Muhammad Ali: Oh, is that beautiful!
Sri Chinmoy: With my heart I am offering this. This is just a humble token.
Muhammad Ali: Thank you. You didn’t have to do this. You didn’t have to do this.
Sri Chinmoy: But along with this is my heart. My heart is inside this. So please take my heart.
Jeremiah: Thank you, Guru...beautiful.
Muhammad Ali: It’s the biggest trophy I have. You didn’t have to do that, Brother. I am really surprised.
Sri Chinmoy: May I make a humble request? There (on the trophy) it is mentioned “United Nations Meditation Group.” Last year I dedicated a soulful song to you. We won’t intrude upon your most valuable time; it will take only two or three minutes for them to sing it.
Muhammad Ali: No, stay here. No Sir, I’ll let you know when I’m tired. Stay here.
Sri Chinmoy: No, I am saying that the members of the Meditation Group are downstairs. They would be so deeply honoured if they could sing and offer you that song.
Muhammad Ali: I like songs.
Sri Chinmoy: I am so grateful. They are, like me, eagerly waiting to sing the song.
Muhammad Ali: Are they followers?
Sri Chinmoy: They are followers of God. You call Him ‘Allah.’ We call Him ‘Supreme.’ We are all following the same God.
Muhammad Ali: I want to hear something. No, you tell me what you think about this. I don’t know if this makes sense. Rivers, lakes and streams: they all have different names but they all contain water. So also do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways and forms.
Sri Chinmoy: Absolutely true. Now, you call it ‘water,’ and in a different country they will call it something else. Each language has its own word. But when you taste water and drink water, it is the same substance. Religion is also like that. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are all the same. Their essence is always the same; only in forms and shapes do they differ. That is what creates problems for us. But once we love God, the outer form goes away. If we sincerely love Allah, then immediately the confusion that the mind creates for us — -the outer forms that it creates — disappear.
Muhammad Ali: That’s beautiful. Do you have a place where you lecture?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, in many places I give lectures. Twice a week I go to the United Nations. We pray and meditate and have soulful discussions there. Plus, once a month I give a Dag Hammarskjold Lecture at the U.N. I’d be so honoured if you could come once to the United Nations. I would like to honour you at our Group Meditation with the delegates and the Secretariat staff. We know how busy you are, but next time, if it would be at all possible, we would be so deeply honoured, Brother, to have you at the United Nations. There all the nations meet together. All the nations means all the religions. Each nation has a religion of its own, and at the United Nations they are all praying together to change the face of mankind.
Muhammad Ali: Good!
Sri Chinmoy: This very thing you have been doing all your life.From:Sri Chinmoy,Muhammad Ali and Sri Chinmoy meditate, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mam