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My Scottish Father, My Indian Son

by Sri Chinmoy

I worked at the Consulate General of India and lived in Brooklyn, which is one of the five boroughs of New York City. It took me forty-five minutes to reach Manhattan where my office was located. On 8 August 1965, I went as usual to the Fort Hamilton Parkway subway station and took my train.

We had only covered two stops when we heard a voice commanding us: “All out, all out!” We were all taken aback but we emptied the train in no time. A sea of human bodies, utterly perplexed and not knowing which way to move, was milling heavily on the platform. There were thousands upon thousands of individuals pushing and struggling on the narrow platform, for each successive train was unloading hundreds more as it came to this spot.

The reason? It was very simple. A water main running through the subway tunnel had burst, flooding our particular line, the BMT. The trains could run no further than the place where we were now halted and discharged. Now the problem was to continue our journey in some way or other, to reach our destinations without further delay.

But to get out of the subway station to the surface was itself a herculean task. It took us no less than forty-five minutes just to inch our way forward in the jampacked crowd, painfully ascend the slow-moving staircase and finally reach the street level. Once we had completed this exhausting task and were able to breathe fresh air once more, we had to consider how to proceed.

Fortunately, buses had been provided to take us to another subway line, the IRT, from which we could reach Manhattan. This we managed without mishap, though the buses which transported us had probably never in their existence carried at one time so many crushed bodies! Our arrival at the IRT line was by no means the end of our troubles, for here too, the crowd was as thick as before. By the time I reached the Consulate, it had taken me three full hours instead of my usual forty-five minutes. My co-workers living in other parts of Brooklyn took one further precious hour to accomplish the ordeal.

During the day at the Consulate, I was haunted by the apprehension about my return journey and sure enough, my misgivings were justified. The return journey was a painful repetition of the morning's nightmare. In the evening, at the Lexington Avenue and 59th Street station, my attention was drawn to a frail octogenarian. He drew forth all my sympathy with the spell of his pitiful look. He had completely lost his way and in this crowd he was quite helpless. I was not much more fortunate, by way of knowledge, than he. But my sympathy boldly surpassed my discretion. On learning where he was going, I caught him by the hand and led him into what I believed to be the correct train. We managed this only with great difficulty. By pushing and elbowing with my former athletic heart, I managed to procure a seat for this old man.

As he sat down, another aged man, looking at me, inquired of him, “Who is he?” The immediate reply was, “My son, my Indian son.” I was surprised at his affectionate words and delighted that he had guessed my nationality. Lo, his gratitude could not remain inactive. He started pushing along the seat, gradually and quietly, a fraction of an inch at a time. The young girl sitting beside him could make neither head nor tail of his odd manoeuvering. He continued his efforts for about twenty minutes, until he had acquired enough room for me to sit down beside him. Great indeed was his triumph as he bade me, in his Scottish brogue, to sit. “A true father,” my grateful heart voiced forth. “My Scottish father!”

Published in AUM – Vol. 3, No. 1, 2, 27 Aug. – Sep. 1967

Captain, My Captain

Poems by Sri Chinmoy

You Are My Only Friend

Captain, my Captain,
You are my Friend, my only Friend.
Therefore, I depend on You for everything.
I depend on You
For the fulfilment of my human desire-life.
I depend on You
For the fulfilment of my divine aspiration-heart.
Captain, my Captain,
Am I Your friend?

“My sweet child,
You definitely are.”

Captain, my Captain,
If so, do You ever depend on me
For anything?

“My sweet child,
I depend on you only for one thing.
I sleeplessly depend on
Your heart's breathless oneness-love.”

Do I Have To Give Up Everything?

Captain, my Captain,
Do I have to give up everything
In order to claim You
As my own, very own?

“My sweet child,
First claim Me as your own, very own.
To your wide surprise
You will discover
That besides Me you have nothing of your own
To give up,
For your very existence-life
Is My blessingful Possession.
You will also discover
That I am your Eternity’s Dream-Boat,
Plus, you are My Immortality’s reality-passenger.
Our destination is the Blue-Gold Shore
Of My Infinity’s Nectar-Delight.”

Published in Captain, My Captain

Sri Chinmoy, creativity flowing from his pen, as he writes rhyming poems in his notepad outside Jamaica High School track in Queens, New York.

The United Nations is Not a Building

Each forward
Determination-stride
Is a new victory.

The United Nations is not a building. It is not the meeting place of certain eminent people. It is the life-breath of oneness in humanity. Wherever you go, you are carrying the pristine beauty-light of the United Nations. Here and there you go, carrying the life-breath of the United Nations and offering it to the suffering humanity.

Published in Vladimir Petrovsky: Builder of a New Heart-Firmament

Sri Chinmoy Answers

questions by Dr. Elena Vladimirskaya, Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Pediatric Hematology in Moscow, and her husband, a retired military officer, at Annam Brahma Restaurant in Jamaica, New York

Question: Does time only go from past to future?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two kinds of time: one is earth-bound time and the other is Heaven-free time or, you can say, universal time. Earth-bound time goes from one to two to three to four to five. But universal time is like a big circle that at every moment is expanding and expanding. It is like God’s entire universe — eternal and infinite. Earth-bound time is like a few drops of water; easily you can count them. But Heaven-free time is like the vast ocean. When you think of the vast ocean, it is absolutely meaningless to try to count the drops.

Question: Where did human beings come from? Did they come from Adam and Eve, or from the monkeys?

Sri Chinmoy: I believe in evolution. We started from the mineral world and then evolved to the plant world, the animal world and the human world. And still our journey is not over. One day we shall become divine beings. But even when we were in the mineral world, we were not composed entirely of matter. Inside matter there is also spirit. Through our prayers and meditations we can bring forth spirit from matter and transform matter into spirit.

Question: What is your view of religion? Why are so many religions not friendly with each other?

Sri Chinmoy: The essence of every religion is love of God. There is not a single religion that does not tell us to love God. The problem comes with the followers of religion. Very often they say, “My religion is by far the best, whereas your religion is very bad.” The followers of the different religions are like children in a family. The children have the same parents and receive the same affection, love and compassion from their parents. But still the children quarrel and fight. If one sister sees that another sister is more beautiful, then immediately she becomes jealous and quarrels with the other one. If one brother sees that another brother is more powerful, immediately the weak one speaks ill of the strong one. Again, in a family, many times one brother will say, “I know better than anybody!” and the other brother will say, “No, I know better than you!” Similarly, each religion will tell its brother and sister religions, “I know more about the Heavenly Father than you do.” Or they will say, “My way of loving God is the only correct way, and your way is wrong.” So, quite often it happens that there is quarrelling and fighting among the various religions.

But one thing all religions agree on is love of God. And if we really love someone, we feel our oneness with that person. So if we really love God and feel our oneness with God, we will also feel our oneness with God’s creation. In the inmost depths of our heart we know that we are all one, but then pride enters into us and we tell others, “I do not need you.” But we do need one another. We are all part and parcel of the same existence-reality. A tree consists of the trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. If the trunk says that it does not need the branches or leaves, then what kind of tree will it be? And if the flowers say that they do not need the branches and trunk, then how will they live? So unity has to be established.

When we enter into a garden, immediately we become aware of the beauty, purity and fragrance of the garden. Each flower has its own beauty, but the beauty we feel in the garden is the beauty of multiplicity. And this is the beauty that gives us immense joy. Similarly, God gets immense joy from the multiplicity of the flower-hearts of all His children.

Question: Will people one day understand the necessity of oneness?

Sri Chinmoy: No, it will not be a matter of understanding; it will be a matter of feeling, through the heart. If we want to understand something, we have to use the mind. Understanding is always in the mind. But human beings will never establish oneness with one another by using the mind. At every moment the mind is changing its opinion. This moment a good thought enters into my mind and I see you as a very good person. The next moment a bad thought enters into my mind and I say you are a very bad person. When I use the mind, my view of you is a reflection of the kind of thoughts that I am having. Another thing about the mind is that it always separates and divides. The mind will say, “I am good, but you are not good.”

The heart only feels its oneness with others. It says, “If I am good, then you are also good.” The heart is like a mother. A mother always feels that her child is good. She is all the time pouring her motherly love, affection and compassion into her child. A mother is not using her mind to determine how beautiful her child is. No! As soon as she looks at her child, she sees him as all beauty.

If the child becomes like a cyclone and starts screaming and breaking everything in the house, her mind may say, “God, why did You give me such an undivine child? Who needs him?” That is because the mind is separating the mother from the child. But then the mother’s heart will come forward and say, “If he is bad, then I am responsible because I brought him into the world.”

Question: Will human beings one day achieve salvation by having this feeling of oneness?

Sri Chinmoy: It will come, it will come. You are using the term ‘salvation’. When we use this term, we feel that there is a saviour who will rescue us. We feel that we have done millions and billions of bad things, that we are unclean people who have committed so many sins, and that it is necessary for somebody to come and give us salvation. But there is another philosophy that uses the term ‘realisation’. This philosophy is based on our feeling of oneness with God, our Heavenly Father.

When a child gets dirty from playing in the mud and clay, his mother just comes and washes him. The child does not feel guilty that he is dirty, for he does not know any better. He is just playing, playing, playing. But the mother knows that the mud and clay are no good, so when the child comes running to her, she immediately cleans him and makes him pure. Similarly, no matter what we do, if we just go running towards our Heavenly Father, He will make us pure again. But if we think that we are very bad, if we feel that we are ugly, filthy animals, then we will not go to Him. So if we claim God as our Mother and Father, God will do everything for us and it becomes God’s Responsibility to make us pure.

When we pray and meditate, we come to realise that something is infinitely higher than salvation, and that is oneness with God. When the Christ said, “I and my Father are one,” that was his realisation speaking. When he said, “O Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?” it was the human in him that was speaking and separating itself from God. But the divine in him could never separate itself from God. The divine in him felt, “Whether I am in Heaven or on earth, God is in me and I am in Him; we are one.” This feeling of oneness is called realisation.

Question: I would like to thank you. Where do you get these answers from?

Sri Chinmoy: Your questions are very significant. These answers do not come from my mind; they are coming directly from my heart and soul. I get these answers because I pray and meditate. You have read many more books than I have read. I have not even completed high school, let alone gone to college or university. But I get these answers by virtue of my prayers and meditations. If we pray and meditate, we get the answers even while others are asking the questions. I do not have to consult any book to answer these questions because the questions have the answers in them.

Sri Chinmoy then asks whether the young patients in Dr. Vladimirskaya’s children’s hospital pray and meditate in the morning.

Sri Chinmoy: Since you are the head of the hospital, you know the absolute necessity of God’s Compassion and God’s Love for these children. In this incarnation they are suffering so much. You are giving them earthly medicine that will cure them and allow them to remain on earth for another fifty or sixty years. But if you can also give them Heavenly medicine — which is prayer, or the repetition of God’s Name — then they will have a better incarnation in their next life. Now with one hand you are giving them medicine. But if you can give them medicine with two hands, then you will help them infinitely more. God is also inside the earthly medicine that you are giving them, but they are not aware of Him there. If you can have them pray or repeat God’s Name in the morning, they will be more aware of God.

Dr. Vladimirskaya: We will try to do it, but it is rather difficult in our country because for many, many years religion was forbidden. Now it isn't.

Sri Chinmoy: Here in America they believe in God, but in the schools it is forbidden to pray. In the schools they do not allow prayers.

Dr. Vladimirskaya: It is a very difficult situation. We will try to do something. We are also trying to change the situation in our hospital to allow every child to be with his parents. This is very important. Previously it was forbidden, but now the child can be with his mother and father and grandparents.

Sri Chinmoy: Affection is as important as medicine. Inside medicine there may not be affection, but inside affection there is always medicine. The affection that the mother, father, sister and brother give is a great help; it helps the sick child considerably.

Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 11

When You Pass By Me

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York

The first time when you pass by me during our walking meditation, I greet the human in you with all my heart’s love and sweetness.

The second time when you pass by me, I greet the divine in you and I try to lift you with my soul’s blessings. According to your receptivity, I lift you. At that time I keep my third eye open. I can see each and every one passing by me. You may think that I am not looking at you with my human eyes, so I do not know who is passing by. But please have faith in me. At that time I keep my third eye open and I do the divine work in and through you. On your part, receptivity is needed.

The second time you pass by me, physically I may not be looking at you, but spiritually I am looking, looking, looking at you and doing my inner work. The first time I am offering my love and sweetness to the human in you. The second time I am approaching the divine in you, so you have to be much more spiritual the second time. Both times, please look at me. If you look at me, then I can enter into your heart-garden. Kindly keep your heart-garden ready for me.

The first time when you pass by me, please make it a point to smile at me, while I am smiling and offering you love and sweetness. The second time if you do not smile, no harm; kindly be in your own highest consciousness, your absolute highest. The higher you are, the more divine blessings, divine love and divine concern you will get from me. At that time I am not in the physical; I am in another world.

Published in My Golden Children