From: jeffjc@cs.mcgill.ca (Jeffrey CHANCE)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Interview With Sri Chinmoy  (part 1/2)
Date: 12 Dec 92 20:41:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.47219
Distribution: world
Organization: SOCS - Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada

INTERVIEW ON "THE OTHER HOUR" WRVR-FM RADIO

[On 3 July 1977 Sri Chinmoy was the guest on "The Other Hour", a radio
program broadcast live in New York on radio station WRVR. Following is
a transcript of the interview.]



Donna Halper: 

You're with "The Other Hour", and with our theme song we are actually 
on the air, through the Grace of God. I'm Donna Halper. You never know
what you are going to hear on "The Other Hour", but tonight is a little
bit different and a little bit unique. We have a very, very great
person, with whom you are probably familiar if you're into music at all.
He's been the spiritual Master of a number of major musicians, and is 
also a great philosopher and teacher, and a musician himself. Of course,
I am talking about Sri Chinmoy, who is our guest in the studio tonight.
You can call in and speak with him a little bit later. I think before
we do anything else, Sri Chinmoy, would you like to play some music for
us? I believe this is connected with meditation. Am I correct, Guru?
Music for meditation.

[Sri Chinmoy plays the esraj]

Donna Halper:

Wow! How would you like to do that for the whole rest of the show? God,
is that beautiful! We have a whole group of engineers who are saying
that's nice, seriously. For our audience, the instrument which he is
playing is called an esraj. I'd like to ask you now, what is the purpose
of this music when you are meditating? What is the effect it is supposed
to have on a person while he is meditating?

Sri Chinmoy:

Soulful music intensifies our meditation. Soulful music expedites our
soul's journey. Soulful music helps the seeker establish his conscious
and inseparable oneness with the Supreme Pilot. Therefore, I give great
importance to music in the spiritual life. 

Donna Halper: 

In other words, to hear music helps one to become more in tune with God.
How does it do this? If I were an atheist and I heard that music, I
don't know if I would think about God, but I know that I would feel very
relaxed and peaceful. Would you say that that feeling means being closer
to God?

Sri Chinmoy:

We cannot define God in terms of one specific feeling or experience.
Each one has to experience God for himself. If we say God is all Peace
or God is all Delight, then there will be people to contradict us. 
Each one has to define God for himself. We all want to have
satisfaction. I have satisfaction by experiencing truth and light, and
others will also derive satisfaction from that reality-experience,
although they may call it by a different name. 

Donna Halper:

But don't people come to you looking to find out what God is?

Sri Chinmoy:

They do come to me for that, but only people who believe in God come to
me. Stark atheists do not come to me. For them, God is something else. 
The God we speak of is not God for them. But again, I have deepest
respect for their God. If they say that there is no such thing as God,
I say all right. As long as they believe in something, I feel that that
very thing is God, for God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.

Donna Halper:

So the person who believes in music, for instance, or the person who is
very, very into something like playing an instrument, that's a form of
religion, too?

Sri Chinmoy:

It is not a form of religion, but it is a form of communication with 
the Source.

Donna Halper:

Sri Chinmoy, when people come to you, what are they usually hoping to
find?

Sri Chinmoy:

Usually they hope for peace of mind. They expect a better understanding
of life. They expect inner ecstasy.

Donna Halper:

Do you give them that?

Sri Chinmoy:

I do offer it to them and they receive from me according to their
receptivity.

Donna Halper: 

There are so many people seeking, trying to find out about religion.
They don't feel satisfied with organised religion, let us say, so they
come to you. How would they know whether or not you are the right
spiritual master for them?

Sri Chinmoy:

They will be able to discover this in a few minutes' time. As soon as
they see me, if I am meant for them, they will get a kind of vibration,
a kind of familiar feeling. They don't have to talk to me. They will
feel an inner communication. They will see and feel in me a friend,
a true, an eternal friend.

Donna Halper:

What about the person who comes to you and is very skeptical? Will
you also be a friend to that person?

Sri Chinmoy:

I will definitely be his friend, but he himself will feel uncomfortable.
He will have to go to someone else with whom he will feel comfortable
and who will be able to guide him in a different way.

Donna Halper:

We're talking about music and meditation and religion. To continue on
the subject of religion, Guru, there are so many people claiming to be
Gurus these days, there are so many people claiming to be Messiahs,
claiming to have the right answer. How can a person who is serious 
about this tell who is a real spiritual Master and who is not?

Sri Chinmoy:

There are quite a few ways to know whether a Master is Genuine or not.
If the Master says that he will be able to grant you realisation
overnight, then he is a false Master. If he says that if you give
him a fee of a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, then he will
be able to help you enter into a higher realm of consciousness and
attain Peace, Light and Bliss, then he is a false Master. A true
Master will tell the seeker all the time that he is not God; he is
not even the Guru. God Himself is the real Master. The human Master
is only serving God in the seekers; he is not the Guru. The real 
Guru is God Himself. So if a seeker wants to know who a true Master
is, from these guidelines he can usually know the real from the false.

Donna Halper:

So the person who claims that he has the magic answer is probably not a
person who should be taken seriously?

Sri Chinmoy:

Spiritual progress is not like instant coffee. It is a slow and steady
process. Slowly, steadily and unerringly we have to walk along
Eternity's Road in order to reach Infinity's Goal.

Donna Halper:

If someone comes to you and decides that you are the person he would
like to study with, what does he have to do?

Sri Chinmoy:

There are a few rules and regulations which the seekers must follow
if I accept them as my students. First of all, I shall ask them to
be very simple, very sincere, humble and pure. I recommend a very
simple life.

Donna Halper:

We read in the paper about various movements which are very austere,
where the men and women are not allowed to associate with each other.
They are not allowed to eat meat and they pretty much just stay inside
and meditate all the time. Is this the kind of life that your disciples
live?

Sri Chinmoy:

No, I do not advocate austerity. I do not want my disciples to live in
the Himalayan caves. We advocate acceptance of life. We have to accept
life and then we have to transform life. There are many things in human
life which we cannot appreciate. These are our deplorable weaknesses.  
So we try to illumine these weaknesses. We do not shun life. We accept
life, but we transform the things that have to be transformed.

Donna Halper:

In addition to meditation, do your disciples practice any chanting or
anything of that nature?

Sri Chinmoy:

Yes, they do chant occasionally. I have composed quite a few melodies
from verses from the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I
have set tune to quite a few verses, and my students occasionally
chant them.

Donna Halper:

What I am wondering about, as far as meditation goes (and I am sure
there are a number of other people interested in this as well), is
this: what is the difference between what we might call secular
meditation- that is, just going off someplace in the country where
it is nice and quiet, and thinking peaceful thoughts- and the 
meditation that you do with that kind of music and things of that
nature? Is there any difference between the two, or are both just
steps along the same way?

Sri Chinmoy:

If some individuals get peace of mind by living in the countryside
and leading a relaxed life, it is good for them. Others want to go
through a more disciplined life. They feel that meditation is 
something very sacred; it is not something casual. For them it is
advisable to meditate with utmost concentration in a meditation hall.
Whether it is in the city or in the country is not important. Un-
doubtably these people will make faster progress than those who just
go into the countryside to enjoy the beauty and think good thoughts.
But ultimately both the roads lead to the same destination.

Donna Halper:

Do you tell your students how to meditate, or are they free to choose
for themselves the best way?

Sri Chinmoy:

Outwardly I give them only very general guidelines, because each
individual's way of meditation is personal and unique. But out of
God's infinite Bounty I have the capacity to teach their souls 
inwardly how to meditate. Each disciple of mine learns his own best
way of meditation from his own soul. Also, I have written considerably
on meditation and different inner techniques, so they can read my
writings.

Donna Halper:

For the person who is just by himself and really would like to meditate,
is there a way that he can get into it without going to a school or to
a teacher and learning how?

Sri Chinmoy:

Certainly. They can read some spiritual books for instruction and then
start meditating at home. The best possible thing is to have a 
peaceful mind- not to allow any thoughts whatsoever to enter into the
mind. But they will see that some thoughts are entering in spite of
their best efforts, so they will have to make a selection and only
allow the good thoughts to remain in the mind. The bad thoughts they
will discard as soon as possible. By allowing only the good thoughts
to remain, they will be able to get some peace of mind. Meditation
means peace in the mind and bliss in the heart.

Donna Halper:

Now you are raising a question. I can hear people out there saying,
"That's great, to sit there and think good thoughts and things like
that. But what about when you are in the middle of the material life
and everything is going wrong and it has been a bad day at the office
and your boss just yelled at you and so forth and so on. How do you
get the good thoughts in your mind at a time like that?"

Sri Chinmoy:

Morning shows the day in most cases. In the morning, before we enter
into the hustle and bustle of life, before we go out of our house and
enter into the day's activities, if we meditate soulfully for a few
minutes, then definitely we will get some inner peace. This peace we
shall carry inside our hearts when we go to the office or enter into
the multifarious activities and confusion of our daily life. Then we
can bring to the fore this inner peace when we need it. In this way
we will definitely be able to control the situation.

Donna Halper:

I think there is a tremendous precedent for that. If I remember
correctly, in the Bible it says that the best time to pray is in
the morning, because you start out your day thinking about spiritual
things, and that carries you through the rest of the day. So what
you are saying is not really very different from what we call
Western religion. 

Sri Chinmoy:

There is not so much difference as people think between Western and
Eastern religion. We are all God's children. We speak in different
languages, but when it is a matter of the heart- your heart, my
heart, his heart, her heart- we are all in tune. It is only the
mind that creates problems. The aspiring heart is constantly in  
communication with the soul, and the soul is the representative of
God. There is always an abiding truth inside all of us. When it is
a matter of real spirituality, there is no geographical barrier-
no East, no West, no North, no South. There is only the heart's
oneness that we fulfil ourselves and fulfil God in and through us.

Donna Halper:

When a person becomes more involved in spirituality, this would 
lead to, let us say, his becoming less tied to things like
prejudices. So he wouldn't have any feelings against any race or
any creed or anything like this. People who are caught up in
prejudicial thoughts, have they turned away from God, or do they
just not understand God, or what?

Sri Chinmoy:

They have not necessarily turned away from God, only they understand
God according to their limited capacities. But a true seeker will not
condemn them. On the contrary, he will try to see and feel that the
mistakes committed by them are his own mistakes because he has  
accepted God totally. This acceptance of God includes the acceptance
of God's entire creation, and these people who are making mistakes
are also God's children. So the sincere aspirant feels that it is
obligatory on his part to consider the weaknesses, the failures and
the shortcomings of others as his own. Because he loves God, he feels
that he has to be identified with God's creation. He cannot negate
God's creation; he cannot speak ill of God's creation. He can only
accept God's creation as such and pray and meditate on God to    
illumine His creation.

Donna Halper:

So if a person becomes involved in meditation, the more he meditates
and the more he understands about God, will he get more understanding
of the world as well?

Sri Chinmoy:

He will get more understanding, more illumination. He will be able to
accept the world rather than negate the world, for the world is God's
creation, and Creator and creation always go together. If we accept
them together, then we will be able to fulfil the Supreme Reality
within us.

Donna Halper:

You get a lot of students, I gather, who would be considered middle
class, in that they are products of pretty much the average American
home. When they come to you, do they stay, or do you find that they
regard meditation as a kind of interesting fad and, after a while,
get tired of it?

Sri Chinmoy: 

Oh, no. In my case I am fortunate enough to be able to tell you that
my students have taken meditation and spirituality very seriously.
Of course, some people do leave. But in comparison to the number
that have come, very few people have left. Meditation is not some-
thing that becomes boring after a few years. But because people
have their set  ways of thinking or because they have personal
problems or vital problems, they may leave. They come to feel that
this way of meditation is not suitable for them anymore, but not
because meditation was just a fad for them. They took meditation
seriously. But many thoughts, many desires, many fantasies, many
idiosyncracies may come in, and they feel that the path is not
suitable anymore. So they leave.

Donna Halper:

I understand. While we are talking to Sri Chinmoy, if you have any
question you would like to ask him, you can call in. If you would
like to speak with Sri Chinmoy and ask him some question on meditation,
on Yoga, or on life in general, please call. What you are listening to
is "The Other Hour" here on WKVR ...
In the meantime, Sri Chinmoy, you've had a number of musicians as your
students. People in our audience would be interested in knowing why
you think musicians who were so involved in what might be considered
the material life- drugs and things like that- may seek a Guru.

Sri Chinmoy:

The answer is very simple. The things that they did before did not
help them find the true divinity within themselves. They did not
find what they were looking for, so they wanted to find a spiritual
Master to help them.

Donna Halper:

So it seems like you are saying you give the student that which you
feel he wants to receive.

Sri Chinmoy:

I do not give but I become an instrument. I meditate on God and pray
to Him to grant them the things that they want, provided they are good
things, divine things, spiritual things, worthwhile things. If the
student is longing for something earth-bound, for something that is
going to bind him, then I will be the last person to help him get it.