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Western Dynamism and Eastern Spirituality

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium
United Nations, NewYork

Western dynamism lives in its searching mind and manifesting vital. Eastern spirituality lives in its crying heart and illumining soul.

Spirituality is the inner urge of an Eastern seeker to see God face to face and realise God in His totality. Dynamism is the vital urge of a hero Westerner to reveal God and manifest God here on earth. Dynamism serves God. Spirituality loves God.

The body's dynamism is regularity. The vital's dynamism is punctuality. The mind's dynamism is clarity. The heart's dynamism is purity. The soul's dynamism is certainty.

The body's spirituality is simplicity. The vital's spirituality is sincerity. The mind's spirituality is humility. The heart's spirituality is spontaneity. The soul's spirituality is Reality.

A dynamic man is quick on his feet to reach his destined Goal, the Goal of the Beyond. A spiritual man is quick with his answers and pleases God, the Inner Pilot, in His own Way.

Dynamism is the life's capacity. Spirituality is the soul's necessity. The aura of outer success surrounds a dynamic man. The aura of inner progress surrounds a spiritual man.

A dynamic man is a Karma Yogi. He devotes himself to the path of action, disinterested action, with implicit devotion and surrendered service to God. A spiritual man is a Jnana Yogi. He tries to live in the knowledge of God with his awakened and illumined mind and heart. Dynamism invites God. Spirituality receives God. Yoga achieves God.

Western dynamism wants to shoulder the responsibility of the entire world. Eastern spirituality tries and cries to know what God's Will is and what God wants.

Western dynamism needs the aspiration of Eastern spirituality in order to please God in the inner world. Eastern spirituality needs the inspiration of Western dynamism in order to please God in the outer world.

Western dynamism has to learn the secret of Eastern spirituality: Love is God, God the Supreme Lover. Eastern spirituality has to learn the secret of Western dynamism: God is the Supreme Warrior, the Supreme Victor over teeming ignorance and darkening death.

God needs Western dynamism to offer His Omnipotence-Light to the world at large. God needs Eastern spirituality to offer His Ocean of Love and Peace to the world at large.

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality are the two wings of God the Eternal Bird, who will carry the message of earth's aspiration to the highest Abode of the Supreme, and who will bring down the message of infinite Compassion from the highest Abode of the Supreme to the aching, crying consciousness of Mother Earth. When Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality become inseparably one, God will be known as a fulfilled Man, and man will be known as a perfect God.

Published in The Garland of Nation-Souls

Christmas Trip Talks

by Sri Chinmoy
at Pangkor Island Beach Resort in Malaysia

The Sweet, Emotional Bengali Feeling

The national anthem of Bangladesh is sweeter than the sweetest, and most difficult! Please come and sing it. It is such a sweet song, and it was written by a Bengali, Tagore. He is the only one who can claim two national songs to his credit. No other poet can make that claim. Tagore is the only one who has two national songs to his credit — for India and for Bangladesh.

Such a sweet song, such a sweet song! It is a sweet and melodious description of Mother Bengal.

When you sing my song Amar Sonar Bangla, you have to get the sweet, emotional Bengali feeling. Please read the translation and get the feeling, so that it will appeal to the Indian and Bangladeshi ears. Sweetness has to be flowing; tender feeling has to be flowing. It has to be very tender. It does not need at all the power-aspect. There is no power involved — not even one line is powerful. It is all a description of Mother Bengal. It is all sweetness, softness and mellowness. It does not need power at all.

The boys should use their natural voice, and the girls should show their sweet aspect. The real feminine voice is sweeter than the sweetest. Boys should not adopt a feminine way of singing. That becomes unnatural. You are all excellent singers. Boys should sing in their normal voice and girls should use their normal voice. Do not interchange your voices.

If You Feel Your Heart-Breath

If you fold your hands and touch your heart, if you feel your heart-breath, you will do infinitely better meditation. Sometimes you will be able to hear your heartbeat. Then you will do the best meditation. If your folded hands touch your chest, you will do far better meditation. Inside the chest is the heart, and inside the heart is the heartbeat.

Please make it a point to touch your chest. Some people are holding their hands away from their chest. If you want to have the best result, please put your hands right up to your heart.

In my Ashram days I always, always held my hands like that. Now I do not; perhaps I have achieved something. When we were meditating inside the meditation hall at the Ashram, we did it. When we were in a long queue, with two hundred people in front of us, we also held our hands like that. When people came to the meditation hall, all their aspiration they brought forward in this way. I was one of those, and like me, many, many used to do the same. Most of the disciples came with folded hands, folded hands.

Spirituality is heart, not head. I am not telling you to put your hands on your head! Put them right here, on your heart. Heart and spirituality cannot be separated. They are inseparable. Inside the heart is the living Presence of God.

Sincere Appreciation for Genuine Spiritual Masters

The disciples of one Master may not appreciate another Master, but I do not want my disciples to be like that. You should have the deepest appreciation and admiration for other spiritual Masters if they are of the highest rank, like Sri Krishna, the Lord Buddha, the Saviour Christ, Sri Chaitanya, Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi. Of course, when I say Sri Aurobindo, the Mother is included; and when I say Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi is included. These are real, real Masters. Swami Vivekananda is also included. Although he is not of their calibre, he is a real spiritual giant.

If you have most sincere appreciation, admiration and even adoration for these genuine spiritual Masters, I will not mind — on the contrary!

As Soon as You See Devotion

We read books about spiritual Masters, and so many stories are true, absolutely true. If you read them, you have to believe them. You may not be able to go up to reach their spiritual height, but what they say outwardly, you have to take seriously. When God chose them at a particular time to be His representatives, His direct representatives, God definitely said many, many, many things that were absolutely divine and supreme.

Some seekers are disciples of one Master, let us say, and that Master has written many books. It may happen that somehow those particular seekers are sulking, they are depressed. At that time, alas, they may not read their own Master’s books, but they may read books written by other Masters, or books containing the utterances of other spiritual Masters of lofty heights. When they read those books, what happens? The disciples of the first Master start shedding tears. All their love and devotion for their own Master comes back. Then their aspiration is renewed, their dedication is renewed — as a matter of fact, it goes even higher. One can get that kind of help by reading the books of other genuine Masters.

Let us say that your path is not fulfilling your desires, so you become very sad and depressed. All of a sudden you snatch up a book written by another spiritual Master. As soon as you see the devotion of the disciples of that Master, all your own devotion and everything else that is good and divine in you comes to the fore. Then you no longer think of that book, you no longer think of that Master; you come back to your own Master with renewed aspiration, dedication and love. Everything divine in you is not only renewed — it increases.

Some may find it difficult to believe; but I am sure there will be people who have had this experience.

Published in My Golden Children

Christmas Trip Stories

by Sri Chinmoy
at Pangkor Island Beach Resort in Malaysia

Lord Vishnu’s Great Devotee

There was a very, very famous king who was kindness incarnate, compassion incarnate and self-giving incarnate.

Usually it is impossible for any one person to please everyone but, in his case, all his subjects were extremely pleased with him, extremely grateful to him and extremely proud of him. The king’s name was Ambarish.

The king was a very great and very sincere devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once he decided to fast and pray and meditate for three days without rest in order to receive blessings from Lord Vishnu. It was a special religious rite that he wanted to perform.

For three days Ambarish fasted and prayed and meditated. Then he was so elated and so grateful that he had been able to fulfil his desire that he decided to fulfil the desires of all his subjects.

“Since it will be difficult for me to bring all my subjects to my palace, let me start with the priests,” said Ambarish. “We have so many priests. Since they are spiritual people, I want to please them first.”

The king invited all the priests to an elaborate banquet. After the banquet, he was planning to give boons to each guest. Ambarish himself did not want to take even a morsel of food or a single drop of water. Nothing at all! He was not fasting unto death; there was no threat involved. Ambarish was trying to win Lord Vishnu’s special blessings by performing this penance.

The priests were all ready to begin eating. All of a sudden the great sage Durvasha appeared. Durvasha was known for his very quick temper. In a second, he could destroy anyone. This kind of occult power he had, and he misused it millions of times.

Everyone was shocked to see Durvasha. King Ambarish greeted him very respectfully. “O great sage,” he said, “we are honoured by your presence. You are our guest of honour. Please allow me to serve you first.”

“No, Ambarish,” replied Durvasha, “I am going to bathe in a nearby river. After I have washed myself completely, I shall come to eat.”

Durvasha went to the river. Half an hour passed, then an hour, two hours, three hours. He was enjoying himself. Even after four hours, there was no sign of his return. For the special kind of worship that King Ambarish was performing, one has to resume eating at a certain hour, after having completed the fast. One of the priests said to Ambarish, “O King, if you do not eat during this special hour, you will commit a sin, according to our Shastras.”

“What am I going to do?” asked the king. “If I do not wait for Durvasha and offer him food first, he will curse me. And if I do not eat during this most auspicious hour, I shall be committing a sin.”

The priests held a consultation, and then they advised the king, “You are such a good, kind-hearted king. We do not want you to suffer. This anger-flooded sage should suffer! Drink just a drop of water. Then you will be able to say to Durvasha that you have not eaten, but at the same time you will be able to please God because you have taken something.”

Ambarish put a little drop of water in the palm of his hand and was about to drink it when, lo and behold, Durvasha appeared. He was furious. “What kind of audacity is this?” he shouted. “I am such a great sage. How dare you drink without giving me food first? I curse you!”

From his matted hair, Durvasha removed a few strands and turned them into a chakra, a disc. He released the disc, and it flew very fast towards Ambarish to kill him. Ambarish prayed to Lord Vishnu, “O Lord Vishnu, what have I done? I did not want to drink, but my priests said I should. They said that otherwise I would be committing a sin because I would not fulfil my vow. Now I have to face Durvasha’s wrath.”

Lord Vishnu immediately sent his Sudarshan chakra to intervene. This chakra came down from Above and broke Durvasha’s chakra into pieces. But that was not enough. Vishnu’s all-conquering Sudarshan chakra started chasing Durvasha here, there and everywhere. Durvasha ran for his life. He even ran into the river, thinking that the disc would not follow him there, but no matter where he went, Vishnu’s Sudarshan chased him. At any moment, he was about to lose his life.

Finally, the sage went to Brahma, the Creator, and pleaded, “O Brahma, please, please, save me, save me! Vishnu’s chakra is about to kill me.”

“You fool!” Brahma replied. “How will I dare to challenge Vishnu’s chakra? I am not going to do anything.”

Then Durvasha went to Lord Shiva. Shiva is so fond of Vishnu. Shiva became furious with Durvasha. “Just run away from here!” he said. “Otherwise, I will destroy you! You will not have to wait for Vishnu’s chakra. I am going to destroy you here and now! What an unthinkable thing you have done to Vishnu’s devotee! Our devotees are dearer than our lives themselves.” Shiva scolded and insulted Durvasha mercilessly.

In our Indian philosophy, if a Master has a very sincere and excellent devotee, he is ready to sacrifice his own life for the devotee.

Then the helpless, hopeless and useless Durvasha went to Lord Vishnu for forgiveness. “Am I going to forgive you?” said Vishnu. “Ambarish is dearer than the dearest to me. He is dearer than my life itself. I am not going to help you. How could you do such an unthinkable thing to such a good king? Go and beg Ambarish for forgiveness!”

Poor Durvasha had to go to Ambarish and beg for forgiveness. “Please, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me! Save me!” he wept.

Ambarish said to Durvasha, “I have no power. I can only pray to my Lord Vishnu. He is the one who is about to kill you.” Ambarish prayed to Vishnu, “My Lord, please, please, forgive him.”

Vishnu said, “Only because of you, I am forgiving him. Because you are so dear to me, I will always listen to your request, but not to his request.”

Then Vishnu forgave Durvasha and Vishnu’s chakra stopped chasing him. Durvasha asked Ambarish, “How is it possible? Brahma did not dare to challenge Vishnu’s chakra. Shiva did not dare. On the contrary, they both insulted me and scolded me brutally. And Vishnu himself did not forgive me. But your forgiveness immediately produced results.”

“O Durvasha, you know that it is not my power,” replied Ambarish. “It is my Lord Vishnu’s Compassion-Power. I prayed to him only to become a better king. That is why I observed that particular religious rite of fasting for three days. It was nothing. Anybody could do it — just three days of fasting. I did not drink, I did not eat anything. But my Lord Vishnu’s Compassion is infinite. His Love for me is infinite. It is his Love for me that wanted to punish you. It is his Compassion for me.”

In India, there are millions of mythological stories about this kind of injustice and retribution. If someone does something wrong to a sincere devotee, then from Above not only these three main Cosmic Gods — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva — but others also punish the culprit. Whenever their super-excellent devotees are in trouble, the Cosmic Gods immediately take their side.

This is an authentic story of how Lord Vishnu wanted to glorify Ambarish because, as a king, Ambarish was kindness incarnate, compassion incarnate and self-giving incarnate.

The Obedient Student

Teacher, or Guru, was teaching religious as well as regular studies in ancient India. In India, even a school teacher is called a Guru. In the morning, about fifteen or twenty young boys used to go to their Teacher’s school to study and play, and in the late afternoon they used to come back home.

One day the Teacher asked a particular boy to do something. What was it? While the students were playing, the Teacher summoned the young boy and said to him, “Throw my child into the well.” The Teacher’s child was only five or six years old, but the student did not hesitate, even for a fleeting moment. He grabbed the child and threw him into the nearby well. The other students noticed it and came running. Two or three entered into the well and brought the child back out, and other students thrashed the particular student who had thrown the child into the well. The student did not say a word. Meanwhile, the Teacher was watching the whole situation. He also did not say anything.

A few months later, while the students were playing, the Teacher summoned the same boy and said to him, “Set fire to my house.” Again, the boy did not hesitate for a second. He immediately set fire to his Guru’s own house. The Guru’s wife was inside, and she was shouting and screaming. Then, as before, the rest of the students struck him mercilessly, saying, “How did you dare to set fire to our Guru’s house?” Again, the boy did not say a word. He did not say that his Guru had asked him to do this, and the Teacher also was silent, not saying anything. The other students could not fathom it: how could the Teacher be so indifferent?

As the days ran into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years, there came a time when the students grew up and entered into their own way of life. By this time, the Teacher had become very, very old, so he invited all his various students, past and present, to come and see him. They all came, and the Teacher started blessingfully giving them some material objects, such as plots of land and other things. Whatever he had, he wanted to give away to his students. They were all very happy. Then they noticed that for some reason, that particular student did not receive anything, perhaps because the Guru felt that he had not been a good student. The others were wondering why the Guru had not given him anything.

At long last, the Teacher said to the boy, “I have nothing to give you on the material plane that will equal your obedience. I have never seen, and I will never see, anybody who is so devoted to his Teacher. I have never seen anybody as obedient as you are, and whatever I give on the material plane will not be equal to your obedience.”

Then the Teacher said, “I am giving you a boon. The boon is this: in a few years, the Lord Himself will come to you as your student. Lord Krishna will come and be your student. This is the greatest gift that I can give you. I am the happiest person to tell you that the Lord Himself will come and study with you.” The name of this particular student was Sandip Muni. He became the Guru of Sri Krishna. He had this kind of obedience to fulfil his Teachers requests.

Later Sri Chinmoy tells his students, “This is a most significant story. I shall be grateful if you occasionally read this particular story. Then you will know the real meaning of obedience.”

Published in My Golden Children

Attachment and Detachment

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Trinity College, Dublin

Attachment and detachment. Detachment and attachment.

From the body we get the message of attachment.

From the soul we get the message of detachment.

The body is limited, hence the body wants to bind us and limit us. It wants to bind and limit our outer capacity and our inner potentiality.

The soul in its potentiality and capacity, is limitless and endless. Therefore the soul wants to free us from the meshes of ignorance and liberate us from the bondage-night.

What is attachment? Attachment is the dance of our outer pleasure.

What is detachment? Detachment is the song of our inner joy.

Attachment ends in the prison-cell of frustration and destruction.

Detachment fulfils itself in the palace of Divinity and Immortality.

I am a fool if I consciously live in the physical. I am a greater fool if I constantly admire and adore my physical body. I am the greatest fool if I live only to satisfy the needs of my physical existence.

I am a wise person if I know that there is something called the soul. I am a wiser person if I care to see and feel my soul. I will be the wisest person if I live in my soul and for my soul constantly and soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally.

When we are attached to the body, we become in no time, impulsive. When we are attached to the vital, we become, very soon, explosive. When we are attached to the physical mind, we ultimately become destructive.

But when we are in the body, detached, we consciously feel our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the vital, detached, we expand and widen our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the mind, detached, we fulfil supremely our unlimited consciousness here on earth.

Many people are unfortunately under the wrong impression that attachment and devotedness are one and the same thing. Attachment is when we are in the finite, when we are attached to the finite. Devotedness is when we devote ourselves to the Infinite and are liberated by the Infinite.

Here in Ireland, nearly a hundred years ago, a young aspirant named Margaret Noble went to India to become the famous disciple of Swami Vivekenanda. This great Yogi had come to the West in 1889 to participate in the ‘Parliament of Religions’ at the great World's Fair in Chicago. His spiritual stature was immediately recognised, and he became famous overnight.

When he went to England from the United States, Margaret Noble attended his talks and became his dearest disciple. He called her “Nivedita, one who is totally dedicated to the Supreme Cause.”

Indian people are all admiration for what Nivedita did for India. She helped Indian women in infinite measure. She helped to awaken their slumbering consciousness so that they could envision themselves as divine instruments and grow into the perfect embodiments of aspiration, dedication and illumination for their Mother India. We Indians are bloated with divine pride when we utter the name of Nivedita.

Her father was a clergyman, a lover of God, a great seeker. Before he breathed his last, on his deathbed, he said to his wife, “Don't stand in Margaret’s way. If she wants to go to India, let her go.” Margaret’s mother had been very upset by her daughter’s desire to leave Ireland for distant India, but at her husband's last wish, she did help Margaret and inspired her. Nivedita went to India and became India’s veritable pride. Hers was the heart that knew no despair. Just before she passed behind the curtain of eternity, she uttered under her breath, “The boat is sinking, but I shall see the sunrise.”

I wish to offer my humble talk to the hallowed memory of Sister Nivedita, Margaret Noble of Ireland.

Detachment is misunderstood. We feel that if someone is detached, he is indifferent. Spiritual seekers also make the same mistake in thinking that when we want to show detachment to someone, we must show him utter indifference, to the point of total neglect. This is not true. When we are indifferent to someone, we do nothing for him. We have nothing to do with his joy or sorrow, his achievement or failure. But when we are truly detached, we work for him devotedly and selflessly. The results of our actions we offer at the Feet of the Lord Supreme, our Inner Pilot.

It does not matter if the result is success or failure. If we are not at all attached to the results, we get an immediate expansion of consciousness. If we do not care for the fruit of our action, the Supreme rewards us in the Supreme's own Way.

Lord Krishna said, "Thou has the right to act, but not to the fruits of action." The Upanishads declare, “Action cleaves not to a man.”

If we work devotedly and selflessly, action does not bind us. There will be no difficulty in working for God's sake if we work without caring about the result. This is true detachment, this is spiritual detachment. When we can renounce the unlit, unaspiring action, we can enter into the divine action which is our real life; and in this real life, there is always perfection and fulfilment.

When we pay all attention to the material world and neglect the inner world, we starve the soul in us. The soul has to be brought to the fore. If we think we can get infinite wealth from the material world, then we are totally mistaken.

Yagnavalka, the great Indian sage, had a wife whose name was Maitreyi. Yagnavalka wanted to spend the evening of his life in meditation and contemplation, so he wanted to give away his earthly possessions. He asked Maitreyi if she wanted his riches. She asked, “Will your riches give me immortal life? Of what use to me are the things that cannot make me immortal?”

We need the material world, undoubtedly, but we cannot give all our energy to it. We feed our body three times a day. Unfortunately we do not have time to feed our soul even once a day. We, the seekers of the infinite Truth, feed the body so that we can become the perfect instrument of the soul.

The soul has divinity, eternity, immortality. The soul wants to offer its world to the body. If the body becomes receptive, it will receive all that the soul wants to offer. The body itself will echo and re-echo in the life of aspiration and dedication. It will march along as the most humble servitor of the soul. Its existence will be the existence of glory and divinity, divine service and supreme fulfilment.

We fulfil the Supreme on earth. He treasures us in His Heart’s Heaven.

Published in My Rose Petals, part 1

Happiness in Every Sphere

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
on Pangkor Island, Malaysia

I wish to give a one-minute speech on happiness.

Happiness, happiness, happiness, happiness, happiness I expect from each and every disciple. Happiness, happiness, happiness! If you are unhappy, if you are miserable, if you are depressed, you must feel that you are hurling arrows.

I am fortunate, sincerely fortunate, to have you as my disciples, and I wish to say that you can also feel the same, since you have an Avatar as your spiritual Master. I make bold to say that I am an Avatar. An Avatar is the direct descent of the Absolute Supreme. Believe it or not; believe that I am an Avatar or not; but believe in your own happiness.

If you are happy, then you are giving me a world of bliss. If you are unhappy, I feel miserable. Unhappiness does not have any solid foundation. Even if you are sick, very sick, your sadness will not cure your disease — never! Your happiness is the cure, the only cure — a happy, cheerful mind and heart. In every sphere of your earthly activities, keep happiness, happiness.

There are some disciples who were attacked by the most serious diseases. Their faith in me, and their happiness, was most praiseworthy. Even here there are some disciples in this category. A disciple’s faith in me enters into the Heart of the Absolute Supreme. If one has implicit faith in our Lord Supreme, He is bound to help the suffering patient. Faith is needed — absolute faith.

Not only one, but hundreds of disciples of mine have been cured of serious ailments because of their faith in the spiritual life, and that means their faith in our Lord Supreme. Again and again I say, He is my Guru, He is your Guru, He is everybody’s Guru. He chose me to be His representative to be of service to Him and to be of service to you as well.

Published in God-Made, God-Moulded, God-Shaped