United Nations: Peace Room — Questions on Peace, 4 March 1975, 11:30 a.m.

The following questions on peace were answered by Sri Chinmoy during a meeting of gathered personnel and representatives of the United Nations and Non-Governmental Organisations in the Peace Room of the Church Center for the United Nations.

Question: Is there any particular colour that is best for invoking peace?

Sri Chinmoy: Among the colours, blue is the best in order to invoke peace because blue indicates Infinity. When one has Infinity, then he automatically invokes peace. There is no special colour; each colour has peace, but one can invoke peace best with blue.

Question: What role does peace play in our evolution?

Sri Chinmoy: Peace plays a most considerable role in the evolution of a human being because peace means satisfaction. Only when we are satisfied can we make progress. If there is no satisfaction, there will be no progress. Satisfaction itself is an indication of progress because if I have made no progress, I will not be satisfied. But satisfaction will not be our ultimate achievement. Pleasing the Supreme in the Supreme’s own way will be our ultimate achievement. So in peace we make progress and in progress we have peace.

Question: If you feel nervous or upset, how can you bring down peace?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two ways. One way is to breathe in quietly and say “Supreme” three times very slowly. But if you find this difficult, you can invoke the Supreme as fast as possible. Fear or anxiety has a speed of its own. If you are about to be attacked by your enemy, then try to utter the name of the Supreme much faster than the speed of the attack you are getting from anger or fear. If you can do this, the Supreme will immediately conquer your anger, frustration or fear.

Question: How important is peace in transforming our human nature?

Sri Chinmoy: It is light that is of paramount importance in transforming our human nature. But if we do not have peace of mind, we shall not be in a position to invoke light. If we are anxiety-stricken, we will always remain a victim to negative forces. Then how are we going to involve light? Again, if we have light, then we have peace. Peace and light are inseparable but if you want to know which brother is more important for the radical transformation of human nature, then I have to say that it is light.

Question: How can I bring peace into my office work?

Sri Chinmoy: I have answered this question many, many times. You can bring peace into your office work by invoking peace early in the morning. Then keep this peace in your heart, like putting something in your pocket. If you have money with you, you can buy things. Similarly, when you have the supreme money, peace, you can bring it forward whenever you want to. When you give money to boys who are shouting and screaming, they become silent. Their satisfaction is peace. If some people in your office are shouting and screaming, you can inwardly give them the peace that you got this morning, and then they will keep quiet.

Question: If undivine thoughts come while I am meditating, should I invoke peace or try to fight them off?

Sri Chinmoy: At that time you have to invoke light. If there is only one fly, we can try to cast it aside. But if there are many flies, how are we going to chase all of them? We have to remain silent. When undivine thoughts come, light is necessary, not peace. When the light illumines all the undivine thoughts, immediately you will get peace of mind.

Question: How can I tell whether or not I am just imagining peace in my life?

Sri Chinmoy: If you have a desire, either it will be fulfilled or it will not be fulfilled. You will know that you have peace of mind if you see that you get the same amount of joy whether it is fulfilled or not. If you can remain the same person, if you can maintain the same consciousness in your life, then it is certain that you are getting peace. Either fate has to be taken with the same consciousness. Then you will know that real peace has entered into your life.

Question: Which chakra should one concentrate on for peace?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two chakras one can invoke for peace. One is the heart chakra and the other is the crown chakra. If we go to the heart centre, the peace that we will get will be only for our earthly existence, our daily activities. In the case of the heart, we will not be affected if the people around us are quarrelling or fighting. But if we go beyond this chakra to the crown centre, the Sahasrara chakra or thousand-petaled lotus, if the crown chakra is opened up, we will get infinite Peace, eternal Peace and transcendental Peace because it is connected with the highest height.

Question: I thought that the crown centre was connected with delight.

Sri Chinmoy: All the centres go together. Peace, light and delight go together. What else is delight if not the supreme satisfaction? Similarly, if there is light, if there is illumination, then only there will be peace.

Question: How can I have speed and peace together?

Sri Chinmoy: You can have speed and peace together if you feel that it is not you who is doing something; it is some higher force. If you are the doer, you will feel that you are lacking in peace — that this is missing or that that is wrong. But if you feel that you are the instrument and you are under the guidance of a higher force, that you cannot make any choice, that you are only listening to and obeying a higher force, then you cannot make any mistake.

Question: What is the mother's responsibility towards her children if they are not peaceful?

Sri Chinmoy: The mother should try to bring down more light into them. They know the joy they get by shouting, striking and fighting. But if they get joy by loving, they will make a comparison. They will try to measure the joy that they get. When they see that the force of love, oneness and concern is more powerful than the force of fighting and struggling, then they will give these up. So the mother should try to bring down light through her love and then peace will dawn.

People are clever. They run after the things which give them the most joy. Naturally they will give more importance to the positive aspects of their life, the things which give them an abundance of joy.

Question: How can I feel peace while taking shorthand during one of your meetings?

Sri Chinmoy: You have to feel that the force that I am using in order to answer the question is also utilising you to write it down. If the light that I am bringing down from above has the capacity to answer, then it has the capacity to utilise you as an instrument also. The same light that is answering the question through me is being used in and through you to keep a record of it.

If you think that your right hand is writing, that you are using pen and paper, then you will have no peace. But if you feel that you have thrown yourself into a river, you will have peace. When a river flows toward the ocean, it murmurs and makes noise, but its movement is in the right direction so there is peace. Similarly, when you are notating, you have to take it as movement toward the goal, the source. The goal is inside, from where I am bringing the light in answering the question. If you know there is a source and you are moving toward the source, then there is always peace because you are going to your destination and not elsewhere.

1 April 1975, 11:30 a.m.

Sri Chinmoy read a number of poems which he had written that morning to gathered seekers of world peace in the Peace Room of the Church Center for the United Nations.

My body tells you

My body tells You, Lord,
Not to scold me.
My body feels that I need
A little more rest.
I tell You, Lord,
If I am allowed
To get up at my own time
I shall love You,
I shall serve You,
I shall even glorify You.

Scolding is not a healthy experience

My mind tells You, Lord,
To scold me in private
If You really have to.
I need not tell You, Lord,
That scolding is not a healthy experience
For the one who scolds
Nor for the one who is being scolded.

Scolding does no good

My vital tells You, Lord,
Not to scold me.
I know I always do something wrong,
But when You scold me
It does me no good.
After all, who has changed his life
By being scolded?
No one!
Therefore, love me, Lord,
Love me even more
Especially when you want to scold me.

My heart tells you to scold me

My heart tells You, Lord,
To scold me when I do anything wrong.
What both of us want from my life
Is perfection-delight.
Therefore, Lord, scold me.
I deserve it, I need it.
My sense of perfection
Badly needs it.

8 April 1975, 11:30 a.m.³

Peace

    In our outer life,
Peace is compromise.
    In our inner life,
Peace is something that constantly helps us
    Transcend our height
    And
    Expand our length
    And
    Deepen our depth.

Flag flies over U.S. Capitol in honour of Sri Chinmoy

On 28 March, in honour of Sri Chinmoy’s 11th year in the West, a brand new flag of the United States of America was flown over the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. This was done through the co-operation of Senator Lowell Weicker, Jr. of Connecticut, upon request of Mrs. Tebi Finnerty.

At the end of the day, the head architect of the Capitol Building took the flag down and sent it with a letter of confirmation that the flag had indeed been flown in honour of Sri Chinmoy, to Senator Weicker. The flag of honour is now in the possession of the Sri Chinmoy Centre where it will be flown from atop its headquarters in Jamaica, L.I.

Turiyananda Sangit⁴

Sri Chinmoy: I wish to say just a few words about “Turiyananda Sangit”. In English, the literal translation is “the pinnacle delight in music”. But the spiritual translation, the soulful translation is “the pinnacle music: the music which reaches the highest pinnacle of trance, truth, consciousness and delight.” This is the spiritual interpretation of “Turiyananda Sangit”.

Three transcendental musicians have blessed us with their music of transcendental height and delight: Mahavishnu, Shankar and Raghavan — Raghavan, Shankar and Mahavishnu. In their music my heart has felt a most perfect oneness between the purity-height of India’s heart and the divine beauty of Europe and America’s light. Their all-illumining beauty and their all-nourishing purity have become inseparably one in the music of these three transcendental musicians.

In Mahavishnu I have felt and seen the soaring bird flying toward the high, higher and highest Beyond. In Shankar I have felt and seen a diver diving into the deep, deeper and deepest Beyond. In Raghavan I have felt and seen a runner running toward the far, farther and farthest Beyond. In reaching their respective destinations they have become inseparably one and have placed themselves at the Feet of the Lord Supreme, the Inner Pilot, the Absolute Supreme. Their perfect oneness has been established for the supreme manifestation.

And to Mahalakshmi and Tanima, their divine accompanists tonight, I offer my blessingful gratitude.

Sri Chinmoy conducts public meditation, 12 April 1975

At 8:00 p.m. there was a public meditation in the McMillan Theatre of New York City’s Columbia University. All those present meditated in sublime silence except for an occasional interspersing of spiritual songs and music offered by Sri Chinmoy and his devotees.

During this evening, Sri Chinmoy showed and dedicated eleven large paintings to the soul of America, as this public meditation was held on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in America. Each of these paintings Sri Chinmoy painted out of his gratitude to the Supreme for having offered to him the opportunity to serve the Supreme in one particular year of the eleven.

Sri Chinmoy celebrates fifth anniversary at U.N.⁵

Sri Chinmoy: Today we are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Meditation Group. I wish to start by offering a few songs to the body and soul of the United Nations. This is my dedicated offering. I do hope that the Meditation Group singers will learn these songs.

[Sri Chinmoy read the translations and sang four songs. The Bengali titles and the English translations follow.]

Je besechhe bhalo

He who has loved this world
Has only received excruciating pangs.
The world has thrown on him all ugliness, filth, dirt, impurity.
Yet the hero marches along,
Carrying the burden of the entire world.
At the end of his teeming struggles
He will go and stand at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

Sundara hate

You are beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful,
Beauty unparalleled in the garden of Paradise.
Day and night may Thy Image abide in the very depth of my heart.
Without You my eyes have no vision;
Everything is an illusion, everything is barren.
All around me, within and without,
The melody of tenebrous pangs I hear.
My world is filled with excruciating pangs.
O Lord, O my beautiful Lord,
O my Lord of Beauty,
In this lifetime, even for a fleeting second.
May I be blessed with the boon to see Thy Face.

Nayane nayane

In secrecy supreme I see You.
You live in my eyes, in my sleep, in my dreams, in my sweet wakefulness.
In the stupendous mirth of life,
In the abysmal lap of death,
You I behold.
Your love-play is my world.

Nayan nehare bishwa bhuvan

The eye sees the entire world
But it sees not its own life;
Therefore, keeping the two eyes closed
The Yogi meditates on You,
O Lord Supreme.
The ear hears only
The messages and the clamour of the outer world.
It hears not the messages
Of the highest Heaven;
Therefore, the true seeker of wisdom
Always tries to keep his ears
Under his perfect control.

Harvard questions and answers

The following questions and answers were transcribed from Sri Chinmoy's visit to the Andover A. Harvard Divinity School on 16 April 1975.

Question: How can one have more faith or stronger faith?

Sri Chinmoy: You can develop more faith, abundant faith and boundless faith by mixing with someone who already has this faith. It is like mixing with a person who has more knowledge than you have; it brings to the fore your own knowledge. Similarly, when one has more faith than you have, your faith-flame will be kindled. If you feel that somebody has more faith in God than you have, then it is advisable to mix with him. Even if you do not get the opportunity to talk to him all the time, his very presence in silence will increase the faith within you. It is always advisable for you as a seeker to mix with someone who has more talent, more capacity, more aspiration than you have. Unconsciously, not consciously, your heart will be able to draw, like a magnet, aspiration, peace and other divine qualities from the one who has more than you have.

Question: First of all I thank you. I have been very struck by your beautiful poems, your stories, your great creative gift to do so much and your paintings. Do you have something to say about that great capacity to produce beautiful things through imagination that relates to spiritual knowledge?

Sri Chinmoy: In the spiritual life, when we go deep within, what we call ‘imagination’ is not imagination. It is something else. It is actually the precursor of inspiration. And what we call inspiration, is not inspiration as such. It is something else. When you go deep within, you see it is aspiration hiding in inspiration. And aspiration is not aspiration, but something else. It is something higher, something deeper. In aspiration itself is realisation.

So when I do something, paint or write, I feel that my Inner Pilot is having an experience in and through me and that experience is aspiration. But the same Pilot, the Inner Pilot, would like to have another experience in and through you. At that time He might want the experience of realisation or inspiration. The seeker has to remember that he is not the doer; he is the instrument. The Inner Pilot is the doer. I know and I tell my students that I am not the doer and they are not the doers. The doer is somebody else. The doer is the Inner Pilot. Since He is the doer, we have to offer our inmost gratitude to Him, because it is He who is utilising us.

Today He is utilising me. Tomorrow if I misbehave, if I do not listen to His inner command, inner dictates, immediately He will cast me aside and will give somebody else a chance to be His instrument. There are about 250 seekers here. On earth there are millions of human beings. But how many people are consciously praying to God or meditating on God? In comparison to the world population, very few people are praying and meditating. So you see, people who are praying and meditating are already chosen and selected for a special purpose. God could have chosen somebody else, selected somebody else. But just because He has given me the opportunity to become His instrument, we feel it is our bounden duty to be of constant gratitude to Him. So when I do something as an instrument of His, before I begin, I offer Him my gratitude, soulful gratitude. And while He is having the experience, while He is acting in and through me, when I see that it is He that is doing everything through me, I am all gratitude to Him. At the end, when I see the result that He produces, I offer Him gratitude again. So if you ask me what I do, I will say from the beginning to the end I try to become a gratitude-heart placed at the Feet of the Lord Supreme. This is the only experience that I can share with you.

Question: How is it that you refer to God as 'He'?"

Sri Chinmoy: God has form and again God is formless. God is both with attributes and without attributes. God is masculine and again God is feminine. According to Indian philosophy, God is neither masculine nor feminine but neuter. This neuter God we call Brahma. God has countless forms and faces.

But we are like children. A child likes to call his father “daddy”. He has no need to call his father any other name. Yet the father’s friends call him by another name and his relatives also call him by a different name. Those at the office may call him by yet another name. Nonetheless he is the same man.

Similarly, each aspirant has his own name by which he calls God. It is a matter of personal preference and in my case, it is not that by referring to God as He I am denying that God is also the Divine Mother. Far from it. God is the Mother. God is the Father. God is Light. God is Peace. God is Infinite Energy. When I refer to God as He, I am not taking anything away from God. Like the child calling the father, God will come with all that He is, no matter if I call Him Father, Mother or Brahma. God will not mind. He simply comes to answer His child’s call and that is all.

Question: How can one find a balance of desires so as not to deny them and push them away but neither to be overpowered and ruled by them?

Sri Chinmoy: When we accept the spiritual life, can the fulfillment of our teeming earthly desires satisfy us in any way? No! On the contrary, each time we fulfil one desire, we fall prey to more desires. But even the fulfilment of the desire itself does not give us necessary satisfaction. On the contrary, it increases our greed, our dissatisfaction in what we see, what we feel and what we are growing into.

So vital desires, for a seeker, have to be transformed into the life of aspiration. They have to be illumined. If you feel that once this desire is fulfilled, you will not enter into the world of desire anymore, that you will immediately enter into the world of aspiration, you are mistaken. It is not possible. The life of desire is a tempting life. We cannot say that once twenty desires are fulfilled we shall enter into spiritual life. No! At that time the twenty-first desire will come to claim us. Once we enter the spiritual life we have to feel that each desire has to be offered to the Lord for its transformation, for its illumination. At this point it is necessary to recognise whether we are dealing with a desire or with a command.

I have come to be of service to you. There are some people here who cannot or do not wish to identify themselves with me. They will find fault with me. But if somebody is identified with my life of aspiration and dedication he will feel that I have come to share with him my experiences, to be of service to the divinity in him. When one enters into the spiritual life, if one is really conscious, one will know whether it is a desire he is fulfilling or God's command. Otherwise he may call it a desire when it is not a desire at all. It may be something else. And again he may be fooled. He may have some real desires which have nothing to do with God’s commands or God’s inner dictates. Then he creates a problem. He feels that his actions are saving humanity, serving humanity, when they may be totally undivine.

So to come back to your question, in the spiritual life the life of desire has to be transformed and illumined. If you say spirituality and desire-life can go side by side you are mistaken. Day and night do not go together. We have to choose one of the two. If we care for light, then we have to give all importance to light. But giving all importance to light doesn’t mean that we shall cast aside our life of desire. We shall have to transform it, illumine it, so that it can be of help to our aspiration life. Our life of desire is our weakness. It does not have strength enough to make us feel who we really are. But our life of aspiration makes us feel that we are God’s chosen children. So we have to strengthen ourselves by bringing illumination into our life of desire from our life of aspiration. This is the only way we can really get satisfaction out of life.

Question: What challenge is offered to the seeker by the world of suffering and the suffering of other people?

Sri Chinmoy: A seeker eventually learns that what he once called suffering is not actually suffering; it is only an experience. There are some experiences in life which are helpful to him in growing into his own ultimate divinity. He is making a mistake if he takes suffering as something which is standing in his way, if he wonders why he has to go through all kinds of suffering. But he should feel that it is an experience. He should feel that the inner being is having an experience in and through him either for his outer life’s purification or for some inner purification. He should show the world around him that this is something necessary in his life, that through untold suffering, eventually light will dawn.

Suffering is not the ultimate message. Happiness and delight are the ultimate message. “From delight we came into existence, in delight we grow, and at the end of our journey’s close, into delight we shall retire.” Delight is our source. Here in the world arena we are given limited freedom. When we misuse this limited freedom we create more suffering, more bondage for ourselves. Instead we can use our limited freedom in a divine way. For example, we have come here to be spiritual, to pray to God, to discuss things about God. We could have gone to a bar or some undivine place or just watched television and killed time. But instead we used our limited freedom to come here, to increase the divinity within us.

When we misuse our time, the after-effects of that incident often turn into suffering. But again, if we go deep within, we will see that it is not suffering as such; it is something else. It is an experience. If we are conscious of it, we become part and parcel of the experience that the Inner Pilot is having. Otherwise we may feel that suffering is something that is thrust upon us which we don’t need. For a seeker of the Ultimate Truth, suffering is an experience. At times it is a necessary experience, at times it is not. It depends on what we have done or what experience we have unconsciously invited or invoked. The experience we see in our outer life is an unconscious or conscious expression of our inner purification.

Letter to Brihaspati⁷

Dear Brihaspati,

You are an intellectual giant and I am an intellectual pygmy; therefore, to evaluate your progress from the mental or intellectual point of view will be ridiculous. I shall try to evaluate your progress purely from the spiritual point of view, and I am sure that is what you precisely want from me. You teach your students how to learn, and I am teaching you inwardly how to unlearn most of the things that your mind has taught you or you have taught your mind under the unconscious guidance of your physical body and your vital being. You have also taught your mind under the illumined and illumining guidance of your psychic being. The things that you have taught your mind under the guidance of your psychic being must always expand and increase. They must be revealed and manifested — naturally in God’s own way. And the things that your mind has taught you or the things that you have taught your mind must be examined to see if they are of any true value. To your wide surprise your mutual examination will prove that except one thing, everything is useless. And what is that thing? The mind’s conscious and continuous acceptance of the soul’s earth-transforming and Heaven-manifesting light. This light of the soul is the only thing real in us, real in God, real in God’s Vision, real in God’s Reality.

You give marks to your students in order to show them where they stand with regard to their knowledge-height. Here the height of the goal is fixed. In the spiritual life the goal constantly transcends itself. In the mental or intellectual life ascendance to a certain height is the goal. In the spiritual life continuous self-transcendence is the goal. When you ascend, you come to know what you can eventually become. When you transcend, you know what you eternally are. We ascend with what we have or what claims us as its own: ignorance. We transcend with what we are and the thing that we call our own: aspiration.

Have you made any progress since you have accepted our path? The answer is in the strongest affirmative. Your most significant progress lies in your heart’s implicit surrender to God’s Will, your mind’s conscious awareness of the true truth that the mind is not all, in your vital’s considerable and glorious God-receptivity and your body’s soulful eagerness to place itself unconditionally at the Feet of your Inner Pilot, your Eternity’s Beloved Supreme.

Doubt you had. Doubt you have. Doubt is something which you will not have in the future, even if you want to. There was a time when the doubt-dancer danced inside your mind-forest. Now you see that an unfamiliar traveller by the name of doubt has somehow made friends with you and wants to travel with you, but once the doubt-traveller discovers that you are walking along Eternity’s road it will give up, for the patience of the doubt-traveller is not and cannot be unlimited, whereas the burning cry inside you to reach the ever-transcending Reality is ceaseless. In the future, an old familiar face will present itself before you, an old friend of yours will come and show its identity, its previous oneness with you. This new, yet eternally old friend of yours is confidence: confidence in what you have to give to God; confidence in what He is to you. You will give to God what you have bound for yourself and what you have bound in God, in God’s creation. What He is to you is what you are to Him: an exact prototype of the self-same reality. Your confidence-friend will accompany you to the uncharted land of divinity’s Immortality and Immortality’s life.

You wanted to know about your friends: purity, sincerity and aspiration. How are they doing? I wish to tell you that these three friends of yours are not three separate friends. They are just one. The name of that friend is aspiration. When we look at the body of aspiration, we call it sincerity. When we look at the heart of aspiration, we call it purity. Sincerity tells you what you can become. Purity tells you what you can give. Aspiration tells you what you are. Sincerity tells you you can become God-love. Purity tells you you can give God-love. Aspiration tells you you are God’s Light-life and Life-light. God’s Light-life has created the visible universe. God’s Life-light embodies the invisible universe. The visible universe is God’s reality-filled Vision, and the invisible universe is God’s vision-filled Reality. Has your purity increased since you have accepted our path? Your physical purity marches like a dauntless soldier of truth. Your vital purity at times marches like a soldier, at times walks like an old Indian lady, at times runs like the fastest sprinter. Your mental purity does not crawl any more. On the contrary, when your vital runs the fastest it wants to run and compete with the vital’s fastest speed.

There was a time when your sincerity was an infant plant. Now it has become an adolescent plant, only to grow in the near future into a huge tree. Your aspiration: when I saw you first at Harvard, I saw an unforgettable wrestling between your heart’s light and your mind’s life. Your heart’s light has indisputably and triumphantly won. You may recall after the Harvard meeting, I met you in a small room at a disciple’s place. When you told me your name was Peter, I said to you, “So, you have the key?” Then you immediately told me, “Yes, I have. Take it.” The key opens the door, and now the door is wide open. You as the key have opened the door. You as the door have revealed the treasure. You as the seeker are enjoying and will be enjoying your own Eternity’s treasure.

Jharna-Kala

In order to make it possible for the public to view the art works of C.K.G. (Sri Chinmoy), the _Jharna-Kala Gallery at 154 Wooster Street was opened up for the month of April. _The opening was held on 31 March, 7:00 p.m. and a number of art appreciators came to partake of this ‘visual feast’, as many called it. Some two thousand scintillating paintings were on display and while it took many visits to appreciate each painting individually, the immediate impact which the showing had as one entered into the fountain of art was both a breath-taking and a refreshing one.

The evening started with comments by the artist on his works. His words were as follows:

“My Lord Supreme, to You I offer my eternal gratitude for having painted in and through me out of Your infinite Bounty over 10,000 paintings in 100 fleeting days. My Lord Supreme, You have played the role of aspiration in and through me; now You want to play the role of inspiration in and through all of my brothers and sisters of the world. As I have placed the aspiration-tree at Your Feet, even so my sisters and brothers are going to place the inspiration-seed at Your Feet.”

/Jharna-Kala is a poetical Bengali phrase meaning Fountain-Art. It is the title of C.K.G.’s art as a whole./

Interview⁸

Mr. Anthony Hixon, interviewer: We’re talking to Ultra Violet, who is an actress and a singer. And she’s here at the Jharna-Kala show. What do you think of the Jharna-Kala show? Do you have any opinions on the paintings?

Ultra Violet: I have lots of opinions about everything. I love art and I love colour and light and I think the show was very clean, very bright and very joyous. And I’m sitting next to a green palm tree. I love green, green is very healing. And I think what the world needs is more healing, more healing.

Mr. Hixon: True, healing, but what manner of healing?

Ultra Violet: There are many forms. You can be sick in the body, in the mind or in the spirit. Actually you have to work on three planes. Some people think there is food for the mind, for the soul and for the body — three different kinds of food, and you need them all in order to be well balanced.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much. You have beautiful green eyes with which to see that green colour.

Ultra Violet: Thank you, I will try.

Mr. Hixon: We’re talking to Mr. Robert Scull, on my right, who is a renowned art collector and Mr. Paul Jenkins, who is a renowned artist. Mr. Scull, is this the ordinary kind of opening for a painter in New York City?

Mr. Scull: Oh no, it’s much more spiritual, much more quiet. The people are really a very charming bunch who I very rarely see at art show openings. I don’t attend too many openings but those that I have been to, have been different from this one. Here everything seems so nice and quiet, so tranquil and spiritual.

Mr. Hixon: Mr. Jenkins, the question is, does this seem to be an ordinary sort of opening to you?

Mr. Jenkins: No, it’s like an after-gathering of one of Sri Chinmoy’s meditations. I feel no different here than I would at the United Nations Chapel or at the little church in Queens. And his disciples have made it so warm, inwardly warm. Another thing is the feeling of abundance. What’s here is an abundance of colours, an abundance of things that come through your mind when you meditate. And I don’t look at these paintings with a tough eye, as an art critic would. I look at them for what they are, for the experience of them, for his joy.

Mr. Hixon: Sri Chinmoy has been able to do ten thousand in three months, which is a phenomenal number of paintings. Do you have any comment on that, on the speed at which he works?

Mr. Scull: It is an incredible output. I think that amount of paintings done in three months must be coming from a deep autobiographical well of feelings and images. I don’t think it can be done any other way. You wouldn’t have a display of such a wide variance of feeling, colour, mood. It’s really an extraordinary thing for someone to put so much into ten thousand paintings in a few months. It’s really hard labour, as well as an act of love. Remarkable.

Mr. Hixon: Now, he’s a beginner. Do you get the sense that he is really a beginner or do you feel that he’s come out of that stage?

Mr. Jenkins: Was Monet a beginner? Was Picasso a beginner when he was about to die? The artist is always rediscovering the child. I don’t mean that he is childish, I mean he finds the child aspect. And we must remember also that Freud said that to be creative is to be prodigious. And that’s one thing that is misunderstood in the art world. Everybody feels that the fewer things you do the better you are. Not from Freud’s standpoint. To be creative means to be prodigious.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much, Mr. Jenkins.

Mr. Hixon: We’re talking to Mr. Donald Keys who is the representative for the World Association of World Federalists at the United Nations. Mr. Keys, what do you think of this show?

Mr. Keys: First of all, it’s pretty staggering. Secondly, I was just thinking that in the traditional religious artistic expressions for many ages, whether the Hindu, Christian or others, the style is very tight, very ceremonial, very crystalised. Here is the expression which is modern religiosity, totally free, more than contemporary. I think it’s very refreshing.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much.

Mr. Keys: You’re welcome.

Mr. Hixon: Sri Chinmoy, you are a spiritual artist. Is there any special message in your work?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I have a very short message to offer to the world at large with regard to my paintings. The Supreme in me, my Inner Pilot, has played the role of aspiration. Now the same Supreme wants to play the role of inspiration in all my brothers and sisters of the world. Inspiration is the seed; aspiration is the tree. Through my surrendered oneness I have become the aspiration-tree. Through the surrendered oneness of my brothers and sisters with the Supreme, they will become the inspiration-seed. I have offered my aspiration-tree at the Feet of the Supreme and I am sure my brothers and sisters will place their inspiration-seed at the Feet of the Supreme also. The seed and the tree must go together. They are inseparable. One is God’s Vision; the other is God’s Reality. Inspiration-seed is God's Vision and aspiration-tree is God’s Reality.

Mr. Hixon: Thank you very much.

Sri Chinmoy: You’re welcome.

[THE END]

A letter to the artist

In addition to the Jharna-Kala Gallery, there have been a few other exhibits of C.K.G.'s art recently. For instance, at Bonwit Teller in Eastchester, New York, many copies of C.K.G.’s paintings are on display in the windows and throughout the department store.

An admirer of Sri Chinmoy’s spiritual depths and artistic dimensions chanced to see the Bonwit Teller exhibit and being so moved by it, visited the Jharna-Kala Gallery for a second time since its opening. After this second visit, she wrote the following profound letter.

April 7. 1975

Dearest Guru,

Words are very poor instruments indeed with which to convey the feelings which overwhelmed me when I saw your paintings last week, and again today. From an artist’s viewpoint, they are incredibly exciting because of their great originality, marvellous colour, sensitive rhythm, and often humour and joy. Artists often struggle, study and work for years and fail to achieve the sparkling spontaneity and unique effects which seem to come to you with such ease. Your paintings are set down with complete assurance and conviction and convey a painter who has been painting for many, many years. It is a miracle and a mystery.

I am now the proud owner of some of your paintings and I treasure them as works of art and also as the expression of the essence of purest Spiritual Attainment. I pray that the recognition you so richly deserve should come to you soon.

I have also learned many new things about the Guru. The beautiful greeting I received from the Guru last week, and the lovely gifts I received today, are treasured experiences I shall never forget. I realise that the Guru, who is the Most Divine Being, is also the most humble one, the most thankful one, and the most loving one.

There is nowhere else that there exists such a Fountain of Love, Humility and Thankfulness as flows from the Guru’s Being. That is indeed the brightest Guiding Light on this earth today.

What a living Example to all who have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to sense this greatest of mysteries.

You are indeed a great inspiration to me — and I am most deeply grateful.

I send my love and thankfulness to Guru.

Edith

[_Edith Montlack has herself been an artist for many years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London._]

Summary of events

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
17-30 March
Exhibit of C.K.G. reproductions and copies

Jharna-Kala Gallery, N.Y.C.
31 March-28 April
Exhibit of over 2,000 C.K.G. originals

Bonwit Teller, Eastchester, N.Y.
Month of April Display of C.K.G. copies

The Little Gallery, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Month of April
Display of C.K.G. reproductions

Manhattanville College, Library, Harrison, N.Y. April and May
Exhibit of C.K.G. reproductions and books by Sri Chinmoy

Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. 16 April, Lecture by Sri Chinmoy ‘Heaven vs. Earth”
23 April, Lecture by Sri Chinmoy “With Knowledge, How Far?”

Columbia University, McMillan Theatre, N.Y.C. 12 April, Public Meditation with Sri Chinmoy

City College of New York in Manhattan, N.Y.C. 21 April-5 May, Exhibit of C.K.G. reproductions 28 April, Lecture on C.K.G.’s art

Sri Chinmoy's European tour, 1975

Friday, 13 June Depart New York
Saturday, 14 June Arrive London
Sunday, 15 June London
Monday, 16 June Stockholm
Tuesday, 17 June Uppsala
Wednesday, 18 June Hamburg
Thursday, 19 June Den Haag
Friday, 20 June Brussels
Saturday, 21 June Paris
Sunday, 22 June Zurich
Monday, 23 June Zurich
Tuesday, 24 June Berne/Lausanne
Wednesday, 25 June Geneva
Thursday, 26 June Dublin
Friday, 27 June Manchester
Saturday, 28 June Glasgow
Sunday, 29 June Glasgow
Monday, 30 June Edinburgh
Tuesday, 1 July Newcastle
Wednesday, 2 July Mansfield
Thursday, 3 July Birmingham/Oxford
Friday, 4 July Cambridge/Colchester
Saturday, 5 July London
Sunday, 6 July London
Monday, 7 July London
Tuesday, 8 July Return New York