Two God-Instruments
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 3:30 p.m. in the Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Both the Master and the disciple are eternal students. The Master is like Socrates, for he is consciously aware that he is an eternal student, whereas the disciple does not know that he is an eternal student. The true Master is God. The spiritual Master is a conscious and dedicated servant of God, a conscious and dedicated student of God. The Master knows that there is a Source and he belongs to that Source; he is of the Source and he is for the Source. He is consciously aware of it. The disciple is, unfortunately, not aware of his oneness with the Source. But the disciple does not always remain unconscious. He, too, develops inner maturity and inner light. Then he feels, like his teacher, that he is also an eternal student.
The spiritual Master is not actually a teacher for his disciples; he is a private tutor. The teacher teaches and then he examines, but it is the student who has to pass the examination with his own effort. If the student does not do well, then he remains in ignorance. But a private tutor gives us special assistance so that we will not remain in ignorance. In the spiritual life, the private tutor is the Master. He helps us to face the ignorance-sea. He privately teaches us how to face the ignorance-sea and how to discover our soul’s reality. In every way he helps us in our self-discovery.
There are some seekers who, unfortunately, feel that the Master is God. But no human being can be God. The Master is not even the real father of the spiritual family. The real father is the Absolute Lord. The Master is only an elder child in the family and the disciples are the younger children. The father has taught the eldest son to teach those very things to the younger ones. The younger ones may not know that their real father is not the eldest brother, but Someone else. But they eventually come to realise this. The role of the eldest brother is over only when he can soulfully, devotedly and successfully take the younger members of his family to his Father, who is also their Father.
The Master plays the role of realisation and the disciple plays the role of aspiration. But realisation and aspiration are inseparable. What we call aspiration is realisation on another plane of consciousness. Here on earth we call it aspiration, but that very thing is realisation on another plane. Similarly, what we call realisation on another plane, on this earth-plane we call aspiration. Realisation is nothing but a continuous act of ever-transcending aspiration and aspiration is nothing short of realisation — either partial realisation or ever-illumining, ever-glowing realisation. It entirely depends on the seeker’s standard, on his inner growth.
The disciple offers his aspiration to the Master. The Master offers realisation to the disciple. The Master offers to the disciple what he considers to be the best in his life of realisation. The disciple offers to the Master what he feels is the best in his life of aspiration. But the Master tells the disciple, “No, this is not your best. It is high time to get up, my child. Do not sleep any more. Do not wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. Awake, arise!” Then the disciple gets up and enters into the life of dynamic spirituality. At that time, the Master tells him, “Please do not delay. Sit on my shoulder. I shall carry you the length and the breadth of the inner world.”
Spirituality is like a divine game. There are quite a few players and each player has a distinct role. The Master plays a significant role and the disciple plays a significant role. But on the highest plane it is the Real in us, the Supreme, who plays the role of the Master in one individual and the role of the disciple in another individual. He is the giver in the heart of the Master and He is the receiver in the life of the disciple.
The Master is the bridge, the connecting link between humanity’s aspiration and divinity’s realisation. He takes what humanity can offer to him for divinity — its soulful cry — and he carries down what divinity can offer to him for humanity — its illumining Smile. The Master is also a messenger. He carries humanity’s hope into the world of God’s Vision and he brings down divinity’s Promise into the human world. He climbs up to the highest with humanity’s hope and he climbs down to the lowest with divinity’s Promise. What for? For the earth-consciousness, for the transformation and perfection of humanity.
The Master is a servant. In the ordinary life, you need the assistance of the servant in order to see the boss. In the spiritual life also, if a seeker or a disciple pleases the Master, who is God’s servant, the servant will tell the Boss that there is someone waiting to see Him. It is the servant who opens the door and tells the real Boss, the Supreme, that somebody is looking for Him. The Master is the secretary. You approach the secretary if you want to make an appointment with the boss.
The role of the Master is to do dedicated service in the silence-life. It is in the life of inner silence that he most effectively works in and through his disciples. It is the silence-life, as a matter of fact, that he offers to his disciples. And it is their sound-life that the disciples offer to him. Silence-life is for realisation; sound-life is for manifestation. Both are of paramount importance.
The Master is most sincere when he becomes part and parcel of humanity’s cry. When humanity is hungry for Peace, Light and Bliss, the Master, on the strength of his oneness, suffers from the same hunger. Like humanity, he also is pinched with an eternal thirst and hunger. But again, the same Master goes up high, higher, highest and becomes one with the Source of infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. There in Heaven he enjoys a feast, a sumptuous feast, and here on earth he is compelled to starve. But both he does devotedly and soulfully. His role in God’s cosmic Drama is to carry humanity’s cry into Heaven’s Delight and to bring down Heaven’s Delight into humanity’s cry.
In God’s Eye, both the Master and the disciple are of equal importance. God knows that His little child, who is known as a disciple, will not always remain young and helpless. He will also be endowed someday with boundless Peace, Light and Bliss. And also God knows that it is He who is playing the role of a little child in and through each disciple. It is He who wants His creation to remain ever new and fresh. Ever-transcending newness and freshness is the world-song in each individual and each creation of His. At the same time, He inspires us and makes us feel that He is the ever-transcending Truth which both the Master and the disciple must embody.
The Master and the disciple become one on the day the inner initiation takes place. Now, initiation can take place in various ways. It can be done in the traditional Indian way, by chanting a mantra and offering a few symbolic sacred items. In this way the disciple is given a sense of renunciation, which is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. Initiation can also take place through the eyes. The Master offers a portion of his soul’s light or a portion of his life-breath to the disciple through the eyes. This is how he accepts a disciple as his very own. Through the Master’s compassion-power the disciple brings to the fore from the inmost recesses of his heart peerless gratitude. When gratitude and compassion work together, initiation takes place. At that time the Master makes a solemn promise to the disciple: “My son, your ignorance of millennia is now in me. I shall illumine it, transform it and make it a perfect instrument of the Lord Supreme.” On the strength of the Master’s absolute oneness with the Supreme and with his disciple, the Master feels that all that he is, all that he was and all that he will be, the disciple himself is, in seed form.
In the course of time, the disciple, like his teacher, becomes fully aware of the undeniable truth that he is also an indispensable instrument of the Absolute Supreme. Then the disciple says to the Master, “Master, you are the body of eternal Truth and I am your limbs. You need me for your manifestation and I need you for my realisation. Let us function together, for it is so ordained. You will play the role of the Universal Consciousness, the transcendental Height, and I will play the role of your earth-manifestation instrument. Together we shall manifest and fulfil the Absolute Supreme.”
The Master, while serving the disciple in silence, knows and feels that he is loving the Beloved Supreme inside the disciple. And there comes a time when he does not see his Beloved Supreme inside the disciple as a separate entity but he sees his Beloved Supreme inside the entire existence of his disciple. He sees the disciple as his Beloved Supreme. And there comes a time when the disciple does not see the Master as another human being but he sees the Master as totally one with his Lord Supreme.
There comes a time when the Absolute Supreme makes both the Master and the disciple feel that He needs them equally, for He embodies both Vision and Reality. His Vision-Light He has already offered to the Master and His Reality-Light is growing inside the disciple. Both His Vision and His Reality must work together in order to establish the world of perfection here on earth. The Master without the disciple is lame and the disciple without the Master is blind. But when they are together they are neither blind nor lame; they are perfect instruments of the Absolute Supreme manifesting the Supreme in His inimitable way.
In conclusion, I wish to say that the Master and disciple are both God’s indispensable chosen instruments. They are indispensable precisely because they want to please the Absolute Supreme in His own way. If the Master wanted to please the Supreme in the Master’s own way, then the Master would not be indispensable. If the disciple wanted to please the Supreme in the disciple’s own way, then the disciple would not be indispensable at all. But when both the Master and the disciple cry and try, try and cry, to please and fulfil the Absolute in the way the Absolute wants to be pleased and fulfilled, then they are pure, perfect and conscious instruments of God.
The lecture is followed by questions and answers.
Published in Spiritual Power, Occult Power and Will Power
Consciousness and Immortality
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 7:30 p.m. in the Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC
In the spiritual life, in the life of aspiration, in the life of dedication, there are two indispensable realities, and these realities are Consciousness and Immortality. Consciousness and Immortality are inseparable. They are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. At this moment Consciousness plays the role of a seed and Immortality plays the role of the fruit; the next moment Immortality turns into the seed while the same Consciousness becomes the fruit. Then the fruit again becomes the seed in a self-perpetuating cycle. In this way Consciousness and Immortality remain always inseparable. The seed-form we call Consciousness. The fruit-form we call Immortality. But they can and they do change their respective roles.
Consciousness is birthless and deathless Eternity within and without. Immortality is self-giving. We offer our body, vital, mind and heart in order to grow into something divine. When we grow into something divine, the divine existence that we have developed or have unveiled is the immortal Reality in us. Today we give what we have to the Lord Supreme; tomorrow He gives what He has and what He is to us. We give Him our inner cry, we give Him our ignorance, our darkness, anything that we feel belongs to us or that we have been cherishing. In His case, everything belongs to Him; and when He feels that we are ready, He gives us everything out of His infinite Bounty.
Consciousness-sea loves reality and eventually becomes reality. Immortality is our silence-life which envisions the Truth and our sound-life which manifests the Goal, the transcendental Reality, here on earth.
Immortality loves life, embraces life and finally fulfils life here on earth and there in Heaven. The soulful cry of earth is Immortality in the seeker's life. The soulful smile of Heaven, too, is Immortality in the seeker's life. The soulful inner cry is immortal and the all-illumining, all-fulfilling smile within is also immortal.
How is it that earth-consciousness at times does not accept Heaven's bounty of Compassion, Love and Light? It is precisely because Heaven's divine qualities, which have developed in various forms, are unfamiliar; therefore, the unlit earth-consciousness resists the divine qualities, divine capacities and divine blessings of Heaven. Again, at times Heaven will not help when earth sincerely tries to do something correctly. Earth wants to grow into the divine reality and it needs Heaven's assistance, but there are times when Heaven remains indifferent. Earth does not remain always receptive and Heaven does not remain always concerned. But there comes a time when the seeker unifies both earth's cry and Heaven's smile. Just as earth cannot remain always unlit, so Heaven cannot remain always indifferent. Then earth gives soulfully, devotedly and unreservedly its peerless world-cry and Heaven gives smilingly, unreservedly and unconditionally its peerless Heaven-smile and inner Consciousness, divine Consciousness, supreme Consciousness.
The expansion of Consciousness controls and conquers doubt. This doubt is a hungry tiger in us. It wants to devour the real in us, the divine in us, the beautiful in us. But when Consciousness expands, the doubt-tiger is brought under control; it is conquered and illumined. Faith is the roaring lion; doubt is the devouring tiger. The lion has to grow, so it has to be fed. The Delight of Immortality feeds the divine lion, the golden faith-lion within us.
When we conquer fear, doubt, jealousy and impurity, at that time Immortality dawns in our vital existence. When we claim the vastness of reality as our very own and grow into that vastness within, Immortality dawns in our mind. And when we hear the oneness-song and see the oneness-dance in everything that we say, do or think, Immortality dawns in our oneness-heart. Finally, when perfect Perfection looms large in our earth-life and in our Heaven-life, when Perfection inundates our earthly existence and our heavenly existence, then we grow into the supreme Immortality.
Ego-consciousness, human consciousness, divine Consciousness, supreme Consciousness. Ego-consciousness is nothing but destruction here, there, everywhere. Human consciousness is man's preparation for the higher life, for the divine life, the life which will satisfy human beings totally and unmistakably. Divine Consciousness is aspiration, the road of absolute Perfection, the road of transcendental Height. The aim of supreme Consciousness is to constantly transcend the already achieved goal. The supreme Consciousness always transcends its own achievement. There is no fixed goal. Today's goal is tomorrow's starting point; therefore, the supreme Consciousness inspires us, energises us and carries us to a Goal which is an ever-transcending Reality. That Goal is Immortality in earth-life, Immortality in Heaven-life, Immortality in each individual consciousness, Immortality in the collective consciousness, Immortality in the Universal Consciousness and in the Transcendental Consciousness.
Human consciousness and divine consciousness, earth-bound consciousness and Heaven-free consciousness. Human consciousness is nothing short of the self-forgetfulness of the Infinite in the finite. Divine consciousness is the self-awareness, self-illumination and self-perfection of the Infinite in and for the finite. Earth-bound consciousness sees reality the way reality functions here on earth, but reality functions on earth in a very limited way. Here we see reality in infinitesimal measure. Often it opens to countless wrong forces. Earth-bound consciousness constantly tells us that there is no goal, and even if there is a goal, it will always remain a far cry. It tells man that even when desire is fulfilled, man becomes frustrated because the fulfilment of desire can never give abiding satisfaction. Today a man desires to have a car, so he buys a car. Tomorrow he wants to have two cars. If he is wealthy enough to buy them, then the next day he will want to have three cars. Each time he gets something, he wants to get something more. But there comes a time eventually when he does not or cannot get what he truly wants. Then he looks around and sees that somebody else has that very thing in boundless measure. So again frustration comes into the picture.
Earth-bound consciousness always gives us the feeling of frustration with the things that we do not have and the things that we do have. But Heaven-free consciousness constantly gives us the message of satisfaction. We want boundless Delight; we want everything in boundless measure. But right now if we get even an iota of Delight, we feel a sense of satisfaction. Then, from a tiny drop we grow into the vast ocean. Today a tiny drop of the ocean of Delight we have received or have achieved; therefore, we are exceedingly happy. And when we are happy, our receptivity grows. There are few other ways to increase our receptivity than by remaining happy all the time. When we are happy, our receptivity grows; and when receptivity grows, Heaven-free consciousness can grow in us.
Consciousness and Immortality. Consciousness is at once the flower and the beauty. Immortality is also both the flower and the beauty. But when we look at the flower with our human eyes, we see what is in front of us, not what is within us. We see the beauty as long as it lasts — for a few hours or a few days. But the beauty that we see also enters into us, into the inmost recesses of our heart. The essence of the flower which remains inside us is Immortality. So we can say that Consciousness is the beauty of the flower before us, which enters into us, and Immortality is the beauty of the flower within us, that previously was before us. Each seeker sees the outer beauty of the flower and each seeker sees the inner flower, which is beauty unparalleled.
The lecture is followed by questions and answers.
Published in Self-Discovery and World-Mastery
Inauguration of the Green Centre
a talk by Sri Chinmoy
to about 25 seekers who wish to become members of his newest meditation Centre in the New York area
I wish to thank and at the same time bless Fred from the very depth of my heart. He has brought you into our spiritual family, into our vision and mission. For that I offer him my heart’s most soulful gratitude. I shall call him Fred only for a very few days more. He will shortly get his spiritual name, his soul’s name. Then we shall have to call him by that new name. [Fred subsequently received the name Atmananda.] On behalf of the Supreme I am offering him my gratitude, and on behalf of all the seekers whom he has brought I am offering gratitude to him. You are all sincere seekers. He has already brought over eighty like you, and very soon he will be able to offer one hundred divine seekers to the Supreme. This dedicated and exemplary service of his deserves our special appreciation and special gratitude.
I was extremely delighted to learn that the other day some of you were meditating in front of my picture and you saw green light around the picture. At that time you did not know that we were going to call your group the Green Centre. Your minds did not know, but your souls definitely knew. That is why you saw the green light.
Now I wish to say a few words about the colour green. Green, from the spiritual point of view, signifies newness. It is newness in life, in action, in speech, in everything that we do or grow into that eventually will lead us to the Absolute, to inseparable oneness with the Absolute Supreme. Newness at every moment must dawn in our devoted head and our aspiring heart. Newness is the only way to make continuous progress. It is by virtue of newness that we grow into the ever-transcending satisfaction and perfection. Newness welcomes, invites, challenges and, at the same time, promises the seeker in us that at every moment we can make considerable progress. We can achieve satisfaction and perfection on the strength of our conscious oneness with newness.
Perhaps you have not yet heard that our philosophy is the philosophy of constant, continuous and soulful progress. Progress means a forward, upward and inward movement. Our philosophy declares: ‘The past is dust.’ The past has not given us what we actually want — that is to say, God-realisation, conscious and inseparable oneness with our Beloved Supreme. We can expect to get it from today or from the tomorrow that is growing into the immediacy of today. The past has not offered us what we are longing for. Yes, the quintessence of the past we shall keep. If we have done something divine, soulful, loving or self-giving, then the quintessence of that past we shall try to embody. But the millions of mistakes we have made, the many undivine things we have done, we have to totally obliterate from our minds. The past is dust. It is the golden future which is growing and glowing in the heart of today. This golden future we shall welcome.
Green is newness. This newness will carry us to the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond. A child’s philosophy is the philosophy of newness. It is the child who grows, progresses, achieves and fulfils. A child is he who remains in the heart and who acts in and through the heart. We are all God’s children. From His universal and transcendental Vision we have all come into existence. We are His divine and chosen children.
Green signifies a childlike heart that continuously makes progress. Progress is our satisfaction, and inside satisfaction will always be our perfection of nature, perfection of life, perfection of realisation. So from now on, all of you kindly feel the importance of what you are. When you ask yourself what you are, immediately try to feel that you are newness. Tomorrow’s golden dawn is your name. Your soul-reality, your very existence is the newness which is the golden dawn.
All of you will kindly come to the meetings every week. Your regularity and punctuality are of paramount importance. Most of you are students. You know the difference between good students and bad students. If you are good students, which I am sure you are, then you become all joy to your teacher. 1 happen to be your spiritual teacher, but I am not like an ordinary teacher. I am like your private tutor. A teacher examines you and if you do well, you pass; if you do not do well, then you fail. But a private tutor gives you special help so that you will pass the examination. So I am your private tutor to teach you, to help you so that you can transform the ignorance-sea into the sea of wisdom-light. Our mutual cooperation and confidence will bring about your fastest progress, and it will definitely give infinite joy to the Real in you. The Supreme is my Guru and your Guru. The Supreme is the eternal Teacher.
With a soulful hope I am inaugurating our Green Centre today. It is my fervent wish and prayer to the Absolute Supreme that our sincere self-giving efforts, our inner cry and our soulful life on earth will be crowned with divine success and progress. This divine success and supreme progress we shall place soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally at the Feet of our Beloved Supreme.
Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 2, 27 February 1977
Informal Talks
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Nexus Resort, Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
He has become my dearest brother
In my humourous book God’s Orchestra, while making fun of all professions, I said that lawyers are liars. Ashrita’s father was a lawyer, and he became so furious!
In a few months’ time, what happened? The same man invited his colleagues to hear me give a talk. And in how many ways he has helped me over the years! Our disciple lawyers were not so experienced in the early days, and he helped us so much. Now, every month he sends me fruits.
As I say, “From where to where!” Ashrita’s father is really the radiant example. Now he has become my dearest brother.
Sometimes — for inner reasons, spiritual reasons, highest reasons, absolutely highest reasons — I have advised people not to adopt children. This story is most recent. Savyasachi is the witness.
Whenever the manager of our hotel in Brunei saw me, he was literally thrilled. He even had reverential awe. We became very close friends. I lifted him, and when I gave him the medallion, he was shaking powerfully. He is such a big, stout person. I had to grab his hand because he was absolutely shaking. He had so much nervousness. He said, “I am deeply honoured. I do not know what to say.” I was standing beside him, and he was trembling. I had to hold on to him.
Later, when I was going out of the hotel, he came up to me and said, “Please, please, do you have a minute? I am bringing down the chairman of the hotel.”
I said, “Certainly.”
Then he gave me a gift. It was a clock, very beautiful. He was asking me about our next location. I said, “We are going to Sabah. You have been so kind to us. We have been your guests. Now I would like you to be my guest. I am inviting you to come and be our guests, you and your wife.”
His soul is so closely connected with the soul of a former Australian disciple of mine. Each time I talked to the manager, I saw that boy’s love for me. Each time I saw the manager, I only saw that boy’s soul. It is so easy to deal with somebody whose soul is so familiar. The manager is also Australian.
I rarely ask people ordinary things like, “How are you?” I almost never ask these questions. But for some reason I asked the manager, “Where is your wife from? Is she Australian?”
He said, “No, my wife is from Brazil.”
I said that Brazil is very beautiful. We were there only two or three years ago. Then I said, “You will not accept my invitation?”
He said, “No, we are going to Bali. We want to take rest there.”
I said, “I am very, very happy. Bali is so beautiful. I have been there two or three times. Our Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee was so kind to me. Last time in Bali I was able to meet with our Prime Minister.” Then I asked, “How many children do you have?”
He said that they had no children. They had been married for fourteen years, and now they were going to adopt a child.
Something or someone spoke through my mouth. I said, “Please wait for two years. If you do not have a child within two years, then you can adopt.”
He said, “Two years?”
I thought to myself, “O God, what have I done?” But he looked at me with such love and faith.
Later I heard that he told Savyasachi, “I take what Sri Chinmoy said very seriously. We will wait for two years.”
Do I ever say this kind of thing to people who are not my disciples? Why did I ask him where his wife was from and how many children they had? These things I never, never ask. But something within me had such affection for this man because I saw in him my dear disciple’s soul. In terms of heart, that Australian boy is so devoted to me. He is one hundred per cent for me. I always see the soul, and I saw the connection between his soul and this manager’s soul.
Sometimes we have to surrender
God alone knows how many times I have shown five cents’ worth of occult power with regard to rain — many times! It started in Connecticut, during our Vishwamitra play. There I stopped the rain while looking at a tree. When U Thant came for the premiere of our play about the Lord Buddha, it started drizzling. We had a pagoda as a stage. The rain would have ruined it, but I stopped the rain. Like that, many, many times it has happened, in many places.
We used to have our Sports Day banquet at Mridul’s place in New Paltz. The whole day we had our sports competition, and then in the evening we would have a picnic at Mridul’s place. They decorated their backyard. Alas, once we went there to enjoy our picnic, and out of the blue it started raining. I said, “O God, all our joy will go away!” This was the time for the hostile forces to make fun of us. But I said, “Just stop!” Sometimes when you become very serious, you can stop the rain immediately. If you do not become serious, if you just placate the forces, then there is a little drizzle. Again, by the time your occult power withdraws, the forces may come and attack you very nicely.
Once on my birthday it was absolutely raining cats and dogs. We will never forget that unforgettable experience. Addwitiya was singing. She is such a famous singer! What was I doing then? Do you think I wanted my birthday to be ruined? But sometimes we have to surrender. My supporters will say, “Guru wants to have this experience. Why should he always have to play the role of a beggar and stop the rain?” Again, others will say, “Here is the proof that he does not have the capacity.” They feel that I do not have the capacity, or I have lost the capacity. On that birthday of mine, how heavily it rained!
Four or five years ago, at the tennis ground, I was going to paint on canvasses. The main assistant of my dearest friend happened to be there on that occasion. He can be my worst possible critic. A few drops of rain started descending, and then the rain stopped. He said to me, “Sri Chinmoy, you have stopped it, you have stopped it.”
I said, “No, no, God has saved us.”
He said, “No, you have saved us!”
Then he told so many of his friends that I had stopped the rain. I did not say it!
Again, there is the other side of the story: you can say that on my own birthday I was helpless. You can say anything you like. What could I do? I had to surrender.
Jesus Christ performed so many miracles — miracle after miracle. These miracles absolutely still stand. Then he had to surrender to crucifixion. First he said, “Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Afterwards he said, “Let Thy Will be done.”
In the case of the rain, on this occasion I had to surrender, surrender, surrender. When God’s Will and your will become one, you do what God wants you to do. If you stop the rain, you get the credit. If you do not or cannot stop the rain on your own birthday, although you have that kind of capacity, some people will be there to criticise you.
The disciples have to decide. They have come from so far away to be with their Master. This is the golden chance for the disciples either to lose their faith or to keep their faith in the Master.
I have been to Puerto Rico so many, so many times. I have never been to any other country as many times as I have been to Puerto Rico. There is no match for the number of times I have been to Puerto Rico. My Puerto Rican visits are unparalleled!
This incident took place during my third visit, I believe. We had at that time about fifty disciples in our Puerto Rican Centre. There was one elderly lady who was an astrologer, a big name on television. I gave her the spiritual name Sita. Another fellow was a self-styled astrologer, and he was also working on television.
The astrologers and others were all saying that in a day or two, while I was there, a hurricane would hit Puerto Rico. People had tremendous respect for my disciple Sita because she was a great astrologer. She was predicting on television that definitely the hurricane would hit Puerto Rico and it would destroy everything.
Then she came to our Centre meeting and said, “Master!”
I said, “Nothing will happen.”
She said, “Master, how can you say that? They are all predicting it. I was on television predicting it!”
I said, “Fine, fine — let us see.”
Nothing happened. The same experience we had two or three times more. Everybody, including our disciples, was saying that everything would be destroyed. At least five times the Supreme in me has saved Puerto Rico, because I have such fondness for Puerto Rico. Five times Puerto Rico’s fate would have been different. But the Supreme in me is so compassionate to Puerto Rico. At times I tease my Puerto Rican disciples because of my affection for them. They enjoy it! I never do that to such an extent with other disciples. I know that five times, at least, the Supreme has saved that Puerto Rican island.
On television, Sita said that a hurricane would destroy Puerto Rico, but I said, “All right, all right, nothing is going to happen.” Nothing happened. There was a disagreement between the Master and the disciple. The disciple said it would happen, and I said, “No, it will not happen.” But it was going to happen.
Compassion, compassion! We approach the Feet of the Supreme’s Compassion and say, “Please, please save us!” The Supreme listens. And then we may get the credit. The Supreme saves us out of His infinite Compassion, and we get the credit. Again, when something goes wrong, when our prediction does not come true, at that time there is no Supreme involved — the Master is blamed. When my prediction proves true, I say it is all the Compassion of the Supreme. When my prediction does not come true, I take the full blame because people do not have any complaints against the Supreme; it was I who opened my mouth.
When my prophecy comes true, the Supreme does it, and He gives me the credit. But when my prophecy does not come true, what can I do? When it is a matter of prediction, it is better to keep quiet. My brother Chitta always used to beg me, “Never predict, never predict. You do not need glory. You need joy. If you know something will happen and it does happen, you will be very happy that you knew it.”
When my friend proclaimed that I was Gorakshanath, my brother Hriday said, “I knew it before.” Nobody believed him at that time. Why did he not say it before? Prediction is like that. If you predict and your prediction comes true, then you are great. If it does not come true, then you are mocked. Chitta was dead against predictions. He knew how many predictions I made, and most of them came true. But he told me never, never to make predictions, because the hostile forces are always there. At the last moment they can do something. If you make a prediction, the hostile forces become so alert. Most of the time they are sleeping, as we are sleeping. But if you open your mouth to predict something, they come with their big arms to destroy it.
Again, at times you have to use your occult power with your prediction. Eight runners were going to run in the 200-metre race during the 1984 Olympics. The previous day I declared the names of the first, second and third-place runners, and it was all taped. At eleven o’clock Sudhahota came to see me, and the following day the race was going to be at five-thirty. Until the time of the race, I kept the strongest force to save my prediction. I had my inner bodyguards. Sudhahota came in first, and the others second and third, as I had predicted.
How many times I predicted with Sudhahota, our world-famous athlete! Four or five times I made predictions, and luckily all my predictions came true. In the case of this 200-metre race, there were eight runners. I did not know them. I knew only their names, and I declared who would be first, second and third. I said Sudhahota would be first, and someone would be second. About the third-place runner I asked Sudhahota, “Do you like him?”
Sudhahota said, “I do not have anything special to say about him, but I do not have anything against him.”
I said, “Then, fine — he will be third.”
For Sudhahota I did this. I love him so much! In his case when I make a prediction, I keep my utmost force on it so that it cannot go wrong. At other times when I make predictions, the results may be totally opposite to what I predicted. I laugh and laugh!
When people give the weather reports, how often their predictions are totally wrong! They make a very large amount of money, but they make wrong predictions. I heard that, in India, a young man’s father was reporting on the weather. He was saying that it was raining heavily, but there was bright sun. His son threw a Coca-Cola bottle at his father and said, “Come out of the room and see whether it is raining heavily or not!”
Today we observed the birthday of one of my guards, and I have done little drawings of birds. A disciple gave me notebooks, and I was inspired because the covers say “peace.”
For the birthday celebration we went to an Indian restaurant. God alone knows when I have tasted that kind of most delicious, most delicious food! They gave the food on banana leaves, and “banana leaf” is also part of the name of the restaurant — Jyoti Banana Leaf. The spelling of Jyoti is not like our spelling. The owner is from Malaysia. Saraswati begged him to ask his wife to come out so that we could appreciate her. His wife was cooking. He would say, “Yes, yes, I am bringing her,” but she did not appear. Our disciples said that the wife is very beautiful and very shy.
It was unimaginable! We paid a little more than a dollar for five kinds of things: rice plus four or five kinds of vegetables and dal. Everything was super-super-excellent. We also had lassi, and they gave Indian sweets, including halvah. It was a small place. I took the tennis court guards, and another ten or fifteen people could have been accommodated.
Wherever we go, we see only transcendence! In Kuala Lumpur I said the food was excellent, excellent. We went to Tandoori, Ali Baba and other restaurants. But if you go to this place, you will never forget it. You will get an unforgettable experience the day you go. You will have nice food, and the people are very nice. In the Indian tradition they put on the banana leaf rice, dal and other things. I am supposed to be an authority on Indian food because of my Indian incarnation, but if my disciples also enjoy it, then I will be very, very happy.
The wife was cooking all the time. She is the main cook. There is no comparison between her food and other food. Again, transcendence, transcendence! Here the food was far, far better than the food that we tasted in other countries.
The owner was very, very nice. His great-grandfather came from India to Malaysia. His name is Shiva.
Please have a glance at these birds — flying birds, inspiring birds.
I beg you to smile at me! Please listen to your Master. Please smile, unless I am in a very, very serious mood. When you see me on the street, here and there, or when you come for prasad, it is not the most difficult thing on earth to smile. Kindly smile at me when I see you, whether I smile at you or not.
Please smile at me! If you smile at me, you give me joy.
Sri Chinmoy made the opening comments to one disciple, and then addressed the entire gathering.
You and your parents practise spirituality. Otherwise, your brother would have been in the higher worlds by this time. He definitely, definitely would have gone to God. It is only because of you, because of your mother, because of your father, that he was saved. When somebody practises the spiritual life, that individual’s spirituality covers many members of the family. Your brother may not believe it. He does not have to believe it, but you, your mother and your father — you three have saved him. Because of you three, today your brother is still on earth. Does he know it? Very good!
How many people we save by practising the spiritual life! Our dear ones, our relatives, are saved. They do not realise it. They do not have to believe it. But you who are on the path should believe that, because of you, members of your family are still alive. There are many, many, many relatives — brothers, sisters and specially elderly parents — who have received an extension by the grace of their disciple-relatives. There are parents who do not follow the spiritual life, but they may live five years, ten years, fifteen years longer than they were destined to live. In the case of one brother and sister, if they had not been in the spiritual life, God knows where their father would have been by this time.
Again, the parents may not believe it, but the children have to believe that, when their parents receive an extension, it is all because of the children’s spiritual life. Because you follow the spiritual life, God feels that your parents should get a few years more. Your parents may also have at that time a new life.
There are many of you whose parents are alive only because of you. You may not pray for them regularly, but when they are sick, you pray and pray. Again, somebody is there, along with your prayers. You, the children, should have that faith. Your parents have received an extension because of their children’s prayers, their children’s spiritual life.
Published in The Feet of the Supreme's Compassion