given by Sri Chinmoy
at Public School 86, Queens, New York
the 11th of 39 concerts held in honour of Swami Vivekananda
Today’s Peace Concert I am devotedly dedicating to Swami Vivekananda, whose momentous utterance runs: “First learn to obey; the Command will come by itself.”
Published in Vivekananda: Divinity's Soul-Rainbow and Humanity’s Heart-Blossom
Sri Chinmoy meets with Lindsay Clennell, a film writer and producer, at Annam Brahma Restaurant in Queens, New York, NY,
Sri Chinmoy lifts Sam Spanier (left), one of his original sponsors who assisted him in coming to America in 1964; and Sam’s friend Eric Hughes (right), who also assisted Sri Chinmoy in his early days in America, at Matagiri Ashram in Woodstock, New York.
To celebrate his tennis anniversary Sri Chinmoy plays and wins 100 games in 3 days in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy meets ultra-marathon runners Don Ritchie (centre), the world-record holder for 50-mile and 100-mile track races; Frank Bozanich (left), US record holder for 100 kilometres, at Progress-Promise in Jamaica, New York.
Later on the same day, Sri Chinmoy also meets with Cahit Yeter, the masters world-record holder for the 100-mile road race, at Progress-Promise.
Sri Chinmoy performs 130 crunch abdomen-ups with 302 lbs in 4 min. 22.83 sec. (in 5 sets with brief intervals) at his home in New York. It is part of the 65 ‘Rainbow Dreamers’ challenges he set himself to do before his 65th birthday in August.
Sri Chinmoy performs a series of Rainbow-Dreamers challenges, which he had set himself: 7,000 crunch sit-ups in 1 hr. 19 min. 42 sec.; 130 crunch abdomen-ups with 302 lbs in 4 min. 22.83 sec. (in 5 sets with brief intervals); a 1,500-lb. standing calf raise; a 250m walk wearing a 100-lb. vest; a 33” vertical jump onto a platform; a 34” standing jump onto a tape; a 120-lb. single leg-extension; a 200-lb. double leg-extension; a 110-lb. single leg-curl; reciting from memory the names of 25 exotic vegetables and the names and origin of 20 sari fabrics, in Jamaica, New York.
INDWELLING POWERS
Sri Chinmoy beats 65
“Age is in the mind and not in the heart. With determination we can conquer the age barrier and go back to our childlike heart,” Sri Chinmoy declared as he approached 65. The master of understanding through undertaking set out to celebrate by completing 65 challenging events, his “rainbow dreams.” On June 16 he performed eight of them in a row.
He began with 7,000 “crunch” sit-ups — the most demanding kind — completed in 79 minutes without stopping, then proceeded to “abdomen lift” a 302-pound weight 130 times. Among other feats he walked 250 meters wearing a weighted 100-pound vest, lifted 1,500 pounds on a standing calf-raise machine, followed with leg extensions of 120 pounds. Professional muscleman and vegetarian Bill Pearl, five-time winner of the “Mr. Universe” body-building contest, was impressed: “I have been working out for many, many years, and I do leg extensions with 120 pounds with both legs. He is unbelievably strong to do repetitions of 120 pounds with one leg.” Equally-dazzled strongman Lee Haney said, “His feats of strength are a tremendous motivation to people.”
Sri Chinmoy lived much of his early life at Aurobindo Ashram in South India, where he was a star athlete. Soon he abandoned competitiveness for personal self-transcendence. He is known for prodigious achievements in music, writing and art, most recently completing a mind-numbing 5 million drawings of peace birds (if he drew ten a minute, this would take 1,041 eight-hour days). In Bengali-influenced linked words, Sri Chinmoy summarized the impulse behind his indomitable drive: “The old-age bondage-limitations will return to the childhood-freedom-dreams.”
Beyond limits: 130 abdominal lifts on stage
Hinduism Today, page 27, December 1996
Sri Chinmoy meets with Lindsay Clennell, a film writer and producer, at Annam Brahma Restaurant in Queens, New York. There, Sri Chinmoy signs one of his drawings for Mr. Clennell. Here are excerpts from their conversation:
Mr. Clennell: Thank you very much. This drawing is a real inspiration. The power of inspiration that you have for people is very, very important.
Sri Chinmoy: I take it as God’s unconditional Compassion acting in and through me. I am trying to be of service to Him lovingly, devotedly, prayerfully and soulfully. I tell God, “I want only to be Your football. Kick me whenever You want to, and as hard as possible. My only joy is to be kicked by You.” So He is kicking me right and left, and that is how I am getting joy. These paintings are coming in and through His blessingful Kicks. God asked me where I want to be. He said, “Do you want to look at My Eyes or at My Feet?” I said, “I get more joy by looking at Your Feet than by looking at Your Eyes.” In the Mahabharata, our Indian epic, the Kauravas wanted to be by the head of Krishna, but the Pandavas wanted to be at the feet of Krishna. In my case, I get infinitely more joy by being at God’s Feet. I prefer the devotional aspect of life. The other day I was reading the Puranas, which is one of India’s sacred books. There Krishna was saying, “I am ready to give you liberation because it is easier to give you liberation than to give you devotion.” In liberation, the seeker goes his own way; the bird flies away. But if there is devotion, then there is a magnetic pull between the Master and disciple — the sweetest feeling — and the Master plays with the disciple-bird in the sweetest way. So I feel that the sweetness of devotion far surpasses the grandeur of liberation.
Mr. Clennell: That is a very beautiful thing to say.
Sri Chinmoy: I want sweetness. If there is a beautiful flower, I will like it more than a huge building. What good does it do for me to see a huge building with many rooms? But if I see a beautiful flower, immediately I say, “How beautiful, how pure, how simple, how sweet!” These are the qualities that I want to grow in my life: sweetness, purity, simplicity. The mind is drawn to vastness, but the heart always wants to see something very, very sweet and affectionate.
That is why I tell God, “Kick me as hard as possible. Then only can I claim You as my own. If You give me freedom, I will only misuse it. I will become like a bull in a china shop and destroy everything. But the more You kick me, the purer I will become.” It is like the gold pot that becomes bright, brighter, brightest each time the goldsmith strikes it.
Mr. Clennell: What you have said is very striking for me, and it is a great comfort. There is something that I wanted to ask before I came to see you. You have drawn three million birds. This is genuinely inspiring, but it is also quite extreme. Could you explain it to me?
Sri Chinmoy: The mind will say that I am a greedy person. I am not satisfied with a little food; I want to eat voraciously — a larger than the largest quantity. But if you take it in a different way, if you see these things in terms of God’s Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, then do my three million birds have any significance?
We are birthless and deathless pilgrims walking along Eternity’s Road. Whatever we have in the inner world, the soul’s world, is infinite, eternal and immortal, and these inner qualities and capacities we try to bring to the fore. When we are in the body, mind or vital, everything is so limited; we are caged in a prison cell. But when we are in the soul, which is the direct representative of God, we are dealing with the limitless.
What the Supreme is trying to do is to let the finite in us, the little brother in us, try to follow the big brother in us, which is the soul. So our outer life is trying to run side by side with our inner life. Our inner life is flowing eternally in and through us, and we are trying to bring to the fore its boundless capacities. When I am drawing three million birds, at that time I am trying to enter into the unlimited Source, which we all have within us. I try to bring this limitless capacity to the fore.
The mind is always telling us that we can only reach a certain height, but how do we know that this is the ultimate? The mind tells us that we can only run 100 metres, but you see that people have already run a thousand miles. God’s Vision is infinitely larger than reality. When God created reality, God the Creator became God the creation. But God is infinitely, infinitely larger than His creation-universe. God the Creator, the One who had the Vision, is infinitely greater than His creation. You are a film producer. You can create films, but what you produce cannot create you.
Mr. Clennell: Yes, it makes very good sense. It is about spirituality and limitlessness. It is a definition. By breaking down the barriers and considering three million birds as something possible to draw, one is asserting spiritual reality. Is that correct?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes. I have to feel that I am not a swimming pool or a lake. God wants me to be a murmuring, running river flowing from the inner Source and carrying that Source to the outer reality. If I want to be an expression of the Source, then I cannot separate my inner and outer existence. The main thing is to bring to the fore the limitless potentialities that I have deep within. From this point of view, even to speak of three million birds is binding.
Spirituality is not something abnormal or unnatural. Spirituality is more normal and natural than anything else. God is limitless, infinite, immortal, and I want to become consciously part and parcel of His Existence so that I can serve Him in His own Way. At the same time, the One who is infinite, eternal and immortal is trying to express Himself in and through my limitations. He says, “Now I want to express Myself in and through your artistic life. I want to express Myself in and through your poetic life, your sports life.” But He can do it only according to my receptivity. A mother gives some candies to a three-year-old child and tells him to distribute them to his friends. Then, when she sees that the child is doing well, she gives him lots of sweets so that he can feed hundreds of people. In this way the mother is offering the sweets to others in and through her child.
I always say that the Supreme is expressing Himself in and through me, according to my receptivity. I am not the doer. I cannot claim these three million birds as my own and I do not want to claim them as such. I am grateful to the Supreme for having given me the golden opportunity to serve Him in His own Way. My poetry, my music, my art and everything else that I do are only expressions of Somebody who is operating in and through me. At every moment He is seeing how much purity I have, how much humility I have, how much sincerity I have, how much eagerness I have. According to these, He is able to express Himself in and through me.
Some people may say, “What is he doing? He is an artist, he is a musician, he is singer. Why is he not taking one subject and doing the utmost with it?” But I do not see it that way. A piano has many keys. Why should the pianist always stay on one key? If he plays only one key, one note, how can he produce the cosmic melody, the universal melody? Similarly, I feel that art is one key, poetry is another key, meditation is a third key and sports is a fourth key. If you strike the different keys, then you produce nice music. Otherwise, it will not sound good.
If I want to be a flower inside God’s Heart-Garden, or if I want to be a flower placed at the Feet of God, how can I have only one petal? If a flower is to be beautiful, it must have at least a few petals. If I bring you one petal on a stem, you will say, “Is it a flower? This is silly.”
My body has hands, legs, eyes and so forth. Shall I give importance only to my hands? Shall I make them stronger than the strongest and not pay any attention to my legs? And if I pay attention only to my legs and discard the mind, then who will tell me to walk? Again, if my eyes are not functioning, then how are my legs going to take me anywhere? As the body is integral, so life itself must be an integral whole.
Mr. Clennell: That is a lovely explanation. That makes something about you very clear, and I really appreciate your saying that.
Sri Chinmoy: Because you are practising yoga, I am able to speak to you in this heart-to-heart way. I am coming to you with my heart — with what I have and what I am. You are also accepting what I have and what I am. There is a great difference between ‘have’ and ‘am’. When ‘have’ and ‘am’ become one, then only can we become a real instrument of God.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 3
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the Catholic Chaplaincy, University of Glasgow, in Glasgow, Scotland
We here are all seekers, seekers of the Infinite Truth. Although we do not belong to the same class, although our standard may not be the same, we are all studying in the same school. Some are in kindergarten, some are in primary school, some in high school, some in the university. But the name of the school is God’s School, and God is our only teacher. He teaches us two important things: how to illumine our inner life and how to sacrifice our outer life on the strength of our feeling of oneness with the world at large.
In this school, as in other schools, there are quite a few steps. We get six degrees or diplomas. The first diploma is the purification of our nature, the purification of our outer being. The second is salvation, salvation from the world of miseries and tribulations. The third is liberation from the snares of ignorance. The fourth is the realisation of our transcendental Self. The fifth is our revelation of the Absolute. The last and highest degree is our manifestation of the Absolute Supreme. These are the degrees we get in God’s School.
No seekers who want them will be denied these degrees. In the course of time, in the process of our inner evolution, we are bound to get at least the first three degrees. Each seeker, if he is sincere, has to feel that at every moment his life needs discipline — physical discipline, vital discipline, mental discipline, psychic discipline. If there is no discipline, then the individual will make little or no progress. But if there is discipline or self-control, then he can run very fast towards his goal.
Life has to be taken seriously. But if it is taken too seriously, then we will be pulling the Truth or pushing the Truth. By pulling or pushing we cannot achieve the Truth the way the Supreme within us wants us to achieve it. If we take life too seriously, immediately we expect something grand, great and momentous from life; and if we do not get what we want, immediately we feel frustrated. We feel that we are in a prison of futility. Life is fruitless, work is fruitless, everything is fruitless. We have to take life seriously, but if we take it too seriously, then we demand from life something which it is unable to give us immediately. Slow and steady is the answer here. Slowly, steadily, unerringly, we have to carry life towards its destination. We carry life with our aspiration; life carries us with its patience and perseverance in the journey towards the destined goal.
Some people take life very lightly, however. They think that life has nothing to give, so they wallow in the pleasures of ignorance, either consciously and deliberately or unconsciously. We have to know that these people have made friends with absurdity. Each life has come directly from the Highest Absolute. We cannot squander life. We have to feel that each life has a serious meaning of its own. The individual life will eventually be merged in the Cosmic Life. The finite, the light of the finite, the life of the finite, will be merged in the Infinite. We came from the Infinite. Here on earth we play our roles for fifty, sixty or seventy years, and then we depart. Then after a while with a new message, with a higher light, with a stronger power, we once again enter into the world to fulfil the Universal Life which abides in the individual life on earth. If we take life too lightly, if we do not pay enough attention to life, then we are unconsciously or consciously negating our inner possibilities and destroying our inner potentialities.
There is another way of accepting life, a human way. We can feel that we are, after all, human beings and thus are allowed to do certain things. We can feel that the experiences we get from life will eventually lead us to our destination, but since we are human beings, we may remain in the sea of ignorance for as long as we like. We can constantly err and still expect forgiveness from God. This is the human way of accepting life, or taking part in the human drama. But this attitude is also a deplorable mistake. We should feel that we have to come out of ignorance as soon as possible — not by violence, but on the strength of our aspiration. With our inner strength, inner urge, inner life, we must come out of the sea of ignorance.
There is a fourth way. We can take life divinely. Each moment we can feel that there is something called Divinity that is trying to loom large in our life. Every second Divinity wants to come to the fore. But consciously or unconsciously, we are not allowing it to do so. But if we pray and meditate, Divinity gets ample chance to come forward. That is why a sincere seeker, a seeker of the Absolute Truth, meditates daily. He feels the necessity of bringing his own Divinity forward, for in Divinity he feels a real sense of satisfaction.
Each individual seeker is crying for satisfaction. A child gets satisfaction from a piece of candy. A man of desire becomes satisfied when he gets a million dollars. A seeker who has just launched into the spiritual life is satisfied when he gets an iota of Light and Peace. We are all running after satisfaction. But real satisfaction, complete satisfaction, is still a far cry. Complete satisfaction will dawn only when God-manifestation in its highest aspect has taken place on earth. Right now, God-manifestation is taking place in a veiled and unenlightened way. Many, many people have realised God. Many of them have revealed God. But very few have been able to manifest God because they are surrounded by the unenlightened and unaspiring earth-consciousness. Unless and until the full manifestation of the Supreme takes place on earth, no seeker can be completely satisfied.
Realisation is one thing and manifestation is something else. Until manifestation has taken place, perfect Perfection cannot dawn. To climb up the mango tree is realisation. To climb down again with the mangoes and distribute them to those who do not have is revelation. And after the distribution, to make them feel that this mango is Nectar and Immortality, and that it is from each human being’s Immortality that the earth-consciousness will eventually be divinised and fully immortalised — this is manifestation. To climb up the mango tree is great, but it is not enough. We have to climb down again to distribute the mangoes and to make the world aware of their significance. Until we do this, our role is not complete and God will not be satisfied and fulfilled.
Every seeker is playing a significant role. At the very beginning of his journey, he should feel that he is a chosen child of God. If he thinks he is a chosen child of God, then many undivine attributes will automatically drop from his nature. If he can say, “I am a chosen child of God,” immediately he will have the inner courage to vehemently fight and chase away doubt, fear and temptation. Doubt will not be able to tell him that God-realisation is something absurd, or that he does not have the capacity to realise the highest Truth. Fear will leave him at once, because he will feel his oneness with God. The Christ used his Realisation-power to say, “I and my Father are one.” If an aspirant starts saying, “I and my Father are one,” it will be on the strength of his imagination-power. But what today we call imagination will be transformed into reality tomorrow. A scientist imagines the result of an experiment, then he performs it and discovers the reality. Today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality.
We have to start our spiritual journey with imagination. Inside imagination we have to feel our inner cry, which is aspiration, constantly trying to climb high, higher, highest in a never-ending upward journey. We all have this aspiration, so we are bound to realise the highest Truth.
God-realisation is not the sole monopoly of an individual. Many have realised God and many more will realise God, until a day comes when all will have realised the Highest. But there is something called God’s Hour. God’s Hour is the hour chosen by God. Today God is pleased with me. Tomorrow God will be pleased with you. The day after tomorrow He will be pleased with somebody else. The moment He is totally pleased with us, He grants us the boon of boons: God-realisation, God-discovery.
There are some seekers who are weak in their aspiration. I wish to tell them that if their aspiration is weak today, they will not always be doomed to disappointment. Carry on slowly, steadily. If you feel that you are weak, then immediately pray to the Lord, to the Inner Pilot, to offer you shelter. He is bound to give it. The cry of the weak seeker is for shelter and protection, and he can expect to get these from his meditation.
There are some seekers here who are strong, who meditate regularly, devotedly and soulfully. To them I wish to say that what they can and should expect from their meditation is joy, inner joy — the joy that conquers limitations, imperfections, bondage and death. Once one has conquered limitations, imperfections and bondage, one’s inner being will be flooded with immeasurable joy.
When the seeker is cheerful, when he is flooded with inner joy, inner light and inner delight, he must offer something to the Inner Pilot in order to fulfil and manifest Him. That offering is gratitude. He knows that it is the Inner Pilot who has surcharged his inner being with this Peace, Light and Delight in boundless measure. He now wants to manifest the Inner Pilot, the Supreme, on earth, and he does it through gratitude, soulful gratitude, constant gratitude. When he offers gratitude, the power, the quantity, even the quality of his Joy, Light and Delight automatically increase. How can he offer gratitude? He can offer gratitude easily and, at the same time, effectively through constant and conscious surrender of his will to the Will of the Supreme. He has to make himself feel that he is nothing other than an unconditional instrument at the Feet of the Lord Supreme. When he becomes an unconditional instrument of the Lord Supreme, the manifestation of Divinity, the manifestation of Reality, the manifestation of Immortality can and will take place here on earth.
Today we are thinking of God, meditating on God, contemplating on God, with the idea that one day we shall see God face to face. When we finally do see God face to face, we will not be satisfied. At that time we will try to have God as our very own. When we get God as our very own, we will then feel the need of consciously and constantly trying to become God. But it is not we who try; it is God within us who aspires. Today’s man is God unrealised. Tomorrow’s man will be God fully realised.
There is no end to a seeker’s journey. Every day we are surpassing our past achievements and transcending our previous goals. If we pray, if we concentrate, if we meditate, we will feel deep within us that we are constantly transcending ourselves. It is not a barrier that we are transcending, but an achievement. Yesterday’s goal was to see something. Today’s goal is to feel something. Tomorrow’s goal will be to become something. We have seen during our meditation that Reality, Divinity and Immortality do exist. We now feel that these are a part of our lives. It is only a matter of time before we grow into these realities and embody them in our lives.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 2
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Third Eye’, at The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
Seekers’ questions
at The Third Eye Centre in Glasgow, Scotland
Question: Could you please tell us your views on reincarnation?
Sri Chinmoy: There are some people who believe in reincarnation, and others who do not. I do believe in reincarnation, and I believe in it for various reasons. The most important reason is this: that in a single incarnation one cannot achieve everything. Suppose you had a strong desire at the age of four. That desire may take forty or fifty years for its fulfilment. An ordinary, earthly, human desire can take many years to be fulfilled. This is the world of desire.
But we are dealing with the world of aspiration, with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. If one aspires to realise the infinite Consciousness, the eternal Reality, the immortal Vision within himself, naturally it will take much, much longer than just to fulfil an earthly desire. Therefore, a seeker will need quite a few incarnations in order to attain his highest aspirations.
Since God will never leave us unsatisfied, since God wants to fulfil Himself in and through us, we will keep on progressing until we reach our goal. Each incarnation is a forward march. It is like a rung of the spiritual ladder. Each incarnation, for a seeker, is a great opportunity, an added opportunity, to make progress toward realising, revealing and manifesting the Highest. It is through the process of reincarnation that we ultimately reach our destination.
Question: Do we go through the emotions to the spirit?
Sri Chinmoy: There are two types of emotion. One is earth-bound emotion, where attachment looms large, where we sing the song of possession. Earth-bound emotion wants to possess and be possessed. The other type of emotion is liberated emotion, Heaven-free emotion, divine emotion. This emotion says: “I belong to God, who is infinite, eternal and immortal, so it is beneath my dignity to wallow in the pleasures of ignorance and falsehood.” This emotion makes us feel: “If I am God’s child, I must do this. He is waiting for me. As I need Him, He also needs me. I need Him for my illumination; He needs me for His manifestation; therefore, we need each other. With oneness 1 will realise Him, my highest part. And with oneness He will try to manifest Himself in and through me, His instrument.”
With divine emotion we identify ourselves with the Eternal, with the Infinite, with the Immortal. If we are one with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, then there are millions of things we will not do because our divine pride will make it simply impossible for us. If we have wholeheartedly taken the side of Light, we cannot change and go take the side of darkness.
Divine emotion is the emotion that liberates us and brings us the message of Vastness. This emotion gives us the feeling of oneness with each and every individual. This divine emotion, the emotion that makes us free and vast, is good. But the emotion that binds us to the outer life, to the human feelings, should not be encouraged. Divine emotion is founded on oneness, on something vast, on something illumining and fulfilling, and that emotion should be welcomed, for only that kind of emotion is necessary to reach our destination.
Question: You frequently talk in your work about listening to the inner voice and following the dictates of the inner voice. How can you be sure it is the inner voice of truth that you are listening to and not the delusions of the ego?
Sri Chinmoy: If you hear the real inner voice, you will feel a kind of satisfaction within you which will not depend on the result of your action. If you feel that you will get satisfaction only if the result of your action is successful, according to your light, whereas if the result is unsuccessful, you will not be satisfied, then the voice which is telling you to do that action is not the inner voice.
An inner voice will give you a message, and inside that message will be action and reaction, or action and the result thereof. The result of the action will come in the form of either success or failure. If you feel that you will be able to take either success or failure — whatever comes — with the same type of cheerfulness, then you can rest assured that it is the inner voice that is guiding you. If the so-called inner voice is a mental hallucination, or something from the ego or desiring vital, then you will want to accept its message only if you see that it will fulfil your vital demands. Otherwise, you will want to discard it. At that time you will be like an opportunist. If the result seems like it will be satisfactory, according to your understanding, you will accept the voice. If it seems like it will be unsatisfactory, then you will reject it.
But the message of the inner voice will give you the necessary strength to be cheerful regardless of results. Even if the result comes in the form of failure, you will be able to identify yourself with God’s Will to such an extent that you will see failure not as failure but only as an experience. And success you will see not as something to boast of or to glorify yourself with, but as an experience that God wants to give you. So if you are able to assimilate the result of your action in a divine way, and from the result proceed toward your destination without any wrong inner movements, then it is the dictates of the inner voice that you are hearing.
The inner voice is the messenger. It only brings messages directly from above, and fulfils God’s Will. Whatever message is brought down by the inner voice, the seeker will accept cheerfully and soulfully. If he can do this with no regard for the so-called success or failure, then the seeker can rest assured that the message has come down from the highest Authority. If one really loves the highest Authority, no matter what that Authority offers, one will be satisfied with it. That is the only way to become inseparably one with the Supreme.
Question: Is there a true and a false illumination?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, there is false illumination and true illumination. If one has true illumination, one is bound to feel one’s own oneness with God’s entire universe. But if one has false illumination, then one will see oneself as the only reality, and see the rest of the world as a false reality. The person with false illumination will feel that he is the only one who has got illumination or who has seen and realised the Truth; nobody else is illumined.
True illumination is with all and for all, but false illumination is only for the satisfaction of one’s own vital. It says: “I am the only possessor. The rest of mankind are only beggars. I alone have everything.” Here one is just aggrandising one’s own ego. But when one truly sees the Self inside everyone, when one sees and feels that everybody is inside him and he is inside everyone, that is universal oneness, that is true illumination, without fail.
Published in AUM – Vol. 3, No. 7, 27 July 1976
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland
Dear seekers, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a short talk on ignorance and knowledge. This subject is familiar to each and every human being. Again, each human being deals with ignorance and with knowledge according to his inner receptivity and his outer capacity.
Ignorance wants to conquer; knowledge wants to illumine. Ignorance wants to conquer the world by fighting, strangling and killing. Knowledge wants to illumine the world by loving and by becoming one with the world. Ignorance is hunger for constant separativity. Knowledge is hunger for constant unity. Ignorance teaches us how to consciously or unconsciously bring to the fore the destructive, animal qualities of the world. Knowledge teaches us how to dive deep within and bring to the fore the illumining, divine qualities of the world.
I come, I see, I conquer: this is the message of ignorance. I love, I serve, I become: this is the message of knowledge. I come into the world, I see and feel God's creation around me and I want to conquer it, dominate it, lord over it. This is the message of the ignorance-teacher within me. The knowledge-teacher within me teaches me to love and serve the world and to become God's instrument in the world. By listening to the knowledge-teacher within me, I love and serve God and I grow into my inner Being, the Highest Reality that is at one with God Himself.
When we pray to God to fulfil our desires — our teeming, countless desires — at that time it is ignorance that is playing its role in and through us. When we request God to take our side, to be on our side, then again it is ignorance that is playing its role in and through us. But when we pray to God to fulfil our aspiration and grant us the capacity to be on His side, at that time it is knowledge that is playing its role in and through us.
Aspiration is our inner cry, the cry that climbs up high, higher, highest. While climbing, it illumines the unlit human in us, purifies the impure animal in us and serves the divine in us for God’s manifestation on earth. When we are on God’s side, the finite in us consciously merges into the Infinite and the individual “I” becomes one with the Universal Reality.
In the world envisioned by God, there are two divine members of God’s family that have been playing the eternal game of Light and Delight on earth: faith and purity. Each human being is constantly attacked by ignorance-forces. These ignorance-forces are doubt and impurity. Faith is the Supreme within us, the divine representative within us, the divine child within us that is growing and glowing, illumining and fulfilling. Doubt tries to conquer the faith within us and poison it. Faith also wants to conquer doubt. But when faith conquers doubt, it does not poison doubt, it does not destroy doubt. Only it illumines doubt, for faith regards doubt as the younger member of its family. Therefore, faith feels that it is its bounden duty to illumine doubt, which is a younger, destructive member of the family.
Just as doubt tries to destroy our faith, so does impurity try to destroy the purity that is within us and around us. It tries to destroy not only our purity, but also our divinity. If impurity is successful, then it does destroy our purity, but it can never destroy our divinity. Purity is of the heart and for the heart, so it can be destroyed. But divinity is of the soul and for the soul; therefore, it can never be destroyed. In the course of time, slowly, steadily and unerringly purity and divinity conquer impurity. They do not destroy impurity, but they purify its very existence. They show impurity a part of the divine reality that is within.
Doubt is a destructive force that will destroy not only faith but also itself. Impurity also is a destructive force. When faith, purity and divinity conquer these ignorance-forces, these forces are illumined, perfected and fulfilled. Let us say ignorance is a thorn that has entered into our foot. It takes another thorn to rid ourselves of this ignorance-thorn. This second thorn is temporarily our saving-power. Then what do we do? We throw away both the thorns because we fear that the thorn that has become our saviour will eventually create problems for us.
At this point, wisdom has to enter into the picture. Wisdom is not the information that we get from the world around us. Wisdom is what we get from our soul.
Wisdom at every moment energises the physical in us, the vital in us, the mind in us and the heart in us. When the physical is energised, it opens its door to the supreme Reality. When the vital is energised, it opens its door to the supreme Power. When the mind is energised, it opens its door to the universal Peace. When the heart is energised, it reaches the height of transcendental Oneness.The finite in us is not aware of the Infinite, but when it is made aware of the Infinite, it has an inferiority complex, and it does not want to be consciously one with the Infinite. The finite is an ignorance-force. But the Infinite feels its oneness with the finite. It feels that there was a time when it was not the entire ocean. It was just a tiny drop, like the finite. And then, from that tiny drop, it widened its consciousness and expanded into the ocean itself. This occurred through the process of evolution. Again, the Highest, the absolute Truth, was originally One. God was One, and then He decided to become many. The Infinite consciously decided to become the finite. Knowledge tells us that within the Infinite, there we can find the finite; and within the finite, there we can find the Infinite. Just because God is infinite, He can enjoy Himself in the tiniest atom as well as in the infinite Vast.
Knowledge tells us something more. Divine knowledge tells us that the many and the One were, from the very beginning, identical; they were made together. The One is the Vision; the many is the Reality. God the Vision and God the Reality are all the time together. From God’s Vision-power, immediately Reality came into existence. Again, with Reality-power, Vision came into existence. God wanted to enjoy Himself. He wanted to offer Nectar, Immortality, to His whole creation. With the creation He felt the expansion of His Self-Form, His manifested Form. When He first created the world, with His inner Vision He saw the ultimate future. Now, slowly, steadily and unerringly, He is unfolding His Vision.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 6
A short talk by Sri Chinmoy
to his disciples at a Father’s Day Celebration at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York
Those who have spiritual names, if you remember the date you received your spiritual name, kindly meditate on that date. If you have forgotten, no harm. As soulfully as possible, repeat your name in silence and try to bring to the fore the divine qualities, supreme qualities, of your name.
If you do not have a spiritual name, kindly repeat “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme” most soulfully.
Published in I Wanted to be a Seeker of the Infinite
Sri Chinmoy lifts weights using a seated calf raise at San Francisco’s KRON-TV studio, where he also lifts Sportscaster Gary Radnich.
Father’s Day, Father’s Day!
Begins my conscious cosmic play.
I shall not fail Your Compassion-Love.
I shall become Your fondest dove.
Published in Chandelier, part 2
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the American Church in Paris, France
I wish to give a short talk on the cry and the smile: the outer cry and the inner cry, the outer smile and the inner smile.
The outer cry is for name and fame. The inner cry is for Truth and Light.
When we walk along the road of name and fame, there comes a time when frustration makes friends with us. This frustration-friend takes us to destruction and there our journey ends.
When we walk along the road of Truth and Light, perfection becomes our friend and perfection leads us to satisfaction. But there our journey does not end; on the contrary, there a new and unprecedented journey starts. For this satisfaction is nothing but the ever-transcending Reality. Each time we are satisfied, a new reality inspires us to transcend ourselves.
The outer cry lives in the outer world. The outer cry is to possess the world, to bring it under our dominion, under our jurisdiction for us to use in our own way. We want to possess the world precisely because the outer world is not within us. Anything that is not within us, we feel is not ours.
The inner cry lives in the world of aspiration. Aspiration ultimately grants us realisation. Realisation means oneness with the Infinite. As individual seekers, we become inseparably one with the Infinite when we realise our transcendental Self. Inside our transcendental Reality we see the entire world with its cries and smiles.
The outer smile is the smile of the face. Quite often the outer smile consoles us, although it is not always encouraging and illumining. We notice at times that there is a motive behind the outer smile. The outer smile at times wants to be reciprocated; we smile and we want the world to smile back at us.
The inner smile is the smile of the heart. This smile inspires the seeker and elevates his consciousness. When the inner smile manifests itself through the outer smile, it reminds the seeker of his promise to the Absolute Supreme. His promise is to realise God, reveal God and manifest God here on earth. When the outer smile manifests itself through the inner smile, it is assurance that the outer life offers to the inner life. The outer life says to the inner life, “I am sorry I have stayed away from you for so long. But from now on, I shall become inseparably one with you. I shall help you in every possible way. Not only that, I shall please you and fulfil you in your own way. I shall fulfil you in your own way because I know that your way and God’s Way are absolutely one.”
Human life itself is a cry right from dawn to sunset. The moment a child is born, he offers a cry to Mother Earth. Again, when he is about to pass behind the curtain of Eternity, he offers a cry to Mother Earth. From the outer point of view, the child cries because the world is a stranger. The world is a stranger to the new-born babe; therefore he cries. And the same person, when he is ready to die, is afraid of the other world. Therefore, he offers a cry. This is a human, outer explanation of the reality that we see.
But there is also an inner explanation, an esoteric explanation of the cry. When the soul enters into the world of manifestation with a human body, it offers its gratitude to Mother Earth through its cry. The soul enters into the world-arena and it offers gratitude to Mother Earth for accepting it. And the same soul, at the end of its journey, again offers gratitude to Mother Earth through the physical cry, for the physical body was granted the opportunity by Mother Earth to realise, reveal and manifest Truth and Light on earth.
The human child cries for the mother’s milk. But this human child, on the strength of his aspiration, becomes a divine child. When he becomes a divine child, he prays to the Universal Mother, to the Absolute Supreme, to grant him Nectar, Delight, Immortality. In his human existence, he cries for the milk which nourishes the human existence. In his divine existence, he cries for something divine and immortal.
The human cry and the divine smile at times go together. The human cry in the physical world and the divine smile in the vital world at times go together. When a dear one dies, we cry. When we cry, the soul that is close to us smiles in the vital world. In the vital world, the souls that are attached to us, that still have kept a close connection with the world, get tremendous joy when we cry for them, and their joy they express with a smile. But if these souls are in the inner worlds that are far beyond the vital world, in the intuitive world or in the soul’s world, they only watch the progress of the individuals on earth. If they see that their dear ones who are on earth have manifested everything that they were supposed to manifest before leaving the body, then they are happy. If not, then they feel sad and miserable for their dear ones.
The souls that remain in the soul’s world always abide by the Will of the Supreme. Sometimes the Will of the Supreme tolerates certain things, sometimes it approves and sometimes it is totally committed to certain things taking place on earth. When the soul mixes with the vital, especially the lower vital, it loses its pristine divinity for the time being and it does not always abide by the Will of the Supreme. But it never loses its inmost divinity, which is eternally immortal. The souls that lose a bit of their universal Reality, a bit of their divinity, become one with ignorance and become a miserable cry. Again, the souls that do not mix with the lower vital and remain always above the vital world, here and elsewhere, remain always in perfect peace and bliss. These souls constantly offer smiles both to Heaven and to earth. Again, it is not only ordinary human beings who cry and smile, but also the spiritual Masters of the highest magnitude who offer their cries and smiles to mankind.
Here in the West, the Saviour is Christ. The Christ cried for humanity’s salvation from sin. And sin is nothing but limited consciousness, which unfortunately we claim to be ours. Again, out of his infinite Bounty, the Christ gave us the most luminous Smile when He said, “Let Thy will be done.” When the human in the Christ became one with our cry, he said, “Father, what have I done? Why hast Thou forsaken me?” Again, when the Christ became one with his own divinity, his own transcendental Reality, he offered to the world at large his highest wisdom, his smile: “I and my Father are one.”
In the East, we recall the Buddha’s human cry for a little bird before he got his enlightenment. To save the life of a bird his heart literally bled; and he did save the bird. Again, in his later years, the Lord Buddha cried for the enlightenment of humanity. He got his illumination and his heart cried to offer it to the world at large. He told humanity two most sublime things. First he said, “This world is transitory. Here, if you expect abiding satisfaction, then you are bound to be disappointed.” The second message he offered to the world at large was this: “Discover the Light within. Be the Light unto yourself.”
The Christ taught us to free ourselves from sin consciousness. The Buddha taught us to free ourselves from ignorance and bondage-consciousness. The Christ, out of his infinite Compassion, taught us the message of salvation; and the Buddha, out of his infinite Compassion, taught us the message of liberation. When we achieve salvation, anything within us that is inferior to the highest Reality becomes one with the highest Reality. When we achieve liberation, anything within us that is limited, anything within us that limits or binds us, becomes totally liberated, illumined, perfected and fulfilled.
Aspiration is an inner cry; again, aspiration is an inner smile. When we aspire to reach the highest Height, it is an inner cry that we embody. When we climb down to serve God in each human being, we are embodying an inner smile. Each human life is composed of a cry and a smile. The cry strengthens, the smile expedites. Therefore both the cry and the smile are of paramount importance.
God’s Vision is the inner Cry to manifest His infinite Divinity. God’s Reality is the inner Smile that grows and glows in humanity’s aspiring consciousness. As long as man and God exist, man will cry to God for fulfilment in his own human way and God will cry for fulfilment in and through man in His divine Way. Man will cry to God to give him the capacity to bind the world; God will cry for man to liberate himself and to liberate others. If someone is a desiring person, there will come a time when he becomes an aspiring person. At that time he says to God, “O Lord Supreme, I shall be pleased only when I please You in Your own Way.” God and the seeker smile simultaneously. The earth consciousness accepts the divine Consciousness and the divine Consciousness accepts the earth consciousness for Reality’s transcendental Satisfaction.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 6
Seekers’ questions
at the American Church in Paris, France
Question: How can a sincere seeker distinguish a true teacher from an untrue teacher?
Sri Chinmoy: A sincere Master will always say that he and the seeker have to work together. The Master says he will not be able to grant the seeker realisation overnight. If the Master says he will grant the seeker realisation if the seeker gives him millions of dollars, then that Master is false. The true teacher says to the seeker, “You show me your aspiration and I shall show you God’s Compassion. I shall unite both God’s Compassion and your aspiration. When they come together, then you become perfect.” The real Master will always tell the seeker that there is something called God’s Hour. It is then that God grants the seeker realisation. There is an hour for preparation and an hour for realisation. When we sow a seed, it takes time to germinate; then gradually it becomes a sapling and finally a tree. Until it becomes a tree, until it offers fruit, it is in the process of preparation. But when the tree bears fruit, it completes its journey. It is no longer preparation; it is realisation.
Question: I feel that there is a reality which is expressed through different religions, but I have read in the Upanishads that one must be able to transcend this reality. However, I find it very difficult.
Sri Chinmoy: You have to pray and meditate. Each religion has a way of expressing the Truth. Reality is One. But it expresses itself through each religion according to the receptivity of that particular religion. When you realise the Highest, then naturally you go through all the religions at once and, at the same time, you reach the Highest.
Question: There are many different spiritual paths to reach the one Reality. What is the difference between these paths and do they all go to the same point?
Sri Chinmoy: If the paths are real, then they lead to the same destination. It is like a school. A school has hundreds of students. Suppose ten or twenty students walk along one road to come to the school. Again, there are a few students who will walk along another road to come to the same school. So there are many roads, but the school remains the same.
But you have to know that some students are more advanced than others. Some will go to kindergarten and some will go to college or university. Again, the kindergarten student will one day graduate and go to elementary school, high school and college and eventually he will get his Master’s degree or Ph.D. So today’s goal may not be tomorrow’s goal. In the beginning, the seeker aims at a particular goal. Then he wants to achieve a higher goal, grow into a higher goal. So collectively, all individuals are coming to the same goal according to their receptivity and capacity. If one’s capacity right now is the high school capacity, then he is coming to the high school. If his capacity is for college, then he is going to college. And no matter what level he goes to, there are many of his standard who will come to the same school. Many will come to the high school; many will come to the college. But the goal for the seekers of one height will be one particular thing, and for the seekers of another standard there will be another goal.
Question: Who determines the capacities and standards?
Sri Chinmoy: The capacity is aspiration; the capacity comes from the inner cry. If you really do need God, if you desperately need God, then your standard is very high. If God comes first, Truth comes first, Light comes first in your life, then automatically the inner cry increases.
Question: Is there a way to increase the inner cry?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. Suppose there are four or five good swimmers. If you want to become a good swimmer, then you will mix with the swimmers. If somebody knows how to swim better than you do, then you will mix with that particular swimmer in order to learn how to swim better. Similarly, if you want to accelerate your spiritual progress, you have to mix with those in whom you have some confidence, some trust that they will be able to guide you and accelerate your progress.
Question: How does one come to know which is one’s dharma?
Sri Chinmoy: If one really wants to know, one can. If one wants to learn, one goes to school. If one wants sing, one goes to a musician, a singer. If one wants to know anything, then one goes to someone who already knows. If someone wants to know what his dharma is, then he has to go to someone who knows everybody’s dharma.
Question: What exactly is realisation?
Sri Chinmoy: Realisation is self-discovery and God-discovery. When one realises God, or the highest Truth, one becomes inseparably one with humanity’s cry and Divinity’s Smile. When he identifies himself with humanity, he cries for humanity because humanity is hungry; and when he identifies himself with Divinity, then he becomes happy because he has got the opportunity to feed humanity. Oneness with Heaven, oneness with earth — conscious, complete, inseparable and eternal oneness — is called realisation.
Question: What role does conscious will play in the spiritual life?
Sri Chinmoy: Conscious will is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. Unconsciously we do many things, good and bad. But when we do them consciously, with conscious will, then we get the effect immediately.
If we use our conscious will, then we shall get up early in the morning, take a shower and pray to God. But if it is unconscious will, we shall keep in the back of our mind the thought that we have to pray, and that is all. Meanwhile, we shall remain lying down. While sleeping, we may repeat God’s Name once or twice, and then we shall feel that we have prayed or meditated. But we are lethargic, idle; we will not leave the bed. For one second we shall meditate and for ten minutes we shall sleep. This is called unconscious will.
Conscious will is like an express train. It just starts and then it goes to the destination as fast as possible. Unconscious will stops at many stations before it reaches the destination. Each time it reaches a station, it takes a rest there and relaxes its capacity. Then it has to regain its capacity to go to the next station. This way it takes a very, very long time. People who pray and meditate unconsciously will take thousands and millions of years to realise God.
Conscious will values time. It knows the necessity of time. Conscious will teaches us that time is very precious. If we do not realise God today, then how are we going to reveal and manifest God tomorrow? Therefore we have to realise Him as soon as possible. Again, realisation has no end, revelation has no end, manifestation has no end. So we feel that it is the supreme necessity to realise at least some height and then reveal and manifest that height.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 6
Sri Chinmoy commenced this series of rhyming poems on Sunday, 14 June 1998 in New York. The first volume is completed in three days.
Whom I seek
Is within me.
I pine His
Heart-Smile to be.
Not my mind-cherishing life,
But my heart-blossoming breath
I need, I love, I treasure
To halt the pride of death.
Empty of heaviness-darkness
My mind, my heart today;
Behold, my soul-ecstasy
And I together play!
My paintings
Tell me what they are.
Their message
I share near and far.
My poetry
Tells me about its Heaven-Source.
Its sorrows
And joys — my journey's course.
My music
Tells me where to dive
And fly
To clasp ecstasy's drive.
My sports-life
Shows me the pride of speed;
Excellence,
Transcendence-together lead.
My tennis
Tells me how to serve and love
And claim
To be my Lord's choicest dove.
My prayer
Tells me Whom to beg only,
Deep within,
Wide without, sempiternally.
My meditation
Is compelled by God to be His Voice,
And only Him
To fulfil all-where His express Choice.
My aspiration
Tells me I can reach God's Eye,
And also God's Feet
In prayer-tears I can tie.
My dedication,
My God-manifestation-bloom
To reserve a seat
In God's hallowed Heart-Room.
My dear Lord,
How can I live
Without Your Life's Compassion-Eye?
My sweet Lord,
How can I breathe
Without Your Heart's Forgiveness-Sky?
Published in Sail My Heartbeat Sail, part 1
Prayers by Sri Chinmoy
at the Peace Concert in the US Capitol Office Building, Washington, DC
HERE and NOW
I must realise
That my unconditional surrender
To God's Will
Is the most indispensable part
Of my pleasing God.
HERE and NOW
I must realise
That my God-disobedience
Is my
Immediate and immeasurable
Aspiration-heart-failure.
HERE and NOW
My breath must learn
How to breathe
The breath of the world.
HERE and NOW
My heart shall learn
How to love
The heart of the world.
HERE and NOW
My life must learn
How to become
The life of the world.
My God-aspiration-thrill,
My God-dedication-thrill
And
My God-manifestation-thrill
Are ever new and never old.
This is what I have come to learn
HERE and NOW.
HERE and NOW
My solemn promise
To myself:
No more desire-slavery.
HERE and NOW
I shall live my life
Between my desire-banishment
And my God-attachment.
Not what I want
But what I must do
For God-satisfaction
Is the wisdom-light
Of HERE and NOW.
We are deeply in love
With the beauty
Of God the creation.
We must be deeply in love
With the duty
Of God the Creator as well —
Right from today,
HERE and NOW.
HERE and NOW
I have decided to offer
Only one prayer:
My Lord, do make me the lover,
Server and devourer
Of the golden dust of Your Feet.
HERE and NOW
The miracle of miracles:
A cute smile of my eyes
Has brought God down
From the Ultimate Beyond.
I never knew that my heart's
Fleeting tears
Had such tremendous power.
HERE and NOW I clearly see
They have brought down
God Himself
With His everlasting Smiles.
I love God.
God loves me.
This is not a new realisation,
But HERE and NOW
I unmistakably see
That we two have
No separate existence.
As I love God,
Even so, He needs me.
As God loves me,
Even so, I need Him.
But HERE and NOW
I see a slight difference:
His Love and Need
Are unconditional.
So far, mine are not!
Published in Here and Now
