"War or preparation for war: these are the only two periods human history has known up to now.

"Peace has never been known, because peace is something which the individual has to create. War is something which the crowd, the nation, the politician, the ideologies, the churches create. Peace, each individual has to create. It will be far better to say that he has to discover it, because it has not to be created, it is already there inside you.

"But you are surrounded so much by the mind and its turmoil, you never come to hear the still, small voice within you. And if you cannot hear even the still, small voice within you, how can you taste peace – which is beyond that voice – where you simply exist? There is no thought in the mind, no emotion in the heart. In that nothingness you come to know, for the first time, the taste of peace.

"I am saying it from my own experience. For thirty-two years I have been in that peace, and I have not found it for a single moment flat. It is always opening new doors, new dimensions, new depths.

"When for the first time you know your inner peace, you think, 'This is the end.' Soon you have to change this idea, because the peace goes on growing. And the day comes when you understand that there is no end, the peace is going to become as vast as the universe itself – and the universe has no limits.

"You must be feeling flat when you are not passing through some drama or trauma, because in your life what have you got? If there is nothing going on: a fight, a love affair, a marriage, a divorce, fighting for an election or going bankrupt – if all these things are not going on around you, naturally you feel flat. It seems nothing is happening, time has stopped; you feel dead.

"It is a well-established fact that whenever there is war in the world, wherever it is, people look more happy, excited. They wake up early in the morning waiting for the newspaper to come. What is happening? What has happened last night? They cannot wait, they want to know it immediately."