Sadhguru: Forces of love-compassion and anger-hate are always functioning in the world. It is a seesaw game. The question is, which end of the seesaw do you want loaded? If we are really on the brink of a terrible situation, it is all the more important that the spiritual process is applied more vigorously, as ultimately that is the only thing that will maintain sanity in the world.

The moment you start believing in things that are not a living experience for you, you are naturally in conflict, please see this. You are a peaceful person today, but tomorrow when somebody really confronts your belief system, you will stand up and fight.

What is the intelligence in moving into belief? What is the benefit of moving into belief? The only thing is your ego feels comfortable. “I don’t know” is a big loss for the ego. “I know” is the only way you can make the ego grow, isn’t it? In any given situation, when you say “I don’t know” you are incapable of fighting with anybody, you are incapable of conflict. You are a very humble and wonderful human being.

Without being capable of bringing peace into your own being, there is no way you are going to be capable of bringing peace to the world. If you cannot make this little mind peaceful, are you going to make the world peaceful? What you are seeing in the world is just a projection of your little mind, an enlarged projection of your mind. Is there anything happening in the world which is not happening in your mind? It is happening.

The science of yoga is a way to look inward. Not from any standpoint, simply to look inward. You cannot look inward if you are identified with something. The moment you are identified, all doors are closed to you. Please see, the very way you think and feel depends on what you are identified with right now.

Let’s say, for example, you identify yourself as an Indian. Now when a situation happens, the very way you feel and respond to it is in a certain way. At that moment in the national interest, maybe it is a good thing but instead of reacting to it, you can respond to it more intelligently. When you are identified, you just become a reaction. You have no choice to think any other way. You have no capability of seeing the other person’s point of view. You have no capability of seeing from where the problem is springing. You will just react.

It is better that you come from your intelligence, not from your reaction. To come from intelligence, the first thing is you must be able to look at things just the way they are, not from an identity. The moment you look at anything from an identity, you are prejudiced about it.

Meditation is a way to help you drop your identity and experience true peace. At least when you sit and meditate nothing else exists. There is just being, nothing else.

Peace means nothingness. It is not something that you create; it is not something that happens. Peace is something that always is. What happens on the surface is disturbance. This is just like the ocean. On the surface of the ocean, there is turbulence, but deep down it is perfectly peaceful. Only if you are in tune with that quality, you know true peace.

Editor's Note: Read Sadhguru’s insights into the basis of conflict, misconceptions about peace, and how each of us can help create a generation of peaceful human beings. Download Culture of Peace.

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