Seventh Anniversary of the San Juan Centre
A talk by Sri Chinmoy to his disciples in the Sri Chinmoy Centre, San Juan, Puerto Rico
There are a few things permanent in my life, in the life of the Puerto Rican consciousness and in the breath of the Supreme's Mission on earth. On the one hand, it is true that nothing is permanent on earth; here everything is transient. Here, every person walks along the road of life for a few years and then he returns home to his eternal Home. Nothing is permanent. But on the other hand, there are a few things permanent in the world of the soul. In my case, in my soul, there are very few things which are permanent or eternal. Among those very few things, I wish to mention that my gratitude to our dearest and foremost daughter, Sudha, will remain permanent and eternal; and my gratitude to the soul of Puerto Rico will remain permanent and eternal.
So here, Sudha was an instrument, the divine instrument to bring me to this part of the world, and here, the consciousness of Puerto Rico has accepted me and inspired me to offer my message to the world at large. In Puerto Rico I started my mission. Puerto Rico is the harbinger of my mission.
We have already about forty Centres. Here in the pioneer Centre, in seven years, many have come and many have gone. Many will continue to go and, in their place, many will come. I wish to say that on the one hand I am extremely grateful at every moment to the Puerto Rican consciousness that saw something in me and helped me bring to the fore what Light I have. But again, I should say that the Puerto Rican consciousness, and also the consciousness of other countries, sometimes disappoints me or deserts me. This is no real threat for me, for my mission will remain on earth and it will be fulfilled.
Today is a most significant day for us, but I wish to say that my mission on earth is the Mission of the Supreme and not my mission. I am only a devoted instrument of His. He will fulfil His Mission whether I help Him or not.
But I wish to say, on the other hand, all of us, each individual, no matter when he came, whether seven days or seven years ago, is indispensable if he is devoted to the Supreme, to the Supreme's Cause. Otherwise, no one is indispensable; I am included and I stand at the top of the list. If I myself misbehave, then the Supreme has every right to kick me out of His cosmic Game. So today I wish to tell you that if you behave well, if you want to behave well, if you offer loving gratitude to the Supreme and give Him your whole existence, then you are indispensable. Otherwise not — I am not indispensable; your leader is not indispensable and no one is indispensable. The Mission of the Supreme will go on undisturbed, unperturbed because He is Omnipotent, He is Omniscient, He is Omnipresent. He gives you the opportunity to do the right thing, to see the right thing, to become, to grow into the right person. But if you refuse, then He has every right to change the instrument.
Here I started my journey and I started most soulfully. I wish to say that it is up to the present disciples either to offer success to the Supreme, to their Inner Pilot, or to offer the most deplorable defeat. Seven years… Seven is the most important number in the occult world. Seven has a special significance. I am sure you have read my book on the Vedas. There you will come to learn that in the inner worlds, the number seven is extremely significant. So today, on our seventh anniversary of the founding of this Centre, it is the day for us to either start to reach the loftiest pinnacle or else to climb down the Himalayas. Either we climb up the Himalayas with our sincere, devoted, surrendered effort, founded upon our inseparable love and oneness, or we slide down into division, deplorable conflict, internal conflict, doubt and jealousy. If these qualities reign supreme, then this Centre will meet the most deplorable fate.
This Centre actually has the right to claim the most coveted, most special gift from the Supreme, for it was this Centre, this divine spiritual place, Puerto Rico, that saw the Light first in me. If it continues to see something divine in me, then I am destined to take you all to the destined Goal without fail. And I wish to say that each one can be the most perfect instrument of the Supreme and for the Supreme. There is no one who cannot be a perfect instrument of the Supreme. Everyone has the opportunity and, at the same time, I wish to say that each of you has the capacity in abundant measure.
On behalf of the Supreme, I bless you all. When I bless you, I offer my deepest gratitude to all of those who are with us. And to those who are not present with us, to them I also offer my deepest gratitude. I wish to offer again my deepest gratitude to the divine, profound seeker in Sudha, for she was the instrument for me to offer myself not only to Puerto Rico but to the world at large.
Again, I should say to you all that my gratitude will remain permanent and eternal. Even if you leave tomorrow, what you have done to help the Centre, in any spiritual capacity, if even only for one day, if you have helped the Centre in a spiritual way, you will still have my deepest gratitude. This Centre has the possibility, has the capacity to be unique. This capacity, properly used, can make this Centre an unparalleled Centre; that is to say, each disciple will always remain in the hearts of our Realisation. When you offer your surrendered love and devotion, our whole existence is surcharged with divine joy and pride. But when there is something wrong in the disciples' consciousness, it is deplorable.
Now this is my fervent wish: that all this misunderstanding must come to an end. Not what "he did" or what "he said," not what "others said" but what you can do for the Supreme. If you spend your time thinking of others, if you are enjoying jealousy, if you are enjoying doubt, if you invite impurity to enter into you, if you think of other persons instead of thinking of the Supreme in me, then you have to feel that at that time I am not your Guru; your Guru is that other person of whom you are thinking. If you really want to remain with me, you are supposed to think of the Supreme in me twenty-four hours a day. If you keep thinking of the wrong things that other persons have done, then you have changed your Guru.
Today is the day for inner understanding of what we actually are. We do not know what we are: we are the chosen instruments of the Supreme. We are the divine warriors fighting against ignorance. I don't say "I" but "we". Together we can accomplish this divine task and offer divine success to the Supreme. The soul of Puerto Rico will always have my constant love and constant blessings, and when I think of Sudha, I offer her my soul's special immortal Blessings.
Now I wish to tell you a supreme secret: you have to feel that when I scold you, I am offering you a divine judgement and that you are divinely and supremely lucky. It is my heart that bleeds. If I don't scold you, if I withdraw, that means the death-blow to your spiritual life. My indifference is the death-blow to the spiritual seeker, to one who wants to stay in my Boat. If I become indifferent to a person, then that person is out of my Boat. But if I see that someone has done something wrong, then I feel that it is my bounden duty, that I am given the authority, to show divine judgement in the form of inner wisdom, in the form of severe scolding. I wish you to see that when I scold you, the scolding is nothing other than a disguised blessing to help you out of the ignorance-sea. But when indifference starts playing its role, then that is the end of a spiritual seeker. I wish to say that a scolding is a blessing, for in that scolding, I am shaking the tree of ignorance, and when ignorance has been removed once and for all, you will become the perfect instruments of the Supreme in me.
I want you all to be perfect and your perfection is the perfection of the Supreme Himself. I wish to say that here is the dawn of our inspiration, aspiration, realisation and manifestation. It is here in Puerto Rico that the ever-transcending inspiration, aspiration, realisation and manifestation must take place. Here I wish to express and offer my gratitude to you all for your pure dedication, pure aspiration and your pure surrender to the Will of the Supreme.
You started first: running fast, faster and fastest. You have the capacity to continue at the same speed to reach the ever-transcending Beyond. You have the heart, which is your most precious wealth, the most precious wealth of God, the Supreme. Some disciples elsewhere find it difficult to get rid of the mind, to listen to the dictates of the inner heart, which is close to the soul. You don't have that problem, so you are really lucky. You are all heart. But what comes and bothers you is the vital, the unlit, undisciplined vital. Your mind has already surrendered to the Will of the Supreme inside your heart. I wish to say that you are very lucky to have the heart. Now if you can conquer the vital or illumine the vital, then, on the strength of your sincere aspiration, you are bound to meet success: all of you, all of you! And, as I have said before, you have the gratitude-each one of you has the loving gratitude of the Supreme.
Published in More talks to the Puerto Rican disciples 1970-1973
Action
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in the Chapel of the Church Centre for the United Nations
Let us not think before we act, for each thought is a heavy burden, a heavy pressure on our shoulders. This burden and pressure weakens our life-energy considerably.
Let us silence the mind before we act. If we silence the mind, if we know the art of silencing the mind, then we can not only accomplish our tasks faster than otherwise, but we can do hundreds of things at the same time in a fleeting minute.
Let us not talk before we act, for talk does nothing but bind us to action. And I really want to add, we have to be free within and without so that with each action we can breathe in the fresh air of perfecting, perfected and perfect action.
Let us pray before we act. Each prayer is our soulful devotion, and this devotion is our self-illumining life in action.
Let us not decide before we act. Each decision will be challenged and will be devoured by hesitation. Let us act spontaneously, for each spontaneous action is the expression of our expanding consciousness, the result of our heart’s preconceived ideals, the result of our life's preconceived light and the result of our soul's preconceived goal. Action is perfect when it is of God-inspiration and for God-manifestation.
Each desire-action makes us feel how weak, how ignorant, how hopeless, how helpless and how useless we are. Each aspiration-action makes us feel how strong, how powerful, how soulful, how meaningful and how fruitful we are. Again, action for action’s sake is not and cannot be the right thing. Action has to be for God's sake.
Before the birth of action, inspiration is our guide. During the course of action, aspiration is our guide. At the end of action, our surrendering height and surrendered depth is our satisfaction and God's satisfaction.
Imagination tells action, “Run forward, dive deep within, fly above.” Aspiration tells action, “God-Height has not to remain and cannot remain always a far cry. God-Height is our birthright; it is within us. We have only to discover it. And when we discover it, we feel that God-Height does not only belong to us but we belong to it.”
Perfection-satisfaction tells us that each individual is not only a direct representative of God on earth, but God Himself in the process of making and shaping His own Vision-Reality yet unfulfilled and His own Reality-Vision yet to be fully manifested.
Each action is God's Song here on earth for God-manifestation and there in Heaven for God-satisfaction. Each action on earth is God's Dance for humanity's eternal progress and eternal self-transcendence. Each action in Heaven is God’s satisfaction in divinity’s self-awakening and self-illumination for a new universe; each action in Heaven is a new creation and the constant fulfilment of an ever-growing, ever-glowing, ever-satisfying and ever-satisfied God.
Published in Union-Vision
Thousand Island Park
by Sri Chinmoy
at his home in Jamaica, New York
When I went to Thousand Island Park, I sat at a place where they said that Swami Vivekananda had sat. I was not getting any vibration from that place. I entered into my highest. Then I saw another place nearby, and there I sat. I said, “This is the place.” It is not more than one hundred or two hundred metres away. There I got Swami Vivekananda’s full vibration. Then I went to see the small house where he stayed.
Published in The Path of My Inner Pilot