100. Meditation technique for Global Peace

The way to achieve global peace is to create individual peace. The meditation for global peace is a collective meditation. This is a very simple but very powerful meditation.

Sit in one circle or concentric circles, holding hands so that you hold the hand of the person on your right with your right hand palm facing down, signifying 'giving' peace and bliss, while you offer your left hand palm facing up to 'receive' peace and bliss from the person on your left. This connected circle of people generates a powerful energy cycle. The meditative energy of one person is shared by all others. This meditation can be done for at least 21 minutes.

Our ability to be in tune with others and Existence depends entirely upon how we conduct ourselves. It depends on the priorities we choose in life. What if we do not choose? What if we accept things as they happen to us?

It is time to talk about renunciation. Renunciation is not running away from life. Renunciation is flowing with life without resistance. The Sanskrit word sannyas refers to this state of trust with Existence that allows us to let go all other things in life.

Sannyas**…**

There is a beautiful story from the life of Buddha:

After enlightenment, Buddha visited many places preaching his dhamma or teachings, and initiating people into spiritual life.

On his way, he entered Kapilavastu, his birth place. He walked on the streets with his disciples wearing the saffron robe. Everyone watched them with great wonder.

Buddha's wife, Yashodhara, heard the noise in the street and asked what it was. Her maids told her that it was none other than her own husband who had returned as the Buddha, the enlightened soul. She did not go to meet him. Instead,

she called for her son Rahul. Rahul was born the night that Buddha left home in search of enlightenment.

She asked Rahul, 'Do you see that radiant figure there who holds a begging bowl and yet looks like a king? He is your father. Go and ask him for your inheritance.'

The young boy ran downstairs and pushed his way through to where Buddha stood. He fell at Buddha's feet and boldly repeated what his mother had told him.

Buddha lifted him up gently with a smile and looked at him. He simply removed the gold hemmed cloth the boy was wearing and replaced it with a saffron one.

The boy, seven years of age, was given his inheritance. He was the first and only child allowed into the monastic order of the Buddha.

Someone asked me, 'If everything in life is evolving naturally by the process of evolution like monkey into man, and bad into good, would man not ultimately evolve into god? Where then is the need for meditation, sannyas…where then is the need for inspiration?'

I replied, 'It took five thousand years for the monkey to become man, and it would take equally long for man to become god. If you are willing to wait that long, it is

The right revolution leads to evolution. Sannyas is the greatest revolution of an individual.

alright with me!'

On the other hand, you can decide to live consciously

with a clear understanding about life, the laws and structure of the universe, and meditation. You can revolutionize the process of your evolution. The right revolution leads to evolution or enlightenment. That is sannyas, the greatest revolution of an individual. It is to live like a Paramahamsa, to live like an enlightened being.

Adi Shankara, the enlightened master from India, beautifully says in his work Vivekachoodamani* :

For all living creatures, a human birth is rare,

and even rarer is to have a sattvic (goodness) attitude,

and more so to have steadfastness on the path of spiritual activity

as explained in the Vedas...

These words had a very powerful effect on the life of Vivekananda, an enlightened master from India who lived thousands of years after Shankara. When Vivekananda was preparing for his law examination, these very words landed on him like a thunderbolt. He could not read further. He left his books and started running along the road. He was running to his master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. While he was running, the truth of Shankara's words was ringing in his very being. He thought to himself, 'I have gained all these three: I have been born as a human being. I have gained the desire for liberation. I have got a great master….then why am I still wasting my life? Why am I still wasting my life?' Again and again, these words were haunting him. Vivekananda went on to become enlightened and spread Ramakrishna's mission worldwide.

Sannyas is the path for those who want to win over themselves, who want to be free from the clutches of jealousy, anger, stress and depression forever. People think sannyas is chosen by losers. No. Of course, sometimes those who don't know what to do with their lives take up sannyas. But that is not the spirit of sannyas.

Sannyas is the effort to become conscious for the first time, conscious of the mechanism that surrounds you as a human being. You are part of Existence. Existence moves with its own mechanism, with its own music. Falling in tune with it is the science of sannyas. Sannyas is a being level relationship, being in tune with the whole

Vivekachoodamani - Adi Shankara's philosophical work.

of Existence. That is the shortest path to success in life.

To hear the song of Existence, you need to start moving in the right space. To find that space, you need to first drop any other thing you know, and listen to the song with deep awareness. You will find it. In that space, life will flow like a river moving towards the sea. Any other path will take longer.

When life becomes a flowing river, it has to merge with the sea. There is no other way. Sannyas is the science of flowing with the natural course of Existence and finally merging with it.

Flow like a river

The river heads only towards the sea. It does not stagnate anywhere. A sannyasi heads only towards his goal of enlightenment. He knows no distractions. The river flows blissfully, whatever be the things thrown into it on its way. So many things are thrown into the river – flowers, twigs, food, animals, birds, dead bodies, etc. But the river flows, not bothering about anything.

Similarly, a sannyasi moves blissfully, untouched by anything that comes his way. The current pulls the river over its obstacles, and it gurgles, with

When life becomes a flowing river, it has to merge with the sea.

a constant music, moving towards the sea. The cosmic intelligence pulls the sannyasi over obstacles as he moves towards the ultimate goal. He knows not what obstacles are. For him, they are all stepping stones on the path to bliss.

During my days of spiritual wandering, I spent nine months between two locations – on the banks of the sacred river Ganga and on the banks of the sacred river Narmada* in North India. During this time, everyday, I would wake up before the break of dawn, have a bath in the river and sit on its banks. I would just watch it flow. The sun would be rising. As I watched the river flow, the mind would calm down, thoughts would progressively reduce, and the verbalization would get arrested. I would be one with the flowing river for hours together.

Not only that, when you watch the river continuously, you go on dropping fear. There will be so many things floating in the river. When you see dead bodies floating, you will clearly see that one day

Narmada - Fifth largest Indian river starting from Vindhya Hills in central India flowing east to west joining the Arabian Sea.

you also will float like that. The deeply embedded fears will disappear when merging Sannyas is a conscious decision to live the truth immediately in your life.

with the flow of the river.

One Zen master was asked, 'What is Zen?'

He replied, 'Walk on!'

Zen Buddhism beautifully says, life is like the river that flows and fills each form, and bursts its own limitations to expand its capacity. This is the essence of life, and sannyas. Sannyas is learning in action as life moves, not philosophizing. It is a force, not a dogma. For a real sannyasi, life simply moves in the right direction. The learning happens during the movement, not as a separate thing.

A small story:

Once there lived a thief who had a son. The son asked him to teach the secrets of the trade. The father agreed and that night he took him to steal from a big house. After everyone went to sleep, he silently led his son into a room that contained a clothes closet. He told him to go into the closet to steal some clothes. As soon as the son went inside, he quickly shut the door and locked him in. Then he went outside the house and knocked loudly on the front door. The whole household woke up. He quickly ran away before anyone saw him.

Hours later, his son returned home and angrily shouted at him, 'Why did you lock me in that closet?'

The father just smiled and replied, 'If I had not done that, you would not have had your first lesson in the art of burglary!'

Sannyas is nothing but straightaway practicing the truths every moment. There is enough philosophy in the world but no one to follow it. Sannyas is simply a conscious decision to live the truth immediately in your life.

A Zen master tells his disciple very beautifully, 'Studying the truth as a philosophy is just collecting preaching material. Remember that unless you practice constantly, your light of truth may go out.'

Practice is nothing but continuously flowing in the right direction without stagnating. Even in stagnation, there will be movement around the obstacle, trying to find the flow again. There is no stopping.

A great Japanese warrior decided to attack his enemy. His army was only one tenth of his enemy's army, but he was very sure he would win. His soldiers, however, did not believe so.

On the way to the war, he went to a temple and told his men, 'I will toss a coin inside the temple. If heads appears, we will win. If tails appears, we will lose. Destiny holds us in Her hands.'

The soldiers agreed. He entered the temple, offered a silent prayer and tossed the coin. Heads appeared.

His soldiers were so excited, they went forward and fought with all their courage and won the battle.

After the battle, one of his assistants told him, 'No one can change the hand of destiny!'

The warrior said, 'I suppose not', and showed him a coin having heads on both sides.

A sannyasi continuously moves with the intelligence of Existence. There is no stopping. He lives in the moment, spontaneously and according to the need of the moment, which is what is called fluidity.

Just as the river has surrendered to the flow of Existence, the sannyasi moves with the intelligence of Existence, and Existence takes him along with the birds and animals to the sea. By surrender, I don't mean inaction. I mean action with an attitude of surrender. Then, the results are driven by the law of Existence and you simply relax into the flow.

When you relax, you start responding with responsibility towards life and

Sannyas is the first conscious step towards responsibility – towards oneself and to the world.

people. Until then, you only react, you never respond. Reaction is the expression of the unconscious. Response is the expression of consciousness, and that is what is called responsibility. Reaction is never responsibility. Sannyas is the first conscious step towards responsibility towards oneself and to the world. This is a little known fact about sannyas. People think sannyasis have shrugged the responsibilities of life. No! They have taken up more responsibility in life. Their family is virtually the whole world. They take up responsibility for every individual.