The Universe
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Keble College, Oxford University
Oxford, to you I bow because you hold your tradition.
Oxford, to you I bow because you own English glory.
Oxford, to you I bow because you are the English pride.
Aum. Aum is God. Aum is the Inner Pilot. Aum is the Universe.
Aum. Purnam adah purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate. Purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate.
Infinity is that. Infinity is this. From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence. When Infinity is taken away, Infinity remains the same.
Marcus Aurelius said, "The man who does not know what the universe is, does not know where he lives."
The universe.
The universe is God's creation and man's realisation.
The universe is God's Compassion and man's emancipation.
The universe is God's Concentration and man's transformation.
The universe is God's Meditation and man's revelation.
The universe is God's Contemplation and man's manifestation.
The poet in me tells me that the universe is beautiful.
The singer in me tells me that the universe is enchanting.
The philosopher in me tells me that the universe is meaningful.
The Yogi in me tells me that the universe is soulful.
The God-lover in me tells me that the universe is fruitful.
My poet sees the truth.
My philosopher achieves the truth.
My Yogi realises the truth, and
My God-lover becomes the truth.
Man's dictionary houses millions of words. But God's Dictionary has only two words: aspiration and receptivity. Aspiration and receptivity are the two words we see in God's Dictionary. God out of His boundless Bounty offers these two most significant words, should I say, this significant wealth, to mankind: aspiration and receptivity.
The aspiration of today is tomorrow's salvation.
The receptivity of today is tomorrow's infinity.
In the finite we have to hear the message of the Infinite.
In the fleeting second we have to hear the message of the eternal Beyond.
In the domain of death, we have to hear the message of Immortality.
Here at this point, the immortal poet, Blake, sings through us and for us,
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
This is the message a spiritual seeker can cherish. His inner being, inner life can be surcharged with this message, and this message can reverberate in the inmost recesses of his aspiring heart.
The outer universe, the inner universe and the inmost universe. My physics friend, my chemistry friend, my geography friend, my astronomy friend — all of them inform me about the outer universe. I am most grateful to them. My psychology friend and my philosophy friend tell me about the inner universe. I am most grateful to them. My Yogi friend and my Avatar friend tell me about the inmost universe. I am most grateful to them. I ask them all if they are totally satisfied with their achievements, discoveries and realisations. They flatly say, "No."
My friends in the outer universe tell me that they have much more to discover and unravel. My friends in the inner universe tell me that they have much more to embody and realise. Finally, my friends in the inmost universe tell me that they have much more to reveal and manifest.
The visible universe and the invisible universe. The thinker in us sees the visible universe with the aspiring mind. The knower in us feels the visible universe with the aspiring heart.
Now the invisible universe. In order to enter into the invisible universe, what we need is the soul's illumining light. If we do not see with the soul's illumining light, if we do not listen to the dictates of our soul, it is simply impossible for us to enter into the invisible universe.
The living universe and the evolving universe, the dying universe and the perishing universe. When we aspire, when we try to go beyond the boundaries of the finite consciously, soulfully and spontaneously, we live in the living and the evolving universe. When we consciously or unconsciously cherish doubt, jealousy, fear, imperfections, bondage, limitations and death, we live in the dying and perishing universe.
If we want to live in the universe, the spiritual universe or the real universe, we have to know that we have to abide by the laws of the universe.
What are the laws of the universe? Love and serve.
Love humanity. Serve divinity.
We have to love humanity in divinity. We have to serve the divinity in humanity.
At this point, we can recollect the message of Plato who said, "Through obedience we learn to command." Now, if we obey the laws of the universe, then we can command ignorance and govern death.
The scientist wants to discover the entire universe. The spiritual person, the seeker of the infinite Truth, wants to discover the universe. Now, the spiritual scientist and the spiritual seeker, will always run together. They have the same message.
The scientist of scientists, Einstein, offers us the most sublime message: "His life is worthwhile who lives for others." This is precisely what a spiritual person, a seeker of boundless light and peace tells us. Only he who lives for others has a meaningful life. Verily this is the message of all secret and hallowed religions: live for others.
Now, science and religion run abreast in this respect, but there is something else. We call it Yoga. It is a Sanskrit word which means union, union with God, union with infinity, eternity and immortality. Now, when we enter into the field of Yoga we feel that our love, our service that we offer to mankind, is not for others, but it is for us, for our enlarged part. There is no such thing as 'others'. All are members of the same family.
When we remain in the mire of ignorance, we say "I", "you", "him", but when it is a matter of oneness, inseparable oneness, oneness with God, oneness with mankind, oneness with God's creation, then we cannot say that it is for others. It is for our sakes, for the sake of our enlarged and more complete self.
Discovery. Science will discover the truth. Religion, or should I say spirituality, will discover the truth in the universe; and Yoga, oneness with God, will realise the ultimate Truth for the universe.
When the discovery of the scientist is complete, he will see that his universe is manifesting the Truth of the ultimate Beyond.
When religion or spirituality discovers the ultimate Truth, it will see that its universe is realising the Truth of the ever-transcending Beyond.
Finally, when Yoga, or conscious union with God and mankind, completes its journey, it will transform the face of the world. It will illumine the face of the earth.
The discovery of the scientist, the discovery of religion and spirituality, and the discovery of one's highest oneness, inseparable oneness with God, will run together like three brothers, running towards the eternal Father, the Goal.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 1
Simplicity, Sincerity and Purity
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the United Nations Development Programme
Alcoa Building, New York
I wish to give a very short talk on simplicity, sincerity and purity. All we need is simplicity. A child is simple; therefore everybody loves the child. All we need is sincerity. A child is sincere; therefore everybody loves the child. All we need is purity. A child is pure; therefore everybody loves the child.
Simplicity, sincerity and purity. On the one hand, these three things we are able to use at any moment in our day-to-day life. On the other hand, they are the most difficult things that we have to achieve. It takes only a few seconds to spell "simplicity", "sincerity" and "purity". Again, these are not mere words. These are not mere ideas or conceptions. They represent three illumining and fulfilling worlds: a world of simplicity, a world of sincerity and a world of purity.
Each individual on earth is running towards his destination. If the runner is simple, he will wear only the basic garments that are necessary. He will not wear something very heavy or expensive to draw the attention of the spectators. If the runner is sincere, then he will run in his own lane. He will not enter into the lanes of others and thus disturb them and create confusion in them. If the runner is pure, then in silence he will conquer the spectators' hearts. So by being simple, sincere and pure he will run the fastest. Not only will he run the fastest, but while he is running there will come a time when he will feel that the goal itself has been within his easy reach right from the beginning.
Each time an individual becomes simple, he feels an extra amount of peace and joy inside his restless mind. Each time an individual is sincere, he feels that he has gained a considerable portion of the world, of the length and breadth of the world. And each time an individual is pure, he feels that the whole world is not only in him but also for him.
Each human being — no matter how old he is, how mature he is, how developed he is, how intelligent he is — if he wants to have an iota of peace, abiding peace, then he must needs have simplicity, sincerity and purity. These are the three things that are most essential in each individual life and in the collective life.
There are people who are of the opinion that simplicity is almost tantamount to stupidity. A child is simple, yet inside the child's simplicity some people are apt to see stupidity. But I wish to say that simplicity and stupidity are like North Pole and South Pole. One can be as simple as a child and, at the same time, one can have boundless knowledge, light and wisdom. The great philosopher Socrates is a striking example. He was at once simplicity and wisdom. And, in his case, we can see something more. He was not only a man of simplicity, but also a man of inner sincerity and inner purity.
It happened once that a friend of his invited a palmist to read Socrates' palm. While examining Socrates' hand the palmist said, "I have never seen such a bad man! He is full of such undivine qualities. This man has impurity flowing through him like anything."
Socrates' friend became furious and said, "It can never be!" But Socrates replied, "Wait, my friend. I am sure the palmist has something more to say." The palmist said, "Yes, I have something more to say. All these undivine things that I am seeing are under his perfect control. The evil forces that I noticed have not manifested and will not be able to manifest in and through him. Socrates has the wisdom-power to keep them under perfect control like an animal that is tamed by the master."
Each human being wants satisfaction. Satisfaction in life can come only by acquiring some knowledge, more knowledge, abundant knowledge, infinite knowledge. In order to achieve infinite knowledge, we have to become students. Socrates, a great philosopher, a man of boundless wisdom, said, "I would like to become an eternal student." A child is a student. A child's life is the life of a student. A child feels at every moment that he has something new to learn and to become. A child grows; he opens his heart's door to the world-knowledge. And each time he learns something he feels there is something more he has to learn. A new sun has to dawn in his life.
All those who are working at the United Nations or working for the United Nations are serving the United Nations individually and collectively according to their capacities. But if we want to increase this capacity, either in the physical world, the vital world, the mental world or the psychic world, then we all have to feel that we are students, that we are children.
The United Nations is at once the body and the soul of God's unique Vision. Those of us who serve the body and the soul of God's Vision will be blessed divinely, supremely, unreservedly and infinitely — but only when we feel the necessity of seeing in ourselves a child's heart, feeling in ourselves a child's life. The dreamer in us is a child. He dreams of God's infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. And today's dream-life of his will tomorrow grow into reality-experience and reality-satisfaction.
The more we feel the necessity of simplicity, sincerity and purity, the more we become perfect instruments — not only of the nations that we represent, but also of the Almighty, whom we represent here on earth. Let us become simple. Let us become sincere. Let us become pure. If we can become simple, sincere and pure, then not only will the dreams that we treasure for our own countries soon be fulfilled, but also all the dreams that the Almighty has for His own Manifestation will be manifested in and through us. Not only our dreams for our own countries, but also the dreams for Manifestation that God has, in and through us will be manifested. At that time we shall grow into His Reality-Satisfaction and Reality-Perfection.
Simplicity, sincerity, purity: right now they are our most faithful, devoted instruments which will help us reach the ultimate Goal. There will come a day when we see that the Goal of the transcendental Heights is smiling in and through these three faithful and devoted friends of ours. And in this transcendental Smile we will see and feel that we are not mere mortals subjected to ignorance-life, but rather we are part and parcel of Infinity's Light, Eternity's Love and Immortality's all-embracing, all-illumining and all-fulfilling Oneness.
Published in Union-Vision
Questions on Yoga, Zen and Hinduism
by UNDP staff members after the talk
Question: What is the difference between Yoga, Zen and Hinduism?
Sri Chinmoy: The root was Hinduism. Then from Hinduism came Buddhism, and from Buddhism came Zen. Let us take Hinduism as the grandfather, Buddhism as the father and Zen as the son.
Let us think of Hinduism as an eternal religion, or we can take it as a form of self-discipline that will one day allow us to feel boundless joy, boundless peace, boundless love. When we think of Buddhism, immediately the compassion-aspect of reality comes forward into our mind. The world needs compassion badly. I show compassion to you, you show compassion to me and with our mutual compassion we live on earth. When I am in need of your compassion, you show me compassion; when you are in need of my compassion, I show you compassion. In this way we exist together. If we don't show compassion to humanity, then we don't exist.
When we come to Zen, what we need is awareness. We have to be fully, consciously and constantly aware of what we are doing, what we are seeing, what we are growing into. Zen requires constant, conscious awareness. If we are meditating, we are aware of it; if we are eating, we are aware of it; if we are talking to our friend, we are aware of it.
When we come to Yoga, we sing the song of oneness. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means oneness. Yoga says that if we establish our oneness with something or someone, with an incident or an experience, then we get everything. If I am one with you, then I know what is happening inside your heart, inside your mind. If I am one with somebody else, them immediately I have a free access to him and I know what is happening in him. And if I can establish my oneness with an incident or experience, then I become part and parcel of that incident or experience in life.
At the highest point in Zen there is something called satori or illumination. If once you are illumined, then there is nothing and no one on earth with which or with whom you cannot establish your oneness. Before illumination there is darkness on one side and light on the other side. This side of the sea is darkness, the other side is light and you are in between. But if you go and take shelter in illumination, then your own inner effulgence envelops and encompasses the whole world.
Before illumination takes place, you are in ignorance and you feel that the world is in ignorance. But once illumination takes place, which is called satori in Zen, you become one with the Vision of the Absolute. At that time, you live in silence-life, you live in sound-life, but everywhere is illumination and you grow into this illumination. Once you are illumined, you are freed from the meshes of ignorance. For millennia you lived in ignorance, but once illumination has taken place, then there is no ignorance in you at all. This room is dark, but then an electrician brings in some light. For days and months and years this room has remained unlit, unillumined, dark, but then the electrician comes and the room is illumined. So the greatest gift of Zen is illumination: the highest illumination, all-illumining illumination, all-fulfilling illumination.
Yoga's greatest contribution is not only illumination, but also perfection in our constant oneness with what God has offered to us, what God is going to give us and what God Himself is. If somebody is suffering, then Yoga becomes totally, inseparably one with that sufferer. If somebody is in the seventh heaven of delight, then Yoga becomes one with him in the seventh heaven of delight. Illumination, on the other hand, is a process, a regular process in which we come out from ignorance-night and enter into wisdom-light. Once we grow into wisdom-light, then we are totally freed from bondage, from limitation, from imperfection, from so-called death.
If we follow the path of Zen, then we go from ignorance to illumination: and when our whole consciousness is illumined, we derive boundless satisfaction. If we follow the path of Yoga, then on the strength of our identification we feel that we are that which we want and we actually become that thing. So Yoga is oneness and perfection, whereas Zen is illumination and liberation.
Question: Does this mean that Zen and Yoga have different goals?
Sri Chinmoy: No. They are like two members of a family. They belong to the same family and they deal with the same basic thoughts and ideas. Only in practice each may apply something a little new, although in a sense it is not new at all. Here is the goal. The father is reaching the goal from one direction and the son is reaching the goal from another direction. In going towards the goal, they may use different methods to some extent. But the goal always remains the same. If one becomes liberated from ignorance as a result of spiritual discipline, then naturally he is illumined. And if one identifies himself with Light and Illumination itself, then naturally he also is liberated and illumined
I touch water and immediately I get the consciousness of water. I touch a wall and immediately I get the consciousness of the wall. Again, if I touch the feet of a saint, then immediately I get the consciousness of the saint. This is Yoga: oneness, oneness, oneness. But you don't have to touch anything. Just through identification you can get the consciousness of the person who is a saint, the person who has illumination. In the Zen process, you get what the saint has by concentrating on what you want. The process in Yoga is to identify oneself with the goal. But the goal that you reach by concentrating in Zen and the goal that I reach by identifying myself with someone is the same.
There is a very good Zen teacher in Rochester named Philip Kapleau. He is a friend of mine and a great authority on Zen. He wrote a book called The Three Pillars of Zen. If you are interested, you can learn from him. Again, if you feel like coming to our meditations on Tuesdays and Fridays here, you can see what we get from our meditation. If you can come and join us, I assure you that you will feel something.
I am in no way trying to take you away from Zen; far from it. Let us take meditation as one shop and Zen as another shop. If you come into a shop, there will be some items that may please you. Basically, these two shops offer the same thing: love of Truth. You enter into one shop and it has the thing that you need; you enter into another shop and it has the same thing. It is you who have to make the choice from which shop you want to get the thing that you need.
Question: Is there no sense of strong discipline in Yoga?
Sri Chinmoy: The Zen process demands a strict discipline, almost like military discipline. But the Yoga process is relaxation based upon confidence. It is like a child's confidence that comes from his oneness with his mother and father. A child does not have a nickel with him. But if his father is very rich, then he feels that he also is very rich. Even if right now he does not have a single dollar, in a few years time he will be able to utilise all his father's riches. He feels his oneness with his father, with the members of the family. Whatever the members of the family have, he rightly and legitimately claims as his very own. If his father has a car, then immediately he feels that it is his car. He does not think that it is his father's car or that it belongs to his family. No, he will tell his friends, "Look, this is my car." He is absolutely right on the strength of his oneness. And a day will come when he is older and he is going to be the one to drive that car.
The child feels that the father is everything for him and a day will come when he will be able to claim everything the father has. Even now he claims it. Since he is a child, he may squander his father's money, so his father is not giving it to him. But when he is mature, since he has established his oneness with his father, he will be able to get his father's property and utilise it properly.
In the Yoga process, you just feel that God is yours, that He loves you and you love Him. You feel your oneness with the Almighty. And if you feel your oneness with the Almighty, He is bound to give you what He has and what He is.
In the Zen path you have to prepare yourself. If you do this, then you will get something. But if you are not following strict discipline, then you are not going to get anything. In Zen it is personal effort, personal effort. But in Yoga we believe in grace. We feel that the father will show his affection, love and compassion and the child will reciprocate. When the child gets love from his father, he himself gives love, when the child shows love to his parents, they give him love in return. Always there is give and take, give and take. But with Zen, first you have to become something and then only you will get something. And you become something, you grow into something by following strict discipline. If you follow strict discipline in your own life, if you do this, if you do that, than you become something. Once you become, then naturally you deserve, and illumination takes place.
Published in Flame-Waves, part 9