Question: In the same vein, all the esoteric traditions have always maintained that true knowledge is seeking within. Now may I know this. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." The modern conception of Heaven, in the west at any rate, is some far-off place in the beyond where there is perpetual milk and honey. The modern 20th century achievement is pressing them backward even more in their conception of Heaven.
Would you care to elaborate on the statement, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you"?Sri Chinmoy: First let me say that it is science that has contributed much to the feeling that Heaven is a place outside of oneself. Science has exercised its power on the conscious and sub-conscious planes of human thinking.
The Kingdom of Heaven is something that we can feel and not something that we can demonstrate. Science can demonstrate many things. But the Kingdom of Heaven is a matter of one's own inner achievement. If you have realised the Kingdom of Heaven within you, others will look at you and feel that you have something quite unusual, unearthly and supernal. And simply because you have seen and you have felt and you have possessed the Kingdom of Heaven within you, they will see and feel you as a totally transformed divine being.
Needless to say, it is your aspiration, your mounting inner cry that leads you to this Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is a plane full of Peace and Delight. We feel it when we reside deep within ourselves and when we transcend our ego-centric individual consciousness. The higher we go beyond our limited consciousness, the quicker we enter into our deepest, infinite consciousness, the more intimately we see, feel and possess the Kingdom of Heaven within us.
To be sure, the Kingdom of Heaven is more than a mere plane… it is a plane of divine consciousness. It is a state of Realisation. It embodies Sat-Chit-Ananda. Sat is Divine Existence, Chit is Divine Consciousness, Ananda is Divine Bliss. When we go deep within, we feel these three together, and when we acquire the inner vision to perceive them all at once, we live verily in the Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise Existence is at one place, Consciousness is somewhere else and Bliss is nowhere near the other two. When we see and feel Existence-Consciousness-Bliss on the self-same plane, each complementing and fulfilling the others, we can say that we live in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Not only can we feel It, but without the least possible doubt, we can become It.
