After having just been lifted at Aspiration-Ground by Sri Chinmoy, his guests, Dr. Kenneth Kamler (left) and Ravi Coltrane (right) view Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala paintings with exhibition curator Ranjana Ghose (centre) at Pilgrim-Museum in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
After lifting 22 people at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, Queens, New York, Sri Chinmoy invites some of his guests to Pilgrim-Museum. Here, musician Ravi Coltrane, son of John and Alice Coltrane; and Dr. Kenneth Kamler, known for his medical treatment of Everest climbers; join Addwitiya Roberta Flack and Sri Chinmoy.
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University in New York
Why do we concentrate? We concentrate because we want to reach the Goal. Why do we meditate? We meditate because we want to live in the heart of the Goal. Why do we contemplate? We contemplate because we want to become the Goal.
How do we concentrate? We concentrate with the mind's illumining one-pointedness. How do we meditate? We meditate with the heart's expanding vastness. How do we contemplate? We contemplate with the soul's fulfilling oneness.
Where do we concentrate, meditate and contemplate? We concentrate, meditate and contemplate in the heart. When we concentrate in the heart, God the Divine Warrior energises us. When we meditate in the heart, God the Divine Knower enlightens us. When we contemplate in the heart, God the Divine Lover immortalises us. The Warrior energises us with His secret Power. The Knower enlightens us with His sacred Light. The Lover immortalises us with His supernal Delight. The Warrior's Power is our ceaseless capacity. The Knower's Light is our endless divinity. The Lover's Delight is our birthless and deathless reality.
When a beginner meditates, it is nothing but struggle. When an advanced seeker meditates, it is smooth sailing.
When an advanced seeker contemplates, he becomes a portion of the Universal Consciousness. When a yogi contemplates, he becomes the Universal Consciousness.
An occultist's intimate friend is concentration. A yogi's intimate friends are meditation and contemplation. An occultist cares very little for meditation and contemplation. A yogi cares very little for concentration.
When an occultist concentrates, it is terribly frightening. When a yogi meditates and contemplates, it is unimaginably charming.
Concentration, meditation and contemplation: in form they are three but in spirit they are one. Concentration exterminates threatening obstructions. Meditation expedites our teeming possibilities. Contemplation places us on the throne of Divinity's Reality and Reality's Immortality. Concentration demands from us sincerity. Meditation demands from us purity. Contemplation demands from us integrity.
Yesterday concentration, meditation and contemplation were seething amazements to us. Today they are unusual surprises to us. Tomorrow they will be normal experiences to us.
Concentration is God's Protection in man. Meditation is God's Height in man. Contemplation is God's Victory in man. Human doubt surrenders to concentration. Human fear surrenders to meditation. Human ignorance surrenders to contemplation.
Concentration is the last word on speed. Meditation is the last word on progress. Contemplation is the last word on success. Love of God is humanity's fastest speed. Devotion to God is humanity's greatest progress. Surrender to God is humanity's mightiest success.
When a seeker concentrates on God, God blesses the seeker's devoted head. When he meditates on God, God blesses his loving heart. When he contemplates on God, God blesses his surrendered entire being. When God concentrates on a seeker, the seeker starts his journey towards the Goal unknowable. When God meditates on a seeker, the seeker is in the midst of his journey towards the Goal unknown. When God contemplates on a seeker, the seeker completes his journey and reaches the Goal: Infinity's Smile, Eternity's Embrace, Immortality's Pride.
Published in Promised Light from the Beyond
Sri Chinmoy holds 127 sessions of meditation at Public School 86 in Jamaica, New York. He chants AUM or SUPREME to start and rings a small bell to end each session, which lasts for one or two minutes.
After the final meditation, shortly before 2:00 a.m., Sri Chinmoy gives the following soulful talk:
by Sri Chinmoy
at PS 86, Jamaica, New York
I hope some of you will realise who I am, either in this incarnation or in one of your future incarnations. Once you realise who I am, then you do not have to do anything, you do not have to say anything, you do not have to become anything. Once you know who I am, you will make me truly happy and you yourselves will be truly happy. Before you know who I am, I will not be happy and you will not be happy.
So, either in this incarnation or in one of your future incarnations, try to realise me. Then only your earthly journey will be fruitful. Otherwise, many times you have come to earth and many, many more times you will come in the future, but it will all end in vain.
Dear children, always keep one thing in mind, and that is to realise me, realise who I eternally am. I am not this body; I am something else. That something else you will realise if you stay in my boat and please me always, always, always in my own way. Think only of me: what I say, not what others say; what I do, not what others do. If you please me, then you have pleased the Real in me; you have pleased the Supreme. If you do not please me, then no matter whom you have pleased, or whom you are going to please, your life will be a barren desert from the beginning to the end. But if you please me in my own way and if I am satisfied with you, then our Absolute Beloved Supreme is pleased with you. And if He is pleased with you, then there is nothing either on earth or in Heaven that you need. Everything is useless, everybody is useless except the one Reality: the Supreme in your Guru, the Supreme with your Guru, the Supreme for your Guru and the Supreme as your Guru.
Realise me. Then only you will discover the meaning of your life. Realise me. Then only satisfaction — Eternity’s satisfaction, Infinity’s satisfaction, Immortality’s satisfaction — will all be yours.
Realise me... Realise me...
Published in Our Sweetest Oneness
About his recent trip to India
As you know, a very nice article came out about me in The Illustrated Weekly of India, which is like America’s Time magazine. The following week an Indian wrote four or five lines highly appreciating that article. It came out as a letter to the editor. I saw it when I was in India.
Indian taxi drivers are notorious for deceiving people. On this trip deception started at the Bombay airport. From the airport to the hotel is a very short distance. The taxi ride normally costs only seven rupees, but the driver asked for two hundred rupees. I started arguing with him in Hindi. Perhaps I made some grammatical mistakes, but he understood me perfectly. From two hundred he finally came down to sixty. So I gave him sixty rupees. What could I do? The following morning, when I went from the hotel to the airport, another driver charged me the correct amount - seven rupees. So you can see what a rogue the first driver was!
The following day, while I was waiting to board the plane to Madras, I was writing poems. After some time I put my notebook on the seat next to me and began meditating. Suddenly I noticed that my notebook had disappeared. I started asking myself, “Where did it go?”
I looked for the notebook in my blue bag, but it was not there. Then I started looking around me. There were about seventy or eighty people waiting to get on the plane, and it was almost boarding time. Then I saw that somebody was holding the notebook. He was not reading the poems; he was only appreciating the beautiful parrot that was on the cover.
I said to him, “Excuse me, this is my book.”
He said, “Your book? I found it on a seat. Nobody was sitting there, so I took it because I liked the bird.”
Fortunately I got my notebook back at the last minute. Otherwise, ninety-nine poems would have been lost.
When I arrived in Calcutta after leaving Pondicherry, I wanted to phone my family. My sisters and brothers had driven me to the Madras airport, and then they had to make the three-and-a-half-hour drive back to Pondicherry. So I was worried about them. I felt sorry, because going and coming back came to seven hours of driving altogether. For me, it was only an hour-and-a-half plane ride from Madras to Calcutta. So after about three hours I started phoning Pondicherry to see if they had gotten back all right.
The operator said that the Pondicherry line was out of order and that it could be that way for two or three more days. Quite often when I try to call from New York, the operator says that the Pondicherry line is out of order. The first day I believed the operator. The second day when I tried to call, again the operator said that it was out of order. I said, “O God, what does the government do if it has to make an urgent call?”
The operator said, “Oh, the government has a special line that is used only for lightning calls. If you make a lightning call, you have to pay eight times more.”
I said, “Look here, I am willing to pay eight times more.”
The operator said, “Eight times more? Are you sure?”
I said, “I have the money, so please do it.”
So the operator made the lightning call around one-thirty in the morning, but nobody answered. My mind was worried that perhaps something had gone wrong. One is allowed to try a lightning call only twice, and then the call is cancelled. They made the second call a half hour later and still there was no answer. What had happened was this: the Calcutta hotel operator had put through the lightning call, but the rogues in Madras had used a wrong number. All the time I thought that something had gone wrong with my family’s phone. It turned out that our phone was all right, but the Madras operator was putting me through to a wrong number.
The following day I tried to make another lightning call two times, but again it didn’t go through. Whenever the call does not go through, you don’t have to pay; but you always get a scolding from the operator. The operator barks at you because a lightning call is only supposed to be made by very rich or great people. They did not feel that I was rich or great enough.
My family couldn’t call me because they didn’t know at which hotel I was staying. Finally, I called my house in New York. Since nobody there had heard from my brothers and sisters, I said, “That means that everything is all right. If anything had gone wrong, they would have called New York.” From New York one of the girls tried calling Pondicherry, but she had the same fate. She could not get through. Finally, she sent a telegram to my family asking if everyone was all right.
The next day I told the operator that I had been trying to call Pondicherry for three days. She put in another lightning call, and in two minutes the call went through. My brother answered the phone and I immediately said to him, “Why have you not been answering the phone?”
At the same time he said to me, “Where is your concern for us? Why have you not called us for four days? One of us has always been near the phone, worrying.”
I said, “I have tried to make lightning calls twenty times.”
So everything was all right. The first day when they didn’t answer, I felt that perhaps my sister was tired and exhausted from travelling, and therefore she didn’t hear the phone ringing. It turned out that my brother was there, but the phone line was not working at all. For three days the Pondicherry line was not working. I said, “What kind of worries the telephone can create!” I was blessing the telephone like anything.
I was so happy that I finally got through to Pondicherry that I called the hotel telephone operator. I had heard her say her name, Mrs. Dasgupta. She was Bengali, but we started talking in English because telephone operators always prefer to speak English. She told me, “You asked for a lightning call, but I did not make a lightning call. I have a friend in Madras and I told her to make it a special call without saying it was a lightning call.” It would have cost me six hundred rupees, but now I had to pay only one hundred ten rupees. So I was very grateful to her.
I put a hundred rupees in an envelope to give her, and then I went downstairs to the hotel telephone office. The place was so dirty! I stood at the door and said, “I would like to speak to Mrs. Dasgupta.” So many people were working there. How could I go in and give her the envelope when there were so many other girls around? I said to the guard, “Can you ask her to come here?”
The guard came back and said, “They are asking you to come in.”
I said to myself, “I am in trouble now. I can’t just give her this envelope in front of everyone.”
So I gave her a copy of the small Galaxy of Luminaries. When she saw my picture with the Pope, she could not believe it. She said to me “Where do you come from?”
I said, “I am Bengali. Why?”
She said, “But when you talked to your family, it was not in Bengali.”
I said, “I come from Chittagong.”
She said she could not understand a word of our Chittagong dialect.
I said, “This is what you do? You listen to people’s private conversations?”
She said, “Oh no, I just wanted to see if you got through to your party. Then I heard something very peculiar.” Then she added, “You don’t have a Chittagong accent.”
I said to myself, “Not in vain did I stay at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. There I spoke real Bengali.”
Then she started appreciating my Bengali. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how many books, poems and songs I have written in Bengali. Then she said, “Is your mother alive?”
I said, “No.”
She said, “The person who would have been the happiest to see this picture is not alive.”
I said, “I lost her when I was quite young.”
She said, “I am so sorry that you have lost your mother. She would have been the happiest person.
I said, “There is something called Heaven, so she can be proud of her son from Heaven.”
She was very moved. Then I gave her the envelope and said, “This is a gift.”
I thought she would show false modesty and say, “No,” and I would have to insist. But she just took it and thanked me. Inwardly I said, “You deserve it! You saved me from paying for a lightning call.”
Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 1
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, with performances on the piano pipe organ at Alumnae Hall, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. Listen to the concert...
New Zealand, New Zealand, New Zealand!
Softness, oneness and fulness-hand.
Lambs, lambs, lambs, lambs, lambs —
One thousand plus one!
My little friends, together we have
God’s twinkling Eye won.
Published in Country Songs, Part 2
During the meditation held in St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University, Sri Chinmoy reads out a number of prayers on the themes of ‘Before I pray’ and ‘Before I meditate’, which he had recently written.
by Sri Chinmoy
My Supreme Lord,
Before I pray to You
For a possession-night,
May I pray to You
For a renunciation-flame,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I pray to You
For a renunciation-flame,
May I pray to You
For an acceptance-lamp,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I pray to You
For an acceptance-lamp,
May I pray to You
For a oneness-column of light,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I pray to You
For a oneness-column of light,
May I pray to You
For a surrender-sun, May I?
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
My Supreme Lord,
Right after
My aspiration-height-prayer,
May I pray to You
For a dedication-length,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Right after
My dedication-length-prayer,
May I pray to You
For a union-depth,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Right after
My union-depth-prayer,
May I pray to You
For a perfection-cry,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Right after
My perfection-cry-prayer,
May I pray to You
For a satisfaction-smile.
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Right after
My satisfaction-smile-prayer,
May I pray to You
For a gratitude-heart,
May I?
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
My Supreme Lord,
For You I have two beautiful gifts:
My prayer-sound,
My meditation-silence.
Today I am offering to You
My prayer-sound-gift.
Tomorrow I shall give to You
My meditation-silence-gift.
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
by Sri Chinmoy
My Supreme Lord,
Before I meditate on You
To destroy my uncomely, unaspiring
And undivine thought-world,
May I meditate on You
To grant me a pure, progressive
And promising thought-world,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I meditate on You
To grant me a pure, progressive
And promising thought-world,
May I meditate on You
To completely silence my thought-world,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I meditate on You
To completely silence my thought-world,
May I meditate on You
To grant me,
Out of Your boundless Bounty,
An adamantine will-world,
May I?My Supreme Lord,
Before I meditate on You
To grant me an adamantine will-world,
May I meditate on You
To richly bless me
With an unalloyed, unreserved
And unconditional surrender-world,
May I?
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
My Supreme Lord,
Right after my meditation
On the blossoming Peace,
May I meditate
On the illumining Light,
May I? *My Supreme Lord,
Right after my meditation
On the illumining Light,
May I meditate
On the immortalising Delight,
May I?
My Supreme Lord,
Right after my meditation
On the immortalising Delight,
May I meditate
On the fulfilling Oneness,
May I?
* The first verse has inadvertently been omitted from the printed publication but is preserved in the original recording.
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
My Supreme Lord,
Yesterday I placed at Your Feet
My prayer-sound gift.
Today I am placing at Your Feet
My meditation-silence gift.
Published in A Seeker is a Singer
Listen to the original recording of Sri Chinmoy
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Meditation is God-discovery. Meditation is self-mastery. Meditation is man's Eternity's progress-light in God. Meditation is God's Infinity's Satisfaction-Delight in man.
Meditation is for the truth-seeker. Meditation is for the God-lover. God's transcendental Vision-Eye blesses man the truth-seeker. God's universal Oneness-Heart embraces man the God-lover.
Yesterday's meditation-message: "Realise God." Today’s meditation-message: "Realise God, plus manifest God." Tomorrow’s meditation-message: "Realise God, manifest God and, finally, become another God."
My mind’s good meditation is the bankruptcy of my self-doubt and God-doubt. My heart's better meditation is my vastness-fulfilment and my oneness-perfection. My soul's best meditation is my life’s God-manifestation here on earth.
Before I meditate, I compel my reasoning mind to disappear. Before I meditate, I beg my loving God to appear.
After I meditate, I soulfully offer myself a new name: gratitude. After I meditate, God, out of His infinite Bounty, blesses me with a new and fruitful name: satisfaction.
Each time I meditate on God, He teaches me a new life-surrender-song. Each time God meditates on me, I offer Him a new gratitude-heart-song.
Earth meditates for man's transformation. Heaven meditates for God's Satisfaction. I meditate for my nature's complete perfection. God meditates for the universal manifestation of His own Transcendental Consciousness and Transcendental Vision here on earth.
Published in My Heart's Peace-Offering
Listen to the original recording of Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy walking at Rushcutters Bay in Syndey Harbour, Australia.
Sri Chinmoy meditates during the Peace Concert at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Sri Chinmoy pays tribute
to his dear friend* who passed away on 10 March 1998
at the Orchid Garden Hotel in Brunei
Aleksandr Razvin proved to be a true brother of my heart and soul.
Since his earth-departure, I have kept a very close connection with his wife Valentina. I call her “Sister.” How much love she and her husband had for me!
Once we had a long-distance race. She came there, crying. I said, “Sister, what is the matter? Do you think I can be of any help?”
She said, “On our wedding day we took an oath that we would never divulge any of our secrets to anyone else without taking permission from each other. If I have to tell a secret, I have to take Aleksandr’s permission, and he has to take my permission if he has to tell a secret. We have kept this promise for so many years. Always we took mutual permission to divulge any secrets. But now I have to tell you a secret without his permission.”
I said, “Oh, without his permission!”
She said, “I must tell you, I must tell you.”
I said, “Please tell me.”
Then she said that he did not want her to tell anybody that he had developed cancer, and it was almost a terminal case. She wanted to tell me, and she did not take his permission. I spoke to her for some time. She felt that, because of my oneness with both of them, her husband would not mind.
When she went home, she said to her husband, “I have told Sri Chinmoy.”
He said, “Oh! What was our promise?” Then he started laughing. He said, “Only Sri Chinmoy! You must not tell anybody else.”
She said, “I knew you would not mind. That is why I told him — and nobody else.”
I went to the hospital to see Razvin. On the way I was composing songs in Bengali, one after another. When I went upstairs to his room, we were so thrilled to see each other. He was highly appreciating the doctors. His main doctor was an Indian woman. I said to him, “Now you will be all right.”
The Indian doctor said, “Swami-ji, Swami-ji, you are here!” Then she said to Razvin, “Only Swami-ji can cure you, not doctors.”
I said, “No, doctors will cure you.”
Then she said to me, “Please, will you be here for another five minutes?”
I said, “I will be here for a longer time.”
She left the room. Downstairs her husband was waiting for her. She brought her husband to the room. She could not believe, and her husband could not believe, that I had come to see a patient. Her husband had been a great admirer of mine. He fell at my feet in the hospital room. He said, “I never thought that I would be able to meet with you.”
This is my story. Some doctors have such love.
* Aleksandr Razvin, who served for many years in the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became Russia’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Published in The Feet of the Supreme’s Compassion
Sri Chinmoy lifts two young boys and 24 adults at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
The iconic American TV game show ‘Jeopardy’ features a question about U Thant Island.
In 1977, members of ‘Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations’ leased the small island from New York State, landscaped its surface and unofficially renamed it after the third UN Secretary-General U Thant. They also erected a thirty-foot ‘Oneness Arch’ which still stands. On 7 October 1982, the island was officially recognised as U Thant Island.
Also, view a light-hearted video on the history of U Thant Island.
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations in New York
The soul-love of the United Nations is life-examination, life-improvement and life-perfection.
Life-examination makes our life on earth meaningful.
Life-improvement makes our rest in Heaven blissful.
Life-perfection makes our rest in Heaven and on earth fruitful.
The soul-love of the United Nations has the fragrance of Divinity’s rose on the physical plane and the benediction of Immortality’s bird on the spiritual plane.
Mind-love, heart-love and soul-love. Mind-love is just an opinion. Heart-love is a firm conviction. Soul-love is an everlasting illumination. Opinions at times confuse us. Convictions at times disappoint us. But illumination always makes us see the Feet of God and the height of Truth. It also makes us see that it has silenced the roaring lion of darkness in the outer world and that it has fed the soaring flame-bird in the inner world.
The soul-love of the United Nations teaches us three most important things: patience, expansion and oneness. Patience is not peace. But patience eventually shows us the way to peace, world peace. Expansion is not an act of self-aggrandisement. But expansion can easily be a life-offering and love-building reality. Oneness does not indicate a lack of opportunity for revealing and manifesting individual uniqueness. Oneness is like the essence and fragrance of a lotus. It does not prevent each petal of the lotus from revealing and manifesting its own uniqueness.
The soul-love of the United Nations has a philosophy of its own. It says that each nation has its own significant truth. One nation will not and cannot overthrow the realisation and revelation of another nation. On the contrary, the realisation and revelation of one nation can easily complement the realisation and revelation of another nation, The soul-love of the United Nations has a religion of its own. This religion is a silently unified wisdom. In this silently unified wisdom looms large a supremely unifying life.
Voltaire said something quite interesting and illumining: “Four thousand volumes of metaphysics cannot teach us what the soul is.” It is the soul alone that can teach us what the soul is. But before the soul teaches us about itself, we have to unlearn the teachings of the obscure, uncertain and doubting mind and, at the same time, we have to learn the teachings of the loving, uniting and illumining heart.
I wish to quote a most significant thought of Emerson: “We can’t describe the natural history of the soul, but it is divine.” No matter how sincerely, how soulfully, how devotedly and how unconditionally we try to describe the natural history of the soul, we are bound to underestimate its capacity. For the soul is the child of both Infinity’s Dream and Eternity’s Reality.
In order to know the soul-love of the United Nations, we have to choose to be free, and we have to be free to choose. When we are within the confines of history, we have to choose to be free. When we are in the sky of evolving spirituality, we have to be free to choose. Soul-love is free will. Soul-love is free choice. When a nation’s free will chooses self-giving, its free choice expedites God-becoming. In self-giving and God-becoming is the confluence of the outer lustre of the United Nations and the inner effulgence of the United Nations. This confluence will, without fail, be a glorious vision for both mortals and immortals.
From the spiritual point of view, the soul-love of the United Nations will always remain resourceful in all problematical situations, untiring in the discharge of its national and international duties, sagacious in its pursuit of inner knowledge and inner wealth, and spontaneous in its willingness to add to the peace, love and joy of searching and ascending humanity.
Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations in New York
Today I am going to talk on the Voice of Silence. Dear seekers, with all sincerity I wish to tell you that no matter how long I speak about the Voice of Silence, I shall not be able to make you hear the Voice of Silence. But I wish to assure you that if you meditate with me for a few minutes before I speak, if you can dive deep within as I shall dive deep within for a few minutes, then either you will hear the Voice of Silence or your prayer and meditation will expedite your journey towards receiving the message of Silence.
It is true that it takes years for a seeker to hear the message of the Voice of Silence. But, with all my soul’s love for each seeker present here today, I wish to say that on the strength of our inner aspiration and outer dedication to the life divine, we can and must hear the Voice of Silence which sempiternally is guiding our life. Our outer life — the life of hustle and bustle — either does not hear this voice or, when it does hear it, pays no attention to it. The life of temptation is what our outer life wants, and not the life of true fulfilment and satisfaction.
The Voice of Silence is the answer when we want divine satisfaction from our day-to-day existence.
The Voice of Silence is the dream of God’s ever-climbing Aspiration-dawn.
The Voice of Silence is the reality of God’s ever-illumining Revelation-light.
The Voice of Silence is the Immortality of God’s ever-fulfilling Perfection-height.
What is voice?
Voice is our inner and outer choice.
Hunger for life-destruction is our animal choice.
Hunger for supremacy-satisfaction is our human choice.
Hunger for perfection-manifestation is our divine choice.
We wish to hear the Voice of Silence, but how can we hear it? There are two principal ways. One way is to silence the human mind totally. From the gross physical mind we enter into the intellectual mind. From the intellectual mind we enter into the intuitive mind. From the intuitive mind we enter into the illumined mind. And from the illumined mind we enter into the overmind. It is only from this highest mind that we can expect to hear the message of the Voice of Silence.
The other way is to feel that the heart-vessel has to be filled with divine Peace, Light, Bliss and Power. When we want to hear the Voice of Silence through the mind, we empty the mind. But when we want to hear the Voice of Silence through the heart, we fill up the heart. When we empty the mind, we have to know that we do so precisely because we want to receive God the Guest or God the infinite Peace. And when we fill up the heart, we feel that God the immortal Light and infinite Delight is entering into our earthly home. The light of the soul precedes the Voice of Silence. The Voice of Silence can never come to the fore unless and until the light of the soul brings it forward consciously, compassionately and lovingly.
What else must we do to hear the Voice of Silence? When we pray, when we meditate, we have to do something quite specific. When we breathe in, we have to imagine consciously that inside that breath, within us, is a peaceful nest and a bird. After a few minutes we have to feel that the nest is our outer existence and the bird is our inner existence. Now this bird has to come out of its nest. How do we bring the bird out of the nest? There are two ways. One way is to make our concentration, meditation and contemplation as dynamic as possible. Here, dynamism means the constant feeling within you of a speeding train that does not stop. It is an express train, and it does not stop at any station or at any junction. It is a tireless train, an endless train, continuously going on. When we have that inner feeling, from the very starting point we get the Blessing-power of the Supreme. And in dynamism, in the flow of dynamism, we see the bird of our inner being leaving its nest, and the Supreme gives us the experience of the Voice of Silence.
Another way to hear the Voice of Silence is to feel, the moment you enter into your meditation or the moment you start praying, that you are an infinite expanse of ocean. A few minutes later, please feel that you are deep inside the ocean, and from there try to spread the wings of the bird that you were when you followed the dynamic way of hearing the message of Silence.
A seeker may hear the Voice of Silence as something very faint and feeble — a tiny voice like a ripple of calm water. But this feeble voice, this faint voice, can be compared to an atom. When we split the atom we release unbelievable power. Similarly, when we know how to hear the Voice of Silence properly, our inner being immediately is inundated with the Power of thousands of inner suns. The creation and the Creator immediately come to satisfy us. Once we hear the Voice of Silence consciously in our spiritual life, we feel that, like God, we too are responsible for the entire creation. Like God, it is we who are the Creator and we who are the creation itself.
Now, how can we know whether we are hearing the Voice of Silence or something totally different which we are mistakenly calling the Voice of Silence? I wish to tell you that we can easily know if it is the Voice of Silence or not. When we hear a voice from the very depths, from the inmost recesses of our heart, and if that voice gives us a message which our outer mind or physical consciousness is ready to accept with utmost joy and love, then we will know that that is the Voice of Silence. If the physical mind or the outer consciousness does not get immediate joy, then it is not the Voice of Silence. Right now our outer mind gets joy both in the acceptance of reality and in the rejection of reality. But when the Inner Voice enters into the outer mind, then the outer mind has no choice. It immediately accepts the reality as reality. When the Voice of Silence is heard, the outer mind will accept it so wholeheartedly that it will feel that the lofty truth it has discovered is its own achievement.
God expresses Himself through silence and sound. Silence is His Reality’s height; silence is His Reality’s depth. Sound is His Reality’s length; sound is His Reality’s breadth. In silence, God is all assurance. In sound God is all confidence. In self-assurance God builds the Kingdom of Light. In self-confidence, God invites His unlit, obscure, unaspiring creation to enter into His Kingdom of Light. A seeker who is a child in the spiritual life finds it quite easy to appreciate, admire and adore God’s length and breadth. But a seeker who is advanced in the spiritual life inwardly feels that God’s height and God’s depth must be appreciated first, and only then can His length and breadth be truly and properly appreciated, admired and adored.
The Voice of Silence is God’s conscious preparation in man. The Voice of Silence is God’s conscious Dream of Perfection in man. The Voice of Silence finally becomes God’s own ever-transcending dream-bound Reality and Reality-freed Dream.
O Voice of Silence
Where are you?
I need your golden wings
O Voice of God,
Where are You?
Hide not from me.
Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the United Nations in New York
Food has God. God is food.
Food has life. God is life.
Food has reality. God is reality.
Food has sound-success.
God is sound-success.
Food has silence-progress.
God is silence-progress.I eat. I eat to survive. From my very birth I have been seeking nourishment. Food saves my life from starvation. Food saves my life from extinction.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to think soulfully.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to act selflessly.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to pray to God constantly.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to meditate spontaneously.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to love God unconditionally.I know my food-hunger is reasonable and inevitable. But my power-hunger is unreasonable and unpardonable. Finally, my God-hunger is incomparable and insurmountable.
To my great sorrow, poverty attacks plenty. To my widest astonishment, plenty invades poverty. One of the lofty principles of the United Nations is: "Poverty anywhere in the world is a threat to prosperity everywhere." Indeed, this is a heart-unifying and life-fulfilling message. The United Nations was founded upon the vision-hunger for world peace. I am sure there shall come a time when that vision will be transformed into reality in spite of today's teeming, threatening and frightening clouds over the firmament of the United Nations.
O body, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Shortage is poverty."
O vital, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Rivalry is poverty."
O mind, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Doubt is poverty."
O heart, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Insecurity is poverty."
O life, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Impurity is poverty."
O truth-seeker, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Disobedience is poverty."
O God-lover, I tell you a supreme secret:
"Ingratitude is poverty."I eat to live.
Indeed, this is my wisdom-light.
I live to eat.
Indeed, this is my ignorance-night.
God says to my desire-life:
"Love to live."
God says to my aspiration-life:
"Live to love."
God says to my realisation-life:
"Love to become a oneness-heart.
Live to be a perfection-life."
Published in The Inner Role of the United Nations
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Orchid Garden Hotel, Brunei Darussalam
I shall tell a story about fainting.
My sister Lily was in what we called a dispensary in the Ashram; you call it a clinic. She was all ready to undergo an operation. My cousin Pushpita was also there. Now she is the oldest in our family. She is dearer than the dearest. Recently I went to see her. She is eighty-six years old. In our family nobody lived to eighty-six. She was only one year older than Lily. As usual, she was scolding me and asking why I had come for only two days!
On this occasion Pushpita went with Lily to help her, to give her strength and moral encouragement. The operation was about to take place. My cousin was in one room, and in the adjacent room Lily was going to be operated on. But my cousin Pushpita fainted and fell down! She got frightened about what was going to happen in the other room. When she fainted, she could not get up. Then my sister Lily started crying. The operation was over before it started — there was no operation that day.
Pushpita is still alive. This cousin was the one who had the living experience of my occult power in my most famous story. She raised her leg to pretend to kick me, and I would not allow her leg to come down. It was hanging in mid-air! I was at that time seventeen or eighteen years old.
In Cambodia, the Prime Minister was so kind to us. How much honour he bestowed upon me! An election took place there. Out of seventy-six votes, his party got seventy votes. His foreign adviser is very close to me. He came to see me four or five times. He is the one who gave me the message about the election.
At their Independence Day function they gave me the first seat among the dignitaries. The President, the Prime Minister and I released three peace doves together. Only for me they wrote, “Honourable Sri Chinmoy.” Our Indian Ambassador to Cambodia came again and again to chat with me, just because I got this honour. His seat was not near me, but four or five times he came to chat, and he begged me to come to his place.
God is so kind to us! There are good people, and they are nice to us. Out of seventy-six votes, the Prime Minister’s party got seventy votes. How happy the Prime Minister’s party was! Perhaps people feel that we bring them good luck.
At our next hotel in Sabah, some buildings are four hundred or five hundred metres apart. Savyasachi of course will drive me for long distances, but to go from one place to another at the hotel, Saraswati has got a golf cart for me. Again, when I go out three times a day for an hour to meditate, Savyasachi will take me.
Many years ago, Narada gave me golf equipment. I will not be able to play golf in this lifetime, but at least I can be satisfied with a golf cart! I enjoy the golfers when I watch them on television. How they go on and on! Many, many years ago in Puerto Rico, I saw a golf course. The carts are very cute. I think President Bush gave a ride to President Gorbachev many years ago on a golf cart.
Aleksandr Razvin proved to be a true brother of my heart and soul.
Since his earth-departure, I have kept a very close connection with his wife Valentina. I call her “Sister.” How much love she and her husband had for me!
Once we had a long-distance race. She came there, crying. I said, “Sister, what is the matter? Do you think I can be of any help?”
She said, “On our wedding day we took an oath that we would never divulge any of our secrets to anyone else without taking permission from each other. If I have to tell a secret, I have to take Aleksandr’s permission, and he has to take my permission if he has to tell a secret. We have kept this promise for so many years. Always we took mutual permission to divulge any secrets. But now I have to tell you a secret without his permission.”
I said, “Oh, without his permission!”
She said, “I must tell you, I must tell you.”
I said, “Please tell me.”
Then she said that he did not want her to tell anybody that he had developed cancer, and it was almost a terminal case. She wanted to tell me, and she did not take his permission. I spoke to her for some time. She felt that, because of my oneness with both of them, her husband would not mind.
When she went home, she said to her husband, “I have told Sri Chinmoy.”
He said, “Oh! What was our promise?” Then he started laughing. He said, “Only Sri Chinmoy! You must not tell anybody else.”
She said, “I knew you would not mind. That is why I told him — and nobody else.”
I went to the hospital to see Razvin. On the way I was composing songs in Bengali, one after another. When I went upstairs to his room, we were so thrilled to see each other. He was highly appreciating the doctors. His main doctor was an Indian woman. I said to him, “Now you will be all right.”
The Indian doctor said, “Swami-ji, Swami-ji, you are here!” Then she said to Razvin, “Only Swami-ji can cure you, not doctors.”
I said, “No, doctors will cure you.”
Then she said to me, “Please, will you be here for another five minutes?”
I said, “I will be here for a longer time.”
She left the room. Downstairs her husband was waiting for her. She brought her husband to the room. She could not believe, and her husband could not believe, that I had come to see a patient. Her husband had been a great admirer of mine. He fell at my feet in the hospital room. He said, “I never thought that I would be able to meet with you.”
This is my story. Some doctors have such love.
Here is another doctor experience. Ashrita took me to a doctor for an X-ray of my knee. He was also an Indian doctor. He charged eighty dollars, and I paid. Ashrita had a small pamphlet about me, and he gave it to the doctor.
Two or three days later I had to go back to the same doctor. The doctor said to me, “When I showed my wife the little booklet, she scolded me for such a long time!”
I asked him, “What happened?”
“She said, ‘How could you charge him eighty dollars?’ She scolded me badly.”
He wanted to return the money.
I said, “No, no, no. I cannot take it.”
We invited them to Annam Brahma, and they came. They were so nice. That is again the good side of doctors.
But I have already told the story of when Hiyamallar took me for an MRI. What an unfortunate experience! They were also Indian. Five hundred or six hundred dollars they took from me. Then they said that I had not given them the money! A young girl came to my rescue. She said she was brought up on our street. She found the money that I had given, so I did not have to pay for the second time.
Once Garima came to Manhattan with me when I went for an MRI. They bound my whole upper body — as they would do with children, so that they will not move. I kept my eyes wide open and I was meditating for half an hour. Then they said that I moved! They were angry about something, and they started arguing with Garima.
Each time I have an MRI, I have problems. New York doctors will have one opinion, and California doctors will have a totally different opinion. One will say that there is water in the joint, and one will say it is arthritis. Another one will say something else. Always there are three or four opinions. This is how some doctors examine people. The medical world is so advanced, but the doctors are often not of the same opinion.
Yesterday I got a message about the health of a German disciple’s mother. The mother is also a disciple. I told the girl, “I do not want your mother to be operated on.”
This morning I spoke to Minati. Minati got the message from the doctors that they want to operate. They say that only then will they know if the tumour is malignant or not. I said, “I do not want her to have an operation.”
The mother was happy that categorically I had said, “No, I do not want her to be operated on.”
Again the doctors said, “There is no other way. If we do not operate, we will not be able to know whether it is malignant.”
I said to the disciple, “Is science not developed enough for them to know if the tumour is malignant or not without operating?”
This disciple is very devoted. There will be no operation, no operation.
Lotika’s mother had cancer. The doctors gave her two or three weeks to live. One of our strongest supporters holds a very high post in a hospital. It is very difficult for ordinary people to be admitted to that hospital, but Lotika’s mother was able to go there. This doctor was so kind. Her husband passed away a few months ago, and she herself had been cured of a most serious cancer. She had such faith, such faith in me.
Again, the doctors gave Lotika’s mother a very limited time. But Lotika has such faith in me, and her mother also has tremendous faith. Instead of dying in three weeks, Lotika’s mother is now almost cured.
I came to learn that Lotika’s mother would soon be going back home from the hospital. Lotika had a mobile phone, and I had to speak to her about another matter. She told me that she was at that time in the hospital. I said, “I would like to speak to your mother.”
Lotika’s mother’s sister was in the hospital room with her mother. Lotika’s mother speaks practically no English. She took the phone, and I was speaking to her in English. She only said, “Spasibo!” — “Thank you!” She went on with that one word. She had one word, and I had so many words!
Then, after our conversation was over, I got the message from Lotika that her mother was crying and crying. Her aunt thought that she was being cured and she was on the fair road to recovery. Why was she crying? She was crying out of sheer joy and gratitude, and she was screaming, “I spoke to God, I spoke to God, I spoke to God!”
Sometimes, when I am absolutely sure, I deliberately take responsibility for something very serious. Again, sometimes I say, “Listen to the doctor. God is inside the doctor.”
Definitely God is inside the doctors, but the difficulty is that the doctors have not yet cured my knee. Nowadays one of my disciple-doctors gives me homeopathic medicine, but it does not cure me. When it comes to my knee, nothing is of help. But I send quite a few people to doctors when it is not within my capacity to be of service, or I am not able to take responsibility. Again, we work together. Whatever help I can give, I will give; and the rest, the doctors will do.
About ten or twelve years ago, Shikha’s father was supposed to undergo an operation. Shikha asked me what to do. I said, “No operation! I am the doctor.”
Shikha’s father was at that time not even my disciple, but look at my love for Shikha and her faith in me! She told her father an operation was not necessary. Shikha’s father was cured.
Shikha’s mother was always afraid of flying in planes. Such fear she had! But now her mother keeps my locket and my picture with her, and her fear has disappeared. She goes here and there.
Recently Shikha phoned her parents’ place. She talked to her father, and then she said, “Now I would like to speak to my mother. Where is she?”
Her father said, “She does not want to come to the phone right now.”
Shikha asked, “Why?”
He said, “Because she is looking at Guru’s picture. She is looking at Guru’s picture, so she will talk to you later.”
Shikha was so happy! Her mother would talk to her later because she was at that time looking at my picture and meditating. From where to where her life went!
We should print another volume of juicy stories, our miracle-stories. I think they have translated some of our juicy stories into Russian. We can have one book all about medical science and spirituality: how medical science can work together with spirituality, and also, when the time comes, how spirituality transcends medical science.
Savyasachi called me about Madhuri’s health. I said, “Madhuri? No, no hospital for her!”
I talked to Madhuri for a long time this morning, cutting so many jokes. At one point I asked, “Are you thinking of me, Madhuri?”
She said, “What else am I thinking of?”
I asked her, “What else are you thinking of?”
Then she said, “I am thinking of you all the time, but again, I am also thinking of my stomach.”
I said, “That is enough! As long as you think of me and your stomach, it is all right. Do not think of anything else.”
For people like Madhuri, I have to overrule the doctors’ decision.
Many, many years ago somebody’s brother had a big tumour. The doctor said, “He has two or three weeks. If we operate, there is no hope; and if we do not operate, there is no hope.” Either way, he said there was no hope!
I said to the sister, “No operation!” That gentleman is still alive. On very rare occasions I agree to an operation.
Disciple: The doctor who wanted to operate actually wanted to do it for his professional advancement. He wanted to experiment on the patient.
Sri Chinmoy: I said, “I will not allow it.” I did not allow them to experiment.
Disciple: Finally a Centre doctor intervened and said that he was going to take care of the patient. The other doctors were upset because they had lost their chance to experiment.
Sri Chinmoy: I said, “Medical experimentation I do not want.”
Published in The Feet of the Supreme’s Compassion
Many prayers in English are very nice. If you learn some of these prayers by heart and repeat them, they will be like our Indian mantras. Indian sages and seers produced mantras. They did it in Sanskrit. Now we can do it in English.
Here I have written so many prayers — hundreds and hundreds. Can you not learn a few by heart?
Published in Only Gratitude-Tears
