America's Independence

The American Declaration of Independence had the pioneer vision of faith, dignity and humanity's basic needs: equal rights, justice and freedom. Clarity, luminosity and vastness, these the Declaration of Independence embodies. It is not a mere declaration. It is something infinitely more. It is the freedom-cry of humanity's aspiration-day from the frustration-night of ignorance.

Sri Chinmoy

Bicentennial Flames

America will offer her unprecedented capacity
to the community of nations
and make all nations feel that
her height and depth and speed and power
are for them to claim as their very own,
and thus create a satisfying and satisfied world-family.

In the next two hundred years America’s contribution to the family of nations will be equality’s universal birthright and reality’s transcendental height. America is great. America is good. America’s greatness is going to increase in infinite measure in the next two hundred years because America knows what greatness is and where it comes from. Greatness is self-giving and its source is love and peace in love. America’s goodness lies in this: God for God’s sake, man for God’s sake. Aspiration for a higher life is for God’s sake. Truth-discovery is for God’s sake. Peace-distribution is for God’s sake. Delight-manifestation is for God’s sake.

There are two special qualities that Americans can work on to help bring forward all their potential divinity. These two divine qualities are the feeling of universal oneness and constant and cheerful self-giving to the Supreme Pilot, who is man’s own highest Reality.

America’s matchless contribution shall be her supreme universal friendship in which the family of nations will see beckoning hands, oneness-satisfaction and perfection-manifestation. America means contribution. Right now this contribution at times is conditional, at times unconditional. But either in the near or distant future, America’s contribution will always be unconditional in the outer life because America is undoubtedly going to make tireless efforts to become a supremely unconditional instrument of the Pilot Supreme.

We can rekindle the significance of America in our hearts and in the hearts of others by becoming glowing sacrifice in the inner life and growing service in the outer life.

In her first two hundred years America has learned the momentous necessity of the childlike heart. Now, in order to make the fastest progress, the most important thing is for her to have a life of conscious and continuous self-giving.

America can serve the world most provided America feels that the service it renders to the community of nations is nothing but its own illumining and self-fulfilling expansion.

The soul of America always tries to teach its American children to be divinely brave and remain so eternally in order to fight against humanity’s outer darkness and inner ignorance. Humanity’s outer darkness is the sense of division; humanity’s inner ignorance is the life of doubt.

America’s hope, America’s promise and America’s freedom:  these America can transmit to the world-body today provided America does not claim them as her own personal achievements, but as compassionate boons from Above.

American citizens can best further America’s role in the world in the next two hundred years by claiming the rest of the world as their very own. This feeling of oneness can alone bring to America an unprecedented leadership and a unique friendship.

The spirit of the past was the discovery of an inner adamantine will to fight against bondage. The present spirit is the aspiration to become humanity’s brother, humanity’s selfless lover
and divinity’s constant server.

The next two hundred years will see the manifestation of the soul’s qualities of America. This manifestation will take place in America’s conscious and unconditional leadership of humanity and America’s constant and self-giving friendship with humanity.
American politics can return to the spiritual values that they had during the time of the Founding Fathers and some of the previous presidents only if the political leaders and other leaders feel the supreme necessity of an inner life that has the capacity to bring about outer success, outer achievements, outer perfection and outer satisfaction.

You can regain the nobility and wisdom of the Founding Fathers in America best by meditating on the independence spirit of America, which was treasured not only by earth’s aspiration but also by Heaven’s illumination.

The soul of America, like a child, is growing, glowing, developing, illumining and fulfilling. It is a soul that is most progressive and most striking.

The spiritual significance of being two hundred years old is that the journey of America will continue eternally toward the establishment of a better, more illumining and more fulfilling human family on earth.

America can make more spiritual progress if it can feel that it has been selected as a choice instrument of the Supreme, for the Supreme. America can serve the world most provided America feels that the service it renders to the community of nations is nothing but its own illumining and self-fulfilling expansion.

The soul of America always tries to teach its American children to be divinely brave and remain so eternally in order to fight against humanity’s outer darkness and inner ignorance. Humanity’s outer darkness is the sense of division; humanity’s inner ignorance is the life of doubt.

Undoubtedly the spiritual forces will be able to manifest in the next two hundred years much more than they did in the past two hundred years, for not only America’s but also humanity’s aspiration is continuously proceeding forward, upward and inward.

The American people can better realise their love for the soul of America if they discover that the real and immortal reality in each human being, in each nation, is only the soul-reality. Everything else is transitory.

There is an art form that is intimately tied to the soul of America, and that is America’s untiring inner and outer efforts to grow into a supreme God-seeker, a supreme peace-lover and a supreme satisfaction-distributor to humanity.

American citizens can best further America’s role in the world in the next two hundred years by claiming the rest of the world as their very own. This feeling of oneness can alone bring to America an unprecedented leadership and a unique friendship.

Previously a soulful promise reigned supreme; now a fruitful hope reigns supreme. The spirit at that time was promise; now it has become hope. The spirit of the past was the discovery of inner adamantine will to fight against bondage. The present spirit is the aspiration to become humanity’s brother, humanity’s selfless lover and divinity’s constant server.

American citizens can learn to love their country more by realising the supreme fact that there is no difference between true love of one’s country and true love of God. One’s country is nothing short of God’s concentrated Creation.

You can love America much more sincerely and soulfully provided you feel that America is not a vast piece of land and a machine-driven country, but a life-illumining, love-fulfilling, peace-spreading country.

What God wants is our determined will power to dive deeper than the deepest, run farther than the farthest, fly higher than the highest. He does not want us to remain self-enamoured by the grandiose achievements of the past but to aspire for higher ideals and higher goals that will promote in a significant way the cause of world-peace, world-perfection and world-satisfaction.

The soul of America can play the role of the mother and feel that all the other nations are her children. The children mix together, play together, sing together, dance together.  Then, when it is time to achieve something, if all the members meet together and jointly do something, it is like children coming to a conclusion together. Naturally, the soul of America will be highly pleased, for she feels that it is a harmonious family. Together they achieve, together they accomplish, together they fulfil.

The next two hundred years will see the manifestation of the soul’s qualities of America. This manifestation will take place in America’s conscious and unconditional leadership of humanity and America’s constant and self-giving friendship with humanity.

America gained her independence two hundred years ago by virtue of determined will power. Now her spiritual independence will be founded upon her conscious oneness with God, and this can be established only on the strength of her implicit surrender to God’s divine Dispensation and Will.

America’s goal, like the goal of all the nations and human beings, is always in the process of self-transcendence. There is no fixed goal. America’s main goal is a flood of satisfaction, inner and outer. This satisfaction has undoubtedly been achieved to a certain extent. But since everything is progressing and evolving, America’s goal is an ever-loving and ever-illumining and fulfilling goal of continuous self-transcendence.

The United States is going to play the role not so much of leadership as of friendship, nay, brotherhood, in mankind’s evolution. And evolution is another name for mankind’s spiritual development.