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Our Peace is Within

The third of Sri Chinmoy’s talks on Yoga
at this home in Brooklyn

No price is too great to pay for our inner peace. Peace is the harmonious control of life. It is vibrant with life-energy. It is a power that easily transcends all our worldly knowledge. Yet it is not separate from our earthly existence. If we open the right avenues within, this peace can be felt here and now.

Peace is eternal. It is never too late to have peace. Time is always ripe for that. We can make our life truly fruitful, if we are not cut off from our source which is the Peace of Eternity.

The greatest misfortune that can come to a human being is to lose his inner peace. No outer force can rob him of it. It is his own thoughts, his own actions that rob him of it.

Our greatest protection is not in our material achievements and resources. All the treasure of the world is emptiness to our soul divine. Our greatest protection is in our soul's communion with the all-nourishing and all-fulfilling Peace. Our soul lives in peace and lives for peace. If we live a life of peace, we are ever enriched and never impoverished. Unhorizoned is our inner peace; like the boundless sky, it encompasses all.

Long have we struggled, much have we suffered, far have we travelled. But the face of peace is still denied to us. We can discover it if ever the train of our desires loses itself in the Will of the Lord Supreme.

Peace is life. Peace is Bliss eternal. Worries — mental, vital and physical — do exist. But it is up to us whether we accept them or reject them. To be sure, they are not inevitable facts of life. Since our Almighty Father is All-Peace, our common heritage is peace. It is a Himalayan blunder when we widen the broadway of future repentance by misusing and neglecting the golden opportunities that are presented to us. We must resolve here and now that amidst all our daily activities we shall throw our heart and soul into the sea of Peace. He is mistaken who thinks that peace will, on its own, enter into his life at the end of his life's journey. The hope of achieving peace without meditation and spiritual discipline is to expect water in the desert.

To have peace of mind, prayer is essential. Now, how to pray? With tears in our hearts. Where to pray? In a lonely place. When to pray? The moment our inner being wants us to pray. Why to pray? This is the question of questions. We have to pray if we want our desires or aspirations to be fulfilled by God. What can we expect from God beyond this? We can expect Him to make us understand everything, everything in nothing and nothing in everything, the Full in the Void and the Void in the Full.

We must always discriminate. We shall have to feel that the outer world which is attracting our attention is constantly fleeting. To have something everlasting, to attain to a rocklike foundation in life, we shall have to turn toward God. There is no alternative. And there is no better moment to take that turn than when we feel most helpless.

To feel oneself helpless is good.
Better is it to cultivate the spirit of self-surrender.
Best is it to be the conscious instrument of God.

Everything depends on the mind, consciously or unconsciously, including the search for peace. The function of the mind is to remove the cloud of doubt. The function of purity in the mind is to destroy the teeming clouds of worldliness and the ties of Ignorance. If there is no purity of the mind, there is no sustained success in the spiritual life.

We own peace only after we have totally stopped finding fault with others. We shall have to feel the whole world as our very own. When we observe others' mistakes, we enter into their imperfections. This does not help us in the least. Strangely enough, the deeper we plunge, the clearer it becomes to us that the imperfections of others are our own imperfections, but in different bodies and minds. Whereas if we think of God, His Compassion and His Divinity enlarge our inner vision of truth. We must come in the fulness of our spiritual realisation to accept humanity as one family.

We must not allow our past to torment and destroy the peace of our heart. Our good and divine actions can easily counteract our past bad and undivine actions. If sin has the power to make us weep, meditation has undoubtedly the power to give us joy, to endow us with the Divine Wisdom.

Again to pray to God for peace with full concentration and singleness of devotion even for five minutes is more important than to spend long hours in carefree and easygoing meditation.

Our peace is within. And this peace is the basis of our life, so from today let us resolve to fill our minds and hearts with the tears of devotion, the foundation of peace. If our inner basis is solid, then no matter how high we raise the superstructure, danger can never threaten us. For peace is below, peace is above, peace is within, peace is without.

Published in AUM – Vol. 1, No.12, July 27, 1966

The Existence of God

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at North Idaho Junior College, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Here we are all seekers. Some of us may not be as sincere as others. Some of us may be curiosity-seekers. Some of us, at times, may be doubters. Some, at times, may be atheists. Yet we are all seekers. Just because we are seekers, one day — at God's choice Hour — we shall realise God.

The motto of the state of Idaho is "Let It Live Forever". We know that the human body does not live forever. It exists only for sixty, seventy, or eighty years, and then its role is over. But there is something within us that does exist forever, and that is the soul. Just because we are seekers, we do believe in the soul.

How is it that the soul exists forever and not the body? The soul exists forever precisely because the soul is the direct representative of God on earth. The soul, from its very beginning, has embodied the message of Divinity, Eternity, Infinity and Immortality, whereas the body has not. The soul exists forever because the soul is an immortal part of its ultimate Source: God, the Eternal Pilot.

Our next question is: does God exist? The atheist in us says, "No, God does not exist. God does not and cannot exist; therefore, I don't need Him." The agnostic in us says, "I doubt it, I doubt it. And since I am not even sure of God's existence, why should I pay attention to God?" The desiring man in us immediately says, "Yes, God exists. I can see Him; I can feel Him. When? When my desires are fulfilled! At that time, I imagine God according to my sweet fancy. But when my desires are not fulfilled, then God does not exist for me. And if I see that others' desires are being fulfilled and not mine, then I may say that God exists for them but not for me."

Now, the aspiring man in us also has something to say with regard to God's existence. The aspiring man in us says, "God exists even though I cannot prove it to the world at large. I see and feel His Presence, and I know a day will come when I will be able to bring Him to the fore and show Him to the world at large." When we become one with the aspiring man, something within us tells us that God exists, and this something is our inner urge, our inner cry.

As a human being, one moment I can be an atheist, the next moment an agnostic, the next a desiring man or an aspiring man. I can also be a dreamer and can dream all the time. Now, when I dream of God, I feel that although God exists, He is far away — very, very far. I see a yawning gulf between my dream-boat and my reality-shore. I can also be a lover. When I become a lover of God, I see God as nearer than my eyes and dearer than my heart. Or I can become a server. When I serve God, it is because I get the utmost joy in serving God. There are many things I have done, many things I have said, many things I have offered in my life, but nothing has given me real and lasting joy. Only my service to God has given me everlasting joy; therefore, the server in me feels that God's existence is for my own happiness.

As a seeker, I have three friends: concentration, meditation and contemplation. I ask them, "Friends, have you seen God?" They immediately say, "Yes, we have seen God. Not only have we seen God, but also we can make you see God." When I ask them how, my friends tell me that they work together, one after the other, in a successive manner. They say that they are like three rungs of a ladder. My concentration friend tells me, "Just take any object and concentrate on it. Don't allow any wave of thought to enter into your mind, whether good or bad, divine or undivine. Make your mind absolutely thoughtless." I listen to my concentration friend and abide by his dictates. Then my meditation friend offers me his advice. He says, "Your heart is full of fear, impurity, insecurity and ignorance. Just empty it, empty it." I empty my heart, and immediately I feel tremendous joy, for then the Eternal Guest, God, comes in and sits on His Throne inside the inmost recesses of my heart. Finally, my contemplation friend tells me, "When you contemplate, try to feel in the beginning that you are playing a game of hide-and-seek with an intimate friend. This moment you hide and he seeks; the next moment he hides and you seek. Now, how long can you play hide-and-seek? For fifteen minutes, half an hour, an hour. Then it is all over and you come together as real friends, intimate friends, freely and totally revealed to each other. This is what happens between you and God when you contemplate."

I ask my three friends who has taught them all about God. They tell me that it was their parents who showed them the Face of God and taught them all about God. I ask them who their parents are. They say that their parents are aspiration and will-power. Aspiration is their mother; will-power is their father. When we become one with our aspiration, with our aspiring heart, we acquire knowledge from our conscious identification and oneness with the ultimate Reality. And just as our heart's identification with the supreme Reality can show us God's existence in Heaven, so, too, can our soul's light show us God's existence on earth. And what is our soul's light? It is our will-power. In the spiritual life, aspiration and will-power go together. We need both mother and father.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is our inner cry for the Highest. And what does aspiration do? Aspiration helps us to minimise our desires. Once our desires are diminished, we feel peace within and joy without.

Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante
anandena jatani jivanti
anandam prayantyabhisam visanti

Thousands of years ago the Vedic seers of ancient India sang this message. "From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow. At the end of our journey's close, into Delight we retire."

What is will-power? Will-power is something that expedites our journey. We know that we have a starting point and a destination. If we take the help of an Indian bullock cart to reach our destination, it will take us years and years. But if we make use of a modern jet plane, it will be only a matter of a few hours. Similarly, with our adamantine will-power we accelerate our progress. While we are proceeding along the path, concentration enters into us like a divine bullet, energises us and makes us feel that we can run the fastest to our goal. Meditation tells us that we have to dive the deepest to find our goal. Finally, contemplation tells us that we do not have to go anywhere. We do not have to run; we do not have to go deep within. We can stay where we are. Only we must give to God what we have. What we have is soulful gratitude to the Inner Pilot. We have gratitude because we feel that our aspiration and our power of receptivity have come directly from God.

Receptivity grows only when gratitude flows. God's existence can be proved only when our receptivity is complete, for if we cannot receive Him, no matter how many times He appears before us we will not be able to claim Him as our very own. And unless and until we can claim God as our very own, we will not be able to prove His existence.

Right now we are in the finite and we are for the finite. We find it very difficult to imagine the Infinite as our very own. But this is the limitation of the physical mind. There is also an intuitive mind, an illumined mind, but right now we do not have this mind. The physical mind always wants to experience the truth by cutting it into little pieces. For the mind to accept God or any reality as a whole is impossible. The mind limits; the mind binds. But the heart does not do that. The heart expands; the heart liberates. The heart wants to see the truth in its entirety; it wants to feel, possess and claim the truth as its very own. How does the heart do this? The heart is very wise. It secretly enters into the room of its elder brother, its most illumined brother, the soul, and brings back to its own abode boundless light. When the aspiring heart is inundated with light, whatever it sees it accepts in its entirety. Eventually there comes a time when the physical mind enters into the heart, which takes it into the soul. At that time the mind becomes liberated, just as the heart has been liberated by the light of the soul, and the soul has been liberated by the Consciousness-light of the Supreme.

We are all seekers. For us God does exist. It is only a matter of time before we become consciously one with Him. He who has already left the starting point will naturally reach the goal sooner than those who are still lingering behind. But spirituality is not a matter of competition. If we have to compete at all, then let us compete with the fear, doubt, anxiety, jealousy and other negative forces within ourselves. Let us defeat them, which means transform them. If we can transform our fear into courage, our doubt into faith, our insecurity into security, our impurity into purity and our imperfection into perfection, that is a worthwhile success and a significant progress. In the spiritual life we give all importance to progress, because progress is our soul's constant necessity. We are part of an eternal progress. From the unmanifest we entered into the mineral kingdom, then into the plant kingdom, then from the plant to the animal and from the animal to the human. Now we are trying to enter into the divine kingdom. When we think of ourselves as a song of progress and not as a song of success, then God-realisation is within our sure reach.

Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 4

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The Quintessence of Mysticism

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the American University, Washington, D.C.

There are three principal paths that lead to God-Realisation: the path of Selfless Service, the path of Love and Devotion and the path of Knowledge and Wisdom. Raja Yoga (Mysticism) is a significant aspect of the Yoga of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga). The Knowledge Supreme is something infinitely more than mere philosophical knowledge. Mysticism is experience, the direct and intimate experience of Truth. After covering a great distance in the path of knowledge, philosophy gets tired and takes rest. Mysticism begins when and where philosophy ends. The seers, after having personally experienced the knowledge of Truth, revealed it to the world at large.

The seers sing:

Him I have known, the Being Supreme,
Refulgent, luminous as the Sun beyond darkness,
Far beyond the embrace of devouring gloom.

The seers teach us that the Transcendental Reality and the All-Embodying Existence are one and the same.

A mystic takes unity and diversity as one. Further, he sees unity in diversity. He tells the world that the One and the Many are one. The One is Many in its universal form. The Many are One in their transcendental form. In our spiritual life, we come across two significant words: occultism and mysticism. Occultism is secrecy and cries for secrecy. It wants to house everything in top secrecy. Mysticism is not like that. Mysticism is ready to offer its achievement, transcendental Knowledge, to all who cry for it.

The difference between a philosopher and a mystic lies in the fact that a philosopher, with the greatest difficulty, sees from a distance, and rather imperfectly, the body of Truth, whereas a mystic enters into the very soul of Truth at his sweet will and can live there as long as he wants. And, also, he is permitted by the Supreme to bring to the fore the vast wealth of the soul and share it with the seekers of Truth. Mysticism affirms that the Knowledge of the Divine is universal.

Let us for a moment enter into the lore of the supernal mystery of the Vak in the Vedas. Vak is The Word. Vak at once embodies and reveals the Truth. In its embodiment of Truth, it receives creative inspiration in infinite measure from the Supreme. In its revelation of Truth, it offers to mankind the Supreme, the Liberator Supreme. Vak is the connecting link between two worlds: the world that has not yet realised and fulfilled itself and the world that has already realised and is fulfilling itself.

Mysticism has a language of its own. Its name is Intuition. In it, no mind or mental analysis can ever exist. A mystic sits on the wings of the Intuition-Bird and flies to the Ultimate Real. Intuition reveals the perfect oneness of the Transcendental Vision and Absolute Reality. A mystic is sincere enough to tell the Truth. He says that it is next to impossible for him to interpret his inner experience. No word or thought can do justice to his experience. At this point the Vedic seer cries out, “What shall I speak, what verily shall I think?” The poor mind and senses are no longer alive, having collapsed in their race toward the Unknown. Not for them the Ultimate Mystery of the Universe. Not for them the Knowledge of the Beyond. Mysticism emphasizes the unity of all souls in the Universal Soul. When we look at the Universe, we see it as the scene of conflict between good and evil, darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge. Needless to say, this struggle commenced long before the appearance of man and still continues. The light works in and through the aspiring soul; the darkness works in and through the unaspiring soul. The real transformation of human nature comes not through an austere, ascetic life or a complete withdrawal from the world, but through a gradual and total Illumination of life. And for that, one needs aspiration. Aspiration, and aspiration alone, is the precursor of this Illumination.

A mystical experience is the aspirant’s inner certitude of Truth. This certitude rests on revelation. Revelation is inner authority. Inner authority is final. And who has this authority? Not he who is a victim of merciless logic, but he who has had the experience and who has now grown into the experience itself. Logic is the reasoning and reasoned truth, which is the pride of the finite. Mysticism is the revealing and revealed Truth, which is the pride of the Infinite. If we believe in mysticism, then we must realise that the Ultimate Truth is not only above reason, but contrary to reason. If we believe something through reason, we enter onto the life-torturing path of plurality, the unconscious plurality of separateness. But when we believe something through our inner, mystic faith, we enter onto the life-giving and life-fulfilling path of unity’s Transcendental Reality.

Martin Luther vehemently distrusted the effectiveness of reason. Nor did he have any faith in ritual or in mere work as a means to salvation. In his mysticism, we see the smiling and convincing face of faith. Faith alone can bring about salvation. Faith alone has the key to salvation.

Existence and essence live together. They are one. In the thirteenth century, Meister Johannes Eckhart dynamically asserted this view. We have to realise that essence is singularly manifest in the divine qualities of the human soul, whereas existence is gloriously manifest in the human qualities of the divine soul. The end of the journey for the human soul is complete union with God. The end of the journey for the divine soul is the absolute manifestation of God.

Mysticism tells us that God-Realisation can be attained not by the practise of ideas, but by the constant feeling of oneness with Truth. An idea, at best, indicates the passive aspect of the sense-world because a mental formation is directly or indirectly caught by the sense-world. But the feeling of oneness with Truth easily transcends the sense-world and indicates and ascertains the active and dynamic aspect of life’s evolving process in the flowing stream of Eternity.

A mystic tells the world that God’s Body is Wisdom and God’s Soul is Love. A worldly man feels that his body and his physical activities fashion his soul. A mystic smilingly says that it is the soul that molds the body and transforms it into the unlimited consciousness-light of the soul.

According to Santayana, “Mysticism is not a religion, but a religious disease.” Santayana is perfectly right when he says that mysticism is not a religion. In my opinion, mysticism is the highest aspiration that religion embodies. But as for “religious disease,” I can never agree with Santayana in his profound realisation.

I want to say with all the spiritual confidence at my command that mysticism serves as a panacea; not only for those who cry to see their Beloved God’s Face, but also for those who are afraid of seeing God’s Face in His Omniscience and His Omnipotence; and even for those who are at once mercilessly and unpardonably unbelievers and disbelievers in the very existence of God.

Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind

Today is a Good and Special Day

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 3 p.m. at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

Today is a very good and special day for me to think of God. Today is a very good and special day for me to pray to God. Today is a very good and special day for me to meditate on God. Today is a very good and special day for me to love God. Today is a very good and special day for me to speak to God.

Why? Why? Why? Because today nature is extra peaceful and extra soulful. Today nature is lovingly and unreservedly helping me both inwardly and outwardly in my life of aspiration and dedication.

Today, while I am thinking of God, I feel that there is no necessity on my part to think of anything or anybody else. I feel that from now on I shall be thinking of God alone. Indeed, it is a great accomplishment.

Today, while I am praying to God, I no longer feel attached to the possession-life, but lovingly drawn to the illumination-life.

Today, while I am meditating on God, I clearly see that my self-giving is nothing short of my God-becoming.

Today, while I am loving God, I feel that there is nobody on earth who knows what love truly is. I don’t blame anybody, for in order to love others one must become love itself. It is God alone who has that capacity and who knows what love is. Therefore, I have decided from today to love only God. He is at once the Love divine, the Lover eternal and the Beloved immortal.

Today, while I am speaking to God, I feel and see clearly that each individual human being is in the process of evolution; I feel and see clearly that each individual human being is an evolving God, a realising God, a manifesting God and a fulfilling God. Each individual human being is another living and perfect God of tomorrow.

Published in Wisdom-Waves in New York, part 2

Three Friends: Inspiration, Aspiration and Realisation

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 7:30 p.m. at SUNY at Brockport, Brockport, New York

My three old friends, my three good friends, my three intimate friends, my three indispensable friends, my three inseparable friends are inspiration, aspiration and realisation.

My inspiration-friend always helps me run far, farther and farthest and, at the same time, fast, faster and fastest. My aspiration-friend helps me fly high, higher and highest and, at the same time, fast, faster and fastest. My realisation-friend helps me dive deep, deeper and deepest and, at the same time, fast, faster and fastest.

At the end of my journey’s close, my inspiration-friend shows me my Beloved Lord’s illumining Feet. At the end of my journey’s close, my aspiration-friend shows me my Beloved Lord’s fulfilling Head. At the end of my journey’s close, my realisation-friend shows me my Beloved Lord’s immortalising Heart.

Right from my spiritual journey’s start, my inspiration-friend has accelerated my progress. My aspiration-friend has created a new world of all-illumining dawn for me. My realisation-friend has liberated me from the meshes of ignorance.

With inspiration my Beloved Supreme created the entire Universe. With aspiration my Beloved Supreme wants to become His Universe. With realisation my Beloved Supreme wants to sing the song of perfection in His entire creation.

My inspiration-friend is always for a new creation, a new realisation, a new manifestation and a new fulfilment. My aspiration friend creates inside the new creation the message of transcendence, constant transcendence. Today’s ultimate height is tomorrow’s starting point: this is what my aspiration-friend teaches me. Finally, my realisation-friend tells me that these divine realities — the new creation and the message of self-transcendence — are not something that I acquire in the process of evolution. No, these are something that I eternally am. They are my own Eternity’s Divinity.

Published in Wisdom-Waves in New York, part 2

Sound and Silence

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sound and silence are two Vision-Realities of God. Silence is the cry of Eternity. Sound is the smile of Infinity. They are equally powerful and equally immortal.

God created His universe with His Silence-Light. God maintains His universe with His Sound-Delight.

The transcendental Silence and the universal Sound complement each other. The transcendental Silence offers its purity-breath to the universal Sound. The universal Sound offers its beauty-life to the transcendental Silence.

Silence we need to realise who God is. Sound we need to tell the world what God does and where He is. Silence we need to feel God’s Compassion-Light. Sound we need to feel God’s Justice-Light. Silence we need to feel the Power-Heart of God. Sound we need to feel the Power-Feet of God. 

In sound-life we experiment. It is through experiment-life that we eventually reach perfection. In silence-life we experience. It is through experience-life that we eventually achieve complete satisfaction.

Silence reigns supreme when my aspiration-life feels that I am eternally of my Beloved Supreme. Sound reigns supreme when my dedication-life feels that I am eternally for my Beloved Supreme.

My sound-life expresses what I have: my sleepless love of God. My silence-life embodies what I am: my eternal hunger for God.

When I run along Eternity’s Road with the sound-life, God’s Compassion-Eye protects me, guides me and leads me. When I run along Eternity’s Road with the silence-life, God’s Satisfaction-Heart feeds me, energises me and helps me reach my destined Goal.

The transcendental God blesses me when I swim in the sea of silence. The universal God blesses me when I grow into the roaring waves of the sound-sea.

My searching mind has countless questions. I devotedly pray to my Lord Supreme and soulfully meditate on Him for all the answers. My Lord Supreme tells me that not only does my silence-heart have all the answers, but my silence-heart itself is the answer, the only answer.

O seeker, ask your mind to cry and cry for unthinking silence. God will definitely answer your prayer. And He will give your life something more: His unsinking Sound.

Sound is the unparalleled pride of newness in a seeker’s aspiration-life and dedication-life. Silence is the unparalleled pride of fulness in a seeker’s aspiration-life and dedication-life.

When silence and sound become inseparably one in a seeker’s life, God gives him a new life-perfection and shows him His own Heart-Satisfaction.

Earth has sound. Heaven has silence. My Lord Supreme has salvation, illumination and liberation. And what do I have? I have a gratitude-heart.

Published in Sound and Silence, part 2