Can You Find Peace, Tranquility, and Stillness?

We are not going to look for answers.
Why should everything be a question that has an answer?
Why should all questions be answered?
It is not an exam.
Even in exams you can skip some questions.

You enjoy a poem.
It need not be question and answer.
A poem could be just a description, a narration.
You enjoy.
Maybe you enjoy it more because it does not carry a question and expectation of an answer.
A question always puts stress into you.

Anyway, we saw that Shabda Brahma that we talk about, even Omkara, from which we say that the whole universe originated, it is not the audible sound that we hear.
It is something else, something much more.
We can only say that the Omkara of three matras which we chant could be a part of it.
And hope that when we chant Omkara we get connected to the original Shabda Brahma.
That could be the reason, Omkara chanting is not used to manifest or create anything by us.
Sanyasis who have laid down everything, who are not interested in manifesting or creating or continuing anything anymore, Omkara is their mantra.

For simplicity, we can say that the world originated from a spanda.
Like how a stone is put into calm water and there are waves spreading out.
If this is creation, then the opposite of this would be elimination.
Lord Shiva should be calming the waves and bringing stillness again.
But he is doing Tandava at the time of elimination, not meditating and bringing calmness or stillness.
This is the representation, right?

Why is he dancing and creating more disturbances?
Instead of restoring stillness, why is he creating more disturbance by dancing around?
So restoring stillness which was there before creation was the purpose, then he should be meditating.
He should have been portrayed as the god of Samhara who only sits and meditates.
On the contrary, Brahma is the one who is portrayed as meditating.
The creator, who should be in action, is meditating.
And the eliminator is dancing around.
Are we getting it all wrong?

And there are those who say – there is no world only.
That seems to be more comfortable.

Is there anything that is static, that just does not move, is completely at rest, never changes, never transforms, just 100% stable and static?

The god of sustenance, who is supposed to maintain status quo, he is also busy flying around on Garuda.
He is resting only before creation, in the milky ocean, on top of Adi Shesha.
That is before creation.
After creation, even to maintain status quo, he has to be in action.

We tend to think that only a disturbance can affect status quo.
You have your routine, everything is well arranged as per your timetable and plan for days, months, years.
Then suddenly one day there is a storm.
It is disturbed.
So, we tend to think that unless there is a disturbance there is status quo, there is stability.

But to maintain that stability or status quo, a lot of effort is required.
Sri Hari is the most hard-working among the Trimurtis.
Brahma can create and rest.
Rudra can rest till the kalpanta comes.
But Sri Hari has to be active throughout the period of sustenance — 4.32 billion years — that too again and again.
That is why his resources are also accordingly.

Take his vehicle for instance — Garuda.
Brahma can manage with a swan.
Shiva can manage with a bull.
Not Sri Hari.
Garuda can go wherever it wants instantly.
Sri Hari needs such resources to maintain apparent status quo and stability.

What is it with Brahma?
Sitting and meditating with kamandalu and rosary.
But he is heating up from inside.

ब्रह्म ह वा इदमग्र आसीत्
तदभ्यश्राम्यत्
अभ्यतपत्
समतपत्

He worked hard.
You may think that he is meditating, but he is working hard, heating himself up to the extent that:

तस्य श्रान्तस्य तप्तस्य संतप्तस्य ललाटे स्नेहो यदार्द्रमाजायत

He became heated up, tired, and started perspiring.
There was sweat on his forehead.
Lot of hard work.
The creator works hard.
The sustainer works hard.
The eliminator works hard.

We tell meditation students – peace, tranquility, stillness, calmness.
Where?

When you are doing, not a single cell out of the 30 trillion cells in the body is at rest, resting.
They are all in action, working hard.
Not a single cell is inactive.
Even the so-called dead cells are active.
What all materials they are made up of — go inside, see, they are all made up of molecules and atoms, right?
Go inside them and see — electrons constantly in motion.

This is what science tried to do.
They wanted to find something that was static, at the core of everything, which just does not move.
The more they tried, the more it slipped away.
They could not find with the electron microscope anything that was at rest, not moving.
Through mathematical models, nothing that was static could be arrived at.

No wonder our wise elders called it Jagat:

गच्छतीति जगत्

Nothing in this universe is static, stable.
Everything keeps on moving, changing.

And we are looking for permanent job, permanent accommodation, stable market, stable economy, stable governments, stable relationships, what not...

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi