Quest For Inner Peace

The great scientist Albert Einstein had so aptly said: “Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”.

While it is so tempting to think that if we get rid of all our worries, we will have peace…then when would we start making attempts to acquire wisdom.

In the name of ‘progressive experience and mindset’, we find ourselves being constantly challenged by the rising volume of noise around us. Unconsciously, we are getting busier, becoming totally subservient to our digitally-enhanced lifestyle.

Are we really becoming progressive?
Have we not been trapped in a gilded cage?
Regardless of how alluring and tempting it may appear on the outside, have we not landed in a dreaded prison which alienates us from everything good within?
In what we consider to be the pursuit of knowledge and the quest for excellence, haven’t we strayed farther away from inner peace? Isn’t this separation actually an awful, devastating life sentence?

If we ponder we shall find ourselves to be prisoners. Let us guess the identity of our mysterious jailor?

If you are looking for a hint, just a gaze within would provide the answer. Let me cut the suspense. That enigmatic captor is none other than our own mindset

We may indeed manage to get a lot of things easily in this automated age, but do not count wisdom and inner peace among those. There is no shortcut to get them. The only way one can experience is through plain, old-fashioned and unglamorous hard work.

The need of the hour is to release the prisoner — YOU — from the clutch of the jailor – who, again, happens to be none other than YOU.
There is simply no possibility of parole. Even if there is any such tiny possibility, we wouldn’t like to be dragged into prison again…because freedom gives one the precious taste of self-realization and self-discovery.
This is where Ehsaas, or Realization comes in.
Ehsaas Nahi Toh Kuch Bhi Nahi (Sans Realization, Nothing Exists).
Feeling a sense of gratitude for the life we have been granted is the beginning of self-discovery.

Gratitude is not just good manners. Often, we are cajoled to say ‘Thank You’ due to societal norms or etiquette.

Nonetheless, as I am penning down these lines, a sense of gratitude that springs from deep within makes me feel forever indebted for my existence at this point in history.
Many many years ago, I was nothing, and many, many years from now, I will be nothing.
This realization is the beginning of wisdom.

Ask the one who has tasted defeat, “how does it feel on winning an Olympic gold medal. Or ask a cancer survivor how does it feel when the long-awaited PET scan report says that all is clear. The feeling of being thankful for that precious moment, for life itself, is gratitude that wells up from the depths of self-realization and wisdom.

May God bless us all in our spiritual journeys. Let us make efforts to silence the intellectual noise surrounding us and to hear that gentle knock of wisdom tapping on the door of our hearts.
Dear Readers, here’s wishing you Happy Realization.