Self-Knowledge
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of San Carlos,
Cebu City, in the Philippines
Let us try to know ourselves. Let us try to observe what we truly are. Very often we feel that we are insignificant creatures. We have nowhere to go, nothing to achieve and nothing to give. This is what we feel in our day-to-day existence. But what we truly are is totally different from what we feel. We are all God’s children. At each moment, God is pouring into us something divine and something truthful. He expects much from us, but nothing beyond our capacity. He knows what we can consciously offer to Him. Right now, we feel that we are weak, unimportant, useless. But in God’s eyes, we are divine, we are fruitful, we are Infinite.
We are constantly making mistakes. The root of our mistakes is our body, the physical. We feel that there is nothing beyond the physical and, at the same time, that there is nothing in the physical. It is here that we are making a most deplorable mistake. If we go beyond our body, beyond our physical consciousness, we see Infinite Peace, Infinite Joy, Infinite Bliss and Power all eagerly waiting for us.
Then if we go deep within, deep inside our body, we see and feel the soul. This soul is the messenger of God on earth. If we can be in tune with the constant, spontaneous music of the soul, our lives will be free from suffering, misery, frustration, fear and worry. Our lives will be a constant success, a constant achievement and a constant fulfilment, a fulfilment that can and will be both inner and outer.
So either we have to go deep inside the body, into the inmost recesses of our heart, or we have to go beyond the body, beyond the physical sheath, beyond the physical consciousness. We have to discover our true Self, either today or tomorrow or the day after. Mere preaching will not do; book study will not do. If we at all preach the Truth, the gospel, the spiritual philosophy, then we must preach what we live and practise what we want to be. We have to practise what we want to be, and, if we preach, we must preach only what we live.
God’s Vision is man and man’s reality is God. Man can deny God. His ignorance can make him feel that there is no God and no need for God. But God’s Compassion can never deny the existence of man. God is made of Compassion, Infinite Compassion. Man is made of ignorance. Whenever I say “man," I mean the human mind, the human body. For man is in reality the descendant of God. To realise God is man’s birthright. Divinity is his heritage. But man is tired, man is frustrated, man wants to live in darkness. Man is very often satisfied with his limitations. So what can God do? If there is no sincere seeking, no striving, no aspiration, God has to lower Himself into this unlit, ignorant human being.
Man needs God, but he denies it. God needs man, and He is proud to tell the world of His need. Man certainly wants to get everything from God, but he wants to give God no credit for His infinite Grace and Compassion. But God openly shows His pride in human achievement. If we are aspiring, we will in no time see and feel the truth of this. God is constantly proud of our achievement, our aspiration, our existence.
So I wish to tell all of you not to cherish the idea that God has failed His Creation, that God has been a failure. These ideas are completely wrong. God has not failed. It is we who constantly feel that God and God’s Creation are two totally different things. We think, “God is in heaven and we are on earth. God does not care for us. Or if He does care for us, He has no strength to correct, rectify or perfect His Creation.” This is a wrong conception of the Truth. What do we know about God’s Perfection, God’s Vision, God’s Reality, God’s Consciousness? With our human eyes, what do we seek? Perfection, achievement, success. To God's Eyes, these things look totally different. Man’s success and God’s success are not necessarily the same. God’s success is experience, and that experience can take the form of either success or failure. He gives us these two kinds of experience.
When we live in the soul, we feel that our soul has all responsibility for us. When we live in the body, we see that our body is nothing but stupidity. So if we live in the soul, we shall have the spontaneous experience of fulfilment. But if we live in the body, we shall have the spontaneous experience of frustration and misery. Our success and our failure have very little to do with God’s Wisdom, God’s Experience and God’s Operation in the physical world. He is our success, He is our failure, He is the doer and He is the action. If we can see God’s presence in each action, and then see the action itself as God, and later the result — success or failure — as God, and finally the Doer Himself as God, then all our problems are over. We can claim ourselves to be God’s Pride. We are truly God’s highest Pride and Vision if we know the secret of living here on earth and there in heaven.
Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind
Poems, in Pondicherry
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (401-415) on 29 and 30 October at the home of his family in Pondicherry.
401. While others are fond of sleeping
While others are fond of sleeping,
He is fond of working.While others are fond of working,
He is fond of serving.While others are fond of serving,
He is fond of self-giving.While others are fond of self-giving,
God is planning to create another God
Inside his perfection-being.
To consecrate soulfully
Is to construct beautifully.
To construct beautifully
Is to keep ignorance-door shut firmly.
403. O sweet touch of silence-peace
O sweet touch of silence-peace,
My bleeding heart loves you,
My dying life needs you.
You are so beautiful.
Can you not become swift, too?
Yesterday
You satisfied ignorance-king
By serving him unreservedly.Today
You are satisfying wisdom-king
By serving him unreservedly and unconditionally.Tomorrow
You will satisfy your Beloved Supreme
By serving Him unreservedly and unconditionally,
Plus sleeplessly.
How strong is prayer?
An insincere seeker will tell you
How strong his prayer is,
Only to fool you unconsciously.
A sincere seeker will tell you
How strong his prayer is,
Only to illumine you immediately.
O my hope,
Where are you?
Can you not see me
Inside the despair-grave?O my hope,
Where are you?
Can you not grant me someday
The helmet of protection
And the crown of satisfaction?
Hope, my hope!
All the evil forces
Are hovering near you,
And you are whispering in cowardice.
Cast aside your cowardly lethargy!
Celestial glory will once more
Be all yours.
408. The changer of world history
You have a strong hope.
You have a firm faith.
You have a stark arrow in hand.
Who else can be the changer
Of world history?
A desire-man
Is a dreamer.An aspiration-man
Is a builder.A realisation-man
Is a God-lover.A God-man
Is the bringer of
A new creation,
A new harmony,
A new perfection.
You exerted your divine oneness-power
But, alas, they misunderstood you.
They deserted your love divine.
Now who is the loser?
Whose loss is beyond repair?
Perhaps by this time they know it,
Or before it is too late,
They will know it.
Because of venom-doubt,
You have lost your life-security.Because of venom-doubt,
You have lost your heart-beauty.Because of venom-doubt,
You have forgotten your nectar-song.Because of venom-doubt,
You will never be able to claim God.Because of venom-doubt,
You will never be able
To enjoy God-harvest from the Deep.
412. Fallen from surrender-tree
You have fallen
From surrender-tree.
You cannot climb up
Devotion-tree any more.
Love-tree does not want
Even to see you,
For you have time and again
Disappointed love-tree
By climbing earthbound desire-banyan tree.
Aspiration summoned the three sleepers,
Body, vital and mind,
And said to them,
“I shall not fail you.
You must not quit.
You and I shall treasure
God-realisation
Beyond surmise.”
This world has hurled
Not one, not two, but three
Insults at me:
“You do not love God!
We do not need you!
We are totally sick of you!”
O my Lord Supreme,
Grant me inner beauty
Instead of doubt,
Grant me outer beauty
Instead of power,
Grant me oneness-satisfaction,
Both here on earth and there in Heaven,
Instead of victory-tower.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 5
Here and Now
Prayers by Sri Chinmoy
at the Peace Concert in the Reykjavik University Theatre, Reykjavik, Iceland
HERE and NOW
I must claim God’s ambrosial Feet
As my own,
Very own.
HERE and NOW
God is telling me
That He will before long
Visit my heart-temple.
I must keep it
Absolutely immaculate.
HERE and NOW
My heart’s aspiration-surge
Is carrying me
To God’s Heart-Garden.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
That my surrender to God’s Will
Is the only one-way street
To perpetual happiness.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
A sky-blue vastness-heart
To embrace all humanity
To manifest God’s Will
On earth.
HERE and NOW
The human in me
Must bathe every day
In God’s Forgiveness-Heart-Sea.
HERE and NOW
My human life must take shelter
Under God’s Forgiveness-Tree.
HERE and NOW
God is blessing me
With thunderous applause
For my self-doubt-conquest.
HERE and NOW
I must start obeying
The dictates
Of my Pilot Supreme.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A concentration-mind-seeker.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A meditation-heart-builder.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A dedication-life-enjoyer.
HERE and NOW
I myself must become
A problem-solution-warrior.
HERE and NOW
I must develop the eagerness
To feel desperate urgency
To fulfil God’s Will
Every single day.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
The eagerness-capacity
To faithfully follow God’s Will
All-where, always.
HERE and NOW
I must capsize
My world-conquering
Ambition-boat.
HERE and NOW
I have come to learn
That God wants me
To transform my limitations
Into God-satisfaction-perfections
And not demolish them altogether.
HERE and NOW
With my soul’s indomitable will
I shall flood my heart
With inner sunshine.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
The difference between
My mind and my heart:
My mind delights in ignoring God;
My heart delights in seeking God.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
An intense eagerness
To feel my God-realisation
As a pressing necessity.
HERE and NOW
I must devour
The nectar-harvest
Of my God-realisation-soul.
HERE and NOW
My mind must bloom
And
My heart must blossom
In the depths of soundless silence.
HERE and NOW
To my greatest joy
I see the Power-Sun
Of the Beyond
Shining upon me.
HERE and NOW
I must become
The perfect satisfaction
Of God’s
Full manifestation-examination
On earth.
HERE and NOW
My soul is commanding me
To climb up
My soul’s ever-transcending pole.
HERE and NOW
My Lord’s solemn Promise:
Before long He will carry me over
All the anxiety-worry-seas.
HERE and NOW
God is telling me
That He will always reserve
A sunny place
For my cheerful face.
HERE and NOW
Finally I have realised
That my heart needs
Only one power to realise God:
Gratitude,
Abundant gratitude,
Gratitude infinite.
HERE and NOW
I clearly see
That there are many roads
To arrive at the Goal,
But the absolutely shortest road
Is the heart-road.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
That He never fails to perform
His special Task every day:
He watches me
And He catches me
Just before I fall.
HERE and NOW
God tells me that I must believe
In His Sincerity
When He tells me that He has
Implicit Faith in my ability.
HERE and NOW
I must inspire
The hero-warrior-souls
On earth
Not to retire.
HERE and NOW
My tears must cry and cry
So that I can fly
In my Beloved Lord’s Heart-Sky.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
That there is only
One safe addiction:
My God-devotion-addiction.
HERE and NOW
I clearly see the difference
Between me and my God:
I love flattery
From the beginning to the end.
God loves mastery
From the beginning to the end.
HERE and NOW
On the strength
Of my heart’s climbing cries,
I shall enjoy
The Beauty and Fragrance
Of Heaven.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
To ignore my mind
When it belittles
My heart-capacity.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
To embrace my heart,
For my heart self-givingly
Worships God.
HERE and NOW
God wants only one thing:
Reconciliation between
My doubting mind
And
My strangling vital.
HERE and NOW
God tells my body: “Get up!”
My vital: “Stand up!”
My mind: “Grow up!”
My heart: “Look up!”
And my life: “Cheer up!”
Published in Here and Now