Canada's Oneness-Heart
Long before the advent of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, Sri Chinmoy encouraged his disciples to bring to the fore the unique qualities of their country in various ways. For Canada, he composed the song “O Good Canada’s Oneness-Heart” and, over the next few months, teams of runners demonstrated this oneness with some epic relay runs.
O Good Canada’s Oneness-Heart
O good Canada’s Oneness-Heart,
In you I see the perfection-start.
Your blue vision-worlds run and sail,
Your gold reality-worlds never fail.
Your beauty’s soulful cry succeeds.
Your duty’s fruitful smile proceeds.
Beyond within your vastness-chart,
O good Canada’s Oneness-Heart.
– 9 May 1976
On 28 April 1976, thirteen Canadian disciples embarked on a 360-mile, non-stop relay run to celebrate the anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s completion of 360 poems in 24 hours.
On 24 June 1976, a team of relay runners set off from Ottawa carrying a flaming torch. Their destination, more than 500 miles away was the Statue of Liberty in New York. Sixty-six hours later, the runners of Canada’s Oneness-Heart completed their relay which demonstrated their love and support for their American brothers and sisters and their feeling of oneness with the American Bicentennial spirit.
With the arrival of the Canadian team, a group of American runners, called Liberty Torch, would begin their own non-stop run through all 50 U.S. states in honor of the 200th anniversary of the founding of America.
Sri Chinmoy, the inspiration for both historic groups, said:
"Today Canada’s Oneness-Heart is claimed at once by humanity’s soulful cry and divinity’s fruitful smile. History will bear witness to the Supreme fact that Canada is not for Canada alone."
- Sri Chinmoy
Questions and answers
Before the Canadian runners set out on their journey to the Statue of liberty, they had the opportunity to ask Sri Chinmoy questions about the significance of Canada’s Oneness-Heart.
Question: What is the inner and outer goal of Canada’s Oneness-Heart?
Sri Chinmoy: The goal is to bring to the fore all the divine qualities that Canada has. Good qualities you have in abundant measure. All these qualities can be brought to the fore, and all unaspiring qualities can be transformed into aspiring qualities.
So, this is the goal: to come to the fore, to be in the vanguard of humanity’s progress. Here again, not with a competitive spirit but with our pure, aspiring life. The goal here is very broad, very wide, very lofty, illumining and fulfilling. There is no end to this goal. As you mentioned, it is only the starting point for each succeeding goal. There is no fixed goal. Right now, Canada’s Oneness-Heart has to prove itself in all the Centres in Canada – Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria. Among the Canadian Centres there should be no competitive spirit.
Question: What are the spiritual qualities that are most important in Canada’s Oneness-Heart?
Sri Chinmoy: Until you have realised what oneness is, then the next best thing is sacrifice. Oneness has to be established; this is the goal. Right now, you are using the term ‘Canada’s Oneness-Heart’, but if you do not feel that Oneness-Heart immediately the moment you say ‘oneness’, then you have to achieve that oneness. How can you achieve it? Only on the strength of sacrifice, self-sacrifice. But again, there is no such thing as self-sacrifice. When my hand does something for my leg, it is not sacrifice because the hand knows that my leg is part of my entire body; the next moment my leg will do something for my hand. So, until you have realised that we are all one, then you have to make sacrifices to make yourself feel that we all are one. How do we make ourselves feel that we all are one? On the strength of self-sacrifice.
Oneness is satisfaction, oneness is perfection. If we are not satisfied, if we do not feel a sense of satisfaction inside us, then we have to come to oneness through self-sacrifice. How do you sacrifice? To make sacrifice you have to be pure – pure in the body, vital, mind and heart, in the inner life, in the outer life. It takes confidence, security in the Supreme for the Supreme.
In the outer life, it is very difficult for us to feel that we are of the Supreme. At times, we do feel that we are for the Supreme, that we are not merely a stranger on the street, but we do not feel it at every moment. If we can feel that we are of the Absolute Supreme, then there are many undivine things we will not do. If we feel we are of the One who is universal, transcendental, how can insecurity, jealousy or other undivine qualities enter into us? No matter how imperfect we are, we can be for the Supreme. When you think you are for the Supreme, you become more alert to what is happening now.
If you do not feel immediately what oneness is, then start with sacrifice. In order to sacrifice, you have to have inner purity and outer confidence. This confidence needs the support of the vital and mind for inspiration.
Question: What does the Supreme think of Canada’s Oneness-Heart?
Sri Chinmoy: He does not think! He has no brain. He does not use brain-power. He holds the ultimate Vision, and he knows what the ultimate Vision is. He is nurturing the seed, he knows how the seed will germinate, how it will become a plant, how it will become a tree, a great banyan tree. All that He knows inwardly. In our case, we do not know; it is all calculation, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; this is our life.
But in His case, there is no such thing as addition and subtraction because He knows the Ultimate is unfolding. In His ultimate Vision, it is all One. Therefore, we can either go straight, sideways, upwards, inwards. We feel that we are flying or diving. But the Supreme sees clearly when we are flying, when we are diving and when we are running also.
The Supreme does not think, He does not feel. He knows. It is His own Self-Expansion. He is Infinite; therefore, He enters Infinity. He is all Oneness. As I say, He is transcending. He is infinite; He is eternal. If we use the mind, Infinity puzzles us, Eternity puzzles us. But if we use the soul, there is no problem. Infinity is a state of consciousness that can be expanded and which lasts. There is nothing but God Himself. He is always Progress. He is Perfect Perfection – He is Infinite Perfection.
At every moment, He is Transcending His Divinity, His Infinity, His Eternity, His Immortality, so that we can never catch Him. It is a game He plays and when we do catch Him, He immediately dances before us, He embraces us and then He runs away, and again we run after Him. We run after Him and then we become tired. He waits for us secretly, unmistakably, carefully. He waits most soulfully. Then He comes and again the game starts. It is the cosmic hide-and-seek game He is playing.
Further reading
Talk about Canada's Oneness-Heart, 12 February 1977.
