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When I travel and speak to people, my message is about the very real thing that peace is and the possibility of feeling that peace in this life every single day. So where does it begin? Let me tell you a little story that might put it in perspective.
One day a tourist arrived in a very remote village where the people were very simple. The next morning he put his mirror on the wall to shave, but forgot to take it down. Later on, an elderly villager with gray hair, bright eyes, and a beautiful shining face came across the mirror on the wall. He had never seen himself before, and so when he saw his reflection in the mirror, he was mesmerized. "Today," he thought, "I have seen the face of God." He left completely happy.
Then came a beautiful young girl. When she saw herself in the mirror, she was taken aback. "I have seen the most beautiful woman on earth, and when I grow up, that's how I want to look!" Next, a man came along who had lost his father. When he looked in the mirror, he said, "Oh, my God, I saw my father again!" And he took the mirror with him.
Now, these three people who had seen themselves in the mirror started to get very upset. They started arguing, and before long, fights broke out throughout the entire village. Soon everybody was unhappy because whoever looked in the mirror saw something they liked, and they all wanted the mirror for themselves.
Finally, a wise man happened to come along and asked, "Why are you fighting?" One said the mirror showed him God, another that it showed him his father, and others told him what they had seen. So he called for this magical thing, and when he saw it, he smiled, "Do you know what this is? This is a mirror."
He called the old man and said, "You did not see the face of God. You saw yourself."
He called the young girl and said, "You did not see the most beautiful woman—you saw yourself." He called the young man and said, "You thought you saw your father because now you look like him. But it was you." One by one, he called everyone and he said, "Look. What you see in this mirror, what you like in this mirror, is not the mirror. It's you!"
How does this story relate to peace? Peace begins with us. Try to understand where the idea of peace came from. Was it somebody's invention? Was there some intelligent person walking along high mountains somewhere who said, "Peace. That's a good idea. Let's have peace." No.
As long as there have been human beings, there has been a desire for peace. The need for peace comes from within. Peace is the desire of the heart. It is as simple as the coming and going of breath. The movie of life begins with the first breath. And we all know how the movie ends.
We are fascinated by the in-between part. This is what we live for: "Who am I? What am I? What have I accomplished?" That's all fine, but never, ever forget the importance of where it began and where it ends.
Within you lies the possibility of peace. Peace does not belong to any nation, any society, or any religion. Peace belongs to people like you and me. Where will peace manifest? It will manifest in the cathedral of the heart. That is the only place where peace is welcomed. It is people like you and me who want peace and welcome it in our lives. It is here in our existence that peace resides.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace Permalink
Everybody wants peace, everywhere you go. Not long ago, I was talking to some prisoners, "Do you want peace?" "Of course!" You can speak to people in the Army, "Do you want peace?" "Yes, of course!" So everybody wants peace. And then, you ask, "What is peace?" And here, you get a surprising answer. Everybody has their own version of peace and everybody looks at it from a totally different angle.
The other day, I was talking to my niece, and she said, "Oh, I love that color." I said, "You love that color? Or you like that color?" She said, "What's the difference?" I said, "There's a very big difference. 'Like' is really what you want to say, and you can emphasize that, 'I like that very much,' but love is a little more interactive than that color can provide you."
And in the same way, when it is quiet, people say, "Oh, it is so peaceful." All it is, is quiet. People think the absence of war is peace. They have their ideas of peace. There are people who think peace is when everybody walks very slowly, wears flowing robes with flowers in their hair, and everybody is greeted by the peace symbol. You don't shake hands anymore. Perhaps you just touch two fingers and say, "Peace." Well there's no limit to it, is there?
Let me tell you a story. Once there was a queen, and she had a very beautiful necklace. One day, after her bath, she was on the balcony drying her hair. She took her necklace off and put it on a hook. A crow was flying by, saw the necklace shining in the sun, and flew off with it. But the crow dropped it in a tree, and it got caught on one of the branches.
Beneath the tree was a filthy dirty river. Now, when the queen reached for her necklace and found it missing, she threw a tantrum. "Who stole it?" She had everybody searching for it. Nobody could find it. She said to the king, "If I don't find my necklace, I'm never going to eat again." The king was very concerned and sent all his army and others looking for it—but nobody could find it. So the king finally made an announcement. "Whoever finds the necklace gets half of my kingdom." Then people started seriously looking.
One day, a general walked by the tree and saw the necklace in the river below it. He immediately jumped into the sewage-filled river because he wanted half the kingdom. The minister saw the general jumping in, and he, too, saw the necklace, and jumped in. The king saw his general and his minister looking for it, jumped in, and now all three were fishing for it. By then, more soldiers and the villagers had come, and they all jumped in.
Finally, somebody with a little wisdom said, "What are you doing? The necklace is not down there; it is up there. You're jumping after the reflection." And so the king said, "Since you found it, half of the kingdom is yours." And the wise man said, "I don't need your kingdom. You keep it."
Why did I tell this story? Because that's what we do, too. We just see the reflection of peace. It's nice when there are not wars, but that's a reflection of peace—that's not peace in itself. Peace begins with every single human being on the face of this earth. That's the necklace. Everything else is a reflection.
When the heart is full, when the human being is full, then automatically, the person is not in duality, is not in questions, but in answers. Not the complicated, but the simple—that we are. This is what we favor; this is who we need to be. This is our nature. When we are in that equilibrium where our hearts are full, our true nature shines. And the true nature that we have is beautiful. It's real. And that is the place of true peace. We look for it far away when it is so close to us.
Even in the most hopeless of situations, there is hope. This is who we are. There is a resilience, there is an understanding, there is a strength to every human being. And that is the strength to march towards the gateways of inner peace.
Maharaji
