Hartford Television Interview
with Sri Chinmoy
First interviewer: I've heard about meditation, but I really don't know too much about it. This morning our guest is Sri Chinmoy, who is an expert in the area of meditation. He has lectured at many universities and written several books on the subject, and he also conducts twice-weekly meditations at the United Nations. It's nice to have you here this morning, Sri Chinmoy.
Sri Chinmoy: I am so happy to be here.
First interviewer: I think my first question is that I want to know more about meditation. Is it a mental exercise or is it like self-hypnosis? Is it an alternative to religion? Do people meditate instead of going to church?
Sri Chinmoy: Meditation is not a mental exercise, it is not self-hypnosis and it is not a form of religion. Meditation is an inner study for self-discovery. We meditate in order to empty our mind and in order to empty our heart. When we empty our mind we receive God the Peace. When we empty our heart we receive God the Love. Peace and Love are the two most important things in our life.
First interviewer: I think a lot of people are going to be wondering how you go about meditating. How do you do it? I think the results you are talking about sound good, but most of us don't really know how to meditate.
Sri Chinmoy: I wish to meditate for a few seconds. Then I shall explain how to meditate. [Sri Chinmoy meditates for a moment.] You just observed as I meditated for a couple of seconds. While I was meditating, I felt Peace and Delight all through my body. It was like a stream of Peace, Light and Delight flowing from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.
Second interviewer: How would you describe what you saw in your mind's eye? Were you seeing some sort of a landscape scene?
Sri Chinmoy: Actually I was not seeing anything. I was growing into something, and that something was flowing Peace, Light and Bliss. I was becoming part and parcel of it.
First interviewer: Do you have to actually clear your mind of everything?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, you have to clear your mind and not allow any thought whatsoever to enter into the mind. If a thought does enter into the mind, then we cannot grow into the divine Reality.
First interviewer: But I think that's really hard for people, because particularly in everyday life, there are so many things that are acting upon you. How do you go about actually clearing the mind and not thinking about something you have to do that day or a problem you have?
Sri Chinmoy: Meditation should be a regular practice. We study regularly in order to pass our examination or achieve something. If we practise daily, it is quite possible to meditate well. But to start with, we should read a few spiritual books to inspire ourselves and go to a spiritual Master who can increase our aspiration. We should try to live a regular, self-disciplined life.
First interviewer: So one can actually go to a class to learn?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes.
Second interviewer: What are some of the exercises? What can you learn from reading a book about how to empty your mind and heart? How would the readings inspire you to be able to do this?
Sri Chinmoy: If you read a spiritual book, it will mention techniques for emptying your mind and illumining your mind. But as regards physical exercises, I feel they are not absolutely necessary. These preliminary exercises help us to a certain extent, but they are not indispensable. When we sit and make our mind calm, quiet and tranquil, we feel that we are in a position to have a free access to our inner reality. When we have a free access to our inner reality, we hear the Message of God. God is constantly speaking to us. He is trying to guide us all the time, but it is we who do not hear His Message.
Second interviewer: When we are getting ready to meditate, doesn't the environment have to be just right? Do you have to be in a quiet place alone or can you do it with a bunch of people around?
Sri Chinmoy: It depends on your capacity. In the beginning it is impossible to meditate when there are people around who are making noise or who are not aspiring. But there comes a time when you become an expert in meditation. Then, no matter what is happening around you, you will not be affected at all.
Second interviewer: We are talking with the distinguished authority on Yoga and meditation, Sri Chinmoy. Sir, what about the housewife who is at home with three screaming children in the morning or most of the day? Or the business executive who is just running from here to there for appointments all day long? How can they sit down and take a few moments to meditate? How can you get them to calm down from their daily activities?
Sri Chinmoy: Housewives and business executives can easily meditate, provided they know what is most important in life and provided they are willing to do the first thing first. Early in the morning before they enter into the hustle and bustle of life, if they offer a few seconds to God, then they can easily meditate. God is for everyone. He is not the sole monopoly of one individual who is ready to aspire all the time. Just because God is omnipresent, He is in everybody. God is not denied to a housewife or a business executive; only they have to feel a conscious necessity for God.
Second interviewer: In the midst of daily life, how is a housewife going to sit down and take time out? Is there some simple thing she can do to relieve the tension?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, while she is talking to her children, while she is trying to discipline their life, if she can feel the presence of the living God inside them, then there will be a spontaneous flow of divine love from her. And at that time her children will feel that their mother has something special to offer. So when she consciously observes God or feels the presence of God, she will be in a position to deal with her children in a divine way; and that is her meditation.
First interviewer: I've read about classes that you can go to and some seem very expensive, something like $300 for a class. Do you feel there is commercialism in meditation?
Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the individual teacher. I have no idea what others do. In my case, I always say that my fee is aspiration or an inner cry, plus regularity.
I have been teaching meditation for the last seven or eight years, and we have about forty-five meditation Centres all over the world. If one has an inner cry and at the same time is willing to come to the Centre regularly and devotedly, then he has paid his fees.
Second interviewer: You mentioned the presence of God a number of times, and that would lead to another question: Is this God compatible with every religion that anybody might belong to?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, every religion speaks about God. Yoga is another name for spirituality. Meditation also talks about God.
First interviewer: I remember reading in the paper one day about certain scientific studies in terms of the physical effects that meditation has on the body. What are some of these?
Sri Chinmoy: If we meditate well, then we feel peace inside ourselves. We feel that all the time there is illumining guidance within ourselves or a beckoning hand which is all the time leading us towards our destination, which is satisfaction-life.
First interviewer: So meditation can also decrease blood pressure and do other things?
Sri Chinmoy: These things can be done by the Will of God. When we meditate, we identify ourselves consciously with God's adamantine Will. So if we are in need of something, then naturally our God, who is all Love and all Compassion, will do the needful within us.
Second interviewer: Peace and love are wonderful things to have and we should all have them. But what do you do if you are trying to express a feeling of peace and love but people around you are running here and there, backstabbing and what-not in the everyday business world, let us say? How can this really help the situation?
Sri Chinmoy: In this world we feel that everything is contagious. If we can increase the number of people who are in the world of love and peace, then naturally we will be able to inspire and influence others. You are a good soul. If you work with a bad human being, then your inner good qualities will try to inspire that person. When we see a saint, immediately we feel the good qualities of the saint coming forward in ourselves and inspiring us. So if you have peace and love, then either today or tomorrow your peace and love will spread, because the very nature of peace is to spread and the very nature of love is to spread.
Second interviewer: I think, though, that a lot of people will look upon somebody who is meditating and so on as kind of weird, bizarre or mystical. How do you counter that feeling?
Sri Chinmoy: Right now let them cherish this false notion. But a day will come when we are in a position to offer or reveal our inner qualities and then they will be able to recognise their folly. So let them assess us in their own way. Let us offer to the world at large what we have to offer. A day will come when they will be able to recognise their mistake.
First interviewer: Thank you very much for coming today, Sri Chinmoy. I think people will now want to at least try meditation and see if it works for themselves.
Published in Aspiration and God's Hour
MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT VISITS SRI CHINMOY
The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Boris Trajkovski, visited Sri Chinmoy and his students at Aspiration-Ground on May 8.
Sri Chinmoy welcomed the Macedonian leader with an esraj performance, and afterwards lifted him into the air as part of his ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ program.
The spiritual leader then presented President Trajkovski with the U Thant Peace Award for his “signal contributions to the entire peace-starving humanity.”
The Master hailed him as “a supremely choice son of your beloved Motherland,” as well as “the resplendent rising sun of Macedonia.”
The President called the U Thant Peace Award the highest honor he has received since becoming President of his nation.
“It comes, he said, “at a moment of destiny and great importance to my country,” as a gesture of the support of the entire “spiritual peace-loving world.”
He went on to pledge that “as long as I live, I will ... work for peace, happiness and love among people.”
Caption:
Macedonian President Trajkovski visits Sri Chinmoy at Aspiration-Ground.
Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 33, March-July 2002