The Song Universal
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the United Nations Church Centre
The Song Universal is freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from limitations, freedom from imperfections and freedom from ignorance. Man is in stark bondage. Nevertheless, man has the power deep within to cut asunder the teeming ties that have bound him and forced him to launch into the sea of uncertainty.
Four thousand years ago the Vedic seers voiced forth:
Give freedom for our bodies.
Give freedom for our dwelling.
Give freedom for our life.This soulful prayer of the Vedic seers of yore will echo and re-echo through eternity in humanity's aspiring heart.
Freedom does not mean being away from home. Freedom means accepting and feeling the entire world as one's real home, as one's very own. With a view to achieving and growing into this peerless freedom, man does many things. He simply throws himself into a tornado of blind activities. But man has to learn that he has only one thing to do, and that is to discover and uncover. He has to discover the Divinity within, and uncover the veil of ignorance without. Likewise, man has only one thing to be: God. He has to be God the Infinite, God the Eternal and God the Immortal.
It is said that the quickest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. Let us start by thinking of, concentrating and meditating on God, and end, if there is any end, with God-Realisation. This is not only the quickest way, but by far the best.
God is Freedom. In an unparalleled way, the Isha Upanishad speaks of God the Absolute:
It moves. It moves not.
Far it is. And it is near.
Within all this it is.
It is without all this.Man's deepest faith in God and man's boundless freedom in himself go together. Sublimely significant is the truth that James M. Barrie offers us: "The reason why birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."
"We walk by faith, not by sight." An aspirant, a true seeker of the Infinite Freedom, has to breathe in this life-giving and life-transforming truth that the New Testament endows us with.
Man is sick. His sickness is his ignorance. He has been suffering from this unfathomable ignorance for millenia. There is considerable truth in what Bernard Shaw says: "We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession."
It is high time for us to come out of our ignorance-sleep. Let us not play the fool. Let us be wise once again. Let us have back our faith in God, who alone can and will cure our entire life and our earthly existence of this fatal ignorance-sickness.
We are all assembled at the Church Center for the United Nations. The word "United" is hallowed. It can better be felt than described. Rather I should say it can only be felt and cannot be described at all. "United we stand, divided we fall. " We are fully aware of this maxim. What we need is to live it.
Now where does this unity come from? It comes from God. It comes from the Brahman, the One without a second. When we walk further along the path of unity, we realise that not only does God have the Consciousness of Unity, but He is Consciousness-Unity itself. When we reach the end of our journey's Goal, we discover that God is both Unity and Multiplicity. In the field of Unity, He is Realisation and Liberation; and in the field of Multiplicity, He is Manifestation and Transformation.
Our inner realisation and outer action must run abreast. Outer achievements should be the conscious and spontaneous revelation of the inner divinity.
Love, harmony, peace and oneness. These are man's divine ideals. On the strength of his inner mounting flame, aspiration, man can easily, unerringly and spontaneously manifest these ideals of his in his human life, in every sphere of his life.
It is quite natural and proper that we should discover our God in and through our own religion. When we go deep within we come to realise that there is only one religion, and that religion is man's inmost cry for God-Realisation. In the hoary past, Asoka, the great Emperor of India, sent missionaries to the corners of the globe with a profound message: "The basis of all religions is the same, wherever they are. Try to help them all you can, teach them all you can, but do not try to injure them."
Let each religion play the role of a flower. Let us make a garland of these divine flowers and offer them at the Feet of God. God will be pleased. We shall be fulfilled.
As there is only one Religion, even so there is only one Song. This Song is man.
Man is Infinity's Heart.
Man is Eternity's Breath.
Man is Immortality's Life.
Published in The Garland of Nation-Souls
Sri Chinmoy Answers
questions asked in Sanya, China
Question: Before the ultra race that I did last September, I was wondering what we are supposed to do, as runners, during the race. A marathon is only a few hours long, but an ultra race is days and days. I feel it is very important, as a disciple, to still follow our discipline — to read, to sing, to meditate — but it is very difficult to do the same things as usual. Do you have something to say about it?
Sri Chinmoy: The best thing is to invoke the Presence of the Supreme in your speed or in your run. Invoke His Presence, Blessings and Guidance. That is all. If you cannot imagine the Supreme’s Face in Heaven or in the skies, just imagine a Being who is very, very beautiful.
If that does not satisfy you, you can think of my smiles, of how many times I have smiled at you. I am not the Supreme, no, no, no. You and I are all disciples of the Supreme. But since you do not know who the Supreme is — we all do not know — the easiest and most effective thing is to imagine my smile. You do know me. My name is Sri Chinmoy, Chinmoy Kumar Ghose. Countless times I have smiled at you over the years. If you can sincerely feel or see, or even imagine, the smiles that I have offered to you over the years, it is bound to take away some of your fatigue. The pain will be less and the joy that you will get will increase your speed. Then you will be able to continue and continue. So whether it is one mile or twenty miles, just try to imagine my smile.
Some people, while running, think of their rivals. From this approach they get a certain animal energy, but this animal energy does not help. They may stumble or fall. They will find that everything goes wrong. Again, others get angry with someone and speak ill of that person. They feel that when they get angry, their blood will circulate faster and give them more energy.
But for my disciples, my smile has tremendous power. When I smile, it comes from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. Believe it or not, my smile has even cured the fatal diseases of some disciples. Only by remembering my smiles — at which place I smiled at them, on what occasion and so forth — they have had miraculous results. They knew it was not the medical world, but my smile, that cured them.
If I give somebody a smile, a sincere smile, that smile embodies tremendous divine power, divine will-power, and if you can imagine that that smile has already entered into your inner being, then that smile is the medicine of medicines.
If you cannot remember any other smile that I have given you during the entire year, at least remember the smile that I gave you on your birthday. Towards the end of your birthday meditation, for the last few seconds when I smile at you, at that time I pour and pour my love, affection, sweetness, fondness and power into you. If you are not receptive, if you are a solid wall thinking of somebody else or something else, what can I do? But if you can remember those moments, and if you are in your own highest consciousness, then it is like saving money in the bank. At any time during the year you can withdraw from your heart-bank.
So, dear ones, I beg of you, please take my powerful smiles very, very seriously. My smiles embody tremendous divine power.
Now I wish to tell you a funny story about my smile. I was living at that time in Manhattan, near Gracie Mansion. The apartment was on the fifth floor and there was no elevator. I used to go up and down the stairs practically dancing. I never walked. I was always running, running, running, as exercise. Whether I was going to work at the Indian Consulate, or coming back from work, or going shopping, it was always the same.
The landlady was very kind-hearted. She became my disciple and she stayed with us for many years. On many occasions, she did not accept rent money from me. She tried very hard to improve my English pronunciation. Then she gave up! She wanted me to speak in the American style. Alas, alas, I never learnt.
She had a friend and that friend came to our apartment a few times to meditate. He was a strong, stout man with a very kind heart. One day he wanted to have a private interview with me. In those days I used to give many, many private interviews. It was about 7:30 in the morning and my landlady telephoned me. I was about to go to the Indian consulate. She told me that her friend had a serious problem. He needed an interview that would only last for ten minutes or so, perhaps even less.
I was always punctual when I worked at the Indian Consulate. I used to arrive even before the actual hour. I was the first one to arrive in the Passport and Visa section. On that particular morning, I was coming down as usual, running and jumping. I saw both of them, my landlady and her friend, standing at the bottom of the stairs. The man wanted to tell me his problems and I had such compassion for him. Had it been some other time, I would definitely have granted him an interview, as I had done a few times before. But on this occasion, I just smiled at him and literally ran away. I entered into the street and walked to the Indian Consulate.
Afterwards, I felt miserable. If I had been late to the office by a few minutes, perhaps nothing would have happened.
That same evening, after I returned home, my landlady came and knocked at my door.
I asked her, “What happened to your friend?”
Then she gave me a ten-dollar bill.
I said, “What is this for?”
She explained, “My friend had a very serious problem. He wanted to tell you his problem, but you smiled at him and then you ran away. But when you smiled at him, he felt something inside him, something very important. Your smile took away all his problems. So he gave me ten dollars for you.”
I simply said, “Good!”
I knew nothing about his problems. Even today I do not know what his problem was. So sometimes you do not have to know the problem because God knows everything, the Supreme knows. The Supreme smiled in and through me. Through my smile, He solved the problems of that man.
Question: One lady in Moscow has asked me to give you her love. She is extremely ill, and we do not know if she will be alive when we return. She has to stay in bed all the time. Whenever I ask her something, she says, “Wait a little bit.” Then she meditates for a few minutes and she gets a very clear answer from within. So she is asking if she should believe in this answer. Is it her higher self that is giving her the answer?
Sri Chinmoy: If the things that she is seeing and feeling are giving her tremendous joy, inner joy, then these answers are real. But if they make her feel miserable, then she has to take them as unreal. If there is happiness involved, take them as real. But if there is unhappiness, then they are false.
Questioner: For example, sometimes I bring her some medication, and she tells me, “Wait a little bit.” Then she meditates and, after a few minutes, she may say to me, “Today I cannot take this medication. After three or four days I will take it.” Like this, very precise answers she gives me. Sometimes she says, “Not now, but on the 13th of the month I can take it.”
Sri Chinmoy: What is wrong with that? If she hears the inner message and she gets joy from the inner message and takes the medicine after a few days, let her do it. But if there is a conflict between the message and the feeling that she is getting, then she should not do it. When she is feeling or hearing that after a few days she should take the medicine, her immediate response has to be happiness.
May I ask, is this lady an artist also? Does she paint?
Questioner: Yes, she does a little painting on the computer.
Sri Chinmoy: Because as I am talking to you, I am seeing her soul, and her soul gave me this information.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 37
Give Me No Freedom!
comments by Sri Chinmoy in Sanya, China
A few weeks ago, I composed a particular song in English. The words are:
Give me no freedom!
Give me no freedom!
My Lord Supreme,
If you really love me,
Then give me no freedom,
Even for a fleeting moment.
During our Christmas trip, I would like all of you to stand up and sing this song twice every morning. It will give me tremendous joy, because if we pray to God not to give us freedom, and if we sincerely mean it, then our progress is bound to be very, very, very fast.
When we pray to God for freedom, God says, “Take it.” Then immediately we enter into the jaws of a roaring lion. But when we pray to God, “Do not give me freedom”, we are actually telling God, “I want to remain bound — bound inside Your Heart or bound at Your Feet.”
If we are at the Feet of God or inside His Heart, then we can never misuse freedom. To be guided by God’s Will all the time is the greatest freedom. Freedom means joy. What else is freedom, if not the purest joy? This joy we can get only at the Feet of God or inside the Heart of God.
Seekers who want to run faster than the fastest approach God through devotion or through love. Seekers who choose the devotional aspect ask God to allow them to sit at His Feet. Seekers who choose the love aspect want to remain always inside the Heart of God. The others also love God, but their feeling is that God’s Feet give more protection than His Heart.
Outwardly, it may seem puzzling. If somebody is inside the Heart of God, is he not well-protected? Inside the Heart of God, we are safe, true, but there we may not be able to taste the Sweetness of God. That is why seekers who choose the devotional aspect always like to be in front of God. They get more joy by touching the Feet of God than by living inside the Heart of God. They feel that it is sweeter.
Sri Ramakrishna and some other spiritual Masters of the highest order used to say, “If I am inside You, then I become You. I do not want to become You; I want to taste You.”
Let us say the ocean of nectar is right in front of you. You can be inside the ocean and lose your identity. I always say that when a little drop enters into the ocean, it becomes the ocean itself. That is one way. The other way, the devotional aspect, is when a seeker says, “God, I do not want to become You; I want to enjoy You. Please stay right in front of me, and I will remain at Your Feet so that every day, at every moment, I can taste, I can devour, Your Sweetness, Compassion and Love.”
So those who take the side of devotion say, “I want to taste You at every moment. You are so sweet. I will be at Your Feet.” And those who take the side of love say, “I have suffered enough, enough, enough. Now I do not want to have my own personality. I want to be as vast as You are. I want to become what You are.”
We cannot say that one aspect is better than the other aspect. It is a matter of individual choice. At the last moment, God Himself says, “Either you can merge into the Nectar-Ocean, or you can enjoy it drop by drop. If you want to have Me totally, what I have and what I am, then take it. But if you get more joy by worshipping Me all the time, then you can be at My Feet.”
In the love aspect, the lover and the Beloved want to become one. In the devotion aspect, the seeker is like a slave, not an ordinary slave, but a divine slave. He wants to be at God’s Feet and worship Him all the time.
So these are two different approaches. It depends on the seekers, at the last moment, when they have realised God, to decide what they want to do. Both the love aspect and the devotion aspect have one source: wisdom. But the individual seeker or God-realised person at the last moment has to make the choice between them.
Some spiritual Masters in India wanted only devotion, devotion, devotion. Sri Ramakrishna is one of those and also Sri Chaitanya. Again, there are others such as Ramana Maharshi and a few more who have chosen the love aspect. So you have to choose. For you perhaps it will take a little time before you have to make the choice!
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 37