Today is World Peace Day, and I was asked if I could share something on peace, from a Vedic yoga perspective. One meaning of the word peace is to not be at war. However, even though the vast majority of the world’s population are not involved in military wars, can we say that they are peaceful – that they are relaxed and happy – free from anxiety? Great spiritual teachers in our disciplic line have analyzed the various sources of anxiety, and described the threefold miseries:
Adi-atmic miseries
are those which arise from our own body and mind. Miseries of the body include birth, disease, old age and death, headaches, toothaches, thirst and hunger etc. Miseries of the mind include anxiety, depression, madness, jealousy, and attachment. Miseries associated with attachment have been analyzed as hankering, fearing and lamenting. 
Hankering means lusting after what we haven’t got – burning with desire. We are always hankering after something, whether it’s clothes, jewellery, real estate, the latest electronic devices, a new boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife. Material desires are endless, and we are convinced that the latest “thing” will make us happy. With the internet these days, we are bombarded with a constant stream of innumerable products which are very easily purchased online, often arriving the next day. One day we may not even know of the existence of this product, and the next day we can’t live without it. So that is hankering.
The second phase of attachment is Fearing. Fearing in this sense means being in anxiety or fearful that we’ll lose what we have. Relationships, property or respect. Mark Twain is quoted as saying:
“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
The third phase of material attachment is Lamenting. Lamenting means suffering due to the loss of what we once had and lost – grieving. The loss of a loved one is devastating, but we can suffer for the loss of material possessions also. In the American Wall Street Crash of 1929, many people who lost their fortunes when the stock market crashed, committed suicide by jumping out of skyscrapers. So, the loss of something we are very attached to is called lamenting.
Adi-bhautic miseries
are miseries caused by other living entities. They include wars, murder, torture, imprisonment, ridicule, bullying, being eaten by a crocodile, shark or lion, pestilence – plagues of locusts or mice – being bitten by mosquitoes, fleas or bed bugs, treading in dog-shit etc. etc.
Adi-devic miseries
are miseries caused by natural calamities or disturbances. These include earthquakes, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis, famine and extremes of heat and cold.
If we feel that our happiness depends on material “things” or situations, then we are extremely vulnerable, and our peace and happiness are precarious. The fear that our business will fail, our partner will be unfaithful, or our football team will lose can be devastating depending on our degree of attachment. And sometimes there is no obvious cause for our suffering and anxiety. James Packer the billionaire son of Frank Packer has houses all over the world, yachts, fancy cars and hangs out with film stars and various wealthy and famous personalities. But he once described himself as a psychologist’s dream, saying that one morning he will wake up feeling well and happy, and the next morning, despite no obvious changes to his life, he feels extremely depressed.
The Supreme Lord and great saintly teachers want us to be happy, both in this life and the next. They instruct us that we are not our material body or mind, but the eternal spirit soul, a spark of the Supreme Soul, only temporarily residing in this material body:
The Vedic maxim “aham brahmasmi” means “I am brahman,” or “I am spirit.” This is the basis of all spiritual understanding. The following meditation is helpful in understanding our actual identity:
Aham brahmasmi
I am spirit; I am not matter
I am not the body
I am not the mind
I am the eternal spirit soul
The eternal spark of God
I am only temporarily in this material body
The body is temporary
I am eternal
Aham brahmasmi
Two Energies: Superior and Inferior
Krishna in Bhagavad-gita describes two distinct energies – the material energy and the spiritual energy, the living beings or spirit souls:
“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – altogether these comprise My separate material energies. Beyond this inferior nature, O mighty armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine – the living beings who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” [B.g. 7:4-5]
So, we are Krishna’s parts and parcels, we are not made of matter but are springing from the Lord’s superior spiritual energy. We actually do not belong in this world of temporary matter – our real home is in the eternal spiritual world. Krishna describes the spirit souls in the Bhagavad-gita:
“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul. Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction; therefore fight, O descendent of Bharata.” [B.g. 2:17-18]
“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” [B.g. 2:20]
“The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can neither be burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.” [B.g. 2:23-24]
This practice of mantra meditation has the ability to purify our consciousness, so that we will gradually be reinstated in our natural condition, fully aware that we are not the temporary material body and mind, but the eternal spirit soul, a child of the Supreme Soul. And we all have an eternally existing relationship of love with the Supreme Person, which we are endeavoring to uncover by the practice of bhakti yoga. “Yoga” actually means union of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul, and “bhakti” means love, the method for attaining this union.
So, we are endeavoring to uncover and restore the natural love of the individual soul with Krishna. Until we are reestablished in our natural consciousness, we will identify with the temporary body and mind, and peace and spiritual happiness will elude us. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita:
“One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?” [B.g 2:66]
So, Krishna makes it very clear that peace is the preliminary stage or platform from which true happiness can be built. There can be no happiness if we are not at first situated in a peaceful condition.
In the purport to this verse, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami says:
“So, it is confirmed in the Fifth Chapter (5.29) that when one understands that Krishna is … the real friend of all living entities, then only can one have real peace. … Therefore, one who is engaged without a relationship with Krishna is certainly always in distress and is without peace, however much one may make a show of peace and spiritual advancement in life.” [B.g 2:66 purport]
As we make progress in our spiritual lives, we gradually experience more and more that our worries, fears and anxieties fall away, and the happiness we experience gets deeper and deeper. I know myself, I am now in an old body, with some health problems and difficulties. Many of the things I once relied upon for material enjoyment are no longer available, but I have never been happier than I am now. As our relationship with the Supreme Soul, Krishna, grows, we experience more and more His presence in our lives, His love and care for us, and the sources of our anxiety – our hankering, fearing and lamenting – gradually disappear. I know that I’m being looked after.
Krishna describes the stage of samadhi, complete absorption in love for Him, in the Bhagavad-gita:
“The stage of perfection is called trance, or samādhi, when one’s mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one’s ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.” [B.g.6:20-23]
So I would just like to thank my spiritual teachers who have shared this wonderful method of attaining peace and happiness in our lives.
Thank you very much.
Kenarama Das