United Nations: Peace Room¹

You and I

You have renounced world-bondage to please God;
Therefore, God is pleased with you.
I really mean it.

I have accepted world-suffering to please God;
Therefore, God is pleased with me.
I do hope that you know it.

You have pleased God
By crying for His Self-transcendence Height.
I have known it all along.

I have pleased God
By loving His compassion-fulfilling earth-life.
I am informing you in case you did not know it.

You and I have pleased God soulfully and triumphantly;
Therefore, we are divinely human and humanly perfect.

Visit to Naval Air Station Willow Grove

On Saturday, 3 May, Sri Chinmoy and a small group of disciples were taken on a tour of the Naval Air Station at Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, by Albert Marcantonio, who is a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Air Reserves. Sri Chinmoy met with the Base Commander, Captain Jack G. McDonell, and gave a talk at the Station Chapel in memory of the soldiers who died in the Vietnam war. Sri Chinmoy dedicated one of his Bengali marching songs to Captain McDonell, and the Captain presented Sri Chinmoy with a plaque bearing the symbol of the Air Station and a traditional motto of the Navy, “Peace through Sea-power.”

[A signboard inside the entrance to the base welcomed Sri Chinmoy. photo by Navy photographers]

[Captain McDonell presenting Sri Chinmoy with a plaque.][photo by Navy photographers]

[Front row, from left: Lt. CcLr. Albert Marcantomo, Captain McDonell, Sri Chinmoy, Chaplain Roberts][photo by Navy photographers]

[A tour of the observation tower at the airstrip.][photo by Navy photographers]

[Sri Chinmoy in the cockpit of the plane usually flown by Albert Marcantonio.][photo by Navy photographers]

[photo by Chirantan]

[Sri Chinmoy in the cockpit of the plane usually flown by Albert Marcantonio.][photo by Chirantan]

[Sri Chinmoy delivering his talk on patriotism at the Station Chapel. Captain and Mrs. McDonell are in the front row.][photo by Chirantan]

The quintessence of patriotism²

[Albert Marcantonio welcomed Sri Chinmoy.]

Sri Chinmoy: Dear Albert, I wish to offer you my blessingful gratitude for having given me the opportunity to be of service to the aspiring souls here at Willow Grove.

Dear Captain and Mrs. McDonell and Chaplain Roberts, I wish to offer my Indian salute to the Supreme in you, for having given me the opportunity to be of service here.

[Sri Chinmoy folded his hands before his forehead and bowed.]

Dear Captain McDonell, unlike most human beings, you are a most intimate friend of the sea and the sky. Your loving heart, your aspiring heart, your God-fulfilling heart is synonymous with vastness above, vastness below. The spiritual significance of water is consciousness. The sea represents consciousness. Consciousness is the link between man and God. An awakened consciousness, which you unmistakably are, is a direct and immediate link with God. The sky embodies freedom. Here on earth we see human freedom, but when we aspire, when we grow into divine reality, we come to realise that there is another type of freedom. That freedom is called divine freedom. Divine freedom is unlimited, birthless and deathless. The divine freedom which you, Captain McDonell, are is at once God’s blessingful Choice and God’s fruitful Voice.

I wish to give a short talk on the quintessence of patriotism. I wish to offer my prayerful talk to the memory of those patriots, hero-warriors, lovers of their country, who fought divinely and supremely in Vietnam to abide by the divine principles of their country. India’s greatest spiritual figure, Lord Krishna, taught mankind that people who die for their country, who offer their lives for the principle that their country believes in, immediately go to Heaven. The great poet Byron offered to the world at large a significant message: “He who loves not his country can love nothing.”

Who is a patriot? A patriot is he who loves his country dearly. A patriot is he who loves his country more than he loves his own life. A patriot is he who intuitively feels and infallibly knows that there is nothing and there can be nothing as significant as his own country. A patriot is he who honours and treasures his soul’s earth-bound and Heaven-descending vision. A patriot is he who fulfils devotedly and untiringly the supreme promise to God, the Absolute Supreme, which he made while he was in the realm of the soul, before entering into the earth-arena. A patriot is he who has discovered the true truth that Heaven is in no way superior to earth. Earth and Heaven are equal. At times a patriot even goes to the length of saying, Mother and Mother-Earth are superior to Heaven. Heaven is great precisely because Heaven has the unparalleled capacity to smile at God-manifestation on earth. Earth is great precisely because earth has the capacity to cry for God’s transcendental Height.

What is true patriotism? True patriotism is not something that declares war in order to prove its supremacy. True patriotism is not unlit, impure self-assertion. True patriotism is one’s genuine love of one’s country. True patriotism is loving what one already has. To be precise, true patriotism is real love for what God has already given us out of His infinite Bounty. True patriotism realises the undeniable fact that an individual patriot and his country are but pure instruments of the Absolute Supreme.

To destroy a country we need power. This power is undivine, unillumined and ill-founded. To love a country we need a great power. This great power is our pure and constant concern for our country. To serve a country devotedly and untiringly we need a greater power. This greater power is our intuitive and self-offering psychic light. To claim all nations as our very own, one and inseparable, we need the greatest power. This power is the all-illumining, all-immortalising, all-fulfilling God-Power, which is always crying and trying, trying and crying, to come to the fore from the inmost recesses of our heart.

To have a national feeling is good. To have an international feeling is better. To have a universal feeling is best. Nationalism, internationalism and universalism. Nationalism shows me what I have. What I have is true love for my country. Internationalism gives me the opportunity to place my country in the galaxy of nations. If it is the Will of God, internationalism places my country in the vanguard of nations so that my country can offer its capacity and light to help awaken the slumbering nations that still exist on earth. Universalism tells me that my country and I are nothing but unconditional instruments of God, seeking to please Him constantly, soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally in His own way.

Many people, many patriots, have offered most significant messages to the world at large with regard to patriotism, founded upon their own inner feelings. Here I wish to quote a few words from a great patriot who eventually became a spiritual Master of the highest order — Sri Aurobindo. He said, “Patriotism is not a mere political programme. It is a religion from God.” Now, what is this religion? This religion is the beauty of today’s self-giving and the duty of tomorrow’s God-becoming. For me to speak about American patriots is unnecessary. Nevertheless, with your kind permission, I wish to quote two sublime sayings, one from Nathan Hale, one from President Kennedy:

One life to lose, one life to offer to one’s own country. If this action is not based upon divine reality, the human in us will not dare to sacrifice its life. But the divine in us knows that this life is not a mere short span of fifty, sixty or seventy years. The divine in us knows that this life is part of the eternal Life. Here we enter into the earth-arena to play our respective roles for a few years. Then we enter into another world for a short rest. We may call it death or some other thing. Then again we enter into this world to play the role of dedicated souls and serve God in His own way. We are walking along the road of Eternity with a divine, unending, ceaseless, birthless life to manifest the divinity within us. We have to offer to our country what we have: love, sacrifice and the feeling of oneness. The moment we have offered to our country our unalloyed love and pure sacrifice and have established our inseparable oneness with the soul of our country, to our wide surprise we see that our country has already immortalised us. For our country has chosen us out of millions, billions and trillions of souls to take birth on her shores. Our country has played her role long before we thought of offering something to our country. What we offer to our country is, at best, an iota of love, whereas our country has already inundated us with boundless love. This is the love our country has already achieved and received from the Absolute Supreme.

War and peace. Darkness and light. War we invent. Peace we discover. War we invent from without. Peace we discover from within. War forgets peace. Peace forgives war. War is the end of the life human. Peace is the birth of the life divine.

A new day, a new era has dawned. Peace has dawned. Now let us try to swim in the sea of peace, peace, peace. Peace on earth, peace in Heaven, peace in God’s Vision of the transcendental Beyond, peace in God’s all-fulfilling Reality.

Shanti.

Albert Marcantonio: Sri Chinmoy, we thank you wholeheartedly for the seeds of spiritual awareness and enlightenment which you have planted here today.

City of Bristol

BRISTOL. CONNECTICUT 06010

Office of the Mayor

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, The Honorable Sri Chinmoy of India, Director of the Meditation Group of the United Nations has travelled to many parts of the globe, presenting his most beautiful and exceptional meditations on God, Love, and Peace (Both interior and exterior) to the leaders and people he has met throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, The Honorable Sri Chinmoy and his group visited Bristol on the 8th day of May, 1974 and

WHEREAS, We, in Bristol, would like to commemorate that visit with a living momento of our friendship and in admiration of his deep spirituality;

NOW THEREFORE, I, FRANK J. LONGO, SR., herewith present to the HONORABLE SRI CHINMOY, a Chrysanthemum Cutting from our Bristol Nurseries which will henceforth be known as

THE HONORABLE SRI CHINMOY

and placed in the QUEENS BOTANICAL GARDENS in New York State and the BRISTOL NURSERIES as a living testimonial to a very learned and spiritual leader in our world today.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of the City of Bristol, Connecticut, this 16, day of May, 1975.

Frank J. Longo, Sr. Mayor

With knowledge how far?³

Dear seekers, dear sisters and brothers, with knowledge how far? With your kind permission, I shall speak on this subject strictly from the spiritual point of view.

What is knowledge? Knowledge is information. What is information? Information is man’s greedy interest in the world-sound.

What is knowledge? Knowledge is the discoveries of the mind. These discoveries can be in the mind proper, in the vital and in the body. To the mind, knowledge in the mind is something rigid, fixed and complicated. Knowledge in the vital is something dynamic or aggressive and destructive. Knowledge in the body, in the gross physical, is something obscure and uninspiring.

What is knowledge? Knowledge is man’s outer desire to help humanity, but his secret desire to please himself in every possible way.

Knowledge is something that keeps the knower and the known at two different places. The knower plays the role of the master; the known plays the role of the slave.

Knowledge is the little brother of wisdom. The big brother, wisdom, teaches us how to be inseparably and eternally one with the supreme Reality, the transcendental Reality. The little brother, knowledge, feels that the supreme Reality will eternally remain a far cry; therefore, he wants to be satisfied with the lesser reality. Knowledge wants to measure the lesser reality, and finally it wants to distribute the lesser reality to the world at large in infinitesimal portions.

What is the lesser knowledge? The lesser knowledge is the earth-bound knowledge. The lesser knowledge is the knowledge which tells us that we are of ignorance-night and we are for ignorance-night. It is the knowledge that tells us that all is matter, within and without us. When we embrace the knowledge of matter, we try and cry, cry and try to satisfy ourselves in the pleasure-seeking world. We consciously or unconsciously wallow in the pleasures of ignorance-mire.

As there is earth-bound knowledge, even so there is Heaven-free knowledge. When Heaven-free knowledge dawns on our devoted heads and surrendered hearts, at that time we can proclaim like the Saviour, “I and my Father are one.”

With knowledge how far? Not very far. When we start with earth-knowledge, we do not and cannot look forward; we are always stuck at the starting point. We cannot walk along the road of Infinity and Eternity; we cannot walk in the realm of the transcendental Spirit. But when we start with divine wisdom and try to walk along the road of Eternity, we see that the Golden Shore is ever beckoning us and that the distance is growing always shorter.

With knowledge how far? When we start with human knowledge, we enter into the world of nowhere. When we start with divine wisdom, we enter into the world of all-where. Human knowledge is the wild laughter of possession. Divine knowledge is the sweet, illumining and fulfilling song of liberation and perfection.

Human knowledge is our common sense. Divine knowledge is our God-sense. With our human knowledge we declare that our body is all, that the physical in us is all. With our divine knowledge we proclaim God as our Eternity's All; we proclaim His constant Self-transcendence as our All.

Human knowledge is the education of the unconscious or conscious ego-self in the finite. Divine wisdom is the education of the God-Self in the Infinite. Human knowledge belongs to the desire-world. And desire-world is nothing short of frustration-world.

Human knowledge leads us to cry,

Divine knowledge inspires us to voice forth, "From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow. At the end of our journey's close into Delight we shall retire.”

God-knowledge tells us that each seeker must feel his inseparable oneness with his Inner Pilot. On the strength of his inner oneness, he proclaims to the world at large that he is Eternity’s divine lover and that God, his Inner Pilot, is Eternity’s Beloved Supreme.

Questions and answers

Question: When you speak of human life and divine life it sounds like they are two separate worlds. I find myself here in this world. Why must there be another world?

Sri Chinmoy: There are already two worlds in us: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. Each day we enter into these two worlds. When we enter into the life of possession, we enter into the world of desire. When we enter into the life of transformation, we enter into the world of aspiration.

These two worlds — the world of human desire and the world of divine aspiration — are inside us, not around us. When we enter into the world of desire, we try to bind. But before we can bind anything, we discover that that thing has already bound us. When we enter into the world of aspiration, we try to liberate. Before liberating or while liberating the world, we discover that we ourselves are also being liberated.

Question: Can the soul of a seeker contact his spiritual Master if the Master lives in a different city or country?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, the soul can contact the Master if the soul is a little developed. But sometimes the physical mind does not believe or does not receive the soul’s message. The physical mind doubts the very existence of the soul; it suspects everything, sometimes even its own reality. This physical mind unfortunately does not have a free access to the soul so it does not know what the soul is doing. But if the soul wants to convince the physical mind, it can elevate even the physical mind with divine light. Once this light is brought down into the physical mind in abundant measure, the mind will convince the entire being that the soul has contacted the Master.

Question: Can you explain the worth of trying to communicate one's inner experiences with others?

Sri Chinmoy: Some Masters advise their disciples to share their experiences only with them. Most of the time it is not advisable to communicate or offer one's inner experiences to others. Suppose you have had a very high, sublime experience. Even if you tell this experience to your most intimate friend, his jealousy may try to devour the wealth, the living reality of your experience. Sometimes it happens that when you share your inner experiences with a beginner, the beginner will try to have the same experience by hook or by crook. In the spiritual life this can never be done. Spiritual progress is a slow, steady and gradual process. Just because you have tasted a mango and you tell me about it, I may also try to climb up the mango tree. But if I do not know how to climb, when I try, I will fall down and hurt myself. Also, if you tell your inner experiences to others, human pride may enter into you.

One should share one’s inner experiences with others only with the permission of the Master. If one does not have a Master, then one must dive deep within and listen to the dictates of the soul. If the soul or the Master asks an individual seeker to share his experiences with the rest of the world, then there will be no problem whatsoever. In that case it may happen that if the person tells about his experiences, his friends will be inspired to enter into the world of aspiration. But it is always advisable to ask the Master or to go deep within in order to know whether to share one’s experiences with others. Otherwise, it may create unforseen, deplorable results either in the seeker himself or in the one with whom he is trying to share his experiences.

Question: Is liberation possible without the help of a living Master?

Sri Chinmoy: It is quite possible for the seeker to achieve liberation without the help of a living Master. But it is advisable to have a Master if one values speed. If you can do something today with the help of someone else, why do you want to take three or four days in order to do it by yourself? We go to school and study with a teacher. Why? When we have a teacher, we are directed and guided in what we study. All the books that we study are available in the bookstore, but when the teacher says this is correct, then immediately we believe it. So the teacher expedites our study.

There is nothing wrong in taking help from someone. A spiritual Master is also God’s son. If my elder brother knows something, I have every right to ask my elder brother to teach me. Once I learn it, that knowledge becomes my own possession. At that time I am free to share with others the knowledge that I have acquired with his help. When it is a question of God-realisation, if someone says, "No. I don't want to take any outer help; I will entirely depend on God and myself.” then that person has to know that his realisation will take thousands of years. But there is nothing wrong in this approach. He who realised God for the first time did not have a human teacher. God taught him directly. So if the seeker is extremely sincere and if he wants to depend on direct inner guidance from God, he can. But he should know that his progress will be slow, very slow and uncertain.

Question: How do we separate the voice of the soul from the intellect and emotion?

Sri Chinmoy: We can easily separate the voice of the soul from the emotional life and intellectual life. When we do something, the result comes in the form of either success or failure. When we follow the dictates of the voice of the soul, if the result of our actions is success, we do not proclaim ourselves to the skies and forget the world of reality. We do not lose our balance. And if the result comes in the form of failure, we do not become miserable and depressed. Whether we succeed or fail, with equal joy, cheerfulness and perfect equanimity we place the result at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

But when we do something that has been prompted by our intellectual convictions or emotional feelings, we act in a different way, depending on whether the result of our actions is success or failure. When we act in accordance with the dictates of the intellect or emotions, we expect something in our own way. If the result does not meet with our expectations, we are frustrated and disappointed, and in our disappointment what looms large is destruction. But if it is the message of the soul that we execute, then we will always feel poise, peace and tranquillity in the result. We will see and feel that the result of our actions is nothing but an experience that will elevate our consciousness, deepen our consciousness, widen, illumine and perfect our consciousness.

When we listen to the dictates of the soul, we know that we are not the doer; the doer is God. We are the instrument and God the Doer is having an experience in and through us in His own inimitable way. We just offer our experience to the Inner Pilot and place it at His Feet. If we don’t have the sense of separativity, then we can feel that He is the one who has had the experience in and through us and that He is the experience itself.

Poems from Sri Chinmoy's forthcoming book: My Life-Tree

My Life-Tree

My life-tree
Is made up of my earth-hopes.

My life-leaves
Are made up of my earth-cries.

My life-flowers
Are made up of my earth-sighs.

My life-fruits
Are made up of my earth-failures.

They never get tired

My feet never get tired
No matter how many miles I walk.

My hands never get tired
No matter how long I work.

My heart never gets tired
No matter how many people I love.

But my mind always gets tired
The moment it tries to chase away
A fraction of a doubt.

Not such a difficult task

Try to arrange your thoughts.
It is not such a difficult task.

Try to control your thoughts.
It is not such a difficult task.

Try to conquer your thoughts.
It is not such a difficult task.

Try to surrender your thoughts
To the Inner Pilot.
It is the easiest thing.
If you do it,
Then you do not have to
Arrange, control and conquer
Your thoughts.
It is all done.

There is a difference

Love is love,
But there is a difference
Between my love for God
And my love for man.
My love for God
Is for my perfection-light.
My love for man
Is for my expansion-right.

Are they happy?

Is your earth happy?
Not exactly,
But it tries to be happy.

Is your Heaven happy?
Yes, it is.
It is always happy.
It seems it can never be otherwise.

Two exceptions

Man is an exception.
He does not have to be
As beautiful as an angel
In God’s Vision-Light.

Angels are exceptions.
They do not have to be
As responsible as man
In God’s Creation-Reality.

Thoughts

A God-lover’s thoughts:
Acceptance-light,
Rejection-night.

A God-server’s thoughts:
Service-opportunity,
Satisfaction-necessity.

My thoughts:
Transformation-duty,
Perfection- beauty.

Jharna-kala interview

Question: Sri Chinmoy, at what age did you first become interested in painting?

Sri Chinmoy: Only about five months ago the artist in me became interested in painting.

Question: Do you feel that you were influenced in any way by traditional Indian art?

Sri Chinmoy: I have not been influenced in any way by traditional Indian art or by any other kind of art. I am not influenced by anything or anybody. I am never influenced; but I am always inspired by my Inner Pilot. In addition to painting, I have written thousands of poems, I have given talks at many places and I have composed hundreds of songs. But only when I am inspired from deep within do I create. Rather, the best thing is to say that the Divine or the Supreme in me creates and I just become a conscious and devoted instrument.

Question: From a spiritual point of view, what is the role of the divine Artist on earth?

Sri Chinmoy: The spiritual role of the divine Artist is to manifest the Supreme, through poems, through singing, through writing, through any form of creativity.

Question: Can meditation improve a person's ability to create art, or to appreciate art?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly, meditation can increase the ability to appreciate art and meditation can offer a seeker the capacity to create, provided the seeker sincerely wants to become an artist.

Question: Is there a special plane of consciousness from which art descends?

Sri Chinmoy: There is no specific plane. There are various planes that embody art and artistic qualities, but one plane may be more divinely oriented or divinely surcharged with artistic qualities than another.

Question: How can the aspiring artist enter into these planes of consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: Through aspiration and through prayer. If he can aspire, if he can pray, naturally the Divine within him will be able to carry him or lead him to those artistic realms.

Question: I understand that your art is referred to as Jharna-Kala. Can you please tell me the significance of this phrase and how you relate it to your art?

Sri Chinmoy: Jharna-Kala means “fountain-art”. A fountain is something that comes from within spontaneously, without any outer strain. It is something effortless, easy. Constantly somebody within me is coming to the fore with infinite inspiration and with infinite dedicated service-light. That is why my paintings flow spontaneously from within.

Question: I understand that you have recently completed ten thousand paintings in a very brief span of time. How long did it take you?

Sri Chinmoy: It has taken me one hundred days to complete ten thousand paintings. That means each day a hundred paintings, on an average.

Question: What impresses me most about your Himalayan achievement is that although you have produced a vast quantity of paintings and drawings the quality of your works has increased rather than decreased. How do you explain this?

Sri Chinmoy: I am like a runner. When the starter fires the gun, most of the sprinters at the very outset, for the first ten metres, do not reach their topmost speed. After they have covered ten metres or so, for the remaining ninety metres of the hundred metre dash, they run the fastest. In my case also, in the beginning I had a little bit of hesitation and uncertainty. Art is not familiar to me. In my family my father and my brothers wrote poems. Poetry is something inherent in our family. But in our family nobody showed any interest in art in the form of painting. It is something that is totally new to me. That is why I had a little bit of hesitation when I first started. Then I shook off that hesitation. The inner urge was so powerful in me to serve the Supreme in another form of creativity, that there was no necessity on my part to hesitate for long. I have to serve the Supreme as devotedly, as powerfully and as quickly as possible.

Question: Why is it that you have undertaken the creation of such a vast variety of paintings?

Sri Chinmoy: I have not undertaken this project; I am just an instrument of the Supreme. An instrument has no choice of its own. It is the player within me who wants to express himself in myriad forms and shapes. I am just an instrument.

Question: In Yoga philosophy it is said that everything has a special consciousness and that every object has a soul. Does each one of your paintings have a special consciousness and a soul?

Sri Chinmoy: Each painting has a consciousness of its own and each painting has a soul of its own. But we cannot say “a special consciousness”, because some paintings have the same type of consciousness, and some paintings have the same type of soul. We can say that each one has a consciousness of its own and a soul of its own, but the soul can be on the same level of development or the consciousness can be on the same level as that of other paintings.

Question: Sri Chinmoy, the basic themes of your spiritual teachings are Love, Devotion and Surrender. Can these themes be related to the world of art, and more specifically to your own paintings and drawings?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly Love, Devotion and Surrender can be applied to the world of art, and I must say that all my paintings are nothing but the expressions of my dedicated love, devotion and surrender to the Supreme, my Inner Pilot.

Question: You have many spiritual centres around the world, and you hold meditations at the United Nations for the delegates and members of the Secretariat. What is the relationship between your artistic creations and your spiritual activities?

Sri Chinmoy: My artistic creation and my spiritual activities go together like two brothers; they are inseparable. Right now you can say that my artistic qualities or capacities are like a little brother to my spiritual qualities, because these capacities have just now come to the fore. Previously I was known as a spiritual Master and I was known as a poet. Now, by the Grace of the Supreme, some people call me an artist as well. But I must say that the artist in me is the younger brother, whereas the Yogi is the elder brother. The younger brother will definitely follow the elder brother in the family in order to reach the same goal.

Question: What message or messages do you offer to the world at large through your creation?

Sri Chinmoy: I offer the message that there are many, many more worlds apart from this physical world that we see around us, the world we are in. If we do not see a particular thing in this world, this does not mean that the thing does not exist. There are many worlds of existence. There are many things that I have painted which people may take as abstract ideas or abstract paintings, but they are not abstract. In some other world they are absolute realities. Just because you do not see something right in front of your nose that does not mean that particular thing does not exist. We have to enter into the inner plane of consciousness where it does exist, just as we have to go to a particular place on earth where a certain thing is available. If something is not available in America, that does not mean it does not exist at all. It may be found in one remote corner of the world, in India or somewhere else. I wish to tell all art lovers that there are many, many worlds apart from this particular world, this planet earth where we are living. If we see that certain creations are not familiar to us, we should not say that they are not real or that they do not exist. They do exist, but we have to go to the right place in order to see them.

Question: Do you have a favourite medium in which you work?

Sri Chinmoy: I prefer acrylics.

Question: I understand that you recently had a very large exhibit of your paintings and drawings in New York City. Do you plan to have more exhibitions of your paintings in the near future?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, very soon we are going to have more art shows. As a matter of fact, next month in Puerto Rico in the art museum in Ponce we will have our own exhibit. For a month, sixty large pictures will be shown. Also some well-known stores and banks will exhibit our paintings.

Question: Do you have a sense of where your art will go from here? That is, in what direction?

Sri Chinmoy: Right now I have no idea. Only I can say that this art is another form of dedication to the Supreme. My spirituality, my art, my poetry, my music, all my creative expressions form a family, a spiritual family. The members of the family will take me wherever I am needed to be of service to aspiring mankind. Some seekers get more inspiration and more aspiration through paintings than through poetry. Others get abundant inspiration through poetry, through meditation and so forth. Each form of spiritual dedication will be able to serve certain groups of aspiring souls. Whichever form of spiritual expression a seeker finds most helpful in order to increase his aspiration, he will be able to get from me.

Question: William Butler Yeats has said that "Art is a vision of reality." Do you agree?

Sri Chinmoy: Art is a vision of reality and at the same time it is also the reality of vision. When we go deep within, art is the vision of reality and when we climb up higher and highest, it is the reality of vision.

Question: What should the goal of art and the artist be in our time?

Sri Chinmoy: The goal of art and the goal of the artist in our time should be to serve God devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally. As a seeker prays and meditates in order to achieve the highest and manifest the highest on earth, even so an artist, a seeker-artist, must pray to the Absolute Supreme to grant him the capacity to realise the highest through art and to manifest the highest through art, for realisation and manifestation are the only things that a true seeker needs, nothing else.

Song — Ai ai ai

/Ai ai ai chandra taraka/
/Nil nabha robi ai/
/Parane bajiche amarar banshi/
/Jiban ajike asimer hasi/
/Nai hetha nai/
/Dainya timir/
/Jyoti nirjhar/
/Bishal e nir/
/Ai ai ai antara pakhi/
/Ajike sabare chai/
/Ai ore ai chandra taraka/
/Nil nabha robi ai/

Come, come, come, O moon, O stars,
O sun of the blue-vast sky,
Come to hear the flute of Immortality in my heart,
To watch the smile of Infinity in my life.
Here there is no human poverty, no darkness-life.
Here in this heart-nest of mine
There is only an endless fountain-light.
Come, come, come.
Today the bird of my heart desires everyone.
Come, come, come, O moon, O stars,
O sun of the blue-vast sky.