Truth
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Truth: earthly truth, heavenly Truth, eternal Truth, universal Truth, transcendental Truth and supreme Truth. Earthly truth my body needs. Heavenly Truth my vital needs. Eternal Truth my mind needs. Universal Truth my heart needs. Transcendental Truth my central being needs. The supreme Truth my soul needs.
Earthly truth awakens my sleeping body. Heavenly Truth disciplines my restless vital. Eternal Truth illumines my sighing mind. Universal Truth liberates my crying heart. Transcendental Truth immortalises my central being. The supreme Truth expedites my soul's God-manifesting aspiration here on earth.
Truth is beauty. Beauty inspires a God-seeker to see God's Face of eternal Beauty. Truth is peace. Peace inspires a God-seeker to feel God's Heart of infinite Peace. Truth is power. Power inspires a God-seeker to watch God's Eye of immortal Power. Truth is compassion. Compassion inspires a God-seeker to sit at God's Feet of all-forgiving Compassion.
Truth frightens a weak mind in a human being. Truth enlightens a strong heart in a human being.
Truth nourishes the self-giving seekers. Truth treasures the God-realised souls.
Although man and truth are one, man cannot replace truth, but truth can easily replace man. How and why? Because man is by nature earth-bound and truth is always Heaven-free. Although truth and God are one, truth cannot replace God, but God can easily replace truth. How and why? Because truth is the creation. The creation cannot become inseparably one with the Creator at its sweet will. But the Creator can easily become inseparably one with His creation. Something more, the Creator can easily remain, eternally remain, infinitely higher than the creation's reach. But out of His infinite Bounty, the Creator keeps Himself inseparably one, eternally one and — to our wide surprise — unconditionally one with His creation.
Published in Truth’s Fountain-Melody
Philosophy
a lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 10 a.m. at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia
My esteemed Professor Rabosh, I wish to express my gratitude to you from the very depths of my heart for blessing me with this signal Award. I wish to say a few words on philosophy in general.
Philosophy means wisdom-aspiration, wisdom-revelation and wisdom-manifestation.
If we approach philosophy with the mind, for the fulfilment only of the mind, then it is nothing short of dryness. If we approach philosophy with the heart, for the heart and life proper, then it is most useful and fruitful.
Earth-bound philosophy is afraid of entering into Heaven-free philosophy because Heaven-free philosophy is unbounded. Heaven-free philosophy is afraid of entering into earth-bound philosophy because it may be caught in earth’s quagmire.
Eastern philosophy has tremendous fondness for the ever-transcending Beyond although it does not see the Beyond, not to speak of having a free access to the Beyond. But it feels that there shall come a time when it will be able to see the Beyond, be with the Beyond and be for the Beyond. Uncertainty looms large in the Western philosophy when it has to convincingly and completely accept the Reality-Existence of the Beyond.
Two philosophies: the outer and the inner. The outer philosophy thinks that its source is sound founded upon power. The inner philosophy feels that its source is delight founded upon silence.
The supreme philosophy of the God-seeker and God-lover is the awareness of God-Eternity, God-Infinity and God-Immortality founded upon Omnipresence-God-Oneness.
Philosophy loves wisdom-light. Each human being thinks that he is wiser than others. His wisdom surpasses others' wisdom; therefore, he gives advice, sought and quite often unsought.
We are all self-styled philosophers but our hearts are not vast enough to claim the entire world as our own, very own. Socrates, the philosopher of philosophers, had an all-pervading oneness-heart. Therefore, he was able to say “I am not an Athenian. I am a Cosmopolitan.”
There are two kinds of philosophy: the human philosophy and the divine philosophy. The human philosophy is nothing short of division-mind-supremacy. The divine philosophy is oneness-heart-intimacy.
The human philosophy is a mind-jungle that is all dryness or darkness. The human philosophy likes to dictate and not to listen or embrace.
The divine philosophy is: give wisdom and take wisdom. The divine philosophy is not satisfied just by saying something great and good but by becoming the perfect embodiment of greatness and goodness.
The philosophy of the East and the philosophy of the West. The philosophy of the East tells us: “Go beyond, go beyond! Truth abides in the Beyond, the ever-transcending Beyond.”
The philosophy of the West tells us: “Go around, go around! Spread out, spread out new capacities, quantities and qualities.”
The philosophy of the East: God-invitation, God-expectation and God-union.
The philosophy of the West: God-multiplication, God-revelation and God-distribution.
The philosophy of the East: who I was, who I am and who I shall become. Who was I? God the Dream. Who am I? God the Reality. Who shall I become? A prototype of God.
The philosophy of the West: “Go forward, go forward! Look not behind. Look not sideways. The Merciful God is beckoning you.”
The philosophy of the East and the philosophy of the West have a common goal: satisfaction, satisfaction infinite. This satisfaction comes into existence only from one thing: self-giving, sleepless self-giving and nothing else.
Let us invoke Pushkin to bless us with his nectar-flooded wisdom:
“But, friends, I do not want to die.
I want to live, so as to think and suffer.”Descartes declares his inner awareness and outer assertion:
“I think, therefore I am.”
The seeker in me soulfully proclaims:
I am because God there is.
I am an eternal Now, for my Source is so.What is my Source?
God the Eternity’s Cry and God the Infinity’s Smile.What Plato, the philosopher par excellence, said about philosophy is at once charming, deep and prophetic: “Philosophy is the highest music.”
The philosopher and mathematician Whitehead said, “Philosophy asks the simple question: ‘What is it all about?’” We know the answer. It is either all about God the Creator or all about God the creation.
Plutarch said, “Philosophy is the art of living.” We may safely add, “Philosophy is the art of self-searching and truth-becoming.”
“There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” So said Shakespeare. Indeed, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, God creates countless things, countless thoughts, countless ideas, countless ideals and countless goals for the betterment of the world and the transformation of the earth.
[Then Sri Chinmoy extemporaneously set music to the following poem which he wrote for this occasion.]
O vast philosophy,
O great philosopher,
Higher worlds’ message-secrecy
Down you bring to offer.
Published in I Prayerfully Bow to the Soul of Russia
Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture on ‘Philosophy’.
Medicine
a lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 3 p.m. at the Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I lovingly, soulfully and gratefully dedicate to-day’s talk to the most glorious soul of my highly esteemed Sister Raisa Maximovna.
There are four doctors: the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor, the faith-doctor and the God-Doctor. The medicine-doctor depends on earth-discoveries. The prayer-doctor depends on God-Compassion. The faith-doctor and the faith-patient work together to establish the satisfactory result for the patient. The God-Doctor decides what is best for the patient and does the needful in and through the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor and the faith-doctor.
God gets tremendous joy when these three doctors work together. Alas, it happens so rarely. The medicine-doctor prides itself on its stupendous capacity. The prayer-doctor gives full credit when its prayers are fulfilled to the ultimate Doctor, God. The faith-doctor gives credit to the medicine-doctor, more so to the prayer-doctor and infinitely more to the God-Doctor.
Medicine-doctors are physically visible and available. Alas, the innocent patient-victims pitifully suffer when the medicine-doctors enjoy their utter disagreements. The patient’s life-breath plies between the compassion-medicine-doctor and the indifference-medicine-doctor.
With your kind permission, I wish to narrate a personal experience of mine. My right knee and I have been suffering from severe pain for the last twenty years. Not once, not twice, but thrice I have had sad experiences from my MRI examinations.
The doctors have differences of opinions. The first doctor said it is cartilage damage. The second doctor said that it is water inside the knee, unwanted water. The third doctor gave his opinion that it is rheumatism. My California doctors and New York doctors were in perfect disagreement.
Anyway, because of these three differing opinions I had to take treatment for all these three so-called ailments. To my greatest sorrow, my right knee still suffers unbearably, unimaginably.
There is an Irish saying: “God made time; man made haste.” There are some doctors who are compassion incarnate. They give all their time, energy and concern to cure their patients, while there are other doctors who have no time, no time. Time is fleeing away and their concern is also fleeing away faster than the fastest.
It is true that no matter how much concern, how much love one has as a doctor for his patient, only if it is the Will of God does the patient continue to live on Mother Earth. But the kindness, concern and sympathy of the doctor for the patient give tremendous hope and joy to the patient. This hope and joy are not wasted.
We believe in reincarnation. When the patient goes to the other world, he or she carries with them their inner existence. And when the soul comes into the world with a human body once again, this particular patient of the past, brings down the concern, hope and all the good things that the patient received in his previous incarnations from the medical science. No good deed can ever end in vain. Today’s good deeds are bound to be fulfilled at God’s choice Hour.
I have mentioned the unfortunate negligence and indifference of certain doctors, but again there are many doctors, to my deepest joy, who are aspiration, concentration and dedication incarnate. Their concern for the recovery of the patient can only be felt and never be described.
Spirituality and medicine are two great doctors. Spirituality dives deep within to cure the malady. Medicine explores here, there and all-where to cure the malady. If the divers and the explorers work together against ignorance, the root of all diseases, then it will be remarkably easier to conquer each ailment.
The body suffers from countless diseases. It starts with a headache and ends in cancer. The mind suffers from many diseases. It starts with anger and ends in self-doubt. The heart suffers from many diseases. It starts with depression and ends in insecurity. Life suffers from many diseases. It starts with ignorance and ends in self-destruction.
Physical diseases are difficult to cure. Mental diseases are more difficult to cure. Psychic diseases are still more difficult to cure. Life-diseases, alas, are almost incurable.
Medical science is not the supreme authority on life and death. Spirituality, because of its conscious and inseparable oneness with the Will of the Absolute Supreme, has and is the supreme authority on life and death.
At times, medical science proudly predicts that the patient will die sooner than at once. But, to the greatest happiness of the patient, the patient gets a compassion-life-extension for three or four decades from Above. Spirituality does not and cannot perform this miracle, but spirituality unmistakably knows how the miracle was performed and Who was behind it.
About thirty years ago, I was fortunate enough to offer a soulful talk on medical science to a medical university in Cebu City in the Philippines. Just because it was a medical university, there were quite a few doctors and nurses who were kind enough to be present.
I said to the doctors that if some individuals are in a tug-of-war, and if two are on one side and on the other side there is only one individual, there is every likelihood that the side that has two will win. Similarly, if the man of prayers and the man of medicine are on one side in the tug-of-war and against them there is only one player, ignorance, then naturally the side that has two members is going to win.
We must work together. Prayer comes from the inner world and medicine comes from the outer world. Both are equally important. The inner world and the outer world must work together. Then it will be quite easy for us to conquer the world that stands against us. We must not work independently. We must work interdependently.
If spirituality and medical science play their roles interdependently, like inhaling and exhaling, then God’s Heart-Garden will be inundated with earth-beauty and Heaven-Fragrance.
I shall deeply appreciate it if the audience would kindly join me in singing a short song that I have composed for this occasion. As I said, we must work together, together. With our prayers, with our songs, in all our activities, if we work together then we are bound to be successful in our lives.
Four doctors, four:
Medicine-doctor, prayer-doctor,
Faith-doctor, God-Doctor,
I bow to you four.
You give me health-preservation-lore;
You show me health-perfection-shore.In all sincerity, I wish to say that this particular University has given me boundless joy and boundless satisfaction. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I pray to God for your continued success and progress to elevate the sufferings of humanity.
Published in I Prayerfully Bow to the Soul of Russia
Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture on ‘Medicine’.