The Cellist
by Sri Chinmoy
We have a new disciple who plays the cello with the Puerto Rico Symphony. She also has about 50 students and teaches five or six hours daily. One by one her students come and play in front of her. When her good students come, she gives them five minutes. When the bad students come, after a minute she says, “Oh, you are playing very well. I am pleased with you.” Then she sends them away immediately.
I wanted to practise the cello while I was in Puerto Rico, but this new disciple did not want to let me play on her cello. But after she refused, then for the whole day she felt totally miserable. So on her own she brought me her cello the next day. She said her cello cost $5,000. It was good, but mine is better. She herself was supposed to play that day, so she borrowed a cello from somebody else.
When I tried her cello she flattered me, saying that my intonation was good. That is why she allowed me to use it.
The day I was supposed to return the cello, I told her to come at twelve o’clock and take it back. She came exactly at twelve. I had brought her a trophy, and she said, “Can I not also have a plaque to put on this trophy that says you gave it to me?”
After I returned the cello, she told Alo that she felt some higher power was guiding her hand when she played it. When she played she felt that it sounded as if Pablo Casals were playing. So she was very happy that she had let me use it.
Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 3
The Earphones
by Sri Chinmoy
I have been on airplanes many, many times, but only two or three times have I watched the movie. On a flight from Florida to New York, I was sitting in my seat drawing when they announced that it was time for the movie.
They were going to show George Burns in Oh God. I hadn’t liked the movie when we showed it at the Centre, but I said, “To kill time, let me see it.”
So I paid two dollars for the earphones and turned the switch to channel 9. With my right hand I was holding the earphones to my ear, and with my left hand I was trying to draw. Of course, I couldn’t draw very well with my left hand, since I am right-handed.
The stewardess saw me and said, “Why are you not using the headphones?”
So she showed me how to put the headphones on my head. Then she asked, “Where do you come from? India?”
I said, “Yes.”
She said, “Oh, that’s why!”
I said, “I have been here in the States for 20 years.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her how many times I have been on airplanes. But if you don’t use things, you don’t know the proper way.
Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 4
I Go Out, I Come In
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy’s book I Go Out, I Come In is published. The first printing contains 33 poems. The second printing contains 92 poems.
When I go out,
I am nowhere.
When I come in,
I am all-where.
I go out
To school my mind.
I come in
To school my heart.
I go out
To buy what I leave behind
Foolishly.
I come in
To reclaim what I am
Eternally.
I go out
To feed my curiosity-mind
And curiosity-eyes.I come in
To feed my divinity-soul
And purity-heart.
Out I go
To foolishly invent.In I come
To wisely discover.
I go out
To measure Nature's divinity.I come in
To treasure Divinity's nature.
When I go out,
Mine is a sound-bound journey.When I come in,
Mine is a silence-bound destination.
When I go out,
I assume a new name:
Joy-expectation.When I come in,
I resume my old name:
Peace-foundation.
When I go out,
I try to find God.When I come in,
God tells me,
"Bind Me, My child,
Once more."
When I go out,
I need what I find.When I come in,
I find what I need.
When I go out,
I spend money.When I come in,
I drink honey.
I go out
To watch my mind's exploration.I come in
To sing my heart's invocation.
Proudly I go out,
Only to say what I can.Peacefully I come in,
Only to feel what I am.
The carpenter's human son asks me
To go out.God's divine son asks me
To come in.
Be a brave mind
When you go out.Be a pure heart
When you come in.
When I go out,
I dine with the known.When I come in,
I pine for the Unknown.
I go out
To see the Face of God.I come in
To become the Heart of God.
When I go out,
I see the flow.When I come in,
I become the glow.
When I go out,
God tells me:
“My child, enjoy yourself.”When I come in,
God tells me:
“My child, enjoy Me.”
When I go out,
I become a mad elephant.When I come in,
I become a glad deer.
When I go out,
I start my mind-engine.When I come in,
I sail my heart-boat.
To see God the Power,
I go out.To feel God the Peace,
I come in.
Columbus went out
And discovered the New World:
America.I came in
And discovered my old world:
My Source, my God.
I go out
To get what I want.I come in
To feel what I need.
When I go out,
I surprise others
And others surprise me.When I come in,
God and I surprise each other.
I go out
To hear what the world
Has to say.I come in
Only to see that God is waiting
To hear from me.
I go out
And decrease my money-power.I come in
And increase my heart-power.
I go out
To see the vastness of the world.I come in
To see the Infinity of the universe.
I go out
To see the power of greatness.I come in
To feel the love of goodness.
I go out
To buy the world.I come in
To love the world.
I go out hurriedly
To learn.I come in wisely
To unlearn.
I go out to say:
“God, where are You?”I come in to say:
“God, take me!”
When I go out,
My mind provokes.When I come in,
My heart invokes.
Published in I Go Out, I Come In, part 1