Part VI

SCA 395-399. Sri Chinmoy was asked these questions by his disciples on 6 January 1995 during his visit to Myanmar.

Question: What is the future of religion?

Sri Chinmoy: Religion represents the earthly aspect of the divinity that the Saviour Christ, or Sri Krishna, the Lord Buddha and others embodied. It represents the body or the outer garment of their divinity. The body cannot last; only the consciousness, the inner divinity that was and forever is being manifested in and through Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha and others, will last and last and last.

I strongly believe that when people worship in the future, they will be more aware of the fact that we belong to one spiritual family. There was a time when even this idea was too much for the world. Now at least we are able to speak about it. It is like the idea of peace. Fifty years ago the word ‘peace’ was not used as it is now; they used other words. But in the last nine or ten years everybody is speaking about peace. Although one country may be dropping a bomb on another country, ‘peace’ is still our mantra! A day shall come when not only will the rest of the world laugh at this particular country, but even this country will start laughing at itself. It will realise that it is only talking about peace but doing just the opposite. At that time it will try to correct itself.

The threat of nuclear destruction will not go on, because even in thirty or forty or fifty years the power of the heart will be much, much stronger. There is great hope that politics will eventually surrender to spirituality. Individual cases we have already seen in history — the Indian King Shivaji, for example. First he did things in his own way, and later he surrendered to divinity. So the inner world is awakening. In some cases in the present-day world, the inner power is becoming more prominent and vivid outwardly. You see how Russia is suffering now in the political world, but in the inner world Russia is awakened. Russia’s inner power and inner awakening will become quite surprising and astonishing.