Who are We?
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in Conference Room 10, United Nations, New York
Who are we? We are doubters. We are believers. We are discoverers. We are knowers. We are transformers. We are lovers. We are fulfillers.
We are doubters. We doubt our inner dream. We doubt our outer reality. God says to us, “Attention, you doubters! Don’t doubt. Your blue-gold dreams are coming from Me. Your green-red realities are running towards Me.”
We are believers. We believe that we are helpless and fruitless. God says to us, “Attention, you believers! Your belief is wrong. You are not helpless and fruitless. My Concern is there for you, to help you all the time. My Compassion cares for you, to make your life fruitful at every moment.”
We are discoverers. We have discovered that Truth and Light are far beyond our reach. God says to us, “Attention, you discoverers! Your discoveries are all wrong. I have discovered Truth and Light on your behalf. Truth is what you have. Light is what you are.”
We are knowers. We know much about things. We know little about ourselves. We know least about God. God says to us, “Attention, you knowers! You know that it is I who have created all things. You know that it is you who create Me every day in you. You know that it is I who am the perfect slave of your constant desires.”
We are transformers. We want to transform doubt into belief, fear into strength, bondage into freedom. God says to us, “Attention, you transformers! I am so glad that you want to transform doubt into belief, fear into strength, bondage into freedom. I wish you also to try to transform the life of the finite into the Life of the Infinite.”
We are lovers. We love beauty’s body, beauty’s soul and beauty’s goal. God says to us, “Attention, you lovers! Beauty’s body is good. Beauty’s soul is better. Beauty’s goal is by far the best. Beauty’s body is an aspiring child. Beauty’s soul is the illumining Father. Beauty’s goal is the fulfilling Mother.”
We are fulfillers. We want to fulfil Heaven on earth, and earth in Heaven. God says to us, “Attention, you fulfillers! You want to fulfil Heaven and earth. It is a splendid ideal. But I wish to say that until you have fulfilled Me, you cannot fulfil Heaven and earth. In order to fulfil Me, you have to cry in your heart ceaselessly and soar smilingly and everlastingly.”
We say to God, “O Father, O Mother, O Friend Eternal, we see that we started our journey as doubters and shall end our journey as fulfillers.”
God says to us, “My sweet children, you are mistaken. You started your journey as the distributors of My Light and My Life-Force, and you will complete your journey as the builders of My Body-Consciousness on earth.”
Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts
Questions
answered by Sri Chinmoy
Question: How can we attain lasting inner peace?
Sri Chinmoy: We fail to get lasting peace when our mind tells us that the one cannot also be many, and that the many cannot also be the one. We can attain lasting inner peace only when we feel that God, our Supreme Pilot, is in the many as One and in the One as many. When we consciously feel this truth in our life, we get everlasting peace in whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we offer and whatever we receive.
The day I feel my existence and my illumining heart in everyone is the day I immediately become one in many and the many become one in me. Then, when I receive or bring down peace from Above and assimilate it in myself, I see and feel that this peace has been assimilated in all of humanity. For I have already established my conscious oneness with humanity.
We have to feel that God and humanity are like a great tree. God is the tree and we are the branches. There are many branches, and all of them are one with each other and with the tree. If we can feel that we have the same relationship with God and with humanity as a single branch has with the other branches and with the tree as a whole, then we are bound to get everlasting peace.
Published in My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years
Question: Every time I act, I am not certain if I am doing the right thing. I was wondering if perhaps the best way to find real peace would be to withdraw from the world and not act at all?
Sri Chinmoy: If we think that we must withdraw from life in order to achieve peace, then we are making a serious mistake. If we withdraw, our satisfaction will never dawn. It is only in activity that we progress and achieve. It is in action, in creation, in manifestation, that we can find real satisfaction.
But we have to know that if we expect something from our action, peace will never come in our lives. If we expect some particular result from our action, we will only be frustrated when the result comes. We will feel that we have failed. When this happens, naturally there can be no peace.
Instead, we have to feel that action itself is a great blessing. But the result of action we have to take as an experience. According to our own limited understanding, we see it as either failure or success. But in God’s Eye, failure and success are both just experiences that help to develop our consciousness. Whatever happens, we should regard it as the precise experience that God wanted to give us. Today He may give us the experience of failure. Tomorrow He may give us another experience, which will satisfy us outwardly. But if we live a spiritual life, no matter what result comes to us, we shall be satisfied, for we see it as God’s Will.
Let us look at a river. A river carries all kinds of rubbish — dirt, stones, leaves, sand — that it picks up as it moves towards its goal. But it always continues flowing towards the sea. We should also think of our lives as a river running towards the sea, the sea of fulfilment. If we are afraid to act because we do not want to get involved with the imperfections of the world, if we become still and inactive, then we will never reach the goal.
We may say that we do not know where the goal is right now. No harm! All that matters is that we move. If we go in the wrong direction, we soon will realise it and change direction. Then eventually we will reach our goal. But if we do not move at all, there is absolutely no chance that we will go in the right direction. If we cannot do disinterested work, selfless work, then let us work at first out of some ulterior motive. If ego and vanity come in while we are helping someone, let them come. A day will dawn when we will feel that the satisfaction this brings does not last; then we will try to work in a more divine way.
Activity is always far better than inertia. Even if we run around like a mad elephant at first, eventually we will start acting like a deer and run straight towards our goal. We may start our movement with the crude and destructive strength of an elephant, but we will complete it with the grace and speed of a deer.
Action is our peaceful realisation. Action is our peaceful fulfilment. Action is our peaceful manifestation. So we have to act. If we withdraw from life, then we are telling God that we do not want to be players in His Game. God will allow us to withdraw for a few days or a few months or a few years. But then He will compel us to participate again, so that He can fulfil Himself in and through us. Otherwise, if we do not accept the world, the world will remain imperfect and we will remain unsatisfied.
Published in My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years
