On 12 January 1976, Sri Chinmoy appeared as a special guest on the Emmy Award winning ‘The Pat Collins Show’ on WCBS-TV NY, USA.
This is a transcript of a section of this interview
Question: What is it that you believe? What is it that you teach?
Sri Chinmoy: I believe in dedicated service to mankind, and I feel each individual being has some capacity to serve God inside human beings.
Question: Have you found it difficult to bring eastern thought and eastern religion to a Western culture? That's very much, as I'm sure you have observed, caught up in the day to day grind, the busyness, the sometimes almost manic pursuit of materialism.
Sri Chinmoy: In my case, the experience is totally different here. I have found the West is considerably receptive. So I found no difficulty in offering my dedicated service to the seekers in America and the West.
Question: I read somewhere that I think at the age of twelve, you had some sort of sign that this is what you should do with your life. Can you tell me about that?
Sri Chinmoy: At the age of twelve, I attained to my highest, my own highest consciousness. And then from that time on, I have been trying to reveal, by the infinite Grace of the Supreme, what I had achieved.
Question: What was that experience when you were twelve? What happened to you?
Sri Chinmoy: An experience of inseparable and eternal oneness with my inner pilot.
Question: What do you mean when you say inner pilot?
Sri Chinmoy: The inner pilot is He who not only guides me as an individual, but who guides the entire universe.
Question: Do you believe in a in a God or a supreme being that is like the God that most of us who were raised in a Western religion believe in.
Sri Chinmoy: I do believe in a God, the Supreme Being. Also, in my case, I see and feel that God can take any form He wants to. God can be an infinite Energy. God can be infinite Light. God can be anything He wants to. He is with form and at the same time He can be without any form.
Question: Does He exist within?
Sri Chinmoy: He exists within. He exists without. He is everywhere. He is within each individual. Again, He is without each individual.
[Sri Chinmoy meditates]
Sri Chinmoy: This is how I meditate and my students meditate.
Question: I noticed as you were meditating. Not them, but you. There was rapid eye movement on your part.
Sri Chinmoy: My consciousness was flying from one plane of reality to another.
Question: And when you go to that other plane, is there some idea that comes into your mind?
Sri Chinmoy: It is not an idea. I actually experience light and delight and also bring down light and delight for my students.
Question: Is it possible for all of us to achieve this? Or do you think that the people who are sitting with you here today, and the people who follow you around the world are chosen or called in some way as you were? And then it may mean that I can lead my whole life and I won't be.
Sri Chinmoy: No, it is possible for each and every individual to attain to this state of consciousness, God-realisation or God-discovery is not the sole monopoly of an individual. So here there are quite a few students and these students will eventually reach the state of consciousness and you also. All those who are interested in the spiritual life are bound to realise this state. It is a matter of time. Today I am doing it. Tomorrow, you will be able to do it easily and the day after tomorrow, the rest can do it.
Question: And if one does not reach this state of God-realisation, does it mean that we have failed inside?
Sri Chinmoy: No. Nobody fails. It is only an experience. This experience you will get today and somebody will get it tomorrow. There is no such thing as failure in God's consciousness, only it is a matter of time. If I am ready today, I will achieve it. And if you are ready tomorrow, you will achieve it. So nobody will remain unrealised in God's creation. It is a matter of time. Whoever is ready, God will grant him the capacity to realise Him.
Except from original TV show.
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