Two Instruments: Impurity and Purity
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the Indian Cultural Society, London, England
Two instruments: impurity and purity. Here we are all seekers, seekers of the highest Transcendental Truth. In our life of aspiration and dedication, purity and impurity play two significant roles: purity in a positive way and impurity in a negative way.
Impurity tells us, "I am of myself and I am for myself. Although I am limited, I want to expand myself, I want to cover the length and breadth of the world." This is what impurity tells us.
Purity tells us, "I am of God's infinite Beauty and I am for God's constant Satisfaction." This is what we learn from purity. Its source is God and at every moment it wants to please God in God's own way.
Impurity is nothing short of division, world-division and self-division. But purity is all the time playing the role of creation, new creativity; and this new creativity is founded upon conscious oneness with the world at large.
Impurity is an inner disease and a contagious disease. Consciously and unconsciously the seeker is attacked by this disease. If a seeker even unconsciously mixes with impure human beings, then his consciousness is lowered considerably. If a seeker unconsciously walks along a road that an impure person has just travelled, then he is affected. If he sits at the foot of a tree where an impure person has previously sat, then he becomes a victim to impure thoughts, although he cannot account for them.
Similarly, if a seeker walks along a road that a spiritual person has just travelled, if a seeker sits at the foot of a tree where a spiritual person has sat a few minutes earlier, then he gets good thoughts, divine thoughts, illumining thoughts and fulfilling thoughts.
Impurity plays the role of a thief. It enters into the physical proper and from there it tries to steal a few divine things that the physical embodies. Then it enters into the vital proper and steals away a few divine things from the vital. Then it enters into the mind proper and steals a few significant things, precious things from the mind.
The soul, which is the eldest and wisest member of the family, looks at the body, the physical, and feels sad over the deplorable condition of the body. This body does not know what has actually happened; the body does not know that a part of its reality has been stolen, but the soul knows. Then the soul looks at the vital and feels miserable over the deplorable condition of the vital. Then the soul looks at the mind and again feels very sad. The soul looks at all the younger members of its family and feels sorry that impurity, the thief, has stolen so many of their divine qualities. The soul searches for the thief and at long last it discovers the thief in the tiny cave of the mind. In spite of having divine power, the soul pleads with the impurity-thief to change its ways. It tells impurity that only if it changes its life and grows into purity will it have satisfaction. The thief has robbed the physical, vital and mind of quite a few spiritual qualities, but still it is not satisfied: whereas if the thief is illumined and transformed into purity, then it will have abiding satisfaction. The soul convinces impurity and impurity gives way to purity slowly, steadily and unerringly. Yesterday's impurity grows into purity through the illumining light of the soul.
The seeker continues to walk along the road of Eternity with patience, perseverance and devoted service. But after a few years it may happen that another attack of impurity will assail the human mind. Impurity offers the message that temptation is everything; there is nothing save and except temptation. "Live in the world of temptation and then you will have satisfaction." If the seeker enters into the world of temptation, he discovers frustration; and inside frustration what looms large is destruction. Yesterday impurity was astounding temptation. Today it is frustrating frustration. Tomorrow it becomes petrified destruction. This is what impurity teaches us.
Purity teaches us something else. Yesterday purity taught us how to pray soulfully. Today purity teaches us how to meditate with a calm, quiet, vacant and tranquil mind. Tomorrow purity will teach us how to contemplate soulfully and unconditionally. What is prayer? Prayer is something that lifts us high, higher, highest, to where we can see face to face our highest Reality, God. With prayer we reach the Highest and there we see our Beloved Supreme. When we meditate, our Beloved Supreme descends and stands right in front of us. When we pray, God plays the role of a magnet; He pulls us up to His height. And when we meditate, we play the role of a magnet; we pull God down to our height, to our consciousness. Then, when we contemplate, we see that wherever God is, we are there also. We see that we are in the same play; we are playing the cosmic game of oneness. In this game, this moment God is playing the role of the Beloved Supreme and we are playing the role of the divine lover, the supreme lover; the next moment God changes roles and makes us, out of His infinite Bounty, the Supreme Beloved while He plays the role of the Supreme Lover. This is what contemplation is: oneness inseparable, oneness at the same height, which God grants us out of His infinite Compassion.
The Scriptures teach us the value of purity; the spiritual Masters teach us the value of purity. Now, what is purity, after all? Purity is our sincerity and our willingness. A sincere heart embodies purity to a great extent. If the sincere heart goes one step ahead with willingness, then it becomes all purity. A man may commit Himalayan blunders; therefore he falls down and begins crawling. Then he confesses that he has made a mistake. But just by confessing his mistake, he cannot rectify it. Just because he has confessed, he is infinitely better than one who has made countless mistakes, serious mistakes, but who is unwilling to confess. Sincerity is something most valuable; it gives him the added divine energy to enable him to stand up. Then comes the willingness to walk ahead, to walk forward. He may be frightened to death. He may think that if he walks forward he will again fall down; he will again be tempted and suffer defeat, so the best thing is not to stand up at all. At this point, he is making a serious blunder. He has to know that, in spite of making repeated mistakes, there is a way to reach his destination. And, for that, he has to grow inside him the willingness, the divine willingness to move forward constantly, consciously, devotedly and unconditionally, so that at God's choice Hour he can reach the Golden Shore of the Beyond.
When sincerity and willingness go together, the aspiring heart automatically becomes pure. Our heart that wants to aspire, that wants to dedicate itself to a supreme cause, is bound to be inundated with purity when there is conscious and constant sincerity and spontaneous, conscious and constant willingness to grow into the absolute Reality. This absolute Reality we eternally are, but unfortunately we are oblivious of the Reality. Through constant practice, constant awareness and constant self-giving, we can become fully aware of the Highest Reality which we inwardly, eternally are. But if we remain in the mind — the doubting mind, the suspicious mind, the mind that belittles others — then God-discovery will always remain a far cry.
Purity's role is unique; no purity, no God-discovery. If the heart and the entire existence become purity's flood, then God-realisation can never remain a far cry. A pure heart can and does claim God as its very own. Within easy reach of the purity-heart is God with His infinite Compassion, with His infinite Love, with His infinite Reality.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 7
Human Reality and Divine Reality
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 7:50 a.m. at Jamaica High School Track in Jamaica, New York
“My sweet Beloved Supreme, I know that You have two realities, two aspects — a human reality or human aspect and a divine reality or divine aspect. Please tell me which aspect of Yours is the better of the two, or which aspect of Yours I must choose in order to make the fastest progress, or if it is obligatory on my part to choose one of the aspects in order to arrive at the highest Goal deep within You.”
“O seeker-son, I wish to tell you that it is supremely necessary for you to approach both aspects of Me, the human and the divine. It is better to start with the human aspect, for in the human aspect you get encouragement and inspiration sooner than in the divine aspect. In the divine aspect sometimes you may see some austerity in Me, some very hard and fast rules, some strict discipline. But in the human aspect you will see that there are quite a few things which you do that I do in the same manner; therefore, you will get tremendous encouragement. You can sing, you can talk, you can play, you can do sports just as I do. Only when it is a matter of meditation, you cannot do it right now the way I do. That is the only place where you are badly lacking. I do infinitely better meditation than you do. But there are quite a few things which you do as well as I do, and sometimes you may even far surpass Me. Because you have the same capacity that I have in so many things, you are bound to feel that you can arrive at the same footing on the spiritual plane as well. So you get encouragement.
“You have to think of the human aspect and the divine aspect as the flower and the fruit of the tree. I am the Life-Tree, and I bear flowers and fruits. A flower is beautiful. It inspires you, and when you are surcharged with inspiration you run, dive and fly. But there is something more than inspiration; it is called hunger. You are inspired to do something, but you need the inner hunger to strengthen you. That inner hunger is aspiration. When you are hungry, only then do you get the fruits and eat them. My Life-Tree holds the divine aspect in the fruit-form. When you eat the fruit, you get nourishment.
“Again, at times you have to take both the human aspect and the divine aspect together. You have to think of Me as the ocean and yourself as a tiny drop or wave. If you want to see Me or play with Me, you have to feel that I am the ocean and you are inside the ocean as a drop or a surge. If you are wise, then you will see that no matter what you are, you have to remain inside the ocean, inside the vast expanse. The surge cannot contain the ocean, the drop cannot contain the ocean, whereas the ocean can contain the drop and the surge. In fact, they are inseparable. The human aspect you embody, and the divine aspect I embody, but they are inseparably one. Now you have taken the form of a tiny drop and I have taken the form of the ocean. But when you grow up in spiritual matters, at that time you will see that sometimes I become the tiny drop or wave, and you become the ocean. In this way we play hide-and-seek with each other.
“If you want to go from the human to the divine aspect, this is very good. You can also go from the divine to the human aspect. Again, you can accept the human and the divine together. The human aspect is sweet, sweeter, sweetest. The divine aspect is intimate, more intimate, most intimate. This is how the seeker approaches the human aspect and the divine aspect. I am your Beloved Lord Supreme, and you are the seeker in Me, for Me.”
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 1
I Am Grateful
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 9:20 p.m at the Unitarian Church in Flushing, New York
I am grateful to my Beloved Supreme, for out of His infinite Bounty He has given me the capacity to love Him more than I love myself.
I am grateful to my Beloved Supreme, for out of His infinite Bounty He has given me the capacity to feel His Need more than my own need.
I am grateful to my Beloved Supreme, for out of His infinite Bounty He has given me the capacity not to drag Him into my desire-world, but to implore His Presence in my aspiration-world, and also to offer Him my earth-bound will and desire-life, and soulfully declare, “Let Thy Will be done.”
I shall be extremely grateful to my Beloved Supreme the day He makes me a chosen instrument of His.
I shall be extremely, extremely grateful to my Beloved Supreme the day I can feel that my soul-bird lives only for Him inside my body-cage here on earth and there in Heaven.
I shall be extremely, extremely and extremely grateful to my Beloved Supreme the day I can declare to the world within and to the world without that I am what He has and I have what He is.
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 1