Thought-Waves
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Manning Hall, Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
From the spiritual point of view, each thought carries a special weight in our mind. Each thought has a special signification. In our ordinary life, we all know what a thought is. We create thought. We cherish thought. There is nobody who does not know how to think — do ordinary thinking, that is. If someone does not know how to think, we call him a fool. But if one who has a developed mind chooses to stop thinking, if he has learnt the art of stopping the mind, he makes tremendous progress in the spiritual life. When a thought enters into a seeker's aspiring mind, he has to feel that it is like meeting an enemy on the battlefield. The more one can silence the mind, the sooner one realises the Goal.
The human mind feels that thought is the ultimate power and light. Unfortunately, this is a deplorable mistake. The aspiring heart constantly receives the supreme message from the soul. Only by silencing the mind can one receive this message and reach the highest absolute Supreme.
The Lord Buddha silenced his mind and entered into nirvana, the bliss unfathomable of the Transcendental Height. The Christ opened his heart and embraced all humanity on the strength of his universal oneness with his Father, the ultimate Goal. Either by silencing the mind or by opening the heart, today's man can become tomorrow's God, tomorrow's Divinity. And embodied Divinity soon becomes revealed Immortality.
Desire and aspiration are two simple words, but they embody tremendous power. Aspiration consciously follows the road of light, whereas desire consciously or unconsciously follows the path of darkness. Darkness means satisfaction in limitation. Our desire wants to grab and possess, but before it possesses, it is possessed. While being possessed, while enjoying consciously or unconsciously the role of subjugation and imperfection, desire is to some extent satisfied. At the same time, desire embodies power which very often ends in frustration. And this frustration gives birth to destruction and annihilation.
Each human being has aspiration; each human being embodies aspiration. This aspiration in him builds up the tower of Truth, Light and Bliss. Aspiration is never satisfied with imperfection. It climbs up high, higher, highest. At each moment the mounting flame in us, while climbing towards the highest, illumines the obscure, impure, unaspiring elements of our gross physical. Then finally, he not only realises but also manifests the Kingdom of Heaven in his inner being.
Desire is the product of our thought-waves. Aspiration is the product of our soul's will. The soul's will we can possess and claim as our very own only when we consciously surrender what we have and what we are to the Supreme. What we have is an inner longing for Truth, Light and Bliss. We have to offer this longing unconditionally to the Supreme, our Inner Pilot. What we are is ignorance, unfathomable ignorance. This ignorance, too, we can and must offer to the Supreme consciously, devotedly and unconditionally. But instead of doing this, we wallow in the pleasures of ignorance and, what is worse, we often do it consciously and deliberately.
The desire in us demands that the physical in us rest eternally in the sea of ignorance. The aspiration within us warns us that once we go to sleep we will find it extremely difficult to awaken our consciousness and get up. The realisation in us, our soul's realisation, tells us that we are already fast asleep in the domain of ignorance, and that we have been sleeping there for millennia.
A sincere seeker of the highest transcendental Truth can transform and purify the desire-life with the life of aspiration. In order to do this, he must know what desire has done for him. Desire has offered him a sense of dissatisfaction. Even after his desires are fulfilled, still he is dissatisfied. The seeker sees that in the depth of his desire and in the very fulfilment of his desire there looms a sense of complete dissatisfaction. Why is this so? It is because desire is not the ultimate Truth. Desire cannot offer us the ultimate Truth, which is all-satisfying. But when we follow the path of aspiration, even an iota of Light satisfies us. Although we know perfectly well that an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss cannot quench our eternal inner thirst, each iota of divine Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss carries tremendous satisfaction for us. And gradually, on the strength of our aspiration, each tiny drop of Divinity grows into a vast ocean of Fulfilment.
Aspiration embodies satisfaction. Desire embodies dissatisfaction. Each human being has the right to stay either in the desire-world or in the aspiration-world. Here we are all seekers of the Truth. For us, aspiration is the road. We shall walk joyfully along the road of aspiration. Today the very thing that we call aspiration, tomorrow we shall call realisation. The day after, we shall call the same thing revelation, and the following day we shall call it manifestation, our manifestation of Divinity.
A sincere seeker is blessed with inner vision when he has free access to the Source. He continually and constantly depends on his inner vision. Once he has established his connection with the Source, his life becomes the realisation-message of God, the illumination-message of God, the perfection-message of God. And in the course of time, in either the near or the distant future, in the process of evolution humanity is bound to accept these messages. What is the essence of these messages? Love, love divine, which is the song of universal oneness. If we silence our thought-waves and listen to our heart-waves, we can spread the love-message of the Supreme. We can offer this love-message to the world at large, and we can sing the song universal to kindle the flame of aspiration in all individuals.
We are now conscious of the supreme Tree. We are climbing up the Tree. Eventually we can grow into the cosmic Tree and then we can watch the multifarious leaves, which are our brothers and sisters, grow and unfold. It is we, the seekers of the ultimate Truth, who can feed the inner hunger of these leaves of the supreme Tree.
Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 1
Talk at the United Nations
by Sri Chinmoy
My life is a life of gratitude which I wish to offer to the seekers here and all over the world. This year and all the years that I will be on earth I will have only one purpose, and that is to offer my dedication, my dedicated service. Today there are about fifty seekers in this room. But I wish to tell all of you that when we pray and meditate here, the soul of the United Nations observes us with deepest joy, gratitude and pride. What we do here is recorded in the soul of the United Nations, imprinted in letters of gold. And the appreciation that you have offered now on behalf of the Meditation Group, I wish to place at the Feet of our Beloved Supreme, the Inner Pilot, for it is He who is acting in and through me; it is He who is acting in and through all of us.
What we call dedicated service is nothing but His Compassion-fulfilment in and through us. What we do has already been done by Him. He just allows us to act on the physical plane to convince us that we are participating in His divine Game. Otherwise, there is nothing on earth that we do which has not been done by our beloved Pilot Supreme. Out of His infinite Compassion He makes us feel that we have done it, for when we feel that we have done it we get greater glory and we feel that life is more fruitful. But to be absolutely honest with you, what we do here soulfully is actually being done by our Inner Pilot.
Our service to the United Nations will one day be felt by each and every individual who serves the United Nations. Right now their physical minds may not know what we are doing with our prayer and meditation. But every day their souls do feel what we are doing and their hearts at times also feel it. A day will come when all parts of their being will realise that what we are doing is not for ourselves but for the body, vital, mind, heart and soul of the United Nations. We do not need appreciation now, we do not need recognition. What we need is our own constant feeling of oneness with the body, vital, mind, heart and soul of the United Nations. Our feeling of oneness is what we want from our lives. To all of you, only one thing I can offer and that is my ever-growing and ever-glowing gratitude-flower in the heart of the Universal Reality which you are, which we all are.
Published in The Seeker’s Mind
Questions
answered by Sri Chinmoy
Question: Is there one divine quality which encompasses all the rest or does a seeker have to meditate on each one?
Sri Chinmoy: For a seeker one quality is enough, and that quality is gratitude. And in God’s Life one quality is also enough, and that quality is Compassion. Inside your gratitude you can feel the presence of all your divine qualities, and inside God’s Compassion you can easily feel all the divine qualities of God. If you want to see all God’s good qualities or all your own good qualities individually, you can easily do that too. But if you want to see one good quality that embodies all the good qualities, then in God’s case it is His Compassion and in man’s case it is his gratitude.
Question: How can the various world religions respond more co-operatively and effectively to humanity's aspiration?
Sri Chinmoy: It is the followers of religion who have to come forward and offer the qualities of their respective religions to other religions. It is the followers of religion who can and must work effectively to create humanity’s sincere aspiration. Religion as such cannot do anything, but the people who give life to religion and who breathe in the breath of religion must come forward and create a new aspiration in humanity’s heart. If this is done, then all religions will be able to work together without losing anything of their own. On the contrary, by singing the song of oneness they will gain everything.
Question: Are human gratitude and divine Compassion all-encompassing because there is a feeling of oneness in them?
Sri Chinmoy: In oneness you get everything. A child has established oneness with his parents, so he knows that if the parents have material power or any power or capacity, then it is all his; the parents are going to give it to him. If you are one with someone, that means all his qualities are your very own, and vice versa. So if you establish your oneness with God’s Compassion on the strength of your gratitude, then inside God’s Compassion you will get everything.
But again, if you find it extremely difficult all the time to think of God’s Compassion or your own gratitude, then try to bring to the fore individual aspects of God’s Capacity. If God’s Power is what you want, then concentrate on God’s Power. If you want God’s Love or God’s Peace, then try to bring these to the fore. Anything you need, you can bring forward individually.
But if gratitude is there, then inside gratitude you will find power, love, peace and all the divine qualities because gratitude means oneness. God plays His role by giving; you play your role by expressing your gratitude. By giving, God shows His oneness with you; and by offering your gratitude, you become one with Him.
Question: What is the relationship between the soul of the United Nations and the soul of the world?
Sri Chinmoy: The soul of the world embodies the soul of the United Nations. In fact, the soul of the world has some connection — you can call it an awareness or a oneness — with everything in God’s earthly creation. There is nothing on earth that does not have a direct inner connection with the soul of the world. But the soul of the United Nations does not have or has not yet established that kind of connection with the entire world. There are many nations that have not joined the United Nations and many places on earth that do not have any connection with the United Nations.
When the soul of the United Nations grows into perfection, then it will become the satisfaction-triumph of the soul of the world; in fact, it will become the world-soul itself. The soul of the United Nations must eventually grow into the world-soul because it has to embody and embrace the length and breadth of the entire world. The United Nations means united creation, and this means one world. When we use the word ‘nation’, at that time we imagine a plot of land, a country, a few million people put together. But when we think of creation, at that time we do not think of plots of land or citizens of countries; we just think of God in His manifestation. Right now that idea does not immediately come forward when we think of the United Nations. But a day will come when the United Nations will expand its vision and encompass the whole horizon. At that time, it will become another world-soul, another form of world-reality, where God the Creator and God the creation can easily be found in every action it performs.
Question: How can I lose my suspicion of the outer world?
Sri Chinmoy: First you have to ask yourself whether your suspicion has helped you in any way. The answer will be no. It has not helped you at all. On the contrary, it has only lowered your consciousness and lowered your aspiration. If you are wise, you will discard anything that stands in the way of your God-discovery and your soul’s manifestation on earth.
Then you have to know where your suspicion comes from. There can be suspicion in the physical and in the vital, but the suspicion that exists in these places is negligible. But the suspicion that is in the mind is like a mountain. So you have to enter into the mind and tell your suspicion, “Look, I have got nothing from you except misery, so why do I need you? For a long time I considered you to be my friend, so I allowed you to remain inside my mind. But now I see that you are only my enemy, so you have to leave. This is my house, absolutely mine! Here you have no place.”
Again, you have to realise that nobody and nothing can remain an eternal enemy. Nothing can always remain undivine, for God’s Vision is eventually to make everything divine. But in the meantime, you have to cast aside those things that stand in your way inwardly and create problems for you. You have to tell them to remain far away so you can reach your destination. Then, from the destination, you can bring infinite light to them. Or you can say, “Once I reach my destination, if you want to come and visit me, I shall allow you because at that time I shall have the capacity to transform you.” Once your mind is illumined, either suspicion will come to you for its transformation and illumination, or your illumined mind shall enter into suspicion to illumine it.
Published in My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years
Great Indian Meals
Stories by Sri Chinmoy
Three categories of disciples
One day a spiritual Master was meditating with some of his disciples and a few seekers. After about twenty minutes, he looked around and said, “Is there anyone who would like to ask me a spiritual question?” One disciple raised his hand and asked, “Master, could you please say something about your disciples’ spiritual development?”
“My child,” replied the Master, “I can only tell you that I love all my spiritual children dearly, no matter what their level of spiritual attainment may be.”
“Please tell us more,” begged the disciples. “Can you tell us more about the different levels of development?”
The Master paused. “Let me tell you a story,” he said. “Once there were three dolls. These dolls were conscious dolls. One was made of sugar, one was made of cloth and one was made of burnt stone. Now it happened that each of these dolls entered into the sea. When the one that was made of sugar entered into the sea, it totally dissolved. The second doll entered into the sea, and came out fully soaked. Then the third doll entered bravely into the sea. When it came out it just shook its body, and not a trace of water was left on it.
There also, my children, I have three types of disciples. One type, when he enters into the ignorance-sea, is totally lost, totally melted. When the second type enters into the ignorance sea, he is able to come out. But ignorance is all around his consciousness. He still carries ignorance with him. The third type enters into ignorance bravely and fights against ignorance. He not only comes out victorious, but he also takes up the challenge of transforming ignorance into wisdom-light.
“I do hope one day all of my disciples will fit into the third category: brave soldiers of the Supreme entering into the sea of ignorance like warriors, fighting against ignorance and coming out victorious, and finally changing ignorance-sea into wisdom-light.”
The disciples bowed down to their Master and said, “You have inspired and illumined us. We shall all strive from now on to become brave soldiers of your mission, soldiers of the Supreme, fighting against the forces of ignorance and ultimately transforming them.”
In progress is the presence of Vishnu
Once Narada, the great devotee of Vishnu, was angry with his Lord. He said to himself, “Who cares for Vishnu? If he is really inside my heart, then why do I have to worship him? Is it not enough that he is inside my heart? And if he is not inside my heart, if he is not anywhere to be found on earth, or if he is non-existent, then why do I have to worship him? So in no way do I need Vishnu. Whether he is in my heart or in this creation, or whether he is nowhere to be found or does not exist at all, I don’t need him.”
Like this Narada went on for a few days, but all the while he was feeling miserable. Something was killing him inwardly. On the one hand, he was feeling very haughty and proud that he had discovered that he could live without Vishnu. On the other hand, his aspiration-heart was crying and dying for Vishnu’s presence and Vishnu’s Light.
Finally he went to Lord Shiva for advice. Lord Shiva said, “You fool, how can you live without Vishnu?”
Narada said, “I know I cannot. That’s why I have come to you. Vishnu was my all once upon a time. Now he does not care for me; therefore, I have stopped caring for him. But I need him badly. Alas, I don’t feel his presence inside my heart. I don’t see him anywhere in my consciousness or in my aspiration-cry.”
Shiva said, “I feel sorry for you. Now you have to develop devotion. There is nothing as important and meaningful in the spiritual life as devotion. If you develop and increase your devotion, then you are bound to feel Vishnu’s presence inside your heart, just as you did before.”
“How can I develop devotion?” Narada asked.
Shiva answered, “Mix with the people who have failed in life. Mix with the people who are full of sorrow. Mix with the people who feel that they cannot exist even for a second without Vishnu. Mix with the people who feel that, without God, they are helpless but, with God, they are everything and have everything.”
Narada said, “Alas, there was a time when people used to come to me to increase their own devotion because I was all devotion to my Lord Vishnu. Now is this my fate? I have to go to other people and mix with them to develop devotion. What irony!”
Lord Shiva said, “One has to aspire consciously and constantly to make progress. In your case, you were satisfied with what you had. You did not care for further progress. I tell you, in the spiritual world if you do not make continuous progress, then ignorance is bound to pull you down. There is no fixed resting place. Every moment you are going either forward or going backward.
“If you are conscious and constant in your prayer and meditation, then you will always make progress and, while making progress, you are bound to feel Vishnu’s presence. So make progress every day, every hour, every minute. Then you are bound to feel Vishnu’s presence in yourself and your presence in Vishnu. You will not only feel him but also see him as your Compassion-Lord, Illumination-Lord and Fulfilment-Lord.”
Narada said, “My Lord, I shall.”
Shiva said, “And you can!”
The three types of eaters
One day a spiritual Master was playing his flute while his disciples were eating. He was getting joy from watching them eat. After some time, he asked them if they would like to hear a story from him. They said, “Of course, of course.”
The Master said, “I will tell you a very short story. There are three kinds of eaters. One type of eater will eat voraciously no matter how the food tastes. He feels that since God has given him the body, he must eat. The more he eats, the more he thinks that he is pleasing God, since the body is God’s creation. So he eats anything he gets.
The second type will eat whatever he is given, no matter what quantity. If the food is good, he is happy. If the food is bad, he accepts this, knowing that every day one cannot eat most delicious food. He tolerates the fact that, from worldly human beings who cook every day, one cannot always receive a delicious meal. After all, not even one day is the food unbearable; always there is some standard. Therefore, whatever he gets is all right.
The third type of person says to God, ‘O God, today by Your Grace I am eating. Tomorrow I may not get any food, but that also I shall take as Your Grace. Whatever happens to me I feel is an experience that You are giving me. So if You give me food, it is wonderful, and if You do not give me food, it is also wonderful, for I will feel that You want to give me a specific experience. I shall be equally satisfied in Your divine dispensation. If You give, I feel that for my progress You are doing so. If You do not give, it is again for my progress. Your Will is my will. I don’t want to have any will of my own.’
To the first group the Lord says, ‘My Eternity will take care of you.’
To the second group He says, ‘My Divinity is pleased with you.’
To the third group He says, ‘My oneness-life is all pride in you. Your oneness in My Greatness and your oneness with My Goodness will always satisfy Me. Your aspiration is great, your dedication is good. Your realisation of My highest Height and deepest Depth is not a far cry, but imminent.’”
Perseverance, patience and self-giving are of paramount importance
Once two partridges, a husband and wife, were going out on a trip. Before they left, the wife laid some eggs near the ocean. Then the husband said to the sea, “We are going on a sea voyage. You have to take care of these eggs for us. On our return, if we don’t find the eggs, then we shall empty you.”
The sea agreed to take care of the eggs, and it kept the eggs safe. A few days later the two partridges came back, but they could not find the eggs. They began screaming at the sea. The sea wanted to give the eggs to them, but it could not find them anymore. The birds cursed the sea and started emptying it. The husband and wife each began taking out a drop of water at a time, throwing it onto the land.
“We are going to empty you,” they said to the sea.
Some little birds saw all this and they asked, “What are you doing?”
The partridges replied, “We are punishing the sea. The sea is very bad because it didn’t keep its promise to look after our eggs.”
The little birds thought it was a noble task and they joined the partridges. After a while, some big birds took up their cause. They were very sympathetic and self giving, and they also started taking out water drop by drop. This went on for days and weeks.
One day, the Conveyor of Lord Vishnu, Garuda, came and asked, “What are you doing?”
The birds said, “Can’t you see? We are emptying the sea.”
Garuda said, “You fools, how long will this take you? You will never be able to do it. The sea is very vast, infinite.”
But the birds answered, “No, we have determination and perseverance.”
Garuda was very surprised and said, “Let me show them some compassion. Let me ask Lord Vishnu to help them. If Vishnu helps them, then certainly they will be able to find their eggs. If the eggs are still in good condition, Vishnu will be able to return them. But if they are destroyed, he can do nothing for them.”
He went to Vishnu. “Vishnu, I have never seen fools like these. If you really care for fools, then will you do them a favour?” Garuda then told him the whole story.
Vishnu said, “No, they are not fools. They are showing the spirit of patience and perseverance. This is how human beings must try to empty the ignorance-sea, drop by drop. It is what the seekers must and should do. Ignorance-sea is very vast. If sincere seekers want to empty it to replace it with knowledge-light, then they have to do it the same way, drop by drop. So I am very pleased with those partridges. I am commanding the sea to return the eggs.”
Garuda said, “The sea wanted to give them the eggs but it misplaced them and feels that they are all destroyed.”
Vishnu said, “I am using my own occult power to show the sea where it has kept the eggs.”
He used his occult power and the sea immediately found the eggs and returned them to the partridges. Then Vishnu said to the birds, “Perseverance, patience and self-giving all are of paramount importance to fulfil one’s divine task.”
The Buddha’s message
There was a great King named Vindusar who ruled his kingdom wisely. When he died, his eldest son, Ashoka, became King. Ashoka’s brothers were all handsome and strong, but Ashoka was not at all beautiful. His brothers always used to cut jokes with him because he was not good-looking.
When Ashoka became King with the help of the minister, he wanted to take revenge. So when he got the throne, he killed his brothers one by one. Then he killed all his relatives who spoke ill of him. Whoever spoke ill of him, he killed. He also wanted to be the lord of a vast kingdom, so he went and conquered a place called Kalinga, destroying many Buddhist temples and killing many Buddhists.
One day he was in his palace-fortress when he heard some most pitiful cries. The relatives of the thousands of people whom he had killed were cursing him and lamenting and grieving for their dear ones. Ashoka felt sorry. Suddenly he heard a voice chanting, Buddham saranam gacchami,“I take refuge in Lord Buddha.” Again and again he heard this voice chanting the same words. It was so soothing to him. He thought of the Buddha’s Compassion and he felt that a change was taking place in his life, but he could not account for it.
When he went outside into the streets, he saw one of the greatest followers of the Buddha, Upagupta, chanting nearby. Ashoka approached him and said, “Please forgive me, but I have heard some chanting, and now I wish to be initiated. I want to be a follower of the Lord Buddha.”
Upagupta told him, “It was I who was chanting before.” The King was deeply moved. Upagupta initiated him and he became Upagupta’s disciple.
After that, Ashoka took refuge in the Lord Buddha — in the Buddha’s Compassion and in the Buddha’s Light. He no longer paid any attention to his Kingdom nor to his throne. Eventually he became a religious mendicant. He put on an ochre cloth and roamed from place to place all over the world, chanting the Buddha’s glory and establishing Buddhist temples. He opened up free hospitals for the poor and unreservedly gave away things to the poor and the needy. He became compassion incarnate. Even his own daughter went to Ceylon to spread the Buddha’s Light. Everywhere Ashoka went — even inside mountain caves and on pillars — the Buddha’s message was inscribed: Ahingsha parama dharma, “Non-violence is the greatest virtue.”
Babar’s sacrifice
The first Mogul Emperor Babar was a good poet, a great hunter and a man of wisdom. Very often he had to fight against his enemies in order to maintain his own kingdom, but he had a good army and he always won.
Babar had a son named Humayun, which means “fortunate.” Sad to say, a series of unfortunate events took place in Babar’s and Humayun’s lives.
When Humayun was sixteen years old, his father wanted to conquer a particular place ruled by Ibrahim Lodi. The son said, “Father, you know our army is nothing in comparison to Ibrahim Lodi’s army. How can you dare to fight with them?”
But Babar replied, “No, my son, we shall conquer them. Let them have the number; we have the quality and the capacity.”
The son said, “Father, I will always abide by your will. Let us go.”
Both the father and son were great heroes and with their small army they went to conquer Ibrahim Lodi’s army. Surprisingly, they defeated the enemy. The people were very pleased with their new conquerors, for the old ruler had not been at all nice. One of the local governors owned India’s most precious diamond, which was called Kohinoor (the British government later took this diamond away from the Indians.) The governor gave Kohinoor to Babar’s son, Humayun, because of his bravery. Humayun showed it to his father and said, “Father, this is for you.”
But Babar replied, “No, my son, you deserve it. You have got it and you should keep it. I am very proud of you. You have fought so bravely. That’s why you have been given this diamond. Now you keep it. I will be so happy if you do.”
Father and son were extremely kind to each other and they returned to their own kingdom. Alas, in a few hours’ time Humayun fell sick. Day by day his condition grew worse. Many doctors came to try to cure him, but none succeeded. They all said that his days were numbered. Many people prayed to Allah for Humayun’s recovery, but to no avail.
Then a saint came to Babar and said, “If you make a great sacrifice, if you sacrifice something most precious, only then your son will be cured.”
Babar asked, “What kind of thing should I sacrifice?”
The saint said, “Give away Kohinoor. It is most precious.”
But Babar said, “Kohinoor is my son’s possession. What kind of sacrifice would that be? I have to sacrifice something of my own. I have so much wealth and prosperity, and such a vast kingdom. But the most precious diamond Kohinoor is not mine; therefore, I cannot sacrifice it. “And even if I did own Kohinoor, it would not be a real sacrifice to give it away. Even if I give away my wealth, power and kingdom, I don’t think this is the most precious sacrifice I could make. My life alone is most precious. I am ready to give my life.”
Then he walked around his son three times, praying to Allah, “For me, my most precious thing is my own life. The saint said to sacrifice something most precious, so take my life instead of my son’s. This is my only prayer, and I sincerely mean it.”
To his wide surprise, after he completed three rounds his son stood up completely well. But immediately Babar fell deathly ill.
Humayun cried and said to Allah, “My father is going to die, but I shall eternally treasure my father’s fondness for me and my father’s implicit faith in Your Compassion.”
Allah listened to the father’s prayer, and in three months’ time Babar died. This is the love that a human father can have for his son.
Satyavama’s perfect husband
When Satyavama reached the age for marriage, her parents wanted to find a husband for her. Satyavama said to them, “I will only marry that person who always listens to me. If I say sit down, he will sit down. If I say stand up, he will stand up. If I say eat, he will eat. If I say run, he will run. It has to be that kind of man; only then I will marry him.”
The parents said, “Who needs that kind of wife?”
Satyavama insisted, “No, if you do not find that kind of husband for me, then I am not going to marry.”
Her parents pleaded with her. “We want you to get married. You are grown up. Now that you are of age, what will people think of us? It is not good to keep an unmarried girl at home.”
Satyavama said, “I agree with you, and I am ready to get married, but my husband has to be at my beck and call.”
The parents were helpless. They looked everywhere for a husband for her. They found many handsome and learned men who were willing to marry their daughter. But then they would say, “There is only one unfortunate thing. You have to be at her beck and call and always listen to her.”
“Shame, shame,” the men would reply. “We shall have to listen to our wife’s command? It is the husband who is supposed to lord it over the wife.”
So everybody got angry with the parents. Some laughed at them, some insulted them. “Why are you coming with this kind of proposal?” they asked. The parents were helpless. They were not getting anybody to agree to their proposal.
Then Krishna happened to hear about the situation. He said, “I am the right person for her.” So he went to their home and said, “Satyavama, you are looking for a husband. I am ready.”
At that time Krishna already had a few wives, but he said, “If she wants that kind of husband, I am ready. If she wants me to do something, I am ready to be her perfect slave.”
Satyavama was so happy to have Krishna as her husband. She had said that she would marry anybody who agreed to this proposal. Now, of all people, Krishna wanted to be her husband. He was so venerated by everyone. Although Krishna had other wives and children, he married Satyavama.
As soon as they were married, Satyavama started telling Krishna, “Do this, do this, do this!” Whenever she asked him to do anything, he did it. But Krishna’s smile conquered her. Each time he smiled, she would forget to give him a new job. “O Krishna, what am I going to do?” she said. “As soon as I see your face, as soon as I see your smile, I feel that it is I who have to listen to you. You are all love and joy. By asking you to do things, do I get any joy? Only by looking at your face, do I get satisfaction.”
Krishna said, “I knew it, I knew it.” So Krishna and Satyavama were very happy together.
Renunciation is not the answer
There was once an Indian spiritual Master whose disciples were extremely fond of him. They were especially fond of his infinite wisdom.
One day the Master gave a talk on the acceptance of life. Everybody was deeply moved. Only one person did not fully appreciate it. She came up to the Master and said, “Master, you know that I have been worshipping you soulfully ever since I accepted your spiritual path — of course, according to my own capacity. But today I simply can’t accept your advice.
“You know I have been cursed by God with two sons. They make demands on me in season and out of season, and they don’t allow me to pray and meditate. I feel miserable. If I had not been married like my spiritual sisters, I would have made very fast progress. I am sure that renunciation is the easiest way to make the fastest progress. One should reject life right from the beginning.”
The Master said, “My child, don’t be a fool. With boundless compassion I am telling you something. There are many women on earth who were once upon a time married, but whose husbands and dear ones left them one by one. Now they have nothing on earth to bind them, but they are not meant for the spiritual life. What they do is this. They tame a cat or a dog or some pet animal. Some of them are very poor; with greatest difficulty they maintain their livelihood. Yet they buy milk for their cats. They manage to feed their dogs with utmost love and concern.
“And then, if the cat leaves their house and goes to eat elsewhere, they search and search for the cat. Then if they find the cat at a neighbour’s house, they accuse the neighbour of tempting the cat to come and eat there. They scold the neighbour mercilessly, and the neighbour insults them like anything: ‘Who needs your cat?’ Often there are fights between the owner and the accused neighbour. Nobody else needs the cat, but the owner feels that her cat was tempted and that this is the reason it goes elsewhere to eat. In this way their disputes never end, and village quarrels have no mother, no father, no beginning, no ending.
“Now isn’t a child of your own flesh and blood infinitely more important than a cat? You will give up your sons, but if you don’t conquer attachment, then you will feel compelled to replace them with cats, dogs and pets. It is better to have human beings, who are much more evolved than animals. To deal with an evolved being is infinitely more meaningful and fruitful.
“The best way is to see God inside your own children. If you could see God and your Master inside your children, then you would regard them in a different way. You would not feel miserable, but you would show them more affection, more love and more concern. In this way you would have more peace of mind.
“So try to see me inside them. Then all your problems will be over. Renunciation is not the way. For if today you renounce something, then tomorrow you are bound to get attached to something else. Just accept what you have, and illumine your sons with your inner light, if necessity demands. That is the correct way, the spiritual way.”
Play your role as a daughter of God
A spiritual Master was with some of his disciples when an elderly woman came up to him one day and said, “Master, I am not now totally devoted to you. But I assure you, in the course of time I will become totally devoted and dedicated. I will aspire infinitely more than I do now.”
The Master said, “How will you do this?”
The woman said, “Right now my sons are studying, but once they complete their studies I will be free. One will practise medicine, the second will practise law and the third will be in gymnastics. It is only a matter of time, and then you will see how devoted I will be.”
The Master said, “God bless you. First of all, your children have to complete their studies, and then they will enter into their respective professions. At that time you will say, ‘Oh, now that they are mature and established, let me help find proper marriages for them. They have to get married and be bound to one individual; otherwise, they may not lead decent, faithful lives. The best thing is for them to get married!’
“After you marry them, you will say, ‘Marriage is not enough. They should have children!’ When you have grandchildren, you will have tremendous joy. But then you will say that it is your duty to bring them up in the same way you have brought up your own sons. The grandchildren will go to school and grow up, and some of them will listen to you while others won’t. So every day you will be in the world of worries and anxieties. This is how your life will end.”
The woman said, “No, Master, you wait and see. Even if what you say is true, one day, when my grandchildren grow up, I will be ready.”
“Yes,” said the Master, “at the age of ninety you will be ready for the spiritual life.”
The woman insisted, “No, I will accept spirituality in this life.”
“When you have one foot in the grave,” commented the Master.
“Duty is duty,” said the woman. “These are my sons. God brought them into my family.”
The Master said, “Yes, you are doing your duty. Again, you have to know that it is God who brought you to me. Your children now want you to stop worrying about them. You have played your role as a mother. Now you should play your role as a seeker.”
“It is very difficult for me to accept what you are saying,” said the woman.
The Master explained, “Look at the sea. If you go to the sea and wait for the waves to subside, will this ever happen? There will always be waves. If you want to swim, you have to dive into the sea. In the spiritual life also, you have to brave all kinds of opposition. Because of your sons, you are unable to meditate all the time. But if you really want to see God, then this opposition you have to face and conquer. You have to dive into this opposition and be very brave. And for God’s sake don’t create any more obstructions for yourself by thinking of your sons’ jobs, careers, marriages and children. By doing this you are only inviting more waves of obstruction to enter into your life. If you are wise, you will stop here.
“As a mother you have played your role. As a daughter of God, as a spiritual daughter of mine, you now have a new role to play. Think of God alone. God will take care of your sons. He is the only one who can take care of His creation, not you nor me nor anyone else.”
The disciple said, “Your words are most illumining, but my capacity is very limited.”
The Master said, “Your capacity is limited but my Compassion is unlimited. So you stay with your limited capacity and let me stay with my Eternity’s Compassion-Capacity.”
Three mothers
Once an elderly lady was illumining her grandchildren by telling them stories. The grandchildren wanted to hear stories from their grandmother, so she decided to tell them a beautiful story. She said, “We human beings use the term ‘mother’ to refer to the one from whom we came into existence. We also call a cow ‘mother’ because it is associated with the cosmic gods. Again, we speak about ‘Mother Earth.’ So there are three mothers. These three mothers help us at each step of life.
“When we are born, we take our mother’s milk for some time. Then we take cow’s milk, and then we eat vegetables that we get from Mother Earth. Mother Earth produces food and we eat her food. We appreciate, admire and adore these three mothers, but we have to see them in a different light and deal with each of them in a different way. They can’t be put together.
“The physical mother cannot eat the same food that nourishes Mother Earth. The earthly ground needs cow dung and manure for its food. Again, the cow cannot live on human milk or be kept in a house. And a human mother cannot live on grass or be put in a cow shed.
“Each of the three mothers has her own way of pleasing us. No one can please us at every moment in our own way. Even your own father cannot please you at every moment in your own way. He has many interests in life. He has to go to work, he has to mix with his friends and there are so many things that he has to do. So do not expect the same thing from each individual, and do not expect everyone to please you in your own way. Also, do not think that you will be able to change the respective roles of human beings. If people are doing different things, you cannot just change them. Each one has to do his and her duty in a different way. And it is you who have to receive from each individual according to the way that he wants to give, not according to the way that you want that person to give.
“Your mother is your friend, the cow is your friend and earth is your friend. But you cannot ask these three friends to always help you all at the same time or to change their respective roles. So, my grandchildren, when your mother gives you something, be happy at the time she gives and feel that this is the only way you can be satisfied. And when the cow gives you milk or when Mother Earth gives you something in the form of food and fruits, you have to be satisfied in the same way. Accept everything from each individual in the way the individual wants to give it, and never expect all earthly beings collectively to please you in your own way. Be happy with what you get, and make others happy in your cheerful acceptance.”
Published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 2