Message of Peace to the People of Nagoya

 

Everybody in this world is crying and dying for joy, but unless one has peace of mind and peace in one's heart, one can never have joy. Without peace there can be no real joy here in Nagoya or anywhere. The seeker and God-lover in me is praying for each and every human being living in Nagoya and also in Japan to have inner peace, because I know it is from inner peace that they will get true outer joy.

— Sri Chinmoy
Nagoya


Published in Japan, My Life Bows to Your Heart

 

Event for Victims of the
2004 Boxing Day Tsunami

 

Sri Chinmoy leads a moment of silence and performs on the esraj at an afternoon fund-raising event for tsunami victims — in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand — held in Beijing’s York Hotel, China.

The speakers include the General-Secretary of the Beijing Red Cross, Liu Yan Jun, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Beijing Science and Technology Report, Zhao Ying Hua, whose organisations sponsored the event. Sri Chinmoy’s own humanitarian organisation, ‘The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles’ donates significantly to the tsunami appeal.

 

Photos by Maral Siegel

 

Sri Chinmoy honours both organisations by presenting one of his Soul-Bird drawings to each of their representatives.

 

Question about the Tsunami

answered by Sri Chinmoy
at the Beijing York Hotel in Beijing, China

 

Question: During this huge disaster, what kind of spirit would we need to face it?

Sri Chinmoy: We need a spirit of oneness. This disaster has in a very special way helped us to bring the world together. The world of division must go. The world of oneness must come forward. Your Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing, has written a most beautiful, soulful and heart-rending poem and I have taken the liberty of setting that particular poem to music. Many, many people have written about this tsunami disaster, but your Foreign Minister's poem I feel should be at the top of the list. He began, "To my distant friends." The world is vast, but on the strength of our oneness, heart's oneness, we can make each and every human being feel that we exist for the improvement of the world.

We human beings have been doing many, many things wrong over the years. Now, I do not wish to use the term 'punishment', but let us say that somebody is trying to illumine us. Mother Nature is illumining us in a very special way. She is saying, "Now wake up, wake up!" This world has to be inundated with peace, joy and harmony. The tsunami is, to me, a blessing in disguise. Many, many people who did not previously care for the world have now brought forward their hearts. They have come together with utmost sympathy and a feeling of oneness. This world belongs to each and every human being. We exist not only for our little family, but for the big family, which is the world.

On the one hand, the tsunami is a great disaster. On the other hand, if we look at it from a different point of view, it has helped immensely to bring about the feeling of oneness. To me, it is a kind of blessing in disguise for the world as a whole. Outwardly, it seems like a severe, severe punishment. Inwardly, we feel it has helped immensely to prove to the world at large that we belong to one family.


Published in My Heart-Door I Have Kept Wide Open