The Centre for Peace and Spirituality was established in New Delhi in January 2001. Being a non-political organization, as its name shows, is to cultivate the values of peace and spirituality. A non-political organization aimed at bringing about intellectual revolution and turning man into a real human being.

Spirituality and Peace are as if, two aspects of the same reality. Spirituality is the result of positive thinking in an individual, while peace is the result of this positive thinking produced at a collective level.

A peaceful society is an essential prerequisite for all kinds of progress. However, the beginning of these task of making a peaceful society begins with the construction of a positive personality within the individual. Another name for positive individuals in large numbers is a peaceful society.

Traditionally, spirituality is regarded as a discipline that is opposed to worldliness. That is, raising one’s life above the worldly level and taking oneself to the level of one’s soul. Due to this concept of spirituality what happened was that in ancient times that people believed that asceticism (renouncing the world) was the way to achieve spirituality. That is to say, abandoning the material world for a life of seclusion in the jungles and mountains far from all comforts and luxuries of the world.

When a person chooses such a non-material life and engrossed himself in it, he experiences internally an abstract kind of feeling which is called ecstasy. But this ecstasy is into the desired spirituality. Ecstasy is in fact, a reduced form of spirituality, and is not real spirituality. Man’s greatest faculty is his mind. That is why man is called the ‘thinking animal.’ In such a situation real spirituality is one which is attained at the level of mind or thought, whereas the attainment of ecstasy is not at the level of thought. It is in fact, a kind of psychological anesthesia, something that is not achieved at a conscious plane.

Spirituality as is commonly understood is not a heart-based discipline, it is rather mind based. The human heart is in fact nothing but an organ of circulation of blood. It is not the centre of conceptual activity. Thus real spirituality is something that is achieved through a conscious process of the mind. Real spirituality is mind-based spirituality.

Spirituality is not separate from religion. Spirituality is in fact just another name for the real spirit of religion. The word religion has generally been associated with form or rituals. However, forms or rituals are only the apparent form of religion. Hence the reality or essence of religion is nothing but spirituality.

Spirituality is in fact what man achieves the realization of higher reality. He rises above the material level to become a spiritual person. He becomes a person who is able to lead a better life—rising from a lower human level to a higher human level.

Spirituality does not mean renouncing the material world. Rather spirituality is experienced when man lines in the material world in a manner that he converts material experiences into spiritual experiences; converting non-spirituality into spirituality just as a cow converts its food into milk.

This process of conversion is effected through intellectual awakening that enables him to receive spiritual nourishment from material things. Centre of Peace and Spirituality aims at preparing this kind of highly developed minds.

The common concept regarding spirituality is that its source lies within man himself. That is, ‘peep within yourself and find spirituality. But the CPS believes that man is only a recipient. God alone is the giver. Therefore, the only way to achieve spirituality is to awaken one’s nature in which God-consciousness is instilled by birth trying to find the Creator by perusing and reflecting in creation; by adopting the principle of simple living and high thinking and thus develop the spiritual aspect of one’s existence.

There are two benefits of spirituality at the same time. One is intellectual development of individuals along positive lines, and another bringing into existence a healthy society. Spirituality produces within one what is called simple living and high thinking. This enables man to rise above material interests and build his personality. Its benefit at the social level is that people are enabled to make their human interests primary, and their material interests secondary. When this quality is produced within the individuals in a society it will result in a peaceful society.

The sphere of the activity of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality is not a limited one. Different kinds of peaceful methods are adopted that are conducive to the attainment of this end. For instance, meetings, bringing out magazines and literature, weekly and monthly public programmes, online dissemination of peaceful material, the training of the youth along spiritual principles satisfying modern minds as regards the importance of spirituality, etc. Through these methods, CPS International is addressing and re-engineering minds on positive lines both within the country and Internationally.