The first step to inner peace

Sri Chinmoy is a source of inspiration for me in achieving inner peace.

Peace is achieved when we expect nothing from the world. Just by giving, giving, giving. Giving unconditionally what we have and who we are.

Sri Chinmoy

According to Sri Chinmoy, no price is too high to pay for inner peace. “Peace is the harmonious mastery of life. It brims with life energy. It is a force that easily transcends all our worldly knowledge. Yet it is not separate from our earthly existence. If we open the right paths within, this peace can be felt here and now. Peace is eternal. It is never too late to be at peace. The time is always right for that. We can really make our lives fruitful if we are not cut off from our source, which is the peace of eternity.”

Who is Shi Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy was born in 1931 in the village of Shakpura (Bangladesh) and at the age of 12 he entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a spiritual community near Pondicherry in South India. Besides practicing meditation and athletics, he starts writing poetry, essays and spiritual songs. Twenty years later, he moved to New York, where he became famous for his peace concerts. From 1970 until his death in 2007 he accompanied peace meditations at the United Nations. By living from the heart and striving for continuous self-transcendence, he showed how to bring out the best in yourself and find the path to true fulfillment.

We are not indispensable

The first step to inner peace, according to Sri Chinmoy, is to sincerely feel that we are not indispensable. We have no peace of mind because we feel that others need something from us, or that we need something from others. We feel that if we don't do this or say that, the world will collapse or everything will go wrong right away. But the moment we can sincerely feel that we are not indispensable, we have nowhere to go to get peace, because peace will come to us immediately.

stop judging

We would like to live in peace, and in our view the whole world is behaving absurdly. The trick is to let go of these judgments. For when you have an abundant inner peace, you will see that you have the ability to transform the misdeeds of others. In doing so, your inner peace will help to change the face of the world.

From inner peace to world peace

How can inner peace contribute to world peace? “Once we have inner peace, world peace can be achieved in an instant. When we feel a good thought inside, an enlightening and fulfilling thought, we express that same thought and share it with our friends and loved ones. When our enlightening, soulful, fulfilling thoughts enter our loved ones, they too will be at peace. So when we have inner peace, it shows automatically. It spreads its qualities or abilities all over the world.”

Inner Peace Meditations

Every month I provide an Inner Peace & World Peace Meditation via Meetup. The meditation below is inspired by Sri Chinmoy. During this meditation we will reflect on some of his statements.