October 4
Sri Chinmoy honours Karan Singh, Ambassador of India to the United States, at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
October 4
Opportunity Divine and Necessity Supreme
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
We are all seekers of the Infinite Truth. I am one of you. On the strength of my soul's oneness with you I shall speak on opportunity and necessity.
I take no advantage of earthly and heavenly opportunities. I know perfectly well that my life itself is the greatest opportunity I have here on earth, there in Heaven and everywhere.
Opportunity is the human aspiration to live by in the outer world. Again, opportunity is the divine realisation to live for in the inner world. When I have an opportunity to know more, shall I use it to know others more, or shall I try to know myself more? I wish to say that I shall do both. I shall use the opportunity to know myself more and also to know others more. By knowing myself more, I realise God the Creator. By knowing others more, I realise God the Creation. By knowing myself more, I realise God the Breath. By knowing others more, I realise God the Life. By knowing myself more, I realise God the Unity. By knowing others more, I realise God the Multiplicity.
“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is true. A truly great man does not have to depend on outer opportunities. He has abundant faith in his inner capacity. To say that a great man never complains of want of opportunity, however, is an ideal affirmation of the state of consciousness for all great men. I hope that all great men will realise and live this truth.
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” — Francis Bacon
A spiritual man not only finds opportunities but also creates more and more opportunities constantly. His opportunity is composed of his inspiration-light and his aspiration-height. With his opportunity he realises God, he serves God and he fulfils God.
Opportunity in the spiritual life means to do and to be. What can I do? I can totally identify myself with each fleeting moment and offer myself at the Feet of God for His use in His eternal Time. What can I be? I can be God's Dream-Boat. He will be my life's eternal Pilot. Him to serve is my only awakened and illumined dream.
Opportunity is necessity. In the spiritual life a spiritual Master is a necessity; a spiritual disciple is a necessity. Let us pray with the Vedic seers:
Aum saha navavatu,
Saha nau bhunaktu
Saha Viryam karavavahai.
May He protect us (the disciple and the Master) both. May He nourish us both. May we both work together with energy, indomitable and endless.
If a disciple can establish conscious and constant oneness with the Master, then he has done the right thing, absolutely the right thing. If the Master has established his conscious and constant oneness with the disciple, then the Master has also done the right thing. Only when the disciple's oneness with the Master is perfect can the disciple work with the Master. When the Master's constant oneness with the disciple is perfect, then only can the Master work for the disciple. When the disciple works with the Master devotedly, the Mission of the Supreme for the Supreme begins. When the Master works for the disciple, the realisation of the Ultimate Transcendental Truth begins to dawn on the disciple. When the disciple works with the Master, he has to work with purest devotion. When the Master works for the disciple, he has to work with soulful and unreserved concern. The disciple has to feel that the Master is the Light of his own heart. The Master has to feel that the disciple is the strength of his own arms. When the disciple feels that his Master is the Light of his own heart, he is bound to be happy within and without. When the Master feels that his disciple is the strength of his own arms, his joy knows no bounds. And at that golden hour, choice hour, divine hour, what happens? God speaks to the disciple and the Master. To the disciple He says, "My child, you are My purest Pride." To the Master He says, "My son, you are My surest Pride. Both of you have fulfilled Me in My Vision, in My Reality, in My Mission and in My Manifestation on earth."
Published in My Ivy League Leaves
My Ignorance
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of California, Santa Barbara, California
My ignorance is my excuse. Is it justifiable? No, never! My ignorance is my excuse. Is it pardonable? No, never! My ignorance is my excuse. It is changeable? Yes, it is!
What is my ignorance? My ignorance is my unawareness of my source, the golden orb. My ignorance is my negligence of my inner duties: the transformation of my nature, the perfection of my life and the satisfaction of my Beloved Supreme.
My ignorance is an excess of fondness for the earth-bound fleeting time and my total indifference for the Heaven-free immortalising life. My ignorance is that I do not claim my Beloved Supreme as my own, very own. I do not dare to become His choice instrument. I remain in the meshes of ignorance.
My Beloved Supreme can forgive me, forgive my ignorance. But I shall not and cannot forgive myself and my ignorance, for inside the depth of my ignorance what looms large is my ingratitude. My Lord Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, has always been trying to give me His Eternity’s Love, Infinity’s Delight and Immortality’s Life. But I do not accept His divine Boons. Everything I shall forgive but one thing: my ingratitude.
Published in The Vision-Sky of California
October 3
Sri Chinmoy displays a series of miniature clay sculptures he has just created at his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
October 3
Sri Chinmoy lifts President Luis Alberto Lacalle of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, as part of the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ programme at the United Nations in New York.
October 3
A Reunion with Ida Patterson
by Sri Chinmoy
On 3 October 1987 I went to Minneapolis to give a concert and I saw Ida Patterson* again. I said to her, “You are still very, very strong, energetic, dynamic. I am so happy to see you again. Twenty years ago I came to your place and you gave me shelter.”
She replied, “You were just a young man. You said you came into the lion’s mouth when you came to America.”
“Luckily, I was not devoured!” was my reply.
Published in My Consulate Years
Note:
* Ida Patterson first met Sri Chinmoy in 1962 at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. He said she was “absolutely the first human being or truth-seeker or God-lover to see something in my eyes.” Sri Chinmoy referred to her as a spiritual sister and gave her the spiritual name ‘Sukhukee’. In late 1965, the year after Sri Chinmoy came to America, Ida Patterson arranged for him to give a series of talks in her home city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Video by kedarvideo
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert to an audience of 15,010 at the T-Mobile Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.
October 3
Sri Chinmoy discusses tennis with Jack Kramer, former world number one tennis champion, in Southern California.
October 3
Our Soulful Prayer and Our Fruitful Meditation
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 2:00 p.m., University of Southern California, Pasadena, California
Our soulful prayer and our fruitful meditation. Our soulful prayer is answered even before we pray if we have a pure aspiration-heart. Our fruitful meditation is fulfilled even before we meditate if we have a sure surrendered life.
What is a true prayer and what is a true meditation? A true prayer is constant self-giving and a true meditation is constant self-transcendence.
We pray to God for His Greatness. We meditate on God for His Goodness. When we pray we feel that God is above us. When we meditate we feel that God is within us. We pray to God because He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. His Greatness inspires us. We meditate on God because of His Love and Compassion, His unconditional Love and unconditional Compassion. Not because He is great but because He is good is the reason we meditate on God. We pray to God to give us what He has and what He is. We meditate on God for His manifestation in and through us.
When we pray, we feel our closeness to God. When we meditate, we feel our oneness with God. Closest intimacy we enjoy on the strength of our soulful prayer. Deepest ecstasy we enjoy in the inmost recesses of our heart by virtue of our fruitful meditation.
The finite in us desires the Infinite, the unknown, the unknowable. Therefore, it prays. The conscious reality, which is aware of itself in infinitesimal measure, wants to bring down the Infinite, the Eternal and the Immortal here on earth, in the immediacy of today. This is what our meditation wants.
Both prayer and meditation are of paramount importance. We pray because prayer constantly makes us feel that there is someone for us. We meditate because we feel that what we are now is not everything that we have or everything that we are. But there shall come a time when we shall grow into the very image of our Absolute Lord Supreme, which is our own perennial Source. With divine humility we pray, and thus we satisfy our Absolute Lord Supreme. With divine dignity we meditate, and thus we satisfy our Beloved Supreme.
Published in The Vision-Sky of California
Music
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at 8:00 p.m., University of California, Los Angeles, California
Music is inspiration, soulful inspiration. It inspires the human in us. Music is manifestation, fruitful manifestation. It manifests the divine in us. Music is satisfaction, supreme satisfaction. It satisfies the Pilot Supreme in us.
The human musician plays in order to become great. The divine musician becomes good first and then plays divinely, while soulfully and unconditionally offering the results to the Beloved Supreme. The Supreme Musician does not play in order to become great. The Supreme Musician does not have to become good in order to play. But the Supreme Musician at once embodies the universal sound-music and the transcendental Silence-Music.
God the Supreme Music feeds the aspiration-heart of the seeker-musician. God the Supreme Musician illumines the dedication-life of the seeker-musician. The soulful prayer of a seeker-musician and his music-world are the same thing: his soulful music is his soulful prayer. His fruitful meditation is another name for his fruitful music.
The music of the unaspiring musician and God’s Compassion-flood are inseparable. The music of the aspiring and surrendered seeker-musician and God’s Satisfaction-Delight are always interchangeable.
Published in AUM – Vol. 5, No. 9,10, September-October 1978
You have Peace
Sri Chinmoy offers an inspirational message after morning sports practice and a meditation at Jamaica High School track in Jamaica, New York
You have peace.
That means you have wisdom.
You have wisdom.
That means you have love.
You have love.
That means you have concern.
You have concern.
That means you have dedication.
You have dedication.
That means you have aspiration.
You have aspiration.
That means you have
The living God within you.
You have the living God within you.
That means you know constantly
Who you are.
You know constantly who you are.
That means you know that you are at once
Humanity's eternal cry
And
Divinity's eternal Smile.
Published in Aurora-Flora
October 2
Where Do I Live?
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of California, Irvine, California
Where do I live? I live in my heart. I live in my heart-muscle. I live in my heart-cave. I live in my heart-room. I live in my heart-home. I live in my heart-palace. I live in my heart-universe.
When I live inside my heart-muscle, I go back to the stone age; I embody my stone-consciousness.
When I live inside my heart-cave, I sing only one song day in and day out. I sing the song of I-ness: I, my, mine.
When I live inside my heart-room, at times I open my windows and see the world around me, but I am afraid of welcoming the world. I am afraid that whomever I allow to come in may be an intruder; therefore, I do not allow anybody to enter into my heart-room.
When I live inside my heart-home, I allow the members of my immediate family and my friends to come inside. Together we play. together we mix, together we throw ourselves into multifarious activities. But my heart-home is only for in near and dear ones.
When I live inside my heart-palace, I welcome only big celebrities, famous people, great personalities. I invite them to come into my heart-palace to receive some inspiration-light to offer to their many admirers and followers.
Finally, when I live inside my heart-universe, I feel the Presence of my Beloved Supreme constantly. Out of His boundless Bounty He appears before me and I see His Face. Him I see with my human eyes. Him I feel with my human heart. I ask my Lord Supreme to grant me His constant Blessings. He says that He has already granted me His Blessings infinite. He tells me to give Him what I have and what I am devotedly, soulfully, unreservedly an unconditionally. I give Him what I have and what I am: ignorance. He, out of His infinite Compassion, gives me what He has and what He is: Delight in infinite measure.
Published in The Vision-Sky of California
Dear Brother, Sweet Sister
A message by Sri Chinmoy after a morning sports practice and meditation at Jamaica High School track in Jamaica, New York
January, my dear brother January,
Please give me an inspiration-flower.
February, my sweet sister February,
Please give me an aspiration-flame.
March, my dear brother March,
Please give me a determination-bull.
April, my sweet sister April,
Please give me a luminosity-mind.
May, my sweet sister May,
Please give me a purity-heart.
June, my dear brother June,
Please give me an ever-new
Concentration-arrow.
July, my sweet sister July,
Please give me a deer-speed.
August, my dear brother August,
Please give me a meditation-mountain.
September, my sweet sister September,
Please give me a surrender-lamb.
October, my sweet sister October,
Please give me a sacrifice-horse.
November, my sweet sister November,
Please give me the realisation-sun.
December, my dear brother December,
Please give me my Lion-Lord's
Satisfaction-roar.
Published in Aurora-Flora
Ambition
A message by Sri Chinmoy after a morning sports practice and meditation at Jamaica High School track in Jamaica, New York
Ambition, my precious ambition, it is you who untiringly help me to transcend my capacities.
It is you who help me to transform my inordinate pride into sacred humility.
The seeker-heart in me, with your help, can sing the song of universal oneness.
Nobody else but you alone can make three most rare, sleepless efforts. By virtue of your sleepless efforts, you pull God the Compassion down, you push man the aspiration up and every day you inspire and energise my seeker-heart.
Ambition, my precious ambition, your victory-palace is my Lord's and my meeting place.
Published in Aurora-Flora
Comments
in the evening by Sri Chinmoy about his morning message on Ambition
Ambition is not a good thing according to many. Especially when one enters into the spiritual life, one gives up one’s ambition; one does not try to shine in one’s particular field. But I wish to say that this is only the human ambition, the ambition that wants to surpass others by hook or by crook. One must give up ambition in the desire-world. But ambition in the aspiration-world is totally different. Divine ambition is to become good, and not great, for goodness always embodies greatness, but greatness need not embody goodness.
Our spiritual ambition is to transcend ourselves, to conquer our own limitations, to become perfect instruments of our Lord Supreme. When we have ambition of this type, we are perfectly safe. And when we cry for this kind of ambition, we are doing the right thing. Human ambition is in the desire world — to defeat others, to be always on the highest pinnacle of success. But the divine ambition is to feel a universal oneness constantly. And in order to feel this universal oneness, we have to transcend our own limitations. Our incapacities must be transformed into capacities. So what we are crying for is divine ambition — the sincere necessity to be the best possible instruments of our Lord Supreme — to transcend our limitations so that we can eventually feel and grow into universal oneness.
Published in AUM – Vol. 6, No. 10, October 1980
My Connection with the Lord Buddha
comments by Sri Chinmoy
at Aspiration-Ground un Jamaica, New York
My Connection with the Lord Buddha is stronger than the strongest. It is all oneness, oneness. The Lord Buddha and I are on very, very good terms.
Only last year, when we were in Borobudur, the Lord Buddha came out from his highest stupa and started playing on the drum for my victory. He said, “You are the only one who appreciates other spiritual figures so openly, so sincerely.” The Lord Buddha was playing my victory-drum.
My connection with the Lord Buddha in the inner world is inseparable.
Published in My Golden Children
October 2
Video by kedarvideo
Sri Chinmoy offers two Peace Concerts (afternoon, an audience of 2,600; and evening, an audience of 2,800) at the Erkel Theatre in Budapest, Hungary.
October 2
Bill Pearl in San Jose
by Sri Chinmoy
Bill Pearl joined us for our concert in San Jose, and he introduced the video of my weightlifting after the concert. While we were in California, he took measurements of my arms, chest and legs. He was appreciating the strength of my chest and leg muscles. He said my left calf is practically an inch larger than my right calf. He said all kinds of very nice things about me.
On the video when he saw me lift 1,500 pounds in the calf raise, he couldn’t believe it. He was screaming, “He is lifting, he is lifting!” When I was lifting the boat, he was so moved. Then he asked Nirvik if Nirvik would lift 500 pounds, but Nirvik said no.
Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 2
Note:
Bil Pearl, a world-acclaimed weightlifter and bodybuilder, was a five-time winner of the NABBA Mr. Universe competition (1953, 1956, 1961, 1967 and 1971); the WBBA World’s Best-Built Man of the Century (1974); recipient of the AAU Lifetime Achievement Award (1995); and an inductee into the IFBB Hall of Fame (1999).
