Swamiji TV

Other links



Podcast details

The Universal Need for Peace

A spiritual discourse on universal peace and interconnectedness, using the analogy of an airplane flight.

"Therefore, we must pray for the entire airplane, not only for ourselves. We must pray for all the passengers inside."

"Thus, we must pray for peace to pervade the entire universe. The Vedas instruct us to pray for others, for nature, and even for the stars."

The speaker explains the Vedic peace mantra and argues that individual peace is impossible without universal peace, as we are part of a restless whole. Using the vivid analogy of in-flight turbulence, he illustrates our deep connection to our environment, extending the concept of the five bodily sheaths (kośas) to include our immediate surroundings. He concludes that true yoga is the conscious energy balancing the universe, necessitating prayers for the peace of all existence.

In the Vedas, the peace mantra declares: "Oṃ dyauḥ śāntir antarīkṣaṃ śāntiḥ pṛthivī śāntir āpaḥ śāntir oṣadhayaḥ śāntiḥ." May there be peace in the atmosphere, peace in the vegetation, peace in the waters, peace in the air, and peace on the earth. We require peace everywhere, not merely the peace of our own minds. When everything in the world is restless, you cannot be peaceful because you are a part of it. Consider the common experience of flying. The aircraft is 10,000 meters above the earth, a large machine, and suddenly there is turbulence. Very few flights are completely smooth; turbulence is frequent. Do you believe we can be peaceful in that situation? You try to hold onto your seat, but that does not help. Therefore, we must pray for the entire airplane, not only for ourselves. We must pray for all the passengers inside. If someone's bad karma is the cause of the turbulence, we pray: "God, please bring forward my good karma and suppress their bad karma for a while, so that we may land safely on earth, after which the airplane can move as it will." The point is this: when we are on an airplane, anything that happens to it, to any part of it, is our concern. We do care. Now, consider that the entire airplane is like our body. Not this physical body, which becomes the sixth body in this analogy. There are five kośas (sheaths): annamaya kośa (the sheath of nourishment), prāṇamaya kośa (the energy sheath), manomaya kośa (the mental sheath), vijñānamaya kośa (the intellectual sheath), and ānandamaya kośa (the causal sheath of bliss). These are the five layers. The airplane has now become a sixth sheath for us, so we feel we are inside it. Just as your soul resides within your body and becomes restless if anything happens to the body, similarly, we exist within space, within the universe. Anything that happens in the universe also influences and affects us. Therefore, it matters. Thus, we must pray for peace to pervade the entire universe. The Vedas instruct us to pray for others, for nature, and even for the stars. You might think this is foolish: "The stars are so far away; why pray for a star? We have nothing to do with it." But consider: if one star were to fall upon the earth, the earth would be utterly destroyed. There is an energy, a consciousness, that balances the entire universe. This principle I call yoga. That is yoga.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel