Sri Chinmoy’s Television Interview
in Apia, Western Samoa
Interviewer: Sri Chinmoy, what message are you trying to spread around the world?
Sri Chinmoy: I am trying to offer a simple and prayerful message to the world at large, and this message is the message of peace. Unless and until we have achieved peace, we shall not be happy. We can have material things in boundless measure, we can be the richest human beings on earth, we can wallow in the pleasures of life, but we cannot be happy unless we have peace. We have to work together and pray together so that God will bless us with peace.
Interviewer: When you talk about peace, are you talking about having no wars, or individual peace?
Sri Chinmoy: Individual peace must come first. If I have peace of mind and you have peace of mind, then there cannot be war. But if I do not have peace of mind, then I am constantly insecure, jealous and afraid of you. I think that you are going to attack me at any moment, so I want to attack you first. Or I feel superior to you and want to show my supremacy; I want to prove that I am greater and stronger than you, so I declare war.
All this is coming from the mind. Indeed, war always begins in the mind. But if I live in the heart and feel my oneness with you, then I am not plagued by insecurity and jealousy. Then there is only oneness-peace. So I tell the world, “Let us live in the heart, not in the mind. War is in the mind, but love and peace are in the heart.”
Unfortunately, the world is still living in the mind. Each country either is trying to show its supremacy or is afraid of other countries, and therefore the world is sorely lacking in peace. How can the world get peace? From prayer and meditation. If I get peace from my prayer and meditation, then I will not attack you or anybody else. And my peace of mind will inspire you also to pray and meditate and acquire peace of mind. So from individual peace we can have collective peace.
My prayerful message to the world is this: let us first have individual peace, and from there we will go to collective peace. If there is one beautiful plant in a garden, then gradually other plants will grow from it. But all of a sudden I cannot get hundreds and thousands of beautiful plants from one plant; it is impossible. If one person has peace of mind, then he will inspire somebody else to have peace of mind. If one country in this world has peace, then that country will inspire another country to have peace.
Interviewer: When meeting with world leaders, what do you speak about?
Sri Chinmoy: Today I met with your Head of State. He was extremely, extremely kind, compassionate and loving to me. We are all praying to God to bring about world peace, so when I meet with world leaders we only talk about how we can have a peaceful world. Many world leaders are politicians, but I do not know anything about politics. I meet with them as a student of peace and a lover of peace. They know that I am ignorant about politics, but still they are kind enough to meet with me because they sincerely want to establish peace on earth. So we talk about our prayerful service to mankind and about peace and oneness.
Interviewer: Where does meditation come into this?
Sri Chinmoy: Meditation is of paramount importance. If we do not meditate, we cannot have even an iota of peace. Meditation makes the mind calm and tranquil [Sri Chinmoy demonstrates meditation]. With this meditation, I am bringing down peace from Above. If you can meditate for fifteen minutes, a half-hour or an hour daily, the mind will become calm, quiet, tranquil and peaceful.
Interviewer: Do you think of anything in particular while meditating?
Sri Chinmoy: While meditating we should not think of anything; only we should keep the mind calm and quiet. The mind is by nature restless, like the surface of the sea. But if we can go deep within, if we can dive to the bottom of the sea, we will find that it is all peace. We can find this peace either through prayer or meditation.
Interviewer: What about thinking peaceful thoughts?
Sri Chinmoy: After we make the mind calm, good thoughts, inspiring thoughts and pure thoughts will come. But if we start by trying to think good thoughts, they will not come.
Interviewer: What about sports? What does it have to do with your mission?
Sri Chinmoy: Physical fitness is of paramount importance. We are not practising sports to be the world’s greatest runner or athlete. We are praying to God to keep our body physically fit so that early in the morning we can pray and meditate and begin our day’s journey with a prayerful heart. If we do not do sports and take exercise to keep the body fit, then we may become weak and sickly and suffer from all kinds of pains and ailments. Then we will not be inspired to get up early in the morning to pray and meditate. So when we think of sports, we think of physical fitness, not physical supremacy. The most important thing in our life is prayer and meditation, and that we cannot do if we are not physically fit.
Interviewer: What about the competitive element in sports? Isn't that another form of showing supremacy?
Sri Chinmoy: If we are not yet ready to accept the highest philosophy, we say to ourselves, “If I do not keep my body fit, then I will not be able to defeat anybody.” With that thought in mind, at least we will try to keep our body fit. But from the highest point of view, the goal is not to defeat anybody but only to compete with ourselves. When we compete with others, we are never happy. Today I may defeat someone in running, but tomorrow I will look around and see that there is somebody who is far better than I. No matter what we do, there is always somebody else who can do it better. This moment I may be the best, but the next moment someone else will come and smash my pride, and I will feel miserable.
When I compete only with myself, I always get tremendous joy. Yesterday I had one standard, but today my standard has gone higher. Yesterday I had a certain number of weaknesses or defects in my nature, but today I will try my best to have a few less. In this way I am always making progress and I am always happy. Here there is no third person who is judging the two competitors. I myself am the judge. I know how many lies I told yesterday, so today I shall decrease the number. Again, yesterday if I prayed for five minutes, then today I will try to pray for ten minutes. Good things I will try to increase and bad things I will try to decrease. In this way I am competing only with myself. In sports also, our goal is to do our very best and try all the time to compete only with ourselves. But whatever the result, we have to accept it cheerfully. We will do our best and then, whatever result God wants us to have, we will accept.
Interviewer: What do you think of the Olympic Games?
Sri Chinmoy: I appreciate and admire the Olympic Games because they are raising the world standard. Right now the athletes are trying to defeat each other. For the time being this is good. If they did not have a competitive spirit, then they would be at home sleeping. It is better to be active and dynamic than lazy and useless. It is better to be moving forward than standing still. While moving forward, if they want to try to go ahead of those who are moving with them, no harm. Although this is not the highest way, it is far better than remaining inactive and lethargic.
After some time they will see that there is a higher way of looking at sports. If victory is the only goal, then the athletes can never find happiness, for even if they win today, tomorrow somebody else will come along and take away their glory. Real happiness can never be found in separating ourselves from others. Real happiness comes only in feeling our oneness with others, even if they defeat us.
We are all members of a family. If your brother defeats you in running, you are not miserable, because he is your brother. Again, if you defeat him in swimming because you have more capacity in that sport, your brother is not going to feel miserable. He will say, “It is my brother who has done it, so it is all right.” Like that, if all the athletes can feel that they belong to one family, then they will be happy no matter who wins.
Regardless of who wins on the sports ground, each one should try to excel in his own life by competing with himself and going forward according to his own capacity to his destined goal. In this way each individual will all the time make progress and achieve greater and greater perfection. True happiness comes only from our increasing sense of perfection which we can achieve only through self-transcendence. But right now the world has not come up to that standard.
Interviewer: What roles do your students play in your mission?
Sri Chinmoy: My students do everything. They participate in sports and they have completely thrown themselves into the peace movement. Every second year we have a Peace Run. In the last run, seventy-six countries participated, and millions of people who are true lovers of peace — from children right up to octogenarians — held our Peace Torch. My students are trying to be of service to mankind, to people who sincerely want peace and who are looking for something that will give them abiding satisfaction.
Interviewer: Thank you very much.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 2
SRI CHINMOY AND RAVI SHANKAR
By Ashok Parulekar
They are two great musicians who gave India’s divine gift of soulful music to the whole world. Ravi Shankar was the greatest Sitar player in the world who passed away recently. Spiritual master Sri Chinmoy composed 21000 soulful songs and performed in 700 Peace Concerts around the world based on his own meditative compositions and using a number of musical instruments. Sri Chinmoy left his body in October, 2007. Both will be eternally alive through their music and inspire humanity through generations.
Sri Chinmoy met Ravi Shankar in 1973. They met again in 2002 in San Diego, California. Sri Chinmoy honored Ravi Shankar in his unique way by lifting him up on a specially prepared platform and giving him ‘U Thant Award’. Afterwards they visited Yogananda Centre. Sri Chinmoy composed a beautiful song for Paramhansa Yogananda at the same spot where Yoganada wrote the famous book, ‘Autobiagraphy of a Yogi’. Sri Chinmoy’s disciples sang the song. Olympian Sudhahota Carl Lewis also joined. (Sudhahota is his spiritual name given by his Guru Sri Chinmoy) In October, 2002 Ravi Shankar traveled to New York to perform a private concert for Sri Chinmoy and his disciples. Sri Chinmoy composed a song for Ravi Shankar in his native Bengali. They were always in contact by phone till Sri Chinmoy left his body in 2007.
Caption:
Sri Chinmoy giving U Thant Award to Ravi Shankar. Seen in the picture from L to R Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka, his wife Sukanya, Ravi Shankar, Sri Chinmoy
This article in the December 21-27, 2012, edition of The Indian Panorama pays tribute to “two great musicians who gave India’s divine gift of soulful music to the whole world.”