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The Practical Reality

A talk by Sri Chinmoy at  2:00 p.m
in The Center for Religion and Life at University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada

Dear seekers, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a short talk on the practical reality. Reality is at once a simple and a complicated word. For an ordinary, unaspiring human being, reality is a far cry. At every moment life offers him frustration. His life is the life of desire. When his desires are not fulfilled, he is frustrated, and when his desires are fulfilled, still he feels no abiding satisfaction; therefore, according to him everything is unreal. This is his realisation. But we here are all seekers. We feel that everything is real, for we see the soul in everything and the soul of everything, while an unaspiring person sees the body in everything and the body of everything. But the body is ephemeral, whereas the soul is eternal, and reality abides only in the heart of Eternity.

Practical reality is the conquest of our teeming earth-bound desires. This conquest has another name: Freedom-light. Freedom-light liberates the seeker from the hunger of the finite. Freedom-light liberates the seeker from the darkness of bondage-night. Freedom-light does not permit ignorance to lord it over the heart of the sincere, loving, devoted and surrendered seeker. Freedom-light is the inner necessity of one who seeks the highest transcendental Truth, which is the perennial Source. Freedom-light is the outer necessity of one who seeks the Ultimate Truth, which is the transcendental Goal.

When we approach reality with our earth-bound consciousness, we feel that reality is not at all practical. But when we approach reality with our Heaven-free consciousness, we realise that reality is always practical. Reality is the ideal in human life. Reality is the natural beauty of the life divine. The animal in us does not know or feel the existence of reality. The human in us at times knows and feels the value of reality, but it does not strive for reality's breath. The divine in us always wants to grow in the heart of reality. The Supreme in us is all-Reality in us, with us and for us.

What is practical reality? Practical reality is silence. Silence does not date from any particular point in time. Silence owes its origin to no particular being. Silence is eternal. Silence is universal. For its validity, silence does not depend on our world-wide proclamation or on our genuine and implicit acceptance. Silence transcendental has God; Silence transcendental is God. God's transcendental Silence wants total and perfect manifestation here on earth. Why do we need silence? We need silence precisely because we need abiding satisfaction. Why do we need satisfaction? We need satisfaction because of our inner divinity's Immortality. How do we achieve satisfaction? We achieve satisfaction by purifying our mind, illumining our heart and liberating our life.

Practical reality is also sound. Silence prepares the life of aspiration. Sound reveals the life of aspiration. Love fulfils the life of aspiration. Silence immortalises the life of aspiration. A life without silence is a goalless life. A life without sound is a meaningless life. A life without love is a helpless life.

The man who knows that God is within him feels his goal within and without. The man who knows that he is for God is bound to feel that his life is meaningful. He who has discovered the truth that he is of God is bound to feel that his life can never be hopeless. On the contrary, his is the life of adamantine will; his is the life of all-energising, all-fulfilling, all-pervading reality. When a seeker feels God's Presence within him, he smiles the smile of God-transcendence. When he feels that he is for God, he sings the song of God-compassion. When he feels that he is eternally of God, he dances the dance of God-perfection.

Practical reality is Delight. Delight is God's Eye of Compassion and Liberation. When God's flood of Delight enters the very breath of the seeker's aspiring life, God's Reality-dream looms large and God's inner Promise comes to the fore. The seeker feels that his life of imperfection will be transformed before long into a life of perfect Perfection. When the seeker's heart is liberated from the meshes of ignorance, God's unfulfilled Dream gets the opportunity to expedite its earth-bound journey and ultimately to fulfil its Dream-Reality in and through the loving and unconditionally surrendered divine warrior-seeker.

Practical reality is the seeker's attainment of perfection — perfection within, perfection without. The seeker achieves perfection in the outer life by disciplining his life, by acquiring mastery over his outgoing energy. The seeker achieves perfection in the inner life through constant and unconditional surrender to the Will of his Inner Pilot.

Practical reality is the attainment of supernal peace. The state motto of Nevada is "All for our country". The undivine critic may find this lofty message sentimental or emotional. But the sincere seeker of the Highest Truth, from the spiritual point of view, will observe this message in a divine way. From the spiritual point of view, “country” signifies the “abode of peace”. In the motto, "All for our country", “all” signifies simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility. These qualities are to be found in the abode of peace. When we live in the abode of peace, impossibility cannot knock at our heart's door. Nothing is impossible. Everything is not only possible, practical and practicable, but also inevitable.

Earth has glowing aspiration. Heaven has descending illumination. When earth's aspiration and Heaven's illumination meet together, the dream-boat of the seeker reaches the Reality-Shore of the Beyond. Earth aspires; Heaven inspires. Earth aspires for the Heaven-soul; Heaven inspires the heart, the reality of earth. Because earth aspires, earth is supremely great; because Heaven inspires, Heaven is divinely good. Each individual seeker has the golden opportunity to knock at his own heart's door at God's choice Hour, not only to see the face of Reality, but also to grow into the Reality itself, provided his life is a life of constant dedication to the Inner Pilot.

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

Who is My Friend on Earth?

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at SUNY at Old Westbury, New York

My Lord Supreme, who is my friend on earth? Who is my enemy on earth?

“My son, I am your friend, and I am your enemy.”

How can it be, my Lord Supreme? How can You be my friend and my enemy at the same time?

“My son, when I fulfil your aspiration heart, I am your friend. When I fulfil your desire-life, I am your enemy.”

My Lord Supreme, why do you then fulfil my desire-life?

“I fulfil your desire-life because you insist on being fulfilled in your desire-life. Helpless, I fulfil your desire-life. Again, with My inner Vision I know that your desire-life will cause tremendous frustration in you and for you, and that there shall come a time when you will dive deep within to accept the aspiration-life. Aspiration life is the life of satisfaction; desire-life is the life of frustration. It is in aspiration-life that you will discover Me as your friend. It is in your aspiration-heart that you will discover Me as your friend, your only friend here on earth and there in Heaven.”

My Lord Supreme, is there any way I can increase my friendship with You? Is there any way I can feel deep within my heart my most intimate and inseparable connection with You?

“Yes, My son, there is. From now on, try to control your thought-world. At every moment you are assailed by thoughts. Each time a thought enters into your mind, if it is a good thought or a progressive thought, then enlarge it, and inside the vastness of the thought try to see and feel Me. Without fail, I shall be inside the vastness of your thought. As soon as a wrong thought, an uncomely, undivine or impure thought, enters into your mind, try either to annihilate it or transform it into a pure, divine and progressive thought. Each thought acts like atomic energy; it has boundless power. With this thought either you can build a new world or you can destroy the real in yourself. The real in you is your cry for truth, for light and for perfection.

“You can enter into the imagination-world in order to increase our friendship and feel that constantly I love you; and not only that I love you but also that I need you. Imagination is not and cannot be a mental hallucination. It is the precursor of a reality here on earth. Imagination is a reality which abides in its own world. Imagination descends from this imagination-world proper into the reality-world which we see, feel and grow into. Imagine that I am kind. Imagine that you are pure. Imagine that you are an instrument, a choice instrument of My Reality. Imagine that at every moment I am doing everything for you unconditionally. It is on the strength of your imagination that you can feel Me most intimately. And finally, enter into the gratitude-world. It is in the gratitude-world that you can see My total satisfaction in you. Inside My satisfaction what looms large is your own satisfaction, which is founded upon your nature’s transformation, your nature’s liberation from ignorance-night.

“My son, I am your only Friend. A friend is he who constantly fulfils the oneness-world. The oneness-world is the world of self-giving, and inside self-giving is the truth becoming, satisfaction-blossoming, perfection-dawning Reality.”

Published in Wisdom-Waves in New York, part 2

Conscious Oneness with God

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Columbia University, New York

Hail, Columbia! Columbia, the country, Columbia, the University, Hail! The word Columbia immediately inspires my heart, awakens my mind and pulls my life straight into my soul’s core.

We are taught, the world is told by The Star-Spangled Banner, what you truly and soulfully are: “the Land of the free and the Home of the brave.”

On October 17, 1949, Columbia University conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws on Prime Minister Nehru of India. Our Prime Minister, at the beginning of his memorable speech said something most significant:

“I have come to you not so much in my capacity as Prime Minister of a great country or a politician, but rather as a humble seeker after truth and as one who has continuously struggled to find the way, not always with success, to fit action to the objectives and ideals that I have held.”

Nehru is a veritable pride, not only of India, but of the entire world. Indeed, he was a peerless son of Mother-Earth.

Now I wish to tell you, in all humility, that I too have come to you as a most humble seeker after the infinite Truth. I have come here to serve you all, to serve this august University in its inner urge to reach the highest Truth.

God and man. God and man are one. They are eternally one. God knows it. Man also will know it. He will.

Fear separates man from God. Doubt separates man from God. Self-indulgence separates man from God.

When we fear something, we have to know that suffering has already started torturing us from what we fear. We have two children within us. One child is afraid of teeming darkness in the world. The other child is afraid of the world-transforming infinite Light. He is the ignorance-child who is afraid of darkness. He is the child unaspiring who is afraid of Light.

Doubt is obstinate. Doubt is cruel. Poor man, with his doubt he doubts the existence of God who is all-existence. Alas, what is worse is that he is ever in doubt about his own doubts. He is lost. He is ruined. Sangsayatma Vinashyate (a doubting soul is doomed to be ruined). This is what we have learned from the Bhagavad Gita, India’s Bible.

Self-indulgence. Today what we call self-indulgence, tomorrow that very thing we call self-annihilation. Indulgence comes to man with a gift, pleasure. Man touches and feels the gift. Lo and behold, pleasure transforms itself into bitter frustration.

No conscious embodiment of God where there is fear.
No conscious realisation of God where there is doubt.
No conscious oneness with God where there is self-indulgence.

It is in man’s self-knowledge that man realises his conscious oneness with God. Alas, we think that we are what other people say we are. We also think of ourselves what we seem to be with the help of our limited capacity of understanding. According to others, we are useless. According to us, we are meaningless. But according to God, we are at once most useful and most meaningful. He uses to fulfil Himself. We use Him to realise our true Self. The meaning of man’s existence is God’s Delight. The meaning of God’s existence is man’s realisation of the Absolute.

We need love to establish our conscious oneness with God. If we want to have the accent on love in our life of aspiration, then we must put the stress on sacrifice at every moment.

We need sacrifice to establish our conscious oneness with God. If we want to have the accent on sacrifice in our life of aspiration, then we must put the stress on surrender. We must offer our total surrender to God’s Will and we must stay with our unconditional surrender at God’s Feet.

Today’s belief is tomorrow’s achievement. In order to see your sincere belief transformed into true achievement you have to plead with your conscience to be your constant guide. When conscience is your guide, you grow into God’s colossal pride.

Very often you think of what you have to do. But you always do what you want to do. Now you want to have conscious oneness with God. Look around and you see that somebody easily does what somebody else emphatically said could never be done. One was right yesterday and the other is right today. Here is a radiant proof that the message of the past can easily be challenged. Of course, it will be better if we say that the knowledge of the past can be surmounted and it is meant to be surmounted. Sisters and brothers, I offer to you my soul’s assurance that you are bound to get what you want. You want to have conscious oneness with God. This oneness is certain. This oneness is destined. And to achieve this conscious oneness with God what you have to do is to meditate and concentrate. Nothing more and nothing less. Meditate on the Highest in your soul and concentrate on the lowest in your nature. This is what you have to do. When you play your part, God will play His part in you and for you. During your meditation God will present you with His infinite Joy, Peace: and Bliss. During your concentration God will transform your ignorance-sea into the sea of eternal Light. And now unmistakably what you have is conscious oneness with God. Now what you are is God’s Dream fulfilled in Reality manifested.

Published in AUM – Vol. 5, No. 4, 5, Nov. – Dec. 27, 1969

The New Millennium and World Peace

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
in Marillac Auditorium at St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York

O New Millennium, every thousand years you come to bless us, the entire humanity, with new dreams, new hopes and new promises. And now, once again, you are fast approaching. Today we wish to invoke you most soulfully and prayerfully.

O New Millennium, you are not a mere number. Your arrival heralds the divinely significant descent of a new consciousness on earth.

The Old Millennium says to the New Millennium, “My Brother, do not make the same mistakes that I made!”

We ask our Lord Beloved Supreme, “Please tell us frankly what kind of mistakes we have made in the Old Millennium and how we can rectify them in the New Millennium.”

Our Lord Supreme compassionately replies, “In the 20th Century, power and helplessness are in action. In the 21st Century, Love and Light will be in action.”

We say to our Lord, “Please tell us if we have understood You correctly: in the 20th Century, we have left God to be with ourselves. In the 21st Century, we shall leave ourselves for God and we shall live only for God, only for God.”

Our Beloved Lord whispers deep within our hearts, “True, My children, true. Spirituality you have rejected, God you have neglected. But do not give up! The 21st Century will help you find your way back to my Heart-Home. I have already erased My dissatisfaction-memories of the past. Can you not do the same? May all uncomely memories of the 20th Century fade away from your mind as quickly as possible! Exhale the dust of the past. Inhale the fragrance of the future.

“World peace is the sole theme of the present-day world. Right from a child to a 99-year-old, all incessantly talk about world peace. I dearly love the world-peace-dreamers, world-peace-lovers, world-peace-servers and even the world-war-mongers who on very, very, very rare occasions genuinely feel the supreme necessity of world peace in the very depths of their heart.

“Needless to say, the supremacy of the mind wants to bless the world with peace. Indeed, it is the height of stupidity! Indeed, it is the height of absurdity! It is the intimacy of the heart that can and shall inundate the world, either in the near or distant future, with peace.

“Might is right. This ignorance-founded theory has to be immediately and permanently shunned. Right is might, and right is founded upon Light. This infallible reality has to be accepted here and now, and must needs be practised throughout Eternity.

“The dividing and divided mind will never be able to enjoy even an iota of peace. It is the uniting and united heart that can and shall enjoy peace in immeasurable measure.

“Where is peace, if not a prayer-height away? Where is peace, if not a meditation-depth away? Let us have only the prayer that teaches us, ‘Not my will’. Let us have only the meditation that teaches us, ‘But Thine be done’.

“The Source of everything is God the Compassionate. Therefore, the Source of science is also none other than God Himself. God expected science to be always an unparalleled boon in the process of humanity’s evolution towards Infinity’s Light and Delight. But, alas, science in many aspects of human life has been a veritable curse, instead of being an unimaginable blessing. Instead of having the vision of an ever-blossoming creation, science indulges in an ever-increasing destruction.

“The spiritual seekers are eagerly and breathlessly waiting for the Golden Day when the heart of spirituality will be able to successfully embrace the mind of science and visa versa. Each will teach the other a new song. Science will teach spirituality the song of Infinity’s Peace-Beauty. Spirituality will teach science the song of Immortality’s Peace-Fragrance.

“I hope I have answered your question, my sweet children.”

O God, our Lord of Compassion, long two thousand years ago the Saviour Christ took birth to liberate mankind from the throes of ignorance-night. Alas, in two thousand years we have not been able to transform this world into the Kingdom of Heaven. Please tell us if the children of the next century will succeed in fulfilling his vision.

“My children, do not succumb to despair. In the New Millennium, My Compassion-Rain shall again descend in measureless measure. And this time it will be greeted by humanity’s wide open receptivity-heart-door. So smile, My children, smile. The New Millennium will be the abode of mankind’s dream.”

O Lord Beloved Supreme, we are ready, our hearts are ready, our entire being is ready to sing of the supremely, gloriously rising dawn of the New Millennium.

“My children, something more I wish to add. Millennia have passed by, but humanity has not yet seen the face of peace. To My great Joy and Relief, in the 21st Century, the Mother Goddess of Peace will visit each and every earth-family to whisper and inspire the supreme necessity of a oneness-world-family. Her persuasion of her children will be founded upon her all-disarming Smiles. Her God-receptivity-beauty and God-gratitude-fragrance will cover the entire length and breadth of the world. Tomorrow’s humanity and tomorrow’s Divinity will not only have infinitely more faith in each other, but also will work together for humanity to arrive at the Heart-Door of the Absolute Supreme and for Divinity to ring its Victory-Bell in the readiness, willingness and eagerness-home of humanity.”

Sri Chinmoy is presented with a special proclamation from the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University welcoming him as a ‘Messenger of the Millennium’. The presentation is made by Dr. Raymond Bulman, senior member of the Department and author of the book, The Lure of the Millennium. Sri Chinmoy is also made an honorary member of Theta Alpha Kappa, the National Honour Society for Theology.

Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 3