Peace

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 sang this soulful song.)

Wayside Chapel, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia, 6 March 1976.Sri Chinmoy, Appears in  My Heart’s Salutation To Australia, Part 2, Agni Press, 1976.