April 28
April 28
Patience replaces Capacity
Comment by Sri Chinmoy
after running in the five-mile race that his friend Cahit Yeter organised in the Bronx, New York
When I see my disciples running now, many times they are 600 metres or one mile ahead of me. But I used to be right behind them or even ahead of them.
They have to admire how much patience I have. When you lose capacity, you have to give credit to your patience.
Published in Run and Become, Become and Run, part 16
Sri Chinmoy practising the seated two-arm lift at Aspiration-Ground in New York.
Sri Chinmoy Speaks
about his weightlifting
I wanted to serve God spiritually. God said, "No, I want you to serve Me physically as well." I never, never imagined that I would enter into the weightlifting world. Weightlifting I most sincerely hated. I thought that only brainless people do weightlifting! That was my firm conviction. So God said, "All right, then you be one of those brainless people!"
Now I have come to learn that inside weightlifting there is heart involved. That is why so many world figures, university professors and so forth, come to be lifted, because they see that what we are doing is all heart, all heart.
This weightlifting has connected the spiritual and the physical. That is why we have been so successful. Over 7,000 people I have now lifted. Our programme is called "Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart." Two simple words are most important: 'lift' and 'oneness'. We all want to be lifted. How? On the strength of oneness.
So here the physical and the spiritual can go together, of course if we get unconditional Grace from the highest Absolute Supreme. Otherwise, some individuals are only for the physical; spirituality is not involved in their life. And again, others care only for the spiritual aspect. Either they are afraid of uniting the physical and the spiritual, or it is beneath their dignity to enter into the physical. There are very few spiritual figures who try to combine the spiritual and the physical. I happen to be one of those.
Spirit and matter must go together. Without matter, divinity cannot be manifested. The physical is the foundation. Similarly, without spirituality, matter is useless. Matter and spirit need each other. Matter, let us say, is the temple and the spirit is the shrine. Again, inside matter, spirit is always inherent. Otherwise, spirit could not have manifested if it was not already there.
Our philosophy is that we do not have to become a world champion, but physical fitness is of paramount importance, along with our prayers and meditations. If we are wise, then let us pay most sincere attention to the physical, the way we pay attention to the spiritual. Otherwise, physical ailments will not allow us to pray and meditate. The physical and the spiritual must go side by side.
True, I am saying they must go side by side, but I will never tell you to give fifty per cent of your attention to the spiritual and fifty per cent to the physical — never, never! Eighty per cent you can take as spiritual and twenty per cent as physical. But if you give one hundred per cent to the spiritual, then your physical existence will be totally useless, and if you give one hundred per cent to the physical, then you will be bankrupt spiritually.
I have some students who give much more importance to the physical and neglect the spiritual. I feel sorry. They are making an Himalayan blunder. Luckily there are very few of that type. And again, there are others who pay no attention either to the physical or to the spiritual. They are wallowing in the pleasures of lethargy. Luckily I am not one of those. So I beg them to at least pay attention to one of the two, either the physical or the spiritual.
There should be a balance, balance, balance.
Published in The Inner Meaning of Sport
April 28
Sri Chinmoy meets with American artist Peter Max at the Jharna-Kala Art Gallery in New York.
April 28
Sri Chinmoy greets two elderly customers at a disciple-run bakery in New York.
April 28
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the State University of New York in New Paltz, NY.
April 28
Sri Chinmoy paints ‘Supreme, I Bow To Thee’, a 9’ x 16’ canvas, in New York.
April 28
Reality
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
There are three realities: God, Soul and Life. God is the Transcendental Reality. Soul is the Inmost Reality. Life is the Universal Reality. God reveals the soul; the soul reveals life. God the Reality lives in His creative Will. Soul the Reality lives in its sustaining Will. Life the Reality lives in its fulfilling Will.
Again, God's Realisation embodies His creative Will. His Concern shelters the soul's sustaining Will. His Compassion feeds the life's fulfilling Will.
Reality is the constant and dynamic process of our inner evolution. The Reality of the past is growing. The Reality of the present is soaring. The Reality of the future will be glowing.
Real Reality is not an escape from life. It is the acceptance of life, the expression of life and the interpretation of life. When we accept life, we become divine warriors. When we express life, we become conscious representatives of God. When we interpret life, we become God's eternal pride.
Reality is at once the expansion of our human consciousness and the essence of our divine consciousness. Human consciousness shakes hands with possibility and ability. Divine consciousness embraces faith and surrender. The flowering of human consciousness is Realisation. The flowering of divine consciousness is Manifestation. The human consciousness thought that God was unknowable. Now it feels that God is merely unknown. Soon it will realise that God is unmistakably and unreservedly knowable. The divine consciousness knows that there was nothing, there is nothing and there can be nothing other than God.
Faith is the simple, direct, effective and complete form of Reality. Doubt is the complex, indirect, ineffective and incomplete form of Reality. Faith is God-comprehension. Faith is God-description. Doubt is Truth-detention. Doubt is life-suffocation.
Reality's unity is God's existence.
Reality's multiplicity is God's experience.
Reality's singularity is God the Eternal Lover.
Reality's plurality is God the Eternal Love.
Reality's Time-age is Eternity.
Reality's Experience-age is Infinity.
Reality's Realisation-age is Immortality.
Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind.
Sri Chinmoy writes 360 poems in 24 hours, which are published the very next day as The Goal Is Won, in Jamaica, New York.
A Seeker’s Conversation with his Inner Pilot
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 7:30 p.m at St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York
A seeker’s conversation with his Inner Pilot, his Beloved Lord, the Absolute Supreme:
My sweet Lord, the world disappoints me. The world fails me. How is it that I still love the world?
“My child, you love the world precisely because you see Me, Your Beloved Supreme, as preparation today; but tomorrow you will see Me as satisfaction. Inside the disappointment, inside the failure, you see only one thing and that is My own growth and evolution. Therefore, you love the world.”
My Lord Supreme, I have tried to please You with love, devotion and surrender, but I have failed. If I start the journey all over again, that is to say, if I make friends with sloth and inertia on the physical plane, with aggression and impurity on the vital plane, with doubt and suspicion on the mental plane, and with insecurity and timidity on the psychic plane, do You think Your Compassion will then overflow for my sad failure? Do You think You will show me Your unconditional Compassion because of my most deplorable failure?
“No, My child, I shall not. Do not go back. Walk along the right road. It will eventually lead you to your destined goal. Even if you fail all the time to run, even if you fail to march, even if you fail to walk, even if you fail to crawl, even if, because of your lack of receptivity, you have to sleep on the road, do not go back, do not march backward. The goal is always ahead. If the world fails you, if the world disappoints you, if you feel that you have failed yourself, if you feel that you are totally lost, if you feel that you have disappointed Me, then I assure you, I shall grant you, time and again, chance after chance. Also, those who have failed you will be given countless opportunities to please the supreme Reality in you, as you will be granted countless opportunities to please the supreme Reality in them. Do not give up. Once you start walking along the road of spirituality, do not give up. Only give up one thing: expectation. For today’s expectation becomes tomorrow’s frustration, and the day after it is transformed into total destruction.
“Do not expect anything from the world. Do not expect anything from Me. Do not expect anything from yourself. Just dive deep within. Your very acceptance of the spiritual life, your very willingness to walk along the path, is more than enough satisfaction. There are millions and billions of people on earth who are not awakened and who do not feel the necessity to be awakened. You are awakened. This is more than enough. What else is needed will eventually be given: that is, illumination.
“My creation started with Vision. This Vision is bound to be followed by illumination and inside illumination what will loom large is satisfaction. Do not give up the spiritual life; only give up expectation-life if you really want satisfaction in every plane of your existence — the physical, vital, mental and psychic.”
Published in Wisdom-Waves in New York, part 2
April 27
Amrita Amrita Amrita
Lyrics:
Amrita amrita amrita
Tumi atmar chira parichita
Amrita amrita amrita
Mor hridayer ankhi kusumita
Translation:
Nectar-delight, nectar-delight, nectar-delight!
I have known you through Eternity.
Nectar-delight, nectar-delight, nectar-delight!
You are my heart’s eye fully blossomed.
Published in Illumination-Song and Liberation-Dance, Part 4
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the 27th of 50 concerts he gives to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence.
April 27
The first Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run begins at Battery Park in New York.