Everest-Aspiration Talks
by Sri Chinmoy
5:30 a.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.
Gratitude is a miracle-action in us. This miracle-action strengthens our physical body, purifies our vital energy, widens our mental vision and intensifies our psychic delight.
The seeker in us tries to be simple, pure, humble, sincere. Every spiritual seeker tries to cultivate these qualities in abundant measure. The easiest and most effective way to cultivate these qualities is to open the gratitude-flower and let it blossom inside our heart petal by petal. How can we do this? Not only do we have to give more importance to what we have, but we also must give all importance to what we do not have.
What we have is wishful thinking, wishful seeking, wishful becoming. Wishful thinking: We think that we shall be great or successful in some way. Wishful seeking: We seek the truth and light in our own way, in the place where we think truth and light must abide. Wishful becoming: This is the most deplorable mistake we make. We want to become something that pleases us. If we want to please ourselves in our own way, then consciously or unconsciously we bring the vital-wolf to the fore.
What we do not have is the breathless inner cry and the measureless outer smile. If we can develop the breathless inner cry, then automatically we develop the measureless outer smile.
Either from within we come without, or from without we dive deep within. We can start our journey either from the soul's capacity or from the body's capacity. Ultimately these two capacities have to be united. Needless to say, the soul's capacity is infinitely greater than the body's capacity. But the little capacity that the body has, has to be united with the soul's capacity. The body's greatest capacity is the acceptance of the soul's leadership. If the soul is accepted as the supreme leader, if the soul gets the opportunity to guide, mould and shape our destiny, then we get what we do not have right now: the sweet, pure, breathless, intense inner cry and the sure, measureless outer smile.
8:30 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track
Jamaica, New York
“I do not know.” This is indeed an answer. This answer satisfies the sincere seeker in us, for the sincere seeker does not stoop to insincerity. But we have to know how far this answer can lead us. Can it lead us to our destined Goal? No, never! We have to be able to say, “I know.”
In order to find the answer, first we look around us. But the outside world laughs at us, ridicules us and sometimes looks down upon us. It considers us to be the worst possible fools. Then we dive deep within in order to get the answer. At that time something deep within tells us that what we think of ourselves is what we truly are. What we feel ourselves to be is what we truly are. What we shall ultimately become consciously is what we truly are.
What do we think we are? We think that we are devoted instruments and thoughtful seekers. What do we feel ourselves to be? We feel ourselves to be soulful lovers. And what shall we ultimately become? We shall become fruitful servers. Devoted instruments, thoughtful seekers, soulful lovers and fruitful servers of the Supreme: If we can think of ourselves in this way, if we can feel that we are all these things, then there can be no other answer for us either here on earth or there in Heaven.
This is the answer: we are the devoted instruments, the thoughtful seekers, the soulful lovers and the fruitful servers of the Supreme. “I do not know” is now transformed into “I do know.” What do I know? I know that I have all along been seeking for the birthless Vision and the ever-transcending Reality of my experience-realisation, my realisation-revelation and my revelation-manifestation.
3:50 p.m.
Bethpage State Park,
Long Island, New York
What is dream? Dream is creation. Creation is either division or union. “Division” is a complicated word. When we use division to divide the existence-reality, we enter into the world of ego and “I”-ness. But again, when we use it to divide work, labour, capacities, at that time it is a veritable blessing. If we divide and, through our division, get the result in a solid, concrete way to form one truth and one reality, then that division is good. But when we divide the reality into pieces and give supremacy to one piece and do not appreciate or value the other pieces, then we sing the song of separativity. This kind of division ends in destruction, the destruction of the little world that we claim to be ours.
“Union” is also a complicated word. When we work together, it is a great blessing. When we mix together, it is a great blessing. But when it is the union of darkness and light, when it is the union of desire and aspiration, then it is a deplorable mistake. The aspiration-life must not mix with the desire-life. If it is to mix, always it must mix with the renunciation-life — the renunciation of unnecessary possessions, of the things that are not divine, illumining and perfect.
With the aspiration-life we have to start our journey. But then there comes a time when we feel that our aspiration-life has blossomed considerably, and is ready to enter into the desire-life to transform it. The aspiration-life has to play the role of the bridge between the desire-life and the realisation-life. The seeker’s aspiration-life will enter into the desire-life for the immediate and total transformation of the desire-life. The seeker’s realisation-life will enter into the aspiration-life for the perfection of the aspiration-life and for the manifestation of the Absolute Supreme.
Each dream is a creation. Each creation is either conscious aspiration or unconscious aspiration. Our aspiration enters into the desire-life, the little brother, and helps him clean his body, purify his mind and illumine his earthly existence. Each iota of aspiration also expedites the arrival of realisation. Our aspiration enters into the realisation-life or brings the realisation-life into the aspiration-life in order to make the aspiration-life completely perfect for the awakening of our physical reality, and for the blossoming of the soul-reality, which is within us and for us.
A dream is God’s creation in the inner world. From the inner world we enter into the realisation-world. Creation and dream, aspiration and realisation — they are all members of the same family. If we can become aware of one, then automatically we can have the other three; for our dream is, after all, a disguised reality, and a disguised reality does not remain always in disguise. It purifies our mind. It offers dynamism to our vital and it offers an inner awakening in our physical reality.
I bow to dream because it is sweet and pure. I bow to reality because it not only has possibility and potentiality but it also has inevitability in boundless measure. I bow to aspiration, for it has love for us inside its boundless existence. But I love realisation, for realisation is the only thing that I need to make my Inner Pilot constantly and supremely happy.
4:38 p.m.
Bethpage State Park
Long Island, New York
Security is life. Insecurity is death. When one is secure in one’s life, one sees an hour inside a second. When one is insecure in one’s life, one does not see even a second inside an hour.
Secure people smile, not because they have something but because they are something. Secure people belong to an ever-transcending creative force. Insecure people unconsciously and deplorably have made friends with self-doubt, which is the worst possible poison. Once they have made friends with self-doubt, they are forced to make friends with somebody else, and that somebody else is self-destruction.
When one is secure, one guards what one has and what one is. What one has is simplicity, sincerity, serenity, purity and many more divine qualities. These divine qualities have to be guarded. When one is secure, only then is one in a position to guard them. When they are well protected, they can play their respective roles most satisfactorily inside the physical consciousness, vital consciousness and mental consciousness.
Security is an honour that one gives and one gets. When one becomes a security guard, one serves a superior.
The superior is being honoured because he is being guarded by others. The security guard shows the utmost respect, love and adoration to the superior; therefore, the world may think that only the superior is being honoured. But I wish to say that it is a mutual honour.
This is a public park, and undivine people are all around. I am sitting here, and you are around me with folded hands. With your aspiration and devotion you are guarding me from the wrong forces. You are guarding me; therefore, you are honouring me. You are honouring me, true, but I am also honouring you. Out of 140 people I have requested you to come here.
It is the same thing when we pray to God. We think that we are honouring Him. We are honouring Him, true, but God has already honoured us by choosing us to be His Instruments. We are honouring Him with our aspiration and devotion. But by His acceptance of us, God is also honouring us. When we serve Him, love Him and cry to Him, at that time we honour Him. But it is He who has given us the opportunity to serve Him and aspire for Him. So the security guard, when he helps or protects the superior in any way, is not at all inferior. He is only honouring and being honoured.
God has given us the capacity, the aspiration, to pray to Him and meditate on Him. By praying and meditating we are honouring Him. Again, using us as His chosen instruments, He is honouring us. When we give our security to Him, we get back His Security. By honouring God through prayer and meditation, we also honour ourselves.
God is secure in us because He dreams in and through us. He is the eternal Life-Tree; we are His projecting branches. We are not aware of our own reality; we are not aware that we are part and parcel of the Life-Tree which is God; therefore, we are insecure. But by praying and meditating we come to realise that the branches, leaves and flowers are part and parcel of the Tree itself. When we realise this, we become secure in the Source and secure in the flow. When the flow realises its absolute Source, it becomes secure. The Source is always secure in the flow, for the Source knows that its own capacity is always boundless.
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 1
