Special Meditation for the Diplomatic Community on 5 Feb 1982 + Q & A

The Peace Meditation group at the U.N. hosted a special meditation for the diplomatic community, in which Sri Chinmoy delivered a short talk and answered questions about meditation and the spiritual life.

Following is a transcript from the programme.including questions on:

Other techniques besides meditation that might be more effective for certain types of people? (Prayer)
Does meditation reject the world and turns one towards inaction?
while we are meditating ARE we are open to all kinds of influence that we do not see?
Do you recommend fasting before you meditate?

Sri Chinmoy: Before I give a short talk on meditation, with your kind permission I wish to meditate for a few minutes; for I feel that our joint meditation will be of real help to our body, vital, mind, heart and soul. So, with your permission, I wish to meditate.

(Meditation)

Dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, here we are all seekers. As seekers, we all need meditation. Meditation simplifies our life, purifies our heart, illumines our mind, strengthens our vital and awakens our body-consciousness. All these things are done by meditation.

We all meditate either consciously or unconsciously. There is not a single human being on earth who does not meditate. But most of us are not aware of our meditation. We all want peace of mind. Whatever method we adopt to bring about peace of mind – this is our meditation. We all want happiness. Whatever we do in order to achieve happiness is our way of meditation. We all need love -love in the inner world and love in the outer world-and for that we do various things. Whatever we do in order to achieve love is our way of meditation.

There is nobody on earth who has no desires. Again, there are some who are awakened to some extent. Although they have desires, they feel that the desire-life cannot satisfy them because the desire-life is the life of a beggar. In the desire-life, from an iota of wealth one tries to get more wealth. But unless and until one achieves boundless inner wealth – boundless joy and love – one will never actually be happy. When an individual realises this, at that time he gives up the desire-life and enters into the life of aspiration. Aspiration deals with infinite Peace, infinite Light and infinite Bliss, which we all have in the inmost recesses of our hearts, If we want to bring to the fore all the divine wealth that we have within and achieve boundless happiness, then we have to do so on the strength of our meditation. I

n this world everybody wants freedom. The freedom that we all want is the freedom from the mind-the doubting mind, the suspicious mind, the impure mind, the insecure mind. If we can free ourselves from our mind, then we .can get our highest, deepest happiness.

At every moment we look for joy, peace, love and fulfilment. But in order to achieve all these, the only thing that we all need is peace of mind. If we have peace of mind, we have everything. This peace of mind we cannot get from any power other than meditation-power. We may study hundreds and hundreds of books on meditation. We may discuss the topic of meditation for hours and hours with our friends. But only meditation-power itself can give us peace, and inside peace looms large our complete and perfect satisfaction. If we can meditate soulfully for five minutes, then for five hours no uncomely thought can attack our mind or disturb its poise and tranquility. And it is inside the poise of our mind that our real divinity, which is oneness universal, at every moment grows.

Meditation is the art of silencing the mind. Once we can silence the earth-bound mind, which is torturing us sleeplessly, only then can we have a Heaven-free reality-existence and claim that Heaven-free reality-existence as our own, very own. By virtue of our meditation our thought-world will be transformed into will-world, and our everyday life will unmistakably be inundated with peace-the peace that grows, the peace that glows, the peace that embraces all mankind.

Why do I meditate? I meditate because I feel sorry for my weak body, my aggressive vital, my doubtful mind, my fearful heart, my uncertain soul and my un manifested God. These are all my friends, and I love them dearly. Since I love them dearly, I try to be of service to them. I know that it is by virtue of my meditation that I can get a strong body, a dynamic vital and a mind totally free from doubt, which is true poison in my system. By virtue of my meditation my fearful heart, which is so timid, can be transformed into an indomitable heart; my uncertain soul can at every moment be certain of working in and through me, and my unmanifested God will get the opportunity to be fully manifested in and through the world around me.

Why do I meditate? I meditate because I feel sorry for my dear ones. Unfortunately, right now my mind is impure. When I think of my dear ones, sometimes my impure mind consciously or unconsciously attacks them because it embodies jealousy, rivalry, negative feelings and so forth. Even though others are my so-called friends or dear ones, I hurt them unconsciously. Similarly, those who call me their friend do not consciously want to hurt me. But when they think of me, often they become jealous of me and unconsciously attack me. Here, meditation is the answer. If I meditate and my friends meditate, then we will purify our minds and our thought processes, and our impure thoughts will be transformed into pure thoughts.

Why do I meditate? I meditate .so that I can give to the world what my heart has to offer – love and a feeling of oneness. Every day I meditate to remind myself of the dream that I have been treasuring-that I am of the Almighty Father and that I am consciously, soulfully and unconditionally for Him.

As a human being, I need success and I need progress – success in the outer life, progress in the inner life. The mind gets tremendous satisfaction from the success-life. The heart gets tremendous satisfaction from the progress-life. If I can meditate soulfully every day, then my mind will get considerable peace and my heart will get considerable assurance. On the strength of this inner peace and inner assurance, my mind will succeed in every sphere of life and my heart will proceed towards its destined goal.

There are some individuals who think and feel that meditation cannot be applied to all spheres of life. Unfortunately, I do not see eye-to-eye with them. Meditation has a free access to all spheres of life. There is nothing on earth that cannot benefit from meditation. There are some who are of the opinion that politics and meditation can never go together. I wish to say that they are making a deplorable mistake. Politics and meditation can go together. From one point of view, a politician is a seeker. What does he seek? He seeks peace and joy. Somebody may be working here at the United Nations, somebody may be in the vortex of politics, but still that individual has the capacity to benefit from meditation.

What we need is soulful meditation for ten minutes early in the morning and again in the evening, when the day draws to its close. Then our life will have a new meaning, a new purpose, a new goal.

* * *

4 Questions :

Now I would like to answer a few questions concerning meditation or the inner life, the spiritual life. It will give me the greatest joy if I can be of service to you.

other techniques besides meditation that might be more effective for certain types of people? (Prayer)
meditation rejects the world and turns one towards inaction?
while we are meditating we are open to all kinds of influence that we do not see?
Do you recommend fasting before you meditate?

Question: For achieving the inner peace you are talking about, are there other techniques besides meditation that might be more suitable or more effective for certain types of people?

Sri Chinmoy : You can try prayer if your nature is more oriented to it. If you feel that prayer will help you more than meditation, then you can try prayer. Prayer and meditation are like two methods for achieving the same goal. Those who practise meditation may find it easier to achieve peace of mind than those who practise prayer, but prayer is also a very good method.

When we pray, sometimes we feel that we are here on earth whereas our prayer has to be sanctioned from somewhere else. We are praying, “O God, give me this. Please grant me this.” Here we feel that God is above us. We do not know where, but we feel that definitely He is above our head or up in the blue sky. We feel that he is somewhere else-miles and miles above us. So we feel that it may take time for our prayer to reach that height. We feel that He has to come from there to give us peace of mind or whatever we are asking for. But when we meditate, we have a totally different concept of God. We feel that He is within us, right beside us-inside the body, inside the vital, inside the mind, inside the heart. We feel that He is observing us, and if our meditation is soulful, then He will grant us what we need. We don’t have to fly above or run after Him. Again, if our prayer is the manifestation of our heart’s intense cry, then it need not take time to reach God. Sooner than at once He will hear us and help us. So prayer and meditation are both good. But in most cases we will see that meditation can do the needful sooner than prayer or any other method.

Question: There is concern by some people that meditation rejects the world and turns one towards inaction and a vegetable existence. What is your response to that?

Sri Chinmoy: That is absolutely the wrong theory. Meditation does not discard anything in life. Meditation does not belittle anything. On the contrary, proper meditation accepts everything that we have and everything that we are. Meditation will not tell us to shun society. Meditation will not cause Us. to have a negative feeling towards anything. Meditation is all embracing. We all have a body, vital, mind, heart and soul. Our body, vital and mind are all limited; they are full of shortcomings. When we meditate, we try to illumine them so that they can become perfect. By virtue of our meditation, the members of our inner family become more perfect. Once our body, vital and mind get illumination, once we are illumined, at that time we will look around and see the whole world as part of our larger self. Then we will see how we can be of service to everyone.

God gave us a body, vital, mind, heart and soul because He wants to be fulfilled in and through us. If today we give up the body, tomorrow the vital and the following day the mind, then what will we have? God has created us as His own prototype. He wants to manifest His Dream in and through us. Therefore, how can we think of giving up part of ourself or renouncing the world? Meditation does not mean retreating to the Himalayas.

Sometimes a child will get tremendous joy if he breaks something. In this way he achieves fulfilment. Similarly, by destroying something or someone in the process of war, some countries get fulfilment. Again, we can also get fulfilment through love – by loving humanity, by loving other countries. Meditation is the positive kind of fulfilment. We accept the world as our very own although we have many shortcomings and the world also has shortcomings. First we try to illumine our own shortcomings, and then we look around and, on the strength of our feeling of oneness with the rest of the world, we try to give help to others and illumine and fulfil them. Right from the beginning, if it is real meditation, it is all acceptance and not renunciation.

Question: Is it possible that while we are meditating we are open to all kinds of influence that we do not see?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, we can be. It depends on how developed the seeker is. If he is a beginner, then he can be attacked by these forces. But if he is well advanced, then he will be in a position to protect himself. Again, if the seeker practises meditation regularly, then slowly and steadily he will learn to protect himself. It is like developing muscles. If we take exercise daily, then we develop strong muscles and we can fight against ignorance.

Question: What condition should your body be in before you meditate? Some people believe that you should fast – that it will help to achieve this inner peace. Do you recommend fasting before you meditate?

Sri Chinmoy: No, no! Some people fast while others are compelled to starve. There are many poor people on earth who cannot afford to eat every day. They starve. But the people who are starving are not nearer to God-realisation. Again, there are people on earth who fast quite often, but I don’t think that they have more peace of mind than those who meditate everyday.

A snake eats once in five ‘Or six months. In which way is the consciousness of a-snake superior to ours?

So fasting is not the answer. Fasting once in a blue moon is all right if you want to purify the system. Inner purification, in some cases, may come through fasting. But otherwise, if on principle you fast quite often, you will only weaken yourself. It is through meditation that you can illumine yourself. Once a month if you fast it will not tell upon your health. It may help in illumining your mind. But if you fast on a regular basis with the idea that you will then be able to have a calm, pure . mind or good health, then you will be making a deplorable mistake. Only meditation-regular, soulful meditation – can bring you peace of mind and inner harmony.

Download PDF: 1982-02-feb-05-med-4diplomat-community-scpmaun-1982-01-02-27-pp9-17

See also later edited version of talk at: Meditation : from a talk 1982 Feb 05