Question: Guru, are there any qualities that human beings consider to be virtues or good qualities which God does not consider to be good qualities?1

Sri Chinmoy: Human beings think they are good, but God does not think they are good?

Question: Or God does not think they are significant or important.

Sri Chinmoy: If human beings think something is good, God will definitely take it as something valuable. Only you have to know what kind of consciousness the individual has at that time, and how much value he gives to that virtue or good quality. Value God will also give, but perhaps God may not give the same value to that quality at that particular moment. At a particular time, at a particular level of consciousness, we may value something more than God values it. Again, God may value some quality of ours which we do not value to the same extent. But if it is a good quality, definitely God will value it. The only question is at what point and in what consciousness we see the quality. But there is no particular quality that man values and God does not value.

God will definitely value a quality if man values it. I say and everybody says that truth is a supremely good quality. Truth is always good. But if some truth is divulged that really hurts someone, it can create serious problems. If at the wrong moment some truth is divulged, that also can create such serious problems. Truth itself will not do any harm. The truth has been told many times with no bad consequences. Nothing can be greater than the truth. But if the truth is spoken at the wrong moment by the wrong person, then it can create a serious disaster.

Again, God will say that wisdom is needed. With everything in our life, with any good quality or virtue in our life, we have to use the wisdom-virtue first. There can be serious problems if wisdom-virtue does not regulate other virtues. The others are also virtues, true; but we may run into very, very serious problems if we do not use wisdom to regulate them.

From our childhood, from the very start of our life-existence on earth, we say truth is good. But there are so many truths. Spiritual Masters know millions of truths. Sri Aurobindo said that there are some truths, some realities, that it will be a serious mistake to utter untimely, or even to tell at any time.

How many secrets a spiritual Master knows, not only on the outer plane but also on the inner plane! I tell many secrets. The disciples say, "O my God, Guru tells us so many secrets!" But how many millions of secrets I hold, that God alone knows. I tell some secrets, but if I tell you ten, you will not be able to hold more than ten. Those are outer secrets. But in the inner world, if I tell the secrets that I know about the past, hundreds of years ago, or even what is going to happen tomorrow, then you may say, "Why, why, why did I have to know?"

Let us say some accident has taken place, or someone is suffering from an illness. In India, someone may have cancer, or some other ailment. Four, five or six months ago I knew about it. When the time comes, the person will go to the doctor and the doctor will tell him. But if I tell the individual about it untimely, it will only create serious, serious problems. To know the truth is one thing; but to tell the truth at the wrong moment is a totally different thing. Knowing is all right. But some people, when they know something, cannot keep it a secret. People tell secrets much faster than non-secrets.

As I said before, wisdom is by far the best virtue. Otherwise, your human eyes will convince you that what you see is true. How can it be something other than that? This balloon is blue: you see it. Everybody is seeing that this balloon is blue. That is the truth. You are speaking the gospel truth: it is blue, blue, blue. Ten persons will say it is blue. Then, if a spiritual Master says, "No, it is not blue, it is green," an ordinary person will say, "Oh no, it is blue, blue." If one individual says, "Yes, it is green," then everybody else will say, "He is just stupid! He is a fanatic. How can it be? Everybody sees it is blue. Only the Master says it is green."

That is how Sri Krishna examined Arjuna and the Pandava and Kaurava brothers. Whatever Yudhishthira and the others saw as the colour of the fruit, everybody was of the same opinion. But Arjuna's wisdom was to wait for Sri Krishna to say what he wanted to say. People would criticise Sri Krishna if he said something other than what their eyes were seeing. It was blue. Why did he have to say it was some other colour? Those people, from the factual point of view, had told the truth. But beyond truth, beyond even morality, comes oneness with the Master's will. Arjuna had that wisdom. He said, "Why shall I say if the fruit is blue or green? If Sri Krishna says it is blue, I will say the same. If Sri Krishna wants to say it is green, then it is green." Oneness with the Master's will, oneness with God's Will, has no parallel. Arjuna knew that Sri Krishna was God, and he had oneness with Sri Krishna's will.

From the ordinary human point of view, people would think that Sri Krishna was saying something absurd. Everybody knew what colour the fruit was. Why did Sri Krishna have to say a totally different colour? But Sri Krishna wanted to see how much human beings could identify themselves with his will. By saying the fruit was a different colour from what others were seeing, Arjuna was not losing anything. He was only becoming one with Sri Krishna's will. The mind was telling others something, and it was the truth. But beyond the mind is the highest consciousness, the Transcendental Consciousness, which is the Consciousness of Sri Krishna. If you can please Sri Krishna on the mental level, which is called the morality level, then you can go higher. He wants to see how much you can become one with him on this level or that level or any other level.

For ordinary people, their reality is fixed. If something appears black, it is black. If it appears red, it is red. They will not change their opinion. But spirituality is totally different. In spirituality, at this moment Lord Krishna may tell the seeker to sit down, at the next moment to stand up, and at the next moment to run. The moment after that, he may say to lie down and sleep and snore. If he says something is good, it is good. At every moment, the seeker has to be at Sri Krishna's behest.

Who is responsible for what you say and do in this case? Sri Krishna himself is telling you what to do, so he will be responsible. If you think that you have told a lie and therefore you have to go to hell, you will see that Sri Krishna will be there to welcome you! He will be the first person to welcome you, because you told a so-called lie to become one with his will.

To please the Highest, to please one's Master, one has to go beyond everything, beyond likes and dislikes. As long as we are caught in the net of likes and dislikes, we cannot do anything. We will never be able to please God, the Supreme, as long as we care for our likes and dislikes. Every second, we like something or we do not like it; we will do something or we will not do it. If we remain with our likes and dislikes, then we can forget and forget about God-realisation, we can forget about inner peace.

Inner peace comes only when we go beyond likes and dislikes. The mind's so-called peace is silly. The peace that the mind has does not last more than five seconds. The peace that the heart has can last for days, weeks or months. But the peace that the soul has lasts forever.

The inner existence is the soul. If we become one with the soul's will, then we get the soul's peace, the soul's poise. Nothing is more illumining or more fulfilling than peace. That peace we have only in the soul's world. We have to go to the right tree to get the fruit. If we go to the mango tree, then only will we get mangoes. We do not get mangoes from any other tree. Similarly, we can go to the soul and bring down peace. Of course, the soul also gets peace from a Source, and that Source is the Supreme. Then we can bring peace to the heart, bring it to the mind, bring it to the vital and to the body. Nothing can be more fulfilling than an iota of peace.

Everything on earth that gives us ordinary happiness is a joke, everything! This happiness lasts for only five seconds. Afterwards, our ordinary happiness has no meaning. After two hours, happiness is gone. Is there any happiness that keeps its power for more than two hours? Again, suppose we say we want power or something else. Two or three hours after we get that power, who knows where the intensity of our happiness goes? Like a balloon, either it bursts or it flies away. The real happiness, which is peace, lasts, lasts, lasts and lasts, if we can get it from the soul or from the Supreme.

Your question is answered?

Question: Yes, it is answered. Thank you, Guru.

Sri Chinmoy: Do you want more clarification?

Question: Guru, if you feel like expanding on this answer, I will be very happy.

Sri Chinmoy: I do not know what else to say. You have to poke from another angle! How many angles can I capture? I am ready to speak. If you ask whether there is an open road in another direction, then I will say yes, there is another open road.


BLD 1-13. Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions at his home in September 1997.