Kundalini Yoga: the Mother-Power
by Sri Chinmoy
the first in a series of four lectures on Kundalini Yoga on consecutive Wednesday evenings given at New York University, at the invitation of Dr James Carse, Chairman of the Religion Department
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we must not sleep. We must not sleep in the world of darkness and night. The world of darkness weakens our inner potentialities. The world of night destroys our outer possibilities. When our inner potentialities are weakened, our life becomes miserable. When our outer possibilities are destroyed, our life becomes unbearable. Where can our inner potentialities safely grow? Our inner potentialities can safely grow only in the heart of the Mother-Power, Kundalini. When can our outer possibilities be effective? Our outer possibilities can be effective only when we are at the feet of the Mother-Power, Kundalini.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we must possess an adamantine will. We must be brave in the world of ignorance and inconscience. Ignorance compels us to be helpless and useless. When we feel useless, the Mother-Power in us feels helpless. When we feel helpless, the Mother-Power in us untiringly encourages, inspires and illumines us out of Her infinite Compassion.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we must love. We must love the Mother in us, love the Mother before us and love the Mother around us. The Mother in us is soulful. The Mother before us is beautiful. The Mother around us is powerful. We need the Mother of Soul to play the Cosmic Game of Life. We need the Mother of Beauty to sing the Cosmic Song of Life. We need the Mother of Power to dance the Cosmic Dance of Life. The Game of Life energises us. The Song of Life enlightens us. The Dance of Life immortalises us. Our energy is for the world to use. Our enlightenment is for the world to glorify. Our immortality is for the world to treasure.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then Power must come first in our life and Power must come last in our life. When Power divine is our first choice, fear leaves us. When Power divine is our last choice, doubt leaves us. When fear leaves us, we become what we wanted to be: divine warriors. When doubt leaves us, we become what we originally were: the Universal Self.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we have to feel that each second of our life is as important as a whole year. And we have to realise that each year is filled with as many opportunities as there are seconds. Each second carries us either towards realisation or towards frustration. Each year carries us either towards the transcendental Truth or towards the abysmal falsehood.
Truth tells us that we are God's chosen children. We need God to reach the Highest and God needs us to manifest the Highest. Falsehood tells us that we are death's instruments and that death needs us badly. The transcendental Truth beckons us. The abysmal falsehood frightens us. When the transcendental Truth beckons us, we feel that we are none other than the Supreme. When the abysmal falsehood frightens us, we feel that we are the eternal slaves of ignorance, inconscience and death.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we need purity in thought and purity in action. With a pure thought, we build the strongest and largest palace of love and fulfilment. With an impure thought, we break down and demolish the strongest and largest palace of love and fulfilment. We give birth to a pure and divine thought when we feel that we are of God and for God. We give birth to an impure, undivine thought when we feel that we are of ignorance unknowable and for ignorance known and unknown. With a pure action we become the life-saver of the aspiring world. With an impure action we become the life-destroyer of the entire world.
Do we want to follow the path of Kundalini Yoga? Then we have to know that our essence is the Delight-power of Heaven and our existence is the Peace-power for earth. With the Delight-power we begin. With the Peace-power we end.
Published in Kundalini: the Mother-Power
Forward!
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in the Union Cinema at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Dear seekers of the highest Truth, dear sisters and brothers of the spiritual family, as we all know, each state has a motto of its own. To my deepest joy the motto of your state, Wisconsin, is very significant in the spiritual life. Forward. To me, “forward” is not a mere word or an idea, but a secret and sacred key to open God's Door.
Forward. There can be nothing as significant as moving forward in our life of aspiration. The Vedic seers of the hoary past uttered a significant mantra: Charai veti, “Move on, forward!” We shall move forward towards the farthest Beyond. Today we are in the Dream-Boat; tomorrow we shall touch the Reality-Shore. Forward, ever forward.
We are all seekers; we are all in the world of spirituality. To me spirituality is a one-way road that leads us to our destination. Once we start our journey, we may stumble, we may walk slowly, we may march or we may run fast, faster, fastest towards our Goal. There may come a time when we proceed backwards on our way towards the Goal, but this is only a temporary experience. After a while we go forward again.
We do not belong to the past; we belong to the future, the future that grows and glows in the immediacy of today. I tell my students that the past is dust no matter how much we have achieved in the past or what we were in the past. The past has not given us Truth, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. Therefore, we can and must expect these things only from today, or from the future that is looming large in the heart of today.
In the spiritual life we come to realise that we have four good friends: simplicity, sincerity, humility and purity. With the help of these friends, we move forward.
Simplicity-friend wants us to be as simple as possible. It tells us that our mind makes us feel that God is very complex, but actually He is very simple, simplicity itself. Therefore we, too, have to be simple in order to receive and achieve Him.
Sincerity-friend tells us that God is all sincerity. Although we do not know or understand His operation, His way of working in and through us, still God is very sincere. Therefore we, too, must be sincere in order to be God-like.
Humility-friend tells us that God is very humble. Although He is the Highest, the Lord Supreme, His Humility-power and Oneness-power make us feel that if we, too, are humble, one day we will be able to reach the Highest. God is like a tree. When the tree has no fruit, it stands erect and may look proud and haughty. But when the tree is laden with fruit, it bows down. So God, who is always full of inner fruits, bends and bows so that His children can climb up the tree and eat to their heart’s content.
Purity-friend tells us that God is all purity. It tells us that our living breath must be purity’s flood if we want to hold, cherish and treasure the Presence of God within us.
When we are sincere in our forward journey, we see that our road is very straight. When we are simple, we feel and we see with our inner vision that the road is sunlit. When we are humble, we feel that the road is short and, at the same time, shortened still further by the Grace of God. When we are pure, we see clearly with our inner vision that the ultimate Goal itself is running towards us as we are running towards the Goal. And our meeting place is where the finite unites with the Infinite.
Charai veti! “Move on, forward!” There was a time when we were in the mineral world, but when the necessity came from within, we moved on and entered into the plant world. From the plant world, we moved on into the animal world. From the animal kingdom we entered into the human kingdom. Now it is our inner urge that will lead us to the Divine Kingdom.
In the mineral world, the ruler is Ignorance-Emperor. In the plant world, the ruler is Ignorance-King. In the animal world, the ruler is Ignorance-Commander. In the human world, the ruler is Ignorance-Captain. In the Divine World, the ruler is the Light Supreme of the ever-transcending and ever-fulfilling Beyond.
We move forward on the strength of our outer and inner education. Outer education at times fails to tell us that there is something called inner education. Or it happens that outer education discourages us from entering into inner education. Now, outer education has to offer what it has and inner education has to offer what it has. But it sometimes happens that when we have too much outer education we accumulate too much world-information and not so much knowledge, not to speak of wisdom. At this time we find it difficult to enter into the world of inner education. Again, too much of the intellect, too much of the physical mind surcharged with doubt, fear, anxieties, worries and other discouraging elements, makes it difficult for us to enter into the inner education and make progress.
We need the mind, but only the mind that listens to the heart, for the heart listens to the soul. Otherwise the mind, the vital and the body become unruly members in our spiritual family. So we have to try very hard to stay in the heart, since this heart has to listen to the eldest member of its family, the soul. Similarly, the mind must listen to the heart, the vital must listen to the mind, and the body must listen to the vital. In this way, the spiritual family can grow together and fulfil the message of the Absolute Supreme.
From the inner education we come to realise that Truth and Wisdom-Light are already within us. But sometimes we need help convincing our outer being that we do have within us what we actually seek. In outer education, we feel that the knowledge is somewhere else and we have to search for it and get it. In the inner education the ultimate Knowledge, the Wisdom-Light, is all within us, but somebody has to convince us of this. The inner teacher tells us, “Inside you is the treasure, inside you is the box, but unfortunately you have misplaced the key. It is your treasure and not mine. It is your box and not mine. But I will show you where the treasure is and, if you want me to, I will also help you open the box. Once you open the box, all the treasure will be yours.” The inner teacher is like a river. Just follow the river and it will take you to the sea, which is your own Reality, your own Divinity, your own Immortality.
Before we enter into the spiritual life, we are small people. Once we enter into the spiritual life, we are great people. But after we start making real progress in the spiritual life, we become good people. A small man never thinks that he is small. A great man thinks that he is great. A good man thinks that he is neither good nor bad. He sees that he is just an iota of Light, just an iota of Truth, while God is the infinite sea of Light and Truth. When we make real progress, we come to know how small, how insignificant we really are. But again, there comes a time when the finite, the infinitesimal drop, merges into the ocean of Truth, Light and Bliss and becomes the vast ocean itself.
The small man is afraid of moving forward because he feels that the unknowable may destroy him altogether. For him, to step forward is to enter into the unknowable. A great man is reluctant to step forward because he feels that this forward step may take him into something unknown, which may be unfriendly. A good man feels that the unknowable or the unknown is nothing but God veiled. Once we enter the unknowable and the unknown, God becomes unveiled — unveiled Reality, unveiled Divinity. So a good man is never afraid of progress. He knows that right ahead of him is the veiled Reality and, if he approaches this veiled Reality, it will become the unveiled Reality.
We can move forward only when we have confidence. Before we enter into the spiritual life, we have very little confidence, even in ourselves. We do not know or do not care to know that there is someone called God who can inundate us with confidence. But once we enter into the spiritual life, we see that it is God who offers us confidence. That is why we make progress and walk, march, run towards our destined Goal. At every moment God tells us that unless and until we also have divine confidence, we will not be able to make the fastest progress. Only when we have divine confidence can God’s Confidence operate most successfully and gloriously in us. And what is our divine confidence? It is the confidence that tells us we came from God, and so cannot mix with ignorance. We cannot swim in the sea of ignorance. No! We have to swim in the sea of Light and Delight.
The forward march, the inward march and the upward march are the same. If we take one step forward, we have to feel that simultaneously we have taken a step inward and a step upward. In our forward step, we see the Body of God. In our inward step, we see the Heart of God. In our upward step, we see the Soul of God. When we have the Body of God, the Heart of God and the Soul of God, at that time we do not need anything else.
We have to move on, move on far, farther, farthest; deep, deeper, deepest; high, higher, highest. Since we are seekers, there is no end to our achievement. We achieve on the strength of inner assurance — our assurance to God and God's assurance to us. God's constant assurance to us is this: "Children, you are all of Me, of My Infinity, Eternity and Immortality." Our assurance to God is this: "Father, we are for You. We are for Your manifestation, Your complete manifestation, Your perfect manifestation here on earth." In this way, when God assures us and we assure God, then our journey towards the highest Height, the deepest Depth and the farthest Beyond reaches its destined Goal; the Dream-Boat touches the Reality-Shore.
Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 2
Stories about Gandhi
by Sri Chinmoy
Gandhi passes his own examination
Gandhi would never tell a lie. Once the inspector visited his school class and gave a few words of dictation. The third word was ‘kettle’. Gandhi’s friends were able to spell the word properly, but unfortunately Gandhi did not know how.
The inspector began going around to each and every student to check the papers. The teacher saw that Gandhi’s spelling was wrong, so with his foot he touched Gandhi’s leg to draw Gandhi’s attention. With his eyes he was telling Gandhi to look at somebody else’s paper. But Gandhi did not want to copy from anyone.
When the inspector came to Gandhi, he said, “Here I have found a mistake. This boy does not know how to spell ‘kettle’. He has written it ‘ketle’.”
The inspector didn’t get angry, but he was sad that one person did not know the answer. Finally, the inspector left.
The teacher was very angry with Gandhi. “I told you to look at your friend’s paper, but you didn’t listen to me. You are a disgrace to my class.”
Gandhi said, “I may be a disgrace, but I can’t tell a lie and I can’t say anything that is false.”
Gandhi was sad that he had made a mistake and had not been able to please his teacher, but he was happy that he had at least pleased himself by being honest.
The teacher was silent.
Gandhi’s matchless sincerity
A friend of Gandhi’s once needed money and asked Gandhi if he could help him. Gandhi first said, “I have no money.” Then he conceded, “All right, I will try my best.”
Gandhi stole a piece of gold from his brother and sold it. He then gave the money to his friend. Afterwards, he felt miserable that he had stolen something.
He used to always tell his father everything. He did not keep any secrets from him. Although his father was very sick and bedridden, Gandhi wrote him a note, saying, “I stole a piece of gold and I feel very sad and miserable. Please forgive me.”
As soon as his father read the note, he immediately got up from his bed. Gandhi was afraid he was going to strike him. But there were tears in his father’s eyes. Then Gandhi thought that his father was very sad that his son had stolen something from his own brother. So he felt even more miserable. Finally, his father tore up the note and there were more tears in his eyes.
Gandhi assured his father, “Father, I will never steal anymore. This is my first and last time. Please do not cry.”
His father was so moved that he cried and cried. “I am crying, son, not because you have stolen something but because of your sincerity. You are always so truthful. I have never seen anybody as sincere as you. I am crying because of your sincerity, not because you have committed a theft. I am so proud of your sincerity and honesty.”
Gandhi and the goat’s meat
When he was thirteen, Gandhi got married to a girl of the same age. The two were extremely fond of each other. When Gandhi was about eighteen, he wanted to go to Europe to continue his college studies. By that time, his father had died and his mother was in charge of his life. Gandhi’s relatives also wanted Gandhi to go to Europe and they requested his mother to send her son. But she was very worried. She said, “No, no. If I send him to Europe, he will be ruined. Now he is so close to me. There he will start drinking, eating meat and mixing with women.”
Gandhi promised his mother that he would not drink, eat meat or mix with women, and he did keep his promise. After getting his degree in law, he came home. On his return he found that his mother had died.
Gandhi had a Muslim friend who always tried to persuade him to eat meat. “No,” Gandhi would answer him, “Hindus don’t eat meat, especially my caste. My ancestors never ate meat.”
But the friend insisted. “If you don’t eat meat, you will remain weak. You have to eat meat if you want to be physically strong.”
Gandhi very much wanted to be physically strong. “Are you sure it will make me strong?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied his Muslim friend.
Since Gandhi was very weak, one evening he tried some goat’s meat. That night Gandhi saw that the goat was crying inside his stomach. The goat was so miserable.
Gandhi cried, “I can’t eat meat anymore! I have seen the goat crying inside me.” And he gave up eating meat forever.
But he was fond of goat’s milk, and he used to drink it. “One can take goat’s milk,” he used to say, “but not goat’s meat.”
Published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 9
Stories about Anandamayee Ma
by Sri Chinmoy
Anandamayee Ma hides her beauty
This incident took place when Anandamayee Ma was newly married. She was about sixteen or so. Her husband, Bholanath, was much older than she was. One day her husband brought a friend of his home. Bholanath wanted to show off what a beautiful wife he had.
At that time, Anandamayee Ma’s name was Nirmala Sundari. She was extremely beautiful, both inwardly and outwardly. On that day, when Bholanath arrived home with his friend, Bholanath saw to his great surprise that his wife had put a towel over her head and covered her face.
Bholanath said to her, “What are you doing? What are you doing? You do not want to see my friend?”
But Nirmala did not listen to him. She kept the towel on her head. Then Bholanath became furious. He asked her, “Who do you think you are?”
Nirmala took off the towel and said, “I am Brahman all-pervading.”
The husband was furious and the friend was amused.
The Guru and the disciple in one form
Anandamayee Ma did not have any Guru. At first she thought that it was necessary to have a Guru. Then she felt that it was not necessary. She prayed and meditated. Finally, in a deep meditation, she felt that her highest Self was the Guru and her lower self was the disciple. This moment she played the role of a disciple; next moment she played the role of her Master. This is how she initiated herself.
Anandamayee Ma did not listen to her husband. She passed her time in prayer and meditation. She was all the time self-absorbed. Her husband could not tolerate her behaviour. He used to beat her quite hard until she was black and blue. This went on for years.
Then one day she told him, “Wait for another two years. Then you will not be able to beat me any more.”
What happened? Within two years she gathered many devotees and her husband became frightened. He could not continue to treat his wife in such a rough manner. He touched her feet and begged her for forgiveness. Then he became her first real disciple.
The villagers were all shocked. How could a husband become his wife’s disciple? But Bholanath said, “I see her divinity. Previously I thought that she was possessed by demons. Now I see that she is possessed by God.”
Anandamayee Ma ceases to feed herself
One evening, in 1924, Anandamayee Ma said, “I am not going to eat food with my own hand any longer.”
From that day on, she was always fed by her disciples. They had to put food into her mouth. This went on until she left the body in 1982.
Once a disciple of Anandamayee Ma asked her, “Please tell me who you are. I want to know.”
She replied, “It is up to you. Whatever you think of me, I am that. If you think I am this, you are right. If another person thinks I am something else, he is right. As you think of me, so I am.”
Anandamayee Ma solves the religious disputes
India’s greatest religious festival is the Kumbha Mela. It takes place every twelve years. Millions of people attend, including many religious leaders and all kinds of devotees.
Sometimes the religious leaders go there to enjoy debating, and sometimes even quarrelling and fighting. Anandamayee Ma was also present on a number of occasions. Some leaders felt that they should go to her for wisdom. They used to come to her and she used to advise them. It happened for quite a few years that leaders of religious groups used to come to her for her wisdom-light. In this way, she was the one to prevent them from quarrelling and fighting.
The western world comes to know of Anandamayee Ma
It was Paramahansa Yogananda who brought Anandamayee Ma’s light to America. He wrote the Autobiography of a Yogi and in his autobiography he devoted a chapter to “The Bengali ‘Joy-Permeated Mother’.”
It was because Paramahansa Yogananda wrote about his meeting with Anandamayee Ma that the Western world came to know about her.
Anandamayee Ma's opinion was that each person is his own guru because each person listens to himself. He listens to his mind or his heart, so he is his own guru. Whatever comes to his mind, he does. Whatever he feels, he does. Therefore, each individual is his own guru.
Anandamayee Ma's simple advice
Anandamayee Ma used to advise her disciples to laugh and laugh and laugh. She said, “If you laugh, then you minimise your sufferings and also you unburden the sadness and sorrows of other human beings.”
This is why she encouraged her disciples to laugh to their heart’s content.
In the evening of her life, sometimes for days Anandamayee Ma did not take a bath. Once one disciple said to another, “Mother does not take a bath at all.”
The other disciple said, “Why does she have to take a bath? She has such a beautiful and pleasing fragrance in her body. She does not have to take a bath. She is not like us.”
The Mother overheard their conversation and the following day she bathed thirty times! The disciples were horrified, and they never brought up the subject again. Then, as usual, Anandamayee Ma stopped taking baths on a regular basis.
Published in The Power of Kindness and Other Stories
Stories about Songs
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Nexus Resort, Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Appreciating a famous melody
In the Indian tradition, if some songs are very, very famous, like Phire chalo, He partha sarathi and Ghana tamasabrita, it is a well-established practice for composers to use part of the melody and give credit to the source. It means that you are appreciating and admiring a particular melody. Others have written a song before you. You offer your own words, but the melody you carry in a similar way.
You have just sung my song Ami jabo, which has a similar tune to Phire chalo. The first part of my song Chalo chalo is similar to the melody of a very, very famous song that I used to sing in India. It starts wit Balo balo.
[Sri Chinmoy sings Balo balo balo sabe.]
That is the tune. My tune is a little bit different, but originally I was inspired by that song. I have written thousands and thousands of melodies, but in three or four cases I was inspired by others’ melodies, and in the Indian tradition, I gave credit to the source.
My songs for the Mother and for Sri Aurobindo
My songs for the Mother, Janani Mirar, and for Sri Aurobindo, Jaya Bhagaban Sri Aurobindo, I composed while looking at the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s portraits in the main meditation hall at the Ashram. When I went there last month, I was inspired.*
Mira is the Mother’s name. How can I ever forget her affection and compassion, which she showered upon me?
*Sri Chinmoy composed Janani Mirar and Jaya Bhagaban Sri Aurobindo on 27 January 2002.
Published in Only One Power