Hope⁸

Hope is my mind's secret fear.
Hope is my heart's sacred courage.
Hope is my life's daring experience.
Hope is my soul's illumining success
And fulfilling progress.
Hope is my Lord's ascending Perfection
And my Lord's transcending Satisfaction.

We, the members of the Meditation Group at the United Nations, have only one friend — a soulful friend, a oneness-friend — and that friend is hope. We started with hope-friend. Hope-friend and hope-life were synonymous in our case. This hope-life was firmly established on February 29th in 1972, when I had the golden opportunity to meet with former Secretary-General U Thant, who embodied colossal hope for the entire world. U Thant's life itself became the grandiose flowering of hope. A simple schoolteacher from Burma became the principal teacher of the comity of nations. Here his teaching life did not come to an end. He went one step ahead to serve divinity in humanity with the message of the all-illumining and all-fulfilling Truth, the Truth that has no alternative. The message of his soulful heart was: "No compromise, no compromise with falsehood. Truth is paramount; Truth alone can save, illumine, perfect and fulfil the world."

Hope-vision he discovered. Hope-realisation he became. Hope-illumination he offered to the world at large. This is our beloved brother, U Thant, the Pilot who will ever be remembered for his simplicity-life, kindness-heart and oneness-soul. In him we observe that the finite hope of today does not have to remain with the finite and fleeting forever. It can slowly, steadily and unerringly grow into infinite, life-saving and life-illumining Reality.

U Thant's compassion was at times misunderstood by human souls. But his oneness with all nations big and small, his oneness with all and sundry was never, never misunderstood. For what he was, what he is and what he will remain forever is simplicity's oneness, purity's oneness and divinity's oneness.