Question: I am deeply disturbed. I want to have peace. My greatest ambition is to study languages, but I cannot concentrate on the simplest things of life. This makes me feel sad, deeply sad and I cry a lot. I feel dispersed, I am so deeply disturbed. I want to regain my happiness, my tranquillity of spirit and mind. I would like you to help me, to lead me. I will follow you.

Sri Chinmoy: You are using the term “regain”. Now if you say that you want to regain your peace of mind and tranquillity, that means that once upon a time you had peace of mind and tranquillity... if I understand you correctly... Now when we lose something, it means that we have done something wrong. If we have something in ourselves and we are constantly doing the right thing, we are not going to lose the precious jewel inside us. Why do we lose it? We lose it because we run after worldly things, empty things, temporary joy or temporary pleasure. Or what we do is to enter into others’ business which is not our business. So there are various reasons for losing our peace of mind, the peace of mind that we once had. Now your question is: how can we get back that peace of mind which is our true treasure?

Each person present here knows what the Truth is. But just by knowing the Truth, one cannot be satisfied. One has to try to live the Truth. When one wants to live the Truth, the real problem arises. We know the Truth, all of us, but in our day-to-day life, when we want to follow or live this Truth, even an inch of the Truth, an iota of Truth, problems arise. If we could practise the Truth, most of the problems would be solved. Now, how to know what Truth is and what falsehood is. It is very difficult. In this world, very often Truth and falsehood are intermingled. We have to separate them, For that, we need God’s Grace and our utmost sincere effort. When God’s Grace and our own sincere effort go together, we shall not only see the Truth and feel the Truth, but we shall become the Truth. When we become the Truth, infinite Peace will be at our disposal.

Now we are running after Peace, but Peace is not paying any attention to our cry or desire. But the real object in our life should be to follow the Truth. When we follow the Truth, Peace is bound to come to us. Peace cannot live in falsehood. So if you want to have peace of mind, tranquillity, calm and silence, then you have to live the Truth and it is in Truth that we can have peace of mind.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Earth’s Cry Meets Heaven’s Smile, part 3, Aum Press, Puerto Rico, 1978
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