Questions and answers

These are further questions asked on 20 August 1966 at a class of the Summer series on Yoga, held at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Virgil Gant, 467 Central Park West, New York City.

Question: I understood you to say that God is not a mental being. I am not sure what you meant by that.

Sri Chinmoy: We have a physical body and a mind. Similarly, we can think of God as a physical being, having a mind like ours. People often imagine God as composed of a gigantic mind, or else functioning like them with the mind. Up until now, the mind has been humanity’s greatest achievement. With the help of the mind, science and our physical world have progressed to an enormous extent. As the mind has been our highest attainment, we tend to think of God as a being with a most highly developed mind. But God is not a mental being. God does not act from the mind. He does not need the mental formulation which we utilise in order to act. God does not need to formulate ideas with a mind.

The human being usually thinks before he acts. But in God’s case, it is not like that. He uses His Will-Power which, while seeing, also acts and becomes. God’s seeing, acting and becoming are instantaneous and simultaneous.