Question: What is peace and how can it be achieved?

Sri Chinmoy: Peace is something spontaneous; it is something that unites us. Peace is something that we have to spread. But unless and until we have peace deep within us, we can never hope to have peace in the outer world. There are two wars: the inner and the outer. The inner war is the war that our inner being or our soul fights against limitations, ignorance, doubt and death. The outer war is the war that man fights against man, that nation fights against nation. These outer wars will come to an end only if the inner war stops first; that is to say, when in the inner world the inner being or soul conquers ignorance, fear, doubt and death. Then in the outer world there will be no necessity to wage war. We fight because deep inside us there is disharmony, there is fear, there is anxiety and worry. When deep inside us there is peace, joy, plenitude and fulfilment, we shall not wage war. Both the inner war and the outer war are bound to end in the process of human evolution.