In A World Where Chaos Reigns, Can There Be Peace?

On this day in 1945, when United Nations emerged from the ashes of World War II and representatives from 51 nations convened under the preamble - "We, the people of United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind," - the world hoped for a transformation. Yet, nearly 80 years later, the fulfilment of this vision remains a distant dream as humanity continues to endure significant conflicts, resulting in countless victims.

This reality compels us to ponder: Can true peace ever be found? Krishn answers this question in the Bhagwad Gita . In verse 8.15, he describes Truth by saying that this world is temporal and full of misery. Just as it is naive to think one can remain dry while walking in the rain, it is unwise to hope for permanent peace in a world where chaos is the default setting.

While some may see this as a nihilistic approach to life, an intelligent person understands that as one can protect himself from the downpour by using an umbrella, similarly, by using an umbrella of spiritual wisdom in sacred texts, a person can shield himself from the onslaught of life's challenges by being peaceful from within.

The first step in this process is to begin seeing everyone as spiritual beings - atma - who are part and parcel of the Divine instead of people representing temporary external designations such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, and social status. Srila Prabhupada once said, "Any sober man will admit the present need for unifying the whole human society without any consideration of bodily identification so that there may be peace and prosperity on the platform of spiritual identification."

The quest for peace often seems elusive because we neglect this fundamental principle and fail to begin with something in our immediate vicinity - our consciousness. The Gita informs us that the desires of individuals who identify with their bodies and whose minds are ravaged by envy, greed, anger, and unbridled ambition initially transform into speech and eventually become actions.

In the Gita, Krishn instructs us to rest our consciousness in him and know him to be the beneficiary of all our sacrifices, our ultimate well-wisher and benefactor. In such a state of mind, one is free from pangs of misery.

In yogic traditions, there are two important concepts: Sadhya, the goal or destination, and sadhana, the path to reach that goal.

Our end goal is to uplift our consciousness to the level of sattva guna and beyond by engaging in daily spiritual practices of worshipping and chanting the names of God and associating with similarly spiritual-minded people.

Engaging in these practices manifests divine qualities of purity, truthfulness, compassion, forgiveness, righteousness, and control of the senses within.

Society, after all, is merely a collection of individual consciousnesses. The more self-contained and spiritually minded people we have, the more peaceful society will be.

Authored by: Yudhistir Govinda Das