Mr. Edwin Ross: You have spent most of your life in this spiritual community. Would it be correct to say by Western standards, then, that — although I somewhat hesitate to use the word — this is your "profession"? By "profession" I mean "work."

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. In a sense it is a self-dedicated service. I have not come to preach, but I want to be of some help to the aspiring souls who want to live the inner life but do not know how to live that life. I hope that I will be of some help to those who sincerely want to enter but at the same time are unable to enter into that life.

Mr. Edwin Ross: Is this why you have come to the United States, to help aspirants to the inner life?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. Again, I must say it is my psychic being or my soul that has brought me here to be of some help to the aspirants and to be a synthesis between the East and the West. Between my own inner feelings towards spiritual realisation and how the West thinks of the spiritual life, there should be a synthesis, I feel. I hope I will be able to create an atmosphere — of course, with the help of the aspirants — in which we can feel peace and light and follow the inner life.

Mr. Edwin Ross: How do you propose going about helping people here reach this, or feel this?

Sri Chinmoy: At present we would like to have a small Centre here in New York, just to start with. God has His own Plans. He will develop this movement in His own Way.

Mr. Edwin Ross: In other words, you do not have any set plan; you are here and you are available and however it comes about, you feel, it will come about, without any specific, organised plan on your part. You want to create a Centre — would ashram be the word? I have one very Western question: will this be a commercial enterprise? I mean, will this Centre not require some kind of financial backing and some kind of remuneration for classes and so on?

Sri Chinmoy: It is nothing of the sort. But if people are one with our ideas and our ideals, they may want to help us to have a better place so that many people can come for a group meditation and feel the atmosphere of a true spiritual life. They must feel that it is their own.

Mr. Edwin Ross: I see. The message is, “It is yours.”

Sri Chinmoy: “It is yours.”

Mr. Edwin Ross: I see. “It is yours, and if you want to have a larger hall so that more people can participate, it is up to you.”

Sri Chinmoy: “If you want to make an improvement, it is all up to you. It is yours. We are one.”

Mr. Edwin Ross: It is a joint endeavour of all participants. I see. I have been talking with Chinmoy Ghose, and this is Edwin Ross. Sri Chinmoy, you had something that you wanted to add?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. Now that I am here in the West, I would like to say a few words about East and West.