Build a Culture of Peace

Sadhguru: September 21 will be celebrated as the International Day of Peace. World peace, however, seems to be a very distant possibility when bodies of children wash up on merciless shores, because the innocent are being massacred by “soldiers of god.”

So, can peaceful co-existence ever become reality? Yes, it can, if we can create peaceful individuals. We need a culture of peace in our day-to-day life. Nothing much is being done about how human beings can maintain their bodies, minds, emotions and the very energy within, in a certain state of peacefulness. It is important to realize that peace is not the goal of life but the very foundation of life and peaceful individuals are the building blocks of a peaceful world.

Peace and joy are assurances that you will not do unpleasant things. If you are feeling pleasant within yourself, why would you do unpleasant things to someone else? Only when a human being is not peaceful, there is a possibility of the world not being peaceful. If human beings were peaceful, the world will definitely be peaceful.

This cannot be done with a crowd. It needs a committed approach to individual transformation. Unless there are movements which work towards individual transformation, there will be no peace.

What you call peace, is a certain kind of chemistry; joy is another kind of chemistry; anxiety is another kind of chemistry. Every human experience has a chemical basis to it. Recent research into the human brain has yielded some incredible results. An Israeli scientist spent several years researching certain aspects of the human brain, and he found there are millions of cannabis receptors in the brain! Then neurologists discovered that at different times of the day, if you closely observe the system and what happens with the brain chemistry, the body develops its own cannabis which satisfy the receptors in the brain. If a person is in a certain state of blissfulness or ecstasy, he produces these chemicals, which the brain is constantly waiting for. Even your brain is waiting for you to be blissful – millions of cannabis receptors are sitting there and waiting, not for you to smoke or drink or do drugs, but for you to become blissful.

When they found this chemical which goes towards the receptors, there was no name for it. The scientist had the freedom to name this newly found chemical. He wanted to give it a name which would be truly relevant. When he researched the Indian scriptures, to his amazement, he found that the Indian scriptures are the only scriptures which talk about blissfulness. No other religion on the planet talks about bliss. Religions talk about sin, religions talk about fear, religions talk about guilt, religions talk about punishment. But no other religion talks about blissfulness. So he called this chemical, which moves towards the cannabis receptors, “Anandamide.”

If you simply maintain your inner chemistry in a certain way, the body itself will produce these “bliss” molecules, whilst the nervous system will receive it. If you generate sufficient amount of anandamide in your system, you will be blissful, yet alert.

Inner Evolution

Nowhere in the world has any culture looked at inner evolution with such depth as in Indian culture. When Adiyogi spoke about evolution, he propounded far beyond physical evolution. He spoke about nine manifestations of the divine. The first manifestation is the form of a fish – Matsya avatara, aquatic life. The second manifestation of Koorma Avatara – a turtle – amphibious life. The third manifestation is Varaha Avatara, divine manifested in the form of a boar – a mammal. Next is Narasimha Avatara which is half-man and half-animal form. The fifth manifestation of the divine is Vamana Avatara, a dwarf man. Then comes Parasurama Avatara, a full-fledged man but emotionally volatile. Following him is Rama Avatara, a peaceful man. The next one is Krishna Avatara, a loving man. The ninth is supposed to be the Buddha, a meditative man. Next is to be a mystical being.

This is not about a single person. This is about humanity evolving, life evolving, in a certain way.

Only if individuals evolve to peacefulness, joyousness and meditativeness by their own nature, can we hope for stable societies as was present in our culture millennia ago. In such societies, art, music and literature flourished. The search for a dimension beyond physical nature allowed gentle flowering of each individual. Strife, conflict and violence did not hold sway.

Partners in Peace

If we do not focus on individual transformation, the anger that resides in individuals can only be restrained and contained, and it will explode in so many ways. So, when the UN asks us to become “partners in peace,” let us first commit to becoming peaceful and joyous human beings ourselves. We have the technology for inner evolution, let us have the willingness to learn and apply it.

If there is one role that the people of this nation must resolve to play on this International Day of Peace, it is to light the way for inner transformation for all. So that children may grow and thrive under benevolent gazes and borders are drawn only on maps and not hearts.

This article was originally published in The Week.