Question: In the message for the New Year for 1974 you mention diving deep within. Could you please speak about that?
Sri Chinmoy: When we dive deep within two things usually happen: we see all our good qualities and we see all our bad qualities. Normally when we see our bad qualities, we become frustrated. We feel that we are full of imperfection, and that in every field we are weak, insecure and useless. But when we go deep within and see these imperfections looming large, we are not disappointed or disheartened. Why? Because we see our perfections as well at the same time. We see our love for God, our love for mankind, our cry for Beauty, Peace, Light, Harmony, Bliss. Then it is up to us to choose either imperfection or perfection. When we choose perfection, we feel tremendous strength in ourselves. We feel that we can easily overcome the imperfections that we see within and around us.But there is no end to our inner journey, and we can go still deeper within. When we go deep — very, very deep — at that time we do not see any imperfection either in ourselves or in anybody else. What we actually see is that we are having an experience and that they are having an experience. This experience is neither good nor bad. What you call bad I may call good, and somebody else may say it is neither bad nor good. These distinctions of good and bad are all in the mind, which is very limited. If we go a little within, we see good and bad as two different things. But if we go to the deepest, there is nothing bad. All creation and all experience is good.
If you accept a path, when you go deep within you feel that that path is everything. If you have a Master, when you remain deep within, you feel that that Master is everything. Otherwise, you will feel that that path is very bad, the Master is very bad, your friends are very bad, everybody is very bad, even God. And you will feel also that you yourself are very bad. But when you go deep within, even your so-called enemies will seem good because you will feel at that time that God is having an experience in and through them in a different way. You will say: “What right have I to criticise my enemies? After all, they are also God’s children.” Because you are spiritual, you will try to feel your oneness with the whole world. As an ordinary human being you may find it difficult to accept your enemy as your own. But the moment you accept the spiritual life, the life of God, how can you have an enemy? You will only have friends whose views are different from yours.
If I want to play an instrument and my right hand plays well, then my right hand becomes my friend. But if my left hand cannot play at all well, shall I call my left hand my enemy? No! The right hand has the capacity, so it plays. That is why I am very happy with my right hand. My left hand does not give me the same result as my right hand. It is not in a position to do the same thing for me that I expect from my loving and devoted friends.
In the inner life, if I see that somebody cannot do something, I immediately become one with that person’s incapacity. If somebody is helpless, hopeless and useless in the outer life, I become one with that person in his incapacity, weakness and imperfection. I know I am quite safe in the inner world. There I have capacity, there I have perfection, there I have everything. The other person does not have it, but just because I have established my oneness with that person, I can go deep within and bring from there Peace, Light, Bliss in abundant measure to pour into him. And when I pour these into him, I see and feel that the person receiving my inner wealth is none other than myself.
Right now we feel that the outer world is one thing and the inner world is something else. In the inner world we feel safety, purpose and a sense of perfection. In the outer world we feel that everything is chaotic, everything is meaningless, everything is useless, everything is hopeless. The more we can stay in the inner world, which is the deeper world, the easier it becomes for us to control our outer life. We see the outer world as an extension of our inner life. Once we accept Peace or Light as our very own, we feel that Peace is enough, Light is enough to carry us to our destined Goal.
To dive deep within means to cry for the perfection without. I go deep within for the perfection, harmony, peace and bliss of my outer life. The outer life is mine and the inner life is also mine. But if I do not have the seed, how am I going to get the plant and the tree? The seed and the tree must go together. The seed is the inner life and the tree is the outer life. If I sow the seed today, in a few months I will get the plant, which will gradually grow into a giant banyan tree. Without the seed, the tree cannot come into existence. And again, when there is only the seed and no tree, how will the world appreciate the capacity of the seed or get any benefit in the form of fruit? The ultimate capacity of the seed is the fruit, and it is with the fruit that we fulfil our daily need and hunger. But the first thing is the seed. So let us go deep within, to the life of the seed, and let us then grow into the life of the tree and the fruit. When the seed of the inner life has grown into the strong and sturdy tree of the outer life, the outer world and the inner world will perfectly harmonise.
