Peace is our birthright: how can we have it?¹²

O Lord, where is the Truth?
"Where your Beloved is."
Who is my Beloved, who?
"In whom your life is peace."
Peace. Peace. Peace.

The outer peace and the inner peace: the outer peace is man’s compromise; the inner peace is man’s fulfilment. The outer peace is man’s satisfaction without being satisfied at all. The inner peace is man’s satisfaction in being totally and supremely fulfilled.

How can the outer peace have the same capacity as the inner peace? The outer peace can have the same capacity if and when man’s creation and God’s Creation become inseparably one. What is man’s creation? Man’s creation is fear. Man’s creation is doubt. Man’s creation is confusion. What is God’s Creation? God’s Creation is Love. God’s Creation is Compassion. God’s Creation is Concern.

Fear is the feeblest ant in man. Doubt is the wildest elephant in man. Confusion is the devouring tiger in man. There is no yawning gulf between man’s cherished fear and his forced fear. Doubt God, forgiveness is granted. Doubt yourself, your complete destruction is decreed. Yesterday’s confusion was the beginning of your insincerity. Today’s confusion is the beginning of your insecurity. Tomorrow’s confusion will be the beginning of your futility.

God’s Love for man is man’s aspiration. God’s Compassion for man is man’s salvation. God’s Concern for man is man’s perfection.

Man’s fulfilling and fulfilled search for the Real is peace. God the Love is man’s eternal Guest in the inmost recesses of his heart. God the Peace is man’s eternal Host in the inmost recesses of his heart. That is why we can unfalteringly and unmistakably claim that the loving and fulfilling peace is our birthright.

How can we have peace, even an iota of peace, in our outer life, amid the hustle and bustle of life and our multifarious activities? Easy: we have to choose the inner voice. Easy: we have to control our binding thoughts. Easy: we have to purify our impure emotions.

The inner voice is our guide. The binding thoughts are the dark and unpredictable weather. The impure emotion is the inner storm. We have to listen to the inner voice always. It is our sure protection. We have to be cautious of the binding thoughts. These thoughts have tremendous vitality. We must never allow them to swell into mountains. We have to face them and then dominate them. These thoughts are absolutely non-essential, and we have no time to fret over non-essentials. We have to refrain from the luxury of the emotional storm. Impure emotion is immediate frustration, and frustration is the harbinger of total destruction within and without.

How can we choose the inner voice? To choose the inner voice, we have to meditate early in the morning. To control and dominate our undivine thoughts, we have to meditate at noon. To purify our unlit, impure emotions, we have to meditate in the evening.

What is meditation? Meditation is man’s constant awareness and conscious acceptance of God. Meditation is God’s unconditional offering to man.

Peace is the beginning of love. Peace is the completion of truth. Peace is the return to the Source. [Sri Chinmoy sings]

There was a time when I stumbled and stumbled,
But now I only climb and climb beyond
And far beyond my Goal's endless Beyond.
And yet my Captain commands: "Go on, go on!"

We have already invoked and received Peace from God. With your kind permission, I wish to invoke more Peace from above. Those who would like to join me are most welcome to come up to the platform and meditate with me for Peace, inner Peace, all-fulfilling Peace.

[The audience responds and meditates with Sri Chinmoy.]