Questions answered
by Sri Chinmoy
from those who have been on his path for more than thirty-three years, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.
Question: On the Christmas Trip you said, if I understood correctly, that even when some of us want to be receptive and are crying to make some progress or crying for light in some way and you try to give it to us, we become frightened or we refuse it. I was wondering if there was something we could do so that we could be more receptive in that way.
Sri Chinmoy: There are many ways to create or develop receptivity, many, many ways. Two ways I shall tell you. One way is to imagine inside your heart a most beautiful lotus that is blossoming petal by petal. Then what will you do? You will appreciate the beauty and fragrance of that lotus. While appreciating, first you will see that inside your heart is the lotus. Then, gradually, you will see that your heart is no longer there; your heart has become a lotus. Your heart has disappeared and only a lotus remains. Then try to appreciate the beauty and fragrance of that lotus. That is going to give you enormous receptivity because you have become one with the beauty and fragrance of the lotus. When you become one with the beauty and fragrance of something that is pure, you are bound to develop receptivity.
Another thing is daily to fix a few times when you will recite either “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme” or “Guru, Guru, Guru,” whichever you like. I like “Supreme.” He is also our Guru! Three or four times a day, for a few minutes if you recite “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme” or “Guru, Guru, Guru,” you can easily develop receptivity.
Sometimes disciples do not receive, sometimes they resist and sometimes they revolt. Again, some disciples who are not as strong as other disciples develop such receptivity during our Christmas Trips! At that time they receive so much from me. To my great joy and astonishment, they make tremendous progress. Then, during the entire year, they do not have to do spiritual work. They can withdraw and withdraw from their spirituality-bank. Again, some excellent disciples receive so much, so much from me during our Christmas Trips. I tell you, it is unimaginable! You have to know which category you belong to.
Question: You have said that sometimes God blesses the world with His Compassion and sometimes with His Justice-Light. Is it possible that God may act in various ways in the same situation?
Sri Chinmoy: Let us say that some people are doing something wrong and they are getting God’s Compassion, whereas others who are doing the same kind of thing are getting God’s Justice-Light. Why? We have to believe in the past and also we have to believe in the future. At what point God may withdraw His Compassion-Height and at what point God will bring down His Justice-Light, we do not know.
The mind will say that somebody has done something wrong and he deserves punishment. Why is God waiting and waiting? Why is He only showing His Compassion-Height and not His Justice-Light? Nobody will be able to escape God’s Justice-Light, but God has His own Hour. Our difficulty is that with our minds we try to bind the time, fix the time. We say, “He is such a bad fellow. He should be punished at this very moment, or in a week or in a month or in a year.” Unfortunately, God’s choice Hour we do not know. That is why it seems that somebody has escaped punishment. But God’s Justice-Light nobody will be able to escape — nobody, nobody. It is a matter of time. God has kept a fixed Hour when that person will be punished.
Again, I wish to say that God’s Justice itself is a kind of Compassion. If God uses His Justice-Light, it is for our good. When God uses His Justice-Light, it is to illumine an individual, not to destroy him.
Question: Should I feel that my spiritual Master is the highest?
Sri Chinmoy: Some spiritual Masters openly declare their God-realisation. Other spiritual Masters secretly tell their choice disciples, very secretly. According to Indian theory, no matter who your Guru is or what his height is, you have to feel that he is the highest.
Do not make the mistake of confusing spiritual power and occult power. Real spirituality has nothing, nothing to do with occult power. Occult power is like some monkeys. They will pinch people this side and that side; they only create a sensation.
While you are on the way to God-realisation, real spiritual powers automatically come. You do not have to beg them. But again, some people pray to God to give them occult power. They want to be satisfied with occult power, not with real spirituality, with God-realisation.
Never be fooled by the display of occult power. When someone shows his occult power, he is surprising all of us. But is there anybody who is really being inspired to go and pray to God either at home or in a church? By the occultist’s performances you are excited, you are thrilled, but you are not getting even an iota of inspiration or aspiration to pray and meditate, to increase the power of your prayer-life and meditation-life. But if you go to a spiritual Master, if you go to church, if you have tremendous faith in the Saviour Christ, as you should, then you get so much inner joy, inner feeling.
Never put occult power and real spirituality on the same footing. It will be the height of your stupidity. There are so many spiritual Masters who had tremendous occult power but never used it, never. Again, there are some who did use it. Why? Because God asked them to use it in order to manifest His Light in a special way. But by using occult power, you cannot change anybody’s life. Never think that occult power is something needed to make spiritual progress — never, never, never!
Then there is another theory about spiritual Masters. There was a great scholar who was a graduate of Cambridge University. He came to India as a professor of English literature. One day the principal of his university invited the professor to come to his place and eat. O God, as soon as the professor saw the principal’s wife, he saw God inside her! She did not pray or meditate, but the professor was a genuine seeker and he recognised her as his Guru. In the beginning, the principal’s wife was a little bit embarrassed. Then she started praying and meditating and she went very, very high.
The professor showed such sincere devotion to his Guru that he made tremendous progress. He reached a very high, sublime height. Then this man had to write, “The Guru is higher than God Himself.”
How to believe it? The professor explained, "The Guru takes the beating. What is happening inside the real God, if there is a separate God, we do not know. But here we see, when disciples do something wrong — specially close disciples — what kind of beating the Guru gets." He wrote a beautiful article on this theme. Again and again he was justifying his statement that the Guru is higher than God Himself. In one sense, it is ridiculous; but again, the real Guru is God Himself. The God that is inside us and the God that we imagine in Heaven is the same God, the same Guru.
Again and again this professor said, “The one who sees our sufferings and becomes one with our sufferings is higher than God.” He did not say whether the God who is upstairs on the highest floor, in Heaven, is suffering or not. He did not want to say, or perhaps he did not even know. But he saw that the Guru in front of him was suffering by becoming one with his suffering, so he felt that this Guru was definitely higher than the Being that we imagine to be God.
Now, let me touch on another point. There are some unfortunate disciples who say, “God knows everything, but my Master does not know everything.” By saying that the Guru does not know, if you are a disciple of that type, you are very comfortable. You say, “Oh, I can do all kinds of things because the Master will never know.” But who is becoming the loser? The actual loser is you yourself. You are saying, “He does not know, he does not know.” Why does the Master even have to know? Why does he have to know what you are doing with your outer life or mental life or vital life? Do whatever you want to, if you have to do it, but do not bring the Master into the picture.
Again, when you do good things you say to yourself, “How I wish the Master knew about it!” At that time, be wise. When you are doing something good, give the credit to the Master by saying, “I am sure the Master has acted in and through me.” If you can give the Master or the Supreme the credit, you are doing absolutely the right thing. Just say, “I myself could not have done it. I myself could not have said it. He has acted in and through me. I am only an instrument.” Sri Krishna taught us, “Nimitta matram bhava savyasachin” — “Become a mere instrument.”
When you pray and meditate, if you pray to the Supreme, I will be the happiest person, believe me, because He is my Guru, He is your Guru. Take Him as the top of the tree and think of me as the foot of the tree. But if you separate me from that tree, you are making a mistake.
The way I have established my oneness with God, unfortunately you have not yet done it. You will also do the same thing, but until you have come to that realisation, always take us as one, take us as one, take us as one. I hope I am making it clear. Pray to the Supreme. I am also praying to the Supreme, but fortunately I have become inseparably one with Him. You will also become inseparably one with Him at God’s own Hour, choice Hour. Until that time, try to keep the link, the oneness-link, between me and the Supreme.
Question: In China I saw the Chinese goddess Quan Yin and I really felt something in her. I am wondering, if I feel inspired to sit in front of Quan Yin, is that a good thing?
Sri Chinmoy: There is nothing wrong if you look at this Chinese goddess. Four or five times she came to me before I went to China. If you feel inspired by her, I will not be jealous of her! She is a goddess. Similarly, if you meditate on Mother Kali, I will not be jealous, because Mother Kali is my Mother. If you want to do it sometimes, then do it. I will be the last person to prevent you, because when you become one with God, you become one with all Cosmic Gods and Goddesses. But in your heart of hearts, you have to know always that this Indian Guru is enough for you.
Published in My Heart-Door I Have Kept Wide Open
