Question: Nowadays the way children are, they could easily beat up someone who tries to defend himself against them. What is the best thing to do in that kind of situation?
Sri Chinmoy: There is a house nearby where the family has a son who is five or six years old. He told me that some bad boys on the street used to beat him and harass him. I said, “Just scream ‘Supreme, Supreme, Supreme!’”This little boy took my advice. Because he screamed “Supreme” so loudly, the four or five bad boys thought that his father or mother or a policeman was coming, and they all ran away. The Power of the Supreme entered into them as fear.
We do not realise the power of this particular weapon. If something serious happens — let us say, if you have an accident — if you can scream “Supreme, Supreme!” the accident will definitely be less damaging. “Supreme” will come into your mind if you have practised every day on a regular basis praying to the Supreme. Otherwise the Name of the Supreme may not come. Only on our deathbed if we say, “God, God, God,” where is the time for God to save us? But if we do it every day, then God will come in the form of a doctor or in the form of medicine to save us. If every day we say, “God, God, God,” God will bring this doctor and that doctor to cure us. If we do not pray to God, we are neglecting our life; we are not paying attention to our sickness. Then, at the last moment when we say, “God, God,” it is too late; we will not see God.
When you chant “Supreme,” the Force of the Supreme will come in a matter of seconds. The world has the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb; it has so many destructive things. When you are about to be attacked, the force that is entering into you is also a destructive force. Again, that force can be challenged by a good force. The good force can enter into the wrongdoer and make him say, “What am I doing? I am doing something that will destroy human beings. If I create destruction, so many people will cry.” In this way the attack is prevented.
It is the same force, with a positive side and a negative side. If you turn it to one side, it is all dark. If you turn it to the other side, it is all light. One side is bringing light; the other side is bringing darkness. Why should we allow darkness to prevail?
There is a force that is threatening to destroy the world. Again, the same force can love the world. The only problem is that we human beings get more joy when there is darkness. Darkness is charming; “charming” means “thrilling.” When morning dawns, we say, “Again it is light.” Light has become commonplace for us. Again, do we value air? We never pay any attention to the air that we are breathing, even though it is keeping us alive. We give our attention to other things; we look at faces, we look around at the world. The thing that is keeping us alive is our breath, but we are not paying any attention to it. Like that, every day we drink water, but we do not give any attention to it. If we drink soda or a milkshake, we give attention to that. But what is keeping us alive is water.
