March 6

Man’s achievements, scientific and spiritual, are the conscious inspiration-light and aspiration-might of the divine’s urge towards the realisation of the body’s countless necessities and infinite capacities and towards the manifestation of the soul’s transcendental vision of the Beyond here on earth in the heart and immediacy of today.

Science is that precious thing on earth which is pushed forward by a glowing imagination and pulled forward by its own growing experience. Spirituality is that precious thing on earth which is carried within by the fulfilling aspiration and later brought to the fore, to become consciously one with God, the Field of experience, God, the Experience and God, the Experiencer.

Within our sure living memory, we see science advancing very fast, while human happiness is receding at an alarming rate. Today’s world is seeing a flickering candle-flame of spirituality but tomorrow’s world will be flooded with the light of spirituality. Destined and decreed.

Science right now mostly deals with the material world. What is the material world, after all? It is the world that does not believe in the inevitable possibility of a divine life. Spirituality right now deals mostly with the inner world. What is the inner world? The inner world is the world that says that the possibility of the divine life on earth is no doubt impossible today, but tomorrow it will be possible, the day after it will be practicable and just the day after that it will be inevitable.

Science has the capacity to show mankind the full development of the;mental life. Spirituality has the capacity to show mankind the inevitable possibility of the life beyond the mind, the supramental life.

The outer progress and world-discovery, swiftly follow the fruitful imagination in the world of science. The inner progress and self-discovery gladly follow the soulful aspiration in the world of spirituality, the life of the world within.

Science and modern life are simply indispensable to each other. The modern life is the eye; science is the power of vision. Spirituality and the future life of mankind will be indispensable to each other. The future life of mankind will be the fully awakened consciousness and spirituality will be the guiding and fulfilling soul.

Science itself has become an art and this art must now accompany all other arts. No art can ever have its fullest expression in the modern world without the aid of science. Spirituality is the supreme art of our nature-transformation. God the Supreme Artist uses spirituality to divinely reveal to the world man’s embodied divine reality and transcendental Truth.

To fulfil his practical needs, man bitterly cries to science. To fulfil his inner personal needs, man helplessly cries to spirituality.

The sombre despair of ruthless destruction and matchless ecstasy of the outer and human fulfilment have a common friend; science. The most hopeful certainty of a new and pure creation and the life-energising, life-nourishing, life-transforming and life-fulfilling delight of the inner and divine fulfilment have a common friend: spirituality.

Science and spirituality must be united together. They need each other. Without the one, the other is incomplete, almost meaningless. Together they are not only • divinely meaningful but supremely complete. Science is the body of God. Spirituality is the soul of God. Science is also God the Body. Spirituality is also God the Soul. God the Body needs God the Soul to realise Himself, His individuality. God the Soul needs God the Body to fulfil Himself, His personality.

God’s Soul and God the Soul say to God in silence: “We loved You before and we shall love You ever.”

God’s Body and God the Body voice forth: “God, we love You now and this love of ours will forever last.”

In the world of Night and Fight Science says to spirituality: “You fool! You are a perfect nuisance!”

In the world of Night and Fight Spirituality says to science: “You rascal! Beneath my dignity to speak to a dead stone!

In the world of Light and Delight Science says to Spirituality: “Brother, I need your Wisdom.”

In the world of Light and Delight Spirituality says to science “Sister, I need your capacity.”

I have come to you today as a seeker-brother, a lover of humanity. We are all seekers here; we are all aspiring for the highest Truth. You are aspiring and I also am aspiring. Aspiration is the climbing flame within us and, at the same time, a connecting link between you and me, between your soul and mine. When we seek, when we cry, we feel that prayer is not only hope but certainty: certainty that the human world is entering into the world of divinity.

I happen to be a seeker at the United Nations. My sole aim there is to serve the body and soul of the United Nations in silence with my prayer and meditation. I do not know anything about politics, but I do know about oneness with the Highest. In the United Nations there is a small group of genuine seekers who come two times a week to serve the U.N. with their soulful prayer and meditation. We feel that this inner prayer and meditation can and will help in boundless measure to bring Peace, Light and Bliss to the world. It takes time, but we see that it also takes time for the U.N. to achieve its goal. Right now, the achievements of the U.N. are far from satisfaction.

But we feel that still there is hope. The United Nations is a symbol of man's inner cry, inner oneness. Outwardly, the members of the U.N. do commit mistakes. Again, if we make mistakes that does not mean that we shall never arrive at the truth. No, mistakes are merely rungs in the ladder of our inner progress. If we have an inner urge to do the right thing, to grow into the right thing, to fulfil the divine within us, then there comes a time when we do become perfect instruments of God. So we cannot judge the U.N. on its present appearance. We cannot judge the U.N. by what it has already offered us. Only we can judge the U.N. on its soulful promise, its promise that it will one day flood the world with boundless peace.

God has countless children and countless divine qualities, but I wish to say that His fondest child is peace. Everything this world of ours has save and except one thing, and that is peace.

What is peace? Peace is satisfaction. Each individual has his own way of discovering peace or defining peace. A child breaks something or makes a clamorous noise and that gives him satisfaction and makes him feel peace. He breaks the thing and then he is satisfied and peaceful for a few seconds. Again, the destructive vital of a particular nation may come to the fore and destroy another nation. The victorious nation gets joy; it feels satisfaction and peace.

Each individual and each nation has a way of defining peace, appreciating peace and achieving peace. But most of the time this peace is false peace; it is peace that is inevitably followed by frustration. A child breaks something; then a few minutes later he wants to break something else. One thing is not enough; he wants to break ten things. Constantly his hunger to break things is increasing. A nation destroys another nation, but it is not satisfied. The nation wants to destroy a few more nations. In this way there is no end to its hunger. Frustration follows achievement and abiding peace is never found.

Julius Caesar said, “Veni, vidi, vici”: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” He conquered, but inside him was nothing but a barren desert. By conquering we cannot have happiness. If he had said, “I came, I saw, I became,” then he would have had real peace. Real peace comes only if we say, “I have come to serve you, I am becoming part and parcel of your existence-reality.” Then we will feel perfect peace.

Right now fear, doubt, anxiety, tension and disharmony are reigning supreme. But there shall come a time when this world of ours will be flooded with peace. Who is going to bring about that radical change? It will be you: you and your sisters and brothers, who are an extension of your reality-existence. It will be you and your oneness-heart, which is spread throughout the length and breadth of the world. Peace is unity. Peace is oneness, within and without.

India's greatest poet, Tagore, wrote a soulful poem: “In front of me is the sea of Peace ...," Samukhe shanti parabar.

[Sri Chinmoy sings this soulful song.]