Beth Day Romulo: When You Visit A...

Beth Day Romulo: When you visit a country like the Philippines, do you pick up what's happening here and the attitude of people?

Sri Chinmoy: Forgive me, I am not criticising, but there are certain things that I notice. Restlessness I see in the atmosphere. Outwardly the people are restless, but they do not know what they are searching for. Again, in their inner life they have confidence that they will win in the battlefield of life. There are many countries which outwardly are restless to the extreme, but they do not have the inner assurance that someday their outer restlessness will be transformed into poise and tranquility. In their hearts the Filipinos definitely feel that there shall come a time when their outer life will have poise, peace and harmony. The Filipino heart has received this assurance from the soul, and this is something that I deeply appreciate.

Each individual is always contradicting himself. He doesn't have to fight with somebody else. One idea he will get in the morning, and a contradictory idea he will get in the evening. In the morning he will say that someone is great, and by evening he will be saying that the same person is very bad. This is the mind that is speaking.

If we remain in the heart, good or bad doesn't matter. If someone is good, fine; if someone is bad, then it is our bounden duty to make that person good. That is how the heart feels once it has accepted someone. It is like the mother's acceptance of the child. After playing soccer, the child's whole body is besmeared with mud, sand and clay; so he comes running to the mother. The mother will not say, "Don't come near!" She knows and feels that it is her bounden duty to clean the child and make him pure again. The mother claims the child as her own, very own. The heart is like this, too.

This quality is missing in the Philippines—not just in the Philippines, but almost everywhere. Our philosophy is the philosophy of acceptance. We do not believe in superiority or inferiority. I may have studied a particular subject and somebody else may be a beginner. But I know that there was a time when I also was a beginner. Again, no matter how advanced I am, I know that there are many who are still ahead of me. The life-tree starts as a tiny seed, then grows into a sapling, a small tree and, finally, a giant banyan tree. Everyone is going to grow into a banyan tree. Just because today somebody is a seed or a tiny plant, we can never say that he will not one day become a huge banyan tree.

When a child is learning the alphabet from his mother, he feels that his mother knows everything. She teaches him A, then B. and then tells him about C. From this alphabet the child knows that countless books have been written. If the child starts arguing with the mother and asking why C comes after B instead of after D, he will never learn. He has to learn the alphabet according to the proper order. Similarly, when we study the spiritual life, we have to listen to our teacher. If we do not have faith or confidence in the teacher, then we will remain fools all our life.