Question: How should a seeker at the United Nations deal with staff members who do not want to work and who even block the work of others?

Sri Chinmoy: If a truth-seeker and God-lover working at the United Nations sees that some of his colleagues are not working devotedly and even go to the length of blocking his soulful efforts, then he can do only one thing. He must pray to the Supreme to grant him patience — more patience, abundant patience, boundless patience. Has he not exercised this same precious quality with respect to the members of his own family — that is to say, his own body, vital, mind and heart? In his own life he wants to make progress. He wants to run fast, faster, fastest along with the blossoming divinity of the United Nations. But because of the resistance or incapacities of his own mind, vital and body, he himself is lagging behind.

Let us say a particular worker has a tremendous urge to make progress and to see others make progress. He is eager to see the vision of the United Nations flower among all the nations of the world. But some of his friends and colleagues do not see eye to eye with him or are not energetic enough to keep pace with him. Sometimes even his own body, vital and mind place obstacles in his way. But there shall come a time when he is bound to succeed. His inner eagerness and willingness to see and help bring about an infinitely better United Nations will not go in vain. Right now what he needs is patience. Let him do as much as he can, inwardly and outwardly. As he illumines his own nature, he will be in a position to offer light to those who are in ignorance. In the course of time his own illumining accomplishments will illumine others.

Seeker-workers at the United Nations who are conscious of what they are doing and what they are going to become will be the harbingers of a new dawn, no matter in which capacity they are working. Their seemingly insignificant jobs represent unmistakably significant ways to achieve something abiding for the United Nations. It is not what we do, but how and why we do something that matters. If the answers to those questions are the right ones, then our contributions will, without fail, be unique.