The Spirit of Peace
For as long as
human beings have walked the earth they have probably felt a
deep desire to live in peaceful surroundings. Conflict, violence
and war disrupt the peaceful flow of life and produce a state
of anxiety, confusion and suffering for the indwelling soul.
Peace and harmony is the natural state that beingness desires;
conflict is not. Yet for aeons the quest for a true, sustained
state of peace has been elusive. When harmony has been achieved,
it has always been disrupted eventually by those who want to
change the balance. So we lurch forward from harmony to conflict,
from peace to war.
We are reminded
that peace and war are not true opposites; the true opposite
of peace is change. Therefore, conflict seems inevitable in the
human kingdom until we arrive at the realisation that change
may be, for now, the more natural state for us than a constant
state of peace. We haven’t yet arrived at that stage in
consciousness where we fully understand what peace really means;
we are still working towards this revelation.
During the 20th
century, with the horrors of two world wars and many smaller
regional conflicts, we were faced with the ultimate test: would
we once and for all come to understand the true basis for peace?
War brought this question to an intense point of tension. It
was a test to see if the forces allied on the side of Light could
finally bring about a change in human consciousness that was
trapped and imprisoned by a pattern of separativeness and hatred.
A change in human thinking was necessary if the energies of light
and love were ever going to manifest on earth, and the Plan of
God restored.
In the mid-1930’s
the condition of human relations in the world was so bad and
so uncertain that the spiritual Hierarchy saw the need to call
upon great inter-planetary forces for help. At that time there
was not sufficient strength and resolve in humanity’s will
to overcome the growing power of the forces of darkness. In 1935,
a six-line mantram was given out that when used properly would
invoke, among other forces, the Spirit of Peace. The first three
lines of this mantram are:
Let the Forces
of Light bring illumination to mankind. Let the Spirit of Peace
be spread abroad. May men of goodwill everywhere meet in a spirit
of cooperation.
The Spirit of
Peace invoked by this mantram is actually an inter-planetary
Being, an Agent of great potency. It is the same Being with Whom
Christ came in touch and Whose influence poured through Christ
and gave Him the right to be called the Prince of Peace.
For the great
potency of the Spirit of Peace to be spread abroad, however,
it needed to be invoked by humanity itself. Humanity had
to demonstrate a united sense of responsibility. The hope was
that the evocation of the Spirit of Peace would bring to humanity
that stimulation and active desire to participate in the expression
of goodwill which would render world peace an effective outcome
of wise action and establish right human relations. The initial
outpouring of this stimulating potency wasn’t too successful
because, as we know, an horrendous war soon broke out. But, notwithstanding
the devastation of the war, much good did result from the conflict.
Certain fundamental lessons about the nature of peace have finally
been recognised—namely that peace comes as a result of first
building harmonious relationships between peoples and nations;
and that, if the energy of goodwill is the active principle in
any relationship, then peace and harmony will be the result.
Much of the separativeness, suspicion and hatred that characterised
human consciousness during the 20th century has been dissipated
and the energies of love, goodwill, sharing and co-operation
are flowing more freely. This is the legacy of the Spirit of Peace.
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