October 24
Sri Chinmoy offers the opening meditation at the Fifth World Spiritual Summit with UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim at the United Nations in New York, at which Sri Chinmoy first meets Mother Teresa.
October 24
Sri Chinmoy (left) joins his Puerto Rican students outside the Capitol Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the start of the United Nations Day Relay Run to celebrate the 32nd birthday of the United Nations.
October 31
God, Truth and Love
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Southwestern University
in Cebu City, the Philippines
Because I love mankind, God loves me. Because I love God, Truth loves me. Because I love Truth, I really and truly love myself.
Why should God love me? I just said that God loves me because I love mankind. There is another reason, too. God loves me because I love His entire Creation. I know and feel that God can never be separated from His Creation. Creator and Creation are one, inseparable. When we appreciate the Creation, the Creator is pleased and satisfied. When we ourselves create something, produce something, build something, people notice our achievement and appreciate it deeply. We are pleased because it is we who have done it. Similarly, the universe is God's Creation. When we love the universe, we simultaneously love God the Creator and God the Creation; and both the Creator and the Creation will be pleased with us.
Because I love God, Truth loves me. Truth has no existence without God. God is the very breath of Truth. Truth and God are one, indivisible. On the one hand, Truth is another name for God. On the other hand, Truth cannot exist without God, whereas God can at each moment transcend Truth — earthly truth and heavenly truth, earthbound truth and heavenward truth. Even His own Transcendental Truth God can transcend at His own sweet Will. Although we can safely say that God and Truth are one, God alone has the power to transcend all truths, even the Truth itself. That is why Truth without God is helpless. But when we love God, Truth loves us because Truth is immediately fed by our aspiring soul. Inside God is the existence of Truth. In our very appreciation of God, Truth is fed and nourished. And Truth rightly feels that its unique message to the world can be spread only when we truly love its Possessor, God.
Because I love Truth, I love myself. A human being is the expression of Truth. He is not the expression of ignorance, falsehood, darkness and death. No, he is the embodiment, realisation and expression of truth — the lesser truth, the higher Truth and the Highest Truth. Each moment the divine Truth is transcending its boundaries in us. We see it, feel it and realise it when we live the inner life, the life of the soul. Because I love the Truth, I really and truly love myself. My existence and Truth are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin, which is the inner being or soul, the representative of the Supreme here on earth.
I love myself. What do I love about myself? Not my body. If I love my body for the sake of my body, tomorrow I shall be frustrated because there are millions and billions of human beings on earth who are more beautiful than I am. Naturally I will feel miserable. If I love my physical mind for the sake of my mind, tomorrow I shall see millions and billions of mental giants right in front of me, and my mental capacity will fade into insignificance. If I love my vital dynamism for the sake of my vital dynamism, then I shall see that there are millions and billions of people who are simply inundated with striking dynamism. Similarly, if I love anything else of my own, for its own sake, I am bound to be frustrated. I shall defeat my very divine purpose. But if I love myself just because God is expressing Himself through this body, vital, mind and heart, then I see that I am unique and peerless in the whole history of the universe, because no other Chinmoy is going to be created by God with the same capacities, same understanding, same experiences. Each individual can love himself just because he is a direct channel of the Divine. God wants to express Himself in each individual in a unique way. When we become consciously and fully one with God, we not only fulfil Him but we also fulfil ourselves. When I say that I really and truly love myself because I love Truth, it means that I consciously feel that Truth is constantly breathing in me, with me and for me.
My very breath on earth is the living reality of Truth. I love and adore myself at every moment — not because of my sound body, dynamic vital, refined mind and pure heart, but because God is inside me, God is utilising me, God is fulfilling Himself in me and through me. This is the sole reason why my body, vital, mind and heart are loved by me and must be loved by me. Each individual has to be surcharged with this supreme Truth. He should consciously feel that his life on earth is the outer manifestation of the Supreme's inner Breath.
Supreme, I am Thy Glowing Grace.
I am Thy Golden Plow.
I am Thy Vision's Kite.
Published in Eastern light for the Western mind
Poems, in transit in India
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty poems (416-435) on the trip from Madras to Bombay.
To make yourself happy,
Be what you have:
Aspiration-flame.
To make God happy,
Be what you are:
Dedication-lamp.
To make both yourself and God happy,
Become what you have to become:
Illumination-sun.
You tell me that
Your physical beauty is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!
You tell me that
Your vital impurity is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!
You tell me that
Your mental insecurity is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!
You tell me that
Your psychic uncertainty is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!
Who is happy?
Not the puny princess.
Who is happy?
Not the weak prince.
Who is happy?
Not the jealous queen.
Who is happy?
Not the insecure king.
The twentieth century
Is flooded
With self-styled Master-rogues.
The twentieth century
Is flooded
With monster disciple-fools
Lord, I am crying
Because You are sleeping.
Lord, I am sleeping
Because You are not caring.
Lord, I am not caring
Because You are ignoring.
Lord, I am ignoring
Because You are not smiling.
An interesting question:
Where is God?
An inspiring question:
What is God doing?
An illumining question:
Who is God?
A fulfilling question:
Who else’s love do I need,
If not God’s alone?
Before the race,
The marathon was temptation
Which I cleverly called
My aspiration.
After the race,
The marathon is frustration
Which I trickily call
My dedication.
Your heart-room is unlit.
Therefore
Your mind’s capacities
Are deplorably unfit.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude!
To teach me how to love God
You have come to me
From my aspiration-heart’s amplitude.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude!
To teach me how to love God
You have come to me
From my illumination-soul’s infinitude.
Don’t try to make God
Into your image.
He will please you,
But your ignorance-choice
Will make you suffer
Far beyond your imagination’s flight
During your darkness-enjoying journey.
On my priority-list
Two slaves will play
Most significant roles:
My surrender-life will be
God’s unconditional slave;
My desire life will be
Earth’s transformed slave.
Just a quick reminder to meditate.
Meditate soulfully;
You will conquer ignorance-night
Easily.
Just a quick reminder to meditate.
Meditate unconditionally;
You will gain the Lord Supreme
Everlastingly.
Everyone knows your great secret:
You have the longest stride
In your aspiration-life.
Your stride embodies
Love selfless,
Devotion spotless,
Surrender sleepless.
Man and machine.
Man asks for quantity.
Machine has it.
Man wants to build.
Machine says, “It is all done.”
Man asks for help in every sphere of life.
Machine says, “What have I been doing
Save and except that very thing?”
Man blames fate.
Fate blames the stars.
The stars blame
The desire-ambition-man.
Man blames the invisible God.
Hope never retreats.
Faith never delays.
Love never sleeps.
Devotion never doubts.
Surrender never fails.
My Eternity’s Lord Supreme,
Three tearful prayers:
Reinspire my heart-cry,
Rebuild my hope-tower,
Replenish my gratitude-cup.
Stop shouting!
The Creator is coming.
Stop shouting!
The creation is crying.
Stop shouting!
I am preparing —
Preparing myself for God’s
Complete Satisfaction.
434. The secret of divine education
The secret of divine education:
Do not look back.
Your forgotten, hungry wolf-life
Will immediately devour you.
The secret of divine education:
Be sleeplessly on the alert.
Your ego-life can easily
Keep growing without nourishment.
Ambition is hard work
In the desire-world.
Ambition is quick elevation
In the aspiration-world.
Ambition is slow but certain perdition
In the realisation-world.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 5
October 30
Self-Knowledge
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of San Carlos,
Cebu City, in the Philippines
Let us try to know ourselves. Let us try to observe what we truly are. Very often we feel that we are insignificant creatures. We have nowhere to go, nothing to achieve and nothing to give. This is what we feel in our day-to-day existence. But what we truly are is totally different from what we feel. We are all God’s children. At each moment, God is pouring into us something divine and something truthful. He expects much from us, but nothing beyond our capacity. He knows what we can consciously offer to Him. Right now, we feel that we are weak, unimportant, useless. But in God’s eyes, we are divine, we are fruitful, we are Infinite.
We are constantly making mistakes. The root of our mistakes is our body, the physical. We feel that there is nothing beyond the physical and, at the same time, that there is nothing in the physical. It is here that we are making a most deplorable mistake. If we go beyond our body, beyond our physical consciousness, we see Infinite Peace, Infinite Joy, Infinite Bliss and Power all eagerly waiting for us.
Then if we go deep within, deep inside our body, we see and feel the soul. This soul is the messenger of God on earth. If we can be in tune with the constant, spontaneous music of the soul, our lives will be free from suffering, misery, frustration, fear and worry. Our lives will be a constant success, a constant achievement and a constant fulfilment, a fulfilment that can and will be both inner and outer.
So either we have to go deep inside the body, into the inmost recesses of our heart, or we have to go beyond the body, beyond the physical sheath, beyond the physical consciousness. We have to discover our true Self, either today or tomorrow or the day after. Mere preaching will not do; book study will not do. If we at all preach the Truth, the gospel, the spiritual philosophy, then we must preach what we live and practise what we want to be. We have to practise what we want to be, and, if we preach, we must preach only what we live.
God’s Vision is man and man’s reality is God. Man can deny God. His ignorance can make him feel that there is no God and no need for God. But God’s Compassion can never deny the existence of man. God is made of Compassion, Infinite Compassion. Man is made of ignorance. Whenever I say “man," I mean the human mind, the human body. For man is in reality the descendant of God. To realise God is man’s birthright. Divinity is his heritage. But man is tired, man is frustrated, man wants to live in darkness. Man is very often satisfied with his limitations. So what can God do? If there is no sincere seeking, no striving, no aspiration, God has to lower Himself into this unlit, ignorant human being.
Man needs God, but he denies it. God needs man, and He is proud to tell the world of His need. Man certainly wants to get everything from God, but he wants to give God no credit for His infinite Grace and Compassion. But God openly shows His pride in human achievement. If we are aspiring, we will in no time see and feel the truth of this. God is constantly proud of our achievement, our aspiration, our existence.
So I wish to tell all of you not to cherish the idea that God has failed His Creation, that God has been a failure. These ideas are completely wrong. God has not failed. It is we who constantly feel that God and God’s Creation are two totally different things. We think, “God is in heaven and we are on earth. God does not care for us. Or if He does care for us, He has no strength to correct, rectify or perfect His Creation.” This is a wrong conception of the Truth. What do we know about God’s Perfection, God’s Vision, God’s Reality, God’s Consciousness? With our human eyes, what do we seek? Perfection, achievement, success. To God's Eyes, these things look totally different. Man’s success and God’s success are not necessarily the same. God’s success is experience, and that experience can take the form of either success or failure. He gives us these two kinds of experience.
When we live in the soul, we feel that our soul has all responsibility for us. When we live in the body, we see that our body is nothing but stupidity. So if we live in the soul, we shall have the spontaneous experience of fulfilment. But if we live in the body, we shall have the spontaneous experience of frustration and misery. Our success and our failure have very little to do with God’s Wisdom, God’s Experience and God’s Operation in the physical world. He is our success, He is our failure, He is the doer and He is the action. If we can see God’s presence in each action, and then see the action itself as God, and later the result — success or failure — as God, and finally the Doer Himself as God, then all our problems are over. We can claim ourselves to be God’s Pride. We are truly God’s highest Pride and Vision if we know the secret of living here on earth and there in heaven.
Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind
Poems, in Pondicherry
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (401-415) on 29 and 30 October at the home of his family in Pondicherry.
401. While others are fond of sleeping
While others are fond of sleeping,
He is fond of working.
While others are fond of working,
He is fond of serving.
While others are fond of serving,
He is fond of self-giving.
While others are fond of self-giving,
God is planning to create another God
Inside his perfection-being.
To consecrate soulfully
Is to construct beautifully.
To construct beautifully
Is to keep ignorance-door shut firmly.
403. O sweet touch of silence-peace
O sweet touch of silence-peace,
My bleeding heart loves you,
My dying life needs you.
You are so beautiful.
Can you not become swift, too?
Yesterday
You satisfied ignorance-king
By serving him unreservedly.
Today
You are satisfying wisdom-king
By serving him unreservedly and unconditionally.
Tomorrow
You will satisfy your Beloved Supreme
By serving Him unreservedly and unconditionally,
Plus sleeplessly.
How strong is prayer?
An insincere seeker will tell you
How strong his prayer is,
Only to fool you unconsciously.
A sincere seeker will tell you
How strong his prayer is,
Only to illumine you immediately.
O my hope,
Where are you?
Can you not see me
Inside the despair-grave?
O my hope,
Where are you?
Can you not grant me someday
The helmet of protection
And the crown of satisfaction?
Hope, my hope!
All the evil forces
Are hovering near you,
And you are whispering in cowardice.
Cast aside your cowardly lethargy!
Celestial glory will once more
Be all yours.
408. The changer of world history
You have a strong hope.
You have a firm faith.
You have a stark arrow in hand.
Who else can be the changer
Of world history?
A desire-man
Is a dreamer.
An aspiration-man
Is a builder.
A realisation-man
Is a God-lover.
A God-man
Is the bringer of
A new creation,
A new harmony,
A new perfection.
You exerted your divine oneness-power
But, alas, they misunderstood you.
They deserted your love divine.
Now who is the loser?
Whose loss is beyond repair?
Perhaps by this time they know it,
Or before it is too late,
They will know it.
Because of venom-doubt,
You have lost your life-security.
Because of venom-doubt,
You have lost your heart-beauty.
Because of venom-doubt,
You have forgotten your nectar-song.
Because of venom-doubt,
You will never be able to claim God.
Because of venom-doubt,
You will never be able
To enjoy God-harvest from the Deep.
412. Fallen from surrender-tree
You have fallen
From surrender-tree.
You cannot climb up
Devotion-tree any more.
Love-tree does not want
Even to see you,
For you have time and again
Disappointed love-tree
By climbing earthbound desire-banyan tree.
Aspiration summoned the three sleepers,
Body, vital and mind,
And said to them,
“I shall not fail you.
You must not quit.
You and I shall treasure
God-realisation
Beyond surmise.”
This world has hurled
Not one, not two, but three
Insults at me:
“You do not love God!
We do not need you!
We are totally sick of you!”
O my Lord Supreme,
Grant me inner beauty
Instead of doubt,
Grant me outer beauty
Instead of power,
Grant me oneness-satisfaction,
Both here on earth and there in Heaven,
Instead of victory-tower.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 5
Here and Now
Prayers by Sri Chinmoy
at the Peace Concert in the Reykjavik University Theatre, Reykjavik, Iceland
HERE and NOW
I must claim God’s ambrosial Feet
As my own,
Very own.
HERE and NOW
God is telling me
That He will before long
Visit my heart-temple.
I must keep it
Absolutely immaculate.
HERE and NOW
My heart’s aspiration-surge
Is carrying me
To God’s Heart-Garden.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
That my surrender to God’s Will
Is the only one-way street
To perpetual happiness.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
A sky-blue vastness-heart
To embrace all humanity
To manifest God’s Will
On earth.
HERE and NOW
The human in me
Must bathe every day
In God’s Forgiveness-Heart-Sea.
HERE and NOW
My human life must take shelter
Under God’s Forgiveness-Tree.
HERE and NOW
God is blessing me
With thunderous applause
For my self-doubt-conquest.
HERE and NOW
I must start obeying
The dictates
Of my Pilot Supreme.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A concentration-mind-seeker.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A meditation-heart-builder.
HERE and NOW
I must become
A dedication-life-enjoyer.
HERE and NOW
I myself must become
A problem-solution-warrior.
HERE and NOW
I must develop the eagerness
To feel desperate urgency
To fulfil God’s Will
Every single day.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
The eagerness-capacity
To faithfully follow God’s Will
All-where, always.
HERE and NOW
I must capsize
My world-conquering
Ambition-boat.
HERE and NOW
I have come to learn
That God wants me
To transform my limitations
Into God-satisfaction-perfections
And not demolish them altogether.
HERE and NOW
With my soul’s indomitable will
I shall flood my heart
With inner sunshine.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
The difference between
My mind and my heart:
My mind delights in ignoring God;
My heart delights in seeking God.
HERE and NOW
I must develop
An intense eagerness
To feel my God-realisation
As a pressing necessity.
HERE and NOW
I must devour
The nectar-harvest
Of my God-realisation-soul.
HERE and NOW
My mind must bloom
And
My heart must blossom
In the depths of soundless silence.
HERE and NOW
To my greatest joy
I see the Power-Sun
Of the Beyond
Shining upon me.
HERE and NOW
I must become
The perfect satisfaction
Of God’s
Full manifestation-examination
On earth.
HERE and NOW
My soul is commanding me
To climb up
My soul’s ever-transcending pole.
HERE and NOW
My Lord’s solemn Promise:
Before long He will carry me over
All the anxiety-worry-seas.
HERE and NOW
God is telling me
That He will always reserve
A sunny place
For my cheerful face.
HERE and NOW
Finally I have realised
That my heart needs
Only one power to realise God:
Gratitude,
Abundant gratitude,
Gratitude infinite.
HERE and NOW
I clearly see
That there are many roads
To arrive at the Goal,
But the absolutely shortest road
Is the heart-road.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
That He never fails to perform
His special Task every day:
He watches me
And He catches me
Just before I fall.
HERE and NOW
God tells me that I must believe
In His Sincerity
When He tells me that He has
Implicit Faith in my ability.
HERE and NOW
I must inspire
The hero-warrior-souls
On earth
Not to retire.
HERE and NOW
My tears must cry and cry
So that I can fly
In my Beloved Lord’s Heart-Sky.
HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
That there is only
One safe addiction:
My God-devotion-addiction.
HERE and NOW
I clearly see the difference
Between me and my God:
I love flattery
From the beginning to the end.
God loves mastery
From the beginning to the end.
HERE and NOW
On the strength
Of my heart’s climbing cries,
I shall enjoy
The Beauty and Fragrance
Of Heaven.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
To ignore my mind
When it belittles
My heart-capacity.
HERE and NOW
God tells me
To embrace my heart,
For my heart self-givingly
Worships God.
HERE and NOW
God wants only one thing:
Reconciliation between
My doubting mind
And
My strangling vital.
HERE and NOW
God tells my body: “Get up!”
My vital: “Stand up!”
My mind: “Grow up!”
My heart: “Look up!”
And my life: “Cheer up!”
Published in Here and Now
October 29
Poems, on the Way to Pondicherry
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes ten poems (366-375) during a car ride from Madras to Pondicherry.
My heart is burdened with many things,
But one thing haunts me
At each hush-gap,
And that is the mountain-burden
Of world-sorrow.
My soul conceived perfection.
My heart has achieved perfection.
My life will offer sleepless perfection.
In Heaven and on earth
I have only one friend:
The same old God.
Within and without
I have only one foe:
The same old Chinmoy.
What is new?
Nothing is new.
Indeed, this is a common answer.
But there is something new:
God is watching you
With His Infinity’s Compassion-Heart.
Don’t blame God.
He is sincerely trying
To help you out.
Don’t blame yourself.
By blaming yourself
You cannot arrive
At the perfection-satisfaction-door.
Just love God a little more;
Just think of yourself a little less.
Lo and behold,
All your untold problems are solved.
My life is fooling me.
Therefore
I am bitterly crying.
My soul is ignoring me.
Therefore
I am bitterly crying.
My Lord is not arriving.
Therefore
I am bitterly crying.
Human love
Is sickness.
Divine love
Is completeness.
God’s Love
Is selflessness.
Darkness deepens
When the doubting mind triumphs.
Light enlightens
When the aspiring heart
Unconditionally surrenders.
Do not be afraid of temptation.
Your introspection-mind,
Your meditation-heart,
Your vision-soul,
Your Benediction-God
Can and will cure you
Of your bad disease.
Self-conquest
And
God-quest
Love each other deeply
And live together happily.
O world, hear it
From me, a secret source.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Poems, in Pondicherry
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty-five poems (376-400) on 29 and 30 October at the home of his family in Pondicherry.
376. Reveal your insecurity-life
Do not conceal,
But reveal
Your insecurity-life.
Lo,
God’s Compassion,
God’s Illumination,
God’s Perfection
Are eagerly waiting
To receive your insecurity-life.
377. Start doing this immediately
Have you reached your soul’s height?
If so, then start doing this immediately:
Fight against falling down.
378. Every time you love unconditionally
Every time you love unconditionally,
A winged angel flies down
And tells you:
“Sit down on my wing quickly.
The Lord Supreme is waiting for you.”
Be soulful, be careful!
Be fortified against
The entrance of ignorance-night.
Look, God has totally stopped
His Game of hide-and-seek.
Face your lower nature
Bravely.
Your higher nature
Is about to reach you
Happily
Plus proudly.
Who despairs because of failure?
Not you, the hero-prince.
Not you, the truth-server.
Not you, the God-lover.
No, no, no!
If you want to be known
As your heart’s oneness-responsibility,
God will make you known
By another name, too:
God’s Infinity.
No more
Act like a fool.
Start studying
At the God-realisation-school.
384. Your soul-victory's crown
Your soul-victory’s crown
Depends on how powerfully
You frown at the clown
Of ignorance-night.
Your old desire-cry
Must pass away
Long before your new aspiration-cry
Can bless you with its presence.
You know who God is.
He knows where God is hiding.
I know when God will appear.
387. Yours is great resolution
Yours is great resolution.
Yours is brave determination.
Lo, the total surrender of temptation!
388. Nothing else God wants from you
Arouse the body.
Cleanse the vital.
Correct the mind.
Open the heart.
Nothing else God wants from you.
389. Yours is a deplorable failure
Yours is a deplorable failure
Because
Your mind is not pure,
Your heart is not sure,
Your life is not willing to endure.
390. Not ready to learn from God
Easy to forgive
But
Not easy to forget.
Ready to teach God
But
Not ready to learn from God.
Every aspiration-day
Begins with new possibilities.
Every aspiration-day
Ends with new achievements.
What you are within
Is perfection.
You will be mirrored accordingly.
Just pray and see.
Just meditate and see.
My past had its deplorable starts.
My present has its new starts.
My future will have its gold medals.
You are living a life
Of exalted purity.
Do you know why?
Because your impurity-life
Is completely exhausted.
Pardon world-pressures.
Abandon sense-pleasures.
Look who treasures
You: God Himself!
396. Before you start thinking
Before
You start thinking,
Look at others
Who are sinking.
Before
You start doing,
Look at others
Who are enjoying.
397. I am sick of my aspiration
Dear Lord, I am really sick
Of my aspiration.
It has become a fountain
Of speedy exhaustion.
I shall not fail
Although
I am in my mind-jail.
I shall succeed.
So has my Lord decreed!
To God I have surrendered
My aspiration-choice.
To man I am offering
My ignorance-freed voice.
Yesterday
I was trying all the time
To correct human nature.
Therefore
I was having a very busy day.
Today
I am trying to perfect
My own nature.
Therefore
I am again having a very busy day.
But tomorrow
I shall be swimming in the sea
Of my Lord’s Compassion-Forgiveness.
I am sure tomorrow
I will have an easy day.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
The Time is Coming
A story told by Sri Chinmoy
at Aspiration-Ground, Jamaica, New York
When I came to America, after only eight or nine months Lily was inspired to make shirts for me. She was a seamstress once upon a time. Afterwards she worked on a loom in the Ashram factory. It was run by a lady in the Ashram. So, Lily sent me four shirts with matching dhotis. The colours were gold, blue and gerua.
I said to her, “I cannot wear these. I cannot!”
She said, “You must and you must wear them!”
I said, “Why do I have to wear this kind of thing? In India I used to wear white. Why do I have to wear all kinds of colours? They will not look nice on me, and I will be embarrassed.”
She said, “No, you have to wear them. I have sent them. You must wear them.”
She had sent dhotis and Punjabi tops, which I call shirts. She made them herself.
Then she said, “Do you not remember that Swami-ji was always wearing gerua? His turban was gerua; everything was gerua.”
I said, “He gave lectures! I cannot give lectures.”
She said, “The time is coming for you also to give lectures, so you must wear all these things that I have sent for you. Dhotis and shirts you must wear, and colours you must wear.”
Her request is always a command — nothing short of a command! So I started wearing these colourful Indian garments because Lily was the one who first sent them to me from India. She was the one who sewed them. At her request, at her behest, I started wearing these coloured shirts and dhotis. Otherwise, I would have worn only white dhotis. Nowadays I have so many coloured garments! To fulfil her wish I did not wear only white.
Note: Sri Chinmoy and his family always referred to Swami Vivekananda as Swami-ji. Gerua is a saffron colour.
Published in Only One Power
October 28
Poems, on a Trip to India
by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (306-320) on a plane ride from Calcutta to Hyderabad.
306. What is the matter with you?
What is the matter with you?
Why don’t you apply
Your volcano-mind
To conquer
Your undying wolf-thoughts?
A marathon run
Is not fun.
It is an unspeakably
Serious matter.
A marathon run
Turns me into an orphan-life:
No father, no mother,
Helpless and hopeless.
I go to God twice a day.
In the morning I go to my Beloved Supreme
With the surrender of a tennis ball.
He tells me I am on my way to perfection.
In the evening I go to my Beloved Supreme
With a basket of gratitude-flowers.
He tells me I am all perfection.
Man’s destination
And
God’s destination:
Man’s destination is God’s
Satisfaction-Smile,
God’s destination is man’s
Perfection-smile.
Your thoughts have made
Your breath impure.
Your deeds have made
Your life insecure.
But your heart’s mounting cry can easily make
Your breath pure
And
Your life secure.
Just give your heart a chance.
Since I am no longer
A disciple of ignorance,
God, the real God, has accepted me
As one of His true disciples
And is now offering my aspiration-life
A free pass to Heaven.
The grip of attachment may please me
For a fleeting second
But
The grasp of detachment
Can surely and easily please me
For my entire life.
Who is not a disciple?
Even God Himself is a disciple.
He is a disciple of my tiny gratitude-flame
And I am, indeed, a disciple
Of His own Eternity-Infinity’s
Immortal Perfection-Sun.
You want to conquer
The perpetual fever of jealousy?
I will tell you a great secret:
Just love and become one
With your oneness-heart.
To steal a look at God
Is to realise sooner than at once
The pangs of your thorny present
And the ecstasies of your flower-future.
I am fulfilled twice:
Once when I stand up
For poor humanity,
Once when I stand up
For the unfulfilled God.
Why am I so tired?
I am tired
Not because I work very hard,
Not because I sleep too little,
But because I think too much.
Don’t take a late start.
You may lose the race altogether.
Keep your love-devotion-surrender
Always on the alert.
Then you cannot have a late start.
319. To see his Compassion-Feet
To see the Compassion-Feet
Of your Lord Supreme
Is to end the undying game
Of your ignorance-dream.
Inside I live
Soulfully and sleeplessly.
Outside I give
Generously and unconditionally.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (321-335) on the plane from Hyderabad to Madras.
His is a mistake-proof life.
All life’s questions
He has perfectly answered.
To him, his God is no longer
A forgotten Face
But
An extremely familiar Face.
There is no real reason
Why you cannot make
Your mind peaceful,
Your heart blissful,
Your life restful,
Your soul successful,
Your God blessingful.
Just replace your venom-doubt
With your sterling faith.
Yours is a life
Of a hundred indecisions.
How do you expect
An iota of God-Vision?
Because you and tension live together,
Transformation-light
And
Perfection-delight
Prefer to remain great strangers to you.
325. The power of your sound-life
The power of your sound-life
Fascinates my soul.
The power of your silence-life
Feeds and fulfils my soul.
Silence I need
To sow the vision-seed.
Sound I need
To grow the mission-plant.
Surrender I need
To climb the perfection-tree.
What is a human mind?
The unreality-fear that lengthens
Our journey’s course.
What is a human heart?
The reality-cheer that shortens
Our journey’s course.
328. The Tent of my Beloved Supreme
Inside the Tent of my Beloved Supreme
Everybody and everything can gladly stay
Except the old and unhealthy habits
Of the unprogressive mind.
The real reality
Is a simple simplicity,
And not a complexity.
Complexity has never been related to reality.
330. Time for Heaven to descend
It is time for Heaven to descend.
Him to greet,
Fly with your soul
Bravely and immediately.
Him to serve,
Dive with your heart
Prayerfully and soulfully.
A doubting mind
Is responsible
For a sinking life
And a dying heart.
My Lord Supreme
Will definitely arrive.
Only one sad thing:
I do not know
The exact hour
Of His arrival.
Each life sighs
Unmistakably.
Each body dies
Eventually.
Each soul flies away
Immediately.
In our desire-life,
Nothing to equal hope-tower.
In our aspiration-life,
Nothing to equal promise-power.
O descending Blue,
I love you.
O ascending Green,
I love you.
O divine Gold,
I love you.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Sri Chinmoy writes thirty poems (336-365) at the Hotel Savera in Madras.
Nothing compels you to shiver
In helpless slavery.
Just don your God-given
Aspiration-bravery.
You call it hesitation
And
I call it confusion.
You call it confusion
And
I call it suspicion.
You call it suspicion
And
I call it perdition.
Earth is the teacher
That teaches us how to be
Experience-tree.
Heaven is the teacher
That teaches us how to become
Realisation-fruit.
339. My sweet Lord's Satisfaction-Delight
Not because
Of my aspiring consciousness-light
Has my sweet Lord granted me
His Satisfaction-Delight.
No, no, that is not true!
He has granted me His Satisfaction-Delight
Because He does not have anything else
To do with my life.
When he withdraws
His outer sound,
You cry.
You say he does not care for you.
When he withdraws
His outer silence,
You say he simply hates you.
You tell me,
What can and what will he do,
Your poor Master?
341. Do you need a pure heart?
Do you need a pure heart?
Then daily make your mind clean.
Do you need a smile from God daily?
Then keep your heart aspiring ceaselessly.
You are now ready for the divine life.
For you, the false sweetness of your desire-life
Has turned into real bitterness
Unspeakable.
The desire-life desires to regain
Its lost heritage:
Ignorance-night.
The aspiration-life longs to regain
Its lost heritage:
Immortality-Shore.
Loss is gain,
Gain is loss.
Doubt-loss, faith-gain;
Desire-gain, perfection-loss.
I am watching my past.
It is simply awful.
I am watching my present.
It is not at all hopeful.
I am watching my future.
It is soulful, plus fruitful.
I see a garden
In your face.
I see a rose
In your heart.
I see celestial beauty
In your eyes.
Three are the playmates of the soul:
Simplicity-life,
Sincerity-heart,
Purity-breath.
348. I thought of doing something
I thought of doing something great.
God said: “Good, My son!”
I thought of doing something good.
God said: “Excellent, My son!”
I thought of becoming a selfless server.
God said: “Perfect, My son!”
Just sing a soulful song
Together with your oneness-heart.
Lo, you have far surpassed
All the barriers of confusion-night.
What does a desire-life get?
A caged success.
What does an aspiration-life become?
An uncaged progress.
Only those are God’s favourites
Who are supremely just
And offer others
Their rightful earnings.
To have oneness-peace
Only with the strong
Is your cleverness-height.
To have oneness-peace
With all human souls
Is your inner sun’s wisdom-light.
Your ignorance-night tells you
There is no home for you,
There is no home.
Your wisdom-light tells you
The entire universe is your home,
The entire universe.
Peace, what is it?
God’s favourite boon.
Peace, where is it?
In God’s Self-giving Infinity.
What you have
Is a vain thought.
What you are
Is a selfish aim.
Do you think
That God will grant you
His Satisfaction-Bliss?
No, never!
356. I love three dreams of mine
I love three dreams of mine:
The dream that tells me
My mind shall succeed,
The dream that tells me
My heart shall proceed,
The dream that tells me
My soul shall always precede.
357. Do give me another chance
O my soul, do give me another chance.
This time I shall definitely
And unconditionally become obedient.
My new obedience
Will breathe in an eternal breath.
O my foolish body,
Are you not ashamed
Of your most deplorable conduct?
Because of your lethargy,
Because of your unwillingness,
I am falling,
Falling all the time;
I am failing,
Failing everywhere.
The only way to go
From passion to perfection
Is by illumining the lower self
And feeding the higher Self.
Try not to put others right;
That is God’s task.
Try to put yourself right;
Indeed, that is your God-ordained task.
Aspiration tells me that my God is
Compassion-Mother.
Realisation tells me that my God is
Liberation-Father.
God-oneness tells me that my God is
Perfection-Friend.
An uninspired mind,
An unenlightened heart,
An unrealised life,
An unmanifested soul,
An unfulfilled God
Together tell the same sad story.
His vision-eye is a constant prey
To his teeming imperfections.
Therefore,
Someday, somehow, somewhere,
He will dance with perfection-sun
In the world of Infinity’s
Silence-Sound.
A moment of inspiration
Powerfully feeds my aspiration-flames.
A moment of aspiration
Unmistakably expedites my realisation-sun.
My body is sleeping.
Therefore
I am crying.
My vital is fighting.
Therefore
I am crying.
My mind is doubting.
Therefore
I am crying.
My heart is hesitating.
Therefore
I am crying.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 4
Tea and Coffee Stories
by Sri Chinmoy
Many times I have told about my tea and coffee experiences in this lifetime. In my Chittagong life, tea and coffee were forbidden. Nobody drank tea or coffee in the family. Only when guests came, they were served tea. So we never had the taste of tea or coffee.
When I was in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, secretly I took tea twice in twenty years. The first time, I did not like it. The second time, I asked for a little more sugar. I was denied. So that was the end of my tea experiences.
Then, when I came to America, I became fully acquainted with tea and coffee. I even went so far as espresso! I read and also I heard that Indian doctors say if you have a little fever, then tea is very good. So I started drinking tea, since it has a medicinal effect. Alas, alas, when you start some bad habit, it is very difficult to stop. So I took tea mostly four or five times a day, up to a maximum of eight times. Bad habit, bad habit!
It is said that tea will give you strength and energy. Many people believe that God gave tea some hidden strength. God alone knows!
Let us not try to discover
Instant God-realisation,
Like instant coffee.
Let us only bring to the fore
Our heart’s sincere inner cry. *
* Poem no. 18979, published in Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 19
In 1964 I came to America. It was the first time I had been in an aeroplane. I was travelling by myself. I was half in this world and half in another world. At one point, the stewardess brought me a cup containing hot water. On the side was a tea bag. I tore open the bag and emptied it into the cup. Then all those little, little leaves were swimming in the cup. The whole cup was full to the brim with leaves!
My stupidity never ended! I made a complaint to the stewardess. Of course, she knew that I was the one who had made the mistake, but she did not say anything. She took away that cup and brought me another cup of hot water and a fresh tea bag. She placed the tea bag inside the water and held it there until the tea was ready. Then she left.
When I watched her making the tea, I knew what I had done wrong.
The African ambassador takes tea
Once a few ambassadors from various countries came to see me. One African lady was either an ambassador or a deputy ambassador. We were all eating together in Annam Brahma Restaurant and I was sitting beside her.
Strangely enough, when the time came for her to take tea, she tore open the tea bag and emptied all the leaves into her cup. I could not believe it! Can you imagine, right in front of me she did the same thing that I had done on the plane so many years before. But she did not make any complaint. She was drinking the tea very happily!
After drinking tea for a few years in America, I made tremendous, tremendous ‘progress'! From tea, I graduated to coffee. As in the spiritual life I made very fast progress, so here also in the caffeine world I made very fast progress!
Afterwards, I used to take two or three cups of coffee on a daily basis for years. Sometimes I used to take cappuccino. Then, I think it was in Brazil, I made faster than the fastest progress. I began taking the kind of coffee that President Gorbachev’s wife used to drink — espresso. At that time my progress was really something. I was getting my ‘Master’s Degree’!
This incident happened in Brazil. I ordered espresso and the man brought me such a tiny container. It was so small! While I was standing at the counter waiting to pay, I just took a sip. Then, right in front of the counter, I started jumping up and down, up and down! My chest was burning so powerfully. It took time for me to control my heartbeat. Then I gave the man his money.
So this is my caffeine business — tea, coffee, cappuccino, espresso. Of all of them, espresso is the worst. I took it only a few times, but that was enough!
Now my sister Lily has disappeared from the earthly scene, but in those days, since I had passed my tea examination, she used to make tea for me whenever I visited her at the Ashram. But it was controlled. Twice a day she would make it — morning and evening — and sometimes only once. By that time she herself had started drinking tea, but only once, perhaps, or twice a day.
Talking about quantity, Swami Vivekananda used to drink tea thirty times or even more during the day. Somebody used to make him a big flask and then he would take cup after cup. He started drinking tea in his childhood. Later he took both tea and coffee, but specially tea.
Then, when he came to America, he discovered ice cream, which we call kulfi. How he loved and adored ice cream! In the winter, he would go with his admirers to a restaurant. The first thing he would ask for was ice cream. The restaurant manager would say to him, “At this time of year?”
Then Swami Vivekananda wanted the ice cream to be served before the main course. They would tell him, “But this is dessert!”
“No, I like it,” was Swami Vivekananda’s answer. So, because he liked it, everybody had to take ice cream before the real meal. Love is like that.
How I stopped drinking tea and coffee
This is the story of how I stopped drinking tea and coffee. What happened is this: in June 1999 I was returning home from Pondicherry, where I had been visiting my brother Mantu. When I opened the door of the V.I.P. lounge in the Bombay Airport, I clearly saw my sister Lily there, right in front of me. As you know, she left the body on May 16th, just two weeks before. She said to me, “Come inside and sit down.”
So I took my seat. My legs were stretched out in front of me and I was quite comfortable. I was passing the time reading and drinking coffee. Then I saw my sister on my right side. I was seeing her very clearly. She was chatting with me in the inner world. All of a sudden, we were joined by my sister Ahana, who passed away in July 1950, just a few months before Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo left his body in December of that year.
Ahana is the sister who taught me my childhood songs and about whom I always tell one famous story. Once I was quite upset with my family and I refused to eat supper. So I went to bed and pretended to be asleep. Ahana came and told me that only great singers can sing while they are asleep. I wanted to prove that I was a great singer, so I started singing. Then I was caught! She carried me off to eat my supper. She died at the age of twenty-four or twenty-five and she is still in the soul’s world.
Anyway, this sister came out of the blue and started massaging my head so affectionately while Lily was talking. One soul was chatting with me, another soul was massaging me. Can you imagine? Perhaps you will call it my mental hallucination.
Why was Ahana massaging my head? When my plane arrived in India a few days earlier, two videotapes fell from the overhead compartment onto my head. Ahana was telling me that she was observing inwardly when this occurred. She said, “I was so shocked!” She was so affectionately massaging my head where the videotapes had struck it. We were talking and she was narrating various childhood incidents.
Then she stood in front of me and began begging and pleading with me. She said, “Madal, please tell me that you will never again drink tea and coffee — never! I have not made any request to you in the past. My only request to you is this: never touch tea, never touch coffee! They are not good for you.”
I looked at her and said, “Now that you are not in the land of the living, I will listen to you. Since you are begging me, I will never, never touch tea or coffee again. But had you been on earth and if you had made this request, I would have taken double the quantity!”
I never listened to my sisters! Any desire they had for me was not fulfilled. In fact, I did diametrically the opposite thing!
Since that experience, which was so vivid, I have become a saint! I have given up drinking tea and coffee. I am still keeping my promise. How obedient I am to my sister Ahana! So many times people have begged me to take just a little tea, but I said I will never touch tea and coffee again and I have to take my promise seriously. My promise is my promise. When you make a solemn promise, specially to your dear ones, you have to keep it.
Published in My Book of Tea and Coffee Experiences
October 25
Thirty Poems (101-130)
by Sri Chinmoy
during a train ride from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan
101. What has punctured your joy?
What has punctured your joy?
Not your volcano-anger,
Not your venom-doubt,
Not your mountain-pride,
But your insecurity-ant.
What has engulfed my rising horizon?
Temptation-deer?
No!
Destruction-tiger?
No!
Hesitation-lion?
Yes!
A wild depression
Has stolen away the hope
Which he claimed as his only friend
Here on earth.
Alas, who will now flash
A rainbow of hope
Across his heart
Sunk deep?
104. The Heart of my Lord Supreme
I agree with you
When you say
That God’s Face is at times
Not visible.
But I shall never agree with you
If you say
That God’s Heart, too, is at times
Not visible.
The Heart of my Lord Supreme
Can never remain invisible.
Hell’s orchestra
Always loses
To man’s confusion-mind
And
Destruction-life.
Always!
Persistence is extinction
In the greedy
Desire-world.
Persistence is illumination
In the self-giving
Aspiration-world.
Helpless earth chokes its tears
When hopeless human beings
Cry not for transformation-dream
And satisfaction-reality.
108. My mind's inaccessible corner
Carefully and untiringly
My mind’s inaccessible corner
Is hiding
My perfection-life
And
Satisfaction-heart.
My hope’s resurrection declares
Earth’s transformation-promise,
Man’s perfection-dream,
God’s Satisfaction-Dance.
Incredible news:
God still loves me!
Incredible news:
Man still hates me!
Incredible news:
I am still alive!
Hope comes first,
Life follows.
Life comes first,
Perfection follows.
Perfection comes first,
Satisfaction follows.
The dangerous diseases of the mind:
Doubt and meanness.
The miracle-medicine to cure the mind:
Faith and oneness.
Indeed, an age of push!
Therefore I push myself upward
Forcefully
To touch God’s Compassion-Feet.
Indeed, an age of pull!
Therefore I pull my Beloved Supreme down
To illumine my heart
Slowly, carefully and soulfully.
I am hanging.
God has deserted me.
I am hanging.
Man has exploited me.
I am hanging.
My life is not known to me.
If you are ignorant
You are doomed to be impotent.
If you are impotent
Who can make you important?
No, not even God
In His Compassion-Flood.
Something cries:
Ignorance-life.
Something dies:
Ignorance-imperfection.
Don’t retire,
Aspire!
Aspire to lead
Humanity’s cry
And feed
Humanity’s hope.
118. The chains of desire-night
The chains of desire-night
Never loosen.
The gains of aspiration-light
Never lessen.
Never!
When I cry for my own victory,
God gives the torch of success.
When I cry for God’s Victory,
God grants me
Not only a progress-sky
But also
A perfection-sun.
Heaven fails me.
Earth assails me.
Hope alone remains
With my mind,
In my heart
And for my life.
Living in You, Lord Supreme,
Is not a difficult task.
Living for You, Lord Supreme,
Is not a difficult task.
Living without being
Your perfect instrument
Is the most difficult task.
Nothing can defeat you.
Only do not sing
With ignorance-night.
None can defeat you.
Only do not dance
With imperfection-prince.
Education never stops.
Here is a lesson
That I always enjoy:
Love gives,
Devotion feels,
Surrender becomes.
A good friend to love:
My heart.
A good place to begin:
My heart.
A good pioneer to trust:
My heart.
A good messenger of God’s Victory:
My heart.
Helpless earth
Cannot finish the Game.
Careless Heaven
Does not finish the Game.
Useless man
Ruins the Game.
Alas,
Earth has forgotten to aspire.
Alas,
Heaven has forgotten to inspire.
Alas,
Man has forgotten to unlearn.
Alas,
God has forgotten to arrive.
The power of a dream
Can make a man
Unquestionably happy.
But the power of a reality
Can alone make a man
Unreservedly perfect.
Your old prayer may not change God.
But God can grant you
A new prayer,
And this new prayer
Will really make you happy.
What is your new prayer?
God-Satisfaction
In God’s own Way.
129. The heart of progress-oneness
The heart of progress-oneness
Satisfies both God and man.
The mind of success-prowess
Satisfies only man.
130. The vision of freedom-might
The vision of freedom-might
Man’s outer life
Desperately desires.
The reality of oneness-delight
Man’s inner life
Eternally is.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 2
My Lord, my Lord, my Lord,
My Lord!
If I love You just because
You love me,
Then I am eternally and infinitely
Worse than the worst.
But, my Lord, if I love You
Because I cannot breathe
Without loving You,
Then do allow me to enjoy
Prayerfully, sleeplessly
And breathlessly
The dust-beauty, the dust-fragrance
And the dust-delight
Of Your Nectar-Feet.
Note: Sri Chinmoy writes this prayer en route to Kingston, Ontario.
Published in My Sweet Father-Lord, Where Are You?
About this Prayer
by Sri Chinmoy
Question: In one of your prayers, you say, "If I love You just because You love me, then I am worse than the worst." I feel that if I love the Supreme, it is only because the Supreme has brought forward that capacity in me.
Sri Chinmoy: That is what you are saying now, but next moment are you going to say the same thing? When we are in a cheerful frame of mind, or when we have an iota of gratitude in our hearts, we say, “All our good qualities have come from God.” Then the next moment we say to God, “I have prayed and meditated for twenty years. You have given me some good qualities, but You could have given me much more.” Not only that, but we will say, “God, You have given me less than I deserve. I have prayed and meditated for so many years with no jealousy, no insecurity, no impurity. Now what have You given me in return?”
When we want to flatter God, we say in a tricky way, “You have given me everything.” But this is more of a mental philosophy than a psychic realisation. Do we really feel it or is it only that we have studied a few books on philosophy? Usually, what comes to us spontaneously is the feeling, “I have done so much for You, God. In return, You have not given me enough.”
If we really love God, we have to say, “I am doing everything for You unconditionally.” When the word ‘unconditional’ becomes part and parcel of our life, then whatever we say is sincere. But if that unconditional feeling is not in the picture, then we are all liars, and it is very difficult for us to separate our falsehood from truth.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 32
October 26
Religion, Spirituality and Yoga
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse University
Religion is the house, spirituality is the living room, Yoga is the prayer and meditation room. The house is beautiful, the living room is meaningful, the prayer and meditation room is fruitful.
When seekers come to the house they feel a divine vibration. If they are really sincere seekers, they will look for the living room. Otherwise, they will go away from the house. Only the sincere seekers feel God's presence there. It gives them tremendous joy, so they want to see God and speak to God. For this they enter into the living room, where they try to lead a divine life. And from there, when they begin to feel the necessity of fulfilling their aspiration in a most significant way, they enter into the prayer and meditation room in order to achieve satisfaction in their inner life.
Sincere seekers feel that only seeing God and speaking to God is not enough. They feel that it is of utmost importance to pray to God and meditate on God so that they can be divinely and supremely satisfied. They cry to God in their prayer and meditation room for boundless Peace, Light and Bliss so that they can fulfil God on earth. They meditate on God so they can manifest His perfect Perfection in and through themselves.
Human religion and divine religion. Human religion says, "God is everywhere." Divine religion says, "God is everywhere, I don't deny it. I fully subscribe to this view. But I want a living God with whom I can talk and mix at every moment. I want to feel Him. I want to see Him. I want to speak to Him. I want a living God." This is the soulful need of divine religion.
Human spirituality and divine spirituality. Human spirituality says, "God is above, in the highest realm of consciousness. He is only in Heaven. Here in this world of imperfection God is not to be seen, not to be found, not to be expected." Divine spirituality does not see eye-to-eye with human spirituality. It says, "God is everywhere. He is on the highest plane of consciousness and again He is on the lowest plane, in the lowest chasm. He is everywhere. If God is not here on earth, then I do not need that kind of God. My God is within, He is without, He is below, He is above. He is everywhere. He has to be with me, even on earth, one hundred percent of the time." Divine spirituality does not care for the God who stays only in Heaven.
Human Yoga and Divine Yoga. Human Yoga is all about the body, the perfection of the body and the perfection of the physical consciousness. In human Yoga the body is all. If the body can live without food, then the body is perfect. If the body can live without sleep, then the body is perfect. If the body can walk on water without sinking or walk on fire without being burned, then the body is perfect. But divine Yoga is totally different. Divine Yoga wants the real, integral perfection of the body and the soul. It feels that each limb has to aspire to receive light from above. The physical has to be a perfect receptacle. The capacity of receptivity must grow inside the physical along with the growing capacity of the soul. In divine Yoga perfection lies in receiving light from above and also in bringing to the fore the light, peace and bliss that are inherent in the soul.
The divine Yoga says, "The smile of the soul has to be manifested here on earth, but first the cry of the body, vital, mind and heart have to reach the highest transcendental Source. The union of the soul's manifestation-smile and the body's aspiration-cry is what the divine Yoga needs. Aspiration for the highest and manifestation of the highest are what the divine Yoga needs. When we aspire we discover how we shall consciously reach the plane which we eternally need, and when we manifest we feel that we are offering the highest to all of God's creation.
Here on earth we practise religion, spirituality and Yoga in a human way. Religion says, "I am great. Why? I can exercise God's Justice. I can punish the rest of the world if so is the Will of God. I am great because I can tolerate the world. The world is full of imperfections, the world is constantly rejecting and distorting me, but in spite of that I can tolerate the world. Also, although the world is unforgiveable, I have the capacity to forgive the world; therefore, I am great."
Spirituality says, "I am good. I try to love mankind. Although mankind and I have countless limitations and imperfections, according to my power of receptivity and capacity I try to love mankind. I am imperfect and the world is imperfect, but with all my imperfections I try to love the imperfect world as my own, my very own; therefore, I am good."
Yoga says, "I do not know whether I am great or good. But whether I am great or small, whether I am good or bad, I am what God wants me to be and I will become what He wants me to become. I do not want to be caught by the snares of either bad propensities or good capacities. I want only to be the devoted, dedicated, soulful and self-giving instrument of God."
Religion speaks to the sleeping world: "Wake up! Can't you see that God is standing at your door? It is high time for you to wake up. God is standing at your door waiting for you. He has come to you out of His infinite Bounty."
Spirituality speaks to the awakening world: "Look, look! Your Eternal Friend is waiting for you. Look at Him, smile at Him, talk to Him. He is your Eternal Friend."
Yoga speaks to the awakened seeker: "Why are you such a fool? Why can't you recognise your own self, the real in you? The highest in you, the real Reality in you is right in front of you. Claim yourself. Claim unreservedly and wholeheartedly what you really and eternally are."
Religion says to the seeker, "O seeker, I can tell you who God is. I can tell you all about God in unmistakable terms." Spirituality says to the seeker, "O seeker, I can do something more for you. Religion says it knows who God is, and it can tell you all about God. But I can tell you where God is. I can show you where He is and what He is doing. I will be able to establish a free access for you to God." Yoga says to the seeker, "O seeker, I can not only tell you about God and show you where God is, but I can make you another God."
Religion, spirituality and Yoga. Religion tries to do the right thing precisely because it is afraid of God. It loves God, but it is afraid of God and does not want to displease God in any way; therefore, it tries to please God. It feels that by pleasing God it can fulfil itself.
Spirituality feels that it is its bounden duty to please God precisely because God is its Source, its perennial Source, and eventually it has to go back to the Source and claim the Source as its very own.
Yoga knows and feels that God is omnipresent. On the strength of its oneness with God, Yoga feels that it can do nothing but please God in every way, at every moment.
Each individual human being has religion in him, has spirituality in him, has Yoga in him. When he uses his religious power, he is blessed with God's infinite Greatness-Light. When he uses his spiritual power, he is blessed with God's infinite Goodness-Power. When he uses his Yogic power, God blesses him with what He has and what He is. What He has and what He is far transcends His Greatness-Light and Goodness-Power. It is something beyond our human comprehension. It is something a Yogi grows into and eventually becomes. It is something that transcends both greatness and goodness, a Reality which perfectly houses God's ever-transcending Height and God's ever-manifesting Vision-Delight.
Published in AUM – Vol.2, No.10, October 27, 1975
Twenty Poems (131-150)
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Osaka Grand Hotel in Osaka, Japan
When I am on God’s side
My love becomes fast speed,
My devotion becomes lasting energy
And
My surrender becomes final victory.
All I wanted
Was freedom-supremacy
In my desire-life.
All I want now
Is surrender-ecstasy
In my aspiration-life.
God’s Love-Call
Has transformed my animal past.
God’s Love-Call
Is illumining my human present.
God’s Love-Call
Will immortalise my divine future.
What belongs
To a deathless future?
A gratitude-flame.
What else belongs
To a deathless future?
A tiny surrender-seed.
I can’t wait until tomorrow
To be blessed with
A new discovery:
My love is my heart’s beauty,
My devotion is my life’s duty,
My surrender is my victory’s satisfaction.
How little I know
Of man’s gratitude-drop!
How little I know
Of God’s Forgiveness-Sea!
137. America's special strength
America’s special strength
Lies not in frightening the weak
And challenging the strong,
But in strengthening the weak
And
Illumining the strong.
Oneness-land:
That is where he always belongs.
That is the place where
The Creator in him
And
The creation in him
Enjoy each other.
The longest road in the world:
To see others’ faults
Deliberately,
To enjoy others’ faults
Unreservedly.
Three kinds of givers:
A giver who gives only to receive
Ten times more in return,
A giver who wants to prove
That he has a giant heart,
A giver who gives to become.
This giver
Has discovered the secret art
Of true satisfaction.
141. Someday, somehow, somewhere
His confiscated body,
His frustrated vital,
His humiliated head,
His elevated heart,
His unlimited soul
Will grant him
Someday, somehow, somewhere
An emancipated life.
How can America afford
To ignore world-problems
When God, out of His infinite Bounty,
Has given America
A heart similar to His own?
One heart in two bodies:
A self-offering God-lover.
Two hearts in one body:
A soulless earth-lover.
An overnight success
Is possible only when
I can make myself feel
That I am of God alone.
An ever-transcending progress
Is not only possible but inevitable
When I succeed in convincing myself
That I live for God
And God alone.
If you suffer, thank God.
For nothing abides
Away from His Vision-Eye
And
His Compassion-Heart.
A great teacher inspires
The seeker.
A great teacher aspires
In and through the seeker.
A great teacher knows
That he is the journey’s soul of the seeker
And also his journey’s goal.
Intense longing creates opportunity.
Each opportunity
Is more than a blessing.
Indeed,
It is a miniature goal itself.
148. God is always watching us
God is always watching us,
Even when we worship Him.
Why?
Because He knows that sincere sincerity
Is yet to be born.
Heaven cannot afford
To enjoy humour,
For it is dying
Of earth’s unending rumour.
150. To frighten and enlighten
To frighten the animal in me
My God is all Justice.
To enlighten the human in me
My God is all Compassion.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 2
October 27
Sri Chinmoy writes thirty-five poems (151-185) at Osaka airport on 27 October 1979 while he waits for a delayed flight.
Poem no. 151
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 2.
Sri Chinmoy writes fifteen poems (186-200) on a plane trip from Osaka to Tokyo, Japan.
Poem no. 186
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 2.
Sri Chinmoy writes thirty-five poems (201-235) on an Air India flight from Japan to Hong Kong.
Poem no. 201
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 3.
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty poems (236-260) en route from Hong Kong to Bangkok.
Poem no. 236
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 3.
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty-five poems (261-285) en route from Bangkok to Calcutta.
Poem no. 261
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 3.
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty poems (286-305) at the Calcutta Airport Hotel, Calcutta.
Poem no. 286
|
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 3.
October 23
The Home of Awakened Mankind
– Sri Chinmoy |
Published in My Salutation to Japan
To Kamakura
– Sri Chinmoy |
Published in My Salutation to Japan
* The date appears in Sri Chinmoy’s original handwritten manuscript, entitled ‘My Japanese Poems’, though it is omitted from the published book, My Salutation to Japan.
Thirty Poems in Tokyo
Sri Chinmoy writes thirty poems (71-100) while staying at the Tokyo Prince Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.
Why not take a chance!
Be a climbing cry
Or
A running smile.
I assure you,
God is awaiting
Your great arrival
At the end of both roads.
Spread your cheerfulness.
God’s Love you will feel
Infinitely more.
Deepen your soulfulness.
God’s Satisfaction you will feel
Infinitely more.
This is the message I have heard
From the lips of rank fools:
Man can hide
If he wants to;
God cannot abide
Although He wants to.
A simple truth:
God is.
A brief message:
God loves me.
A deep realisation:
I am of God alone
And
I am for God alone.
A full harvest of peace
I collected
The day I realised
That neither earth’s great hunger
Nor Heaven’s good feast
Desires my eager presence.
76. The road from heart to heart
The road from heart to heart
Has perfection-trees
With satisfaction-fruits
On either side.
I have all along seen it.
I live for You alone,
My Lord of Compassion Supreme.
I live in You alone,
My Lord of Satisfaction Supreme.
To reach God’s Height
I have discovered
A secret way:
I just touch the lowest man’s
Filthiest feet.
Who lives above me?
Certainly not my Beloved Supreme.
Who lives below me?
Certainly not my Beloved Supreme.
Who lives inside me?
Who else if not my Beloved Supreme!
80. Three are the false excuses
Three are the false excuses:
Sorry, I have no time.
Alas, I am not ready.
Surely God does not care for me;
Therefore, why should I...?
True sacrifice glows.
True happiness flows.
True perfection grows.
True gratitude sows.
Three times God will allow you
To speak with authority:
If you know the Truth,
If you have the Light,
If you are the Sea of Peace.
83. Heaven descends, earth ascends
Heaven descends
When I consciously
And soulfully serve.
Earth ascends
When I unreservedly
And unconditionally love.
Two
Are my secret wishes:
I shall show God
Man’s transformation-head,
I shall show man
God’s Compassion-Feet.
Only one stride ahead:
God’s Compassion.
Only two strides ahead:
My transformation.
Only three strides ahead:
God’s Satisfaction-Smile
And
My gratitude-cry.
A dreamless night
Grants an unpromising day.
A sleepless night
Grants a sickening day.
A wild sound-call from below
Frightens me,
My entire being.
A perfect silence-call from Above
Enlightens me,
My all.
I took my failure-life
As my secret rehearsal.
I take my success-life
As my open and free performance.
I barter my aspiration-cry
With humanity’s indifference-sky.
Why am I such a fool?
Indeed, this is the lesson supreme
I have learnt in my Lord’s
Compassion-Forgiveness-Perfection-Satisfaction-School.
Selflessness means
Freedom-dream.
Closeness means
Freedom-reality.
Oneness means
Freedom-Immortality.
91. The symphony of mental clouds
The symphony of mental clouds
Always has the same message:
Human life is doomed
To dine with ignorance-night.
Everything in life grows,
Then goes;
But not my God-realisation.
It grows only to glow,
It glows only to grow,
And it never, never goes.
Not beyond man’s possibility
Is God-realisation.
Not beyond earth’s possibility
Is earth-transformation.
Not beyond my possibility
Is my Himalayan self-transcendence.
My life is burning out.
I see no boatman.
My life is burning out.
I see no boat.
My life is burning out.
I see no life-river.
Alas, alas!
Nowhere my three old, good friends
Are to be found.
Material things age and ache.
Spiritual things grow and glow.
And my God-hunger
Is a birthless and deathless thing.
I do not interfere in God’s Affairs.
Every day I let Him
Create a new world.
God does not interfere in my affairs
Either.
Every day He lets me
Destroy an old world.
An idle desire awakens
The ignorance-prince in me.
An idle thought destroys
My heart’s inner beauty-world
And
My life’s outer duty-world.
Life is lovely.
Therefore I live.
Prayer is lovely.
Therefore I pray.
Creation is lovely.
Therefore I love.
Nothing is equal
To my God-need.
Nothing is equal
To my God-satisfaction.
My aspiration-world
Is sleeplessly crying
To enter into
My God-realisation-world.
O my narrow faith,
How long am I supposed to live
In your tiny hole?
I am suffocating, I am dying.
Leave me alone!
Just for a second
I wish to enjoy
The Universal Breath of my Beloved Supreme.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 1
It Is Only Through Inner Peace
It is only through inner peace
That we can have true outer freedom.— Sri Chinmoy
Listen to Sri Chinmoy reciting
Recorded at PS86, New York
Published in Silence Calls Me