Mediation and meditation¹

Two conflicting parties: they need some compromise. A third party, the mediator, is then of paramount importance. His is the task to offer light to the conflicting and strangling parties. When the mediator is successful in his acts of mediation the two conflicting parties stop their mutual enmity and hostility. They live — or at least, try to live — peacefully in their own domain.

Two conflicting parties; one party declares might is right; the other party prefers right is might. We observe in the Mahabharata, India’s greatest epic, that the Kauravas were all out for might is right and the Pandavas maintained the light of conscience that right is might. We all know the Pandavas won the battle.

The animal in us instigates us by roaring around that might is right. The human in us inspires us by going deep within that right is might. The divine in us illumines us by offering the supreme Truth that it is God alone who has all Might and who is all Right.

When we look at the unlit consciousness on the human level we see something quite disappointing and damaging. We see that this unlit consciousness is very often unthinking, unaspiring and possessing. Here at this point we have to invoke the Grace of God. It is the divine Grace that can transform the unthinking into thinking, the unaspiring into aspiring, the possessing into renouncing, consciousness.

Mediation is a temporary mental relief, a pause, a rest, in the life of the vital and a clever compromise. To expect abiding peace and illumining fulfilment from mediation is simply absurd. Here on earth everything is fleeting therefore mediation has its great value. But since everything is fleeting, if we can derive a little joy, a little peace, a little harmony from mediation, our mental wisdom, we should be proud of our achievement. But the lasting peace we cannot expect from mediation. Also we must not expect illumining fulfilment forever from mediation. For that we need meditation. Again, as I said before, at a certain stage in human development, when most of the people are not aspiring to be perfect, mediation, the role of mediation, is of great importance. Therefore we must pay our attention, our reverential attention, to mediation.

We are now at the United Nations. The United Nations is the mediator unmatched and unparalleled in today’s world.

"The Secretary-General and his special representatives have assisted in finding solutions to problems in a number of areas. The Secretary-General’s efforts assisted the Government of the Soviet Union and the United States to avert a serious threat to the peace which arose at the end of 1963 in the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic crisis in 1965 a representative of the Secretary-General, appointed at the request of the Security Council, helped in securing a ceasefire. The fighting between Israel and the Arab States that followed the eruptions of the Palestine partition — the partition plan in the establishment of the State of Israel — was halted by a United Nations cease-fire. Then following negotiations carried out with a United Nations mediator, armistice agreements were signed in 1949. Peace corps observers have been in the area ever since, supervising the armistice agreements.”

These achievements are unique in the physical world, in the vital world, in the mental world and in the psychic world. Unfortunately these achievements may not, or do not, or cannot, last. We have seen the first world war, the second world war; there should not be, at least for God’s sake, a third world war.

Very often animal aggression gives birth to human expansion. This human expansion is chased by bitter frustration. Then later on human expansion is devoured by utter destruction.

In the spiritual life, in our inner life, again we see two conflicting parties: fear and doubt on one side and inner courage and faith on the other side. Meditation plays three distinctive roles in the inner life. Meditation is the medicine, meditation is the doctor, meditation is the cure, the ultimate cure. Meditation cures our fear, it transforms our fear into strength, adamantine will; it transforms our doubt into constant, unmistakable, inevitable certainty. Again, we see meditation is the road, meditation is the guide and meditation is the Goal. He who is surcharged with inner courage and faith will get constant help and illumination from meditation. Further, let us not forget that meditation is the only road, the only guide and the only Goal.

The blind human body needs constant mediation. The wild human vital needs striking mediation. The unclear human mind needs illumining mediation. The weak human heart needs lasting mediation. That is in the outer world.

In the inner world, the fleeting, unaspiring human body needs constant meditation. The running, struggling vital needs striking meditation. The searching and climbing human mind needs illumining meditation. The crying and aspiring human heart needs everlasting meditation.

In the outer world, in this world of turmoil, mediation is necessary. In the inner world, in the world of frustration, despair, meditation is necessary. If we can bring to the fore the result of meditation, mediation shall have a life, a different life, a new life which will be flooded with everlasting peace, light and bliss.

In the fleeting, in the finite, we shall hear the message of the Eternal and the Infinite.

AUM

I wish all of us to stand up and pray to God most sincerely and soulfully for our dear Secretary-General U Thant’s quickest recovery.

[Everybody stood up and meditated with Sri Chinmoy for five minutes.]