Question: During this huge disaster, what kind of spirit would we need to face it?⁸

Sri Chinmoy: We need a spirit of oneness. This disaster has in a very special way helped us to bring the world together. The world of division must go. The world of oneness must come forward. Your Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing, has written a most beautiful, soulful and heart-rending poem and I have taken the liberty of setting that particular poem to music. Many, many people have written about this tsunami disaster, but your Foreign Minister's poem I feel should be at the top of the list. He began, "To my distant friends." The world is vast, but on the strength of our oneness, heart's oneness, we can make each and every human being feel that we exist for the improvement of the world.

We human beings have been doing many, many things wrong over the years. Now, I do not wish to use the term 'punishment', but let us say that somebody is trying to illumine us. Mother Nature is illumining us in a very special way. She is saying, "Now wake up, wake up!" This world has to be inundated with peace, joy and harmony. The tsunami is, to me, a blessing in disguise. Many, many people who did not previously care for the world have now brought forward their hearts. They have come together with utmost sympathy and a feeling of oneness. This world belongs to each and every human being. We exist not only for our little family, but for the big family, which is the world.

On the one hand, the tsunami is a great disaster. On the other hand, if we look at it from a different point of view, it has helped immensely to bring about the feeling of oneness. To me, it is a kind of blessing in disguise for the world as a whole. Outwardly, it seems like a severe, severe punishment. Inwardly, we feel it has helped immensely to prove to the world at large that we belong to one family.