Part V

SCA 667-668. Excerpts from an interview with Tass News Agency which took place in New York on 22 April 1991.

Question: What do you think about the disaster in Chernobyl, and what do you think about the near future of the world, about peace?

Sri Chinmoy: Being a truth-seeker and God-lover, I feel that in the near future this world of ours will have abundant peace. Why? Everything else has failed us, and everything else will fail us. But now countless human beings are awakened to the fact that peace is the only answer to all our human problems. This peace does not come from our outer life; it comes from deep within. We do not get peace by talking but by becoming, by becoming individuals who will be able to inspire the world at large.

This inspiration comes from prayer and meditation. As we sow within, so we become without. Early in the morning if we pray, if we meditate, if we offer our good thoughts to humanity, then we establish a feeling of oneness. Once we can consciously and cheerfully establish our oneness with the whole world, then this world of ours is destined to be inundated with peace. Previously people talked about peace. Now they feel it as a supreme necessity in the inmost recesses of their heart.

I am an optimist. God the Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent created this world. When we create something, we feel that it is our obligation to see happiness and perfection in our creation. When an artist creates something, he is not satisfied unless and until his painting gives him satisfaction. In art, in music or in any activity that we undertake, we always long for satisfaction, and this satisfaction comes from perfection. Similarly, this world of ours is created by God Himself. He feels that His creation has to be perfect. Perfection is a very simple dictionary word. At the same time, perfection is misunderstood. Everybody has a sense of perfection according to his inner wisdom-light. According to my inner conviction, my own realisation, perfection is self-transcendence. Perfection has no set goal.

Our perfection is in satisfaction. When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to go to primary school. Then afterwards I wanted to go to high school, college and so forth. Self-transcendence is perfection, and in self-transcendence we get the message of joy. People are now trying to transcend themselves. How? By feeling deep within the supreme necessity of peace.

What has happened in Chernobyl? A dire catastrophe. What has happened? Untold destruction. But we have to know that by dwelling on this event, we cannot get any satisfaction. Now we have to turn to the things that will illumine us and fulfil us to give us abiding satisfaction. What can give us joy? What can give us fulfilment? Our sleepless prayers for a better life, a life of more illumination. This is my inner philosophy which I wish to share with you.