Meditation for Dag Hammarskjold³

This is the first time that all the members of the Meditation Group have gone to the Meditation Room and meditated together. This is a significant occasion for us. But something infinitely more important, this is our soulful tribute to the immortal memory of the UN Pilot, Dag Hammarskjöld. We went to the Meditation Room to observe the anniversary of his death. According to human wisdom, death is a halt, where all movements cease for good. But according to divine wisdom, death is a step we take while walking along Eternity’s road.

We went there to observe the passing, or the extinction, of Dag Hammarskjöld’s body-consciousness. This is what the outer world will say. But the inner world tells us that we did not go there to observe the extinction of anything. We went to observe the illumination of a great soul, a sublime soul. His mind was illumined, his heart was totally awakened and his soul was fulfilled.

When we think of the Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, we come to realise that in him the great battle, the age-long battle between mind and heart, had come to an end. In him, the mind and the heart became good, intimate friends. We all know that when there are two friends, both friends walk together towards the same destination. But in his case, we observe something extraordinary. The mind went along the road of illumination and the heart marched along the road of liberation. However, they were in perfect conformity to one another, in perfect understanding. We think that if two persons are true friends, then they must walk together. But this is not necessary. If there are two goals that eventually merge into one goal, then these subordinate goals must be reached before we reach the ultimate goal. Illumination was the first goal, which his mind wanted to attain, and liberation of the aspiring heart was the second goal, which his heart wanted to achieve. So his mind went to the illumination-shore and his heart went to the liberation-shore. Then from the liberation-shore and the illumination-shore, the mind and the heart together went to the Perfection-shore. The Perfection-shore is the ultimate goal of each human being.

When we observe a thing with our physical eyes, with our naked eyes, we see a loss and gain, failure and success. But when we use our inner eye, our third eye, we see that there is no such thing as loss or gain, failure or success. On the physical plane, definitely it is a terrible loss for such a great soul, such a good soul, to leave the body in a plane crash. What an unfortunate experience for humanity to have. But from the spiritual point of view, it was not an accident, but a glowing reality that was entering into the ever-glowing, illumining and fulfilling Reality. Here we are all seekers. Dag Hammarskjöld was a seeker in the purest sense of the term. He was a seeker of the highest order. His heart cried for the satisfaction of mankind. His mind cried for the illumination of mankind. His body, his physical consciousness, is nowhere to be found — it is all in the elemental sheaths. But his soul is not only in Heaven, it is also on earth. The soul-bird flies from Heaven to earth, from earth to Heaven. When it comes to earth, it comes with new hope, new light, new illumination, new compassion and new consolation. Then it becomes one with us. And when it flies to Heaven, it carries our inner cry, inner thirst and inner hunger. It also carries our insufficiencies, our weaknesses, our misunderstanding, our lack of sympathy and oneness. It carries to Heaven all the darkness of the unlit, strangling world that we live in or have created for ourselves. Each time the soul of this great seeker, Dag Hammarskjöld, comes down, it brings down for us at the United Nations and for seekers all over the world the hope that awakens mankind, the consolation that sustains mankind and the compassion that eventually lifts up humanity’s fate to the golden Heights of Tomorrow’s Dawn.