Question: How can people have faith when we face so much suffering in the world?

Sri Chinmoy: The sufferings that the world is now facing are unbelievable. Because of this tsunami, thousands and thousands of people have been killed. In one sense, we can say that Mother Nature is displeased with human beings. If we are sincere, each and every person on earth will see how many wrong things he has done individually and how many wrong things we have done collectively — nationally and internationally.

Sometimes we do wrong things unconsciously; sometimes we do them deliberately. A little child, for example, is unconscious of the fire. When he stands in front of the fire, just because he is innocent, do you think the fire will not burn him? The very nature of fire is to burn the child. As human beings, we have to be very frank with ourselves, whether we have done everything that is good within our capacity. Then we will see that human beings have done many, many wrong things consciously, deliberately and maliciously. Why? To show our supremacy.

So you can say that this tsunami is nature's revolt, nature's revenge. Mother Nature is like a real mother. She sees that her children are quarrelling, fighting and destroying everything, so she strikes them. She wants them to be good, exemplary citizens of the world. It is farther than the farthest from her mind to destroy the earth. She is only punishing her children to some extent so that they will turn over a new leaf.

This tsunami has given us a devastating experience. Again, the leaders of so many countries have united together to help those places that were severely affected. Human beings have once more brought to the fore their sympathy, which was practically buried in oblivion. Your Chinese Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing, has written a unique poem which I deeply admire. It is called "To My Distant Friends." This poem reveals his heart of implicit sympathy, love and feeling of oneness. So you see how this tsunami has brought forward the good, divine qualities of people. With our divine qualities, we can unite the world. Again, with our undivine qualities, we can destroy the world.

To come back to your question, how can we free ourselves from suffering? We have to first of all love others and establish the feeling of oneness with them. This oneness is based on our inner existence. When we truly sympathise with somebody, then we take away some of his suffering. Let us say somebody's mother has passed away. If you happen to be a close friend of that person and you go there to console him, then you definitely decrease his suffering. Because you are sharing the suffering, the members of the family do not suffer the full amount.

In the case of the tsunami disaster which has taken place, the Chinese Foreign Minister and also many other leaders of various countries, as well as individuals around the world, have brought to the fore their hearts, which are full of sympathy. The sympathy that the entire world has shown has really helped humanity. By exercising its sympathetic heart, the world has considerably decreased the suffering of those affected.

Suffering is there, but we can share it by establishing our oneness with those who are suffering. Always we have to have the feeling of goodwill. If, in your suffering, I go to be of service to you and vice versa, then we decrease the suffering.

A day will come when there will be another way of conquering suffering, and that way will be through light. Human life is composed of darkness and light. Darkness wants to envelop us and destroy light; light wants not to destroy darkness, but to illumine it. In the outer world, there will always be suffering, but there is a way to diminish the suffering and that way is the way of oneness, the establishment of oneness. If we use our sympathetic heart, our feeling of oneness, then the suffering is lessened to a considerable degree.

The ultimate goal of this Mother Earth, this earth-planet, is not suffering; it is joy. We came from Heaven, which is all joy. Now, on this particular planet, we are sad, unhappy, miserable, and for that we have to take the blame to a great extent. But consciously if we can expand and extend our love, goodwill and feeling of oneness, plus if we can go deep within, then there will be much less suffering. The ultimate goal of every human being is happiness. We know that we came from Heaven, which is nectar-happiness, and we are now passing through a longer than the longest tunnel which is dark and unlit. But we feel that at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long it is, light will again be waiting for us, and that light is happiness.