Part II — Norman Rockwell: Artist of Americana

UN 4. On 10 November 1978 Sri Chinmoy paid the following memorial tribute to the American artist Norman Rockwell during a meeting of the Meditation Group.

Norman Rockwell: Artist of Americana

Let us for a minute offer our prayerful meditation so that the artist of Americana, Norman Rockwell, may receive the universal Peace and transcendental Bliss which his soul so rightly and richly deserves.

He not only saw America's simplicity-life and America's happiness-heart, but he also became simplicity and happiness in the purest sense of the term.

No matter what ultra-modern science has made of America, no matter what the modern intellectual giants have made of America, in the depths of America's heart and life there shall always dwell three virtues: simplicity — a childlike simplicity; happiness — a child's happiness; and satisfaction — a child's constantly blossoming satisfaction that comes when America becomes and offers to the world what the child in it has. No virtue that America has can ever diminish or vanish, for virtue is an immortal gift which God Himself grants to aspiring souls and aspiring nations.

America's vastness the world knows. America's oneness only a soul like Norman Rockwell could feel. We, the seekers, shall always feel in him America's oneness-loving life and America's satisfaction-distributing heart. Norman Rockwell embodies the Reality's revealed dream.