Question: All around us we hear of wars and conflicts. I want to know if these conflicts are all part of the divine order?

Sri Chinmoy: Very nice. It is true that sometimes it is a Divine Game. The good, the bad in everybody has to come to the fore, and then finally the good is victorious. Then again, there is something called the attack of the undivine forces within or around us. After you leave here, somebody may come and snatch away your wallet. Now is it your karma or some wrong action on your part that has caused you to be robbed? Far from it! You have prayed, you have meditated, you have done everything right here. But there are many undivine forces around us, and no matter how spiritual, how divine we are, they attack us. So we have to pray for constant protection from God.

Now, regarding the present-day political situation, it is not the intention of the Divine to let the forces fight it out so that, out of evil, good will come. At times we say that the Divine Game is being played; that the good, bad, Divine and undivine play and finally the Divine dawns. But right now, it is not like that. The present day wars are not God’s intention; they are the product of human weaknesses: “I want to prove to the world at large that my views are correct and that your views are all wrong. I want to prove that I am something, I have the capacity to lord it over you; you have to be under my feet.” This is the thing. It is the expansion of our authority, our blind authority, that we want.

What happens is that the wrong forces within us come to the fore and make friends with the undivine forces that are already around us. These forces around us are like mad elephants, ready to crush us at any moment. So the elephant inside us and the elephant outside come together, and wars begin. But again, inside us is also a deer that wants to run the fastest towards its divine Goal. Our aspiration or the aspirant within us is like the deer, and the vital within us is like a blind elephant. So the outer elephant and the inner elephant meet together and try to crush the deer within us, before it reaches its Goal. There is every possibility that the two elephants will destroy the deer. But once the deer reaches the Goal, then we are safe. The Goal is all Light, all Beauty, all Joy, all Power: and no elephant, no matter how powerful, can destroy this Goal. This Goal is our inner peace.