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Truth

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Truth: earthly truth, heavenly Truth, eternal Truth, universal Truth, transcendental Truth and supreme Truth. Earthly truth my body needs. Heavenly Truth my vital needs. Eternal Truth my mind needs. Universal Truth my heart needs. Transcendental Truth my central being needs. The supreme Truth my soul needs.

Earthly truth awakens my sleeping body. Heavenly Truth disciplines my restless vital. Eternal Truth illumines my sighing mind. Universal Truth liberates my crying heart. Transcendental Truth immortalises my central being. The supreme Truth expedites my soul's God-manifesting aspiration here on earth.

Truth is beauty. Beauty inspires a God-seeker to see God's Face of eternal Beauty. Truth is peace. Peace inspires a God-seeker to feel God's Heart of infinite Peace. Truth is power. Power inspires a God-seeker to watch God's Eye of immortal Power. Truth is compassion. Compassion inspires a God-seeker to sit at God's Feet of all-forgiving Compassion.

Truth frightens a weak mind in a human being. Truth enlightens a strong heart in a human being.

Truth nourishes the self-giving seekers. Truth treasures the God-realised souls.

Although man and truth are one, man cannot replace truth, but truth can easily replace man. How and why? Because man is by nature earth-bound and truth is always Heaven-free. Although truth and God are one, truth cannot replace God, but God can easily replace truth. How and why? Because truth is the creation. The creation cannot become inseparably one with the Creator at its sweet will. But the Creator can easily become inseparably one with His creation. Something more, the Creator can easily remain, eternally remain, infinitely higher than the creation's reach. But out of His infinite Bounty, the Creator keeps Himself inseparably one, eternally one and — to our wide surprise — unconditionally one with His creation.

Published in Truth’s Fountain-Melody

Philosophy

a lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 10 a.m. at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia

My esteemed Professor Rabosh, I wish to express my gratitude to you from the very depths of my heart for blessing me with this signal Award. I wish to say a few words on philosophy in general.

Philosophy means wisdom-aspiration, wisdom-revelation and wisdom-manifestation.

If we approach philosophy with the mind, for the fulfilment only of the mind, then it is nothing short of dryness. If we approach philosophy with the heart, for the heart and life proper, then it is most useful and fruitful.

Earth-bound philosophy is afraid of entering into Heaven-free philosophy because Heaven-free philosophy is unbounded. Heaven-free philosophy is afraid of entering into earth-bound philosophy because it may be caught in earth’s quagmire.

Eastern philosophy has tremendous fondness for the ever-transcending Beyond although it does not see the Beyond, not to speak of having a free access to the Beyond. But it feels that there shall come a time when it will be able to see the Beyond, be with the Beyond and be for the Beyond. Uncertainty looms large in the Western philosophy when it has to convincingly and completely accept the Reality-Existence of the Beyond.

Two philosophies: the outer and the inner. The outer philosophy thinks that its source is sound founded upon power. The inner philosophy feels that its source is delight founded upon silence.

The supreme philosophy of the God-seeker and God-lover is the awareness of God-Eternity, God-Infinity and God-Immortality founded upon Omnipresence-God-Oneness.

Philosophy loves wisdom-light. Each human being thinks that he is wiser than others. His wisdom surpasses others' wisdom; therefore, he gives advice, sought and quite often unsought.

We are all self-styled philosophers but our hearts are not vast enough to claim the entire world as our own, very own. Socrates, the philosopher of philosophers, had an all-pervading oneness-heart. Therefore, he was able to say “I am not an Athenian. I am a Cosmopolitan.”

There are two kinds of philosophy: the human philosophy and the divine philosophy. The human philosophy is nothing short of division-mind-supremacy. The divine philosophy is oneness-heart-intimacy.

The human philosophy is a mind-jungle that is all dryness or darkness. The human philosophy likes to dictate and not to listen or embrace.

The divine philosophy is: give wisdom and take wisdom. The divine philosophy is not satisfied just by saying something great and good but by becoming the perfect embodiment of greatness and goodness.

The philosophy of the East and the philosophy of the West. The philosophy of the East tells us: “Go beyond, go beyond! Truth abides in the Beyond, the ever-transcending Beyond.”

The philosophy of the West tells us: “Go around, go around! Spread out, spread out new capacities, quantities and qualities.”

The philosophy of the East: God-invitation, God-expectation and God-union.

The philosophy of the West: God-multiplication, God-revelation and God-distribution.

The philosophy of the East: who I was, who I am and who I shall become. Who was I? God the Dream. Who am I? God the Reality. Who shall I become? A prototype of God.

The philosophy of the West: “Go forward, go forward! Look not behind. Look not sideways. The Merciful God is beckoning you.”

The philosophy of the East and the philosophy of the West have a common goal: satisfaction, satisfaction infinite. This satisfaction comes into existence only from one thing: self-giving, sleepless self-giving and nothing else.

Let us invoke Pushkin to bless us with his nectar-flooded wisdom:

“But, friends, I do not want to die.
I want to live, so as to think and suffer.”

Descartes declares his inner awareness and outer assertion:

“I think, therefore I am.”

The seeker in me soulfully proclaims:

I am because God there is.
I am an eternal Now, for my Source is so.

What is my Source?
God the Eternity’s Cry and God the Infinity’s Smile.

What Plato, the philosopher par excellence, said about philosophy is at once charming, deep and prophetic: “Philosophy is the highest music.”

The philosopher and mathematician Whitehead said, “Philosophy asks the simple question: ‘What is it all about?’” We know the answer. It is either all about God the Creator or all about God the creation.

Plutarch said, “Philosophy is the art of living.” We may safely add, “Philosophy is the art of self-searching and truth-becoming.”

“There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” So said Shakespeare. Indeed, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, God creates countless things, countless thoughts, countless ideas, countless ideals and countless goals for the betterment of the world and the transformation of the earth.

[Then Sri Chinmoy extemporaneously set music to the following poem which he wrote for this occasion.]

O vast philosophy,  
O great philosopher,  
Higher worlds’ message-secrecy  
Down you bring to offer.  

Published in I Prayerfully Bow to the Soul of Russia

Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture on ‘Philosophy’.

Medicine

a lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 3 p.m. at the Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

I lovingly, soulfully and gratefully dedicate to-day’s talk to the most glorious soul of my highly esteemed Sister Raisa Maximovna.

There are four doctors: the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor, the faith-doctor and the God-Doctor. The medicine-doctor depends on earth-discoveries. The prayer-doctor depends on God-Compassion. The faith-doctor and the faith-patient work together to establish the satisfactory result for the patient. The God-Doctor decides what is best for the patient and does the needful in and through the medicine-doctor, the prayer-doctor and the faith-doctor.

God gets tremendous joy when these three doctors work together. Alas, it happens so rarely. The medicine-doctor prides itself on its stupendous capacity. The prayer-doctor gives full credit when its prayers are fulfilled to the ultimate Doctor, God. The faith-doctor gives credit to the medicine-doctor, more so to the prayer-doctor and infinitely more to the God-Doctor.

Medicine-doctors are physically visible and available. Alas, the innocent patient-victims pitifully suffer when the medicine-doctors enjoy their utter disagreements. The patient’s life-breath plies between the compassion-medicine-doctor and the indifference-medicine-doctor.

With your kind permission, I wish to narrate a personal experience of mine. My right knee and I have been suffering from severe pain for the last twenty years. Not once, not twice, but thrice I have had sad experiences from my MRI examinations.

The doctors have differences of opinions. The first doctor said it is cartilage damage. The second doctor said that it is water inside the knee, unwanted water. The third doctor gave his opinion that it is rheumatism. My California doctors and New York doctors were in perfect disagreement.

Anyway, because of these three differing opinions I had to take treatment for all these three so-called ailments. To my greatest sorrow, my right knee still suffers unbearably, unimaginably.

There is an Irish saying: “God made time; man made haste.” There are some doctors who are compassion incarnate. They give all their time, energy and concern to cure their patients, while there are other doctors who have no time, no time. Time is fleeing away and their concern is also fleeing away faster than the fastest.

It is true that no matter how much concern, how much love one has as a doctor for his patient, only if it is the Will of God does the patient continue to live on Mother Earth. But the kindness, concern and sympathy of the doctor for the patient give tremendous hope and joy to the patient. This hope and joy are not wasted.

We believe in reincarnation. When the patient goes to the other world, he or she carries with them their inner existence. And when the soul comes into the world with a human body once again, this particular patient of the past, brings down the concern, hope and all the good things that the patient received in his previous incarnations from the medical science. No good deed can ever end in vain. Today’s good deeds are bound to be fulfilled at God’s choice Hour.

I have mentioned the unfortunate negligence and indifference of certain doctors, but again there are many doctors, to my deepest joy, who are aspiration, concentration and dedication incarnate. Their concern for the recovery of the patient can only be felt and never be described.

Spirituality and medicine are two great doctors. Spirituality dives deep within to cure the malady. Medicine explores here, there and all-where to cure the malady. If the divers and the explorers work together against ignorance, the root of all diseases, then it will be remarkably easier to conquer each ailment.

The body suffers from countless diseases. It starts with a headache and ends in cancer. The mind suffers from many diseases. It starts with anger and ends in self-doubt. The heart suffers from many diseases. It starts with depression and ends in insecurity. Life suffers from many diseases. It starts with ignorance and ends in self-destruction.

Physical diseases are difficult to cure. Mental diseases are more difficult to cure. Psychic diseases are still more difficult to cure. Life-diseases, alas, are almost incurable.

Medical science is not the supreme authority on life and death. Spirituality, because of its conscious and inseparable oneness with the Will of the Absolute Supreme, has and is the supreme authority on life and death.

At times, medical science proudly predicts that the patient will die sooner than at once. But, to the greatest happiness of the patient, the patient gets a compassion-life-extension for three or four decades from Above. Spirituality does not and cannot perform this miracle, but spirituality unmistakably knows how the miracle was performed and Who was behind it.

About thirty years ago, I was fortunate enough to offer a soulful talk on medical science to a medical university in Cebu City in the Philippines. Just because it was a medical university, there were quite a few doctors and nurses who were kind enough to be present.

I said to the doctors that if some individuals are in a tug-of-war, and if two are on one side and on the other side there is only one individual, there is every likelihood that the side that has two will win. Similarly, if the man of prayers and the man of medicine are on one side in the tug-of-war and against them there is only one player, ignorance, then naturally the side that has two members is going to win.

We must work together. Prayer comes from the inner world and medicine comes from the outer world. Both are equally important. The inner world and the outer world must work together. Then it will be quite easy for us to conquer the world that stands against us. We must not work independently. We must work interdependently.

If spirituality and medical science play their roles interdependently, like inhaling and exhaling, then God’s Heart-Garden will be inundated with earth-beauty and Heaven-Fragrance.

I shall deeply appreciate it if the audience would kindly join me in singing a short song that I have composed for this occasion. As I said, we must work together, together. With our prayers, with our songs, in all our activities, if we work together then we are bound to be successful in our lives.

Four doctors, four:  
Medicine-doctor, prayer-doctor,  
Faith-doctor, God-Doctor,  
I bow to you four.  
You give me health-preservation-lore;  
You show me health-perfection-shore.  

In all sincerity, I wish to say that this particular University has given me boundless joy and boundless satisfaction. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I bow to the medicine-world. I pray to God for your continued success and progress to elevate the sufferings of humanity.

Published in I Prayerfully Bow to the Soul of Russia

Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture on ‘Medicine’.

The Universality of Religion

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 8:30 p.m., at the Universalist Church of New York City, 67th Street and Central Park West, at the invitation of its director, the Reverend Leonard Helie

The Universalist Church of New York is for all the religions of the world. It is a growing family with one home. This home is the embodiment of Heart. Heart is the embodiment of Truth. Fulfilment is there where Truth is.

Why do we need religion? We need religion because we want to go beyond the finite in order to commune with the Infinite. It is not only possible but inevitable, for in us there is a conscious being which envisions God's Reality in totality.

Religion is a spontaneous experience and never a theoretical knowledge. This experience is immensely practical and we can use it consciously at every moment of our earthly existence.

Religion has never been thrust upon man. It has sprung from the very need of his inner being. When this inner being comes to the fore and looks around, it feels God's all-permeating immanence and when it looks up, it feels God's all-transcending Transcendence as its own divine heritage.

Religion has two lives: outer and inner. It offers its outer life to the universal love and service. It offers its inner life to meditation and God-realisation.

Religion in the physical is an unconscious cry for God. in the vital a blind struggle to possess God, in the mind a constant fight to capture God, in the heart a selfless surrender to sit in the Lap of God, and in the soul a consciousness-boat that longs to ply between the shores of the ever-transcending Infinity and the ever-blooming Immortality.

Immorality wants to blight religion. God says to religion: "Fear not, my child, I am giving you the indomitable strength of morality." Egoism wants to suffocate religion. God says to religion: "Fear not, my child, I am placing you in the ever-widening vastness of universality." Death wants to devour religion. God says to religion: "Fear not, my child, I am making you the embodiment of immortality."

Science and religion. They say that science and religion are always at daggers drawn. It is not true. Science plays its role dynamically in explaining the immanent God. Religion plays its role divinely in interpreting the transcendent God. Science deals with the physical world, while religion deals with the inner and spiritual world. Mind is the teacher and nature is the professor of science. Heart is the teacher and soul is the professor of religion.

Philosophy and religion. Philosophy and religion are two intimate friends. Philosophy reaches its acme of perfection when it is inspired by the faith, vision, experience and realisation of a soulful religion. With the help of alert and sound philosophy, religion frees itself from the snares of superstitions, vagaries and fantasies.

Morality and spirituality in religion. Morality in religion is a steady journey towards an ideal life. This journey at times appears to be a never-ending one. Nevertheless, it embodies an approximation to the ideal visualised. Spirituality in religion is fully aware of its inherent, implicit infinity. It transports an aspiring individual into the living abode of God. The infinity that spirituality reveals in religion is actualised and materialised with a spontaneous inner urge. The religious aspirant's hope flies into certainty, struggle enters into conquest, will-power is beckoned by absolute fulfilment.

Individuality and universality. Universality does not and cannot mean an utter extinction of the mounting individual flame in the human heart. On the contrary, when an individual transcends himself in the continuous process of universalisation, then he will have the full assurance to abide in the deeper, vaster and higher realm of Light, Peace and Power, and then alone will he eventually grow into his own true self, his self eternal. No doubt, at the very beginning, he will apprehend a deplorable conflict between individuality and universality. But this apprehension of his does not last for good, for the self same conflict is the harbinger of a most convincing concord, a pure amalgam of unique transcendence.

Religious faith. Religion without faith is a body without life in it. Religious faith is a transforming experience and not a mere idea. Faith has the magic key of self-discovery. Self-discovery is, in fact, the discovery of Reality. Faith makes religion an active participant of the divine love, harmony and peace. Finally it transports religion into the all-delight of the Beyond.

Sin in religion. It is true that the conception of sin looms large in religion. What is sin? It is nothing but an experience of imperfection. This imperfection exists simply because creation is still in the making. Perfection must needs dawn on creation. It is a matter of time. Creation is action, a constant movement, forward, upward and inward. Evolution is the immortal song which is perpetually sung by creation. Today's sin is imperfection personified. Tomorrow's virtue is perfection embodied. Two things comprise God's entire creation: the finite and the Infinite. When I, the finite, go up, it is my self-realisation. When God, the Infinite, comes down, it is His Self-manifestation. When I enter into Him, his Highest, He presents me with His Unity. When He enters into me, my lowest, I offer to Him the multiplicity with which He Himself entrusted me when my soul descended on earth, Him to reveal, Him to fulfil.

All religions are in essence one, inseparable. Each religion is an unfailing path leading to the eternal Truth. "United we stand, divided we fall." This oft-quoted maxim can adequately be applied in today's talk. The united strength of all religions knows the supreme secret that no individual religion is to be looked down upon. If the united strength is wanting, then no religion can stand up, head erect. Religion is one. The teeming religions are its significant applications. Religion does not change, but religions must undergo vicissitudes, so far as the outer forms, customs, habits, rituals, circumstances and environments are concerned.

I am majestically proud to be here at the Universalist Church, for it is here at this opportune time that my heart voices forth the truth the Religion which is universal is the core of all religions, and the realisation of this universal Religion is not the monopoly of any particular group. Any individual, irrespective of caste, creed or nationality, can have the realisation of this universal Religion if he has dynamic imagination, creative inspiration and fulfilling aspiration to assimilate the spirit of all religions.

I am a Hindu. I am proud of my Hinduism. My Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, has taught me: Aham Brahma, I am the Brahman, the One without a second. You are a Christian. You are proud of your Christianity. Your divine religion has taught you: I and my Father are One. Now, if I am a Hindu in the purest sense of the term, I must be a Christian to the marrow, for deep within me, what I see, feel and become is the universal Truth. Likewise, deep within you, what you see, feel and become is the universal Truth. What is Truth? Truth is our divine Father. A child does not mind when his physical father is addressed as Brother by one. Uncle by the second, Nephew by the third, and Friend by the fourth. He is equally happy in each individual approach to his father. Similarly, when religions approach the Truth, our divine Father, each in its own way, we must be supremely happy, for each religion wants the Truth and the Truth alone.

Published in AUM – Vol. 2, No.12, July 27, 1967

Sri Chinmoy Answers

a question at the United Nations in New York 

Question: How can we more fully surrender to the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: The easiest and most effective way to fully surrender to the Will of the Supreme is to increase your necessity for Him. In this world, when you feel the necessity of something, immediately you surrender to that necessity. If you feel the necessity for money or material power, you surrender to the necessities involved in getting and keeping a good job, you surrender to your boss and so on. If you want to be a good singer, you surrender to the wisdom and capacity of your singing teacher because you feel that he is superior to you and will be able to show you how to attain your goal. By surrendering to a real authority, you learn how to achieve your necessities.

The highest Authority within you is the Supreme. How do you surrender to Him? First, you must feel the necessity of oneness. When you feel the necessity of inseparable oneness with Him, immediately you offer your will to His Will. Next, you must ask yourself if you want this oneness to be constant. If it is not constant, at one moment you will be inseparable from Him and the next moment you will be totally separated from Him. This moment if the Supreme says, “Go and sit down,” you will do it. But the next moment you may refuse. Only if your necessity for oneness with the Supreme becomes unconditional and constant will you be with Him, in Him, of Him and for Him twenty-four hours a day.

When you are in your office, you have to think of office activities; otherwise, your work will not be satisfactory and your boss will fire you. But while you are working in the office or talking to your boss or your colleagues, if you can remember how devotedly you prayed to the Supreme early in the morning, that will give you tremendous inner strength and confidence. On the mental plane you will give all attention to your office work, but on the inner plane, on the psychic plane, you can think about God and try to feel God’s Presence.

If you have a large amount of money inside your pocket, nobody is going to see that it is there. Similarly, if you keep the light and peace that you felt during your meditation inside your heart, nobody will know what wealth you are hiding there. And although it is possible for someone to steal the money from your pocket, from your heart-pocket no thief can steal anything. So when you meditate, please feel that you have stored up a divine treasure trove inside your heart. If you can establish a permanent feeling of God’s Presence inside your heart, then it will not be difficult at all for you to listen to the Dictates of the Supreme and be one with His Will all the time. Even when you mix with people and enter into all kinds of activities, you will not lose your oneness with the Supreme. It is not only possible and practicable to do this, but in the course of time it will be inevitable.

Published in My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years

An Orphan Boy

by Sri Chinmoy

There was an orphan boy.
His name was Madal Chinmoy.
He hailed from a wee village, Shakpura.
He became his Family’s ananda fuara.

He lost his Father at the age of eleven.
The following year, his Mother
    was summoned by Heaven.

At the age of twelve, he came to Pondicherry
To be a passenger of his Master’s Ferry.
Sports he liked and became a mountain-champion,
But neglected not his dream of God-union.

One night his Guru Supreme
Entered into his sweetness-dream,
Said:
    “Get up to meditate.
Get up to meditate.
    In years to come you will have to navigate
    The birthless and deathless mankind’s sorrows
    To the Golden Shore of Tomorrows.
    Give due importance to your body, vital,
    mind, heart and soul
    To help the world reach its destined Goal.”

Madal, kettledrum of the cosmic Gods,
    Became Chinmoy Consciousness-full.  
God’s Compassion-Eye made him
    A teacher of His inner School.
His student-life he took as his life’s bondage-night.
Therefore, his heart pined for Freedom-Light.

Now that he is a teacher of the inner School,
He realises that he is an unspeakable fool.
Humanity’s transformation-fate
Is a completely closed iron gate.
He breathlessly cries to God,
    “Save me, my Lord, save!”

“For you, no rest. 
Sunlit Path you needs must pave.
For you, no rest, no rest, not even a fleeting rest
Because in you I have found My Heart’s Satisfaction-Nest.”

“O Lord, I am crying, bleeding and dying.”

“Who prevents you from smiling and flying?”

The whole world came to him.
    He desperately wanted to hide.
His Absolute Lord commanded him
    all-where with Him to ride.

Published inAn Orphan Boy

Final typed version

approved by Sri Chinmoy⁵ 

Notes:

1. The Bengali words ananda fuara can be translated as “fountain of delight”.

2. Madal went to Pondicherry in 1944, to become a permanent resident of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

3. Sri Chinmoy composes and dictates this poem to Nishtha Baum on 24 May 1998. Later he remarks the poem represents his life. He expresses the wish for all his students to learn it by heart. The poem is read out at a function and disciples are invited to enter a contest to illustrate the poem. That contest is held at Public School 86 in Queens, New York, the following weekend.

4. On 20 June 1998 — the day before Father’s Day — after a recording of the author reciting the poem is played, Sri Chinmoy offers his commentary at Public School 117 in Queens, New York.

5. The typed version of the poem is corrected — ‘Chinmoy’ is added to the first line of the sixth stanza — and approved by Sri Chinmoy with the words “Perfect Final” in his own handwriting.