The True Source of Peace and Serene Happiness

People seek after peace and happiness in their external lives as they try to control the circumstances and relationships within which they are participants. These things, however, are outside the control of any individual and thus, subject to disruption in the peace. People believe that peace can be attained through avoiding situations that are difficult or distressing, and thus, we see some individuals who join a cloister, convent, monastery, abbey or ashram after they have experienced some traumatic circumstance in life. Others try to escape to a retreat, a vacation, a cruise or a relaxing time in the sun on a beach, or hiking in the forests or the mountains. In Japan they have something called ‘forest bathing’ which is prescribed for some individuals who are undergoing stress in their lives.

Still others seek peace through various forms of distraction or intoxication, dulling the awareness or shifting it away from whatever is troubling them. Alcohol, intoxicating drugs, and recreational activities that occupy the mind and vital awareness are some of the means used.

What people eventually find out, however, is that the use of any external means to try to achieve peace is neither complete nor permanent, and eventually they learn, as Sri Aurobindo poignantly reminds us in Savitri: “O bliss who ever dwellest deep hid within while men seek thee outside and never find.”

Peace and serene happiness is not to be found in the external life of the body-life-mind complex. These are actually qualities of the psychic being which is not attached to the successes or failures, joys or sorrows of the external life. When the individual is able to shift his standpoint to that of the psychic being, he may continue to face difficulties, obstacles, setbacks, grief, pressure, and pain, but he remains calm, with an unconditioned joy, or bliss. The secret of the ‘sunlit path’ is that it is not dependent on escaping the circumstances of the world, but rather, on shifting to the psychic being’s standpoint in responding to all that happens. The awareness is not dulled, nor distracted. It is simply based in a part of the being that is not dependent on dullness, distraction or ‘success’ to remain at peace.

The Mother observes: “Indeed, the expression of a true psychic life in the being is peace, a joyful serenity.”

“Any suffering is therefore a precious indication to us of our weak point, of the point which demands a greater spiritual effort from us.”

“True happiness does not depend on the external circumstances of life. One can obtain true happiness and keep it constantly only by discovering one’s psychic being and uniting with it.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pg. 181