Peace - A thought from my daily meditations

Understanding, misunderstanding and ignorance - these three are depicted as the qualities called Satva, Rajas and Tamas in Hinduism. These three are a part and parcel of what we call as "Human Nature". Our human relations are dependent on these three. Either we truly know someone (satva) or we are completely ignorant of them (tamas), these two do not cause any serious trouble in our relationship with the world. But it is 'Misunderstanding' (Rajas) that troubles. I think - "Misunderstanding is the mother of all human problems"! We are ignorant of 99.99% of the world. For example someone suffering in some remote part of India may not trouble me at all, because they are in my ignorance zone. But I can no longer fake ignorance after coming to know of the suffering of that someone. That persons troubles start troubling my conscience too... This is called entanglement of sense organs. There is a technical term used for such a thing in Bhagawad Gita - it is called "Matra Sparsa" [2.14] One can not complain of foul smell when one chooses to go for a walk in a fish market! Same way we can not complain of entanglement when we deliberately choose to act in this world. So the only choice left is understanding.... Please understand the world, understand yourself, understand the God that you surrender to, understand everything... When you try to understand - you automatically give a pause within yourself - you pause from your reaction - you put a temporary halt to your response. Something silences your inner-self during the time you take a deep breath to understand... During that deep breath - In that minute of silence something magical happens.... You will become the world... Then only you will truly feel the world... From that magical feeling based on deep understanding arises wisdom! Where there is wisdom there is no conflict! And peace alone prevails where there is no conflict... We need peace to live in this world. Peace in you, in me and everywhere.... May you and I strive to bring that peace within us to the world around us... Om - By Madhava Turumella [A thought from my daily meditations]