Sri Chinmoy Meets the Sultan
of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja’afar Ibni Al Markhum, at the Sultan’s Palace in Seremban, Malaysia
Stories by Sri Chinmoy
The Sultan’s affection
When I met the Sultan in Kuala Lumpur, immediately I got a very good vibration from him. In a previous incarnation I had known his soul quite well. At that time the Sultan had a very, very close connection with me, but our relationship was totally different.
The Sultan also felt something in me. He was so kind and affectionate from beginning to end. He showed me the same kind of affection that Dan Lurie, the physical fitness proponent, shows me.
In the newspaper he had seen the picture of my lifting Samy Vellu. So when he saw me, he immediately said, “Do you want to lift me?” Of course I did! The whole time I was lifting him, he was in a trance; he was so happy.
Number one
When the singers were singing, the Sultan’s soul was deeply moved — especially when they were singing the song I had composed about him — “Number One.” His soul was getting such joy from “Number One”!
The missing bus driver
After visiting the Sultan, we had to go to the airport to catch a plane. Unfortunately, our bus driver was nowhere to be found.
The Sultan immediately began ordering his people, “Get their driver!”
Then the police went into the town and found the driver having a cup of coffee with his friends.
The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 7
Sri Chinmoy attends the dedication ceremony of Mactan–Cebu International Airport becoming a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport, in Cebu, the Philippines.
Mactan-Cebu International Airport
a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport
I bow and bow and bow and bow to the soul, the heart, the mind, the vital and the body of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. My esteemed brother-friend Captain Oppus, my esteemed brother-friend Mayor Weigel, and my dear sister Mrs. Erediano, to each of you I offer my heart of love, oneness and gratitude.
To start with, in all sincerity I wish to tell you all that I am not a teacher of peace and I am not an ambassador of peace. What I am is a student of peace. A student of peace has the opportunity to learn and unlearn. A student of peace learns how to receive divine qualities from his Inner Pilot and he learns how to listen in the inmost recesses of his heart to the blessingful Messages of his Inner Pilot. Again, he unlearns the experiences of division and supremacy that the mind has given him over the years. The mind has taught us the song of supremacy as well as many other undivine lessons. The mind has given us many unfortunate experiences. As a student of peace, these lessons and experiences I try to unlearn.
The experiences of the heart strengthen us, expand our horizons, make us feel that we are all one family and we have only one home. Our life-tree has countless branches, flowers and fruits. Each individual is a beautiful, beautiful flower with fragrance. Each individual is a sweet, delicious fruit of that life-tree.
Here we are at the International Airport. An airport is the home of aspiring, evolving humanity. From this home we start our journey. Again, we come back here to this home at the end of our journey’s close. This home teaches us the importance of speed. Faster than the fastest its child, the aeroplane, takes us to another part of the world. This home gives us the message of adventure. From here we go to another part of the world with enthusiasm and love to experience the beauty, divinity and fragrance of people from other countries and to become inseparably one with their joys and sorrows.
Aspiration and dedication are the two wings of our soul-bird, the inner reality. We aspire to fly higher and highest and we dedicate ourselves to become one, inseparably one, with the rest of the world. Each individual is a pilgrim. With his ever-new dream he is flying in the sky of hope, in the sky of promise. So this International Airport is our soul’s promise and our heart’s love. With our love we shall see the world and feel the world as our own, very own. With our promise we shall increase the beauty and divinity of each and every human being and each and every nation.
My esteemed brother-friend, the Mayor, spoke about the League of Nations and the United Nations. I am extremely fortunate to be a servitor of the United Nations. I have been serving the United Nations for about a quarter of a century. These last 23 years I have been serving the United Nations with my prayers and meditations. Twice a week I go to the United Nations. About 60 students of mine work at the United Nations, and also there are many seekers, right from the highest officials — ambassadors, delegates and diplomats — down to the general staff, who come to pray and meditate with us. The League of Nations was a tiny plant. Now the plant has grown into a huge banyan tree, the United Nations. The United Nations is the hope of mankind. There the representatives of various countries come and offer their goodwill and exchange their lofty ideas on how all the people of the world can become inseparably one.
Unfortunately, peace is still a far cry. This world of ours has not yet seen the face or felt the heart of peace. Why, why, why? Precisely because we are trying to bring about world peace with our mind’s brilliance, splendour and scientific capacities. As long as we try to establish world peace on the strength of our mind’s capacities, we shall sadly fail. We shall succeed only when we exercise our heart’s capacities.
The very nature of the human mind is division. The mind gets pleasure only in lording it over others, in exercising its supremacy. When I live in the mind, I always want to be at least one step ahead of you, or I want to be a few inches above your head. But as long as I am ahead of you or higher than you are, I will never be able to give you the real happiness, and inside this happiness is peace. We have to walk side by side, or we have to carry the other individuals inside our heart-garden. At every moment we must see the aspiration and dedication of all world-citizens. Each citizen is a flower and his heart is its fragrance.
I am a student of peace; I am a student of the heart. I pray to God to expand my heart at every moment. This heart alone will be able to make me feel that each individual on earth is not only mine but also an ever-climbing oneness-breath.
Peace does not have to remain a far cry. Now we are like patients in a mental hospital, but we have to come out. We can only come out of the mental hospital if we use the proper medicine, and this medicine is the feeling of oneness. This oneness we can feel only when we claim the entire world as our own, very own. By dividing the world, we are only taking ourselves away, far, farther, farthest, from our Source, which is Immortality.
The way of the heart has no U-turn. Once we start our journey, we only walk, march, run and sprint along Eternity’s Road. Here each step reminds us of what we eternally are: happiness, happiness and happiness. Happiness and peace are inseparable. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Happiness is the beauty of our soul, and peace is the fragrance of our soul. Our soul is the direct representative of our Absolute Lord Supreme, who is at once omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
Let us pray and meditate to be the beauty of our heart-flower and fragrance of our heart-flower. It is in the beauty and fragrance of our heart-flower that we shall have peace, abiding peace, infinite peace, that will inundate the length and breadth of the entire world.
I wish to offer my heart’s very special gratitude to all those who serve this august airport. Each server plays a most significant role in welcoming, in helping and in giving joy to thousands of pilgrims who come to this home to be blessed with hope, promise and fulfilment.
Published in Peace-Blossoms on the Philippine Life-Tree