Progress
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 8 p.m. at Ottawa University, Ontario, Canada
Dear seekers, dear sisters and brothers, I wish to give a talk on progress. Since we are all seekers, we should know the difference between success and progress. Success is a never-ending temptation, whereas progress is an ever-increasing illumination. A man of pleasure wants success, continuous success. A man of aspiration wants progress, soulful progress. A man of success is always hungry for name and fame, for material wealth and possessions. But there comes a time when he realises that even though he satisfies all his teeming desires, still he does not feel even an iota of solid satisfaction. A man of outer success only can never expect a life of satisfaction. But a man of progress dives deep within in order to discover his inner wealth, his inner treasure. He and satisfaction become bosom friends. A man of success cannot distinguish between the finite and the Infinite. But a man of progress knows how to separate the finite from the Infinite. He embraces the Infinite in the finite with a view to growing into the Infinite.
A man of desire wants God the Giver, but a man of progress needs God the Receiver. A man of aspiration says to God, “O Lord, take me. What I have is for You. What I am is for You. What I have is an inner cry, and what I am is unlimited ignorance. O Lord, take what I have and what I am.” A man of desire prays to God for earthly wisdom, material possessions and the fulfilment of his desires. Immediately God tells him, “Take whatever you need, then.” But when a seeker prays for inner progress, God tells him that he has to work hard for it. That does not mean that God will deny us progress. No! He will rain down His Compassion, but we have to make our inner vessel vast, vaster, vastest, so that we can hold His infinite Bounty.
Success is an experience of pleasure and stimulation. Progress is an experience of joy and fulfilment. Pleasure's future names are frustration and destruction. Joy's future names are satisfaction and illumination. Success finds its existence between the doubting mind and the strangling vital; progress has its reality between the aspiring heart and the dedicated life.
Progress is our inner assurance of a deeper manifestation. Progress is founded upon evolving experience and manifesting experience. When we cry for God the Absolute Reality, we grow into the evolving experience. When we, as divine lovers, become inseparably one with our supreme Beloved, we become the manifesting experience.
Human progress and divine progress. Human progress wants to see more and more of the world; it wants to understand the mystery of the world. Divine progress wants to see more and more of God in each human being. Human progress feels that slow and steady wins the race. Divine progress teaches us that Grace is the swiftest way to the Goal.
In the spiritual life we deal with Eternity: Eternity’s past, present and future. In Eternity’s past, we made considerable progress. God inspired us and commanded us, “Arise, awake!” and immediately we listened to His inner dictate. In Eternity's present, we are still making considerable progress. We are running very fast towards the ever-transcending Beyond. And in Eternity's future, we shall see and feel that the Goal itself is running toward us. We are like hungry children Although we know not where our mother is, we run here and there in search of her. But when our mother hears us crying, she immediately runs to us. We cry to the Supreme because we have an inner hunger, and the Mother Supreme runs to feed us. The seeker who makes real progress always preserves the divine and transforms the undivine. How does he preserve and how does he transform? When he ascends the Reality-Tree to the highest realm of consciousness, he acquires the capacity to preserve the divine within him. Then, when he climbs down the Reality-Tree and brings back the smile of the transcendental Beyond, he is able to transform the undivine.
Since we are all seekers, we are supposed to make progress at every moment. But there are two things that prevent us from making progress: self-love and self-indulgence. Self-love makes continuous mistakes and Himalayan blunders, while self-indulgence is a Himalayan blunder itself. Now, there is one way for us to make constant and conscious progress, and that is through God-love and God-service. God-love does everything perfectly, and God-service is nothing short of perfect Perfection.
Progress is movement, and movement is progress. Thousands of years ago, the Vedic seers offered their divine message, Charai veti, charai veti — “Move on, move on!” Again, the seers of the Upanishads taught us to be dynamic and not to fear action. If we do disinterested action, this action cannot bind us or claim anything of our existence. Action cannot claim a man of devoted and dedicated service. Lord Krishna taught us the supreme truth: “Thou hast the right to action, but claim not the fruits thereof.”
As seekers, at every moment we are devotedly doing selfless service. The result can never be of importance to us. It is only our attitude, our motive, that concerns us. The result will come in the form of failure or success, and both of these experiences we have to offer at the Feet of the Lord Supreme with equal joy and delight. In this way we can make the fastest progress.
Published in My Maple Tree
Vivekananda used to say, "If you have to value anything, you have to pay for it. Otherwise you do not value it." If any book comes free, you do not touch even one page. But if you buy the book, you read it. If you give anything for free, nobody pays any attention. Anything free, nobody values. So, I said, "If you want to value your spiritual life, the day you entered into the spiritual life, you have to remember. To value your spiritual life, which is the most important thing in your life, you should give ten dollars in an envelope, saying, 'On this day, I joined the Path.'"
And the day you were 'baptised', the day you got your spiritual name, on that day I am bringing it down to five dollars. So, I make fifteen dollars.
Then Pulak started arguing with me. First, he said it was too much money. That was not enough. Then he said, "How will people know which day?"
I told him, "The day they hear from Centre leaders, or from someone who has given me the pictures. That day I will take it as the day, the day the person hears."
He started, "But you did not concentrate on that day. You concentrated on another day."
I said, "My force will remain for a few days. If Ashrita or the Centre leaders or anybody has to give the message, my force will hold."
But no, again he started saying, "But you did not concentrate and accept them on that day."
I told him we have to start with him! But I enjoyed his arguments, idiot!
Then the culprit became Anjali. The day before yesterday was her name-day, so she gave five dollars. Then again, Pulak started saying things. I said, "It is not compulsory, for God's sake! It is only for those who value their spiritual life. At least on that day, when you give ten dollars, you will say, 'O my God, I entered into the spiritual life. What am I doing? Now I have so many problems.' That will pinch you, when you give ten dollars. It will awaken you, and on the day you will do well."
People always say, in India also, that birthdays are the most miserable days. People are only thinking of gifts, this and that. Once, in the Ashram, on his birthday, somebody thought, "How could Mother refuse something? Mother will be so happy to give it to me." He went on his birthday with a list to have a little butter, to have it sanctioned. Mother threw away the list. She said, "Birthdays are for butter?"
If you remember that on such-and-such date you came to the Path, then how you prepared yourself, how much sacrifice you made to leave your parents and dear ones, if those good ideas come to your mind, you will value it. Otherwise, when it is a matter of birthdays, for five or six days beforehand, your mind will be all the time thinking this and that, about parties and so on. I said, "The best thing is to think of your birthday as the day you joined the Path. If you remember that day, twenty or twenty-five or thirty years ago, the ancient sincerity, intensity and depth will come to the fore."
There was another condition. Nobody should deprive Kanan of his business. Here, on their birthday, they send me flowers or on their soul's day they send flowers. That has to continue. I do not want his business to suffer. You rogues, you will give me ten dollars then you will forget to give flowers!
If you put your money in an envelope to give as a love-offering, on that day you will remember how much sacrifice you have made to come to this Path, how much sincerity, simplicity and purity, how much eagerness you felt when you joined the Path. Otherwise, you are observing the day but you are not going back to the source. I am giving you an opportunity to go back to when you started your journey
You can spread it; I am not going to make announcement. But if it does not work, if you people feel it is the same thing — when you give the flowers you do not mean it, but you just observe mechanically. So, by giving five or ten dollars, it will be the same thing. If that is the case, then what can I do?
22 March 1998
Published: Sri Chinmoy, "The Golden Mystic Sun", Madal Bal Studio, 2021.