Mediation and Meditation
A talk given by Sri Chinmoy in the
at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium,
United Nation, New York
Two conflicting parties: they need some compromise. A third party, the mediator, is then of paramount importance. His is the task of offering light to the conflicting and strangling parties. When the mediator is successful in his acts of mediation, the two conflicting parties end their mutual enmity and hostility. They live, or at least try to live, peacefully, in their own domain.
Two conflicting parties: one party declares might is right; the other party declares right is might. We observe in the Mahabharata, India's greatest epic, that the Kauravas proclaimed that might is right, and the Pandavas maintained, in the light of conscience, that right is might. We all know that the Pandavas won the battle.
The animal in us instigates us by roaring that might is right. The human in us inspires us by feeling deep within that right is might. The divine in us illumines us by offering the supreme Truth that it is God alone who has all Might and who is all Right.
When we look at the unlit consciousness found on the human level, we see something quite disappointing and damaging. We see that this unlit consciousness is very often unthinking, unaspiring and possessing. At this point, we have to invoke the Grace of God. It is the Divine Grace that can transform the unthinking consciousness into the thinking, the unaspiring consciousness into the aspiring and the possessing consciousness into the renouncing.
Here on earth, since everything is fleeting, if we can derive a little joy, a little peace, a little harmony from mediation, our mental wisdom, we should be proud of our achievement. At a certain stage in human development, when most of the people are not aspiring to be perfect, mediation is of great importance. Therefore we must pay attention, reverential attention to mediation. It is a temporary mental relief, a pause, a rest in the life of the vital. It is a clever compromise. But to expect abiding peace and illumining fulfilment from mediation is simply absurd. We cannot expect lasting peace and we must not expect everlasting, illumining fulfilment from mediation. For that we need meditation.
We are now at the United Nations. The United Nations is the mediator unmatched and unparalleled in today's world:
The Secretary-General and his special representatives have assisted in finding solutions to problems in a number of areas. The Secretary-General's efforts assisted the Government of the Soviet Union and the United States to avert a serious threat to the peace which arose at the end of 1963 in the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic crisis in 1965 a representative of the Secretary-General, appointed at the request of the Security Council, helped in securing a cease-fire. The fighting between Israel and the Arab States that followed the eruptions of the Palestine partition — the partition plan in the establishment of the State of Israel — was halted by a United Nations cease-fire. Then following negotiations carried out with a United Nations mediator, armistice agreements were signed in 1949. Peace Corps observers have been in the area ever since, supervising the armistice agreements.*
These achievements are unique in the physical world, in the vital world, in the mental world and in the psychic world. Unfortunately these achievements may not, or do not or cannot last. We have seen the First World War, the Second World War. There should not be, at least for God's sake, a Third World War!
Very often animal aggression gives birth to human aggrandisement. This human aggrandisement is chased by bitter frustration. Then, later on, human aggrandisement is devoured by utter destruction.
In the spiritual life, in our inner life, we also see two conflicting parties: fear and doubt on one side; and inner courage and faith on the other side. Meditation plays three distinctive roles in the inner life. Meditation is the medicine; meditation is the doctor; meditation is the cure, the ultimate cure. Meditation cures our fear. It transforms our fear into strength, adamantine will. It transforms our doubt into constant, unmistakable and inevitable certainty. Again, we see that meditation is the road, meditation is the guide and meditation is the Goal. He who is surcharged with inner courage and faith will get constant help and illumination from meditation. Further, let us not forget that meditation is the only road, the only guide and the only Goal.
In the outer world, the blind human body needs constant mediation. The wild human vital needs striking mediation. The unclear human mind needs illumining mediation. The weak human heart needs lasting mediation.
In the inner world, the fleeting, unaspiring human body needs constant meditation. The running, struggling vital needs striking meditation. The searching and climbing human mind needs illumining meditation. The crying and aspiring human heart needs everlasting meditation.
In the outer world, in this world of turmoil, mediation is necessary. In the inner world, in the world of frustration and despair, meditation is necessary. If we can bring the result of meditation to the fore, mediation will have a life, a different life, a new life that will be flooded with everlasting Peace, Light and Bliss.
In the fleeting, in the finite, we shall hear the message of the Eternal and the Infinite.
I wish all of us to stand up and pray to God most sincerely and soulfully for our dear Secretary-General U Thant's quickest recovery.
[Secretary-General U Thant was in the hospital at the time this talk was given. Everyone stood up and prayed with Sri Chinmoy for five minutes.]
* Excerpt from United Nations Office of Public Information booklet.
Published in The Garland of Nation-Souls
World Peace Literature Award
Sri Chinmoy receives the award from Professor Charles Johnson
at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington
Excerpt from welcoming remarks at the Peace Concert by Professor Charles Johnson of the University of Washington, winner of the National Book Award:
All of Sri Chinmoy’s works are a form of worship, whether they are in the fields of music or writing or literally uplifting others in the world.... I believe that the great creative productivity of this man illustrates for us all that any man or woman devoted to the life of the spirit will bring forth gifts of beauty and redemption in numerous genres and fields of artistic endeavour. Like Gandhi, like Mother Teresa, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Sri Chinmoy’s presence and work among us have enriched all of our lives.
Published in My Prayerful Salutations to the United Nations