Press Conference
with Sri Chinmoy
at the Cebu Midtown Hotel
Question: To be able to lift with just one arm the weight of 7,000 pounds is seemingly as impossible a task as trying to establish peace among the peoples of the world. Is it possible for you to explain how you are able to do such a feat, which is scientifically and logically impossible?
Sri Chinmoy: First of all, from the very depth of my heart I wish to thank you for asking me this question. Your question is, for me, more illumining than the answer could ever be. Impossibility is a word that we find in the English dictionary. But this particular word we do not find in our heart's dictionary. Our heart recognises no such word. In our heart we are all the time expanding our own reality and growing from the finite into the Infinite. There what we are dreaming of today is becoming the reality of tomorrow.
There is the reality of the mind and the reality of the heart. When we live in the reality of the mind, we are constantly separating ourselves from others. We sing only one song: my and mine. We know only one truth: division. When we live in the heart, we are constantly expanding on the strength of our oneness with everything around us. There is no division in the heart; there is only multiplication. At every moment we are multiplying our capacities and our inner divinity.
If I ask my mind whether I can lift 7,000 pounds, immediately it will say, “Impossible!” I do not need anyone else in the world to doubt my capacities. My own mind is by far the best doubter. It will do the job better than anybody else. But when I am in the heart, with the heart and for the heart, there is no such thing as impossibility because of the heart’s oneness. When I am in the heart, I become one with each and every human being on earth. If countless human beings are with me and for me, then lifting 7,000 pounds is not a difficult task.
So through my prayer and meditation I am able to expand my love for my fellow citizens of the world and enter into the Universal Consciousness. For the Universal Consciousness to lift up 7,000 pounds is absolutely nothing. It is like lifting up a grain of sand.
We pray and meditate so that we do not remain in the mind-reality, which is constantly dividing us. We want to remain only in the heart-reality that claims the whole world as its very own. If we remain in the heart and sing the song of universal oneness, we will be able to accomplish everything. The capacity of our heart far transcends the capacity of science. Our prayer-life and meditation-life can take us far, far beyond the domain of scientific capacity.
Question: Would it be possible for our provincial and city officials to unite in peace through your presence here and through the Peace Run?
Sri Chinmoy: We can only pray and meditate. Then it is up to God whether or not He fulfils our prayer and meditation. If we do anything with expectation, most of the time we are frustrated. But if we do the needful and say, as the Saviour taught us, "Let Thy Will be done,” at that time we are offering the best prayer and doing the right thing.
You may say that it is something noble that you are praying for. It is something noble, true. But God has His own time. We use the term “God’s choice Hour”. People often feel that if they ask for something good, then their prayer ought to be fulfilled immediately. But it does not happen that way. It is not like instant coffee.
First we sow a seed. Soon it germinates and becomes a tiny plant. Then it becomes a small tree, and finally it becomes a huge tree. So everything takes time. But just because something takes time, we must not lose patience. Overnight we cannot become the best human being on earth. A stairway has many steps, and we have to climb all of the steps to reach the highest height.
So I will pray, my students will pray, you will pray and the heart and soul of Cebu will pray. Just because we pray, we can hope and even be certain that there shall come a time when our prayer will be fulfilled. It can be in the very near future or in the distant future. We are doing the right thing by praying. And if we do the right thing, then naturally God will shower His choicest Blessings on our devoted heads and surrendered lives.
On the other hand, if we do not do the right thing, then nothing good will ever be accomplished. So let us start our journey by praying for oneness; God will blessingfully appreciate us. Then, at His choice Hour, He will definitely fulfil our most sincere longing.
Question: Do you have a message for the people of Cebu?
Sri Chinmoy: I wish to offer a soulful prayer to the Inner Pilot of Cebu on the strength of my heart's oneness with each citizen of Cebu.
O Inner Pilot, Supreme Pilot of Cebu, You have given us simplicity in our lives. You have given us sincerity in our minds. You have given us purity in our hearts. You have given us many, many good qualities out of Your boundless Compassion-Light.
Now we pray to You only for one thing: poise, poise, poise — inner poise in our central being. We feel that once we can establish ourselves in the beauty, light, delight, power and fragrance of inner poise, at that time all the divine qualities that You have already given us out of Your boundless Bounty will supremely and completely blossom.
Right now the divine qualities that we have are not enough to make us absolutely perfect citizens of the world. But if once we can swim in Eternity's sea of infinite inner Poise, then we are bound to arrive at our destined Goal. At that time our lifeboat will definitely arrive at the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond.
Published in Peace-Blossoms on the Philippine Life-Tree
Note:
This article reports on Sri Chinmoy’s presentation of the ‘U Thant Peace Award’ to the Sultan of Negeri Sembilan HM King Tuanku Ja’afar of Malaysia, which took place on December 30th, 1998.
Published in the Malaysian newspaper, China Press