Yoga

Sri Chinmoy: You have been practising yoga for so many years. Yoga goes beyond the domain of science and technology, as you know. Yoga means oneness with the universal consciousness, which is far beyond the domain of the mind. The capacity of the mind is quite limited, whereas the capacity of the heart-which you have and you are-is unlimited. People love, appreciate and admire you because of your inseparable oneness with the universal heart, the universal life and the universal consciousness.

Mr Menuhin: I have just followed what was offered to me. The first time I was in India, I felt overwhelmed by a world so different from anything I had known. And yet, I had always wanted to go to the East. Most people have gone to the West to find new things.

Sri Chinmoy: We come to the West mostly for material wealth. When we go to the East, it is for inner wisdom.

Mr Menuhin: Yes, it's true. And I found that there were so many aspects of thought to be considered. Good and evil have always bothered me. In the West we try to separate the two and put evil in prison. We imagine we can create perfect good around us, which is childish nonsense.

Sri Chinmoy: According to Indian philosophy, we feel that evil is a part of ignorance. Evil is simply lesser light. There is abundant, infinite light; again, there is lesser light. When we compare this lesser light, this iota of light, with the infinite light, we call it evil.

Mr Menuhin: Yes, but as long as we are human beings, as long as we are not pure in thought and as long as we have to deal with our survival, don't you think that good and evil are very much intertwined?

Sri Chinmoy: Right now they are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. But on the strength of our prayer and meditation, we are hoping that there shall come a time when ignorance itself will be transformed into light. A day shall come when this ignorance-night will be transformed into wisdom-delight by virtue of our soulful prayers and meditations.