Peace, Piece by Piece

As I prepared myself to return to my routine life, after living almost off-grid for three days at Koraput, I realised that I was in a different state of mind which I had not experienced in the last few months. I was much calmer and in harmony with my immediate surroundings.

I tried to recall what had happened in the last few months. India’s dream run in the Cricket World Cup 2023 and its miserable defeat in the finals, IPL matches, T20 World Cup and Indian win, General Elections and the unexpected results, political uncertainty, garish and overstretched marriage of an Ambani scion, and the Rath Yatra mishaps and this Ratnabhandara commentary have left us feeling lost, defeated, anxious, uncertain, joyful, and irritated in some way or the other. There was hardly anyone who was not affected by these events. We did react to them in our own way, but these past few months can’t be described as peaceful in any form.

 

While driving on the beautiful roads running through those emerald mountains adorning the crown of monsoon clouds and seeing a small child taking shelter from the sudden rain under his rickety umbrella, I for a moment realised that the baggage of worries I am carrying from my world and his worries are so different. At the same time away from the footprints of online news outlets, newspapers both local and national, and unaffected by the global chaos at all the airports and banking hubs due to the Microsoft Global Server outage, the worries of the child under the umbrella and mine were quite similar.

 

If we keep my baggage out of the equation both of us had similar worries – both didn’t want to get wet. That was our immediate concern and how simple and small it was.

 

Was I not in peace earlier?

 

While driving back to my base after my trip, I tried to make sense of the exact meaning of the word ‘Peace’ which we so liberally and casually use without giving much thought to it.

 

The search tool on my phone helped.

 

It said Peace is a complex and multifaceted concept that can be understood in various ways, depending on the context and perspective. Some common meanings of peace include the absence of conflict or violence: Peace can refer to a state of quiet, calmness, and serenity, where there is no war, fighting, or violence; Inner tranquillity: Peace can also describe a state of inner calmness, serenity, and contentment, where an individual feels at ease with themselves and their surroundings; Harmony and balance: Peace can represent a state of balance and harmony within oneself, with others, and with the environment; Reconciliation and resolution: Peace can involve the process of resolving conflicts, forgiving, and reconciling with others; Social justice: Peace can also imply a state of social justice, where individuals and groups are treated fairly, equally, and with dignity.

 

Overall, peace encompasses various aspects of human experience, from personal inner calm to global harmony and understanding. Our ancient literature and wisdom have put enormous importance on peace. If the stanzas of ‘Santipatha’ are studied, it has given a list of areas where and how peace needs to be established to allow the development of just not human beings but of the flora and fauna.

 

Of all the connotations of peace mentioned above, what matters the most to us and the world is our inner tranquillity, harmony and balance with our immediate surroundings.

 

By analysing the difference in my state of mind earlier and what it was in the last three days, I shortlisted a few things that we are exposing ourselves to which are eluding peace in our lives. What are they?

 

The factors can be broadly categorized into two thematic groups.

 

The first is the exogenous factors which means what affect our tranquillity from outside and the endogenous factors, which culminate inside us which affect our balance and harmony with our surroundings.

 

The exogenous factors can be of the following types.

 

Which makes us focus on things that don’t affect us and over which we have no control.

 

We are consuming content from almost every corner of the world and on an astounding number of topics. Earlier it was limited to our immediate neighbourhood or at best our city. Our exposure to information through electronic media has made us highly vulnerable to its negative effects of it. News of Wars, invasions, and political disturbances in distant countries are beamed to our homes and phones in real-time. Critically seen these incidents don’t have any immediate impact on our lives and neither we are responsible for them, nor do we have any control over their outcomes. A stream of news makes us anxious and nervous internally. Unknown to us negative news consumed at the beginning of the day, affects our mood and that in turn affects our thought and behaviour subsequently.

 

A mind with an appetite for unnecessary curiosity for others’ lives and feeding on the news of accidents, rapes, violence, and political upheaval can never be called a peaceful mind.

 

Which makes us focus on things that we don’t have.

 

Unknown to us, we live with a sense of blissful autonomy when we are the fodder for many. Political parties and big business houses selling goods and services use various channels and complex algorithms of manipulation to drive our minds into doing things as they want or buying things they sell by planting a need for them in our minds. Open a newspaper in the morning and you will find advertisements of premium real estate, cars, jewellery, holiday packages and tools of a supposedly good lifestyle seducing and encouraging you to acquire them.

 

They focus on triggering that sense of inadequacy in you to make you work hard to acquire them. That’s called having the aspiration for growth. While you were grateful for having a car which helped you to commute on a rainy day; the advertisement of the launch of a new brand or a new model makes you realise that that same car is now old, doesn’t have the modern features, completely changing your perspective towards it.

 

A smart mind can see through the ploy but most of us will keep thinking about it and subconsciously start the preparation towards acquiring it one day somehow.

 

This seed of ‘Lack’ would grow in you to make you steal, borrow, divert from the essentials and splurge to acquire your aspirational products. Most of the latest iPhones purchased in India are through EMIs. The consequences of not being able to manage to pay them back are not what a peaceful life constitutes of. Many lives are lost to their inability to deal with debts and many lives are spent in the drudgery of managing EMIs.

 

The endogenous factors can be of the following types.

 

Two prominent attributes of the human mind that differentiate it from other animals are Memory and Imagination. This perhaps is the byproduct of being of a higher intelligence order. We are a unique species with the ability to keep recreating the images and scenarios of the past and the future in our minds and silently working on them in our minds.

 

We make ourselves focus on things of the past that can’t be reversed.

 

Our present version is the accumulation of experiences and scars of the past. From our childhood, we bear the wounds of our disappointments, traumas and frustrations to our adulthood. Behind the happy faces that abound in the world and the false world of social media, there exist several unhappy souls who continuously suffer their memory and their personalities carry the signs of their past trauma. Each of us knows that the past is gone and can’t be reversed. But the stickiness of the past is so high that very few can detach themselves from it. Wise ones are practical enough to detach themselves from their past and accept the present as it unfolds. But most upon reaching a new milestone of our lives be it a new relationship or a changed and better opportunity, we subconsciously remember some of the scars and try to reverse them or ameliorate them to some extent.

 

A person who has lived a life of material or emotional inadequacy would try to make good on the new opportunity. Non-achievement of it leads to further scars and traumas.

 

We make ourselves worry about things of the future that may not happen.

 

Self-preservation is a primal instinct of every living organism. The animals of higher intelligence orders are good at seeing dangers to life ahead of time and are far better at protecting them. Awareness of his surroundings and his innate intelligence make him design better strategies to protect himself in the future. Adapting to the changing environment not only to preserve themselves but to help it propagate

 

This awareness makes him plan for dangers and risks and making provisions for it becomes one of his life goals. We are trained to save for the rainy days, for our financial independence post-retirement and also for our future unforeseen medical expenses. Unregulated awareness can also lead to irrational fear.

 

When fear becomes more, we not only think of our future but also of our dependents and start planning and worrying for them too. History tells us that most of the things in the future we fear never happen. But an unregulated mind will constantly worry about his goals and never be at peace until he succeeds in achieving them. Such anxious minds invariably invent another goal and start chasing it and worrying about achieving it. It’s an infinite loop.

 

Modern lifestyles urge everyone to join a rat race and be successful in the name of peace and happiness. But Success and Achievements don’t always lead to happiness and peace. We need to teach acceptance and seek contentment in the present and what we have in hand to live in calm and harmony. Memories are extremely sticky. We need to practice detachment from the past and teach ourselves that whatever had to happen has already happened and thinking about it and carrying it in our mind is at the cost of missing the present opportunities. We need to be aware that the future is uncertain. One best-laid plan may not be of any use because it may not be effective or that may not be adequate.

 

We understand peace or its importance after doing enormous damage to ourselves when it’s too late. Staying peaceful doesn’t come to us naturally. It requires a determined effort to reach that state.

 

 

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