Spirituality: What it is and What it is not
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of the West Indies
Kingston, Jamaica.
Spirituality is man's boundless freedom in his life-boat, freedom of his life-journey, freedom from his life-pangs and freedom beyond his life-achievements.
In spirituality is man's farthest Vision. In spirituality is man's nearest Reality. God has Compassion. Man has aspiration. Spirituality is the consciousness-light that unites man's aspiration and God's Compassion. Spirituality tells man that he is God veiled and that God is man revealed.
Spirituality is not an escape from the world of reality. Spirituality tells us what the true reality is and how we can discover it here on earth. Spirituality is not the denial of life. It is the purest acceptance of life. Life is to be accepted unreservedly. Life is to be realised soulfully. Life is to be transformed totally. Life is to be lived eternally.
Spirituality is not the song of ignorance. It is the mother of concentration, meditation and realisation. Concentration takes me dynamically to God. Meditation silently brings God to me. Realisation neither takes me to God nor brings God to me: realisation reveals to me that God is the Blue Bird of Infinity's Reality and I am the Golden wings of Divinity’s Truth.
Spirituality has taught me the difference between my speech and my silence, between my mind and my heart. In speech I try to become. In silence I am. When I open my mouth, God closes my heart. When I close my mouth, God opens my heart. My mind says, "God needs me." My heart says, "I need God." My mind wants to possess God's creation while negating it. My heart wants to embrace God's creation while serving it. My mind says that it does not know whether it thinks of God or thinks of itself. At times my mind feels that as it does not think of God, so also God does not think of it. My heart sees and feels that God thinks of it even if it does not care to think of God.
Spirituality has told me secretly what my supreme necessity is and how I can have it. What is my supreme necessity? God's Blessing. How can I have it? Simply by borrowing it from God's Bank.
How can I pay off my debt? Easy. Just by borrowing once from God's Bank. But I must borrow wisdom and nothing else. Wisdom possessed, debt nullified. Verily this wisdom is the breath of spirituality.
I am God's experiment. He has given me my name: Science. I am God's experience; He has given me my name: Spirituality. I am God's Realisation. He has given me my name: Oneness — Oneness within, Oneness without.
God is my Reality.
Heaven is my Immortality.
Earth is my Divinity.
On earth I grow.
With Heaven I become.
In God I am.
Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 4, 5, Nov. – Dec. 27, 1968
Philadelphia’s Christ Church
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
Early in the afternoon of Saturday, 10 January, the runners arrived at Philadelphia's Christ Church, seat of worship of many of the Revolutionary leaders whenever they were in Philadelphia. Sri Chinmoy met the runners at Christ Church and held a brief ceremony for them. These are his inspired words from the church.
O Church of Christ, to you I bow, to you I bow. You embodied, you embody and you will forever embody America’s hope, America’s promise, America’s sacrifice and America’s pride. As a seeker of the transcendental Truth, I wish to tell you that in the inmost recesses of my heart I feel that you are not only historically unparalleled but also spiritually unparalleled. Countless are the churches in America, but I soulfully and unmistakably feel that this particular church has been blessed by the Absolute Supreme most dynamically and most powerfully. Here I always experience the freedom-spirit of America, not only in the physical world, but also in the world of the spirit.
It is the most significant day for me and for my students, especially for the thirteen hero-runners, runners who are lovers of their nation. These divine runners will cover three hundred sixty miles as one way to acclaim their country’s independence from bondage. Love of their country, love of the presiding deity of their country, love of the Inner Pilot of their country, has divinely and supremely inspired these thirteen runners to offer their dedicated capacity to their country.
Here in Philadelphia we are offering our heart’s most soulful prayer to this church, the Truth-Abode of God. The soul of America embodies peerless hope, peerless promise, unparalleled sacrifice and unparalleled pride. My soulful prayer is this: “O soul of America, you are awakened. You are running fast, faster, fastest. May you continue this unimaginable speed, not only in the world of vision but also in the world of reality.” The world of vision has made America great. The world of reality is making America good.
I believe in reincarnation. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this church was frequented by me in the physical body many, many years ago. It was here that I played my role soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally as a supreme lover of this mighty country. In this incarnation I have come here as a seeker, to love this country and to serve this country infinitely more than I did in that previous incarnation. In this incarnation, by the Grace of the Absolute Supreme, I shall be infinitely more successful, for I have with me this time hundreds of sweet children, who are for the Supreme and who consciously want to please the Supreme in the Supreme’s ever-illumining, ever-fulfilling way.
When I lived here before, I saw a new world emerging. Now again, after a long time, I see another new world. The world that I saw and lived in is being triumphantly surpassed by the world that I now see and now live in. Previously, the world was one of hope, promise, sacrifice and pride. Now the world is oneness within and oneness without — oneness of the individual with the collective, oneness of the one with the many, oneness with the world that we already have and oneness with the world that we are going to have. Here I see the oneness of the veiled world and the unveiled world. The veiled world is ignorance; the unveiled world is wisdom. Today the veiled world is being transformed into the fulfilling manifestation-world of the Absolute Supreme.
In the name of the Absolute Supreme, in the name of the Saviour’s soul, I bless my runner-seekers. These thirteen runner-seekers will always feel special Grace in the heart of the American freedom-spirit. Today their dedication to their country’s spirit is being imprinted in letters of gold in my gratitude-heart.
[Sri Chinmoy wrote in the guest book at Christ Church this significant message:]
The country-server of the past comes as the country-lover of the present to fulfil the Supreme in His own way.
Published on AUM – Vol. 3, No. 1, 27 January 1976
Peace: God’s Universal Language
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Tokyo University in Tokyo, Japan
Peace is the aspiration-cry of man’s heart in God’s Compassion-Eye. Peace is the Satisfaction-Smile of God’s Heart in man’s perfection-life.
Peace lies in man’s renunciation of his desire-life. This peace is superb. Peace lies in man’s acceptance and transcendence of his present-day reality-life. This peace is divine. Peace lies in man’s sleeplessly unconditional surrender to God’s Will. This peace is supreme.
If I want and need peace in this world and from this world, then I must demand peace from my own heart, my own mind, my own vital and my own body.
Peace is at once God’s transcendental language and His universal language. Each seeker, during his Heaven-ascending prayers and earth-transforming meditations, must learn this language from God Himself. This peace-language only the Inner Pilot can teach to the Truth-seeker and God-lover.
Here at Tokyo University, I am offering my heart’s loving and soulful gratitude to the aspiring students and illumining teachers of the university. I am offering them my heart’s divine love-songs and I am requesting them to spread their hearts’ flower-fragrance all over the world.
My aspiring life sees, feels and knows that Japan is beauty’s flower-garden. A flower immediately gives me joy and, from this joy, I immediately feel peace in my outer life. A good thought also gives me immediate joy and, from this joy, I immediately feel peace in my inner life. My outer peaceful joy is illumining. My inner peaceful joy is fulfilling. I pray to God for the inseparable oneness of my outer peaceful joy and my inner peaceful joy.
From the inmost recesses of my heart I am praying to the Liberator, Lord Buddha, to inundate the aspiring consciousness of Japan, his Immortality’s choice abode, with his Infinity’s Peace.
It is here in Japan that Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the untold destruction-sufferers. May Hiroshima and Nagasaki become the two harbinger-peace-givers for the entire peace-longing world.
Peace:
God’s Dream-Reality’s Oneness-Boat,
Fulness-Shore.
Peace, Peace, Peace.
Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 1
Philosophy: Wisdom-Chariot of the Mind
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy invites his students to ask him questions about philosophy, at the Golden Sands Hotel in Penang, Malaysia, This book contains his spontaneous answers to those questions.
Published in Philosophy: Wisdom-Chariot of the Mind