Question: I'm not sure how truthful it is to say that we are all doing the same thing, we all have the same goals. I'm not sure I am. When Billy Graham says that to me I resent it. When Moon from Korea says that, I resent it. I don't know that we are in the same boat that you are. I think many of us have this dichotomy between personal religion and social religion. We understand that in some societies and some religions and some periods of history there has been some emphasis on social religion hurting the individual. But as Unitarian Universalists, many of us feel that at least historically there is a social dimension in our faith, a very strong social dimension. And I don't feel it or see it coming from your religion. You're saying we'll convert the individual and there will be a better United Nations, a better America, a better India. I think we say that we convert the individual, but also we must convert groups of individuals; we must change institutions and change society. And I don't perceive that you are in the boat about personal religion and social religion.

Sri Chinmoy: To be very frank with you, I do not follow any religion. Our path is not a religion at all. Ours is only the message of oneness. As your faith believes in universal brotherhood, if I understand correctly, irrespective of sect, irrespective of nation, irrespective of race, so do we believe that all are God’s children. For us there is no caste, creed, sect or nation that is more important than others. We are all members of the same family. Ours is not a religion at all. Ours is a path which anyone can walk along. But you have to live in one particular house. You cannot live in the street, and I cannot live in the street. You can live wherever you want to, but you will walk along the street with the rest of us when you want to get to a particular place.

Let us do the first thing first. If we are bad people, we will not feel the necessity of having a better world. Only when we become good people will we be able to work divinely and soulfully to change the world in God’s own way. My students are trying to change themselves and, at the same time, those of them who work here at the United Nations and in other places are working in and for the world as well.