Peace in the Midst of Chaos………

Most people do not understand what is the real meaning of Peace in the Midst of Chaos. A beautiful story illustrates the so called Title: 

‘Once there was a king who one day thought of keeping a Painting of Peace in his beautiful palace and called his Vizier and told him to call famous artists from all over his kingdom. He was interested to have this painting adorning his walls of the palace.  He will offer one of the best prizes from his cherished fortunes to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace.  Many artists came and tried to put their best painting forward, but none were successful.  The King looked at all the pictures very minutely, but he did not like any of them. Nevertheless, there were only two paintings that he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm and frozen lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds and there was utter tranquility in this picture. There was no noise noticed anywhere. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.  The other picture had mountains, too.  But these were rugged and bare.  Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played its havoc.  Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall in its full current.  This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the King looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock.  In the bush a mother bird had built her nest.  There in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird in her nest in perfect peace. Not an inch of disturbance was noticed, she was so much relaxed in her world. Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture, because explained the king to his painters: ‘Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.  Peace means to be in the midst of all those things that are confused and chaotic and still be calm in your heart.  That is the real meaning of peace.’

The peace that we seek is not the peace of the graveyard where no one speaks but are quietly sleeping.  The real peace is the serenity and tranquility within, where there is turmoil all around us and yet we are Peaceful and not get disturbed by outside forces.