Question: How do you view the present state of mankind? The world is splitting apart. How would you explain the outburst of hostility and brutality all over the world? Can you suggest any solution to it?

Sri Chinmoy: According to you, the world is splitting apart. But I wish to say that this is a very, very old story. We believe in reincarnation. Three or four hundred years ago, when we were in another body and living in another part of the world, we would have said the same thing. Right from the beginning of creation, our dividing mind has made us feel that our world is full of darkness, that our world is collapsing or about to be destroyed. If we ask our parents and grandparents, they will tell the same story. Sometimes they get pleasure in scolding their children and saying how much better things used to be: “You people are so bad, so useless! In our day, everything was perfect.” But imperfection does not come from perfection. No, in those days also people and countries were fighting one another.

We can never say that our grandparents or great-grandparents did not have jealousy or insecurity or doubt or suspicion. We can never say it was all golden in those days, whereas now it is all darkness. No, the difference between then and now is only a matter of degree. We can say that two years ago we had more conflicts, more catastrophes, more misunderstandings. Or we can say that two years ago it was extremely bad and now it is a little better. But I do not feel we can say that today the world is in its lowest consciousness ever and that everything is beyond correction.

When Stalin was alive, people gave the same message: “O God, everything is so bad, so bad.” The song of world-destruction started perhaps the day the world was created. Every day we see life and death. Every day that we live we are moving closer to our death. So the message of death is part of life. But we do not believe that death is the end. We feel that when we die we go somewhere to rest, and then after some time we begin a new life.

God used His Omnipotence to create the world, and He can also use His Omnipotence to make us perfect. But to make us perfect, He needs our readiness, willingness and eagerness. If He can get from us a little bit of willingness and eagerness, then it becomes infinitely easier for Him to make the world better, more soulful and more peaceful. Right now this world is full of suffering. But the day is bound to come when there will be no more conflicts. Since God is all Love and all Wisdom, eventually this world of ours will definitely be transformed into a kingdom of joy, happiness and fulfilment.

In our outer life we are very limited. We are filled with insecurity, jealousy, impurity, doubt and many other negative qualities that we consciously and deliberately treasure. But we also have another life called the inner life. There we are all love for God and all concern for mankind. Our inner life, which is the life of oneness, is our real life. Right now, unfortunately, we only value our outer life, which is full of limitations and imperfections; we do not enter into our inner life to see who we actually are.

The inner life of aspiration, dedication and realisation we must claim as our own, very own. If we can claim the inner life and inner reality as our own, then in the near or distant future we will become exemplary human beings and do good things for mankind. So the solution to all the world’s problems lies in our eagerness to become better human beings. How can we become better human beings? Only by thinking of a oneness-heart, praying for a oneness-heart and actually living the life of a oneness-heart.