Russell Wilson: Without spiritual satisfaction, it is very difficult to do that work.

Sri Chinmoy: If you have inner poise and inner joy, then you can serve humanity happily and cheerfully. But if there is only a barren desert inside, it is impossible to give cheerfully. We can give only what we have. If I have joy, then I can be of service to you. But if I have nothing inside to give, then what will you be able to receive from me? I may be able to fool you for one day or two days, but eventually I will be caught and you will dismiss me.

I have come into the world to love the world and become one with the world. If I am serving you and you take my service lovingly and affectionately, then I get as much joy from you as you get from me. At that time the giver and the receiver offer one another equal joy. If I give you a smile and you take it with joy and love, your joy and my joy are equal. So the giver and the receiver are on the same level. At this moment with my right hand I am putting something into my left hand; the next time my left hand will put something into my right hand. So the giver and the receiver always go together.

Today we have meditated together. But you have to know that I am not the Guru. There is only one Guru, and that is our Lord Beloved Supreme. He is your Guru, my Guru, everybody’s Guru. Only in this particular field, spirituality, perhaps I know a little more than you do, just as you know infinitely more than I do in the field of politics. If I want to learn politics, then I have to come to you. The only thing is, I do not want to learn that subject — it is beyond my comprehension!

Russell Wilson: That makes two of us, Guruji!

Sri Chinmoy: To me, politics is very often filled with confusion, and I try to stay away from confusion. But to the political world also we have to try to bring illumination. Politics I do not understand, but the individuals who are studying that subject I love. That is why I meet with political leaders and mix with them. I hope that my love of those who are studying politics will one day enter into the field that they are studying.

I wrote something about politics and spirituality that came out in an Indian magazine. There I said that since politics is a branch of life, we cannot discard it. If we can bring spirituality into politics, then politics can play a most significant role in fulfilling God’s Will. When the leader of a country says something, even if people do not like him, his words carry tremendous weight. And if he makes the right decisions, then he can offer so much illumination to his countrymen and to the world. We pray to God to make the political leaders receptive to His Will so that this world of ours can become a perfect garden for God the Gardener to cherish. We pray and pray to God to make the politicians spiritual so that at every moment they can offer illumination to the world at large.