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Conversation with Dhrubha’s Soul

A story by Sri Chinmoy

I turned off 150th Street into the side street and I was coming back to my house. All of a sudden, I saw great Dhrubha's soul, right at the corner of my street. I said something nice about Dhrubha to the soul, and the soul flattered me by saying that it is all my unconditional compassion and concern. I told the soul that before Dhrubha opens up his Divine Enterprise, I will give him a name for the store. Yesterday I went to see two of the places that he had in mind. I rejected one and accepted one, so I am sure the one I accepted he will take immediately.

That particular side street is only 50 or 60 metres long. Then I came to my street. Whom did I see? Drubha. As usual, he was leaving his newspaper clippings inside my door and he was coming out very soulfully and devotedly. I do not think he saw me. He came down the steps and made a left turn. He was going away very soulfully. I can prove that it was Drubha. I am not colour blind. He was wearing green shorts and a white T-shirt.

His soul had come to me just two minutes before but he did not see me. What was he doing? He was adoring his own feet while he was walking! I was only 25 metres behind him. I was watching what he was doing. But he did not see me.

The soul does exist. I do not know what to tell those who do not believe in the soul. But for those who do believe in the soul, Heaven's Door is wide open.

Published in Walking-Challenging-Becoming, part 2

The Famous 150th Street

A story by Sri Chinmoy

Some more incidents also took place during the same walk. Savita saw me leave the house wearing a red garment. Then I saw somebody wearing red shorts and a red T-shirt. That person saw me and was hiding behind a bush. I immediately knew that it was Savita who was hiding. Then she came out and was standing there when I went past on the other side of the street. I smiled at her and blessed her very nicely.

Then I went another 50 metres. Whom did I see? Kalpita. She crossed the street and I was going on. Then, when I turned round a few minutes later, I saw Kalpita following me.

Like this, I see all different people when I go out. Last night, when I went out at eight o'clock, I saw Anjali running and running on 150th Street. How could she run at that hour? Savita knew that I had gone out, so she phoned up Anjali.

Our 150th Street is famous. I like it so much. Although 150th Street is full of confusion, it has light. There is less light on the left side, near 148th Street. When I walk there, I do not get so much light from the streets. But on this side, 150th Street, in spite of the fact that restlessness runs riot, I see and feel more light, abundant light, I mean inner light.

Published in Walking-Challenging-Becoming, part 2

You Alone

by Sri Chinmoy

Yours is the God
Of perpetual illumination.

Yours is the soul
Of perpetual meditation.

Yours is the heart
Of perpetual aspiration.

Yours is the life
Of perpetual dedication.

Therefore
You alone I love;
You alone I need.

With this poem, Sri Chinmoy completes The Golden Boat, a 20-volume poetry series of 1,000 poems, in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

Sri Chinmoy Answers

a series of questions at the opening of the ‘God-Ascending Beauty’s Feast Bakery’, San Francisco, California

Question: Guru, I've been earning my living through music for about ten years, but now it's very difficult for me to take money for my art. I feel that I only want to serve the Supreme through music.

Sri Chinmoy: You have to know that money can either be a divine power, or it can be misused. With a knife we can cut a fruit and share it with our brothers and sisters, or we can stab others. Money as such is not bad. Only we have to know how we are getting it and using it. We shall not get money by using foul means, and we shall not misuse money: this should be our attitude. Why should it be difficult for you to accept money for your music? Money can be God’s blessing if you use it properly.

I pray with you, I meditate with you, and then, out of your love and gratitude, some of you give me a love offering. Here I have not used foul means to get money. I could have said, “Come, I will give you immediate, instant God-realisation if you give your money to me. If you give me ten thousand dollars or twenty thousand dollars, your God-realisation is assured.” By these foul means I could have become a multimillionaire.

You have to know how you are earning your money. If you are singing lower vital, emotional songs and creating excitement, and if you feel that that is the only way you can earn money, it is absurd. You have to maintain your own standard. You will do something that will elevate the consciousness of others, not stimulate excitement. Vital music stimulates, whereas the soul’s music, psychic music, elevates. From now on, all our musicians must try to elevate the consciousness, not stimulate any excitement.

If you earn money by illumining and elevating somebody’s consciousness and with that money you support yourself or support the Centre, or do something good and divine, then how can anybody blame you? But you have to know how you are getting the money, from whom you are getting it and how you are using it. If you take all these things into consideration, then money-power need not be a stumbling block. Money-power is also God’s power, but it has to be used properly.

Money-power is necessary in this world. I have a little bit of spiritual peace, light and bliss. Now if I go to a grocery store or a restaurant and say that I will give them my peace and light instead of offering money, they will say, “Get out. We don’t need your peace, light and bliss. Give us money.” They are not asking for something strange or unusual from me. They are asking for something which they ask for from everybody else. It is a legitimate request. If I want to eat the same food as others, naturally I have to behave like others and buy it.

Question: How can we become more tolerant and understanding?

Sri Chinmoy: First think of how many millions of things you have done wrong since you have been in this body. You will be able to count at least ten undivine things. Out of millions of things you have probably done wrong, you will be sincere enough to admit at least ten things. Then ask yourself if anybody has forgiven you. Naturally God has forgiven you. If He had not forgiven you, by this time you would have been in the other world. But when somebody else does something wrong, you become angry and want to punish that person. Try to count how many things that person has done wrong to you. He may have done many, many things wrong in his life but perhaps he has done only two things wrong to you; whereas you are the culprit for at least ten individual items, and the Supreme has forgiven you.

God exercises forgiveness. In your case and my case, what we exercise will be called the strength of oneness. Yesterday I did something wrong, and God forgave me. How is it that today I cannot identify myself with someone else and feel that the very thing that he has done, I could have done? What he has done wrong today, I can easily do tomorrow. I should be grateful to God that I did not do it today, and remember that tomorrow there is every possibility that I will do that very same thing.

We should sympathise with the person who has done something wrong, or on the strength of our oneness, we should tolerate it. Toleration is not an act of weakness. Far from it! Toleration is the acceptance of reality at a different level of consciousness. Mother Earth, the trees, the oceans and the mountains, do they not tolerate us? We do many, many things wrong; we abuse them in millions of ways. Yet they forgive us and nourish us continually. We are able to use every part of them for our own purposes.

Question: Guru, can the aspirant tell whether he is falling asleep or if his mind has just become quiet and he is feeling soothed?

Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes the aspirant knows, but sometimes he cannot tell. It is like a teacher and a student. The student may think that he is going to get a score of a hundred out of one hundred, but when the examination paper is graded, he finds he has failed the examination — or vice versa.

The students cannot necessarily tell how they are doing. Only the teacher can say. Sometimes the student is right. He feels that he is going to get good marks, and he does. But most of the time, the students miscalculate. In your case, you think that you are falling asleep, but you are totally wrong. So only the teacher knows if the student is doing extremely well or not.

Question: When I'm asleep, sometimes I feel like my being is being energised very intensely.

Sri Chinmoy: You are using the expression, “When I am asleep,” but when you are sleeping, how do you know what is happening? When you are sleeping, you are not aware. Only afterwards, when you get up early in the morning can you know that you have been energised. One day you will feel energised and fresh when you wake up; another day you will feel very weak and tired. But only spiritual Masters can feel what is happening to them during sleep, because they can easily keep the soul separate from the body, and the soul can observe the body. A spiritual Master can totally separate sleep from his wakeful consciousness. I can be sleeping soundly, but I will be fully conscious of what I am doing, and can see what is going on around me. From the spiritual point of view, I am totally awake. My body is sleeping at the same time that my consciousness is awake.

You don’t know what is happening while you are sleeping. When you get up early in the morning and you are energised, you have to feel that at night while you were sleeping, or just before you went to sleep, some divine forces were able to come to the fore from within. That is why you feel extremely energetic the following day. Or it may happen that you have received extra unconditional divine Grace from above. If you do not feel energised, wrong forces may have entered into you, or you did not aspire at all. That is why you are lethargic.

It is a very good practise to meditate before you go to sleep for at least half an hour. And people who have vital problems, emotional problems, should please concentrate on their navel centre for purity before they go to sleep.

Question: I'd like to know how I can become more responsible in both my inner life and my outer life.

Sri Chinmoy: You can be more responsible if you do everything soulfully and unconditionally. You usually do things soulfully, but at times you do not act unconditionally. That is where the problem starts. When you do something, the result will come in the form of either success or failure. Whichever it is, you have to feel that you are offering the result to the Supreme with equal delight. If you can cheerfully and unconditionally offer the fruit of every action to the Supreme and place it at His Feet, then you will make very good progress.

Sometimes you feel that you have done your best; you cannot do anything more. This may not be true. You can do more, much more. I will never ask you to do something unless I have given you the capacity in abundant measure. There is not a single disciple to whom I have not given the necessary capacity. If I ask you to bring me a heavy package, that means I have given you the capacity to carry it. I shall not ask a child to bring something heavy, because I have not yet given him that capacity. You are extremely devoted. I am in no way blaming you; but I clearly see in my mental vision, inner vision, that you can easily do more than what you are now doing.

Published in Aspiration-Glow and Dedication-Flow, part 2

The Prayers of Ramjan

A traditional Indian story
told by Sri Chinmoy

There was a very poor Muslim man who used to deal in donkeys, monkeys and dogs. One day he was returning from the village market. He had not been able to sell either his donkey, monkey or dog and he was to some extent unhappy. It was getting dark and night had set in. It was the month that the Muslims call Ramjan. For that month Muslims fast during the day and eat only at night. On a specific day of that month, when the sky becomes very favourable, they feel that no matter what one wishes for, he will get it.

The donkey knew this and he said, “How long shall I play the role of a donkey? O Allah, O God, make me the emperor of the world.” Then the donkey said to the monkey, “Our prayers will be fulfilled because it is a most auspicious day. I have prayed. Now you pray.” The monkey said, “I want to be the strongest man in the world.” The monkey also believed that his prayer would be fulfilled. Then the dog said, “I want to become the commander-in-chief of the world. ” They all prayed and they knew their desires would be fulfilled.

They said to their boss, a human being, “We have prayed. Our desires will be fulfilled.” The poor man said, “Yes, I am also praying.” Immediately he prayed to Allah, “O God, O God, O God, this is my only prayer. Before You grant their prayers, please make me blind. I don’t want to be ruled by a donkey, a monkey and a dog. Please grant my prayer first. Let me be blind so that at least I don’t have to see them if I have to be under their control.”

Published in AUM — Vol. 3, No.10, 27 October 1976

The Foolish Wisdom of a Brahmin

A traditional Indian story
told by Sri Chinmoy

They say that all fools are not really fools; some pretend to be fools. And again, all wise men are not really wise; some just pretend.

•••

There was a very poor Brahmin and Brahmini. The Brahmin was very, very idle and his wife always used to insult him. One day she insulted him and kicked him out of the house. “You are such a fool,” she said. “Your idleness I can forgive, but not your stupidity.” So the poor man was thrown out. He went away from his home and at the end of six months he came back. On that day his wife was making special cakes and although he did not enter into the house, from outside he was secretly listening to the noise, and he could easily count how many cakes she was making.

Then he shouted aloud, “Are you at home?” In India husbands don’t call their wives by name. It is just our Indian custom. His wife came outside and she was so happy to see her husband. “This time you can’t call me a fool anymore,” he said. “I have developed intuition-power. I can easily say how many cakes you have made.” “How many?” she asked. “Twenty-one,” he replied. She was so moved. How could he have known when he had not even entered into the room? She was so happy and proud that her husband had become so wise, so full of intuitive knowledge. “Now that you know everything,” she said, “let us beat the drum and tell all the villagers you can save each and every one of them from their difficulties and dangers.” The husband agreed, “Certainly.”

Now many people would come to see the poor Brahmin and he used to tell them, “Not today, not today. Today the Supreme Goddess is not pleased with me because I have done something wrong. I will speak to you some other day.” His wife had taught him to say this. One day a man came who was very sad because he had lost his donkey. When the Brahmini heard the petition of the man, she instructed her husband, “Don’t say you will speak to him today.” Then on behalf of her husband she said, “Today the Goddess is not pleased with him. Please do not bother him. If you come tomorrow, he will be able to help you. I can see that tomorrow the Goddess will be pleased with him.” The man was so happy that perhaps tomorrow the Brahmin would do something for him.

The wife was so tricky. At night around midnight the husband was sleeping, but not the wife. She heard a donkey braying and she followed the sound. She found the donkey and tied it to one of the pillars of the house. When the man came the following morning to see the Brahmin, he found the donkey there. It happened to be the same one he had lost. He was so happy and pleased and he gave the couple some money.

The Brahmin’s name spread all over the village. Finally the King came to know about the incident. The King had lost the Queen’s golden necklace and both the King and the Queen were very upset. They summoned this poor man to the palace. His wife also came with him, for she knew that he wouldn’t know how to find the necklace. The man was trembling all over because he was afraid that the King and Queen would punish him. The wife told the King, “He is trembling, not because he will not be able to tell you who has taken the necklace, but because you are so great. It is not because he does not have the capacity, but because we are so insignificant.” The King said, “You have to find the necklace. I have no idea whether it was stolen or misplaced.” “Please give me a few days,” replied the Brahmin, “as this is a serious matter.” Take as many days as you want,” said the King, “But I have to get it back! When I get it back, I will reward you.”

The Brahmin and Brahmini went home and the Brahmin started crying to the Goddess Jagadhambha, “Save me, save me, save me! I do not know who has taken the necklace. The King is no good. Perhaps the King will kill me. Are you so unkind? Please save me!” At night he cried in silence; during the day he cried aloud. That day one of the King’s maidservants, whose namesake was the Goddess Jagadhambha, happened to be passing by. She heard somebody crying because he was going to be killed, saying, “Goddess Jagadhambha, why are you so unkind? Where have you taken the necklace? You have to save me. Save me!”

The maidservant felt extremely sorry because she was the culprit; she had stolen the necklace. She said to herself, “I stole it and because of me this man is going to be hanged. He is crying so badly.” She came and told the Brahmin it was she who had stolen the necklace. “If you tell the King, the King will kill me,” she said. “You have to do something so that the King will not punish either you or me.” The wife was so clever. She said, “You have saved us; now we will save you. Bring the necklace.”

The maidservant went home and brought the necklace to the wife. Then the wife said, “We will save you. Don’t worry, we will not disclose you.” The maidservant said, “Oh, they will never suspect me. They are so fond of me.” The wife put the necklace into a box that could float on water and went to the King. “It will be good for my husband to concentrate at night,” she said. “He can concentrate better in the dark. He will come to your palace and concentrate on the necklace and let you know where it is.” The King was very happy. “Do anything you want, only find the necklace,” the King said.

That night the husband and wife went to the palace. All the lights were extinguished and they threw the box containing the necklace into a small pond near the palace. Then they went to the King and said, “Now we would like to meditate and definitely we will be able to tell you where the necklace is.” They meditated for some time and vision dawned on them. Their vision was working powerfully today; yesterday they had had no vision.

“Please send someone to yonder pond,” said the man. “There is a tiny box floating on the water and the Queen’s necklace is definitely inside it. My intuition is working today.” The King’s guards found the box and indeed, inside it was the necklace. So the King said, “Who stole it?”

“You have the necklace,” said the Brahmin. “My intuition goes only this far. You wanted to know where it was and we found it. We have fulfilled your request. Now it is up to you whether you will give us the reward or not.” The King said, “Why wouldn’t I give it to you? You found the thing which I had lost. It is so precious to me, so invaluable.”

Thus the King gave the Brahmin and his wife a very good fortune and with that fortune they left their village. After all, if this kind of thing ever happened again, perhaps Jagadhamba the Goddess would not save them at that time and even now, perhaps Jagadhamba the maidservant is not satisfied!

Published in AUM — Vol. 3, No.11, 27 November 1976