Interviewer: By sharing these birds with the public, are you trying to inspire people with that message?

Sri Chinmoy: It is exactly so. Let us say you have gone to the market and bought a mango. Now you feel that if you can share it with the members of your family, you will get more joy than if you eat it all by yourself. Similarly, I have received some inspiration from my Inner Pilot. I feel that He is the one who is drawing these birds in and through me, according to my receptivity. I am only His instrument. Since He has given me the inspiration to draw, I feel it is my bounden duty to share this inspiration with others, for I take the whole world as one family.

We are trying to see the Divine inside each human being. If I see something beautiful and divine in you, then I will be filled with the inspiration and aspiration to be of service to you. And if you see something beautiful and divine in me, then you will be filled with the inspiration and aspiration to be of service to me. In this way we are inspired to become good citizens of the world and to serve one another. Otherwise, we exist only for ourselves. As individuals, no matter how many things we get or how many of our desires we fulfil, we will never have lasting happiness unless and until we see that others are also happy. We can never be satisfied with our own happiness because true happiness has to be all-encompassing. If everyone does not have it, I cannot have it either. Even if God fulfils all my desires, still I cannot be happy. For I will look around and see that somebody else is unhappy. And how can I be happy when I see that my brothers and sisters are not?

These birds remind me of a happiness that is all-pervading. I look to this side and see birds, and I look to that side and see birds. No matter in which direction I look, I see birds, and this gives me a childlike happiness. Think of a child inside a beautiful garden. The child does not stay at one place. He looks at one flower and appreciates its beauty and fragrance. Then he runs to look at another flower. He gets tremendous joy in moving from place to place and seeing the beauty, fragrance, light and delight inside so many flowers. Everywhere he goes inside the garden he is happy, happy, happy. But if he remains confined to one place, he will not be happy.

In exactly the same way, we human beings move from one place to another appreciating the different flowers in God’s life-garden. One flower is called America; another is called India or France. But these are just names and forms. Beyond the name and form comes the reality, which is all oneness. We all belong to one family, and we get tremendous joy when we share our heart’s love and delight with the other members of our family. So that is what I am trying to do with my drawings.