Diary Entry
by Sri Chinmoy
while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India
19 January
I was typing in the flower-room when Nolini-da came in.
"This morning I misplaced the file containing my new articles to be added for the new edition of Banglar Pran (the heart of Bengal). Can you look for it?"
Immediately I stood up and rushed into his room. For about half an hour I searched. Finally I found it and gave it to him. With a smile he said to me: "Chinmoy, in this world some people are meant to misplace things and some people are meant to find them."
Published in A Service-Flame and a Service-Sun
Spiritual Words
Sri Chinmoy comments
on words given to him by his disciples at a Sunday afternoon meeting of the Aum Centre in New York City
The Guru knows that he is absolutely one with his disciples in their teeming ignorance. So he smilingly and soulfully says, "Who is to forgive whom?"
Our human will is at best nothing but continual empty starvation. Our Divine Will is continuous, gradual, sure and ultimate Self-Realisation. Our human will can grow into our Divine Will if we know whom to love, why to love and how to love. Whom to love? God. Why to love Him? Because He is All-Love. How to love Him? Just by feeling that I am entirely God’s and through eternity I shall remain His and His alone.
The outer voice of Multiplicity is human personality. The inner voice of Multiplicity is Divine individuality. Let us listen to the dictates of the inner voice… always!
The body’s discipline is sex-control.
The vital’s discipline is dynamic-aggression control.
The mind’s discipline is thought-control.
The heart’s discipline is emotion-control.
Man’s discipline and his soul’s divine pride go together.
When God fulfills your desire, you are all gratitude. When God does not fulfil your desire, if you can become all gratitude TO HIM, God Himself is bound to come to you, not only to replace and fulfil your desire, but to give you what He has and what He is: Infinitude.
Discrimination is the secret of success. Always discriminate light from darkness, pleasure human from Joy divine, human desire from divine Aspiration. The more you secretly discriminate, the quicker God openly comes to you.
Surrender means immediate progress. Surrender means spontaneous joy. Surrender means matchless wisdom of the aspiring soul. Surrender means the perfection of human aspiration. Man’s unreserved surrender means God’s unconditional acceptance.
Luminosity is one of the divine qualities of the soul. But each soul need not and does not express itself through luminosity. It can use other divine qualities such as Peace, Bliss or Power. One has not to cry for luminosity. Luminosity is bound to come to him if he is absolutely pure in the physical, genuinely sincere in the mind and soulfully aspiring in the heart. Your soul’s foremost quality is Intuition. The foremost quality of your daughter’s soul is Luminosity. Try to grow your outer life in your soul’s Intuition. Yours is the Goal, the Goal of Goals!
Just say that the past is dust. Lo! You have made enormous progress. Just say to yourself that your name is Adamantine Determination. Lo! You have made genuine progress. Just think that your Master loves you much more than you love him. Lo! Your progress is really remarkable.
I know what God’s Compassion is. God’s Compassion is man’s only salvation. I know what man’s Compassion is. Man’s Compassion is often the aggrandisement of his ego’s imagination. It is through aspiration that we awaken God’s Compassion in us.
To please the Supreme, if you embrace death, that will be your Supreme Sacrifice. To please mankind, if you renounce your own Immortality, that will be your Supreme Sacrifice. When your life grows into spontaneous sacrifice, you become God’s unique instrument, His unparalleled representative here on earth.
Yesterday God taught you what human attachment is. Today God is teaching you what Divine Detachment is. Yesterday you wanted to bind mankind with attachment and you sadly failed. Today you want to bind God with your Detachment. Lo! Yours is the unparalleled success.
Man does not need many things. He needs only one thing: Unity. Human unity is lip-deep. Human unity is a far cry. God cries only once. God cries because He is not fulfilled. Only human unity can fulfil God’s vision in Heaven and God’s reality on earth.
Difficulties indicate the strength of unwanted forces. Endurance indicates the inevitable victory of the Soul’s ever-fulfilling, ever-glowing Light.
The power that fore-ordains man’s Ultimate End is called Destiny. God uses this power in and through the Master for the disciple’s Ultimate Destination. A real disciple’s Destiny is undoubtedly the Destiny of his beloved Master.
When your consciousness is in the physical, self-reliance will lead you to self-annihilation. When your consciousness is in the Soul, self-reliance will lead you to Self-Realisation. When your consciousness is in your Master, self-reliance will at once be fed by your Master’s purest concern and God’s sweetest Blessing.
Your daughter needs your Love. Your wife needs your Love. But you need God’s Love. God is ready to give you His Love. But dear Abe, you are not ready. You are ready to give your love to your daughter and your wife. But, poor Abe, they are not ready. When you are ready to receive love from God, to your amazement, your wife and daughter will also be ready to receive love from you. Not one second before!
God is great because He alone embodies perfect humility. God is greater because He reveals humility on earthly soil through our climbing aspiration. God is the greatest of all because He has not separated His Transcendental Glory from His most humble creation, the blade of grass!
Everything has dawned on earth save Perfection, perfect Perfection. For man’s perfect Perfection, two things are required: God’s absolute Will and Eternity’s Patience.
See through the eye of Faith. You will see the Eternal Truth. Feel through the heart of Faith. You will feel the Immortal Truth. What you call Faith I call the Soul’s foreknowledge of the Highest Truth.
A true disciple is she who cares for her Master’s Grace. A true disciple is she who feels that her Master’s physical existence and God’s constant flow of Grace are inseparable. A true disciple is she who has realised that without her Master’s Grace, she can do nothing and she is nothing. A true disciple is she who has realised that with her Master’s Grace she can not only become the perfect ideal of humanity but the greatest pride of God.
Contemplate on God. Lo! God is running towards you. Contemplate on Ignorance with your Soul’s light. Lo! Ignorance cannot bear it. It runs away. Contemplate on your self-discovery. Lo! You not only discover your true Self but you become your Eternal and Infinite Self.
Immortality smiles at the seeker’s Inspiration. Immortality loves the seeker’s Meditation. Immortality consciously and cheerfully becomes one with the seeker’s Realisation.
Inspiration means the first step. The next and last step towards God-Realisation is Aspiration. He who has no Inspiration is no better than a dead man. He who has Inspiration, soulful Inspiration, is constantly running towards and crying for the Beyond.
Let each human being be sincere and not stupid. He has always to separate his soulful sincerity from his naked stupidity. When you are sincere to God, you realise the Truth. When you are sincere to yourself, you become the Truth.
The disciple’s soul cries for the Guru’s Infinite Compassion. The Guru’s soul cries for the disciple’s eternal love for God. God cries with Boundless Joy when He sees that His two sons, Guru and Disciple, love each other, need each other and fulfil each other.
Patience is not an unconditional surrender to the Universal Suffering. No. Patience is the realisation of one’s own unlimited Consciousness. Patience is the fruit of Eternity. God most affectively sees through your Patience-Light. You try to see most soulfully through God’s Compassion Light.
The doubting mind says that there is only one Truth: the existence of God is a colossal imagination. The aspiring heart says that there is only one Truth: God is. God exists. The All-Offering and All-Surrendering soul says that there is only one Truth: God-Realisation is yours.
Common Sense Number 1: You are God’s chosen son.
Common Sense Number 2: Not only do you need God, but God too needs you. You need God to realise your true Self; God needs you to fulfil Himself.
Common Sense Number 3: You want to realise God. Even if you don’t want to realise God, He will not allow you to remain unrealised.
Common Sense Number 4: You may think that today you are an animal, but you must think and realise that you are tomorrow’s God.
[Sri Chinmoy expands on this phrase in a lecture on 21 January 1969, at the American University, Washington, D.C.]
Man is Infinity’s Heart. Man is Eternity’s Breath. Man is Immortality’s Life.
Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 9, 27 Apr. 1969
Problems
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
in Conference Room 9 at the United Nations in New York
Problems do not indicate man’s incapacity. Problems do not indicate man’s inadequacy. Problems do not indicate man’s insufficiency. Problems indicate man’s conscious need for self-transcendence in the inner world, and his conscious need for self-perfection in the outer world.
You have a problem. He has a problem. She has a problem. Your problem is that the world does not touch your feet. His problem is that the world does not love him. Her problem is that she feels that she does not adequately help God in the world. To solve your problem, you have to conquer your pride. To solve his problem, he has to conquer his greed. To solve her problem, she has to conquer her self-styled and self-aggrandised desiring ego.
Each problem is a force. But when we see the problem, we feel deep within us a greater force. And when we face the problem, we prove to the problem that we not only have the greatest force, but actually we are the greatest force on earth.
A problem increases when the heart hesitates and the mind calculates. A problem decreases when the heart braves the problem and the mind supports the heart. A problem diminishes when the mind uses its search-light and the heart uses its illumination-light.
Self-denial cannot solve any problem. Self-assertion cannot solve any problem. It is God-manifestation through self-existence that can solve all problems of the present and the future. Our sincere approach to a problem will eventually lead us to a satisfactory solution. Our sincere approach to God will carry our teeming problems in God’s Will-chariot into the infinite, eternal Smile.
If fear is our problem, then we have to feel that we are the chosen soldiers of God the Almighty. If doubt is our problem, then we have to feel that we have deep within us the Sea of God’s Light. If jealousy is our problem, then we have to feel that we are the oneness of God’s Light and Truth. If insecurity is our problem, then we have to feel that God is nothing and can be nothing other than constant and ceaseless assurance to us that He will claim us as His very own. If the body is the problem, our constant alertness and attention can solve this problem. If the vital is the problem, our soaring imagination can solve this problem. If the mind is the problem, our illumining inspiration can solve this problem. If the heart is the problem, our perfecting aspiration can solve this problem. If life is the problem, our fulfilling self-discovery can solve this problem.
The individual problem arises when we want to possess infinite humanity. The universal problem arises when the Infinite wants to mould, guide, shape, transform and divinely and supremely fulfil the finite, but the finite does not want to listen to the dictates of the Infinite.
A problem is not the harbinger of defeat or failure. A problem can be transformed into the beckoning Hands of the Supreme that can take us to our destined Goal, the Goal of the ever-transcending, ever-fulfilling Beyond.
Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts
Question
Question: Do you feel that a problem is not a problem if we know how to look at it?
Sri Chinmoy: If we know how to look at a problem, half the strength of the problem goes away. But usually we try to avoid the problem or run away from it. When something unfortunate happens in our life, we immediately feel that we are at fault, that we have done something wrong. But this may not be the case at all. All around us there are wrong forces, undivine forces, hostile forces that may attack us at any moment. We believe in the law of karma — that if we do something wrong, we suffer later. But even if we do not do anything wrong, the ignorance of the world may come and torture us. Think of the Christ. He embodied the highest Truth. He did not have any bad karma. He did not do anything wrong. But the ignorance of the world crucified him. Of course, we cannot compare ourselves to the Christ. But at our own level we have to feel that if we are suffering, it is not necessarily our own fault.
If somebody else is creating the problem, then we have to stand like a solid wall and not allow the problem to enter into us. If it is my house, my wall, I will not allow anybody to break through. Again, if I am the problem itself and the problem is already inside me, then this kind of situation is infinitely more difficult to deal with. But by blaming myself and trying to hide, I do not solve the problem. Even if my own ignorance has caused the problem, I still have to face it. The best way to do this is to feel that I am not the problem-maker but the problem-solver. Then, by aspiring and practising the spiritual life, I have to develop inner strength and detachment. Slowly and gradually, I will become inwardly strong, and eventually I will be able to solve the problems caused by my own inner weaknesses.
Published in My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years
Peace
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of Vermont, Vermont
Peace. Peace. Peace.
Peace is love unmistakably realised. Peace is joy unreservedly shared. Peace is oneness soulfully expanded. Peace is fulness permanently founded.
The animal consciousness is completely unaware of peace.
The human consciousness is rarely aware of peace.
The divine consciousness is constantly and lovingly aware of peace.
The supreme Consciousness is constantly, lovingly and blessingfully aware of peace.
Peace is the inner man’s inner goodness. Peace is the outer man’s outer greatness.
Goodness proceeds. Goodness loves. Goodness serves. Goodness proceeds along Eternity’s Road. Goodness loves God the Creator. Goodness serves God the Creation.
Greatness succeeds. Greatness sings. Greatness dances. Greatness succeeds in the battlefield of life. Greatness sings the real victory-song. Greatness dances the real freedom-dance.
Goodness reveals God the Silence-Creator. Greatness fulfils God the Sound-Creation.
The inner peace and the outer peace are interdependent. The inner peace grows. The outer peace glows. The inner peace feeds. The outer peace leads. The inner peace grows with Infinity. The outer peace glows with Eternity. The inner peace feeds the divine in us. The outer peace leads the human in us. The inner peace reveals God the transcendental Beauty. The outer peace fulfils God the universal Duty. The inner peace constantly awakens us to a higher and supreme reality.
Peace. Peace. The nations that seek peace more than anything else are divinely excellent. The individuals who seek peace more than anything else are divinely excellent. The nations and the individuals that have peace, both inner and outer, are supremely perfect.
The outer world hungers for power. What else is power, if not peace? The outer world hungers for satisfaction. What else is satisfaction, if not peace? Peace-power illumines the earth-consciousness. Peace-satisfaction fulfils the Heaven-reality.
Man hungers for world-dominion. Man thinks that world-dominion will give him satisfaction. To his wide surprise he finds that world-dominion is nothing short of sense-slavery. World-dominion is another name for shameless treachery. Not world-dominion, but world-union. Not world-conquest, but truth-quest.
Peace is self-mastery. Peace is God-discovery. The inner man who is fully awakened knows that self-mastery and God-discovery are of paramount importance. God-discovery is God’s Satisfaction in man. Self-mastery is the perfection of man in God. Man’s perfection in God and God’s Satisfaction in man can change the face of today’s world. Today’s world can be transformed into God’s Perfection-Dream, which is flooded with Light and Delight, only when we the seekers cry for peace, peace alone.
Published in AUM – Vol.II-6, No. 1, January 1980
Questions by International Singers
answered by Sri Chinmoy
at the Awana Kijal Golf and Beach Resort, Malaysia.
Sri Chinmoy: Kindly ask me a very short question that does not have more than a few words. I will give you three minutes to think it over!
Question: How can we feel your presence constantly?
Sri Chinmoy: You can feel my presence constantly by shedding tears of gratitude more sincerely.
Question: Is the soul’s quality always the same?
Sri Chinmoy: Each soul can have a different quality.
Question: How can we assimilate beautiful experiences?
Sri Chinmoy: You can assimilate all the beautiful experiences only by increasing, deliberately increasing, joy in the heart, joy in the mind, joy in the vital, joy in the physical — always joy, joy, joy! Joy is the answer to help you assimilate.
Question: How can I inspire my Centre?
Sri Chinmoy: You have to love your Centre members more than you love them at present. If your love for each individual of your Centre increases, then you will be able to inspire them easily.
Question: Within a family, is there a difference between attachment and love?
Sri Chinmoy: Suppose you see that your father is spending lots of time chatting with others here and there and he is not paying any attention to you. If you get angry, that is attachment. But if you love your father, no matter how many hours or how many days he is spending with his friends, you will not get angry. That is love. Where there is attachment, you feel that everything has to be done in your way. But where there is love, you feel that the other person can do things in his own way, if what he is doing is right. Love does not get hurt. Love says, "He is doing the right thing."
Question: How can we be happy always?
Sri Chinmoy: We can be happy always by thinking of God, not thinking of ourselves, not thinking of our failures, our sickness and so forth. By thinking of God all the time, we can be very happy.
Question: How can we be more disciplined?
Sri Chinmoy: At night, before you go to sleep, pray to God that from tomorrow on you will get up at six o'clock, if not five-thirty. Your prayer will be, "O God, give me the capacity so that I can get up tomorrow at five-thirty." Pray to God for all the things that you are supposed to do the following day. Then, if you can fulfil them, discipline will enter your life. But your prayer has to be offered the previous evening, before you go to bed.
Question: How can we sing really powerfully?
Sri Chinmoy: To sing soulfully is the right thing. To sing powerfully is necessary only on rare occasions, but soulfully you have to sing, always soulfully. When you want to sing soulfully, you have to think that you are not the body, you are not the vital, you are not the mind, you are not the heart, even; you are the soul. If you think of the soul, if you feel that you are the soul and nothing else, then you will be able to sing soulfully.
Question: How can I have more intuition?
Sri Chinmoy: You can have more intuition only by developing more aspiration. By increasing aspiration, you can get intuition. Aspiration is absolutely needed to develop intuition.
Question: How can I be more yours?
Sri Chinmoy: As many times as possible say, "Guru, I love you only. I need you only." The word 'only" has the power. Otherwise, just to say "I love you" or "I need you" is not enough. By using the word 'only", you become one-pointed. 'Only" is just one word, but it has all the power, everything that you need. When you say, "I love you only, I need you only, only, only" — that 'only" becomes so powerful! Then you can feel close, closer, closest to my heart.
Question: How can we keep intensity always?
Sri Chinmoy: Daily, at least five times for three or four minutes, each time you breathe in, consciously try to have intensity. Try to feel you are breathing in intensity, intensity, intensity when you pray to the Supreme. Breathe in and breathe out as slowly as possible and then feel that that intensity is coming into you. It has entered into your heart and into all your nerves and muscles.
Question: How can we have more inspiration?
Sri Chinmoy: Look at a bird; look at the vast, blue sky; look at a green field or look at the beautiful moon. You can have more inspiration by looking at these things. You can look at the rising sun or anything else that gives you immediate joy. Always find something that inspires you. With your eyes you will look at it and then you can increase your inspiration. Anything that is beautiful, look at that very thing for inspiration.
Question: Where is perfection?
Sri Chinmoy: Perfection is in the soul. We have to bring this perfection into our heart, mind, vital and physical and into our life itself. But we have to know that the source of this perfection is in the soul.
Question: How to meditate when we are stressed and exhausted?
Sri Chinmoy: When you are stressed and exhausted, it is usually because you have worked very hard. Lie down for four or five minutes and breathe in as slowly as possible. While breathing, you have to feel that peace has descended and entered into your mind. From head to foot it is circulating. Feel that all your nerves are getting nourishment. Breathe as slowly and as quietly as possible, so that even if you put a thread right in front of your nose, the thread would not move to and fro. If the thread moves to this side and that side, it means you are not breathing slowly and quietly. You can use the thread to examine your breathing. If it does not move, that means your breathing is correct. Then, after three or four minutes, you can bring in peace from Above. It will percolate inside your entire body. But correct breathing is absolutely necessary.
Question: How can we be fully forgiven?
Sri Chinmoy: Let us say you have done something wrong, so you pray to God to forgive you. Then, after two months or even two days, you may be tempted to do the same thing again. But, even if you are tempted, if you do not repeat the wrong thing that you have done, then you know that you are forgiven. If you can assure God that you will not do it again, then His Forgiveness comes. Otherwise, your misdeed and God's Forgiveness do not automatically go together. God examines you. If He sees that you have not done the same thing a second time, then He forgives you. Otherwise, if God forgives you at once, you will be inclined to do the same thing again after three months.
Let us say you have told a lie. The first time, God gives you a chance. Then you tell another lie. God does not trust you at that time. When you make a promise that you will not do the thing anymore and you keep your promise, then you are forgiven. But if you continue to break your promise, then you are not forgiven. At that time it becomes worse. God becomes His Justice-Light.
Question: How can we better serve our country?
Sri Chinmoy: Only think of all the good qualities that your country has. All the good qualities that you can think of that your country has, you will try to keep right in front of your eyes. Then, just feed these qualities with your goodwill, with your love, with your concern. Think of a very young or beautiful child. You are feeding that child. Take the whole country as an individual, one individual and feel that you are feeding that individual with your concern. That is the best way to serve: to think of the country not as countless millions of people, but as only one person, one person. For you, that one person will embody the whole of Russia. In that way, you will be able to do the best for your country.
Question: How to increase my inner oneness with my Master?
Sri Chinmoy: Try to count how many times your Master has smiled at you and how many good things you have done for your Master unconditionally. If you think of the good things that you have done in the inner world and in the outer world, unconditionally, then you can increase your inner oneness with your Master. By remembering the good things that the Master has done for you and you have done for the Master, you can increase your inner oneness.
Question: How can we know God's Will?
Sri Chinmoy: Meditate for five or ten minutes most sincerely, most sincerely. Do not bring forward your desire. Do not ask, "How will I know God's Will, how will I know?" Forget about your question; do not think of it. Only for ten minutes meditate as deeply as possible, without allowing any thought, good or bad. You will have no good thought, no bad thought for ten minutes. Then something from within will tell you what God's Will is. For ten minutes remain silent. Absolutely do not allow any thought to enter. Then your inner voice will tell you, "This is the right thing, that is the wrong thing."
Question: How many hours do you feel we should spend daily in prayer and meditation?
Sri Chinmoy: At this stage if you can do two hours, I will be more than happy, because you work very, very hard. You are an indispensable person in the store where you work, in the Divine Enterprise, so more than two hours is not necessary right now. And if you do not have that kind of time, you can divide it. If you cannot do one hour early in the morning and one hour in the evening, then meditate in four sessions or six sessions. In six sessions, easily you can pray and meditate for two hours.
Question: How can I give true joy to you?
Sri Chinmoy: Obedience, obedience! There is nothing more important than obedience. To give me joy, obedience is necessary, constant obedience. Feel that if your Master says, "Do this," you will do this. If your Master says, "Do not do that," you will not do that. When the Master finds cheerful obedience in a disciple, then he gets the whole world.
Question: How to shed constant, soulful tears?
Sri Chinmoy: Only repeat God's Name and offer gratitude. You can say, "God, my gratitude to You I am offering" or "God, I am offering my gratitude to You" or even, "God, my gratitude to You. God, my gratitude to You. God, my gratitude to You." If you can repeat these words, then your problems will be solved.
Question: How to increase sincerity, purity and humility?
Sri Chinmoy: You have three problems? People are dying with only one problem and you have three problems!
Your question is how to increase sincerity, purity and humility. Let us begin with sincerity. Think of a child who is two or three years old. This child has not started telling lies. When his mind becomes developed, then he will start telling lies. Think of a little child and imagine you have become that child. By nature, a good child cannot tell lies. No matter what he does, he tells the truth. So if you want more sincerity, think of a child.
Next comes humility. If you want to increase your humility, think of a tree. A tree becomes so big, but it starts with humility, with a tiny seed. A tiny seed has to be humble because it is so tiny. Then gradually, gradually it becomes a huge banyan tree. Humility is like that. You have to feel that your origin is next to nothing. If you think of your origin, then you become humble.
I come of an Indian village. If I think of an Indian village, a tinier than the tiniest village, automatically humility comes. Now I have become well known! Thousands of disciples have joined our path. But if I think of my origin, my little family village called Shakpura, then humility comes sooner than at once. Always remember your humble origin. And the more we become successful, the more we have to become humble.
Look at a tree. When it does not give flowers and fruits, it stands straight and tall. But when it bears fruits and flowers, it bends. From the tree we learn that the higher and the greater we become, the more humble we have to be. Like the tree, we have to bend down. When we do something good, instead of feeling pride, we have to think of our origin. From a seed, we become a banyan tree. From a drop, gradually, gradually we can become the ocean. A little Shakpura village boy now is known practically all over the world. If I think of my origin, then I get tremendous joy. From that little seed, I have grown up into a big banyan tree.
Then comes purity. To increase your purity, you can place your hand, right or left, on your head and repeat "purity." Very fast repeat "purity, purity, purity, purity, purity, purity." Then you will feel that your whole being, your entire body, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, is only purity, purity, purity. Start with touching your head, your mind, because in the mind is impurity. Usually I say to chant slowly and soulfully, but at certain times you have to do it very fast. If you are angry, for example, as fast as possible you have to pray to God, "peace, peace, peace, peace." You can do it with a marching spirit: "left, right, left, right, left, right." Or you can run in place while chanting, if anger or impurity comes.
Question: Why am I afraid of myself?
Sri Chinmoy: You have a lower self and a higher self. Your lower self is afraid of your higher self. Your lower self feels that it is so bad and your higher self is so good. That is why you are afraid. But do not separate your lower self and higher self. Take your life as one self — nothing low, nothing high. Then you will not be afraid. Right now you are separating yourself. One part of you is very low and one part is very high, so you are in between. That is why you are afraid; you are lost. The best thing is to take your lower self and your higher self together as one self. If you are one, then you are not going to be afraid. But if you see yourself as two, the lower and the higher, then you are bound to be afraid. You will feel that you are not safe. Always think of yourself as one reality. Whether you are good or bad, you are only one person. Now you are separating yourself into two persons. Always think of yourself as one. Then you will not be afraid of yourself.
Question: How to increase my inner hunger?
Sri Chinmoy: First try to increase your inner thirst. As human beings, we are generally more often thirsty than hungry. We eat three times a day, but we drink, God knows, perhaps twenty times a day. Therefore, first things first: first, increase your inner thirst. Then, automatically, your hunger will follow. How to increase your inner thirst? Only shed tears, helpless tears. If you can offer helpless tears to God, then God will solve all your problems.
Question: What will give me the best meditation?
Sri Chinmoy: Think of your soul — not your body, not your vital or mind or anything else. While you are meditating, only feel that you are the soul, you are the soul, you are the soul. Then your soul will give you the best meditation. You do not have to define the soul or see it as a beautiful child. No! Only think of your entire body as the soul. Then the beauty, fragrance, light and delight of the soul will give you the best meditation.
Question: How can I get rid of my fear?
Sri Chinmoy: Fear of what? That we have to know. Vastness can give us fear. Height can give us fear. Or, if we have done something wrong, we may be afraid that God will punish us in some way. Which kind of fear do you have?
Question: My fear comes from attachment. When I become attached to things, then I become afraid that one day everything will change and I will lose them.
Sri Chinmoy: When things change, fear does come. Only if we love God in His own Way can we remove this fear. We have to say, "God, You know what is best for me, what is best for the members of my family, what is best for everybody." If you can increase your love for God, then you will see that God is doing everything and will do everything for your good, for your good. The problem is, we always think that everything has to be done in our own way. Fear remains with us because we want to see something in our own way. We do not want to see it in God's Way.
If we become one with God's Way, there is no fear at all because we see God inside every change in our lives. We know He is doing everything for us, for our family, for everybody. Fear comes because we want to get the result in our own way. But when we surrender to God's Will, when God's Way becomes our way, then fear goes away and we become infinitely happier than we were when we wanted to have joy in our own way.
Do not think of fear, but think of your own faith in God, your own love for God. The more you have faith in God, the more you have love for God, the sooner your fear will go away. If we leave everything up to God, then God gives us what is necessary in order for us to make progress. As soon as we separate our individual will from God's universal Will, fear comes because we become responsible for our own desire. We only wonder, "Will my desire be fulfilled? How can it be fulfilled?" These kinds of rubbish questions come into our mind. But if we leave everything to God's Will, He becomes responsible for our aspiration. Then we have only to watch how God is operating in and through our aspiration-life.
You have to place fear itself at God's Feet and not try to deal with it in your own way, with your mind. Right now, you say, "Oh, fear has come into my life! I have to do this, I have to do that." But when you do this or that, you see that still fear is there. You are changing your process to conquer fear, but it does not work. If fear has come into you, very gladly and very powerfully place it at the Feet of God. Then God will take away your fear and replace it with His Light to work in and through your life.
Published in My Heart-Door I Have Kept Wide Open