Objective and Subjective Peace

                Peace and enjoyment don't go together. We often mistake enjoyment for peace. Enjoyment is a fleeting sensory experience, derived from objects outside, whereas, peace is long lasting, an art of abiding in the subject. Enjoyment can be obtained in an instant, but peace needs a long concerted effort. It is very easy to lose peace by engaging in sensory pleasures, but difficult to retain it. To sustain peace, one has to tune up all the parameters of life to an optimum level. There must not be an occasion or excuse for not being peaceful because peace is often related to the subject, rather than the object or the environment, to which we are exposed to.

Objective Peace:

                The rigors of life, sometimes, makes a man search for peace. The current situation or the stint in which he is in, makes him to look for peace elsewhere. Sometimes, the proximity of the stressful objects, makes him to look for peace outside. This is the natural reaction of a man, in stressful situations, to look up for peace outside.

                Many, looking for peace, end up in objects, which serve their gratifications. The objects, no doubt, gives peace and enjoyment, but only for a short while. For example, some, to beat stress, watch movies, which no doubt, provides the much needed relief, but the enjoyment which we derive from it doesn’t last long. The memoirs of the movie doesn’t linger long in our minds.

                The same is with television, internet, partying with friends, dining in fine restaurants, going for a holiday, smoke and drinks etc., They beat stress, but once again we find ourselves in ground zero when it is over. By following this quest for objective peace, we create a cycle of stress followed by a cycle of peace. From Monday to Friday we will be stressful, and in weekends we will be peaceful. Our objective is to create a real peace, and not create repetitive cycles of stress and peace.

stress and peace alternating

                The next objects which promises peace, as we see, are very tricky, as some of them guarantee peace, like reading books on peace and going to temples etc. but often we lose peace in the process. We search for books on peace, hours together in a web portal, a book that will satisfy our soul. Even if we find the right book, it is only the practice in our lives, which ultimately counts. Books are just the path teller, and not the path itself. It is just like a map, but actually we have to make the real walk. Man knows how to be in peace; looking for peace in books is nothing but another diversionary tactic of our mind, to be away from peace.

Subjective Peace:

     Subjective peace is not dependent on any objects. It comes from within. It has no trace of sense-impressions, freed completely from all tangles of entanglements. To understand this, we will have a short look at the philosophy of the subjective peace.

                According to the ancient system of Samkhya and Yoga, the highest possible state, which a man can attain is of two. One is the state, which is devoid of objects or any impressions, and which abides in the universal consciousness, and which is the subject itself. The other, is the state of realization, accompanied by an objective consciousness (projected by the subject), with universal aspects, a God.

                Some of the great saints, even cut down the objective consciousness of God, to attain the highest state of universal consciousness, devoid of objects. This is the acme of spiritual effort. The body cannot sustain long in this state, and that is the reason why some of our great teachers of mankind, climb down from this state, to a relative plane of God-consciousness, to preach humanity.

                The goal of the subjective peace is to attain the former state, of objectless state. Any ‘objective impression’, which draws the mind out, has to be rejected. Because, according to yoga, all objective impressions, end up in misery and weakness.

Subjective peace

                This is the real peace, and it can be practiced in day to day life. The process is to cut down all objective impressions which draws the mind outside. A man gets lasting peace in this state, than seeking temporal peace in external objects. Therefore, it is ignorance, to search for peace outside, for the real peace is within.

Peace! Peace! Peace!

Thank You.

               

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