Interview with National German Radio
‘Hessischer Rundfunk’ in Frankfurt, Germany
Excerpts from the interview:
Interviewer: Could you introduce yourself?
Sri Chinmoy: I am a student of peace. I pray to God and meditate on God for world peace.
Interviewer: How did you become a student of peace?
Sri Chinmoy: By praying and meditating. Everybody on earth can do whatever he or she wants to do. In my case, I prayed to God for peace, so He has given me ample opportunity to offer my service to mankind.
Interviewer: How can one learn meditation?
Sri Chinmoy: Either one goes to a teacher or one prays to God and cries like a child for God to teach him how to pray and meditate. The first person who began to pray and meditate, thousands of years ago, definitely received this teaching from within. In the outer world we find that there are many people who have not gone to school who are quite learned. Our Rabindranath Tagore, India’s greatest poet, and the great dramatist and philosopher George Bernard Shaw did not go to school, but they were both men of knowledge and wisdom. Again, there are many, many people who went to universities in order to learn and become endowed with knowledge. In the same way, to learn meditation, either one has to go to a teacher to learn or one has to learn it by himself.
Interviewer: You are not only meditating. You are also doing sports, writing songs and poems and painting. Where do you find the time to do all this?
Sri Chinmoy: When I use my mind, it is impossible even to imagine doing all these things. But when I use my heart, I feel that everything is possible because I know I am a mere instrument of God's Compassion and, according to my receptivity, God does everything in and through me. It entirely depends on my own receptivity. God's Grace is like the sun. If I keep all the doors and windows open, naturally the sunlight will enter into the room in abundant measure, whereas if I leave only one tiny window open, then very little light will be able to enter. In exactly the same way, if we can open our heart-door completely, then God's Grace enters into us.
Interviewer: Could you sum up your philosophy?
Sri Chinmoy: My philosophy is very simple: love and serve. We love God the Creator and serve God the creation. God is at once the Creator and the creation. When I pray and meditate, I love God the Creator, and when I serve mankind, at that time I am serving God the creation.
Interviewer: How do your concerts bring peace to the world?
Sri Chinmoy: Everybody has a way to give what he has. Suppose you have love and you want to offer this love to mankind, or you have joy and you want to offer your joy to mankind. Then you need to find a special way to give what you have and what you are. In my case, I feel that when I play soulful music and when I sing my spiritual songs, I can offer whatever peace I have to humanity. So this is my way of offering. There are many others who are also offering peace to mankind. Their ways are different, but they are equally effective.
Interviewer: You conduct meditations twice a week at the United Nations in New York. Do you think you can change the world in this way? Do you want to change the world?
Sri Chinmoy: I have not come into this world to change it. I have come only to love the world in such a way that you and I and everyone else can work together. I pray to God to give me the capacity to be of service to Him. One individual can never, never change the world, but collectively everybody has to work together. Jointly, with a oneness-heart, we hope to bring about world peace.
Interviewer: Do you get stage fright when you give a concert?
Sri Chinmoy: Not in the least! I have established my oneness with the people in the audience. When you play in front of the members of your family, you do not become frightened. They are your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins, so why should you be afraid? Even if you play wrong notes, they are not going to say anything. So I have established that kind of oneness with the hearts of my listeners. I do not claim to be a great musician who has to play everything perfectly. I only call myself a student of peace. As a student of peace, I feel this is the most effective way, in my case, to offer peace. I say to my listeners, "I love you and I wish to offer you peace. This is the way that I can do this. If you feel like seeing what I do, and if you feel you can derive some benefit from it, then please come."
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 30