Question: Guru, I have a question. I am from Milano.
Sri Chinmoy: Milano. Very good! I like Milano. There is a very nice church there. Many years ago an old lady came to our Milano Centre. She was so nice, so nice. She is not with us any more. We also had a “famous disciple,” a very short girl. She was the first girl who joined our path in Milano. I gave her a spiritual name. I was very fond of her. She was the leader for some time. She left the path, and once she came to see me. I said, “You got married and I heard that you had a baby.”“Yes,” she said.
I asked, “Where is the baby?”
She bent her head and I saw that the child was behind her.
She was a very good disciple, but she left our path. What can you do?
All right, now kindly tell me your question.
Disciple: A couple became disciples a few months ago. They came from another path. It seemed they were very happy to join our path, but they continue to compare our path with their previous path, asking, “Why does Guru ask this and that? The other Master did not ask these strict things.”
Sri Chinmoy: Please tell me, are they following two paths, or are they on our path, but saying nice things about their previous path?
Disciple: They are on our path, but they do not understand why we do not eat meat and fish, why we do not drink and why we have other rules.
Sri Chinmoy: My path is my path, which has come directly from the Absolute Lord Supreme. We have a few rules.
I was brought up at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Naturally I have carried some of their ideas. But if you study my philosophy thoroughly, with my due love and devotion towards Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, you will see that I have said many, many things that are new, new, new. I have nothing to say against Sri Aurobindo’s path or any other path. But if I start comparing, if I say that my path is better, it is only a waste of time. Comparison ruins everything. What good does it do to say that one path is not good, or another path is better? We do not get any benefit from comparison. If I am devoted, I shall be devoted to one person.
Again, my path is the path of my Inner Pilot. I always say that my Guru is the Supreme and your Guru is the Supreme. Everybody’s Guru is the Supreme. Whoever has joined my path has only one Guru: the Supreme. To that Supreme, who is my Guru, your Guru, everybody’s Guru, one has to be faithful — not to me, but to my Inner Pilot, to your Inner Pilot, to the Inner Pilot of this couple. It is all one, the same Inner Pilot.
If my disciples are comparing my philosophy and another spiritual Master’s philosophy, they are doing the wrong thing. Comparison is not good at all. Each spiritual Master has the right to teach his students what to do and what not to do. We cannot make a comparison. There are so many individuals, and each one has his own road. There are so many roads. But if you are on one road and then you start comparing it with other roads, you are wasting your time. You should not look at the other roads.
You cannot be in two boats. One boat you have taken, but you are not paying attention to that boat; you are paying attention to another boat, looking at it and seeing whether that boat is more beautiful or it is going faster than your boat. That is only a waste of time.
Always you have to claim that you have one home. If you have a Master, you have to feel that his spiritual home is your own home. In that home you live. You do not go to other places to live. If you make comparisons, if you feel that some things are better in another home, then you are ruining your progress. Comparison is not good. Always remain faithful to one home, to one boat.
Again, if you read Sri Aurobindo’s books or Sri Ramakrishna’s books, I will have no objection, no objection. Sometimes it happens that if you lose faith in your path and you read a book written by another spiritual Master, or about him, you start shedding tears. Then once more all your divine qualities come to the fore. You have lost inspiration on the path, let us say, but all your devotional qualities again come to the fore when you read about another spiritual Master.
I have written many, many books on love, devotion and surrender. If you are wise, those devotional books you can read, and there is every possibility that you will get back your devotion, love and joy — all your divine qualities. And perhaps I have written more books than any other spiritual Master. I have written considerably on spirituality, yoga and other subjects. I do hope that, before I pass behind the Curtain of Eternity, some disciples will find the time to read all my books.
To compare my path with other paths is absolutely the wrong thing.
