The Song universal2

The Song universal is freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from limitations, freedom from imperfections and freedom from ignorance. Man is in stark bondage. Nevertheless, man has the power deep within him to cut asunder the teeming ties that have bound him and forced him to launch into the sea of uncertainty.

Four thousand years ago the Vedic seers voiced forth:

"Give freedom for our bodies,
  Give freedom for our dwelling,
  Give freedom for our life."

This soulful prayer of the Vedic seers of yore will echo and re-echo in humanity's aspiring heart through eternity.

Freedom does not mean to be away from home. Freedom means to accept and feel the entire world as one's real home, as one's very own. With a view to achieving and growing into this peerless freedom, man does many things. He simply throws himself into a tornado of blind activities. Man has to learn that he has only one thing to do; and that is to discover and uncover. He has to discover the Divinity within and uncover the veil of ignorance without. Likewise, he has only one thing to to be — God. He has to be God the Infinite, God the Eternal and God the Immortal.

It is said that the quickest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. Let us start by thinking of, concentrating and meditating on God and end, if there is any end, with God-Realisation. This is not only the quickest, but by far the best.

God is Freedom. In an unparalleled way, the Isha Upanishad speaks of God the Absolute.

"It moves. It moves not.
  Far it is. And it is near.
  Within all this it is.
  It is without all this."

Man's deepest faith in God and man's boundless freedom in himself go together. Sublimely significant is the truth that is offered to us by J. M. Barrie:
"The reason why birds can fly and we can't is simply is that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."

"We walk by faith, not by sight." An aspirant, a true seeker of the Infinite Freedom has to breathe in this life-giving and life-transforming truth that the New Testament endows us with.

Man is sick. His sickness is his ignorance. He has been suffering from this unfathomable ignorance for millennia. There is considerable truth in what Bernard Shaw says: "We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession." Now I wish to say that it is high time for us to come out of ignorance-sleep. Let us not play the fool. Let us be wise once again. Let us re-transfer our faith to God who alone can and will cure our entire life, earthly existence, of ignorance-sickness which is undoubtedly the worst.

We all are assembled at the Church Center for the United Nations. The word 'United' is most hallowed. It can better be felt than described. Or should I say, it can only be felt and cannot be described at all. "United we stand, divided we fall." We are fully aware of this maxim. What we need is to live it.

Now where does this unity come from? It comes from God. It comes from the Brahman, the One without a second. Farther when we walk along the path of unity, we realise that God has not only the Consciousness of Unity but He is Consciousness-Unity Itself. When we reach the end of our journey's goal, we discover that God is both Unity and Multiplicity. In the field of Unity He is Realisation and Liberation and in the field of Multiplicity He is Manifestation and Transformation.

Our inner realisation and outer action must run abreast. Outer achievements should be the conscious and spontaneous revelation of the inner divinity.

Love, harmony, peace and oneness. These are man's divine ideals. On the strength of his inner mounting flame, aspiration, man can manifest easily, unerringly and spontaneously these ideals of his in his human life, every sphere of his life.

It is quite natural and proper that we should discover our God in and through our own religion. To be sure, there is only one religion and that religion is man's inmost cry for God-Realisation. In the hoary past, Asoka, the great Emperor of India, sent missionaries to other corners of the Globe with a profound message:

"The basis of all religions is the same, wherever they are; try to help them all you can, teach them all you can, but do not try to injure them."

Let each religion play the role of a flower. Let us make a garland of these divine flowers and offer them at the Feet of God. God will be pleased. We shall be fulfilled.

As there is only one Religion, even so there is only one one Song. This Song is man.

Man is Infinity's Heart.
Man is Eternity's Breath.
Man is Immortality's Life.


AUM 417. This was a special lecture, given under the auspices of the Church Center for the United Nations, closely connected with the U. N. The function, which took place on 26 November 1968, was arranged and organised by Namita and Satya Karma (Mrs. Linda and Mr. Ladislav Spacek). Sri Chinmoy offers them his deepest, grateful blessings.