Forgiveness leads to inner peace, and inner peace blossoms into outer peace, enriching every heart, shares Sant Rajinder Singh
If we wish for the world to be better than what we have seen in the past century, then we must be willing to make peace and love a part of our lives. We must wash away any hatreds and prejudices that have stained our hearts and souls. If we want others to be peaceful, we must be models or peace ourselves.
The first step
No one said that attaining peace is easy. The hardest step towards peace is the first step, and that is forgiveness. We must learn to forget the past and forgive our enemies. We must develop compassion for those who have hurt us in the past. We must realise that we have all been victims of the hatred and discord of our ancestors. It is time to put a stop to it. Revenge must be replaced by forgiveness and compassion.
How can we take those first steps? How can we cleanse ourselves of anger and hatred and replace them with love and forgiveness? Compassion, forgiveness, and peace can be ours through spirituality.
What is spirituality?
Spirituality is the recognition that our true self is our soul. It is recognising that our soul is one with God. It is realising that we are not merely our body and mind, but a soul that inhabits the body. We may think of ourselves as being a body bearing a name, that we are a citizen of India or Colombia or France, or that we are from a certain caste or religion. But spirituality is recognising that behind these outer names and outer labels we are all souls, a part of the one Creator. We are all connected at the level of our soul as we are children of the same Creator.
Make it a part of our lives to build a peaceful future
When we develop this angle of vision, we no longer see through the eyes of prejudice and discrimination. We start breaking down the barriers that separate one human being from another. We start feeling like we are all connected at the level of soul. When we experience our unity and connectedness, we start caring about each other. We want to help and serve each other. The hungry cries of our neighbour’s children will cause us as much pain as the cries of our own children. We will see the homeless person on the street as per own homeless grandfather, and we will be moved to help him. Our vision will be broadened and we will have compassion for the suffering of all human beings and will want to help them with all our heart.
How can we develop this noble vision?
We can do so by awakening spiritually. A method can open our spiritual sight so that we can wash away hatred and replace it with love and peace. That method is a simple technique of meditation, by sitting in stillness for some time, we can get in touch with our soul. We will find that we are much more than this outer body and mind. We will discover our spiritual essence that is filled with love, peace and bliss. When we identify with our soul, we will realise our oneness with God.
How many of us have yearned to have a divine vision of God? For many, finding God is a dream that hardly seems possible, but many people through the ages have seen God. They have merged with God. How did they do it? They all used one technique. We may call that technique inversion, concentration, or meditation. They sat in the stillness, directed their attention within, and ultimately discovered their soul and God. When we do so, we attain the state reached by all the great saints and founders of religions. We become loving, kind, peaceful and giving human beings.
In Meditation we come in contact with a divine power. This power manifests itself as a loving light. When we contact this light within ourselves, we experience a profound peace, bliss, happiness unlike any we can find in this world. The beauty of meditation is that this intoxication remains with us even after we resume our daily activities.
When we rise above our physical body and experience the Divine Light, we also see that all other beings are also souls. We see that the same Light is within us is within everyone else. We start to realise that we are all souls, all part of God. Thus we start caring about all living things. In this way, our personal attainment of peace and happiness will contribute to a golden age of peace and happiness on earth.
Inner Peace Leads to Outer Peace
We can develop our spiritual side. By learning meditation, we can spend some time each day coming in contact with God within ourselves. As God bathes us in love and bliss, we are cleansed of the years of habits that caused us to have hatred and prejudices. In this state of peace and love, we are then able to develop the qualities of forgiveness and compassion for those who have hurt us. God instilled in us the qualities of love, forgiveness, and compassion. The Lord holds our hands as we take our first step toward reconciliation and peace.
As we become more peaceful ourselves, we begin to radiate peace to all those with whom we come in contact. Peace begins with us. By transforming ourselves, we can transform others, including our family, community, society, and eventually the whole world. In this way, we will be building a peaceful, safe world for our children, posterity, and ourselves. It all begins with the first step and that is forgiveness. Forgiveness will lead to inner peace, and this inner peace will blossom into outer peace in the world, enriching every heart and making this world a much better and peaceful place to live.
The writer is a spiritual leader
