Question: When this world is all perfect perfection and we are in the Beyond, will we all be there together?

Sri Chinmoy: The earth will become perfect when God's Tomorrow dawns. But God's Tomorrow is not our tomorrow. Our tomorrow will come after twenty-four hours. God's Tomorrow is something different. At that time, we may be in another world. There is not one world; there are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. Naturally we shall go to the higher worlds because we have prayed and we have meditated. God is not deaf; He has ears, He hears our prayers. Sometimes he hears too much. We have said many nasty things, but these God wants to hide. At that time, if God becomes deaf, it is for our own good. So we shall go to the higher worlds according to our aspiration. If your aspiration is high, naturally you will go to a higher world than others. From your world you will be able to look at the earth and see that it is perfect. There are many who have prayed for the perfection of Mother Earth. Their perfection means the perfection of the earth, and the perfection of earth means their own perfection. This is the seekers' identification. But if we ask whether all those who cried for the transformation of earth or of the human nature will come back when the earth is totally transformed, then the answer is no, they will not. There are many spiritual giants and many seekers who have cried for the transformation of the earth consciousness, but they will be happy to only look on from their higher worlds when perfection is achieved.

It is like this. Let us say a father wanted to become a multi-millionaire, but he could not. But if after he leaves the body he sees that many years later his own son has become a multi-millionaire, he does not immediately return into the world to share the wealth of his son. No, from there he is happy that his son has fulfilled his desire on earth. Similarly, all those who cried for perfection on earth will be extremely delighted and proud that, although they did not see the success, the success has been achieved.

To see the success and then to come and say, "I also did something," would be to act in our human way. Here on earth when we do something for someone we say, "I have done that for him." Then immediately others come to us for help. But spiritual giants, even when they are on earth, do millions of things for their disciples and for Mother Earth. If a spiritual person does ten good things on earth in the outer life, then people will say, "Oh, he is very kind, very generous, very self-giving." But if he does ten things outwardly, then we have to know that he has done ninety things inwardly. When God-realisation takes place, spiritual seekers make the promise to God that they will do millions and billions of things for earth. If the Supreme does not want them to disclose what they do, then they will just keep it secret. But here on earth when we do something before we are realised, immediately we either tell everyone or others come to know of it because it is done on the physical plane. If someone does something on the physical plane, then either today or tomorrow others will come to know of it. But if it is done in the inner world, then only the spiritual Masters and really sincere seekers will know of it because they are constantly trying to identify themselves with the consciousness of the Inner Pilot, the Supreme. Again, very often it happens that the highest Supreme does not want even the seekers to know what is being done for them by their spiritual Master. It is only between God and His instrument through whom He is operating. So when perfection is achieved, many people will be on earth to see it. There will also be many who cried for perfection who will see it from a distance, but they will not come down to earth to see it. Perhaps there will be some who will be eager to see their achievements and to see that their aspiration has taken material form. But according to my own feeling, the really sincere spiritual seekers and Masters who cried for the perfection of the earth consciousness will not go because the thing has been done not by them, but by the infinite Grace of the Supreme. The others, who will have really only given the finishing touch, will be on earth at that time. They will pray and meditate and receive the glory. The others in the higher worlds will take the glory inwardly because they started the journey. The Supreme, who was right there from the beginning and who deserves all the glory, will give all the credit to the spiritual Masters, to the seekers and to the aspirants. He will do everything, but He will take no glory. Only we seekers will take the glory.

Now to come back to your question. When earth is perfectly perfect, we will see it from different planes of consciousness, and not all together. Some of you perhaps will be here at that time, and others will be on another plane of consciousness. Everybody will stay, according to the Will of the Supreme, on a different plane of consciousness. When it is done, everybody will be able to see, everybody will come to know that earth has attained perfection. When something takes place in a distant part of the world, we come to know of it, and it is up to us to either go and visit it or to believe it. Right now, if anything happens in Moscow, we come to know of it through newspaper and television. We may not get a firsthand look, but we know that the thing has taken place. When the astronauts go up to the moon, we believe it. They bring down the result. So also, when earth is transformed, when perfection takes place here on earth, we will be able to see it, we will be able to hear it, we will be able to feel it.