Three Kings Day Message
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the Aum Centre, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The three kings, the three wise men, devoted aspirants, came to the Divine Child with three gifts. After seeing the Light of Delight they did not go back to the ignorant King Herod. They knew that they had seen the Light. They could no longer remain ignorant, nor could they come and tell the King about their discovery. Similarly, we have just come to the Light Supreme, the Infinite Consciousness, and we are now being illumined by the Light of Delight. We must not go back to the old age-long King, Ignorance, who has been lording it over us. We shall remain perpetually in the Light that we have seen. We shall grow in that Light and we shall fulfil the Light and by fulfilling that Light, we shall be fulfilled.
What are our three gifts to the Divine Child? Love, Devotion and Surrender. These are our divine gifts. These gifts are our inner wealth. Love: We feel that there is nobody more worthy to be loved than the Christ. Devotion: We realise that there is nobody more worthy than the Christ to receive our heart's devotion. Surrender: We have realised the true truth that it is to Him, the Christ, that we have to surrender our very life-breath, our very existence.
Just three steps forward: Love, Devotion and Surrender. When we know how to love again the Son of God, we shall know how to love the entire humanity, for deep inside each human being, it is the Christ that breathes. Who is the Christ? Not the mere physical body, but the Consciousness Infinite, the Light Infinite, the Peace Infinite, the Bliss Infinite, the Power Infinite.
The second step is Devotion. When we have learned the Supreme Secret of devoting our lives to the Christ, the Infinite Consciousness, we shall immediately discover the Supreme Secret of devoting ourselves to the entire humanity. When we know the meaning of devotion, in no time we shall know the meaning of service. Service and devotion go together. We serve the person whom we are devoted to. We get the greatest joy in serving the person to whom we show our utmost devotion.
Finally the third step is Surrender. When we have understood the Secret of Secrets, how to surrender our existence, our knowledge, our wisdom, our limitations, our ignorance to the Infinite Consciousness, Christ, we feel that we no longer exist in the finite. We become the Infinite. We become the Infinite Itself. Infinity becomes our own possession. For so long we have been a tiny drop but the moment the drop surrenders itself to the Infinite Ocean, it loses its existence, its finite existence and becomes the Infinite Ocean itself. So on the strength of our surrender, our absolute surrender, we become the Infinite, the Eternal, the Sempiternal and the Immortal. We sing the song of Immortality. We breathe in the life of Immortality. When we surrender our ignorance, we surrender our death. To whom do we surrender? To the immortal Self which is deep within us. What do we surrender? Our ignorance. And what do we get in return? We get Infinite Wisdom. More than that, we become Wisdom itself.
Three gifts, divine gifts, from the very depths of our soul we are offering to the Infinite Christ: Love, Devotion and Surrender. Love teaches us; love is our teacher. What do we learn from love? Acceptance. We have to accept the world of ours. We must not reject it or throw it into the darkest abyss. No. Then comes devotion. Devotion tells us to serve, to devote our precious life, or at least our precious time, to the person or the consciousness that we have accepted. We have accepted the world and now we have to serve the world. Finally comes surrender. We have to become part and parcel of the world. Acceptance is made; service is done. But transformation is still to be achieved. By accepting the world, we have not been able to transform the world. By serving the world we have not been able to transform the world. But while accepting and serving the world, we have to remember that we have to transform it. If we can transform the world, then only will the world become perfect Perfect and the Kingdom of Heaven be established here on earth. This transformation comes only through surrender to the Infinite Life, Bliss and Power.
We have accepted the world; we have served the world. Now let us surrender to the Infinite Wisdom, to the Infinite Peace, to the Infinite Light. The moment our surrender is complete, we hear deep within us the message of our absolute Union with the Highest, the Deepest, the Farthest. And our surrender to the Absolute not only makes us feel and realise, but makes us one with the Absolute. Finally in the march of evolution, we ourselves become the Absolute.
Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 6, 27 Jan. 1969
Inspirational Talk at the Beginning of the New Year
by Sri Chinmoy
at the United Nations in New York
O soul of the United Nations, we wish to serve you more soulfully and more devotedly, and for that what we need is more peace. Do tell us where peace is in abundant measure.
"Where is peace? Peace is in joy."
Where is joy?
"Joy? Joy is in love."
Where is love?
"Love? Love is in oneness."
Where is oneness?
"Oneness? Oneness is in vision."
Where is vision?
"Vision? Vision is in aspiration."
Where is aspiration?
"Aspiration? Aspiration is in self-giving. Aspiration is in truth-becoming, in light-becoming, in life-becoming and, finally, in God-becoming."
O soul of the United Nations, from the very dawn of this New Year, we wish to serve you more soulfully, more devotedly and more unconditionally.
Published in The Seeker’s Mind
Sri Chinmoy Answers
questions asked at the Hotel Pedro de Valdivia, Chile
Question: How can I always be happy?
Sri Chinmoy: You can always be happy by doing two things. First, do not expect anything from anybody, including your Guru and the Supreme. Only give and give and give. Scientists have invented quite a few things. Now feel that you are going to invent something good, something absolutely new which nobody else has invented. What you will invent is this: you will give and give and give to humanity, to your Guru and to God, but you will not ask for anything in return. This is one way to be always happy.
The second way is to think of what you were before you accepted the spiritual life and what you are now. Even in your worst moments, you are not as bad as you were when you were not a seeker and had millions of desires. If you think of how much progress you have made, then you will be happy.
Question: How can I always do the right thing?
Sri Chinmoy: You can always do the right thing if you meditate and meditate. While you are meditating, feel that both your eyes are inside your heart, they are swimming in your heart-river. Feel that each eye is a swimmer — one is a human swimmer, and the other is a divine swimmer. These two swimmers are swimming inside your heart-river with tremendous inner joy, and this river is flowing into the sea. If you can see and feel this, then you will have inner happiness. If you have true inner happiness — not pleasure but inner happiness — you will never make a mistake.
Question: How can I always have enthusiasm?
Sri Chinmoy: You can always have enthusiasm by feeling that you are at the foot of a tree. When you look at the tree, you see that the most delicious mangoes, the ripest mangoes, are at the top, so naturally you will start climbing up with enthusiasm. But if you do not see the tree, and if you do not look up and see the flowers and fruits, then you will not have any enthusiasm to climb up.
Question: How can I never have any fear?
Sri Chinmoy: Through oneness, oneness, oneness. If you throw a tennis ball, does the tennis ball have any fear? If you are on the third floor and you throw the tennis ball down to the street, it is you who may have fear. You may be afraid that the tennis ball will hurt someone or that it may get lost or that something will happen to it. But the tennis ball has no fear.
We have to feel that God is playing with us like a tennis ball, throwing us here and there. But, in God’s case, He does it consciously. You are His instrument. He knows that He will be able to trace you, no matter where He throws you. He also knows that you are not going to break. If He knew that you would break, would He throw you?
Question: What does God really think of me?
Sri Chinmoy: God always thinks of you as His dream — not an old dream but a new dream. Every day He thinks of you as a new dream, especially on your birthday. On that day He thinks of you as an unprecedented dream of His. On every individual’s birthday, God thinks of that particular individual as His unprecedented dream, that is unlike any other dream.
Question: How can I have more gratitude?
Sri Chinmoy: Gratitude comes from devotion. Without devotion, there is no gratitude. Choose one of my pictures — it need not be my Transcendental Picture — and meditate on it. That will give you more devotion.
In India we have our tulsi leaf. The spiritual significance of that leaf is devotion. One of my Indian ‘mothers’ used to worry that I did not have any devotion. Her name was Mridu-di. Every day she used to run after me only to place that leaf inside my mouth.
For gratitude, devotion is absolutely necessary. When devotion-magnet goes away, one cannot maintain gratitude. If you are devoted to someone, then you can show him gratitude, you can show him love, you can show him concern, you can show him sympathy. But if devotion-magnet is missing, what are you going to do?
Devotion is the sweetest thing in our lives. It is the magnet that draws all the divine qualities. But false devotion is useless. Do not destroy the muscle-power of your palms by sitting with folded hands if there is no devotion inside your heart!
Question: How can I have more energy?
Sri Chinmoy: You can have more energy by challenging something or someone. That does not mean you will fight against another human being. You are not fighting with anything outside. The one whom you are going to challenge is inside you — inside your body, inside your vital, inside your mind. If anything in your own life is dissatisfying you, that is the thing you have to challenge. Challenge your mind or your vital if they are not satisfying you. As soon as you challenge them, you will muster all your courage and energy. Otherwise your energy remains dormant.
Anything in your life that dissatisfies you, you have to challenge and fight like a hero. A hero will stand in front of you and say, “Either you listen to me and change your way of life or I will destroy you!” Then you will say, “No, I do not want to be destroyed! I want to be illumined.” Anything that has to be illumined, you will challenge and illumine. Anything that has to be discarded, you will discard. And anything that has to be accepted into your life, you will accept. In order to get a large supply of energy, any dissatisfaction has to be challenged. Dissatisfaction takes away all our joy and energy.
Question: Is it possible or is it necessary to like everyone?
Sri Chinmoy: You have to be wise. A tree has countless leaves. It is necessary to have the consciousness that you love all the leaves of the tree, but is it possible to go and touch all the leaves one by one and say, “I love you, I love you, I love you”?
Again, you have to know that the tree has a root, and that root is God. We can tell God, “I love You and all that You have and all that You are.” Like a tree, God is dealing with countless people.
You should have goodwill towards everybody, but that does not mean you should go and talk to everybody and show your sympathy and concern. If you try to do that, then you will have no time to think of your own prayer and meditation. Some people have no time to think of their inner life, and God-realisation is still a far cry for them. But they go to this side and that side to help everybody and make themselves feel that they are philanthropists. In most cases, they are only fooling themselves.
Goodwill we shall have for everybody, but we cannot mix with everybody. If I see a snake, I shall offer it my goodwill, I shall try to see God inside it, but that does not mean that I shall go and stand in front of it and be bitten. I will pray that the snake will change its nature, but to do more than that will be unwise.
Question: Does my soul have any special message for me today?
Sri Chinmoy: Your soul does have a special message: With respect to your health, forget the past, especially in your mind and in your body. Sincerely you have to feel that you have sound health, good health. Your soul wants you to convince your mind that you are not sick, you are not weak, you are not tired, you are not exhausted. Your soul is not fooling you. Your soul is dying to give you its soul-capacities and soul-potentialities. But instead of receiving these things, you always identify with your body, which is suffering, let us say.
You have to feel, as often as possible, that you are not the body but the soul. The difficulty is that the soul is a vague idea to us, a word. We know how to spell it, but most of the time we do not experience it. Just because we do not see it or feel it, we feel that perhaps it is a mental hallucination or superstition. But the soul is a reality. It is the divinity inside us.
You have to feel that the soul inside you is sacred. You may not be able to see it, but you can open your heart at every moment and feel it. It is like love. You cannot see your love, but you know you have love.
Believe in the existence of your soul. If you do not feed the soul, then the soul cannot manifest. The soul is birthless and deathless, true, but if you do not pray and meditate, then the soul does not get the opportunity to manifest God.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 32
Sri Chinmoy Answers
questions asked by his disciples during his visit to Myanmar.
Question: What is the future of religion?
Sri Chinmoy: Religion represents the earthly aspect of the divinity that the Saviour Christ, or Sri Krishna, the Lord Buddha and others embodied. It represents the body or the outer garment of their divinity. The body cannot last; only the consciousness, the inner divinity that was and forever is being manifested in and through Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha and others, will last and last and last.
I strongly believe that when people worship in the future, they will be more aware of the fact that we belong to one spiritual family. There was a time when even this idea was too much for the world. Now at least we are able to speak about it. It is like the idea of peace. Fifty years ago the word ‘peace’ was not used as it is now; they used other words. But in the last nine or ten years everybody is speaking about peace. Although one country may be dropping a bomb on another country, ‘peace’ is still our mantra! A day shall come when not only will the rest of the world laugh at this particular country, but even this country will start laughing at itself. It will realise that it is only talking about peace but doing just the opposite. At that time it will try to correct itself.
The threat of nuclear destruction will not go on, because even in thirty or forty or fifty years the power of the heart will be much, much stronger. There is great hope that politics will eventually surrender to spirituality. Individual cases we have already seen in history — the Indian King Shivaji, for example. First he did things in his own way, and later he surrendered to divinity. So the inner world is awakening. In some cases in the present-day world, the inner power is becoming more prominent and vivid outwardly. You see how Russia is suffering now in the political world, but in the inner world Russia is awakened. Russia’s inner power and inner awakening will become quite surprising and astonishing.
Question: Why have you travelled to so many countries and appreciated so many countries and individuals?
Sri Chinmoy: Some spiritual Masters are accepted in this country or that country because their divinity is infinitely more manifested in certain places. But in my case, I have gone to many places. I have travelled from country to country, holding Peace Concerts, meditating and writing songs about the souls of the countries. You ask why? For me, the soul of each country is real; the heart of each country is real. I see the divinity that is trying to be manifested in and through each country, in and through each individual, and in my songs I appreciate it and try to bring it forward.
If you have a heart of appreciation, then everything is beautiful; you see each petal of each flower as absolutely unique and beautiful. My little finger is not as strong as my index finger, but to me it is very cute. And the thumb is so strong! So each finger I look at I am appreciating. You may say it is a waste of time to travel so much. But if I can go from country to country appreciating this person who has inspired mankind or inspiring that person who has done something great, then I feel that I am really doing something worthwhile. It is inspiration that is holding up the entire universe. God Himself was inspired, and that is why He created this universe.
Question: How do you want the purity and essence of your path maintained in the future?
Sri Chinmoy: I do not have to worry about what will happen in the future, even if I do not leave behind one perfect or first-class disciple, not to speak of an unconditionally surrendered disciple. Why? Because my creations will stand for me. True, some of my writings, my paintings, my birds, my songs and so forth may be third class, fourth class, even no class! But some of them have touched the very heights of divinity. The quintessence of many of the most sacred books of the past you will find in my writings, and I have composed many prayerful and soulful songs. Again, the soul-birds that I have drawn have abundant inner light. So my writings, my paintings and my music, which are my children, will continue to manifest my light.
Question: You say that yours is a path, not a religion. But after the Master leaves, it becomes a religion — like Buddhism, for example — and it stands against other religions.
Sri Chinmoy: In my case, I only speak about the soul. My philosophy is that the soul is the only reality and at every second we have to listen to our souls. I have not said a word against any religion. On the contrary, I have expressed the greatest love, admiration and adoration for the Saviour Christ, the Buddha, Sri Krishna and the spiritual Masters associated with other religions. So why should my path become a religion and stand against other religions? My writings will make it very, very clear that I was not a man who directly or indirectly tried to establish a new religion. After my departure, the world will see only my creations.
Question: Should your disciples only try to see and meditate on the Supreme inside you?
Sri Chinmoy: Because I am a little more advanced than you, I can see my Beloved Supreme inside each and every one of you. Sri Ramakrishna used to tell Vivekananda, “I am seeing in you God Himself. I can talk to Him face to face.” Was he a liar of the first water? Never! This was his authentic inner experience.
You can do the same. First try to imagine the Supreme inside me. Then you can try to feel His Presence inside me. The same Supreme is in you as well, but for you to feel the Presence of the Supreme inside yourself is infinitely, infinitely more difficult than for you to imagine or feel His Presence inside your Guru. It is much easier for you to find and get the Supreme in me. So on the strength of your imagination and inspiration, please try to feel the Supreme inside me first. Then only will you be able to see and feel it inside yourself. At that time the game will be complete.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 10