May 1

Sri Chinmoy Answers

questions at the New York Centre, Bayside Church

Question: In the pictures I take of you blessing people I see you blessing them at various places on their heads. Are you giving them different types of blessings?

Sri Chinmoy: Usually, when I put my finger on the third eye, I try to open it a little — whatever it can — because the third eye in most cases is rusty and dusty. So I try my best.

When I bless on the top of the head, I try to raise the person’s consciousness to the highest possible height for him.

When I bless someone on the back of the head, I try to make that seeker see how good he was once upon a time and how bad he has become, or to show him how bad he was once upon a time, and how good he has become.

These are the main reasons for blessing at different places. There can be other occult reasons, but these are the usual ones.

Question: I imagine that there is a thousand-petaled lotus up on the top of the heads, and you can see the petals and, with accuracy that I really study, touch the different parts.

Sri Chinmoy: Right, it is absolutely a thousand-petaled lotus. I touch it and petal by petal it blossoms.

Question: Guru, whenever a really spiritual or devoted feeling comes to me, I always sneeze. This breaks the mood completely and I never regain it.

Sri Chinmoy: Sneezing has two inner meanings. In one sense, sneezing means approval. When you sneeze, then what you are feeling has been totally approved of. Of course, you know that if you have caught a cold or something, then your sneezing is to be expected. But if there is no rhyme or reason why all of a sudden you have sneezed, that means something has been approved of or sanctioned by some higher force. The other reason for this kind of sneezing is that somebody is thinking of you in a positive way, with good will. At that time your soul is responding to that person’s good will. So in your case, either somebody is soulfully thinking of you, or you have got a good experience, and that experience has been fully sanctioned from Above.

Question: Guru, will the soul of the painting that you did yesterday take an incarnation, and if it does, what will happen to the painting?*

Sri Chinmoy: The soul will be replaced. It is like a tenant. When one tenant goes away from a house, another tenant comes. When the present soul takes human incarnation (and God knows how long that may take), at that time a suitable soul will replace it — a suitable soul which will be good for the painting. Naturally the human soul will be higher than the painting soul. When this soul eventually takes a higher incarnation, there will be another soul which will be good enough to replace the present soul of the painting.

Actually, instead of one soul there are many souls inside that painting. There is one main soul, and each significant portion also has a soul. There are many places where the painting is very good. At each of these places the souls are very prominent. These tiny group souls, instead of remaining separate individuals, can become one strong soul. When the main one leaves for a higher incarnation, then these little souls can become one soul, and that soul can easily remain as the soul of the painting.

But all this entirely depends on you people. If the painting is destroyed, let us say, even before we leave the earth, then what will happen to the soul? Many of my paintings perhaps will not last because of negligence and carelessness. I am afraid we may lose some good paintings because of the disciples’ carelessness. You and Sanatan are wonderful curators, but there are people who do not take proper care of them when they are in the gallery.

And one thing I have told you many times, that when you appreciate my paintings, your own consciousness goes much higher, plus you definitely add beauty to the paintings. Yesterday I told everyone to go and look at the painting to find the place that you like most and stand in front of it. You don’t have to appreciate the entire painting, only become one with that particular section, the portion that you like the best. Then you are bound to make your own consciousness large, plus add beauty to the painting. Many times I have written poems, and just by reading them or reciting them I increase their beauty. Even the poems I wrote many, many years ago become more beautiful when I read them now. If somebody else reads them, the poems are bound to get more meaning, and the consciousness of the reader will also be elevated. If somebody can soulfully become one with the creation, then the beauty of the creation increases, along with the elevation of their own consciousness. *This question refers to ‘CKG Transcends’, a 13’x70’ painting.

Question: Guru, yesterday when you looked for a place to sign and date the painting, you walked the whole length of the painting, and then came back. Then you put the date in the most dynamic part of the painting. Was there any special significance to that?

Sri Chinmoy: Very good. You have got the point. I was only looking for the place where I got the most dynamic vibration. It is not that the other places are less spiritual or less beautiful, but they are a little bit milder, or perhaps the colour is not very dazzling. But when we notice the particular place that I chose, even from a distance it is very attractive. I wanted to sign it there because at that particular place there is a communication between the outer beauty and the inner silence. At other places the inner silence may be very prominent, but the outer beauty may not be so easily perceptible, and vice versa. But at that place even children will perceive something. As you said, the spontaneous dynamic appeal was already evident in that particular place; therefore, I signed it there.

Question: Has the soul of America taken human incarnation?

Sri Chinmoy: No, good boy, the soul of America is still lingering. The soul of America is still in its original form. It has not yet taken human incarnation. God alone knows when it will. It will not be in the near future. The soul of America is quite satisfied with its role. Sometimes souls become disgusted, as sometimes human beings are fed up. But the soul of America is quite satisfied. Right now taking human incarnation is out of the question for the soul of America.

The soul of America is very strong, very powerful, very beautiful, but something is missing, and that something is called maturity. I am not criticising your country’s soul, but the souls of some countries are more mature in the inner world than the American soul. The American soul has tremendous power and many other qualities in boundless measure. But when it is a matter of maturity, there are some souls which are much more mature than the American soul. Maturity in the soul’s world means experience, experiences of different types. Millions of experiences America still needs. Then the soul of America will become much more mature and, at the same time, maintain these most powerful and beautiful qualities that it has. Then will come the time for the soul of America to enter into a human incarnation and embody these qualities. But it will take time.

Question: I take the vibration of other people easily. How can I transform this into a divine quality?

Sri Chinmoy: Why do you take the vibration from others if afterwards you are going to suffer from that vibration? It is better at that time to close your inner doors and inner windows. How do you close your doors and windows so that you don’t get wrong vibrations from others? If you can strengthen your inner being with purity, then it won’t happen. It is when we do not have a sufficient amount of purity that we suffer from the vibrations of others. It does not mean that you have no purity, but when the amount of purity that you have is not enough, then it is very easy for others to attack you. When you are physically weak, you become susceptible to colds, let us say. So in the spiritual world, a cold is impurity. If you become spiritually strong, if you can surcharge yourself with purity, then you won’t be susceptible to the vibration of others. Their vibration will not be able to hurt you. You are lucky that you do not have to try to transform or illumine this capacity. You just maintain your purity, and they won’t be able to attack you.

It is not good at all to take the vibration from others. You have enough headaches. The load that you have on your shoulders is very, very heavy, so why take others’ loads on your shoulders as well? The best thing is to take care of your own burden, and not to accept anybody’s vibration — good vibration or bad vibration. It is better not to take any vibration. Remain absolutely neutral and unperturbed. Remain in your own height or in your own depth.

You don’t have to try to transform others’ vibration. Just don’t accept it. Only keep yourself receptive to the Supreme in me, to your Inner Pilot, to your own aspiration and inner meditation, and don’t be receptive at all to others. If you show receptivity, then their forces will come and take shelter in you like thieves. It is very difficult to get rid of these thieves once they have entered into your heart-room.

Question: Guru, what is the significance of the Bengali in your songs, as opposed to the songs that are in English?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two reasons why most of my songs are written in Bengali. One reason is that I am a Bengali and I know Bengali infinitely better than I know English. But if I am in a divine mood, I will call this a silly reason. The real reason is that the English language, although we say it has tremendous majesty, at the same time has become the commercial language. If you want to be generous, you can say it has become the universal language. The English language undoubtedly has universal appeal on the practical plane, but it does not have that universal appeal on the inner plane, the spiritual plane, whereas Bengali has it. Italian also has the soul’s approach. We can say it has a very free access, like Bengali, to the soul. But the English language does not have this. Of course, if somebody has written an exceptionally soulful prayer or poem, these soulful words will have an approach to the soul’s reality. But on the whole the language does not have an immediate appeal to the soul. It will appeal to our mind, to our vital and to our aspiring physical.

The Bengali language outwardly is sweeter, much sweeter, than the English language. It has to its credit an inner reality, let us say a divine reality, a very subtle, haunting reality which the English language, unfortunately, lacks. The English language has many, many good qualities, but the immediate inner approach to the soul, to the inner reality, the sweetness and the heart quality of oneness you don’t get in English as immediately or as powerfully as you get it in Bengali. This is my yogic reason.

Right now, believe it or not, English comes to me more freely than Bengali. Sometimes it is difficult for me to speak to my sister fluently. There was a time when I used to speak Bengali unbelievably fast, our own Chittagong dialect and also the real Bengali. But now, because I do not have much practice, I can’t speak as fast. People say that thoughts always come in the mother tongue first, even when you know quite a few languages. I have heard this many times. In my case, this was true many years ago. But for the last six or seven years when I write, give talks or answer questions, I never, never think in Bengali. I don’t get the words or ideas in Bengali first and then immediately translate them. Everything comes to me directly in English. It may be incorrect, it may be imperfect English, but the ideas and words definitely come to me in English.

So to come back to your question, Bengali has soulful qualities and capacities much more than English. English has its own strengths in many ways, but if the songs are less soulful, then they will be of less assistance to your spiritual life. If they are spiritual and soulful in every way, they will become a permanent possession and treasure of the world. In a few years’ time India, and especially Bengal, will accept all my songs. I can prophesy that in a few years many, many songs of mine will be sung all over India, like Tagore’s songs. All Bengali villages will be inundated with these songs. And at that time the girls and boys who are the pioneer-singers of my songs will be appreciated, admired and adored by the Bengali-speaking people. It is a matter of a short time before India accepts my music. At that time a new consciousness will dawn not only in the Bengali people, but also in those who are singing my songs now, sometimes with reluctance, sometimes out of a sense of competitiveness, sometimes with tremendous lack of inspiration. At that time those singers will see much more, they will see something really meaningful and fruitful in my songs.

When it is a matter of soulful reality existence, Bengali far surpasses English. But when it is for universal appeal, or on the practical plane, the commercial plane, the physical plane, vital plane and mental plane, English undoubtedly has a wider scope. But in my songs we are dealing with the heart and the soul. As long as we can remain in the heart and the soul, our oneness with our Beloved Supreme will always remain perfect. That is why I feel my Bengali songs should be learned properly. They are not just songs, but a new, illumining and fulfilling way to communicate with our inmost reality and divinity.

This August I will offer 700 songs, and the sincere seekers and singers will take these songs as blessings. They will be able to meditate for quite a few hours while the songs are being sung. It won’t be in one day, but on three or four days. And those who are not blessed with a musical ear or with the capacity to appreciate Bengali songs, will undoubtedly feel miserable. It will be torture to them, so they can go and do something else. But the singers and the music lovers should be there without fail. They will derive considerable spiritual benefit from these songs. These 700 songs will be gratitude-flowers from the garden of my aspiration-heart to the divinely inspired singers and music lovers.

Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 7, July 27, 1977

Sri Chinmoy Answers

questions in New York, about Sri Ramakrishna

Question: I read that Sri Ramakrishna, just by his touch, was able to send some of his disciples into trance and ecstasy. How was it possible?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the receptivity of the disciple. Yesterday an eighty-year-old Russian lady came to see me from Brooklyn. If you had looked into her eyes, you would have melted. Such ecstasy! Once in twenty years I see that kind of thing. Her eyes were drinking in my divinity’s beauty — not my physical beauty, but my divine beauty. I was so moved. An eighty-year-old lady! Jagattarini brought her. She was drinking, drinking my divinity. Is that not trance? I was only praying that she would not fall on me, or fall down. On the one hand, I was giving and giving to her; but on the other hand, I was so worried that I was giving her more than she could receive. Luckily, she did not fall on me and she did not fall down.

Immediately this old lady saw who I was. She was taking such light from my divinity. Did I put my hand on her? No, there was no contact. Without touching her I was able to do it. And I was so proud of her, this eighty-year-old lady. Just yesterday it happened. The pictures will show that she was literally in divine ecstasy.

Question: Guru, that was the third time she tried to come and see you. She got lost the first two times. Yesterday she left home at eight in the morning and she arrived at one o’clock. She came on the subway alone, and she does not speak any English at all.

Sri Chinmoy: From Brooklyn she came, and from eight o’clock to one o’clock she took to come here!

Question: A few years ago you were saying that the Vedic Seers meditated for years to achieve a certain consciousness, and now that consciousness is available for humanity.

Sri Chinmoy: Parents take years to build a house. Their children are so much more advanced that they can do it in a month. Sri Aurobindo attained in three days what his Guru had taken years to realise.

Sri Ramakrishna said that when an Avatar comes, the Avatar is the udder. If you press the right place, you get milk. Do you get milk if you press the leg or the head or the ear of the cow? The udder is the right place. You press it and you get milk. Avatars are like that.

I give, but how many people take what I give? I give through the eyes. Some receive, some do not receive. I was so moved yesterday, so moved by that old lady and so proud that she was able to receive so much from me.

Published in You Belong to God