An Attempt Towards Peace

Let’s define peace. Well, I don’t know the exact definition myself. Let us rely on the definition given on the internet for a while and maybe we’ll gradually reach our customized definition which I think will be better than what we have read, heard, or seen on the internet. So, peace is defined as freedom from disturbance, and tranquillity.

Let’s begin from the very first thing. Sleep. Sounds quite peaceful? It isn’t. It is time taken from your body to repair the damage you’ve done to it through your daily activities. So, it is just maintenance work by the brain. A few functions slow down. But none of the bodily functions ceases to operate even when you’re in deep sleep.

In fact, it might be the most turbulent condition for the brain as you’re dreaming and it is commanding other organs and cells to repair your body at the same time. You might have felt that even though you slept for 9 hours, you don’t quite feel energized. Still, a bit of laziness is taking over. This is because your brain couldn’t perform either of the functions to the fullest.

Now that you’re awake now, let’s begin your morning with the noises you start imposing on yourself. The worst habit of all, checking your phone directly after you wake up. C’mon, you’re not at war. You never need to open your gadgets to interfere with your eyes’ function of adjusting the natural light. Then songs or constant tunes have to be played. We have inculcated such a lifestyle equipped with noises that we forget to hear our own voices.

Let’s move further with an example of daily life. I am a resident of Mumbai city and over time, I have realized that people traveling on trains, constantly check their phones as if their company is going to file for bankruptcy without their due attention. Otherwise, they’re busy playing games by making groups on the edge of the doors and creating unnecessary noise.

In the offices as well, the constant noise of telephones, disturbances, breaks, bosses, etc. are already there to make our brains a huge pile of crap. Then we need to listen to constant music for our journey back home. After getting home, we have to watch TV and talk too much about what has happened so far, what is about to happen, what we know, we do not know, and an endless list of noisy things that follows this pile. Anywhere, anytime, if we can find ourselves free from such noises, we quickly assume that we’ve found our peace. But we’re clearly lying to ourselves.

The juxtaposition of soundlessness and peace has ruined all the concepts of peace. Peace has become the responsibility of resorts, hotels, weekends, vacations, and destination trips. WHY? We never needed this thing to become a part of our lives in this manner. We didn’t need to make our lives dependent on bubbled-up and non-existent concepts such as these. Peace is a routine, not a small change required in our life. Peace is supposed to be a lifelong discipline, not a lifestyle or a petty trend (which will anyway fade away in a couple of months).

We are constantly adding more and more noise to our lives and yet complaining about the peace lost from our lives is the best example of our hypocrisy. Now, there are other factors too such as geographical factors, political factors, and institutional factors which affect our peace several times, but we need to be sensible enough to not let these things affect our calmness.

To obtain peace, we need to make sure all the things that make noise in our lives, right from smartphones, tablets, and computers, to toxic and harmful people that rob us of our peace should be kept away from us. In the beginning, this sounds quite impossible.

But, if you want peace to be a friend whom you meet daily and spend a lot of time with, you have to say goodbye to other things and other people. Some say peace is “The absence of war for a short or long time”. But now you can pretty much assess that peace is something that gives our life an important meaning and purpose and at the same time, eliminates all the noises inside and outside. Because when there is a purpose, there is peace; and when there is peace, there is purpose.