Why do we meditate?

Once we have peace,
We feel that
We have everything
In the outer world
And we have become everything
In the inner world.

Sri Chinmoy ¹

If we want any real peace, real joy, real love, then we have to meditate. The so-called peace we feel in our day-to-day lives is five minutes of peace after ten hours of anxiety, worry and frustration. But that is no peace at all. We are at the mercy of the monkeys around us — jealousy, fear, doubt, worries, anxiety and despair. The monkeys take rest for a few minutes, and then we say that we are enjoying peace. But no, it is only that monkeys are tired of biting us. The next moment all the negative monkey-forces will attack us again.

We get divine peace through meditation. Even if we meditate for fifteen minutes and get peace for only one minute, that one minute of peace, if it is solid peace, will be able to permeate our whole day. ²

We may study hundreds and hundreds of books on meditation. We may discuss meditation for hours and hours with our friends. But only meditation-power itself actually can give us peace.

Meditation is the art of silencing the mind that tortures us at every moment. If we can meditate soulfully for even a few minutes, then for hours afterwards no uncomely thoughts can attack our mind or disturb its poise and tranquillity. And it is inside the poise of our mind that our real divinity, which is oneness universal, at every moment grows. By virtue of our meditation, our thought-world will be transformed into the will-world, and our everyday life unmistakably will be inundated with peace — the peace that grows, the peace that glows, the peace that embraces all mankind.³

---

1. Sri Chinmoy, I am my life's God-hunger-heart, part 4, Agni Press, 1994↩︎

2. Sri Chinmoy, Meditation: God's Duty and man's beauty, Agni Press, 1974↩︎

3. Sri Chinmoy, The United Nations: the world's Oneness-Home, Agni Press, 2005↩︎