Part IX — Questions and answers: Georgia Institute Of Technology

Question: What is the difference between the transcendental Self and the ordinary self?

Sri Chinmoy: Considerable. There is a Self that is the transcendental Self — the silent Self. When we go deep within, in our highest, most sublime meditation, we discover this Self. This is the transcendental Self. The self that we use in our day-to-day life, in our earthly reality, is the self of the physical world, of the mental and of the vital world. Each world has a kind of self.

When we speak of the higher Self, the transcendental Self, we are referring to something that deals with Silence — eternal Silence, infinite Silence, immortal Silence. When we live in the world of Silence, we come to know what the transcendental Self is. We come to know that the entire creation came into existence from it. Now we are living in the world of sound. Here we do not see or feel the transcendental Self. It is a stranger to us. But when we realise our highest divinity, the transcendental Self becomes our real friend here on earth in all our multifarious activities. In the life of sound, in the hustle and bustle of our daily activities, that Self will keep Peace for us and offer it to us. We are in motion, in constant movement, but there is Peace inside us, like the peace and tranquillity at the bottom of a rough sea. This Self we gain when we attain constant oneness with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.