The Garland of Nation-Souls

United Nations Meditation Group

I — The Garland of Nation-Souls

The Garland of Nation-Souls¹

The body wants to walk. The vital wants to run. The mind wants to fly. The heart wants to dive. The soul wants to be.

Inspiration without aspiration cannot see God. Aspiration without realisation cannot reach God. Realisation without revelation cannot glorify God. Revelation without manifestation cannot fulfil God.

Each nation has a soul of its own. The soul is at once God's illumining Activity and the nation's fulfilling capacity. Each nation is the involution of its highest Light and the evolution of its inmost Power. Immortality is the homeland of the soul. Eternity is the life of the soul. Infinity is the reality of the soul.

The Garland of Nation-Souls: a garland is the embodiment of God's Smile and man's achievement. God's Divine Smile is supremely expansive, and man's divine achievement is eternally impressive. Now, where is the Garland of Nation-Souls? It is here, inside the boat of the United Nations. Who deserves to be garlanded? Undoubtedly the Seeker-Pilot, U Thant. This able, genuine and divine Pilot of ours is blessed with a far-reaching, growing vision, and a wide, expanding, energising reality.

When a nation's outer life listens to the inner dictates of its soul, its earthly desires decrease, its heavenly aspirations increase, its human wants are lessened and its divine needs are heightened. It envisions the Truth Transcendental and grows into God's Pride Supreme.

The great philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once remarked, "Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right." It is true that all nations, with no exception, will one day be flooded with God's perfect Perfection, at God's choice Hour. The nations that are aspiring consciously are hastening God's Hour. The nations that are aspiring unconsciously are inwardly valuing God's Hour, and soon their aspiration will increase. The nations that are wallowing in the pleasures of darkening and darkened night are God's so-called failures, but before long even they will open their eyes and, along with their forerunners, will hear God ringing the bell of inner Victory.

The ascending aspiration of the fully awakened souls and the descending Blessing-Light of God can eventually transform the face of the entire globe.

Imperfection and impossibility we cherished yesterday. Today, imperfection and impossibility are our unwanted guests. Tomorrow, they will be seen nowhere. Perfection and divinity will be our most welcome guests.

The nation that soulfully cries for inner development and devotedly cries for outer growth can alone be in the vanguard of the teeming nations. Why does a nation fail? A nation fails because it does not want the sustaining Truth to be on its side. When does a nation fall? A nation falls when it deliberately and vehemently resists the idea of being on the side of Truth. How can a nation succeed? A nation can succeed by following the Truth within and without. The very pursuit of Truth can make the existence of a nation free, meaningful, purposeful and fruitful. Now, how can a nation flourish? A nation can flourish when it sees no difference between the Creator and the creation. A nation can flourish when it loves the world, not for what the world will give in return, but for the sake of love. Selfless love, true love, never ends, never fails. Love is its own immediate reward.

To me, the real worth of nations lies in their united principles; and it is in the united principles that one can see the fruit of true inner oneness and divine perfection. The united principles must needs have co-operation. If there is no co-operation, then the united principles will bear no fruit whatsoever. The present-day world needs co-operation.

Supremely significant are the words of the Secretary General, U Thant: "I can think of no worthier task for a man or a woman to be engaged in than that of creating the tools for international co-operation and working for the betterment of his fellow human beings." Also, the Secretary-General soulfully affirms: "Our work at the United Nations gives us the privilege of contributing actively from day to day in the ardent process of building peace."

Peace

Aum. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

The World Youth Assembly has been organised here. This is a most momentous task. With our deepest joy and greatest fortune we see here at the United Nations the promising hearts of one hundred and twenty-five nations. Each nation is unique, for in and through each nation the Lord Supreme wants to fulfil Himself. Each nation is chosen by the Supreme, to fulfil Him in an unprecedented, unique manner.

Each nation right now needs peace. We all need peace. To have peace, what we need is the right path, the Path Divine. Four thousand years ago, in the hoary past, the Vedic seers offered a supreme prayer to the Lord Supreme:

> O Lord Agni, O Lord,

We can all offer this soulful prayer to our Inner Pilot every day. It is this prayer that can awaken and inspire the length and breadth of the entire world. Peace we need. Man seeks peace because he needs peace desperately. Man welcomes peace because it is in peace alone that he can have his own true achievement and fulfilment. Man needs peace. He has to spread it. The moment he needs peace, he has to feel that sooner or later he will receive it. He has to feel that his inner being will be flooded with peace. But he has to spread this peace. Man spreads peace because he knows that he has to conquer, transcend death.

War and peace. In his outer being and inner being each man has only two words: war and peace. Outer war we all know. Inner war is constant. At every moment a sincere seeker has to fight against his own doubt, imperfections, limitations, bondage and death. This inner war is constant; and when we achieve our victory in the inner life, only then can we claim to be God's children, worthy children of God, divine children of God, the true representatives of God. At that moment God beckons us, and He uses us in His own Way. He takes us for His own Use.

War and peace. Man invents war. Man discovers peace. Man invents war from without. Man discovers peace from within. The smile of war is the flood of human blood. The smile of peace is love, Love Divine, below, above. The animal in man wants war, war to devour the sleeping, snoring world. The divine in man needs peace, peace to feed the hungry world.

The Song Universal²

Four thousand years ago the Vedic seers voiced forth:

> Give freedom for our bodies.

> Give freedom for our life.

This soulful prayer of the Vedic seers of yore will echo and re-echo through eternity in humanity's aspiring heart.

Freedom does not mean being away from home. Freedom means accepting and feeling the entire world as one's real home, as one's very own. With a view to achieving and growing into this peerless freedom, man does many things. He simply throws himself into a tornado of blind activities. But man has to learn that he has only one thing to do, and that is to discover and uncover. He has to discover the Divinity within, and uncover the veil of ignorance without. Likewise, man has only one thing to be: God. He has to be God the Infinite, God the Eternal and God the Immortal.

It is said that the quickest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. Let us start by thinking of, concentrating and meditating on God, and end, if there is any end, with God-Realisation. This is not only the quickest way, but by far the best.

God is Freedom. In an unparalleled way, the Isha Upanishad speaks of God the Absolute:

> It moves. It moves not.

> Within all this it is.

Man's deepest faith in God and man's boundless freedom in himself go together. Sublimely significant is the truth that James M. Barrie offers us: "The reason why birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."

"We walk by faith, not by sight." An aspirant, a true seeker of the Infinite Freedom, has to breathe in this life-giving and life-transforming truth that the New Testament endows us with.

Man is sick. His sickness is his ignorance. He has been suffering from this unfathomable ignorance for millennia. There is considerable truth in what Bernard Shaw says: "We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession."

It is high time for us to come out of our ignorance-sleep. Let us not play the fool. Let us be wise once again. Let us have back our faith in God, who alone can and will cure our entire life and our earthly existence of this fatal ignorance-sickness.

We are all assembled at the Church Center for the United Nations. The word "United" is hallowed. It can better be felt than described. Rather I should say it can only be felt and cannot be described at all. "United we stand, divided we fall. " We are fully aware of this maxim. What we need is to live it.

Now where does this unity come from? It comes from God. It comes from the Brahman, the One without a second. When we walk further along the path of unity, we realise that not only does God have the Consciousness of Unity, but He is Consciousness-Unity itself. When we reach the end of our journey's Goal, we discover that God is both Unity and Multiplicity. In the field of Unity, He is Realisation and Liberation; and in the field of Multiplicity, He is Manifestation and Transformation.

Our inner realisation and outer action must run abreast. Outer achievements should be the conscious and spontaneous revelation of the inner divinity.

Love, harmony, peace and oneness. These are man's divine ideals. On the strength of his inner mounting flame, aspiration, man can easily, unerringly and spontaneously manifest these ideals of his in his human life, in every sphere of his life.

It is quite natural and proper that we should discover our God in and through our own religion. When we go deep within we come to realise that there is only one religion, and that religion is man's inmost cry for God-Realisation. In the hoary past, Asoka, the great Emperor of India, sent missionaries to the corners of the globe with a profound message: "The basis of all religions is the same, wherever they are. Try to help them all you can, teach them all you can, but do not try to injure them."

Let each religion play the role of a flower. Let us make a garland of these divine flowers and offer them at the Feet of God. God will be pleased. We shall be fulfilled.

As there is only one Religion, even so there is only one Song. This Song is man.

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Man is Eternity's Breath.

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II — Talks from the Peace Room

Truth³

Truth is original and essential when it comes from the soul. Truth is pure and sure when it comes from the heart. Truth is obscure and incomplete when it comes from the mind. Truth is undivinely dynamic and imperfect when it comes from the vital. Truth is weak and insignificant when it comes from the body.

The body is blind. The vital is wild. The mind is ignorant. The heart is aspiration. The soul is realisation. Out of His infinite Bounty, God offers His clearing Sight to the body, His embracing Might to the vital, His illumining Light to the mind, His transcending Height to the heart and His fulfilling Right to the soul. Truth is our inner attitude. Truth is our outer aptitude. Truth is our life's fortitude. When attitude, aptitude and fortitude play together and sing the song of aspiration, Infinitude dawns on them, and soon they bathe in the eternal effulgence of infinitude.

In the world of desire, Truth is our mind's idea. In the world of aspiration, Truth is our heart's ideal. In the world of realisation, Truth is our soul's Goal.

Idea is the seed. Ideal is the tree. Goal is the fruit.

Idea is self-expression. Ideal is self-expansion. Goal is Self-Union.

God and Truth⁴

Man’s outer life needs God’s Silence. Man’s inner life needs God’s Light. Man’s higher life needs God’s Delight.

Again, man is God’s Hope. Man is God’s Smile. Man is God’s Pride. Man is God’s Hope in his inner life, man is God’s Smile in his higher life and man is God’s Pride in his outer life.

God’s Hope is man’s possibility. God’s Smile is man’s ability. God’s Pride is man’s necessity.

Truth, the ultimate Truth, plays its role in three different stages of evolution: objective, subjective and absolute. In the objective, Truth is man’s searching consciousness; in the subjective, Truth is man’s awakening Divinity; and in the absolute, Truth is man’s fulfilling Reality.

In Reality man sees the Truth in its universal form. In Divinity man sees the Truth in its theoretical form. In consciousness man sees the Truth in its practical form.

The inner way⁵

Will is power. Realisation is peace. Creation is bliss. Will tells me what I can divinely do for God and humanity. Realisation tells me what God unconditionally does for me and humanity. Creation tells me what humanity and I can devotedly do for God.

The inner way is the origin of the divine intuition. Intuition carries us to revelation. Revelation shows us the real in the ideal, and the ideal in the real. Intuition is the certainty of Divinity. Divinity is the certainty of Immortality. Immortality is the certainty of Reality.

Divinity’s child is man. Immortality’s child is the soul. Reality’s child is Light.

There are two ways: the inner and the outer. To discover the outer way we need outer power, the power of the physical, vital and mental. To discover the inner way we need inner power, the power of the soul.

The outer way always has limited vision. The inner way has the everlasting and ever-transcending Vision. The vision of the outer way culminates in the fast-approaching tomorrow. The vision of the inner way, which marches along the road of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, has no journey’s end. Constantly, spontaneously and soulfully it is marching towards the ever-transcending and ever-fulfilling Beyond.

No chance but God's concern⁶

Before I act, I need to live. Before I live, I need to breathe. Before I breathe, I need to know the purpose of my life, the aim of my earthly existence. If the ultimate aim of my earthly existence is to reach the farthest, feel the deepest and climb the highest, then I have to breathe God’s Light in and out from God Himself.

From whom can I have God’s Light? God’s Light I can have directly from God when the fleeting moment of my unconditionally surrendered life I offer to God.

When can I have God’s Light? I can have God’s Light when I am consciously aware of the undeniable fact that God loves me infinitely more than I love Him; and I have to feel that God loves me infinitely more than I love myself.

How can I have God’s Light? I can have God’s Light when I grow into the purest humility of the poor and the mightiest magnanimity of the rich. My humility is my divine brotherhood. My magnanimity is my divine fatherhood.

I have to feel that it is God, God alone, who constantly cares for me. I am not afraid of telling anything to the world, because I feel that God is speaking through me. I am not afraid of doing anything in the world, because I feel that God is acting through me. I am not afraid of transforming the world-nature, because I know that God is doing it for me. Finally, I am not afraid of affirming that God and I are eternally and perpetually one, because God has confided in me that there can be no other Truth than this.

No chance. There is no such thing as chance. There is only God’s constant, selfless, unreserved Concern. This Concern is His glowing, flowing and descending Grace.

God is Concern. This Concern enters into the darkening ignorance and darkened humanity to transform the face of the world only when the earth-consciousness is ready to receive God’s spontaneous, constant and unreserved Concern soulfully and unreservedly.

No chance but God’s Concern. No golden chance but God’s constant Concern.

God's brightest Heaven and man's surest haven⁷

The Divine Light embraces the world in all its ignorance. Further, the Divine Light feels that it is its bounden duty to elevate the human consciousness into the plenitude of the Life Divine.

If the animal in us, if the human in us, really want a Divine Life on earth, then we have to cry, cry like a child for God’s Compassion-Light, which is at once God’s brightest Heaven and man’s surest Haven.

Meditation: self-transcendence⁸

The animal in man is proud of his self-aggrandisement. The human in man is delighted with his self-awareness. The divine in man is conscious of his self-realisation. The Supreme in man is fulfilled in his self-transcendence.

Man needs material wealth to enjoy a prosperous earthly life. Man needs meditation to live a peaceful heavenly life. Man needs revelation to live as a divine hero, to guide and serve and serve and guide as a divine hero. Heaven does not want a weakling. Earth does not need a weakling.

Life is not empty talk. Life is not the breath of illusion. Life is the action of aspiration. Aspiration is the action of man’s Inner Pilot. Let us fight the battle of life within. Let us wake up to the reality of our world consciously and devotedly. Ours will be the victory without. Forget we must not, never. We are of God the Infinite and we are for God the Eternal.

Meditation means the evolution of the body and the soul. The body’s ultimate evolution is transformation and perfection. The soul’s ultimate evolution is the highest illumination and complete manifestation.

He who meditates, consciously dedicates his life to God. He who dedicates his life to mankind, soulfully meditates on the real God. His are the eyes that see Heaven on earth. In him divinity and humanity are triumphantly blended.

Temptation and meditation. Temptation: this is precisely what an unaspiring man knows. Meditation: this is what an aspiring man constantly is. An unaspiring man must descend in the scale of life and feel the very breath of ignorance. An aspiring man eternally ascends in the scale of life and lives in the very Heart of God.

We have hundreds of secrets, but meditation has only one: competence is achievement. Competence and achievement are the smiles of God’s unconditional Grace.

Sri Krishna meditated. He became God, the Love Divine. The Buddha meditated. He became God, the Light Divine. The Christ meditated. He became God, the Compassion Divine. Now God wants you to meditate. He wants you to become God, the Life Divine.

Is the spiritual life an escape from reality?⁹

The abode of Transcendental Fulfilment has three doors: Love, Freedom and Delight. The Love-Door is open only to him who serves crying humanity. The Freedom-Door is open only to him who serves struggling humanity. The Delight-Door is open only to him who serves awakening humanity.

The spiritual life is never an escape from reality. On the contrary, the spiritual life is the conscious and spontaneous acceptance of reality in its totality. For a spiritual seeker the idea of an escape from reality is absurdity plus impossibility, for spirituality and reality need each other to be supremely fulfilled. Without reality’s soul, spirituality is worse than useless. Without spirituality’s breath, reality is more than meaningless. Spirituality with reality means man’s inner cry for perfect Perfection. Reality with spirituality means God’s omnipotent Will for total and absolute manifestation.

Escape is a base thought. It acts like a thief, the worst possible thief. Into the heart of tenebrous gloom escape gains easy and free access. He who indulges in the idea of an immediate escape unmistakably commits lingering suicide.

Acceptance, the acceptance of life with a divine attitude, is not only a lofty idea, but the very ideal of life. This ideal of life is realised, revealed and manifested through God’s soul-elevating inspiration and man’s life-building aspiration. Acceptance of life is the divine pride of true spirituality. To live a spiritual life is our only responsibility.

Arnold Bennet said, “You are not in charge of the universe; you are in charge of yourself.” I venture to say that if I can be in charge of myself, then God will put me in charge of the universe, His Universe.

Acceptance of the life divine is the transcendence of human ego. The transcendence of ego is man’s real dignity and true worth. Momentous are the words of our Secretary-General, U Thant: “The dignity and worth of the human person is not merely a philosophic concept. It is, and should be, a working principle of human existence guiding our daily lives.”

There is only one thing that man needs: the inner wisdom. The supreme Pilot of the United Nations’ Boat is piloting a countless number of the human family with his wisdom-light to the shores of dream-fulfilled Reality. Inside the heart of learning humanity, his wisdom-tree is growing slowly, steadily, significantly and triumphantly. Him to quote,

> Is the human race so destitute of wisdom, so incapable of tolerance, so blind even to the simple dictates of self-presentation that the last proof of its progress is to be extermination of all life on our small planet? I cannot believe that this is to be the end. I cannot believe that humanity is so bereft of common sense as to launch universal suicide.

Acceptance of life is the assurance of faith. Faith walks along the road of fulfilling and fulfilled immortality. Escape from reality will, in the twinkling of an eye, weaken our resolves, loosen our armour and finally throw us into the very depths of the annihilation-sea.

No, we must never make a cowardly escape. We must always be brave. Divine courage is our birthright. We are the hero-warriors of supreme Reality chosen to fight against the teeming, brooding and threatening ignorance-night.

We are brave. The brave deserve the fair. We are aware. The aware deserve God, the real God.

Does meditation really accomplish anything?¹⁰

A man of no aspiration will dauntlessly ask, “Does meditation really accomplish anything?” A man of sterling faith and aspiration will confidently ask, “Is there anything on earth, in God’s Creation, that meditation cannot accomplish? Is there anything that cannot be achieved by meditation?”

God will immediately answer these two questions. To the man who has no aspiration, God will say, “My child, sleep. Sleep. You need rest.” To the one who is all aspiration, God will say, “My child, fly. Fly. My highest Height of the Transcendental Beyond is eagerly expecting your arrival.”

What is the first and foremost thing we expect from meditation? Peace. Peace and nothing else. Meditation is the embodiment of peace. The present-day world needs only one thing: peace.

The peace-lover, our ex-Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, offers us a sublime message: “No peace which is not peace for all ...” In peace, what looms large is eternal, fulfilling rest. He says, “... no rest until all has been fulfilled.”

Why do we meditate? We meditate just because our life needs inspiration, our life needs aspiration. Aspiration is, to some extent, a form of meditation. It is our meditation that promises to give us our realisation-tree. Today meditation plays the role of aspiration and tomorrow meditation will play the role of realisation. The Inner Pilot, the Pilot Supreme within us, inspires us to act; and it is He who has already kept the fruit of action safe in the life of our aspiration.

The truth-seeker in Dag Hammarskjöld, on the strength of his own inner conviction said, “Somebody placed the shuttle in your hand: somebody who had already arranged the threads.”

In our human life two things are of paramount importance: role and Goal. At every moment we have to know what our role is, and then we have to be conscious of our ultimate Goal. At our journey’s start we have to be fully aware of our role. At the end of our journey’s close we have to be fully conscious of our Goal. Now, there must needs be a connecting link between our role and our Goal. Meditation is this connecting link between our role in the Divine Play, the Divine Lila, and our ultimate Goal in God’s ever-evolving Universe. Man’s role is his conscious self-surrender to the Will of the Absolute Supreme. This is his only role. Man’s Goal, the Goal of Goals, is in constant self-surrender to the absolute Will of the Supreme.

Life is conscious ascent and conscious descent. Now, when we say ascent, what do we actually mean? Life’s aspiration is ascending towards the Highest. When we say descent, we mean the illumining descent of the soul’s all-transforming and all-fulfilling meditation. The human life is an ascending prayer. Again, the divine soul in each human being is a descending meditation. Our ascending cry and the descending Grace are inseparable. Together they move, together they fulfil the Absolute, here on earth. As human beings are countless, even so are their endless prayers. Each human being can doubt the value of spiritual prayer during his short span of life, but no human being on earth can say that he never prayed. Be it for a fleeting second or for hours or for months or for years, each individual has to pray. This prayer has intrinsic value. Again, when it is a matter of the individual, one individual can far excel the rest of mankind; similarly, one individual prayer far excels all prayer.

The profound seeker in Dag Hammarskjöld offers an unparalleled prayer for mankind:

> Before Thee in humility;

> In Thee in Peace.

Does meditation accomplish anything? Meditation does accomplish something; in fact, it accomplishes everything. God's Divinity meditated and created humanity, humanity in infinite shapes and forms. God's humanity meditates, and before long we shall see the result: the sun of perfect Perfection will shine on the face of aspiring humanity.

Here we are all seekers of the Infinite Truth. None of us has even an iota of doubt about the efficacy of meditation. But we have friends, neighbours, acquaintances, who may ask us, "Does meditation really accomplish anything?" We can tell them, "O unbelievers, O disbelievers, do not sit on the unsure ground of apprehension. Look. Here is the key: meditation. Meditation is the key to unlock the door of God's Plenitude and Infinitude." This is what we can say to the unbelievers. To the disbelievers we can say, "Before you entered into the world arena, yours was the promise to realise Him here in this body, Him to fulfil, Him to manifest here on earth. Now, spread your wings. Spread your wings once for all and catch the first morning breeze with your soul's soulful promise to the Supreme, to the Absolute."

A spiritual Goal for the United Nations: Is it practical?¹¹

My heart tells me that the United Nations has a divine Ideal. My soul tells me that this Ideal is going to be transformed into the supreme Reality. Soulful concern is the essence of the United Nations’ Ideal. Fruitful patience is the substance of the United Nations’ Ideal. Supernal fulfilment will be the essence of the United Nations’ Reality. Sempiternal perfection will be the substance of the United Nations’ Reality. What is Reality? Reality is the inseparable oneness of Infinity’s smile and Eternity’s cry.

The great philosopher Aristotle once remarked, “Some men are just as firmly convinced of what they think as others are of what they know.” The firm conviction of the United Nations is the confident flight of sublime thought and glowing depth of its knowledge-light.

Today’s United Nations sees the nations as its true friends. Tomorrow’s United Nations will see the nations as its real sisters and brothers.

Today’s United Nations offers hopeful and soulful advice to mankind. Tomorrow’s United Nations will offer fruitful and fulfilling peace to mankind.

Today’s United Nations feels Truth, Light and Delight in its loving heart. Tomorrow’s United Nations will manifest Truth, Light and Delight with its all-embracing soul.

Anatole France said something which is at once interesting and amusing. He said, “It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.” But in the case of the United Nations it is totally otherwise. The United Nations thinks profoundly and acts selflessly.

My aspiring heart has a soulful message to offer to all the nations that have formed, that have made the Garland of United Nations. The message is:

There are two stumbling blocks: doubt and insecurity. Doubt in the mind, insecurity in the heart.

There are two stepping stones: faith and surrender. Faith in oneself, and surrender to God's Will, conscious surrender to God's constant Will.

True, we have lost and misused thousands of golden opportunities, but we cannot lose or empty God's infinite Compassion. Out of His infinite Compassion, He will make us feel and realise the Transcendental Truth. However, this can be done in two ways. One way is to realise the highest Truth at God's choice Hour; the other way is to realise the Truth when we feel the time is ready, according to our own sweet will. When we open our eyes at God's Will, we fulfil God in His own Way. When we open our eyes at our choice will, at our own selected hour, we fulfil God in our own way. The desire in us fulfils God in its own way. The aspiration in us fulfils God in God's Way. Needless to say, our aspiration is bound to manifest the ultimate, absolute Reality on earth; and in the manifestation of absolute Reality on earth, the face of earth will be transformed into the face of Heaven.

True, the man of the hour need not or cannot be the man of Eternity. But the message that the soul of the United Nations offers to the world at large is for Eternity. Its message is:

Today's imperfect and unfulfilled man is tomorrow's absolutely fulfilled and supremely manifested God.

Peace is our birthright: how can we have it?¹²

O Lord, where is the Truth?

Who is my Beloved, who?

Peace. Peace. Peace.

The outer peace and the inner peace: the outer peace is man’s compromise; the inner peace is man’s fulfilment. The outer peace is man’s satisfaction without being satisfied at all. The inner peace is man’s satisfaction in being totally and supremely fulfilled.

How can the outer peace have the same capacity as the inner peace? The outer peace can have the same capacity if and when man’s creation and God’s Creation become inseparably one. What is man’s creation? Man’s creation is fear. Man’s creation is doubt. Man’s creation is confusion. What is God’s Creation? God’s Creation is Love. God’s Creation is Compassion. God’s Creation is Concern.

Fear is the feeblest ant in man. Doubt is the wildest elephant in man. Confusion is the devouring tiger in man. There is no yawning gulf between man’s cherished fear and his forced fear. Doubt God, forgiveness is granted. Doubt yourself, your complete destruction is decreed. Yesterday’s confusion was the beginning of your insincerity. Today’s confusion is the beginning of your insecurity. Tomorrow’s confusion will be the beginning of your futility.

God’s Love for man is man’s aspiration. God’s Compassion for man is man’s salvation. God’s Concern for man is man’s perfection.

Man’s fulfilling and fulfilled search for the Real is peace. God the Love is man’s eternal Guest in the inmost recesses of his heart. God the Peace is man’s eternal Host in the inmost recesses of his heart. That is why we can unfalteringly and unmistakably claim that the loving and fulfilling peace is our birthright.

How can we have peace, even an iota of peace, in our outer life, amid the hustle and bustle of life and our multifarious activities? Easy: we have to choose the inner voice. Easy: we have to control our binding thoughts. Easy: we have to purify our impure emotions.

The inner voice is our guide. The binding thoughts are the dark and unpredictable weather. The impure emotion is the inner storm. We have to listen to the inner voice always. It is our sure protection. We have to be cautious of the binding thoughts. These thoughts have tremendous vitality. We must never allow them to swell into mountains. We have to face them and then dominate them. These thoughts are absolutely non-essential, and we have no time to fret over non-essentials. We have to refrain from the luxury of the emotional storm. Impure emotion is immediate frustration, and frustration is the harbinger of total destruction within and without.

How can we choose the inner voice? To choose the inner voice, we have to meditate early in the morning. To control and dominate our undivine thoughts, we have to meditate at noon. To purify our unlit, impure emotions, we have to meditate in the evening.

What is meditation? Meditation is man’s constant awareness and conscious acceptance of God. Meditation is God’s unconditional offering to man.

Peace is the beginning of love. Peace is the completion of truth. Peace is the return to the Source. [Sri Chinmoy sings]

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But now I only climb and climb beyond

And yet my Captain commands: "Go on, go on!"

We have already invoked and received Peace from God. With your kind permission, I wish to invoke more Peace from above. Those who would like to join me are most welcome to come up to the platform and meditate with me for Peace, inner Peace, all-fulfilling Peace.

[The audience responds and meditates with Sri Chinmoy.]

Spirituality: Is it only for the chosen few?<sup>13</sup>

The blessed aspirants who cry for the Transcendental Truth, Peace and Bliss are undoubtedly the chosen few. Nevertheless all human beings, with no exception, can easily swim in the infinite sea of spirituality. Those who have lesser goals, those who want to be satisfied with an iota of Peace, Bliss and Truth unfortunately cannot dine with the chosen few in the inner world.

I am afraid the beginners and the budding seekers may, at this point, take me amiss. Truth to tell, I in no way intend to throw cold water on them. On the contrary, I want them to be cognisant of the fact that the highest Goal will never be denied them. It is they who have to cultivate the strongest necessity in the world of their aspiration in order to reach the ultimate Beyond.

What prevents them from reaching the Beyond? Their fear. What else? Their doubt. They must know that fear is the owner only of those who do not believe in God. But they do believe in God. They do have faith in God. Their love for God is unquestionable. Such being the case, they need not, they must not be afraid of God’s Transcendental Height.

Now, about their doubt. When they doubt God it is as if they are playing with a balloon. Their doubt-balloon is bound to burst before long. Their ignorance is bound to be exposed sooner or later. When they doubt themselves they underestimate their own divinity, overestimate their ignorance-reality, belittle their inner potentiality and aggrandise their temporary and fleeting insecurity.

I am sure that the budding seekers have true love for God, and I am sure that they have true love for themselves. Their love for God will eventually transform them into perfect Beauty Supreme, and their divine and fulfilling love for themselves as fully awakened and advanced members of the human family will be manifested on earth by God Himself. Their love is their inseparable oneness with God’s Light and with their own inner revealing Reality.

It is high time for me to speak a few words about the chosen few. Theirs is the task sublime to realise God’s Universal and Transcendental Consciousness. Theirs is the bounden duty to reveal and fulfil God on earth. And among the chosen few, he is by far the best who unconditionally realises God, reveals God and manifests God at God’s choice Hour, in God’s own Way.

The chosen few, when they look forward, find themselves already seated in the Dream-Boat of the Supreme. When they look upward, they find themselves already seated in the Life-Boat of the Supreme. When they look inward, they find themselves already seated in the Soul-Boat of the Supreme.

The Supreme blesses a budding seeker. The Supreme caresses a climbing seeker. The Supreme utilises a flowering seeker. The Supreme extols a realised seeker to the skies. The Supreme unreservedly offers Himself to the supremely realised seeker who unconditionally serves Him in the heart of humanity.

Spirituality: the fount of world peace<sup>14</sup>

Aspiration leads man to God-Consciousness. Yoga offers God-Consciousness to man. Aspiration takes man back to the Source. Yoga inundates man’s consciousness with the Light, Peace, Bliss and Power of the Beyond.

Why do we aspire? We aspire because we love God and want God to love us. Why do we practise Yoga? We practise Yoga in order to feel consciously that God is our very own. We practise Yoga because we feel that our fulfilment on earth can take place only when we have revealed and manifested God’s Divinity and Reality here on earth.

When we aspire, we go far beyond the domain of the physical mind and sit at the Feet of God the Light.

When we practise Yoga, we dive deep within, and there we see God and talk to Him face to face.

He who has no aspiration can never free himself from stark ignorance, and he who does not practise Yoga can neither receive nor achieve boundless Light.

Here on earth we have two major instruments: one is the mind, the other is the heart. Very often the mind that we use is the doubtful mind, and the heart we use is the fearful heart. But, unfortunately, the doubtful mind can never aspire, and the fearful heart can never practise Yoga.

True aspiration and teeming human limitations never go together. True Yoga and the life of unlit pleasure cannot go together. Constant aspiration and all-fulfilling Divinity can and must go together. The highest type of Yoga, which is the conscious surrender to God’s Will, always goes together with the Life of God.

Aspiration tells man that he will be able to see the Truth of the Beyond. Yoga goes one step ahead. Yoga tells man that the Truth of the Beyond is within him. Finally, God comes and tells man, “My child, you are the Truth of the Beyond. You are My Beyond.”

Spirituality is the fount of world peace. Spirituality is the fulfilment of all responsibilities. This is because Divinity is the birthright of spirituality. When an individual touches the foot of a tree, his consciousness enters into the tree; into the branches, into the leaves, into the fruit and into the flowers. In the spiritual sense, God is the tree and the leaves, fruit, branches and flowers are human beings. When you touch the Feet of God, your very consciousness enters into His Universal Consciousness and the infinite beings of His Manifestation.

Each individual has his own way of defining peace. A child finds peace when he is running around outside. That is his fulfilment and in his fulfilment is his peace. An adult finds his peace somewhere else. He finds his peace when he feels that he can lord it over the world. And in the evening of life, an old man thinks that he will get peace if the world recognises his greatness, or if Mother Earth offers Her gratitude to him. He feels that he has done much for humanity and Mother Earth, and he expects something in return. He will have peace only if his expectation is fulfilled.

But peace can never dawn on any individual if it is not properly sought. The child cannot get true peace by running around in the street. He soon finds frustration in his so-called fulfilment. A day will come when he will pray to God for a calm and quiet life. Then he will have peace.

If an adult wants to have peace, real peace, he has to realise that he cannot get it by possessing the world or governing the world. It is only by offering what he has and what he is, consciously and unreservedly, to the world at large, that he will have peace.

The old man who will soon pass behind the curtain of eternity can have peace only if he cherishes the idea that he is not a beggar, but a king. He was a king and he still is a king. He has offered his inner and outer wealth to mankind and Mother Earth. If, in the evening of his life, he doesn’t expect anything from the world, then his inner consciousness and outer being will be flooded with peace.

World peace will begin when the so-called human expectation ends. World peace can dawn only when each individual realises the Supreme Truth:

```

Life is the manifestation of Love.

World peace can come into existence when each individual nation consciously feels that the other human beings, the other nations, need not depend on it. No nation is indispensable; but if one nation helps another devotedly and unconditionally, then the world will be inundated with fulfilling peace.

Spirituality is the fulfilment of all responsibility. To love the world is our responsibility. To please the world is our responsibility. We know our own teeming responsibilities; but when we think of the world, unfortunately we do not think of it in a divine or proper way. The world immediately misunderstands us, and we find it impossible to have an inner connection with the world. It is like a mother and her son. In spite of her best intention, the mother finds it difficult to please the son. She thinks of him in her own way and likewise, the son understands the mother in his own way. Because of this lack of communication the mother and the son get no joy in fulfilling their mutual responsibilities.

We love the world. We have to love the world; it is our responsibility. What happens when we try to love the world or when we attempt to fulfil our responsibility to the world? We try to possess and bind the world, and while we are doing this we see that we have already been bound and possessed by the world. We had a sublime opportunity to fulfil our responsibility to the world, but we have badly misused it.

We want to please the world, but how can we please the world if we are not pleased with our own lives? It is sheer absurdity to try to please others if we are not pleased with our inner and outer existence. God has given us big mouths and we try to please others with our mouths, but inside our hearts there is a barren desert. If we have no aspiration, how can we offer the world Peace, Joy and Love? How can we offer anything divine when we don’t practise what we preach? Spirituality offers us the capacity to practise what we preach. If we don’t follow the path of spirituality, we shall only preach; it will be a one-sided game. But if we really practise Yoga we shall also live the Truth. Our preaching will bear fruit only when it is practised.

How can we fulfil all our responsibilities? We have tried in human ways but we have failed. We think of the world with good thoughts and ideas, but the world remains exactly the same as it was yesterday. We love the world, but the world still remains full of cruelty and hatred. We try to please the world, but the world doesn’t want to be pleased. It is as if the world has taken a vow that it won’t allow itself to be pleased. And why does all this happen? It is because we have not pleased our Inner Pilot, the One we have to please first. If we have no aspiration to please our Inner Pilot, how can we offer the world Peace, Joy and Love? Unless and until we have pleased the Inner Pilot, the world will always remain a battlefield where the soldiers of fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, imperfection, limitation and bondage will fight; and consciously or unconsciously we will play with these undivine soldiers. Fear, doubt, anxiety, worry and animal propensities can never offer us peace, world peace.

Again, deep within us divinity is crying to come to the fore. There the divine soldiers are our simplicity, sincerity, purity, humility and feeling of oneness. These soldiers are more than ready and eager to fight with fear, doubt, anxiety and worry. Unfortunately, we are not consciously identifying ourselves with the divine soldiers; we are consciously or unconsciously identifying ourselves with the undivine soldiers, and that is why world peace is still a far cry. World peace can be achieved, revealed, offered and manifested on earth when the Divine Power of Love replaces the undivine love of power.

Mediation and meditation¹⁵

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

The animal in us instigates us by roaring that might is right. The human in us inspires us by feeling 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 found on the human level, we see something quite disappointing and damaging. We see that this unlit consciousness is very often unthinking, unaspiring and possessing. At this point, we have to invoke the Grace of God. It is the Divine Grace that can transform the unthinking consciousness into the thinking, the unaspiring consciousness into the aspiring and the possessing consciousness into the renouncing.

Here on earth, 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. At a certain stage in human development, when most of the people are not aspiring to be perfect, mediation is of great importance. Therefore we must pay attention, reverential attention to mediation. It is a temporary mental relief, a pause, a rest in the life of the vital. It is a clever compromise. But to expect abiding peace and illumining fulfilment from mediation is simply absurd. We cannot expect lasting peace and we must not expect everlasting, illumining fulfilment from mediation. For that we need meditation.

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 cease-fire. 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. ¹⁶

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 aggrandisement. This human aggrandisement is chased by bitter frustration. Then, later on, human aggrandisement is devoured by utter destruction.

In the spiritual life, in our inner life, we also 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 and inevitable certainty. Again, we see that 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.

In the outer world, 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.

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 and despair, meditation is necessary. If we can bring the result of meditation to the fore, mediation will have a life, a different life, a new life that 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.

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.¹⁷

[Everyone stands up and prays with Sri Chinmoy for five minutes.]

God's power of love in today's world¹⁸

God’s Power of Love in today’s world can be felt only by the special few who have discovered the inner truth that Love is the beauty of our aspiring life and the duty of our manifesting soul.

The body of today’s world is a filthy pig. The vital of today’s world is a mad elephant. The mind of today’s world is a devouring tiger. The heart of today’s world is a timid deer. The soul of today’s world is a helpless lamb.

In supreme silence, God’s Power of Love is performing its eternal Divine Duty. Slowly, steadily and unerringly, it is transforming the body, the filthy pig, into a clean and pure child; the vital, the mad elephant, into a one-pointed dynamic runner; the mind, the devouring tiger, into a seeker of the highest Truth; the heart, the timid deer, into a brother of boundless confidence and concern; and the soul, the helpless lamb, into a chosen instrument of Divinity’s Eternity.

Marguerite Blessington said, “Love in France is a comedy, in England a tragedy, in Italy an opera seria and in Germany a melodrama.” Now I wish to add that love in America is at once a frightening and enchanting experience of a green life’s red adventure.

The master philosopher Plato remarked, “Love: a great mental disease.” When our physical consciousness lives in the doubting, suspecting and unaspiring mind, this great utterance of Plato’s is, to some extent, undeniable. But if our awakened consciousness lives in the illumining soul, love is nectar, the very breath of Immortality.

Napoleon Bonaparte has given us an amusing and interesting piece of advice: “The only victory over love is flight.” When our human emotions run riot, the necessity of flying away is perhaps indispensable; but when our divine emotion, the all-loving emotion, reigns supreme, we have to know that we do not need victory over love, but the victory of Love. This victory of Love is self-expansion in God-Manifestation.

India’s matchless leader, Mahatma Gandhi, has a special message, an inner message, which runs, “Love is the reverse of the coin of which the obverse is Truth.” In the life of aspiration we come to realise that Love is Truth embodied and that Truth is Love revealed.

Man’s obtrusive ignorance of Divine Love results in a most damaging failure in the battlefield of life. Man’s power of love is constantly wanting in perspicuity and lucidity. Man’s love of power knows not how to procrastinate. Fast, faster and fastest it runs; and when it finally reaches the goal, it is compelled to shake hands with bitter frustration.

Earthly experience, frustrated and shattered, convinces a lover that there is no such thing as love. It is all chicanery. Heavenly experience, illumined and fulfilled, reveals to a God-Lover the truth that Love alone is here on earth, there in Heaven.

Here at this august hall, the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, we are trying to throw light on love in today’s world. My heart tells me that the love that the United Nations has is not a guarded and limited concern, but a soulful dedication to the Supreme Cause.

An unaspiring man loves God in a perfunctory manner. An aspiring man loves God in a soulful and ebullient manner. A God-Realised man loves God in an unconditionally surrendered manner. It is through him that God, the Inner Pilot Supreme, reveals His Power of Love in today’s world.

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality¹⁹

Spirituality is the inner urge of an Eastern seeker to see God face to face and realise God in His totality. Dynamism is the vital urge of a hero Westerner to reveal God and manifest God here on earth. Dynamism serves God. Spirituality loves God.

The body’s dynamism is regularity. The vital’s dynamism is punctuality. The mind’s dynamism is clarity. The heart’s dynamism is purity. The soul’s dynamism is certainty.

The body’s spirituality is simplicity. The vital’s spirituality is sincerity. The mind’s spirituality is humility. The heart’s spirituality is spontaneity. The soul’s spirituality is Reality.

A dynamic man is quick on his feet to reach his destined Goal, the Goal of the Beyond. A spiritual man is quick with his answers and pleases God, the Inner Pilot, in His own Way.

Dynamism is the life’s capacity. Spirituality is the soul’s necessity. The aura of outer success surrounds a dynamic man. The aura of inner progress surrounds a spiritual man.

A dynamic man is a karma yogi. He devotes himself to the path of action, disinterested action, with implicit devotion and surrendered service to God. A spiritual man is a jnana yogi. He tries to live in the knowledge of God with his awakened and illumined mind and heart. Dynamism invites God. Spirituality receives God. Yoga achieves God.

Western dynamism wants to shoulder the responsibility of the entire world. Eastern spirituality tries and cries to know what God’s Will is and what God wants.

Western dynamism needs the aspiration of Eastern spirituality in order to please God in the inner world. Eastern spirituality needs the inspiration of Western dynamism in order to please God in the outer world.

Western dynamism has to learn the secret of Eastern spirituality: Love is God, God the Supreme Lover. Eastern spirituality has to learn the secret of Western dynamism: God is the Supreme Warrior, the Supreme Victor over teeming ignorance and darkening death.

God needs Western dynamism to offer His Omnipotence-Light to the world at large. God needs Eastern spirituality to offer His Ocean of Love and Peace to the world at large.

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality are the two wings of God the Eternal Bird, who will carry the message of earth’s aspiration to the highest Abode of the Supreme, and who will bring down the message of infinite Compassion from the highest Abode of the Supreme to the aching, crying consciousness of Mother Earth.

When Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality become inseparably one, God will be known as a fulfilled Man, and man will be known as a perfect God.

The Court of Divine Justice²⁰

The human justice wishes to offer me protection. The Divine Justice offers me protection, illumination and perfection. The human justice is fairness. The human justice is a threatening force. The human justice is a binding law. The Divine Justice is Love. The Divine Justice is self-giving. The Divine Justice is fulfilling.

The human judge is the problem-shooter. The human plaintiff is the problem-bringer. The defendant is the problem-maker and creator. The pleader is either the problem-lover or problem-nourisher; he cannot be otherwise, for that is how he remains on earth.

The Divine Judge is the Liberator. In the divine sense the plaintiff is the hungry seeker. The defendant is the devouring doubter in us, and the pleader is conscience. This pleader is the common friend, mutual friend of the plaintiff and the defendant. Under the threat of wild ignorance the pleader yields to the whims of doubt but inwardly in silence, it loves, cherishes and adores the heart of the seeker. In the physical and vital worlds conscience is helpless. In our inner world, conscience is constantly supported by the adamantine Will of the Lord Supreme. The Supreme Liberator liberates both the hungry seeker and the doubter.

Justice is impartiality. Impartiality is wisdom. Wisdom is the Divine Grace. The Divine Grace is the illumining Vision and fulfilling Manifestation of God.

A transformed and perfected human being is the duty of Divine Justice. A fulfilled and manifested God in man is the duty of Divine Justice. Duty performed on any level of consciousness is beauty blossomed forthwith. God’s Consciousness abides in the duty of His Divine Justice.

Here on earth we see that liberty and justice are two different things. They are like North Pole and South Pole. If one enjoys the joy of liberty, we feel that person has violated all the laws of justice. He is acting like a wild elephant. He is enjoying liberty, especially on the vital plane, and therefore he does not care for justice at all. But if one cares only for justice, then we feel that his life has no pleasure; there is no warmth, there is no feeling of enthusiasm in his life. This is all on the human level.

In the inner world, liberty and justice always go together. They are like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. Only he who has inner liberty can hear the message of Divine Justice. Only he who has known what the Divine Justice is can be free and independent. There is no other way. Liberty and justice in the inner world are inseparable.

The Divine Justice is not a mere human idea. It is the divine ideal in each human being. When a nation is not awakened, when a nation is unaspiring, unillumined, it feels that might is right. This is human justice. But when a nation is illumined, all-loving and all-embracing, it feels that right is might. It feels that justice lies only in the divine right.

Now, what is this divine right? Divine right is the conscious feeling of universal oneness. God’s Justice can be seen and felt only when we have the feeling of universal oneness. If not, God will disappoint us and fail us at every moment. Our human mind will never be able to fathom God’s Justice. It will always be baffled by God’s Justice because of its limited knowledge and limited concern for humanity.

The Divine Justice is ready at every moment to be of help to us; to inspire us, guide us, mould us and shape us. But we are equally afraid of the Divine Justice and the human justice. When we do something wrong, we feel that we will be exposed. This is true in the case of human justice. But the Divine Justice will never, never expose us. The first time we do something wrong the Divine Justice will forgive us with its compassion. The second time we do something wrong it will offer us more compassion. The third time we do something wrong it will offer us infinite compassion. And then, when God sees that even His infinite Compassion is not solving the human problem, He will use His loving Divine Authority, Divine Power.

This Power is not the destructive power. This Power is not the threatening power. This Power is the Power that awakens the dormant lion in each human being. This Power does not dominate. It only arouses the spiritually hungry lion in each human being. The lion can roar, but the lion is fast asleep. This lion embodies our inner cry to see the ultimate Truth, to grow into the Absolute Reality.

Each individual seeker can claim, can feel God’s Justice if the seeker feels the necessity of loving humanity more than he expects humanity to love him. If he does not expect humanity to love him at all, yet he goes on loving humanity, then he is bound to feel God’s Justice in him, through him. Why? While he is offering his love to mankind, God will not remain silent. God will not remain asleep. God will immediately give him His boundless Peace, Joy, Light and Delight. God will empty His Infinite Consciousness into him.

What we have, we can give to mankind if we want to. But in God’s case, He gives to us not only what He has, but what He is. He feels that He is just only when He can give us what He has and what He is. We can also act like God and offer to mankind not only what we have, but what we are.

When we make an inner search, we come to learn that what we have is a dedicated heart; and if we ask what we are, we come to learn that we are the chosen instruments of God. We are the leaves and He is the Tree. Look at a tree from a distance or from any place. If you look at a leaf, a branch or the trunk, you can immediately recognise it is a tree. When we look at an individual leaf, we can immediately enter into its source, the tree, and feel that this individual leaf is the tree itself. When we look at the tree, we see that its manifestations are the leaves. The manifestation itself can be as important as the Creator Himself.

The Divine Justice is the breath of Reality. In the human court we see all kinds of crime; but in the Court of Divine Justice we notice only one crime every day, and that is human ungratefulness. Here the punishment is forgiveness. Constantly the game is being played between God’s Forgiveness and man’s ungratefulness. In the human way, human beings are justifying their cause by saying, “We are unconscious. Hence we commit crimes. We are not yet illumined. Hence we are ungrateful.” In the divine way, God is justifying His cause: He is Love. Hence He is all-Loving. He is Compassion. Hence He is all-Forgiving.

God: the Supreme Actor. World: the divine audience²¹

The Supreme Actor acts three times a day. In the morning, while acting, the Supreme Actor offers inspiration-light to us. In the afternoon, while acting, the Supreme Actor offers aspiration-height to us. In the evening, while acting, the Supreme Actor offers realisation-might to us.

In the inspiration-light of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience sees that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is quite possible. In the aspiration-height of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience feels that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is not only possible, but practical. In the realisation-might of the Supreme Actor, the divine audience realises that the attainment of the ultimate Truth is not only possible and practical, but also natural and inevitable.

The divine audience looks at the Feet of the Supreme Actor and longs for the liberation of mankind from ignorance. The divine audience looks at the Eyes of the Supreme Actor and longs for the perfect Perfection of aspiring humanity.

The Supreme Actor looks at the head of the divine audience, and then enters into its head to fondle its lofty heights. The Supreme Actor looks at the heart of the divine audience, and then enters into its heart to glorify its Divinity’s Light and Reality’s Delight.

Believable: the human audience is afraid of darkness. Unbelievable, but true: the human audience is afraid of Light, illumining Light.

The divine audience is always proud of seeing the Light of God's Beauty. The divine audience is always proud of feeling the Delight of God's Beauty.The soul is an actor. The soul participates in the Cosmic Lila, the Divine Game. The soul enters into the abyss of ignorance. The soul enters into the chasm of inconscience in order to participate in the Cosmic Lila. For millennia the soul abides there, fast asleep. All of a sudden, a spark of consciousness enters into the soul and awakens it. The soul makes a little movement. At that very moment a question arises from within: "Who am I?" And the immediate answer also is given from within: Tat Twam Asi, "That Thou Art."

The soul opens its eyes, looks upward and enters into the mineral world. There again, for thousands and thousands of years the soul abides. Then the soul again gets a message from within, a question: "Who am I?" The answer is again, Tat Twam Asi, "That Thou Art." The soul makes another upward movement. From stone, from the mineral, the soul enters into the plant life. From there it enters into the animal kingdom. Again, for hundreds of years, the soul is not fully active or dynamic. Very often it is fast asleep, enjoying the Game in its own particular fashion.

But there comes a time, after hundreds of years, when the soul wants to go one step ahead in the evolving wheel of manifestation. The soul enters into human life. Here the soul becomes either unconsciously active or consciously dynamic. Here the soul gets more opportunity, develops more capacity to look up high into the Beyond. Here the soul quite often remembers its Source, the Ultimate Truth, the Transcendental Reality.

The soul entered into inconscience to begin the Game; and the soul, from the human incarnation, enters into the divine life so that it can eventually go back to its Source: Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

Each soul is employed by humanity and Divinity. In God's Cosmic Drama, humanity employs the soul to carry its untold suffering and excruciating pangs to a world far beyond the domain of the mind. Divinity employs the soul to bring the message of Light and Delight down into the very heart of the earth-consciousness. Divinity employs the soul, asks the soul to be the boatman so that Divinity can manifest its Infinity in the heart of the finite. Humanity employs the soul to be its boat so that it can carry the load, the burden of humanity, to the world beyond.

The Supreme Actor is the Beloved Sovereign. The divine audience is the eternal lover. Both the Actor and the audience are indispensable, one fulfilling the other.

The audience is receiving and achieving the Ultimate Truth. The Actor is revealing and manifesting the Ultimate Truth.

The Supreme Actor is also the Supreme Dancer. Nataraj, Lord Shiva, the Supreme Dancer, dances. Lo and behold, humanity’s aspiration is being awakened, humanity’s unlit consciousness is being illumined, Divinity’s life-breath is being manifested on earth. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Dancer, dances. Lo and behold, humanity’s passion is being transformed into Divinity’s rapture.

The Supreme Actor wants each individual soul to be the Supreme Actor in the play of cosmic evolution, for it is only when He allows and wants each individual soul to act the Supreme Act of the Supreme Actor, that unity in multiplicity can be offered to mankind. The Unity of the Supreme can be realised and manifested only when each individual soul is given the chance in the cosmic evolution to rise up high, higher, highest into the ever-transcending Beyond. Then only will God, the Supreme Actor, be totally fulfilled and supremely manifested here on earth.

The human actor tells the human audience, “Take me. You need me.”

The human audience tells the human actor, “We do not need you. We appreciate your capacity, but we do not need your life’s reality.”

The Supreme Actor tells the divine audience, “Take Me, I am for you. Take Me, I am eternally yours.”

The divine audience tells the Supreme Actor, “Our devoted oneness, our surrendered oneness with You, O Supreme Actor, has made us feel the significance of Your Transcendental Reality. O Supreme Actor, to You we bow and bow. Our life of aspiration is eternally Yours. Your Life of manifestation is eternally ours.”

God's Compassion and the United Nations' dedication²²

God’s Compassion is ignored by humanity. The dedication of the United Nations is quite often misunderstood and at times suspected by humanity. Why does this happen? It happens precisely because ignorance still lords it over us.

God’s Compassion is inner Protection unseen. God’s Protection is illumination visible everywhere. Dedication is the soul’s promise to God and to mankind. These promises the soul has made to humanity and to Divinity perhaps hundreds or thousands of years; but the promise the soul has made to humanity and to Divinity must be fulfilled.

The promise the soul has made to humanity is very simple: it will kindle the flame of aspiration in the heart of humanity. It will make the earth-consciousness a perfect instrument so that it can receive God’s Light from above in infinite measure. It will make the heart of earth feel Heaven’s Light, Heaven’s Delight and Heaven’s Existence. Finally, it will make of earth the divine clarion: Light, the Voice of Heaven.

The soul has also made a promise to Divinity that it will manifest God the Absolute, God the Omniscient, God the Omnipotent and God the Omnipresent on earth. The soul has promised God that, with the help of the physical, the vital and the mental — in short, with the help of the entire being — it will manifest Him here on earth. Here on earth the soul will offer the perfection of dedication to God.

Dedication is delight, the delight of the heart. When we dedicate ourselves to something or to someone, our very dedication expands our consciousness, and we feel that our inseparable oneness with God is something real and fulfilling. Each time we dedicate something of ours, we expand our love for God and our love for mankind. Our very reality, our earthbound reality, is then transformed into a heavenward journey.

Dedication to the Self is union. It is in union that life becomes meaningful and fruitful. A life without the feeling of union is confusion and frustration. Today's dedication is bound to be transformed into tomorrow's Perfection. When Perfection dawns we can foresee clearly all our divine wishes, we can feed all our divine aspiration and finally, we can fulfil all our divine needs. Human dedication has the key to open God's Palace. God's Compassion shows man where his infinite Treasure lies within himself.

A child of God was blessed with a vision. This child was our President Wilson. He had the vision of the League of Nations; now we see the United Nations. There was once a tiny plant; now the plant has grown into a big Banyan Tree: the United Nations.

Needless to say, the world is still not perfect. Since the world is not perfect, the world opinion cannot be perfect. Since we are imperfect, we consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, indulge in criticism, and we see too much conflict in our thoughts, ideas, plans, ideals and missions. There are many on earth who find fault with the activities and the dedicated services of the United Nations. But from the spiritual point of view, I wish to say that each action and each dedicated service is not a mere experiment, but an experience of God in and through the United Nations. Each nation may for its own reasons want to be united with the rest of the nations; but the United Nations means the usefulness of the united notions, united thoughts and united feelings, and the expansion of oneness. In the United Nations unity can be fulfilled through manifested multiplicity. This is what we see and feel in the heart of the United Nations. We have been seeing the desire for supremacy in man since the dawn of civilisation. Each human being wants to be an inch higher than the rest; each human being wants to surpass the rest. But from the spiritual point of view, we can surpass only when we become one: one nation, one soul. One nation can surpass all the other nations only by becoming one with them in their suffering, in their joy and in their achievements. When we become one, we really surpass. What do we surpass? We surpass not only the capacity of our own achievements and of others' achievements, but also the capacity of limited feelings. Real supremacy comes when we grow into vastness. If we become the vastness of Self, then who or what can be superior to us?

From the spiritual point of view, the United Nations is struggling and striving for something meaningful and fruitful. What it needs, it has: the Divine Compassion. The Compassion of God has been unceasingly descending upon the United Nations.

It is not in vain or without any purpose that the United Nations has come into existence. God's Vision has to be manifested here on earth. The suffering nations need a place for consolation; the sacrificing nations need a place for appreciation. Here in the United Nations we see the message of fulfilment. Now it is up to the world. The world, the sleeping, unaspiring, unawakened world is not yet receiving the Light of the United Nations. There are many things that the world could get from the dedication of the United Nations; but if the world is not receptive, it is not the fault of the United Nations. God is all Compassion, He is all-giving; but if we don't want to receive His Light the way He wants to offer it, that is not His fault. The heart of this place is dedication, the soul of this place is concern, the body of this place is for the illumining expansion of human consciousness.

We sow the seed; the seed germinates. First we see a tiny plant, then we see a huge tree. When we go deep within, we see that a seed was sown here in the earth-consciousness, and that seed had boundless potentiality. God’s Light is here for humanity to receive on a practical level, in an earthly manner. God’s Light is here to illumine us. Consciously and unconsciously the world is receiving this Light from the United Nations; but the United Nations is not being recognized, and this fact is deplorable. The human beings who have become instruments to offer the Light that the soul of the United Nations has, may not be fully aware of what they are doing. When they see imperfections in others, when they see their limited capacity, at times they feel frustrated. But the Divine in each individual, in each delegate, in each representative from each individual nation, is all-wise. It has chosen the right place, the right instrument: the United Nations.

Here we meet, not for mere consolation when the world is in conflict, when two parties are at daggers drawn. No. Here we meet, not for mere justification, not for mere glorification, but for the feeling of universal oneness and for the manifestation of God’s Perfection on earth in a practical manner.

At the United Nations we see the oneness of mental philosophy and psychic religion. All philosophies and all religions are running towards the same Goal. Each religion teaches us to be nice, kind, honest and devoted. Philosophy teaches us how to see the Truth, and religion helps us in applying the Truth in our outer life. Here at the United Nations all major religions meet. Here the outer wealth of desire and the inner wealth of aspiration meet. Each one is offering its might. From the spiritual point of view, in the soul’s region, the contribution of each nation is sublime.

The United Nations is the chosen instrument of God. To be a chosen instrument of God means to be a divine messenger carrying the Banner of God’s Inner Vision and Outer Manifestation. One day the world will not only treasure and cherish the soul of the United Nations, but also claim the soul of the United Nations as its very own with enormous pride, for this soul is all-loving, all-nourishing and all-fulfilling.

The right to happiness: a human right?²³

When the heart is happy it embraces the whole world. When the mind is happy it accepts the world as its very own. When the vital is happy it offers its very existence to the world. And when the body is happy it serves the world the way the world wants to be served.

Our happiness-moon smiles sweetly, charmingly and soulfully when our hope-kite flies in the skies of Divinity's Heights. Our happiness-sun shines brightly when our dream-boat touches the Reality Shore.

Possession gives birth to human happiness. Renunciation gives birth to divine happiness. Acceptance of God's Will in God's own Way gives birth to supremely divine happiness.

In the domain of lifeless hope, happiness is theoretical and fruitless. In the sea of selfless love, happiness is practical and fruitful. In the domain of teeming fear, happiness bitterly cries. In the sea of brooding doubt, happiness instantly dies.

An aspiring man spreads happiness wherever he goes. An unaspiring man strangles happiness wherever he roams.

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The soul of happiness is realisation.

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Happiness is in God. Happiness is of God. Happiness is for God. A life of dedication knows that happiness is in God. A life of transformation knows that happiness is of God. A life of liberation knows that happiness is for God.

God’s Invention is happiness. Man’s discovery is happiness. God’s Possession is happiness. Man’s achievement is happiness. Man has every right to achieve God’s Possession, for that is precisely what God wants man to do. Man has every right to discover God’s invention, for that is precisely what God wants man to grow into. What is God’s supreme Possession? Peace. What is God’s supreme Invention? Love.

A Peace-loving man is a quarter God. A Peace-achieved man is a half God. And a Peace-revealing and Peace-spreading man is a full God. A Peace-loving man is the serving God. A Peace-achieved man is the glowing God. A Peace-revealing and Peace-spreading man is the fulfilling God in earthbound time.

God’s supreme Invention is Love. He who consciously loves God radiates the highest Divinity. He who soulfully loves God manifests the inmost Divinity. He who unconditionally loves God lives in the ever-radiating, ever-manifesting and ever-transcending Divinity of the Beyond.

A human God-lover achieves God’s constant Happiness. A divine God-lover embodies God the Happiness. A human God-lover still has a sense of separativity, so he achieves God’s Happiness according to his capacity and according to his receptivity. But a divine God-lover, on the strength of his inseparable and constant oneness with God, embodies God, the Infinite Happiness.

Why is it easier to disbelieve than to believe?²⁴

It is easier to disbelieve than to believe because disbelief is an act of breaking, and belief is an act of building. Building is more difficult than breaking.

It is easier to disbelieve than to believe because disbelief is an act of our self-centred mind, whereas belief is an act of our self-giving heart.

Disbelief begins its journey in the doubting mind and ends in the destructive vital. Belief begins its journey in the illumining soul and continues to march in the vast kingdom of the aspiring heart.

A man of disbelief, with his eyes firmly closed, tells us what others are, what the world is and what he himself can do for the entire world if he wants to. A man of belief, with his heart’s door wide open, tells us what God has done for him, what God is doing for him and what God will do for him.

Disbelief has a perfection of its own. Disbelief finds its perfection in the cyclone of separation. Belief has a perfection of its own. Belief finds its perfection in the music of the universal Oneness.

Disbelief tells the world, “Be careful, be careful. If not, I shall devour you.” Belief tells the world, “Come in, come in please. I have been eagerly waiting for you.”

The human eyes most often believe only themselves; they do not believe others. The human ears most often believe others, even if it is the worst possible gossip. But the divine heart believes in God, in mankind and in its own aspiration.

Disbelief hates the world. Why? It feels that the world is never of it and can never be for it. A man of disbelief always feels that this world does not belong to him and that he can never lord it over the world. This is precisely why a man of disbelief dares to hate the world.

A man of belief loves the world. Why? He believes that this world of ours is verily the aspiring Body of God, the glowing Dream of God and the fulfilling Reality of God.

In the spiritual life, if one cherishes disbelief, one is simply lengthening the distance of the ultimate Goal. But if a seeker has abundant belief in his spiritual life, in his own quest for the ultimate Truth, then undoubtedly he is shortening the distance. Finally, if his inner being is surcharged with boundless faith, then he feels that the Goal itself, the Goal of the Beyond, is running towards him, and not that he is trying to reach the Goal.

There comes a time when a man of disbelief, being totally frustrated, wants to kill the world around him out of exasperation. But to his wide surprise he sees that the wild ignorance of the world has already stabbed him. With his proud knowledge he wanted to kill the world; but before he could kill the world, the world, his own wild ignorance, has killed him.

A man of belief wants to love the world. To his wide surprise he sees that his entire existence is in the very heart of the world. The world has already placed a throne in the inmost recesses of its heart for the man of belief to sit upon.

In our spiritual life, disbelief is nothing short of a crime. When we disbelieve, we pour slow poison into our system. It is we who kill our possibility and potentiality. It is we who wallow consciously and deliberately in the pleasures of ignorance.

Unfortunately, in the cases of some spiritual Masters, disbelief firmly and powerfully knocked at the door before their highest illumination dawned. But by God’s Grace they overcame this disbelief. Again, there are other spiritual giants who were blessed with belief right from the beginning of their spiritual journey.

Why do we disbelieve? We disbelieve because we are afraid of oneness, afraid of the vast. We feel that when we enter into the vast, we lose our identity, we lose our individuality, we lose our very existence. But we forget the undeniable Truth that when we enter into the vastness it is not merely entering; it is nothing short of the enlargement of our divinised consciousness.

A seeker finds it infinitely easier to believe the Truth, the Reality, for his is the life of conscious awareness. For an ordinary person, an unaspiring human being, it is extremely difficult not to disbelieve. An aspiring person, an aspiring seeker, knows that there is something within that is pushing him forward to the Light, to the Reality. An unaspiring person feels that something from without is pulling him backwards, pulling him to something unknown, something that will bind him.

When we consciously disbelieve someone, we do not realise the fact that the inner magnet within us pulls the undivine qualities of that particular person into us. What happens when a person has achieved something, but we do not believe it? The person and his achievement remain the same whether we believe it or not. But the person also has imperfections, limited capacity, impurity; and our disbelief is a magnet that pulls only the imperfections of the human being in question. If we have belief and if we offer our belief, then we have to feel we have a magnet that draws the good qualities, the divine qualities, the illumining qualities, of the other person.

When we disbelieve God, when we disbelieve the Reality, God remains the same for the seekers, for the lovers of Truth. But what happens is this: ignorance, the teeming vast, gets the opportunity to envelop the disbeliever more powerfully and more completely. And when we believe in God, God’s Compassion gets the utmost opportunity to work in and through us most powerfully.

The deeper we enter into the spiritual life, the more we become aware of the capacity of disbelief and belief. Disbelief is nothing short of destruction. Belief is nothing short of a new creation. Each time we believe in something, we see the face of a new creation within and without us. And when we go one step ahead, when our inner faith looms large, then we see in us a perfected man and a liberated soul.

Again, when we dive deep within, we see that the so-called man of disbelief will also have a time to knock at the proper door of realisation. Let him disbelieve to his heart’s content; let him run with his disbelief towards his self-chosen destruction. When he is about to reach the door of destruction, God’s Omnipotent Compassion will send him back to the starting point to start his march towards the real Goal once again. Even if the man of disbelief is going on the wrong path, let him march, let him not sit inert. Let the world judge him, let the world offer its comment. A day will dawn when the man of disbelief will come to the right path.

In disbelief the question arises. In belief the answer dawns.

In the spiritual life, in the life of aspiration, in the life of inner awakening, even if one does not have abundant belief or faith in oneself, one need not and must not be doomed to disappointment. Let the person feel that he is sick, he is weak, he needs treatment, he needs hospitalisation. Let him feel that there are people who are physically strong, vitally strong, mentally strong, psychically strong, and let him mix with these people. If he sincerely wants to see the Face, the real Face of the real Goal, then let him mix with a man of belief even for a fleeting hour daily, and he will see the power of belief, the power of inner faith.

We start our life’s journey with belief; but when the mind starts functioning, disbelief, secretly, like a thief, enters into our system. A child always believes his parents. To him everything that his parents say is true, unquestionable. But when he enters into his adolescence, the questioning mind, the doubting mind, begins to work. Always he says, “Why? How?” Why and how, it is not possible, it is impossible, enter into his mind. At that time it is easier for him to believe even the impossible, than to believe something that is possible, natural and quite obvious. This is what we see in the adolescent life.

But again opportunity knocks at our door when we see that the mind has not given us any real satisfaction. When we enter into full-blooded youth, when we see that the mind with its suspecting and doubting has not given us a moment’s satisfaction, we want to walk along another road; and that is the road of the heart, the aspiring heart, the self-giving heart. Here we enter into the realm of spirituality. Here the lotus within our heart begins to bloom, petal by petal. Each time a petal blooms, we see that our inner divinity is being manifested more and more.

Then there comes a time when we see a thousand-petaled lotus fully bloomed within us, and we see consciously our Divine Pilot, our Divine Comrade, our Eternal Friend, the Supreme, right in front of us; and He makes us see and feel that through Eternity we shall be not only with Him, but also for Him. In our conscious awareness, in our conscious seeing of His Presence, in our conscious feeling of inseparable oneness with Him, we shall establish here on earth, here and nowhere else, the Kingdom of Light, Truth, Peace and Delight.

Does belief come spontaneously or by effort?²⁵

Spontaneous belief is a gift of God for the human in us to see, to feel and to grow into the very image of God. Belief by personal effort is a human earthly discovery, although to some extent it also is necessary.

Believing is seeing. Seeing is believing. When believing is seeing, a seeker becomes a perfect instrument for the Supreme to use in His own Way. When seeing is believing, a seeker makes a solemn promise both to God and to himself that he will realise God and he will fulfil God on earth. But there is no certainty, no guarantee; he may, but he may not. He may not fulfil his divine promise, for at any moment during his long journey he may be assailed by teeming doubts, fears, worries, anxieties and ignorance-night. Belief by effort is the acceptance, the mere acceptance, of Truth and Light; and this belief is usually mental and intellectual. But spontaneous belief is the conscious and constant oneness with Truth and Light. It is not that belief by personal effort is of no use; personal effort has its own value, but it is not as strong and sure as spontaneous belief.

Not only ordinary human beings but also many spiritual giants have suffered from doubts and other undivine qualities in their human nature before devotedly and wholeheartedly launching onto the spiritual path. So we must not be doomed to disappointment when we are assailed by doubts in our spiritual life. Belief that comes from within is at the head of the divine spiritual army, and this army destroys our doubts, or rather, let us say it illumines our doubts, perfects our imperfections and transforms our limited bondage into divine plenitude.

We have two principal organs: the eye and the ear. Our eyes quite often, if not always, believe themselves. Our ears very often believe others. These are our human eyes and our human ears. But the divine eye, the third eye, will believe only in the vision of Divinity, and the divine ears will believe only in the truth of Reality. When we listen to the inner command, when we have the capacity to grow into constant obedience to our Inner Pilot, we feel within and without the presence of spontaneous belief. Belief is the reality of our inner obedience. This is divine belief, spontaneous belief. Belief by effort is a restricted, disciplined human understanding.

Belief is power. A real seeker of the infinite Truth knows this. An insincere and unaspiring seeker is aware of the truth that belief is power, but he cannot go beyond understanding or awareness; whereas a sincere, genuine, devoted and surrendered seeker knows that belief is dynamic power, and he has this power as his very own.

We see a tree. The tree bears flowers, and soon afterwards we see fruits. The flower is the harbinger of the fruit. In the spiritual life, belief is the flower. Belief is a divine angel which enters into us as the harbinger of the Lord Supreme.

We can cultivate belief. If we do not have belief we can develop belief. How? We can do it by mixing with sincere spiritual people who care more for God than for pleasure. There are also people who care only for God in human beings, and if we mix with those people we can cultivate belief. When we have belief we can walk with God in His Garden of Light and Delight.

But in the spiritual life, spontaneous belief need not be and cannot be the last word. There is something infinitely higher and deeper than belief, and that is faith. When we have belief we can make tremendous progress for a day or for a month or for a year. But then, if we unconsciously or consciously become a victim to undivine forces, our belief loses its strength and we cannot make fast progress in the spiritual life in spite of having belief.

The strength of belief, even spontaneous belief is not enough to take us to the ultimate Goal. Belief is like a child’s instrument that you can play upon for a limited number of hours or years. But when you have faith you come to realise that you are an eternal player and at the same time you are an eternal instrument. And when you go farther and deeper you come to realise that the player is somebody else, the Lord Supreme, and you are His instrument. He is the eternal Player and you are eternally His chosen instrument.

Spontaneous belief will make you feel what you eternally are: God’s chosen child. But if you do not have faith you will not have the abiding satisfaction and the abiding feeling that you and He are eternally one, that you represent the One and that your very presence on earth is the manifestation of the One, the Absolute Supreme. It is only when your outer being and your inner being are surcharged with faith that you can manifest God here on earth. Faith in oneself and faith in God must run together.

If you say that you have no faith in yourself but you have all faith in God, then I wish to say you cannot go very far. You have to have faith, constant faith and abundant faith, not only in God, but also in yourself since you are God’s son or God’s daughter. When you truly feel that you are God’s child, you will find that it is beneath your dignity to make friends with ignorance. Reality, Eternity, Immortality and Infinity are not vague terms; these are your birthright. When you have that kind of faith, God will shower His choicest Blessings upon your devoted head and surrendered heart.

But faith in oneself must not exceed its own boundary. I said before that you have to have faith, constant faith in abundant measure. But you have to remember the source of your faith as well; you have to remember where it comes from. At some time you may think: “Oh, I am working so hard for my realisation of the absolute Truth, for my perfection. It is all my effort, my effort. One per cent of the work will be done by the Grace of the Supreme, and ninety-nine per cent will be my personal effort.” But when that most auspicious day dawns and you realise the Absolute, you will see that just the opposite is true: your faith enabled you to contribute one per cent in personal effort towards your realisation, and God supplied the other ninety-nine per cent as His divine Grace, unconditional Grace. And when you are about to manifest your realisation, another truth, a higher and more profound truth, will dawn on you. You will realise that the one per cent of faith you had, which was absolutely necessary, was also God’s gift to you.

You were chosen from among countless people to run towards the Light. Others are still fast asleep. It was sheer Grace, God’s unconditional Grace, that inspired you to come out of ignorance and look towards the Light. Since it was He who inspired and invited you to join consciously in His cosmic Game, you have to feel that the one per cent of faith you had in the beginning also came directly from God, the Absolute Supreme.

Some people do not have belief; they want to follow the negative path. No matter how far they go, their minds tell them that there is no God. But I wish to tell you, on the strength of my own oneness with God and with humanity, that they will not have even temporary satisfaction on this earth, not to speak of abiding satisfaction. A day will dawn when they will feel that their lack of belief, their denial of God, is not giving them what they want. They will be compelled to look for a fulfilling belief.

We who have started walking along the spiritual path are the forerunners. All will eventually run towards the same Transcendental Goal. The majority of mankind will not always lag behind. All children of God, no matter how unconscious and unaspiring, will one day run towards the common Goal. This Goal is the supreme discovery of one’s Divinity and the constant and perfect manifestation of one’s everlasting Reality.

1

Today's United Nations was yesterday's perfecting Vision.

Unity is not oneness. A bud is not a flower.

The absence of unity is imminent confusion.

The presence of unity is the immediate end of human imperfection and limitation.

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2

I am God's child. I embody the Truth.

I am the child of God's endless Concern.

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3

I imitate God because He alone constantly grows.

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4

A conscious self-dedicated oneness with mankind for mankind can alone make the aspirant feel that he is not only with God, in God and for God, but of God.

5

The universal oneness is our God-Aspiration within to see the Truth, feel the Truth and become the Truth.

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6

The universal oneness is the Father of Eternity. This is what we learn from God's all-embracing Vision.

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7

The universal oneness is the silent language of man's eternal freedom.

God's eternal Concern fulfils man the evolving soul and God the Transcendental Self.

8

I hasten to speak to God because I feel that God is my very own.

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9

When a seeker meditates on himself, he feels his inner potentiality and sees his outer possibility.

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10

God wants me. How can I sleep?

God demands my life. How can I deny Him His eternal Right?

11

The body loves the sleeping God.

The mind loves the running God.

The soul loves the fulfilling God.

12

To realise God is to immortalise human aspiration.

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Introduction by the editor

At such times one looks to persons and to institutions which unify, which hold to a center, call to a centering, and offer our disparate selves a chance for peace. That peace, however, may appear chimerical, for political settlements are ever precarious, and in our inner lives multiple allegiances make coherence hard: "the center cannot hold." The yogis who urge that peace within yields peace without seem irreconcilable with the political visionaries who assure us that peace without permits peace within. One senses that both are right, but one looks in vain for spirits wise enough to harmonise both perspectives and lead us home.

In the light of such a predicament, the appearance of this modest book is an event of some moment. It indicates that a unique alliance has been formed: a man of the center and an institution of the center brought into mutually enriching contact with one another. The man is Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual Master of the highest attainment; the institution is the United Nations, doggedly pursuing its mandate to make our fractured world whole. For the past two years, in the lecture hall and the chapel, Sri Chinmoy has been pouring his energy and grace into the United Nations, and, as he says in one of his talks, "trying to throw light on love in today's world." Light and Love: these are the two best words to introduce him.

These essays are transcriptions of talks given from April, 1970 through October, 1972 in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. These talks were open to all members of the United Nations and were attended by a diverse gathering of its constituents. By circumstance as well as by the eminence of his spiritual achievement, Sri Chinmoy is uniquely suited to take a position at the United Nations. His spiritual mission is essentially international, with centres established across the United States, in Puerto Rico, Scotland, London, Zurich, France and in Canada. From the outset his work has been dedicated to the resolution of apparent contraries, to the reciprocity of strengths:

> Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality are the two wings of God the Eternal Bird....

He sees each nation as possessing a soul and having unique contributions to make to a community of nations, and it is for this reason that he values the United Nations, and sees it as a "chosen instrument of God."

What may strike a reader of this book most forcibly is something unexpected: a kind of underlying practicality. These essays are no effusions of idealism; the spirit behind these words has looked upon the predicaments of the world with a luminous eye and sees solutions. In his view the United Nations is the outward and visible form of a means for hope we have at our disposal:

> God's Light is here for humanity to receive on a practical level, in an earthly manner. God's Light is here to illumine us. Consciously and unconsciously the world is receiving this Light from the United Nations.

But the United Nations cannot bring us to an inner peace.

> . . . in this world of turmoil, mediation is necessary ... in the world of frustration and despair, meditation is necessary.... Mediation is a temporary mental relief, a pause, a rest in the life of the vital it is a clever compromise. But to expect abiding peace and illumining fulfilment from mediation is simply absurd.

Here a most practical note is sounded: this has all the candor of common sense. Moreover, this passage raises a question, central to the book and to its deep consoling wisdom for us, can we really aspire to achieve "abiding peace and illumining fulfilment"? Admitting how provisional our arbitration, can there be anything like an all-encompassing peace? What does Sri Chinmoy mean by peace, and where may we seek it?

Sri Chinmoy sees man as a peace-seeker not because man is necessarily idealistic, but because man recognizes that only in peace will he be able to satisfy himself.

Man seeks peace because he needs peace desperately. Man welcomes peace because it is in peace alone that he can have his own true achievement and fulfilment.

This pursuit of peace is the central human aspiration, though we may think that deeper in us lies the search to be creative, or to fulfil our responsibilities to the world, or to live a righteous life. But these are all tributaries to the principal flow. In Sri Chinmoy's terms "spirituality" is quintessentially our aspiration for peace; "Yoga," the pursuit of union, of oneness, is the practice of this pursuit.

> When we have learned what we can expect from aspiration and what we can expect from Yoga, world peace will no longer remain a far cry.

However, we may still feel the need for a more practical approach. Let us accept as a given this definition of our true needs, what then is the connection between the peace we might desire for the world and the peace we might desire for ourselves? What is the process of attainment?

> World peace will begin when the so-called human expectation ends. World peace can dawn only when each individual realises the Supreme Truth:

> Life is the manifestation of Love.

"World peace will begin when the so-called human expectation ends." It would appear here as if we were being asked to throw the reins on the withers and trust the horse to take us home. And in truth, something like this is required, for we are being asked to recognise that our efforts are bringing us no closer to what we seek; it is as if we were out of touch with what is most natural in us.

What happens when we try to love the world or when we attempt to fulfil our responsibility to the world? We try to possess and bind the world, and while we are doing this we see that we have already been bound and possessed by the world ....

How can we fulfil all our responsibilities? We have tried in human ways, but we have failed. We think of the world with good thoughts and ideas, but the world remains exactly the same as it was yesterday. We love the world, but the world still remains full of cruelty and hatred. And why does all this happen? It is because we have not yet pleased our Inner Pilot, the One we have to please first.... Unless and until we have pleased the Inner Pilot, the world will always remain a battlefield where the soldiers of fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, imperfection, limitation and bondage will fight; and consciously or unconsciously we will play with these undivine soldiers ....

> ...World peace can be achieved...when the Divine Power of Love replaces the undivine love of power.

The fruit of our human expectation is always the same; continually we come up against ourselves. Human expectation is frustration. Sri Chinmoy points us within, to an internal guidance system, to the Inner Pilot, "the inner voice." It is the source of truth in us; it is our divine life. To reach it, to discern it, Sri Chinmoy urges us to a "transcendence of human ego."

> The transcendence of ego is man's real dignity and true worth. And as it is for individuals, so might it be for nations; they too may follow Truth rather than self-interest. Difficult as it might sound to engage that inner voice and learn to obey it, only by such a means are we ever to be free:

Still, reading these words, we might again ask for practical help. How might one learn to hear a sound one has never heard before? How does one learn to look within? One begins personally to look for a teacher; politically one turns towards an institution like the United Nations. Outwardly one practises patiently the intricacies of mediation; inwardly one may begin to practise meditation.

Meditation is, among other ways of describing it, a learning to listen for the inner voice, a practice in discerning the selfish from the selfless. We are called to transcend our egos; "meditation is self-transcendence." It is the way we grow into who we really are. It need not be done at an altar or in ritual, but implicitly meditation is a form of dedication, and dedication an act of meditation.

> He who meditates, consciously dedicates his life to God. He who dedicates his life to mankind, soulfully meditates on the real God.

Thus in Sri Chinmoy's terms, meditation is action, a form of peace-making. Meditation is service to the true spirit in ourselves and the acknowledgement of that spirit as one and the same within everyone. Over the rim of the ego rises the discovery of who we really are:

> Aspiration tells man that he will be able to see the Truth of the Beyond. Yoga goes one step ahead. Yoga tells man that the Truth of the Beyond is within him. Finally, God comes and tells man, "My child, you are the Truth of the Beyond. You are My Beyond."

At this astonishing point, we discover our capacity for peace, inner and outer, for we have recovered a primary, a unitary relationship with the world. We are at peace.

Feeling the truth of this oneness, we will inevitably move to a collective sense of our mission on this small round planet. We will no longer be gripped by the desperation to control, to compete, or to surpass. The play with the undivine soldiers can end in the light of our interconnectedness:

> . . . from the spiritual point of view we can surpass only when we become one: one nation, one soul. One nation can surpass all the other nations only by becoming one with them in their suffering, in their joy and in their achievements. When we become one, we really surpass ... we surpass not only the capacity of our own achievements and of others' achievements, but also the capacity of limited feelings. Real supremacy comes when we grow into vastness. If we become the vastness of Self, then who or what can be superior to us?The United Nations is crucial to our times because it is the only institution that may answer to the mediatory and meditative needs of a peace-seeking world. The United Nations means "the usefulness of the united notions, united thoughts and united feelings, and the expansion of oneness ..." in the eyes of this great teacher who has experienced the oneness of Self, the United Nations appears as a Garland of Nation-Souls; and it is a matter only of our aspiration for the flags to flower into this reality.

Another man fully immersed in the experience of oneness, Swami Vivekananda, wrote at the beginning of this century:

> There are evils in every society; everybody knows it ... but he is a friend to mankind who finds a way out of the difficulty. Like the drowning boy and the philosopher — when the philosopher was lecturing him, the boy cried, "Take me out of the water first ..." Where is the man who will lend a hand to drag us out? Where is the man who really loves us? Where is the man who has sympathy for us? Ay, that man is wanted.

Sri Chinmoy is such a man. It may be hard at first for us to believe what he tells us about ourselves. Our culture, after all, has led us to imagine God as separate, hidden, perhaps even dead. Here once again we are asked to open ourselves to the radical hope, the root truth, that, God not only exists, but exists for us, in us and as us. We have forgotten how to be merciful to ourselves; continually we exile ourselves from God's loving presence within us; we attempt to navigate without a pilot. We perpetuate our confusion. "We are little worlds made cunningly," John Donne said of us, and indeed we are the world in miniature. Nothing can be more practical then than this work for peace.

> In his outer being and inner being each man has only two words: war and peace. Outer war we all know. Inner war is constant. At every moment a sincere seeker has to fight against his own doubt, imperfections, limitations, bondage and death. This inner war is constant; and when we achieve our victory in the inner life, only then can we claim to be God's children, worthy children of God, divine children of God, the true representatives of God. At that moment God beckons us, and He uses us in His own Way. He takes us for His own Use.

Says yet another spiritual Master:

> Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

> Aum

> Shanti

—Peter Pitzele

Harvard University