Tribute
Sri Chinmoy: Dear Mr. Povman, dear friend, dear seeker, dear spiritual brother, in you I have found for the last few years a true friend who has been trying in various ways to help us to make our philosophy clearer not only to the Queens community but to the whole world. Therefore, my student friends and I shall remain eternally grateful to you. In this world everything good must needs increase. In our case, our best quality is our soulful gratitude. Our soulful gratitude will increase every day, and this gratitude-heart of ours we will offer to you, dear Councilman Povman. I also wish to offer my most sincere gratitude to Borough President Manes. It was extremely kind of him to grant us this signal honour.We are all in two worlds: a large world and a small world, larger than the largest and smaller than the smallest. Both worlds are of paramount importance. A child’s world is his parents, his little family, his intimate friends. When this child grows up, his world becomes very big. He embraces the entire humanity as his own. God Himself is both finite and infinite. He enjoys His infinite Delight when the child grows up and claims the entire world as his very own. A few minutes ago I told Mr. Povman that I am not a teacher; I am a member of a spiritual family. God alone is the Teacher, and we are all His sweet student-children. We love one another, and our love for one another pleases God most. This love itself is the supreme Teaching that we have learned from our Eternal Father.
Here we are gathered together for one cause, and that is service, to serve God. Many seekers have come here from all over the world; therefore, I can safely and easily say that the world is vast, very vast. But again, when we stand here at this soulful, aspiring, illumining and fulfilling place, we see that although Jamaica, Queens is a tiny place, it is in no way inferior to the vast world. Each child’s little home is to him sweeter than the sweetest. Similarly, our little home — Jamaica, Queens — is sweeter than the sweetest to us, for here we are growing soulfully, divinely and lovingly. Little sweet Jamaica is our home. Here our sweetness will grow, our love will glow, our service and dedication will flow constantly.
I am extremely grateful to all the seekers who are here to celebrate my birthday, but to be very frank with you, it is not my birthday, it is the celebration of oneness that we are observing. Many hearts have become one. Many souls have become one. Many aspiring earthly existences have become one. So what we are having is not the celebration of an individual birthday but the celebration of a oneness-heart.
Every day I offer my constant gratitude to my Beloved Supreme, for He has chosen me, out of His infinite Bounty, to be of service to the seekers who are present here and to all of humanity. Today, since it is a most auspicious occasion for me and for all those who love me, I wish to offer my most special, most soulful and eternally increasing gratitude to the Supreme, for quite recently He has chosen me as His humble instrument to inspire the Liberty Torch runners and the runners of Canada’s Oneness-Heart. Liberty Torch and Canada’s Oneness-Heart shall eternally be a most outstanding achievement in our life of aspiration and dedication. To the Soul of America and to the Soul of Canada I offer my soulful gratitude for having given me the opportunity to be of service to my sweet and loving children. Two brothers, America and Canada, have both welcomed me. I stand in between and I become one with them. Then I become the hyphen, the connecting link between two brothers. Finally, I become the third brother. Canada’s “Oneness-Heart” and America’s “Liberty Torch” have blessed me, a blessing that I shall try to deserve every day on the strength of my prayerful meditation.
To each member of the Jamaica community, to each member of the world community, I wish to offer two gifts: one is my ever-undying gratitude, one is my ever-aspiring dedicated service. These are two gifts I wish to offer to the residents of Queens, and to the world body. I have been given the golden opportunity to serve at the United Nations where the comity of nations meet together, where the little world and the big world have become one. Because of His infinite Compassion, the Supreme, the Author of all Good, has given me the opportunity to serve Him there. Each member nation also deserves my special gratitude for the opportunity it has granted me to be of service.
As I began with prayerful service, even so I wish to conclude with the same prayerful service. That service is my gratitude-heart. What I have done is nothing; what I will do is nothing. But you claim me as your very own, and that is more than enough, infinitely more than enough for me. Your oneness-heart with me is everything. We shall grow in our oneness-heart; we shall glow in our oneness-heart. My body, vital, mind, heart and soul bow to Queens. My body, vital, mind, heart and soul bow to each member of our world-family. Finally, I bow to the Source, the Absolute Supreme, for what He has done for us and what He will do in and through us. His Vision we are; His Manifestation we are. What we need is a life of satisfaction, which can be found only in our gratitude-heart.
Councilman Povman: Sri Chinmoy, at this time I have the honour of presenting to you personally the Proclamation which I read to your followers here today. And I just wish to add this: that each of us is born anew on our birthday, and that we look forward to having many, many rebirths of Sri Chinmoy in the future so that we may once again next year and each year thereafter renew our own spirits, our own hearts and our own dedication on each of these rebirths.
Sri Chinmoy: I am all gratitude to you today. Today is not only my birthday but also the day of my infinite gratitude for your heart's magnanimity.
