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People who are always worrying about the future – what will happen, what will happen – are not meant for the spiritual life. The present moment is a heavy enough load for you to carry. As soon as you put it on your shoulders, you are already collapsing. When you worry about what will happen in the future if you do not have money, on the strength of your imagination-power you are only increasing the weight that you have to carry now. You think about what will happen in five years, in ten years, in twenty years. Three hundred and sixty-five days are multiplied by all your worries or fantasies. You can add bricks to the load or you can add beautiful, golden statues, but whether you add worries or fantasies, still the load you have to carry today becomes heavier.

Instead of making your load heavier, just go to God and give Him what you have, which is your heart’s cry. Then He will give you what He has and what He is for you: His Smile. Your heart’s inner cry and God’s Satisfaction-Smile must go together. Then only will you be happy. Otherwise, all the fantasies about the future that you are cherishing, all the castles in the air that you are building, will never make you happy. The present is enough to deal with. If you start worrying about your finances and other things in the future, you shall only ruin whatever little spiritual aspiration you already have.

Your prayer should not be for money but for God: “I am alive today only because of my heart’s cry for You. Today You have given me the opportunity to pray to You and to love You. I am so grateful. If it is Your Will, tomorrow You will give me again the same aspiration and love for You, and my spiritual life shall remain alive tomorrow.”

Sri Chinmoy, "Life's Rivulets", Madal Bal, Czech Republic, 16 January 1994.

by Arpan DeAngelo, New York

To continue some inspiring stories about Sri Chinmoy's pioneering events of the 70's, I wish to tell a personal experience from July 13, 1977. During that month Sri Chinmoy was creating and offering extremely inspiring and elevating talks which were mostly extemporaneous, called 'Everest-Aspiration', as many of you well know.

There were six talks given the evening of July 13, 1977 at Yoga-Life Perfection, an enterprise where I worked as a yoga teacher.

It was a hot summer night and the studio was a large loft on the second floor of a big building on the East Side around 35th St. There were only about 30 people invited which made the room full enough for an intimate function which included some plays and songs. But the crowning event was Sri Chinmoy reading the latest Everest-Aspiration talks that he had just created during the day and on his way to Manhattan.

It was around 9:30 p.m. when Sri Chinmoy started soulfully reading out the talks. In the past he had many times extemporaneously created them as he recited them in a very high trance-like consciousness. He seemed to enjoy reading them that night while still maintaining a very high state of consciousness. We were all very inspired and excited because some of them were about Yoga, Perfection and Intuition.

I also noticed something a bit peculiar. Sri Chinmoy had a battery powered portable flashlight with a little fan on the other end of it which I never had seen him with before. For some reason I noticed that he had it with him the whole time since he had walked into the studio. During one of the talks, around 9:40 or so, the lights all of a sudden went out along with the air conditioner which was on as there were no open windows to speak of. Immediately Sri Chinmoy turned on his trusty little flashlight and fan almost as if he had known there would be a power failure. He just kept on reading his talks, unfazed by the sudden event which turned out to be the biggest blackout in New York history. Some of the guys scrambled to see if the breakers had tripped in the building and I went to open a window for some air. When I looked out the window, I noticed that there were no lights anywhere in New York City. Realizing that we would not get any lights or air conditioner back, some of the boys starting fanning our Teacher with prasad trays. I think Adhiratha was doing it with me, if he can recall it.

I was both amused and worried that Sri Chinmoy would be too hot or uncomfortable to finish the talks. But he did finish with the incredible "If You Have, Then Come To Me" talk. When you read that poem or talk, just try to visualise Sri Chinmoy seated in a hot, dark second floor loft in the middle of Manhattan at the start of a very serious blackout sitting with his trusty penlight-fan and being cooled by plastic food trays while still maintaining an incredibly high and soulful consciousness as he was creating another Immortal Everest-Aspiration gem.

Soon after the last talk and a short meditation, some of his students escorted him down the stairwell with flashlights as the elevator was not working either. I believe that most of the students from Jamaica, Queens had come in a yellow school bus they used back then. I stayed in Manhattan since the subways were not operating and I had to go to work the next day close by.

Walking to work from a friend's apartment in Manhattan was an eerie but peaceful feeling. There were no traffic lights, so traffic was quite slow and was being directed by police and volunteers. Everywhere there seemed to be a feeling of oneness, of sharing a common serious problem which required people cooperating with a sense of oneness.

Of course there were exceptions to this golden rule, but in general it seemed as if a great Spiritual Master had left an impression on the City that night with his soul stirring talks about oneness, perfection and intuition, which he so clearly demonstrated with his own actions and words.

One more thing which most people may not know. Notice the dates of the talks which started on July 1 and ended on July 20th. Sri Chinmoy's wish was to give 100 talks and, I believe, 100 esraj concerts in the month of July, a seemingly impossible task. But the impossible once again surrendered to this Great Master as it only took twenty days, and not the whole 31 days of July, to give the talks.

Sarama's reflections at Sri Chinmoy Centre

• Sarama's reflections on the 13 July talks at Sri Chinmoy Centre
• Sweet moments with Sri Chinmoy at Sri Chinmoy Centre

These talks can be found at Everest Aspiration Part 2, Agni Press, 1977

• 'You And Your Perfection',
• 'Yoga And Oneness', 
• 'Hatha Yoga', 
• 'Intuition', 
• 'Perfection',
• 'If You Have, Then Come To Me' 

Note: In photo from 1978, Arpan had not yet received his spiritual name. In 2004, Arpan DeAngelo completed the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Race

• Arpan's personal page at Sri Chinmoy Centre.