Secrets of Spiritual Happiness
Spiritual Happiness in Action
If you have a long face and a chip on your shoulder, if you are not radiant with joy and friendliness, if you are not filled to overflowing with love and goodwill for all beings.... one thing is certain: you do not know God.
--Peace Pilgrim
Peace Pilgrim is one of the best examples of spiritual happiness in action that I've encountered. I never actually met her in person, but recently spent a year scripting and editing a one-hour documentary about Peace Pilgrim's life, and do feel as though I know her fairly well.
Peace wasn't always the perfect example of spiritual happiness. Her childhood was quite pleasant, as were her teenage years. But then she married a fellow who turned out to be living on a very different level of awareness and spiritual maturity than the one she was quickly evolving into.
Mildred - which was her name before becoming "Peace Pilgrim" - had been through a great deal of spiritual maturation in her youth. At a very young age, she took the golden rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," as a personal motto. While watching war mentalities taking hold of the world and seeing aggressions such as McCarthyism running rampant in the United States, Mildred became more and more dedicated to the cause of bringing peace to the world.
Mildred's husband, Stanley, had really only wanted a domestic wife who could cook and make babies, and soon discovered that he hadn't exactly gotten his right "wife order" in. Mildred was proud, strong-willed, opinionated, stubborn, and certainly not docile - nor was she interested in cooking or making babies. She wanted to help create world peace.
When the United States Army drafted Stanley, Mildred asked him not to go. She said that if he went to the camp, she would not visit him or have anything to do with him while he was there. Stanley chose to serve, in spite of her request. One of his officers read a letter that Mildred had sent, and told Stanley that her words were grounds for divorce. Soon, Mildred was single again, and became even more actively dedicated to the cause of peace.
At one point, Mildred had gone for a walk deep into the woods, in a disturbed state of mind. She prayed to God, walked, prayed some more, and continued walking. She cried out, "Take me! Take all that I am. I withhold nothing!" And she meant it. The ears of the universe always hear when we really mean it.
During this walking prayer, Mildred had a vision of walking across the country as a penniless pilgrim in the name of peace. She even saw the map of her future routes through each state in her mind's eye. After this vision came many more years of life lessons and personal growth, until the time finally came for Mildred to bring her vision to life. At age forty-four, she shed her outer life and became completely identified with and dedicated to her inspired cause. 
She would be a peace pilgrim, traveling the country, and touching person after person with her kindness, wisdom, and passion for peace. One by one, she would change the world. She put on a blue tunic with the words "Peace Pilgrim" sewn into the front and "Walking Coast to Coast for World Disarmament" on the back, and walked out of the door of her house, leaving Mildred behind. From now on, she was living in faith. She was Peace Pilgrim (hear her roar!) The year was 1953.
Peace spent nearly thirty years walking back and forth across the country seven times - taking roundabout routes that brought her into every major city, and through Mexico and Canada as well. Her vow was to remain a pilgrim until mankind had learned the way of peace, eating only when food was offered, and sleeping only where shelter was offered - although sometimes she would sleep in a field or by a bus stop. She would not ask for either food or shelter; they had to be offered. How's that for dramatically upping your level of faith? And it worked.
People would see Peace Pilgrim walking by, and would ask about the words on her tunic. She would eagerly tell them about how the world is so in need of peace, and how we can each help by creating peace within ourselves and in our own lives.
Peace Pilgrim had found what she called her comfortable "need level," (which obviously differs for everyone). In fulfillment of her faith, all of Peace's needs were provided for nearly three decades, until her death in 1981 in a car accident on a rural road, during a rare car ride to one of her early morning speaking engagements.
From the day Peace began her pilgrimage, all she owned was one set of clothes, a pair of shoes, a toothbrush, a comb, and a pen. As she told one high school class, with her arms raised in freedom, "This is me, with all my earthly possessions. If I want to travel somewhere, I just stand up and begin walking!" Can you imagine being so happy without a house, without health insurance, without a car, without money for your next meal, and without a second pair of shoes? Yet, Peace used to often exclaim, "I have health, happiness, and peace -- things you couldn't buy if you were a billionaire!"
Peace was living in harmony with her deepest longings and fulfilling her greatest potential. In India's philosophical terms, Peace Pilgrim was living in accordance with her personal and individual dharma of being a wandering sage for peace. Living in harmony with our true and most righteous nature is called dharma in the Sanskrit language, and dharma is a great path to walk in the land of spiritual happiness.
Wherever Peace Pilgrim went, she would fascinate the media. While scripting and editing the documentary about her life, I sorted through hundreds of enthusiastic newspaper articles and newsreel stories about her.
Peace didn't start a huge organization with thousands of employees to propagate her message, yet her message found its way into the world gently and steadily -- through radio interviews, television interviews, and while giving inspirational lectures and discussions in every possible kind of church and school. Although many wanted to follow along on her pilgrimage, Peace maintained her freedom. She would give her love and wisdom in one place, and walk on freely to love and give some more in the next.
During Peace's 28-year pilgrimage, the world did become more peaceful, due to her efforts, along with the efforts of other peacemakers. The earlier glory of war and fighting began to fade into an increasing universal wish for world peace. Although the world still struggles with issues of war and peace to this day, Peace Pilgrim truly demonstrated just how powerful a majority of one can be in helping to uplift the consciousness of a person, a city, a country, and the whole world. As she would often say, "If you want to make peace, you must be peaceful."
Peace Pilgrim's mission was fueled by spiritual happiness, along with dedication, service, optimism, and extraordinary faith. You could hardly ever find Peace without a beautiful smile on her face and a joyful cadence to her walk.
Eventually, Peace's hair turned totally white, and her face was covered with the creases of age - especially after walking outside in the sun for three decades. Nevertheless, when you see her on the television screen, she has the freshness and exuberance of a child. She moves with freedom, and sings out her message without fear of revealing her deep wisdom and innocent faith. Peace Pilgrim is a great example of someone who found the ever-flowing stream of spiritual happiness and dove right in, in her own unique and individual way.
Of course, very few people are called to live such an austere or eccentric life. Your job is to find your own simple or dramatic path to personal fulfillment and spiritual happiness.
