श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते ।
ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ १२-१२॥
In the Bhagavadgita, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhakti Yoga chapter how one can attain to peace. All pursuit of peace begins with doing something about it. Those who look for a higher purpose in life take to ritual and spiritual practices.
But ritual and practice is a double-edged sword. When I say I have done Vishnusahasranamaparayanam for 60 years, or have gone to Sabarimala 18 times, or done so many mandalas of Puja, or gone to Tirupati or Kailas 25 times, this is a boast. It is an expression of ego. How can this give peace?
Sometimes we take up ritual because we hear that someone has done it and gained a lot. Mostly we hear they have resolved some domestic issues or family problems, got over financial problems or got relief from legal troubles or disease. The fact that ritual yields external benefits does not directly imply inner peace. It may lead to peace if there is an inner transformation.
अभ्यास or practice has to culminate in wisdom. The first step towards wisdom is the realisation that whatever we are trying to do through practice is a way of connecting to something beyond. If ritual and practice binds me to the other world and boosts my ego, no wisdom can come.
The word ज्ञानम् means knowledge. Knowledge when processed into deep understanding is wisdom. One can be blessed with wisdom even without much knowledge of the external world. In fact knowledge normally boosts ego and causes debate, dispute, and damage. So ritual may lead to ego. But a humble seeking may lead to wisdom.
However, wisdom is also not peace. Wisdom shows where I am. I have yet to attain peace.
When wisdom matures into a process of going inward through ध्यानम्, into my infinite inner resources, I begin to see what I have missed all my life. ध्यानम् or going inward is the exact opposite of ritual or अभ्यासः. The peace or bliss I seek by arranging my external circumstances is actually already embedded in my infinite inner reality. Every transient echo of peace or bliss outside, at a beautiful beach watching the gorgeous sea and sky, or gazing at the miracle of sunrise, or sitting by a brook in a verdant forest listening to nature's symphony, is all working in the same way. I am connecting with creation by dissolving myself in the moment. I have given up for the moment the engrossment in I-me-myself and my agenda.
The senses are feeding my mind with something beautiful. The mind feels peace and bliss. This momentary bliss is only a ripple in the infinite lake of bliss within me.
When that insight through going inward dawns, what's left? According to Sri Krishna of Bhagavadgita, when insight dawns, I discover that I am a part of His dynamic drama of creation. I decide to go about contentedly discharging my role. My activities acquire a new joy and a new beauty unlike anything before when I was striving and seeking for myself. Now I am only joyously serving Existence. This is called कर्मफलत्यागः.
Once I make my work my worship of creation and its maker, peace dawns. In fact peace has been within always. It is the same as bliss.
This peace is unlike the uneasy and temporary quality of truce that is brokered by armies between wars, or peace enforced by mutual scare as it happens in this outer world.
To summarise, inner peace is a placid lake of bliss. Sometimes its ripples are sensed by us in the outer world when we let go. But it is a welcome world for a sensitive and sensible being who is turned inward and open to this inner world. Outer activities will go on peacefully!
