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May there be peace among the gods in heaven and among the stars; may there be peace on earth, among men and four footed animals; may we not hurt each other; may we be generous to each other, may we have that intelligence which will guide our life and actions; may there be peace in our prayers, on our lips and in our hearts.
- Rigveda
This prayer for peace was written many centuries ago. When a person reads the prayer with total attention i.e. with his heart and mind, it may have value beyond words but merely repeating it mechanically as part of a ritual has no meaning whatsoever. There can be peace when human beings live in a healthy and harmonious relationship with nature and with each other. There can be healthy relationship only when there is love, care and affection.
This prayer is born out of intelligence. To see the interconnectedness and interdependence of life is an act of intelligence. To realize the value of peace is an act of intelligence. The prayer is for intelligence because there can be peace only when our actions are guided by intelligence. Only intelligence and love have the power to bring about clarity and order in the mind. What is stated in the prayer is not an ideal or a goal to be achieved in the future. Prayer has to be on the lips and in our hearts. Our actions cannot go wrong when our hearts are filled with love. Only a mind that is peaceful can bring about peace in the world.
In the prayer life is perceived holistically, not in terms of “my life” and “your life”. The individual is part and parcel of the whole and not a separate entity concerned only with his own self-fulfillment. There is peace when there is sharing and cooperation. Individuals need peaceful environment to grow and flower in goodness and to realize their full potential. They also need order and peace in their own mind to find out for themselves if there is something sacred in life.
The prayer is not addressed to some outside agency but it is directed inwardly. The necessary conditions for peace have been laid down very clearly. The question is why do we not live this way? Why do we hurt each other and why do we lack the intelligence which should guide our actions? There must have been individuals in the past and there may be some people living in the world now who moved away from the stream of selfishness, but the majority of people are caught in the network of thought that has taken a firm hold in our consciousness.
As a result of unintelligent thinking and unintelligent living the individual remains bereft of the joy of life and at the same time is directly and indirectly responsible for all the mess and misery in the world. The individual and society are inextricably linked with each other and are constantly feeding each other. If the individuals as separate entities are confused and full of contradictions inwardly they must necessarily produce a society as the existing one where there is so much conflict and sorrow. This very chaotic world becomes the environment in which the lives of individuals are shaped and nurtured.
There is no doubt about the fact that self-centeredness is the root cause of human suffering. Pursuit of personal pleasure, struggle for power, position and prestige, endless desires and greed inevitably generate sorrow. We desperately need peace. Generation after generation prayer is still being recited but peace is nowhere in sight. Evidently prayer only remained on our lips but did not enter our hearts. Prayer remained in the mind as an idea. Ideas can create hope and give some solace to the mind but by their very nature ideas cannot solve the human problem. Understanding leads to action. Ideas are, however, imagined concepts handed down by tradition.
Ideas create contradiction between what we actually are and what we think we should be. Contradiction breeds conflict and this conflict does not bring about peace. Ideas cannot bring about love, care and affection because they do not take care of the complexity of the problem. People continue to operate on the basis of violence because of strong psychological reasons. What is actually taking place has lot of energy and momentum behind it. The momentum has a cause. No change is possible unless we understand the cause.
The way we think, the way we create and worship authority, the way we get influenced by propaganda, the way we cling to beliefs, ideas and opinions, the way prejudices are built up in the mind – these become the ground for hatred, fear and violence. Identification with an idea, belief or nation may provide a false sense of security, but collectively such identification threatens physical security.
There is no denying the fact that our own thinking is responsible for all the confusion, conflict and chaos in the world. Psychologically our thinking is rooted in the idea of the “me” as an independent entity. The “self” treats itself separate from “you”. It divides itself from “you”. This “me” is the imagined structure of thought. In itself it has no reality. This idea of the “me” has created in the mind a movement of selfishness. The self-centered activity of our thinking creates divisions in so many different ways. These divisions breed conflict at all levels of human relationship.
The rapidly deteriorating situation demands that we must take a fresh look at the whole design and predicament in which we are caught. A fresh look implies that the mind is free from prejudice, conclusion or ideation. The mind must be free from self-interest and self-concern. Our primary concern should be to look at the facts. Seeing things as they are brings clarity of perception. Clarity of perception facilitates intelligence which only can take us out of the mess that we have created.
Your comments are most welcome.
Contact: sardarsingh@msn.com
Dear Sardar,
Good morning.
I read all your posts and seems to me very interesting things and while real.
We can make anyone understand alone by itself will K’s teachings and to see the truth?
Thank you in advance.
Have a nice day.
The commentary on “Prayer for Peace” asserts: “To realize the value of peace is an act of intelligence”. Surely, the notion of a “value” arises out of comparisons, out of desires, out of the needs our goals that we create in our mind demand, and, thus, value and its realization are totally mind-driven, and have nothing to do with any reality. For a mind to be tethered to “unreal” seen as “real” couldn’t be an act of “intelligence”, could it?
On the second line, it is indicated: “When a person reads the prayer with total attention i.e. with his heart and mind, it may have value beyond words but merely repeating it mechanically as part of a ritual has no meaning whatsoever”. Fair enough! But in a “total attention” could there be any prayer? Could there be any goal as “peace” in that existence? In “total attention”, there is only existence, undivided, unitary, one whole. Where is either “prayer” or its object “peace” as distinct entities in that existence? If you and I are all that one existence, how could I ever pray for you or you pray for me? In attention, there is nothing but attention. Therefore, attention is not “concentration” or “contemplation” because then it would be all in duality. Attention arises when mind is NOT, when there is no object it is bound to. Attention begins when all
evaluation, all identification, all concentration, contemplation end. Attention is the freedom in which “seeing” takes place.
We could see “Prayer for Peace” on the basis that the “Man Made Mind” offers; we need not go far. For a mind engaged in myriads of social processes through reactions, through convolutions, could it ever “see” truth? Could a mind ever “create” any truth? Could a mind ever “anticipate”, “contemplate”, “concentrate” on truth? Isn’t the word “peace” just a concept for each one of us created, concocted, shaped, and designed by our minds? Isn’t “prayer” another concept that a mind creates? Pray to whom? Who is this authority to whom this prayer is addressed? If an ‘authority’ as a separate entity exist other than “this existence”, isn’t the mind entering into its own delusion?
We talk about “peace” as though we all know what it is! Can we really identify “peace” if we ever encounter it? Has any society historically ever encountered “peace” without embracing “violence”? Has anyone ever known “peace” other than as an interlude between two consecutive blots of “violence”? Can light appear without darkness? Can we conceive of
“richness” without “poverty”? So long a mind is prepared to accept one wouldn’t the other follow at its wake? Only couple of days back I read on NY Tiimes (May 21, 2009) a report depicting an absurd situation of Armenians sharing a common border with Turkey at a village called Lusarat being wary of improved relationship with Turkey that could usher in “peace” somehow one day. “No peace”, they would shout, “until Turkey concedes the responsibility for the systematic massacre of Armenians under Ottoman rule during world war I”.
Those Armenians don’t want peace UNLESS it is in their own terms. And, that, Sir, is the problem all across the world: Peace will follow so long it is in my terms, in my nation’s terms, in my society’s understanding, on their mandate, on what my religion dictates. So, what happens to peace? It becomes an entity sandwiched between two dollops of violence. We become imprisoned in our own concepts, which no prayer would have the power to undo. The proof? Look what we have received so far through payers, through petitions, through supplications!
It has been rightly said that for a mind to be tethered to “unreal” seen as “real” couldn’t be an act of intelligence. It appears that in the ‘prayer of peace’ the mind has stepped out of the “unreal” as it sees clearly that not hurting each other and peace is one and the same thing. If not hurting each other is merely an idea then of course the prayer is meaningless. Ideas cannot create peace. Ideas do not have any clue of what peace is. I have tried to clarify my understanding of the ‘prayer for peace’ in the article “Right Action for Peace.” Actually we do not know out of what state of mind the Sanskrit chant was composed. Living in this modern civilization we need to explore why do we hurt each other and can this activity come to an end?
Prayers should be free of social and religious barriers.. should be from the heart and should be expressed to the lord with an open mind.. Prayer has it’s powers if we only knew!
Thanks for writing, I truly liked your newest post. I think you should post more frequently, you obviously have natural ability for blogging!