Instill Inner Peace

I recollect an insightful story that relays the message of this topic. A princess once lost her extremely valuable necklace. She looked for it everywhere for hours and did not find it. She assigned a troop of servants to look for it all over the palace and still no luck. She then sent an army of soldiers all over the kingdom, and still there was not trace of it. She was frustrated by the end of day that such a precious expensive gift from her dear father was lost. She was in the front of the mirror crying, and that’s when she noticed that the necklace was on her. She was wearing it all the time, but never bothered to check her neck. She was relieved but felt like a silly fool who ended up wasting not only her time and energy, but also others. Just like the princess, I would look for the valuable treasure peace in nature, music, and anywhere outside. I held mostly others responsible for my peaceless state and would expect them to fix it. At Brahma Kumaris, I was told that the virtue of peace is my birthright and my most beautiful decoration. Our default, natural, or normal state is peace. This seemed so strange to me because till now I had been hearing that stress is normal and natural. I was corrected that stress has become very common these days, but it is not natural to us.
What does peace really mean?
Complete peace is silence of thoughts, words, and action. It is said that full peace is achievable only when a soul gets liberated from the body. When a soul is in the body, is it possible to be without thoughts and should we be even aiming for it? Thoughts are our biggest power, nothing is possible without them. They are the seed of all our creativity, words, and action. Peace is lost when our thoughts become stressful, fearful, or worrisome. Every being rich or poor, infant or old, and black or white has to deal with health, wealth, financial, or relationship issues. Challenges are inevitable in everyone’s life, and in those tough times we need the ability to create positive and powerful thoughts to face the crisis and come out of it. Living in this world, real peace can be achieved when we are able to create pure and positive thoughts. Purity is the mother of peace and happiness. We, the human souls, can remain peaceful in the most strenuous situation by keep our thoughts pure and elevated.
Is peace really our natural, default, or innate quality?
Stress seems like our natural quality because we are creating it easily in relationships, at work, or at home. Does anyone like it when they are stressed? Does anyone aim to become stressed? Does any doctor prescribe stress to heal the body? Everyone will answer ‘No’ to these questions. We would have all said ‘Yes’ if the same questions had the word ‘peace’ instead of ‘stress’. Waterfalls, early morning sunrise, or beautiful colors of flowers are part of nature, they are natural and hence make us comfortable. We want to be around nature. Anything that is natural, close to us, or dear to us is desired by everyone. Peace is desired by everyone and it makes us comfortable. Indeed, that is why peace is our natural quality and it is close to us because it is within us. 
Why is peace not experienced easily if it is our natural quality?
I was unable to create peace, till I deeply understood that peace and stress are both my creation. Inspite of understanding and fully acknowledging that I am the creator, the deeply ingrained old habit that others are responsible for my emotions takes over many times. I continue to practice Raja Yoga meditation early in the morning and throughout the day to remind myself that:

• I am the creator of peace and I can create it anytime or anywhere by creating peaceful thoughts. 
• Nobody can get inside of me and create stress
• Others are not responsible for my peace, it is my responsibility to keep myself peaceful
• People are not annoying, I am creating the annoyance through my thoughts
• I created stress many times, and it became a habit
• I can create peace consistently and make that my natural way to respond

Raja Yoga meditation helps in educating the mind to think differently. It awakens the intellect (conscious mind or consciousness) and slowly the habit (stored in our subconscious mind) of creating anxiety is replaced with being peaceful. We are able to gain full control over our mind and body. 'Raja' means King in Hindi language, and indeed after practicing Raja Yoga meditation for few years I can see how I am slowly regaining  control over the self. I am becoming the king or the master of both the mind and body. How empowering is that?
Why do we let go of peace so easily?
In the last few years of my spiritual journey, I asked myself why do I let go of my most cherished treasure, peace. In the beginning I realized that I was letting go of peace because I had not completely realized the power of peace and the losses I incurred as a result. Now-a-days I lose peace mainly because I am not paying enough attention and the old habits of creating stress kick in. We give away others the power to take our most valuable treasure because we don’t understand its value. We realize the importance of money, health, and wealth, so we do everything to protect it. We know how it feels when we are down with flu because its effects are black and white. Our body is exhausted, head hurts, and we can’t be productive when we are down with flu. Let's understand the repercussions of a peaceless state of mind and benefits of staying peaceful:

1. Peaceless people can get work done, but are they able to reach their highest potential of productivity, and create best quality of work? Do we want to do ordinary or average work, or do we want to create something special?
2. Can an art masterpiece, a scientific invention, or any melodious composition happen from a peaceless state of mind?
3. Can we focus on anything when our mind is restlessly racing in gazillion directions?
4. Can we make right decisions when we are internally unstable or do we rely on others?
5. Do we have the courage to act on our decisions when our mind is creating fearful thoughts of failure?
6. An anxious person might not seem sick externally, but internally their anxiety is doing lot of damage to the body. Science is holding the negative state of the mind as the number one reason for the various kinds of diseases, these are called psychosomatic diseases. Medicine cures the symptoms of diseases, but does not eradicate the disease. We can become free of many diseases if the root cause (negative thinking) is cured by becoming peaceful through Raja Yoga meditation.
7. Healthy relationships require love, tolerance, patience, and flexibility. Can a person who is stressed have any of those qualities? When we are holding others responsible for our peaceless state, can we tolerate or adjust with them?

To be peaceful is a selfless desire, because this effort not only benefits the self but also helps others and the environment. It prevents us from giving or taking sorrow. The more I realize this point, the more my efforts towards being peaceful have increased.Our inner world (thoughts, feelings, and attitude) is responsible for the way things turn out in the outside world (work, relationships, physical health, finances, etc). Our inner peace directly impacts and improves everything outside. It is an irony that we repeatedly lose our peace to fix things outside. Is it possible to bring positive changes in the external world with a negative internal state? Peace will be instilled when we accurately and intensely understand its power. Who can then keep the creator of peace away from instilling peace? Ironically it is us who keeps the self from staying peaceful.