant Path and the Good Path. You will have to do this again and again everytime the mind tempts you to follow the ways of the world, to imitate others. Thisdesire 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 ascooter) just because all your friends come on scooters. Do not bother about how tosend your son to the States only because your neighbours have sent theirs toCalifornia and Cambridge.

Keep away from temptations of all sorts. Do not walk into places of temptation andthen struggle to resist temptation. It will tax your will unnecessarily. Even if yousucceed in resisting the temptation, it may leave a craving in the mind. Cravinginduces restlessness.

Reduce Your Wants

Do not multiply your wants and then feel like a beggar. Reduce your wants andfeel like a king. Why should you enter a cloth shop and see many varietiespresented before your eyes when you have enough clothing at home? Either youwill buy unnecessary things. Or feel sad, "Oh, I don’t have this. Ah, how I wish Icould 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 externalactivities. 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 ataxi 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 ofexercise of that wisdom in our daily life. If you want peace of mind, at once stopdoing 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 theright track, and when you are on the right track, God’s Grace will flow into yourlife and make it more and more sublime. You will gain peace of mind and radiatepeace all around you.

Faith has to be exercised. Love has to be exercised. Selflessness has to beexercised. Charity has to be practised. Dispassion has to be practised. Devotion hasto be cultivated. These qualities, these virtues do not arise, in you over night. Theyhave to be assiduously cultivated before they can become a natural, a habitual, anintegral part of your being.

Do Not Disturb the Peace of Others

If you hate others, if you injure others, if you abuse your servants, if you taunt yourchildren, if you ill-treat your wife at home and subordinates in the office, if youcheat people in business—if you do all these and much more and still expect peaceof mind, you are asking for the impossible. Also, you do not deserve it. A man whodisturb 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 aninward process that spiritual life is an inward life. But it is equally true that suchgrowth is greatly aided by external support and greatly marred by externalincompatibles. Hence they prescribe Sattvic diet, Sattvic dress, Sattvic reading,Sattvic company, Sattvic environment, Sattvic habits in general. Hence theyprescribe prayer and pilgrimage. Svadhyaya and Satsanga, fasts and festivals. Donot give up these powerful external aids. Rather resort to them purposefully for

quicker evolution. When you have advanced enough, they will drop off bythemselves.

Grow Spiritually

When you are in utter despair, turn to our lofty scriptures. Or read the works ofgreat souls. Or take leave for a month and go on a pilgrimage. Or visit a holy placeand 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 andbody and give yourself a new joy and confidence. Some people take to drinkingand loose living, vainly imagining that they can forget their worries this way.Impossible. Their cure is worse than the disease. Sleeping tablets? They solve noproblem. 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 ahuman being.

Keep on adding to your peace of mind. Do not stagnate. Do not worsen. Stagnationis also bad, because it often leads to worsening at some point. Improve the qualityof your life. Inward richness is real richness. Let your wealth be in-built. Let thewealth of your children be in-built. Great teachers say that a man has to be judgednot 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 allpetty desires and ambitions by this one ideal.

Mind Your Own Business

Once you have set the ideal for your self, begin to be true to yourself. Bring abouta greater and ever greater measure of co-ordination between your thought, wordand deed. Say what you think and do what you say. Shed all hypocrisy. Remove allhypocrisy 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 youand on the spiritual plane compare yourself with those who are more fortunate thanyou. 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., compareyourself 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 andspiritual pride. A sure way to hell indeed.

Stick to a few tested friends. Do not multiply acquaintances. Do not becomeintimate with anyone. Familiarity breeds contempt, disturbs emotions, upsets peaceof mind.

Talk only with purpose. Abstain from all unnecessary talk. Speak measured words.Even innocent, well-meant words, are quite often misunderstood and they producediscord. Never go to advise any one in anything, unless you are asked to. Mindyour own business.

Never Argue

Never argue. Never enter into an argument. Why do you want to win an argument?It offers you no tangible benefit. It will only inflate your ego, wound the other manand lead to friction between friends.

Let the other man hold his opinion. There are incorrigible idiots in this world whocan never be converted, who can never be made to see sense. Do not waste yourtime and breath on them. You will only suffer exhaustion and earn enmity.

Have No Expectation

Have no expectation. Because expectation leads to anxiety and often todisappointment. You wait for the postman day after day. And ultimately he doesnot bring that important letter which you are expecting from your friend. Yourfrustration knows no limits. Why all this mental torture? No expectation, nodisappointment. Whatever you are destined to enjoy or suffer, you will enjoy orsuffer. Neither you nor anyone else can add to, or take away from, your quota ofenjoyment or suffering. Knowing this, why should you waste your energy and timein anxiety? Forget the past. Have no thought for the future. Live in the present. Tothe best of your ability, discharge your responsibilities as they present themselvesbefore you. There is a God to take care of the results.

Some people say, "I do not care what happens to me. But I am worried aboutothers." This is another kind of ignorance. Those who say like this are deceiving

themselves. Do not worry about your son’s madness or your daughter’s runningaway with someone. By all means, do all you can to minimise life’s tragedies, butdo not worry an iota. Each individual is governed by his past Karma (despite allthe ‘rationalists’ in the world) and no one has the power to alter anyone else’s fateby so much as a hair-breadth. Even when A seems to be helping or harming B, it isGod (nay, it is B’s previous Karma) which is working through A and not Ahimself. Once you have understood this, you will not worry about others or aboutyourself. Worry saps energy and wastes time. It is effeminacy. The man whoworries betrays ignorance of spiritual laws.

Gain God’s Friendship

No one is interested in you. Remember this point well. Don’t expect the world torush to your rescue in every bad situation. It will just not happen. Be up and doing,with faith in God. If God supports you and all the world opposes you, you will stillsucceed. But if you lose God and gain all the world’s support, you will yet fail.Gain God’s friendship. It is the greatest wealth. Once you have that, peace of mindis yours. You now have everything. Fear has fled. Anxiety has disappeared.

See God in all. Feel unified in spirit with everyone and everything. You are notseparate from the rest of creation. God is just another name for that mysterious lifeprinciple in you. Call it Life, call it Consciousness, call it Existence. Thismysterious principle is all-pervading, eternal, one without cause and effect. Feelhappy. Think, talk and walk in a manner befitting the grandeur of thy inner Being,the God within you. Shed all meanness, crookedness, cunningness, selfishnesswhich are the hall-marks of a degraded man. Feel one with all in spirit. Your lifewill begin to move along right lines. Your spiritual evolution will be rapid. Youwill have all the peace of mind you want.

Pray to God

Each day when you get up in the morning, pray to God for just two minutes. Surelyyou can afford that much time for your Creator every day. "O Lord! Use me todayfor working out Your Will in whatever way You deem fit. I make myself hollowand lay myself at Your disposal." I heard a song on the A.I.R. years back. One linestill lingers in my memory: All can repeat it in the morning before getting up from

bed: "Aaj Meri Gati Tumhari Arati Ban Jaye! (May the course of my life todaybecome an offering unto Thee, my Lord!)" If you say that, and remember yourprayer to the Lord throughout the day, you will think twice before indulging inwrong act or taking a false step. Rather you will like to fill the day with as manygood deeds as possible so that there may be more flowers in the garland that youoffer to the Lord at day’s end.

Accept every experience in life as it comes. Do not grumble. Do not grudge. Donot feel sad. Do not feel glad either. Rest serene. If you gloat over something, youare inviting trouble. There is always action and reaction on the relative plane. Ifyou laugh now, you will have to weep later. On a level ground, if you want tomake a mound, you can do so only by making a pit to dig out the earth to make themound. There is no mound without a pit, no smile without a tear. So remain levelalways. Remain serene always. Serenity is superior to boisterous giggling andlaughter and the so-called happiness which only hides sorrow for the moment.

Obey the Will of God

Learn to accept. Accept every happening in your life as the Will of God. "O Lord!Thy Will will be done"—let this be your only reaction to every twist and turn inlife. God is your real friend. He is your greatest well-wisher. He gives variousexperiences—good and bad—only to mould you, chisel you, shape you into aneffective instrument for the working out of His Will. Allow yourself to be shapedby His divine hands. Abandon yourself to His care.

Do not struggle. Do not oppose. Allow yourself to be tossed by God’s Will.Become a straw in the cosmic wind. Have no individual ego. This you can do onlyif you recognise the existence of God and the Will of God imperatively, only if youlearn to see the absolute supremacy of God’s Will over all human initiative andendeavour. Humility is not weakness. It is strength. The more the humility, thegreater the accretion of strength. Your life will flow smoothly, because you offerno resistance to God’s Will. There will be no friction. There will be no failure too,because you do not attempt to achieve anything by your own choice and will. Butyour life will turn out to be a tremendous success, because God’s wisdom andstrength will enter the vacuum of your being emptied of your egoism and fill it inthe same manner as air rushes into a vacuum and fills it. This is the Law.

Believe Utterly in the Unreality of the World

The fundamental mistake that people without peace of mind make is to imaginethat the whole world is made for their enjoyment and that everything andeverybody in this wide universe should subserve their individual ends and that thewhole world should bend to their plans. Do not try to extract enjoyment from thisworld. You can as well extract nectar from cobra’s fangs! You will meet withdisappointment, frustration, failure, misery. Rather know the world for what it is.The world is made for your experience, for your evolution. Grow wiser andspiritually richer with every experience. Experience is education. Experience is thegreatest teacher. It is only the fool who thinks that this world is made for hispleasure. Says the scripture: Anityam Asukham Lokam. AsasvatamDuhkhalayam (Impermanent and joyless, verily, is this world). Read yourscriptures with respect. Ever remember their teachings. Live by their teachings.There is no other way to peace of mind.

Lastly, believe utterly in the unreality of the world. Believe, because all the seersof yore have proclaimed in no uncertain terms that the phenomenal world is only adream world and that phenomenal experience is only a dream experience. Andremember: they said that only after personally experiencing the unreality of theworld and the Reality of pure consciousness. They were not fools. Nor are youwiser. Even when confronted with bitter experience, tell yourself: "All this isunreal. I am Pure Consciousness. I am God."

Harih Om Tat Sat