Columbia University; New York, New York, USA

16 April 1969

Hail, Columbia! Columbia, the country, Columbia, the university, Hail! The word
Columbia immediately inspires my heart, awakens my mind and pulls my life
straight into my soul’s core.
The world is told by “The Star-Spangled Banner” what you truly and soulfully
are: “The land of the free and the home of the brave.”
On 17 October 1949, Columbia University conferred the Honorary Degree of
Doctor of Laws on Prime Minister Nehru of India. Our Prime Minister, at the
beginning of his memorable speech, said something most significant.
I have come to you not so much in my capacity as Prime Minister of a
great country or as a politician, but rather as a humble seeker after truth,
and as one who has continuously struggled to find the way, not always
with success, to fit action to the objectives and ideals that I have held.
Nehru is a veritable pride, not only of India, but of the entire world. Indeed,
he was a peerless son of Mother Earth.
Now I wish to tell you, in all humility, that I too have come to you as a seeker
after the infinite Truth. I have come here to serve you all, to serve this august
University in its inner urge to reach the highest Truth.
God and man. God and man are one. They are eternally one. God knows it.
Man also will know it. He will.
Fear separates man from God. Doubt separates man from God. Self-indulgence
separates man from God.
When we fear something, we have to know that suffering has already started
torturing us from what we fear. We have two children within us. One child is
afraid of the teeming darkness in the world. The other child is afraid of the
world-transforming infinite Light. He is the ignorance-child who is afraid of
darkness. He is the child unaspiring who is afraid of Light.
Doubt is obstinate. Doubt is cruel. Poor man, with his doubt he doubts the
existence of God, who is All-Existence. Alas, what is worse is that he is ever in
doubt about his own doubts. He is lost. He is ruined. “Samsayatma vinasyate—
A doubting soul is doomed to be ruined.” This is what we have learned from the
Bhagavad Gita, India’s Bible.
Self-indulgence. Today what we call self-indulgence, tomorrow that very thing
we call self-annihilation. Indulgence comes to man with a gift, pleasure. Man
touches and feels the gift. Lo and behold, pleasure transforms itself into bitter
frustration.
No conscious embodiment of God where there is fear. No conscious realisation
of God where there is doubt. No conscious oneness with God where there is selfindulgence.
It is in man’s self-knowledge that man realises his conscious oneness with
God. Alas, we think that we are what other people say we are. We also think we
are what we appear to be when we use our limited capacity of understanding.
According to others, we are useless. According to ourselves, we are meaningless.
But according to God, we are at once most useful and most meaningful. He uses
us to fulfil Himself. We must use Him to realise our true Self. The meaning of
man’s existence is God’s Delight. The meaning of God’s Existence is man’s
realisation of the Absolute.
We need love to establish our conscious oneness with God. If we want to have
the accent on love in our life of aspiration, then we must put the stress on
sacrifice at every moment.
We need sacrifice to establish our conscious oneness with God. If we want to
have the accent on sacrifice in our life of aspiration, then we must put the stress
on surrender. We must offer our total surrender to God’s Will, and we must stay
with our unconditional surrender at God’s Feet.
Today’s belief is tomorrow’s achievement. In order to see your sincere belief
transformed into true achievement you have to plead with your conscience to be
your constant guide. When conscience is your guide, you grow into God’s colossal
Pride.
Very often you think of what you have to do, but you always do what you
want to do. Now you want to have conscious oneness with God. Look around and
you will see that somebody easily does what somebody else emphatically said
could never be done. One was right yesterday and the other is right today. Here
is a radiant proof that the message of the past can easily be challenged; or rather,
it would be better to say that the knowledge of the past can be surmounted and
it is meant to be surmounted.
Sisters and brothers, I offer to you my soul’s assurance that you are bound to
get what you want. You want to have conscious oneness with God. This oneness
is certain. This oneness is destined. And to achieve this conscious oneness with
God what you have to do is to meditate and concentrate, nothing more and
nothing less. Meditate on the Highest in your soul and concentrate on the lowest
in your nature. This is what you have to do. When you play your part, God will
play His part in you and for you. During your meditation God will present you
with His infinite Joy, Peace and Bliss. During your concentration God will transform
your ignorance-sea into the sea of eternal Light. And then, unmistakably,
what you will have is conscious oneness with God. Then what you will be is
God’s Dream fulfilled in Reality manifested.