The Consciousness for Peace

Simply by changing our consciousness we can spiritualize the whole world. The world is anxious for peace, and this is the actual method-change of consciousness. If we encroach upon God's property and try to utilize it for our own purposes, then there is no possibility of peace. Everything in the world belongs to God-nay, everything in the creation-and it is necessary for us to acknowledge this. If we steal something from someone else, we cannot expect peace. Nor can we ever really expect to enjoy that stolen property, because we will always be anxious about being caught. Similarly, by stealing from God we become subject to apprehension by His police force, which is known as material nature. As soon as we use the property of God to gratify our own senses, nature will inflict miseries upon us. This is the law of nature and is clearly stated in Bhagavad-gita:

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it." (Bg. 7.14)

It is not in our power to surpass the stringent laws of material nature. Gunamayi refers to the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Regardless of how strong we may think we are, the three qualities of material nature are stronger and will hold us under their sway. To extricate ourselves, we should not attempt to dominate nature by utilizing her resources for our own personal gratification but should offer whatever resources are there to the Supreme Lord and then partake of them. This is Krsna consciousness. The Lord is supplying us with everything, and all we need do is acknowledge it. If we offer things to God and God accepts them, He becomes our friend, and if God is our friend, we will not want anything. We will find ourselves totally fulfilled and will find that we have everything. There will be no anxiety, for once we know that Krsna is our friend and protector, we will become peaceful automatically.

A senior member of the Hare Krsna movement tells how Krsna consciousness has gone from East to West and back again.