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Success and Progress

A morning lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, Indiana

 

I was delighted that a rather eminent religious leader was going to be in the Midwest giving a series of lectures here. He seemed to be interested in coming down to Indiana, so I jumped at the opportunity. I was a little bit concerned that this Wednesday morning would not be a time to get too many people to a lecture, but somehow my illusions have been smashed...

— from the introduction by Dr. John Philip Posey (Associate Professor of History and Director of Non-Western Core Programme)

Dr. Posey, I am most grateful to you for your kind words. Since last evening, your heart of magnanimity has touched my heart most deeply. In silence I pray to the Almighty Father to grant you His choicest Love and Blessings. Human life is a series of experiences. Six years ago, while I was in Puerto Rico, I went to a chapel and was insulted and scolded vehemently by the Mother Superior. What was my crime? That I was an Indian, a Hindu, and I entered a Christian chapel. But today at St. Joseph's College I am basking in the kindness of everyone here. Both experiences I offer at the Feet of the Almighty Father.

I am a seeker. I am a devoted brother of mankind. I try to serve the Almighty Father in each of my brothers and sisters. And if anybody asks, my foremost qualification is that I am a humble lover of humanity. Dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers of the Infinite Truth, we are all seated in a boat. The name of this boat is God's Dream-Boat, and our Pilot is the Lord Supreme. He is carrying us to the shores of the Golden Beyond. I wish to give a short talk on success in the life of desire and progress in the life of aspiration.

Success we want; progress we need. When we live in the word of desire, teeming desire, we want success. We feel that it is everything. But when we live in the world of aspiration, we come to realise that what we actually need is progress, continual and constant progress.

Success gives us name and fame. Progress gives us a higher inspiration, a deeper faith and a stronger assurance.

Our success is immediately claimed by many. It is claimed even by those who had nothing to do with its advent. But our progress is treasured by only one Person, our eternally beloved Father Supreme.

Success is the song of possession. We want to possess the world, but to our wide surprise we see that before we can possess even one person on earth, we have been mercilessly possessed and bound by the world at large.

Possession, ambition and outer success go together. The strength of ambition finally offers us success. But the strength of surrender to the Almighty Father grants us progress, which is what the Supreme wants from our lives.

When ambition becomes our bosom friend, when our inner being is surcharged with determination, we achieve success. But we have to realise that in the spiritual life when we offer and surrender our ambition to the Source, we make true progress. And in this progress we find real fulfilment. When we succeed in something in the outer world, we feel that we have done it in spite of opposition from the entire world. We feel that it is by virtue of our own capacities that we have achieved our desired success. But when we make progress — no matter in which field — within the inmost recesses of our heart we come to feel that the entire world helped us, that each individual on earth has helped us in some way or other according to his capacity.

A man of success, the moment he achieves success, starts adding up all the difficulties and dangers he encountered before success dawned in his life. A man of progress, the moment he makes progress in his life of experience or in his life of realisation, starts counting all the blessings he received from Above. Finally, he realises that the door of opportunity is marked by both “push” and “pull”. He pushes aside his life of bondage, his life of ignorance, his life of countless imperfections. He pulls down from Above Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure — slowly, steadily, devotedly and unerringly.

Renunciation is progress. We renounce our life of ignorance, our life of teeming doubts. Here I wish to recall the message of the Upanishadic lore:

Isavasyam idam sarvam...

The whole world is owned by the Lord Supreme. Let us not hunger after others’ possessions. In renunciation is the satisfaction everlasting: in renunciation we drink the Nectar-Delight of the Absolute.

Progress is like a lotus that blossoms petal by petal. Each time a petal comes into existence we feel that a new dedication, a new hope, a new self-mastery dawns in our life of service to aspiring mankind.

Success and progress on the human level are two so-called rivals. Success wants to please itself according to its own receptivity's capacity. Progress wants to please God unconditionally in His own Way. My experience tells me that success has a short life which, at the same time, is dubious and precarious. My realisation tells me that progress has an everlasting and ever-transcending life. We achieve today's goal on the strength of our progress, which is founded on aspiration — our mounting inner cry. But then, today's goal becomes tomorrow's starting point. Tomorrow we have to start for a higher goal. Each time we reach a goal, our aspiration tells us that it is only the starting point for a higher, more meaningful and more fruitful goal. We are in the process of constantly transcending our reality. And the ever-transcending Reality is the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond.

Today's imperfect man, today's unlit man, grows into tomorrow's perfect and fully illumined man only when he feels that progress is the only thing that he needs. Each time we climb to a higher rung of the ladder of progress, we automatically achieve success — inner success. But if we run after success, there is every possibility that we may adopt foul means and do undivine things, because we are competing with others with whom we have not yet established a sense of inseparable oneness. When we want progress, we feel that if we have to compete with anyone or anything at all, our enemies are within us: fear, doubt, anxiety, worries, insecurity.

In order to reach the highest Goal, we must have faith in abundant measure, both in ourselves and in the Almighty Father. If we do not have faith in the Almighty Father all at once, no harm. Out of His infinite Bounty, He will illumine us, guide us, perfect us and fulfil us at His choice Hour. But if we lose faith in ourselves or if we are wanting in faith in our life of aspiration and dedication, then we shall be devoured by the ignorance-tiger. At that time nobody will come to our rescue.

We and God must have reciprocal faith. Our faith in God will make us His chosen instruments. His faith in us will inspire us to manifest Him totally, unreservedly and perfectly here on earth. Our faith in Him will give us what we desperately need — realisation. His faith in us will give Him the opportunity to manifest Himself in and through us. We need Him for our highest realisation; He, out of His infinite Kindness, needs us for His divine Manifestation.

Faith is the only thing that makes us feel that we are part and parcel of Eternity, Infinity and Immortality. Eternity, Infinity and Immortality are not vague terms. They are realities growing and glowing in the heart of the genuine seeker. When we have faith in abundant measure, the Lord Supreme assures us that in and through us He will manifest His perfect Perfection.

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Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 2

 

Wisdom-Light

An afternoon lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Congress Room, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois

 

Dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers of the infinite and eternal Truth, I wish to give a talk on Wisdom-Light. Each individual present here has Wisdom-Light. Today I will share with you my Wisdom-Light; tomorrow, easily and effectively you can share with many your Wisdom-Light.

What is Wisdom-Light? Wisdom-Light is something that eternally glows inside our heart and around our life eternal. Wisdom-Light tells us that there are only two mighty powers on earth. These powers are temptation-power and liberation-power. When we surrender to temptation-power, we come to realise that our body is unawakened, our vital is undisciplined, our mind is unillumined and our heart is unfulfilled. When we aspire for liberation-power, we come to realise that our soul is a fulfilled and, at the same time, a constantly fulfilling reality; that our soul is an illumined and, at the same time, an ever-illumining reality.

When we enter into the spiritual life, we come to realise that we have three teachers: ignorance-teacher, knowledge-teacher and wisdom-teacher. Ignorance-teacher teaches us how to talk. Knowledge-teacher teaches us how to talk and act. But wisdom-teacher teaches us only how to act spontaneously and unconditionally.

When we talk and talk, we enter consciously and deliberately into the domain of ignorance. When we talk and act, at times we see a yawning gulf between our speech and our action. We say something and we do something totally different. We make a solemn promise to do something, but when reality dawns we see a vast gulf between our promise and its fulfilment. But when we act spontaneously, soulfully and unconditionally — when we offer our dedicated service — an unseen Hand guides us, shapes us and moulds us into the very image of our Inner Pilot. It is only by devotedly serving the Inner Pilot in each individual that we can make our life meaningful and fruitful.

The brotherhood of man can never be achieved by talking, but only by becoming something, by achieving conscious oneness with the Tree which is God. Unless we establish our conscious, inseparable oneness with the Almighty Father, the Absolute Supreme, we can never establish in our inner life or outer life the full brotherhood of man. We have to touch the tree and climb up the tree. Only then can we approach the branches and enter into the millions and billions of leaves, which are our brothers and sisters. If we do not go to the tree and climb up the tree, how can we enter into the consciousness of the leaves, which are our brothers and sisters?

Ignorance is self-enjoyment, knowledge is self-examination and wisdom is self-perfection. When we swim in the sea of ignorance, we enjoy. This enjoyment is followed by frustration, and frustration is followed by destruction. When we try to examine ourselves, we see imperfection looming large. But, at the same time, perfection is within our easy reach. Self-perfection is wisdom. When we pray and meditate, we enter into the reality of silence, and this gives us the opportunity to perfect our life within and without. Silence embodies perfection. Silence is ready to reveal its perfection in and through us on the physical plane, which is now inundated with ignorance, darkness, bondage and imperfection.

How do we discriminate Light from night, Truth from falsehood, Immortality from death? We discriminate the one from the other by praying and meditating, by trying and crying. When a child cries, his mother comes to the rescue and offers him toys or food or anything else that he wants. Similarly, when we cry in the inmost recesses of our heart, the Mother Divine, the Mother Supreme, comes to our rescue and inundates our inner and outer being with infinite Light. This Light is our real Divinity, Immortality and perfect Perfection. 

Very often we feel that knowledge and wisdom are one and the same thing. But when we enter into the spiritual life and get inner experiences, we come to realise that knowledge and wisdom are two totally different things. Knowledge is like the younger brother in the family, and wisdom is the older brother. Naturally, the older brother will be infinitely wiser than the younger one. Knowledge sees something and then wants to utilise that thing. Wisdom feels the Truth, wants to grow into the Truth and finally becomes the Truth. Knowledge and wisdom are two brothers at the foot of the Realisation-tree. Let us call it a mango tree. Knowledge starts counting the leaves, the branches and fruit, but wisdom climbs up the tree, plucks a mango and eats to its heart’s content.

Now, where can wisdom exist? It can exist everywhere. It can exist in knowledge, in intelligence, in the intellect, in intuition. But the wisdom that abides in the soul is the wisdom that leads us and guides us fastest towards our destination. When we pray and meditate we go deep within and hear the dictates of our soul. Once we hear the dictates of our soul, we establish a free access to the world of divine Reality, Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

Here I wish to quote the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” Work I take as dedicated service in the spiritual life. Every day it is our bounden duty to offer our dedicated service to the Supreme in all human beings. Dedicated service greatly helps us to reach our destined goal. Now, we have to know that today’s goal is not and cannot be the goal forever. Today our goal is realisation of the highest Truth and the highest Light. Tomorrow our goal will be the revelation of the highest Truth and Light. And the day after tomorrow our goal will be the perfect manifestation of the highest Truth and Light, which we will then embody.

“Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” A seeker of infinite Truth must feel that each moment is a most sacred opportunity for him. Tomorrow death may snatch us away from the world arena. So we have to feel that this is the last time, the last opportunity, the last moment we have to realise the ultimate Truth. On the one hand, we know that death is nothing but a short rest in the flow of Eternal Time. On the other hand, we know that here on earth we have to accomplish quite a few things for God’s fulfilment and for our fulfilment. Right now, our fulfilment and God’s fulfilment are diametrically opposed. But when we pray and meditate, we come to feel that God’s fulfilment is our fulfilment, that God’s fulfilment is the only fulfilment. If we pay considerable attention to the value of time, we do not wallow consciously in the pleasures of lethargy and ignorance. We can utilise each moment for our ever-increasing fulfilment and ever-fulfilling illumination on the strength of our inner cry to see something, to grow into something and to become something.

About an hour ago when I arrived here, I was deeply moved to see the motto of this august college: “Equal opportunity for all, freedom to see and discriminate the truth and the brotherhood of man.”

Equal opportunity for all. Now who can give us equal opportunity? Only the Inner Pilot can give and does give equal opportunity to all. Every day, early in the morning, He knocks at our heart's door. When He knocks at our door, some of us wake up and answer the door while others remain in the world of sleep, inconscience and ignorance. In our outer life, once we lose an opportunity we seldom get it back. But in the inner life we get a new opportunity every day, every hour, every minute. He who responds to the inner opportunity immediately runs fast, faster, fastest towards the ultimate Goal.

Each individual has to be given freedom to seek the Truth in his own way. We cannot thrust our truth on others. Each has to go deep within to the Truth. Truth is the Goal, but in order to reach the Goal, we can and do adopt different paths, different roads. Different roads allow different individuals to run the fastest. If others force their freedom upon us, it will be totally valueless for us. But if we search deep within, our freedom is our revelation, our illumination, our perfection. The Vedic lore offers us a momentous message:

Asato ma sad gamaya
tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
mrityor ma amritam gamaya


Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness to Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.

I am extremely happy that the state of Illinois is proud of calling itself “Land of Lincoln”. Lincoln was a seeker in the pure sense of the term. God gave him a magnanimous heart. Emerson said of him, "His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold a wrong." I wish to elaborate on this most significant utterance.

When we become a seeker, we try to have a heart as vast as the world itself, or try to have a heart even vaster than the world. In this vast heart, a real seeker does not see the ignorance of the world as belonging to others. The heart of a true seeker sees the imperfections, limitations and bondage of others as its very own. Emerson says Lincoln's heart did not hold a wrong, but I wish to say that his heart did not hold a wrong of his own. His heart did hold the wrongs of millions and billions of human beings, and he accepted these wrongs of others as his very own — not with a sense of pride, but with a sense of oneness.

Since we are all seekers, the world is within us, not outside us. Each individual that we see around us is within us as well. Also, when we go deep within we see that we have a large family, a very large inner family of doubts, fears, anxieties, worries, imperfections and limitations. When we transform them on the strength of our conscious concentration, meditation and contemplation, we see that our outer world is also totally transformed.

I am here in Chicago. The very name of this city gives me enormous joy and delight. When I was eleven years old, I read a biography of the great spiritual figure, Swami Vivekananda. In 1893, when they held the Parliament of Religions here, Swami Vivekananda came and offered the eternal wisdom of the soul's light. My young heart was so delighted and moved, for he came from the same place where I was born, Bengal. So the younger brother feels a oneness with his elder brother. Vivekananda was divinely and supremely blessed to be able to offer the wisdom-light of India here at the Parliament of Religions.

To me, each religion is a soulful, powerful, meaningful and fruitful house. Each individual should live in a house; he cannot live in the street. But a man need not stay all the time in his house. He comes out to study. Here our inner school and our inner subject is Yoga. Yoga is conscious oneness with God. We are all seekers, sincere seekers. For us God does exist. And it is only a matter of time before we will be able to see Him, feel Him, fulfil Him and grow into His Image.

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Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 2

 

Love and Perfection

An evening lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

 

This evening, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a short talk on Love and Perfection. We are all sailing in the same boat, the boat of aspiration. One day this boat of ours will reach its destination, the Golden Shore, which is our ever-fulfilling and, at the same time, ever-transcending Reality.

Love and Perfection. Love is perfection and perfection is love. Love is the soul of perfection; perfection is the goal of love. Perfect love and perfect perfection are one and inseparable. Perfect love lies in our self-giving and self-offering. Perfect perfection lies in our liberation and eventual God-becoming. Love without perfection is a blind force; it can be a destructive force as well. Perfection without love is a precious jewel without a safe; it is impossible to keep that precious jewel.

Fulfilled love cannot and does not exclude perfection, for fulfilled love is itself perfection. Similarly, perfection cannot and does not exclude love, for fulfilled perfection necessarily carries love with it.

Animal love, human love, divine love. Animal love is not conscious of the soul’s life. Human love is conscious, but does not care for the soul’s life. Divine love is the flower and fragrance of the soul’s life. Love is reality’s life. Today we are nothing but reality’s life. Tomorrow we shall become Immortality’s life. Love and life grow together in the same family. Love offers its powerful arms to life, and life offers its soulful eyes to love.

God created the universe with His Silence-Power. He sustains the universe with His Sound-Power. In order to realise the highest Truth, our consciousness climbs high, higher, highest on the ladder of aspiration. When it reaches the highest pinnacle, we realise the Ultimate Truth, the Truth Transcendental, the Truth of the ever-transcending Beyond. In order to manifest the inner divinity that we bring down from above, we need the help of the cosmic Sound, the Sound-Power.

When we reach the Highest we become the realisation of Perfection. When we manifest the Absolute, we become the manifestation of Perfection.

Love is peace. Love is delight. When love illumines, it is peace; when love fulfils, it is delight.

"Ᾱnandādd hy eva khalv imāni bhūtāni jāyante 
ānandena jātāni jīvanti 
ānandaṃ prayantyabhisaṃ viśanti"

"From Delight we came into existence.
In Delight we grow.
At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire."

We are all seekers. A seeker eventually becomes a Divine Lover. A seeker sees the ultimate Truth and cries for infinite Light, Peace and Bliss. But there comes a time in his life of aspiration and self-discovery when he comes to realise that unless and until he becomes a God-lover, he will not be able to fulfil himself. As long as he remains a seeker, God plays hide and seek with him. But when he becomes a divine lover and offers God his unconditional surrender, when he asks God to use him in God’s own Way, at that time God-realisation dawns in his life of aspiration and dedication.

All Masters of the highest magnitude showed us how love can be offered to mankind. When we think of the Son, the Saviour, we see nothing but a flood of love within and without. Once he was criticized mercilessly by some of his adversaries as he was walking along the road. His disciples asked him why he had to walk along that road when people were mercilessly abusing him. The Saviour replied that he had to give them what he had, and what he had in his heart was unconditional love.

The Buddha was prepared to give his life to save the life of a bird. In his heart of love, he felt his inseparable oneness with the life of a bird.

Gauranga, a spiritual Master, once was badly hurt by an adversary. He said to his adversary, “You have given me your anger, your passion, your undivine qualities. Since you have given me something, I also wish to give you something, and what I have is my illumining Love. I accepted from you what you had to give, so please accept from me what I have to give.”

A human being has two major instruments: the mind and the heart. The poor mind cannot grasp the meaning of love but the heart continually loves and the soul constantly supplies the heart with love. The mind finds it difficult, extremely difficult to love anything other than its own existence. And there even comes a time when the mind finds it difficult to love its own existence. It sees and feels a barren desert within and without it. But the heart feels it is the bounden duty of its earthly existence to accept the imperfections and limitations of the body, vital and mind as its very own. The heart, which has free access to the soul, has received this message from the soul, that unless and until all the members of its family become perfect, perfect perfection cannot dawn in the heart either. So the heart accepts everyone as its own and tries to serve, feed and illumine all the members of its inner family.

The heart comes to realise that human love — unlit, obscure, limited love — acts like an express train, whose destination is frustration. But divine love grows within us slowly, steadily and unerringly and proceeds like a local train slowly and steadily to its destination, which is illumination. The heart discriminates human love from divine love and then transforms the one into the other. Then, finally, it manifests divine love in and through each individual being and each creature in God’s Creation.

Love and perfection are one and the same. Perfection right now is a far cry, but today’s impossibility cannot remain impossibility forever. Today’s weakness can easily be transformed into tomorrow’s solid, adamantine strength.

The power that builds the palace of Truth is not the same as the power that destroys the palace of Truth. When we cry from the inmost recesses of our heart, we see the inner flame climbing up high, higher, highest, and the Grace from above descending. When we see the two of them meeting together on a higher plane of consciousness, we call that plane the plane of perfection. There union is perfection. When Grace descends, it descends in the form of God’s Smile. When our ascending cry and God’s descending Smile are fused into one, our love of Divinity and God’s Grace of Immortality become perfect in our life of aspiration, in our life of dedication, in our life of unity’s multiplicity and multiplicity’s unity.

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Published in AUM – Vol. 1, No. 4, 27 April 27 1974

 

Every Day, a Fresh Attempt

A message Sri Chinmoy
offered during a morning function with his disciples at the Hilton Hotel in Nanjing, China

 

On the spiritual path, we know we have covered hundreds of miles, or thousands of miles, or millions of miles, or billions of miles, or even trillions of miles. Some people have covered many, many miles over the years. They have had many, many incarnations. Again, some people in the spiritual life have covered only ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles or forty miles.

But no matter how many miles we have completed, we have to forget about the distance we have covered over the years on the strength of our prayer and meditation. Every morning we have to make a new attempt, a fresh attempt, to fly a little higher, to dive a little deeper, to go forward a little farther. Whatever our height is, we shall make an absolutely new attempt. Early in the morning, when we look at a flower, we get so much joy. Then in the late afternoon or evening, we may see that the flower has become wilted. But every day we have to feel that a new flower is blossoming.

Early in the morning, while you are the most beautiful flower, the freshest flower, at that time when you pray, absolutely develop your adamantine will power. Feel that it is just you and your inner existence, you and God. There is no outer world, good or bad; no third person with good news or sad news — no! There is only you, and right in front of you is your own Highest, your own Highest.

If it is difficult to imagine your own Highest, my Transcendental picture you can take as your Highest. When I go to the other world, I will be able to say that if I have given to this world one thing, that is my Transcendental picture. Again, quite a few years ago I went beyond that height. I always say that the Supreme Himself is making progress. That idea is unbelievable to the mind. He is infinite, He is eternal and He is immortal. But still, in His Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, He is progressing, progressing. Who am I in comparison?

I always say that imagination is a reality in itself. Now it is veiled, but it will become unveiled in the future. If it is difficult for you to imagine your own Highest, once more I wish to say that my Transcendental picture is enough. Take the Transcendental as your own Highest. The more you can think of my Transcendental as your own Highest, the stronger you will be in your spiritual life. That is your ultimate Goal: to reach that consciousness. Again, if you find it difficult to identify yourself completely with my Transcendental, then think of yourself, where you are right now, and go one step forward, one step upward, one step inward.

Never take spirituality as something old. Our difficulty is that as soon as we take spirituality as an old subject, as soon as we say, “Oh, we have studied it,” our joy goes away. If I say that I have studied English, for example, for forty years, then what more do I have to know? That is the end for me; I will not make any more progress in the English language. But in my case, I do not think that way. Even now, why do I take the trouble to learn a few difficult words? It is because I am an eternal student.

In the spiritual life, it is exactly the same. Every day make a fresh attempt. You know that you have advanced along the spiritual path. For so many years you have made progress. But do not think all the time of what you have achieved. Only be in your Highest. Look at my picture and dive deep within.

While you are looking at my Transcendental picture, either smile from your soul or cry from your heart. These are the two things you can do. If you can feel at that time that you are the soul — not the body, not the vital, not the mind — then smile at the Transcendental. But if you feel that you are the heart, then cry. Cry, cry, cry as soulfully and as helplessly as possible. If you are in the soul, then smile at the Highest, at the Supreme. If you are in the heart, then cry like an infant. These are the two ways to reach the Highest.

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Published in Live in the Eternal Now

 

Questions in China

Answered by Sri Chinmoy
at the Hilton Hotel in Nanjing, China

 

You are definitely a God-representative

An inspired seeker: Guru, a gentleman came from the Beijing Municipal Government. I told him, "Sri Chinmoy has students in more than one hundred countries," and he said, "That is like the United Nations!" Then one of your disciples said, "It is only the United Nations of all the hearts." Please, Guru, in your heart's United Nations, do not leave China out!

Sri Chinmoy: My dearest seeker-friend, let me speak most sincerely. You will always remain in my heart of God-realisation. Now, I tell you, each spiritual Master of the highest calibre represents not only the highest Absolute Lord Supreme, but also the spiritual Masters of the past who are no longer in the physical. If you follow a spiritual Master of the highest order, if you are following the path of the Lord Buddha, you will find no difficulty in appreciating our path. Your soul has accepted me and our path, one hundred per cent. Your heart has accepted me one hundred per cent. Many, many, many, many times your soul and your heart have come to me — many, many, many times since I saw you for the first time. That was the time your soul and heart fully accepted me with utmost love and devotion. Now, your mind, your vital and your physical existence need peace, tranquillity.

I have many, many disciples whose heart and soul have accepted me fully, whereas their mind, their vital and their physical existence have not accepted me one hundred per cent. The soul and the heart have accepted me one hundred per cent, but the mind, the vital and the earthly consciousness, the body, may have accepted me only fifty or sixty per cent. Again, their soul's acceptance of me and their heart's acceptance are so strong that they have kept their mind, vital and physical consciousness under control. We have also a few disciples who have accepted me wholeheartedly with their body, vital, mind, heart and soul. The soul, heart, mind, vital and body have accepted me one hundred per cent.

Usually I do not do this, but I am saying in public that your soul has accepted me one hundred per cent and your heart has accepted me one hundred per cent. After having seen me, if you go to different Masters, forgive me to say, you will only make a comparison and you will make your life miserable, most miserable. You may see something nice there, as you have seen something here and the comparison will make your life miserable.

Your soul and heart express their feelings through soulful tears. These are not fake tears; they are not emotional human tears. No, these tears are coming from the very depths of your soul, from the depths of your heart. But right now your mind and vital need a little more poise. If they have poise, if they have peace, then you will be able to accept me in your mind and vital also. I do not want to say that your mind has not accepted me at all — no, no! That would be the height of my insincerity. Your mind has accepted me, but not the way your heart has accepted me. I do not want to give marks, but your mind and vital and your physical, earthly consciousness, have accepted me to some extent, whereas your heart and soul have accepted me wholeheartedly. They have accepted me completely, completely.

Even here there are some disciples who have been with me for many, many years whose soul and heart are one hundred per cent for me, absolutely one hundred per cent, whereas their mind fluctuates. Sometimes the mind has accepted me eighty, ninety or ninety-five per cent. Then again, there are some on the path whose mind has accepted me only seventy per cent or sixty per cent. In some cases, even now, after so many years, their vital and mind have accepted me only thirty to forty per cent.

But there are quite a few who have accepted me whole-heartedly, one hundred per cent, with their aspiration, dedication and self-giving. Their entire existence is only for me, only for me. Their only desire is to manifest my light — which is the Light of the Supreme — here on earth. They do not expect anything from me. There are some disciples in that category. They get boundless joy only by pleasing me and fulfilling me in my own way.

Again, sometimes desire creeps in and when they get this desire, they curse themselves. Why? Each time they have a desire — which may even touch the height of ambition — they become miserable because they feel that they are going away from me. They know that their acceptance of me is complete and whatever decision I make in their outer life or in their inner life is for their good. I do not get any joy by giving orders. I am not a commander. But I have taken them as my own, very own. They are extremely grateful that I have accepted them as my own and I am also extremely grateful that I was able to accept them as my own, very own. I have some disciples like that.

But there are also disciples who are not with me one hundred per cent in every way. The soul and heart are there, but in some cases even the heart at times disappears, because the mind becomes so powerful that it eclipses the heart-sun. There is no guarantee that people who stay on our path for forty or fifty years will be making progress. In some cases, when people were five or ten years old on the path, they made the fastest progress. Now the same people have been on the path for twenty, twenty-five, thirty or thirty-five years and they have descended considerably. Some people feel, after staying for so many years, that they have wasted their life. Some people feel that their mind is fossilised and they cannot go any farther.

I always say that there is no such thing as an age-barrier in the spiritual life. Even until the moment when you breathe your last, you can make progress. If your last breath goes to the Supreme with utmost sincerity, even at that very last moment you can make progress. But some disciples have definitely descended, descended. Some have descended considerably; others, to some extent; and still others, miserably. Again, some have maintained their height and some are continuing to make progress.

On our Christmas Trips, some disciples make so much progress! It is like putting money in the bank. The rest of the year, even if they do not make any progress, they can withdraw money — that is to say, aspiration, dedication and all their good qualities. In three months' time, some people make that kind of extraordinary progress.

In your case, my dear seeker-friend, do not be discouraged. You can dive deep within to see if I am telling the truth. Your soul and your heart have accepted me. You have already been to one or two Masters. Now if you go to other Masters, there will only be serious comparison in your mind. Again, who am I to say these things? But if I have to speak on behalf of the Supreme, your link with my soul and my heart is infinitely stronger, infinitely stronger. I am not flattering you.

My request to all the disciples is not to change boats. Again, if one boat only capsizes time and again and there is no hope for that boat to arrive at the destination, then one has every right to change from that boat to a boat that is sailing fast, very fast and that he feels can fulfil its promise. There are boats like that. If one is fully satisfied with one boat, then my advice is never, never to change. But if one boat enjoys hesitation, then an individual has the right to make the final decision, the faultless decision, to choose another boat.

Some people are in the boat, but they are not active. They are not watching or doing anything. I say that, even if you fall asleep and do not see what is going on around you, no harm; you can remain asleep. Some disciples are not fully committed to the path. They are neither one hundred per cent in the aspiration-world nor one hundred per cent in the dedication-world, but just because they are staying on the path, they are not going downhill. They are holding their spiritual standard.

My friend, my dearest seeker-friend, I am telling you, if it is a matter of your soul, if it is a matter of your heart, then one hundred per cent you have accepted me. But if the other parts of your being are not satisfied, then what can I say? Again, there are people in my boat whose entire being, whose body, vital, mind, heart and soul, still have not accepted me fully.

Every day I tell the secret of secrets: we sing and pray to the Supreme not to give us freedom. Everybody wants freedom, freedom, freedom! Who does not want freedom? But we forget that we misuse freedom one hundred percent. Some countries that advocate freedom are in the vanguard of destruction. Now our philosophy is, "Give me no freedom." I know that, the moment I take freedom from God, I separate myself from Him and I am prone to make mistakes one hundred per cent of the time. If I say, "God, I love You implicitly, unconditionally," then I have no choice of my own. At that time I pray to God, "Give me no freedom." I know if I pray for freedom and if I get freedom, I may make a most deplorable blunder and ruin my whole spiritual life.

I tell God, "Do not give me freedom. Bind me, keep me bound inside Your Heart. I do not need freedom! Real freedom is joy and my joy is to be bound by You." That is my freedom. Freedom means joy. I can enjoy freedom in my life. But again, if I pray to God, "Do not give me freedom," it means, "I want to be absolutely one with You in Your Decisions. Every Decision you make for me is the perfect one." For the last one or two years, I have felt the supreme necessity for the disciples to pray to the Supreme not to give them freedom.

This philosophy is totally different from the philosophy of the outer world. I am praying, "Do not give me freedom." But what does freedom mean? I know my freedom means I will only commit blunders and blunders and blunders, whereas if the Supreme guides me at every moment, is He going to make mistakes? If we feel that He has made a so-called mistake in our life, we will see that we are only climbing up to another height. From one plane of consciousness we may take it as a defeat, but from another plane of consciousness, it is a great achievement.

Sri Aurobindo said, "His failure is not failure whom God leads." God knows the Ultimate Goal because God Himself is the Ultimate Goal. If the disciples take me as their Destination, they will not feel that I have not said the right thing or done the right thing. To those who have accepted me wholeheartedly, I wish to say that your Destination is not somewhere else; it is inside me. It is in my inner existence.

People who are of the highest height, who have reached the most sublime height, represent not only God, the Absolute God, but also their elder brothers — like Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Lord Buddha, Sri Chaitanya, the Saviour Christ, Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo and others. It is all the same light. The highest Supreme sent some supremely chosen individuals to do His Work. Again, the way the Absolute Supreme guided those spiritual figures of the highest order, He will always guide the ones supremely chosen for His Manifestation.

There are many, many Gurus, countless Gurus. Swami Vivekananda once said, "In East Bengal, Gurus grow like mushrooms." He was bothered by so many people from East Bengal. They said, "Please, please come and see my Guru! He is God-realised. He is an Avatar, an Avatar, an Avatar!" That is why Swami Vivekananda said, "In East Bengal, Gurus grow like mushrooms."

Here on earth everybody is not at the same height. With all the sincerity at my command, I wish to say that all spiritual Masters are not of the same height. Again, if we use the term 'representative', each human being is a God-representative — you and I and everyone. Whoever has taken human incarnation is a God-representative, but we have to know that a particular God-representative may have only an iota of God's Divinity to embody and reveal and manifest.

All human beings are God-representatives if they have faith in God, if they are God-believers. And even those who are not God-believers also have faith! I say their "no God" is also my God, because they have faith in their "no God." The most important thing is to have faith. I say, "There is a God, there is a God." My faith is in God. But if you say, "No God, no God," fine! That "no God" is also my God, because you have implicit faith in "no God." If you have faith in "no God," then your faith I accept as God because God is omnipresent, He is omnipotent. But those who believe in God are doing the right thing, absolutely. "No God" is one way of saying the truth. We use the term "Neti, neti" — “Not this, not that" — but I cannot side with those who say "no God."

We do not understand the way the Creation can be threatened by some undivine or hostile forces. These undivine forces are embodied by some individuals. It is something unfathomable and most painful and we shall not go to that side of Creation. We shall try to live with the God of our aspiration, of our dedication. If we think of the destruction of the world by certain forces, by certain individuals, we are totally lost and we shall not be able to find the right way to change the world. We cannot even change our own mind, our own life. How can we change the course of the world? We cannot! So let us not go to the side of the undivine forces.

Again I am saying to all of you, you all are representatives of God. God has given to some individuals the capacity of the infinite ocean. Some are like rivers, some are like ponds, some are like swimming pools, some are like little streams and some are like tiny drops of water. But whatever your capacity, once you take human incarnation, you are definitely a God-representative.

Every day a flower is blossoming

Disciple question: There are roots in the spiritual life that go down deep, deep, deep and I feel they are building our solid life as a spiritual seeker. How can we become more solid and work on our roots in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: On the spiritual path, every morning we know we have covered hundreds of miles or thousands of miles or millions of miles or billions of miles or even trillions of miles. Some people have covered many, many miles over the years. They have had many, many incarnations. Again, some people, let us say, have covered only ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles or forty miles in the spiritual life.

No matter how many miles we have already covered on the strength of our prayer and meditation, we have to forget about the distance we have covered over the years. Every morning we have to make a new attempt, a fresh attempt, to fly a little higher, to dive a little deeper, to go forward a little farther. These three things we have to do. Whatever height we have reached, every day we have to make a fresh attempt, absolutely new.

Every day a flower is blossoming. Early in the morning when we look at the flower, we get so much joy. In the late afternoon or evening we see it has become wilted. The next day again a new flower is blossoming. While you are the most beautiful and fresh flower early in the morning, at that time when you pray or meditate, develop adamantine will-power so that there will be absolutely no outer world of good and bad — only you and your inner existence, you and God. There is no third person with good news or bad news or sad news — no! There is only you, right in front of your own Highest, your own Highest. You can imagine your own Highest, or if it is difficult, then my Transcendental photograph you can take as your Highest.

If I have given one thing to this world to treasure when I go to the other world, that is my Transcendental. Again, quite a few years ago I went beyond it. I always say that the Supreme Himself is making progress, which is unbelievable to the mind.

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Published in My Heart-Door I Have Kept Wide Open

 

Meditation: Self-Transcendence

Sri Chinmoy’s first talk
at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, United Nations, New York

 

 

Meditation is self-transcendence. Self-transcendence is the message of the Beyond. The message of the Beyond is God, the eternally evolving Soul, and God, the eternally fulfilling Goal.

The animal in man is proud of his self-aggrandisement. The human in man is delighted with his self-awareness. The divine in man is conscious of his self-realisation. The Supreme in man is fulfilled in his self-transcendence.

Man needs material wealth to enjoy a prosperous earthly life. Man needs meditation to live a peaceful heavenly life. Man needs revelation to live as a divine hero, to guide and serve and serve and guide as a divine hero. Heaven does not want a weakling. Earth does not need a weakling.

Life is not empty talk. Life is not the breath of illusion. Life is the action of aspiration. Aspiration is the action of man's Inner Pilot. Let us fight the battle of life within. Let us wake up to the reality of our world consciously and devotedly. Ours will be the victory without. Forget we must not, never. We are of God the Infinite and we are for God the Eternal.

Meditation means the evolution of the body and the soul. The body's ultimate evolution is transformation and perfection. The soul's ultimate evolution is the highest illumination and complete manifestation.

He who meditates, consciously dedicates his life to God. He who dedicates his life to mankind, soulfully meditates on the real God. His are the eyes that see Heaven on earth. In him divinity and humanity are triumphantly blended.

Temptation and meditation. Temptation: this is precisely what an unaspiring man knows. Meditation: this is what an aspiring man constantly is. An unaspiring man must descend in the scale of life and feel the very breath of ignorance. An aspiring man eternally ascends in the scale of life and lives in the very Heart of God.

We have hundreds of secrets, but meditation has only one: competence is achievement. Competence and achievement are the smiles of God's unconditional Grace.

Sri Krishna meditated. He became God, the Love Divine. The Buddha meditated. He became God, the Light Divine. The Christ meditated. He became God, the Compassion Divine. Now God wants you to meditate. He wants you to become God, the Life Divine.

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Published in The Garland of Nation-Souls.

 

Freedom

A morning lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Rackham Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

 

Dear seekers of Truth, Light and Bliss, I am extremely glad to be at this august university today. This university loves progress more than anything. In our spiritual life also, we care for only one thing — progress. We do not care for success; we care only for progress, and in our progress looms large our success. Today’s success is the starting point for tomorrow’s achievement. Success never gives satisfaction, but when we make progress we do get satisfaction. Progress is the Will of God working in and through us, carrying us safely to our ultimate Goal.

Today I wish to give a short talk on Freedom. We all know something about what freedom is, for freedom is very familiar to each individual soul. As a freedom-loving country, America stands in the vanguard of the freedom-loving countries. So, dear sisters and brothers, perhaps you know more about freedom than I do. But from the spiritual point of view, for the seeker of the Infinite Truth, I would like to say a few words on spiritual freedom, inner freedom.

What is freedom? Freedom is our conscious, spontaneous and selfless search for Light, abundant Light, infinite Light.

There are two kinds of Light: the outer light and the inner light. The outer light exposes us, examines us and judges us. The inner light awakens us, illumines us and fulfils us.

Once we enter into the world of aspiration, we come to realise that there are three types of freedom: animal freedom, human freedom and divine freedom. Animal freedom enjoys total destruction. Human freedom enjoys fleeting or deluding pleasure. Divine freedom enjoys illumining and fulfilling oneness. Animal freedom and human freedom are earth-bound freedom. Divine freedom is Heaven-free freedom. Earth-bound freedom is the song of our unlit ego’s supremacy. Heaven-free freedom is the song of our reality’s perfection and divinity’s manifestation.

In today’s world, man and perfection are perfect strangers. In tomorrow’s world, man and perfection will be bosom friends, illumining friends and fulfilling brothers. In the mind of today’s world, divine manifestation is sheer impossibility; but in the heart of tomorrow’s world, the divine manifestation is an unmistakable inevitability.

Spiritual freedom is our liberation from the mire of self-created bondage. When the body is liberated from the mire of ignorance, the body divinely serves God in man. When the vital is liberated from the aggression of ignorance-dream, the vital divinely loves God in man. When the mind is liberated from its tiny, limited ignorance-cave, the mind divinely manifests God in man. When the heart is liberated from its insecurity-prison cell, the heart constantly feels the Supreme Pilot here on earth, there in Heaven.

In the spiritual life, we need speed. To my great joy, we are very close to Detroit, the capital of the automobile world, the city of speed. In the inner life, speed is aspiration. If there is no aspiration, then there is no speed, and God-realisation remains a far cry. We know the speed of an Indian bullock cart and the speed of a modern jet plane. Aspiration has the speed of a modern jet plane. Aspiration is the heart’s mounting cry that finds its satisfaction only when it reaches the goal of the ever-transcending Beyond. Once it reaches the Goal, the inner being is inundated with freedom, the freedom that feeds us, energises us and fulfils the hunger of humanity.

Right now, if you ask, “Who needs freedom?” our answer is that everyone needs freedom. If you ask, “Who has freedom?” the answer is that nobody has it. But if we launch into the spiritual life, if we follow the path devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally, then today’s bondage can be transformed into tomorrow’s freedom. Outer freedom is fleeting and badly lacking in satisfaction. Inner freedom gives us real and abiding satisfaction. Unless and until we have attained satisfaction, we shall always remain unfulfilled and empty.

In order to bring satisfaction into our life, we cry deep within. When God’s Hour strikes in our life of aspiration, we become not only men of freedom but also lovers of freedom. At that time we transform mankind with our embodied, revealed and manifested Freedom Divine.

Now we are in the state of Michigan. The state motto is extremely significant from the spiritual point of view: “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.” In the spiritual life, we are looking for a spiritual peninsula. The peninsula is Love, Devotion and Surrender — Divine Love, Divine Devotion and Divine Surrender. Human love binds; Divine Love expands. Human devotion is our unconscious attachment; Divine Devotion is our conscious awareness of our ultimate reality. Human surrender is the surrender of a slave to his master; Divine Surrender is the surrender of the finite to the Infinite. This surrender is conscious, wholehearted and unconditional, and it allows the human being to realise his Source, God.

After God-realisation, the finite human life becomes inseparably one with the Infinite. At that time, the Infinite sings its most soulful song, the song of God-Reality, and the finite sings its eternal song, the cry of millennia.

The moment we enter the spiritual life, one sublime thought, word and idea becomes paramount to us, and that is “consciousness”. Strangely enough, this state of being abounds in lakes. Lakes consist of water, which signifies consciousness. Consciousness and spirituality are inseparable.

When we elevate our consciousness to the highest level of awareness, illumination dawns. When we spread the wings of our consciousness, we fly into the sky of Immortality. Each seeker consciously tries to expand his consciousness, illumine his consciousness and fulfil his consciousness; for in the expansion, illumination and fulfilment of his consciousness, he becomes one with the real, divine Supreme, his Source and his Goal.

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Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 2

 

Peace

An afternoon lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Ingman Room, New Student Union, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio

 

Dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers of the ultimate Truth, I wish to give a talk on peace.

Peace is a most familiar word. Each seeker knows what peace is according to his receptivity’s capacity. I am a seeker. I wish to share with you the peace that I have experienced. By offering my experience, I wish to become totally one, inseparably one, with your life of aspiration and dedication.

What is peace? Peace is our liberation from bondage. What is liberation? Liberation is our universal oneness with God the Unity and God the Multiplicity. What is bondage? Bondage is the dance of our unlit ego. What is ego? Ego is the unreal in us. And what is the real in us? The real in us is Truth; the real in us is God. God and Truth are inseparable, the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

What is peace? Peace is our satisfaction. What is satisfaction? Satisfaction is our conscious and constant oneness with the Will of the Supreme Pilot. Where does this satisfaction lie? It lies in our self-giving and in our God-becoming.

Peace, the world needs. We all need peace. But when we think of peace we try to discover it in our mind. We use the term “peace of mind”. We feel that peace can be found only in the mind, and if once we can discover peace in the mind, then our problems will be solved for good. But at this point I wish to say that the mind we are referring to is the physical mind. This mind is the doubting mind, and in the doubting mind we can never feel the presence of peace. We can feel the presence of peace only in the loving heart. The doubting mind leads us to total frustration. The loving heart leads us to complete satisfaction. We doubt, and then we feel a barren desert within us. We love, and then we feel a sea of Reality and Divinity within us.

Peace is not to be found in external knowledge. Most of our external knowledge is founded on information, and information cannot give us any abiding satisfaction. Peace is not to be found in outer efficiency. Peace is found in self-mastery.

If we want to achieve peace in our inner and outer life, then we must know the necessity of reciprocal inclusiveness and not mutual exclusiveness. Earth and Heaven must be united. Heaven has the silence of the soul. Earth has the sound of life. The silence of the soul leads us to our Source, the highest Reality; and the sound of life allows us to manifest what is within that highest Reality. In the inclusiveness of earth and Heaven we can achieve peace.

Peace is the only authority in our life of ascent and descent. When we ascend, we learn the song of unity in multiplicity. When we descend, we learn the song of multiplicity in unity.

All of us here are seekers. We are all children of God. We are progressing according to our inner intensity and our soul’s necessity. Each individual member of the world family has a special way of achieving peace. A child feels that he can achieve peace only by making noise. Inside noise, what looms large for him is peace. An adolescent finds peace only in constant activity. A youth finds peace only by creating a new world or by destroying the old world. An old man finds peace in unlearning most of the things he has learnt from the ignorant world. When he unlearns, he feels considerable peace. He also achieves peace by placing himself at the Feet of the Supreme Pilot.

Peace is our inner wealth. This inner wealth we can bring to the fore only when we expect nothing from the outer world and everything from the Supreme Pilot within us, at God’s Choice Hour. Often, when we work for the world and serve the world we feel that it is the world’s bounden duty to offer us gratitude or to acknowledge our service. When we expect something from the world, we are bound to meet with frustration. But when we expect from the Inner Pilot, He fulfils us beyond the flight of our imagination. But one thing we must know, and that is that God has an Hour of His own.

Our duty is to pray for peace, meditate on peace, concentrate on peace and contemplate on peace. God’s duty is to inundate us with His Peace. When we know the art of surrender, the kingdom of peace within us cannot separate itself from our living reality. It is our conscious inner surrender, our unconditional surrender to the Inner Pilot that expedites our journey towards the discovery of the all-illumining and all-fulfilling Peace.

Now we are in the state of Ohio. The state motto is most significant for all seekers: “With God, all things are possible.” The moment we enter into the spiritual life, we feel there can be no better, more encouraging and more illumining message than this. A beginner-seeker believes in it. An advanced seeker goes one step further and feels that God is the Doer, God is the Action and God is the Fruit thereof. So, our first lesson in the spiritual life is that everything is possible with God. Then later we come to feel that we do nothing, that it is God who does everything in and through us. This is the great lesson, the ultimate lesson, that we learn from our inner school.

The capital of the state of Ohio is Columbus. In the state of spirituality, there is only one capital, and that is aspiration. On the strength of aspiration we can achieve our Goal. On the strength of aspiration we transcend constantly our earthly reality and existence. No matter in which field we apply aspiration, the mounting flame within us, we are bound to achieve success. The state of Ohio offers us a shining example. From Ohio, seven American Presidents came, and offered their loftiest height and light to the whole country. Not only in the field of politics, but in every walk of life, when we aspire, our aspiration leads us to the destined goal.

Every day the Almighty Father, the ever-Compassionate Father, gives us ample opportunity to discover something new. The thing that we are discovering is love, love divine. Love divine is at once eternally ancient and eternally new. When we discover love divine within us, we grow into the very image of God the eternal Lover and God the eternal Beloved, who ever abides within us.

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Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 2

 

I Meditate

A talk by Sri Chinmoy

 

I meditate.
I meditate not out of curiosity.
I meditate out of necessity.
I meditate not out of fear.
I meditate out of love.
I meditate not out of possessiveness.
I meditate out of selflessness.
I meditate on God not because God is great.
I meditate on God because God is good.
I meditate on God not because God will give me everything I want.
I meditate on God because God will give me only the things that I need.

Some people think that I am not practical, while others think that I am not sincere. Still others think that I am stupid. We all know that criticism is the order of the day. Such being the case, how can I expect to be an exception? Again, in all sincerity I must tell the world that perfection is still a far cry in my life. I have made an inner promise: I shall fear no criticism when I am right. I shall ignore no criticism when I am wrong.

There is a special reason why I meditate. I love to converse with God. He is such a charming conversationalist, and I am a charmed listener. I am my heart’s hunger-cry. God is His Heart’s Feast-Smile.

When I do not meditate, conscience torments me, joy deserts me, peace hides from me and satisfaction ignores me. When I meditate, God’s blue Eye blesses me, God’s green Heart embraces me, God’s red Feet shelter me.

Meditation is the flowering of my confidence in myself and my confidence in God. I have no confidence in human beings precisely because I know them and precisely because I do not know them. I have complete confidence in God not because of my helpless life, but because of my sleepless heart. I have complete confidence in myself not because God is my only choice, but because He is always His unconditional Boon.

I meditate to unlearn and to learn. I meditate to unlearn my earth-bound mind-education. I meditate to learn my Heaven-free heart-aspiration.

Early in the morning, when I hear God’s Voice, I open my inspired eyes and meditate. During my morning meditation God says to me, “My child, go and prove to the world that you are all for Me.” Late at night, when I hear God’s Voice, I close my tired eyes and meditate. During my night meditation God says to me, “My child, lo and behold, you are of Me unmistakably and eternally.”

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Published in AUM – Vol. 6, No. 3, March 1980