The World Needs Kindness & Shanti

Ever thought you had heard it all and then someone says something and you reassess, "Well, now I've heard it all!"?  I am a Reiki Master Teacher and another RMT, whom I had never met before, told me she was going to stop teaching reiki because she felt there were too many reiki practitioners in the world.  Seriously, what?

That's like saying there are too many people offering peace, too many people sending prayers, too many people showing kindness.  I just don't get it. So, today, our theme in class was one of the Shanti Mantras, otherwise translated as Peace Mantras.  These mantras are found in the Vedas, which are ancient bodies of Sanskrit texts.  They are often chanted at the beginning of ceremonies or before certain topics in the Upanishads. They are recognized as calming to the chanter and the space around him/her.  Shanti Mantras always end in reciting the word Shanti three times. Shanti means peace and the reason for saying it three times is to bring peace to the physical, divine and internal  elements where Hindu scriptures say all our obstacles can be found.
   " Physical =external world, such as from wild animals, people, natural calamities etc.
    Divine = extra-sensory world of spirits, ghosts, deities, demigods/angels etc.
    Internal= one's own body and mind, such as pain, diseases, laziness, absent-mindedness etc."
 
One of the Shanti Mantras:
Om sarveshaam swastir bhavatu
Sarveshaam shantir bhavatu
Sarveshaam poornam bhavatu
Sarveshaam mangalam bhavatu
Sarve bhavantu sukhinah
Sarve santu niraamayaah (niramayah)
Sarve bhadraani pashyantu
Maakaschit duhkha bhaag bhavet (makasheet dukah bhag bhavate)
 
Meaning:
Auspiciousness (swasti) be unto all; peace (shanti) be unto all;
fullness (poornam) be unto all; prosperity (mangalam) be unto all.
May all be happy! (sukhinah)
May all be free from disabilities! (niraamayaah)
May all look (pashyantu)to the good of others!
May none suffer from sorrow! (duhkha)
 
The poet T. S. Eliot, in his poem The Waste Land (where he spelled it Shantih) translated it as "The Peace which passeth understanding":

MEANING :May peace radiate there in the whole sky as well as in the vast ethereal space everywhere.
May peace reign all over this earth, in water and in all herbs, trees and creepers.
May peace flow over the whole universe.
May peace be in the Supreme Being Brahman.
And may there always exist in all peace and peace alone.
Aum peace, peace and peace to us and all beings!

Aum shanti, shanti, shanti.

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