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Fulfilling a New Year’s Resolution

After holding his Public Meditation for the New Year on 19 December 1975, Sri Chinmoy offers these remarks during an informal gathering with some of his disciples.

In some cases, fulfilling a New Year’s resolution is a matter of an hour or three hours. If someone spends three hours doing it, then he feels that the rest of the year he can enjoy himself.

In some cases it is a matter of a second for me to grant their boon. If I say yes, then their resolution is all over; it is accomplished. It depends on the receptivity. If the person is receptive, immediately I can fulfil his wish. If he is not receptive, then I can’t. The mother will run and catch the child and put food inside his mouth, but he will throw it out. Then the child will come again and say he is hungry, he is hungry. But when the mother comes with the food, he won’t eat. If you have received everything that I brought down today, then I tell you, for six months you don’t have to meditate.

During the New Year’s meditation I really bring down. People used to meditate for years to get a little light. But my physical body brings down divine Peace, Light and Bliss. When I look at the seekers who are seated, I see literally that it is raining Light, Bliss. When the seekers feel gratitude, at that time they receive.

If we have any weakness in our life, if we feel that we have to conquer it, then we have started our journey. But if we don’t take our weaknesses as something to be conquered, we will never conquer them. If we have self-doubt, we are one step ahead if we know that we have it. It is self-doubt that is not allowing my disciples to make very fast progress. Who doubts? People who remain in the mental world. Is there anybody who does not live in the mental world? If there is self-doubt, then there is self-indulgence, because self-doubt makes one feel, “I am not great, I cannot be good.” And in that case, what else is there left for him but self-indulgence? If we can feel that we are good, if we can feel that we can be great, then let us feel this.

This year has been a year of achievement. At the same time, we have seen the so-called victory of the hostile forces in a few fields. But next year let us be wise; let us not make the same mistakes. Now that you know the New Year’s Message, you can start right from today. You don’t have to wait for the first of January.

Published in Sri Chinmoy Speaks, part 6

Prayer-Meditations

by Sri Chinmoy
at the Grand Central Hotel, Singapore

8

My soulful prayers carry me to God's transcendental Head and make me so happy.

My soulful meditation carries me to God's loving Heart and makes me so peaceful.

9

During his earthly sojourn, every human being has to study, either today or tomorrow, either sooner or later, at God's peace-flooded inner training school in order to become a choice instrument of God for His full manifestation here on earth.

Published in Fifty-Four Morning Prayer-Cries and Morning Meditation-Smiles

What is the Spiritual Life?

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in the Alice Millar Chapel
Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
 

Here we are all seekers, seekers of the infinite Light and the eternal Truth. What does this mean? It means that we have accepted the spiritual life soulfully and consciously.

The paramount question is, "What is the spiritual life?" The spiritual life is something that is natural and normal. It is always natural and it is always normal, unlike other things that we come across in our day-to-day multifarious activities. The spiritual life is normal and natural precisely because it knows its Source. Its Source is God the infinite Light and God the eternal Truth.

When we follow the spiritual life, we come to feel that a life of peace need not always remain a far cry. We come to feel that a life of love, the love that expands, need not always remain a far cry. Everything that fulfils us divinely and supremely, we can achieve and claim as our very own if we follow the spiritual life. Right now Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure we do not have at our disposal. But when we practise spirituality, when our inner cry, which we call aspiration, climbs up high, higher, highest, at that time Peace, Light and Bliss we get not only in abundant measure but in infinite measure. And we can achieve and treasure these divine qualities in the inmost recesses of our hearts. When we practise the spiritual life soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally, we try to bring to the fore the divinity that we all have. And this divinity is nothing short of our perfection.

Here we are all seekers. Each seeker represents the ideal and the real. The ideal is self-transcendence and the real is God's all-pervading Consciousness.

If we want to grow into the real and the ideal in us, we have to clean our mind thoroughly of the undivine thoughts that are constantly assailing us. And we have to empty our heart and fill it with infinite Light and Delight. Then God the Real and God the Ideal will be able to sing and dance in our aspiring being.

Here we are all seekers. We are all chosen instruments of the Supreme, our Beloved Supreme, the Eternal Pilot. We can prove this soulful statement of ours, not by words but by deeds, by our serving love and loving service.

Loving service. Our loving service can prove to the world at large that we are the chosen instruments of the Supreme, for the Supreme. When we love the Supreme soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally in our aspiring mind, we heighten our God-Height; and when we serve the Supreme soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally in our aspiring mind, we deepen our God-Depth.

Since we are the chosen instruments of the Supreme, our immediate necessity is God-realisation and our absolute duty is God-manifestation. In the fulfilment of our immediate necessity, we can become the torch-bearers of infinite Truth and the harbingers of God-Vision within us and without. In the fulfilment of our absolute duty, we discover that we are God-seeds and God-fruits. Let us offer our God-seed to the Supreme; let us place it at His Feet, so it may grow into a divine tree that can lift humanity to the highest transcendental Height. Let us also offer to the Supreme our God-fruit. Let us place our God-fruit at His Feet for His Manifestation, His total and complete Manifestation here on earth.

Published in The Soul’s Evolution

Sri Chinmoy’s 300th book Aspiration-Tree is published. It is the first hard-bound book produced by Aum Publications in Jamaica, New York. The book is simultaneously published by Bhakti Press in Ottawa, Canada.

Sri Chinmoy said about his 300 books:

They “signify 300 flames of aspiration. These are not my aspirations but the aspirations of humanity.

“This is not my achievement. This is the achievement of the Absolute Supreme in us, through us and for us. These 300 books embody a few million words. Each word is a manifestation of Divinity's Reality on earth for those who love me ...

“Each book is another name for my gratitude to my sweet children on earth and my loving friends in Heaven. When my spiritual children see or feel anything in me, they must feel gratitude – Sri Chinmoy the gratitude, Guru the gratitude.”

Published in Anahata Nada, January 1, 1977, Vol. 3, No. 12

Imagination has a Reality of its Own

by Sri Chinmoy
comments after a musical performance by his students in Xiamen, China

When you are singing very, very devotional songs, at that time try to imagine the Feet of the Supreme. If you can see and feel that you are looking at the Feet of the Supreme, then your devotion will automatically come to the fore. This is a very effective way. I always say that imagination has a reality of its own. So if you can imagine the Feet of the Supreme, according to your aspiration and dedication, then automatically the soulfulness will come. You will be filled with prayerful feelings.

That is one way. There is another way. While singing very powerful songs, if you can concentrate on one particular limb of your body, then you will be able to bring to the fore the power aspect. Divine power is inside the heart, true, but as soon as we think of power, we think of our shoulders or our arms. If you place your concentration there, you will be able to sing most powerfully.

I like the song Khule dao ankhi very much.

Khule dao ankhi khule dao hiya
khule dao man pran
khule dao deha khule dao sab
ogo prabhu bhagaban

It means:

O, open up my eyes,
Open up my heart,
Open up my mind,
Open up my vital,
Open up my body,
Open up everything of mine,
O my Lord, O my Lord Absolute Supreme.

In Bengali, the word ‘God’ has many, many synonyms, but the one that comes immediately in the hearts of all Bengalis is bhagavan. Ishwa and param prabhu are other words that we use, but in the Bengali heart, we get an immediate response from bhagavan. Bhagavan is absolutely embedded in our heart-breath.

When you sing the song Bhagavan, bhagavan nicely, I get such joy. God has hundreds of synonyms, but bhagavan comes first of all, before all other synonyms. It embodies all the God-aspects. Again, when we say param pita or param prabhu, at that time the devotion aspect comes more to the fore. Prabhu also means God, but there the devotion aspect is paramount.

Similarly, to a little child, his mother and father are one, but the word ‘Mother’ touches the heart or breath of the child more than the word ‘Father’. This is my own feeling. The Bengali word for Mother is ma. We use this word when we want immediate attention. When you are in pain or anything is wrong, the Mother comes first. The Father enters into the picture when it is a matter of something very large. The Father belongs to the large, larger, largest world. The Mother is intimate, most intimate. She is the one who will come to our immediate rescue. When the Father comes, immediately we enter into vastness. But when the Mother comes, immediately we enter into the world of affection, sweetness, fondness and intimacy.

Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 37

Three Christmas Trip Talks

by Sri Chinmoy
in Xiamen, China

Intensity in meditation

When some disciples meditate well, they have intensity in their heart. Some others may have a kind of self-styled confidence; it is not real spiritual confidence. But in the case of the first group, when they do well, there is tremendous intensity.

If you can add intensity to your devotion, then it is of great, great help.

Channel swimmers, do speedwork!

My request to the English Channel swimmers is to work on speed, speed, speed. I advise all my disciple swimmers to do speedwork! The less time you can remain in the water, the better.

Speedwork gives stamina. Stamina does not mean only to swim long distance. There is another type of stamina. When you do speedwork again and again, that speedwork itself gives you stamina.

Some people think that if you run ten miles you will get stamina. That is one theory. Another theory is that if you run 100 metres again and again and again, it is very good for stamina. Our famous champion Emil Zatopek ran 400 metres again and again and again. Then he performed miracles in long distance! With 400 metres he did speedwork.

So many people who attempted to cross the Channel gave me the message, “The tide changed.” Why did they allow the tide to change? Before the tide changed they could have gone across!

Speedwork is very, very necessary. If you can concentrate on speedwork — even if you do only six miles, not ten miles — that will help you tremendously.

A seventy-year-old man has swum the Channel. I lifted him on the 13th of November.

He was very moved, and he stayed at our function for a long time, because he appreciated being in the company of such spiritual people! He said that was what he needed.

Vision of an Avatar

A disciple has told me that he wants to become a carpenter. At the Sri Aurobindo Ashram we worked at a place called a cottage industry. All kinds of things were made there. They used to make sweets also. On rare occasion we had to wrap sweets. My third job there was carpentry. This was my selfless service. Alas, the first day I was given the job of making a lead pencil. I spent hours, but I got nowhere!

The owner-manager of the place was so kind and so affectionate. He saw my capacity, and then he gave me the job of supervising! I was supposed to supervise the binding of old books. I was a little bit older than he was. I sat in a small chair while he was working. I would only look at him and see what he was doing. I only observed him. The boss said I did not have to learn anything!

That kind-hearted boss went one step farther. He said, “If you feel like reading, you can read. How long can you just watch?” That was a great relief. I started reading, and occasionally, while he was very devotedly working, I looked at him. Where can one find that kind of boss?

I am sure you have heard my famous story about that place. A lady from Calcutta came to the Ashram to become a permanent member. She had had the vision of an Avatar, and at that cottage industry she discovered me. Twenty metres away from the very place where I used to work, the following incident took place.

My brother and the manager of the cottage industry were very close friends. Some years ago, when I was in America, the manager wanted to read my writings. My brother was all pride! He went to get some of my books for his friend to read.

In those days we used to print my Transcendental Photograph at the end of each of my books. My brother gave his friend a book to read. At that moment a lady was passing by, and she saw the picture. She was stunned! She started screaming, “Who is this? Who is this?”

He said, “This is Chitta’s youngest brother, Chinmoy, who used to work here.” Again, very attentively, she looked at the picture. Then she said, “This is the Avatar! This is the face that Sri Aurobindo showed me!”

Four or five years earlier, in Calcutta, she was crying and crying one evening in front of her shrine, where she kept pictures of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. At that time she was not yet a member of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, but she was a disciple. She said, “I have not seen Sri Ramakrishna, who was an Avatar, and I have not seen you.” Sri Ramakrishna she could not have seen, because Sri Ramakrishna passed away before she was born. And she had not seen Sri Aurobindo on the physical plane, because Sri Aurobindo left the body in 1950. Crying and crying, she said, “I want to see an Avatar! I missed Sri Ramakrishna and I missed you!”

She said that while she was praying, Sri Aurobindo, from his photograph, was telling her to look at the sky. Then she looked at the sky, and there she saw my Transcendental Photograph. It was all illumination. But she did not know my name. Sri Aurobindo only said, “Look there,” so she looked at the sky and saw my Transcendental Photograph. She was so moved. From then on, she was all the time thinking of that picture, because she felt that Sri Aurobindo had shown her an Avatar. She was crying to see that person in the physical form. When she saw my Transcendental Photograph in the book, she was thrilled.

This lady came to our house, and she spoke to my sister. She became very close to our family. Just two months ago also she wrote to me, “I do not expect anything from you, if you could only take the trouble of reading my letter.”

When I went to the Ashram, this lady fell flat at my feet and looked at me for my blessings, because she said that I am an Avatar. And my Transcendental Photograph does not resemble me! When I am in my normal consciousness, my appearance is totally different. In the Transcendental Photograph I am in my highest height. But after seeing the Transcendental Photograph, she did not have any problem in recognising me! When she came to see me, I was cutting jokes with my sisters and my friends, but in front of everyone she fell flat at my feet and started telling the story. My sister was begging her not to narrate the story, because our friends were there, but she did not care.

The last time she met me, she went one step ahead with her story. She said that she saw my Transcendental Photograph merge into Sri Krishna’s picture, and I disappeared. Then Sri Krishna entered into my Transcendental Photograph, and he disappeared. She said that Sri Krishna and I are one.

My story started with one lead pencil! A disciple said he wanted to become a carpenter. My carpentry job lasted for four or five hours, and then the kind-hearted boss saw my capacity.

That lady and her husband run a restaurant at the Ashram. Three or four years ago two of my Indian disciples went to their restaurant. They happened to bring with them a book with one of my pictures. When the husband saw the book, immediately he said, “Oh, he is my wife’s Guru! Please, please come this evening!” They went there in the evening, and the wife again started telling her story.

Published in Devotion Becomes a Magnet

Three Christmas Trip Talks

by Sri Chinmoy
in Kuantan, Malaysia

If you throw your heart and soul into a project

To those who work for manifestation, again I wish to say that if you have not succeeded, it is not your fault. It is not due to lack of inspiration, aspiration and dedication on your part. When you do not succeed, at times you feel that you are a complete failure. You are not a complete failure! God wanted to give you a special experience. If you know that you have worked very hard, sincerely and self-givingly, then the result can never be your failure and it can never be God’s failure. It is only an experience God has given you, and God Himself has experienced that failure. But there is no such thing as failure. There is only one message: more enthusiasm, more dynamism, more self-giving.

You may say that you have given your utmost, and yet your sleepless selfless service was not able to bring about success. But who is the Giver of your success? God. If He does not give you success, then there is some special reason. It has nothing to do with your aspiration and dedication.

At times you make yourself feel that a particular thing has to be done. That feeling is absolutely wrong. The most important thing is to abide by God’s Will. God has given you the capacity to throw yourself into a project. I have not told you that if you do not succeed, then I will lose faith in you, I will be displeased with you. This kind of wrong feeling please do not harbour. I know who serves me soulfully and self-givingly twenty-four hours a day.

God wants your sincere, most sincere efforts. He does not expect and He does not want anything else from you. You feel that your success will glorify you or glorify your Master, which is true. But from the spiritual point of view, when we have surrendered, you and I and all those who are doing manifestation work must realise that God will not be more pleased if we bring Him success. Never! God will remain pleased with you in the manifestation-world if you throw your heart and soul into a project.

Success depends upon Him; failure depends upon Him. If you cherish wrong feelings, frustration looms large and you feel that you are useless. No! People who work for manifestation are all useful, extremely useful. There are people who are doing manifestation work day in and day out. I am extremely, extremely proud of them. I see their sincerity, I see their readiness, I see their willingness, I see their eagerness. What more do I need? Those people who are working very, very hard towards the manifestation are extremely, extremely pleasing me, to say the least.

If you do not work on manifestation, please keep yourself happy on our Christmas Trip by singing my songs, mixing with your friends and enjoying the beauty of nature. If you can keep yourself happy, then I am extremely, extremely proud of you. Those who do not do manifestation work should have only joy and pride in their brother and sister-disciples who are all the time thinking of manifestation. Do not be jealous of those who are day in and day out sleeplessly doing manifestation work. And those who are working prayerfully, soulfully, day in and day out must not think ill of those who are not involved in outer manifestation.

Each individual has a way of keeping himself or herself happy without interfering in others’ activities. Anything that you do, please try to remember that you are doing it with a view to giving me joy.

When I give a special message

Earlier I gave a very, very nice talk, and many people were not here. Their souls and their hearts have heard it.

When I give a special message, you do not have to be in my physical presence. My soul conveys my message to your hearts and souls. Then it is up to you to utilise my advice.

Obedience has sweetness in it

I am so, so grateful to the disciples who go faithfully to Pujaloy. Minati sends me the report. I look at each and every name, and I bless each individual. Sometimes there are even forty disciples present, in spite of the fact that so many Germans are now here on our Christmas Trip.

Obedience has sweetness in it, tremendous sweetness. The people who are satisfying me by going to Pujaloy are really true disciples, true disciples. In my physical absence if people do the right thing, I get much, much more joy than I get when they do good things in my physical presence. In my physical presence, out of love or for various reasons people try to make me happy. Some people who are with me physically have taken me very seriously and are doing absolutely the right thing. But if I am not physically with some disciples and they please me, believe me, I get much, much, much more joy, because they are carrying my message inside the depths of their heart. They are proving that they really, really love me, and they have taken me very seriously.

Published in My Golden Children

Experiences in Japan

Anecdotes by Sri Chinmoy

The tea ceremony

In Tokyo we went to see a tea ceremony. When I came in, the hostess bowed to me three times. But I didn’t dare bend so many times, so I bowed only once!

Bowing and bowing

In Japan they bow even when they open the elevator door for you. Yesterday after the Peace Concert, I bowed at least 200 times during the walk-past for seekers.

As each person passed in front of me, he would bow. So I also bowed. Then I would have to bow a second time to show that the meditation for that particular individual was over.

For me to bow so many times and then look up is very difficult for my neck. So yesterday I had very good neck exercises!

I thought that they would keep their hands at their sides, according to the Japanese tradition, but most of them walked by with folded hands.

Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 4

Experiences in Hawaii

Anecdotes by Sri Chinmoy

The culprits

How the tourists ruin the consciousness of Hawaii! If you enter into the heart of the island, you will see it is flooded with serenity, beauty, purity — every divine quality. But when you walk along the beach and see the tourists, it becomes something else. There is an immediate transformation. So we tourists are the culprits.

You have made my day!

The other day in Hawaii I was in a shop. A girl said, “Please tell me your name.”

When I told her, she said, “O Guru, O Guru, you don’t recognise me? I am Sambhava’s sister-in-law — Lynn’s sister. Thirteen years ago I came to New York and saw you. Then two years ago I came for your birthday. I can’t believe you are here. You have made my day!”

Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 7

Experience in Malaysia

Anecdote by Sri Chinmoy

What did a three-year-old girl see?

The day before yesterday, on the elevator, I saw a little girl of three. She was very cute. She was perhaps from India. This little three-year-old girl was only looking at me and looking at me. I was going to the first floor, and she came out with me. Her parents were in the elevator, and they were holding the door open. She went back into the elevator, only to come out again and look at me. Then once more she went inside the elevator. The door was closing, but again the little girl came out. Her parents were begging her to come inside. They were holding the door.

What did a three-year-old girl see inside me?

Published in My Golden Children