Question: How can our own spiritual efforts within the Meditation Group assist the work that you are performing in serving the soul of the U.N. and the family of nations?

Sri Chinmoy: Each member of the Meditation Group must feel that his service is of paramount importance. Service can be of different types. Somebody may be able to come regularly to the meditations and somebody else may not be able to come to the meditations regularly because of the heavy pressure of his work, or because he cannot get a lunch break at the right time, or for some other reason. But if an individual comes to the meditation room, he should offer his prayers not only for his own soul but also on behalf of the ones who could not come to the meditation.

All the members of the Meditation Group must establish a soulful oneness. It is like a tree that is offering flowers. Each flower is of supreme importance. The Meditation Group is the tree: each individual is a flower, a flower of dedication. The seeker has aspired. That is why he has become a real flower. But now this flower has to dedicate itself. At every moment each member of the Meditation Group has to feel that the purpose of his life is dedication — dedication not only to one particular nation but to all nations.

We pray and meditate in this room. A few hundred members of the United Nations know about us, but most of them do not care for what we are doing. But still we have to care for them. We have to play the role of the mother. Very often children do not care for their mother. They take the mother for granted, knowing she will do everything for them, even if they do not do anything for her. In the inner world, I see that there are many, many who do not participate in our group or come to our meetings but who get a kind of inner strength unconsciously from us. The child won’t come to the mother, won’t listen to the mother, but he feels that if he has some need, the mother will be the first person to protect him and help him. Here also, those who do not come still feel our soulful assistance. When they dive deep within even for a few minutes, their inner beings tell them that there is a Meditation Group that prays and meditates for the U.N.

What we do for the United Nations as members of the United Nations Meditation Group or as members of a spiritual community — any community — is recorded in the soul of the United Nations. A day will come when we will be recognised as a true asset to the body and soul of the United Nations. And something more. Now we do not have even a proper place to meet in; from here to there we move. But one day there will be a permanent place at the United Nations for our Meditation Group. Now it is in its infancy, but a day will come when it will grow into a mature young man. It will shoulder inwardly and silently much spiritual responsibility. The politicians won’t believe it; their minds won’t believe it. But their souls will believe it, and their souls will make them believe it in their hearts’ inmost sincerity. There will be many, many problems that will arise and there will be no outer way to solve these problems; but they will be solved. The human mind will say it was a stroke of fate that has solved the problem. But the heart will say, no, it was because there are some sincere seekers who are crying for world harmony and world peace. It is the accumulated prayer and meditation that we do regularly at home and, especially, twice a week here at the United Nations, that will solve these problems. So our prayer and meditation will be recorded in the gratitude-heart of all the U.N. members who really want a world of harmony and a world of peace.

Now, we are acting like farmers. A farmer cultivates the field, then he sows the seeds, and then he waters it. But all of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, the seed will not germinate. It takes time. We are all playing the role of farmers. In the depths of our hearts we have found fertile soil, and we have cultivated it. We have sown the seeds of peace, light and harmony. In the course of time, at God’s choice Hour, those seeds will germinate. And when they grow into strong and healthy plants, the world will see them. Then a day will come when the plants will grow into trees, and the world will have more faith, abundant faith in our soulful attempt to establish world peace, world harmony and world oneness in an inner way. Finally, these little seeds of peace, light and harmony will grow into huge banyan trees. At that time, in number we may have two hundred or three hundred members or more, and the strength of our prayer, the strength of our sincere effort, will be acknowledged as the backbone, the supporting pillar of world peace. Something more, the world will feel that it is our prayer-dynamo, our meditation-dynamo, which is the source of world peace in the U.N. It will take time, but our Meditation Group is destined to play that sublime role. Everyone who is praying and meditating here is indispensable to bring about this transformation, illumination and perfection. We have all been given the golden opportunity by the Absolute Supreme to bring about this world harmony.