Two Lovers of Peace:
Isamu Takada and Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy meets with Isamu Takada, Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture. These are excerpts from their discussion:
Governor Takada: I have heard so much about you. You are the proposer of the Peace Run.
Sri Chinmoy: God, out of His Kindness and Compassion, gave me the inspiration. And my students around the world manifested this inspiration, along with thousands of others, as they carried the peace torch around the world in the Peace Run.
Governor Takada: Are you travelling all over the world?
Sri Chinmoy: Whenever I get the opportunity I travel to offer my prayers for peace.
Governor Takada: It is my great pleasure and honour to welcome you to Nagasaki, one of only two cities that suffered from the atomic bomb.
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, the places that have suffered the most also have the capacity to offer the most good to the world. Here in Japan are the two places that have suffered the most destruction from the atomic bomb. Now from Hiroshima and Nagasaki oneness is being offered to the world. When something is destroyed, there is a surge of inspiration to rebuild it. Right after the destruction a new hope, a new dawn comes. The new dawn is now blossoming in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Governor Takada: I am very impressed with your words, and I agree with your opinion that suffering and disaster can offer a new promise. I have made many efforts with the citizens of Nagasaki to recover from the disaster and bring Nagasaki to its present condition. I have a great desire for Nagasaki to be the last place in the world to suffer such a disaster again.
Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes when you suffer, you learn to value the highest goal. It is not that suffering is necessary, but sometimes when you suffer, you learn to appreciate and value the highest goal more than otherwise. If you have to climb the Himalayas, then you will truly appreciate their height and value attaining the summit. But if you just take a plane and fly above the Himalayas, you do not get the same intensity. When Hillary and Tenzing climbed, what suffering they had! But from their achievement the world got new determination, new inspiration to do something especially great.
The whole world needs peace. But if one goes through the suffering of war, only then does one truly value the supreme necessity for peace.
Governor Takada: I have been told that you will be seeing the Pope next month. The Pope came to visit Nagasaki on 21 January 1981. I remember it very well. Generally speaking there is no snow in Nagasaki, but when the Pope came, there was a very heavy snow. When the Pope was giving Mass here in Nagasaki, suddenly the sun came out. I remember it so well.
Sri Chinmoy: I have been blessed by the Pope before, and I will be meeting him once again on 14 October. Also I will be meeting with the Speaker of the British Parliament on the 12th. This is how I try to be of service to humanity with the hope of establishing peace on earth.
Governor Takada: I would like to express my sincere appreciation of your efforts towards world peace. If in the future there is ever a war again, it will be a nuclear war. We must therefore realise how important the mission of peace is.
Sri Chinmoy: We must pray and pray and pray so that there will not he a third, nuclear war. It will destroy all our hopes and humanity's happiness. Our prayers should be infinitely stronger than the atom bomb or the hydrogen bomb. We must pray — all sincere peace-lovers must pray — as intensely and as soulfully as possible so that we can avert a third world war.
Governor Takada: I hope you will continue to work for world peace.
Sri Chinmoy: I thank you from the very depths of my heart. You are a lover of peace, and I am a lover of peace. Let us both, therefore, sail in the same boat toward the shore of world peace.
Published in Japan: Soul-Beauty's Heart-Garden
Sri Chinmoy lifts Calvin Smith, 1984 Olympic gold medallist for the 4x100 metres relay and 1988 Olympic bronze medallist for 100 metres, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, Republic of Korea. On the day, Sri Chinmoy lifts several other Olympians, including Andre Phillips, 1988 Olympic gold medallist for the 400 metres hurdles.