Question: What do you expect from your disciples who are working at the United Nations?

Sri Chinmoy: Both the soul of the United Nations and I expect something special from my disciples who are working at the United Nations. I do not want you people to behave like ordinary workers in a factory or bank or restaurant. I do not want you to work mechanically — like a computer, in which everything is fixed, mechanical, mathematical. No, I want you people to bring to the fore your divine qualities to please the illumining soul and the aspiring heart of the United Nations.

I want my disciple UN workers to offer the spontaneous beauty of a flower that is blossoming and giving fragrance daily. Every morning when you arrive at your office, you should place your own heart-flower on the altar of the United Nations. How? For two minutes or even two seconds you can simply say, “O United Nations, you have the highest goal. I want to become part and parcel of this loftiest goal.”

Each day I expect you people to identify with the loftiest vision of the United Nations — the vision which is not from the Secretaries-General or from any other high-ranking UN officials but which came into being in 1945. Working at the United Nations is like being affiliated with a great university. There are many, many universities; but if you can become a student at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cambridge or Oxford, it is a special privilege. The ideals and the vision that these special universities embody, other universities unfortunately have not embodied. We cannot say that the others are not also universities. But the height that these special universities have reached, the others have not reached. Some may say that these prestigious universities have not maintained their height, but nevertheless the world recognises these universities as top-ranking.

Similarly, some spiritual Masters are highly respected. In the spiritual life, there is great joy in identifying oneself with a genuine Master of the highest order. If you think of Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ or another of the world’s greatest spiritual figures, you get tremendous joy. Among the living spiritual Masters, if you can identify yourselves with those who have achieved the highest height, you get tremendous satisfaction. In the same way, I am asking my disciples who work at the United Nations to identify themselves with the loftiest ideals of the United Nations and serve the United Nations as real divine instruments.