Question: How did you start your crusade?

Sri Chinmoy: We call it a pilgrimage. Pilgrims are people who have new dreams and want to envision new realities in life. We are not discarding the old dreams, but we feel we have to take a new step. I have already covered a certain distance, let us say, but now I want to take a second step, a third step and a fourth step. It is the pilgrim in us that wants to enjoy new adventures with love, purity, simplicity and humility. We use the term 'pilgrimage' because we go to various parts of the world with affection, love, concern and the feeling that the rest of the world is part of our own family.

A tree has quite a few branches. For us, each country is like a branch of a tree. We don't have to spend the rest of our lives on one particular branch. Like a bird we can fly from one branch to another and let the beauty, purity and fragrance of each branch enter into us.

The great philosopher Socrates said, "I am not an Athenian; I am cosmopolitan." We also feel the same. We claim the whole world as our own. Since we claim the whole world to be our home, each year we visit new countries and share with them our heart-power, joy and feeling of oneness.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Peace-Blossoms on the Philippine Life-Tree, Agni Press, 1993
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/pbp