What is real peace? ….Amma

[Jitendra Hydonus]

AMMA on PEACE
Questioner: What is peace in Amma’s words?

Amma: Are you asking about peace within or peace without?

Questioner: I want to know what real peace is.

Amma: Daughter, tell Amma what your version of real peace is first.

Questioner: I think peace is happiness.

Amma: But what is true happiness: Is it something that you get when your desires are fulfilled, or do you have another explanation for it?

Questioner: Hmmm… It is a mood that comes when desires are fulfilled, isn’t it?

Amma: But such happy moods will soon disappear. You feel happy when a particular desire is fulfilled. However, very soon another desire will take its place and you will find yourself running after it. There is no end to this process, is there?

Questioner: That is true. So, is feeling happy inside real happiness?

Amma: Okay, but how do you feel happy inside?

Questioner: (laughing) You are trying to corner me.

Amma: No. we are getting close to the answer you need. Come on, daughter, how is it possible to feel happy inside if the mind is not calm? Or do you think feeling calm and composed while eating chocolate and ice cream is real peace?

Questioner: (thoughtfully) That is neither peace nor happiness. That is just a sort of excitement or fascination.

Amma: Does that kind of fascination stay with you long?

Questioner: No, it comes and goes.

Amma: Now, tell Amma, can a feeling that comes and goes be called real or permanent?

Questioner: Not really.

Amma: Then what do you call it?

Questioner: That which comes and goes is usually known as “temporary” or “passing”.

Amma: As you have said that. Let Amma ask you this: Are there any moments in your life when you have experienced peace for no particular reason?

Questioner: (after a few thoughtful moments) Yes, once I was sitting in the backyard of my house, looking at the setting sun. It filled my heart with an unknown joy. In that beautiful moment, I simply glided into a state of thoughtlessness, and I felt so much peace and joy within. Recapturing that moment, I even wrote a poem describing the experience.

Amma: Daughter, that is the answer to your question. Peace happens when the mind is still, with fewer thoughts. Fewer thoughts mean more peace, and more thoughts mean less peace. Peace or happiness for no reason is real peace and happiness.

Peace and happiness are synonyms. The more open you are, the more peace or happiness you feel, and vice versa. Unless we have a certain degree of mastery over the mind, true peace is difficult to attain.

To find peace within is the real path to finding peace without. The inner and the outer efforts should go hand in hand.

Questioner: Amma, how do You describe peace from a spiritual point of view?

Amma: There is no difference between spiritual peace and worldly peace. Just as love is one, peace is also one. Yes, there is a difference in degree. That depends how deeply you go inside. Consider the mind as a lake; the thoughts are the ripples on the lake. Each thought or movement of agitation is like a stone thrown into the lake, creating countless ripples. A meditative mind will become like a lotus flower floating on that lake. The ripples of thoughts will still be there, but the lotus is unaffected. It will just float.

“Leave me alone! I want peace!” This is a common expression we hear—sometimes in the middle of a quarrel, or when someone is fed up with another person or situation. But is it possible? Even if we leave that person alone, he won’t experience any peace, nor can he really ever be alone. Behind the closed doors of his room, he will sit and brood about all that has happened, continuing to boil within. He will again be in the world of disturbing thoughts. Real peace is a profound feeling that engulfs the heart when we are free from the thoughts of the past.

Peace is not opposite of agitation. It is the absence of agitation. It is a completely relaxed and restful state.


Amma: Daughter, that is the answer to your question. Peace happens when the mind is still, with fewer thoughts. Fewer thoughts mean more peace, and more thoughts mean less peace. Peace or happiness for no reason is real peace and happiness.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

To the extent our mind controls us…we lose our peace of mind.