AUM — Vol.II-2, No.11, 27 November 1975

Transcendence-Perfection

People in the news

He is really something

He is really something!

With himself and

God smiles with joy

With himself.

God cries with joy

Transcend himself.

My days of sweetness

My days of sweetness

My days of sadness

My days of goodness

Perhaps

Compassion-Haven.

That is not your task

Don’t overestimate

That is not your task.

Of God’s fondness for you.

Don’t underestimate

That is not your task.

In fact, they have already done it.

His all-conquering will

His thoughts began to cry

Of his all-conquering Will.

Lo and behold!

Has surrendered unconditionally

For his own perfection-delight.

Imagination and realisation

Imagination

God took it away

Gave it away.

Realisation

God adds His own Realisation

“Son, promise that you will

Stay with Me,

And

Father, Amen, a thousand times.

Patience¹

In our ordinary human life we have problems with our superiors, inferiors and equals. We have need of patience with our superiors when they exploit us and misuse our capacity and humility. We have need of patience with our inferiors when they mistrust our sincere appreciation and good will or anything that we want to do for them. We have need of patience with our equals because there comes a time when our equals do not want to stay with us or live in us and for us any more. But at the same time they want us to live only for them. They feel that they have to surpass us — that is their inner joy, that is their duty, while our duty is to remain where we are and please them in their own way. They want to surpass us and lord it over us as our superiors dominate us.

We have need of patience with our human mothers who tell us, “Don’t go out, children. Stay inside. The outer world is dangerous; it is a devouring tiger. We don’t want our children to be devoured by the world’s cruelty, temptation and destruction. We want our children to stay at home cheerfully and peacefully for our constant affection, love and blessing.” We have need of patience with our fathers. Our fathers tell us, “Children, it is high time for you to go out of the house and walk around to see the world at large. It is time for you to receive from the outer world what it has to offer and to offer to the world what you have. The outer world needs your aspiration to fulfil itself, and you need the outer world’s dedication to fulfil yourself. So don’t stay inside any more. You are no longer a tiny plant but a strong tree. Go out and offer yourself to those who are in need of your guidance and protection.”

We have need of patience with Heaven. Although Heaven will eventually grant us its infinite Peace, Light, Bliss and Power, it unfortunately delays at times in spite of our having the necessary receptivity. The only reason we can find is that we are beggars; therefore, we accept our deplorable fate. Alas, Heaven tells us that a beggar cannot be a chooser. Heaven will give according to its willingness. A beggar cannot demand. But we know well that there will come a time when we shall not remain beggars. We know well that when our full awakening takes place we will see that we are none other than God’s chosen instruments to fulfil Him here on earth. As spiritual seekers, our aspiration grows and glows; we realise that God wants only to please Himself and fulfil Himself through us. We will feel that the best thing is to please God according to our awareness. Sooner or later we come to realise that it is not we who fulfil but God who fulfils, satisfies and manifests in and through us.

We have need of patience with earth. Earth is constantly crying. It wants us to elevate its height to Heaven. We try to help earth in its upward movement since earth has legitimate reasons to ask us for a favour. Earth has blessed us with concern, oneness and sacrifice; naturally earth can make a request. But in spite of our best efforts we fail to elevate earth-consciousness even an inch from where it is now. But even this sad experience cannot last for good. One day our incapacity and inconscience will see that we are simply trying to please God. There will come a time when all our inner failures will be transformed into success. On that day our name will be Gratitude.

We have need of patience with God. At God’s choice Hour God will greet us and give us illumination-salvation, illumination-liberation. We try to expedite that choice Hour of God’s, but God says, “Children, My decision has been made and will not change. I am not going to change the Hour.” We cry and God tells us, “True, in your lamentation is sincerity. Cry more soulfully. Let Me see what I can do for you.” But we feel the necessity of crying not only soulfully but also unconditionally. We wanted God to expedite His Hour, but we are now ready to wait for God’s Hour. God says, “You have made considerable inner progress. I see you are ready. I have changed your Hour.” When we are ready to wait for God’s choice Hour unconditionally, God offers us His soulful Smile; sooner than at once God greets us with what He has and is. What He has is infinite Concern and Love for us and what He is is immortal Consciousness.

Tribute to the Governor of Puerto Rico

The Governor was greeted by a special disciple colour guard, and then honoured by the singing of the Anthem of Puerto Rico. Some of the other events included a choral rendition of Sri Chinmoy’s “O My Puerto Rico”, a recital of selected Spanish aphorisms, Sri Chinmoy’s United Nations song, a children’s prayer and an exhibition of Spanish dancing.

Presentation of gifts

Highly esteemed brother, I am truly fortunate that I have visited your home four times in the short span of a year. Each time you and your wife have shown me flowing generosity from the very depth of your hearts, and illumining luminosity from your souls’ effulgent light. Therefore, to both of you I offer my gratitude-heart from the garden of my service-life.

(Sri Chinmoy presents Governor Hernández Colón several gifts for himself and his wife, including a straw hat, symbol of the Governor’s political party.)

These are my earthly gifts to you. I have only one heavenly gift and that heavenly gift I wish to offer you in soulful silence.

My soulful prayer is this: your victory, your continuous victory, your constant victory in the Universal Heart of the Almighty, to please Him, manifest Him and fulfil Him in an unprecedented way. Victory to you, victory to the Supreme Pilot in you, victory to the Universal Brother in you.

Governor Hernández Colón: Thank you Sri Chinmoy and all of you for this wonderful evening that we have had together. When your spiritual Master visited me and invited me to come to visit you when I was in New York, I never expected that I would have such a reception to greet me and such a presentation to honour, perhaps not me, but the people that I represent. I thank you on behalf of the good people of Puerto Rico whom you have honoured here tonight through our national anthem, through the presentation of our flag, through the song that Sri Chinmoy has written for Puerto Rico and through all the other manifestations of our people. I thank you on behalf of all of them for the love and the appreciation that you have shown to them and to me on this occasion.

May I tell you that you are very fortunate. You are very fortunate that you have a spiritual Master like Sri Chinmoy here close to you, that you have his guidance and are able to develop spiritually beside him. He is a Master of the spirit, but he is not detached from the world. He lives in this world as you and I do, and yet the sanctity in him and the deep spirituality which he embodies is present wherever he is.

As Governor of Puerto Rico, I have been fortunate to have him visit our home on four occasions. I know that you have quite a few Centres in Puerto Rico, I know that you have established Centres throughout the world, and I know of the great mission of spirituality, of beauty, of joy which Sri Chinmoy, your spiritual Master, has brought to all those Centres and to all of those whom he has touched. I also know of his work as an artist. I know the beauty of his work because one of his paintings is in our own living room as a result of a gift that he made to us on the occasion of my birthday. I also know of his great work in the United Nations and his efforts in helping the United Nations gain the spiritual direction that it needs to cope with the problems of the world today. It is indeed a very hard task, but if there is any one person with devotion and deep spirituality who can carry this task to fruition, it is Sri Chinmoy. Therefore, it is not only you and those at your Centres, but also those at the United Nations who are very fortunate to have him, who are very fortunate to be able to aspire towards greater light with him and through him.

Tonight you have been very generous to me and to my wife, Lila. You have been generous to the Puerto Rican people. I thank you on their behalf and I leave with you my conviction that these Centres will continue to grow as the spiritual power of Sri Chinmoy grows and spreads throughout the world. May his work at the United Nations gain fruition so that this body may also realise the highest mission which he has for all mankind.

[Thunderous standing ovation]

Aphorisms from the Peace Room²

It is always helpless.

Look at our vital.

Look at our mind.

Look at our heart.

Look at our soul.

Look at our God.

If you call me God, then I wish to tell you that each one of you is another God.

What He is: constant self-giving.

Questions asked by Dulal, president of the New York Sri Chinmoy Centre

Question: What is the essential quality which a seeker would need in order to enter into this path?

A day will come when the seeker’s own highest transcendental height will be consciously one with God, but he cannot claim the highest as his very own right now because most of the time he is swimming or drowning in a sea of ignorance. He has to feel that he needs someone’s help in illumining him. How can he search for that someone, somewhere? First of all that somewhere is really nowhere but inside his own heart. He first has to look within his heart. How can he look within? Only with sincerity. If he can feel that his whole life — body, vital, mind, heart and soul — is composed of sincerity, then he is not only meant for this path, but for any path, and he will make the fastest progress.

Question: What is the best cure for human frustration?

Expectation creates frustration, but if there is oneness in us with everything in God’s creation, then we become inspired. That does not mean we will become lethargic, and wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. Rather, we shall feel that we are not the doer, but that someone else is acting in and through us. We only expect if we feel that we are the doer. So, if we feel that we are not the doer, then we will not have expectations. If we can think of ourselves as divine instruments, we can feel that God is having an experience in and through us.

In our human life we feel that if we are successful, we have everything and, if we fail, we have nothing. In the divine Life we don’t lose or gain, we only rediscover what we are. We should be interested only in rediscovering our birthright of Eternity and Immortality, and bringing to the fore what we are. Everything that God has and is is in us, so why must we expect? Only because we have separated ourselves from divine Light do we expect. If we know how to rediscover within ourselves infinite Peace and Light, then we don't have to expect anything; we only have to claim them as our very own.

Question: Is it possible for a disciple to learn from a more advanced seeker?

Question: How can I hear the voice of silence?

Question: How can I learn to swim in the ocean of light?

Question: Which is the greatest: purity, love or oneness?

Question: Is there a connection between the third eye and intuition?

Question: How can the Supreme become more real to me?

Question: When is a smile most effective?

Question: Is the word "failure" in God's dictionary?

Question: Can outer failure be turned into inner success?

An experiment is like a house. If you offer the house to the Supreme, then all the possessions of the house — if there is a chair or other furniture — also are offered to the Supreme. If you can offer your experiment to the Supreme, then you are also offering Him the results — like the furniture of the house. On the strength of your offering, you become one with the Supreme, and when you become one with the Supreme, automatically the experiment becomes an inner success.

Question: Can generosity ever be a spiritual fault?

Sometimes it may happen that when we give something, instead of its being a help, our gift can become a veritable obstacle in someone’s life of aspiration. We may think that somebody is very poor while we are very rich, so we want to give him a large amount of money so that he does not have to work very hard and he will be able to spend all his time meditating. But when we give him a large amount of money, he only wallows in the pleasures of ignorance; he gives up work, he does not remain in the world of aspiration, and lethargy becomes his friend. Now money-power he has gained, but aspiration-power has gone away. This is a mistake.

Question: Is there anything more beautiful than true humility?

Question: How can I become more compassionate?

You have to feel that there is someone who is infinitely more perfect than you are, and that is God. God is your superior, and He is showing you constant Compassion, infinite Compassion. You make mistakes quite often, but He forgives and forgives. Since God has millions of dollars of Compassion, He gives you thousands of dollars at the time of your need. Now, if there is somebody who is inferior to you, who is making many more mistakes than you are, he also deserves compassion from you. You can easily give him one hundred or two hundred dollars in terms of your compassion-power.

We should always try to have somebody as our ideal, or try to see our goal inside somebody. Until we realise that that somebody is our own higher part, our own illumined, more fulfilling part, until then we have to feel that he is better or superior.

When I see a flower, I try to become as pure as the flower. When I look at a candle flame and feel its purity, I try to become as pure as the flame of the candle. But afterwards, when I can enter deep into my heart, I see that the same flame is burning there, the inner flame. Then I don’t have to keep thinking of a candle or flowers outside me, for I discover that my inner being is always full of fragrance and purity and light.

Question: How can I experience God's Essence?

Question: What are the limitations of the mind?

Question: What is the best way to be an eternal beginner?

Question: How can I find joy and smile in moments of discouragement?

Question: What is a sincere question?

In Heaven the sincere question is: “Who am I?”

On earth the sincere question is: “Where am I?”

To “Who am I?” the answer is, “He I am.”

Question: How can I repay Guru for his eternal gifts?

If anybody wants to give me a significant gift, then I want to tell that person just to realise me. I try my best to take you up in my fastest elevator when I meditate. I wait, wait, wait, but you people don’t come. How long can I wait? So I go up and send down my elevator to get you. Then, when it comes, you press the wrong button and instead of going up, you go down and create problems. So then I come back to the ground level, to the very starting level, but even there I don’t see you. I see that you are in the basement. You people have gone down instead of up and are enjoying the pleasures of ignorance. Then I have to go there to get you.

A lost friend

Brahmamoy had a very close friend whose name was Kanu. Kanu was extremely devoted to Brahmamoy. Every day when they went to the dining hall for meals, the first and foremost thing Kanu did was to bring water for Brahmamoy, and he would always insist on getting Brahmamoy’s food. He would say, “Please stay here. I will get your food. Please let me do this for you.” Brahmamoy deeply appreciated his friend and was moved by his sincere devotion.

This went on for months and years. Then Kanu found a girlfriend and he started to think of her all day. Poor Kanu was very sincere in his spiritual life, and his impurity was a real torture to him. He used to curse both himself and his girlfriend all the time. One morning he said to himself, “Brahmamoy is so pure, so spiritual. I have such love for him and he has such love for me. I feel sure that if I can just touch him he will take all my impurity from me. He will cast it into the Universal Consciousness and I will be freed from this bondage.”

Kanu anxiously awaited the midday meal when he would see Brahmamoy again. In his eagerness he was the first to arrive at the dining hall and he was already seated with two trays of food when Brahmamoy arrived. Brahmamoy smiled and sat down next to his friend. But as he closed his eyes for a few seconds to invoke the Supreme before eating, he felt Kanu touch his knee. Brahmamoy looked up and said, “What are you doing?”

“Oh! That girl, that undivine girl! She has made me ruin my whole day with impure thoughts. But as soon as I touched you they went away. Now I am all purity.”

Brahmamoy was a little bit amused but, at the same time, he was moved by Kanu’s faith in him and gave Kanu a compassionate smile. This purification ritual became a regular part of their friendship, Every few days, when Kanu was suffering from thoughts of his girlfriend, he would devotedly touch Brahmamoy’s knee at mealtimes and say, “Oh, now it is gone. Now I am pure.”

A few months passed and one day in the dining hall Kanu said to Brahmamoy, “Can you read my thoughts? Can you enter into my mind?”

Brahmamoy replied, “I don’t have to be able to do that, Kanu. I only have to look at your face to read your mind.”

Kanu said, “You know that I am very impure. That is why you are saying this. But can you really read my mind?”

Brahmamoy nodded, “Yes, Kanu, I can. Not only will I read your thoughts of today, but I will read your thoughts of quite a few days past and I will tell you what they were. First I will make you conscious of the exact times at which you had the thoughts, so you will believe me and not deny it. Then I will tell you for three days what kind of thoughts you cherished and at what times. Give me your notebook.”

Brahmamoy started to write down Kanu’s thoughts. He wrote both the good and the bad thoughts. He knew that if he wrote only the bad thoughts Kanu would think he didn’t know about the good thoughts. Before he had even finished writing Kanu took the notebook from him and started to read the first two pages. Suddenly he let out a cry, “Oh no, oh no, oh no...” and he rushed out of the dining hall. Brahmamoy ran after him and found him sitting in the farthest corner of the sports ground. His head was in his hands, and he was sad and depressed. Brahmamoy sat down next to him and tried to console him.

He said, “Look Kanu, I don’t cherish these kinds of things. What is in your mind, good and bad, doesn’t matter to me. You are my friend.”

“Oh, you know all about me, you know how bad I am.”

“Kanu, my heart is big. It is full of compassion. You are my friend.” He put his hand on Kanu’s shoulder but Kanu pulled away.

“Oh, but you know, you know exactly what is going on inside me. I am filled with inner disgust for myself. I am so bad and if I mix with you, I will ruin you. I will bring you down to my level.”

“Kanu, that is a wrong way of thinking. It is a false way of feeling. You cannot ruin me, and I assure you that I shall not cherish your weaknesses.”

“Oh, but I am so inferior and you are so superior.”

“That is absurd.”

“I cannot be your friend any more,” Kanu continued. “I know that on the one hand I will cry to be near you, to be beside you, but on the other hand I shall always feel that I cannot come near you.” He stood up abruptly and walked away from Brahmamoy without even looking back at him.

Brahmamoy thought sadly to himself, “By showing Kanu my occult power I have really lost something. If I had not done it he would always have been very close to me. But now I have lost my friend. With my inner vision I can see that Kanu is not going to stay in this ashram. He will leave in a few years and get married. From where to where he will descend!”

Jharna-Kala news — Jharna-Kala marathon

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Indian yogi Sri Chinmoy, who recently set an apparent world record by writing 843 poems in 24 hours, set another one yesterday when he took paintbrush in hand and completed a stagering (sic) total of 16,031 paintings within the same period of time. Chinmoy, whose paintings have been displayed here and in Puerto Rico and who has written 260 spiritual books, said he used the same powers of concentration to paint all those paintings that he had used to write all those poems.

Jharna-Kala celebrates its first anniversary³

But no matter what I realise, I feel that my realisation is nothing but a form of aspiration, ever-crying aspiration. Each realisation is nothing but a progressing rung in the ladder of evolution. While I was aspiring through concentration, meditation and contemplation, I was asked by the absolute Supreme within me to aspire also through athletics. Again, out of His infinite Bounty He made me in my youth a champion sportsman. Then, along with my physical discipline and spiritual discipline, He wanted me to aspire through poetry. I started writing poems before I was twelve years old — of course, in Bengali.

I am saying this not for the sake of boasting. What I wanted to tell you is how my aspiration took shape in various forms, in various fields — spirituality, sports, poetry and also music. I was a music-lover, and even now I am a music-lover. Music also played a considerable role in my aspiration. I came to the West, here to America, by the express inner command of the Supreme Pilot who wanted me to be of service to many here in the aspiring West. As you know, the Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, has inspired me, according to my power of receptivity and capacity, to write over 250 books during the eleven years of my existence in America. These books are nothing but the revelation of my own aspiration which is crying, according to my inner receptivity and capacity, to go high, higher, highest, to the ever-transcending Height. It is always aspiration that is being manifested in all my activities, physical, vital, mental and psychic.

Here in the West I have come to act as a devoted server, unconditional server of the divine Love, Light and Truth. In the outer life, in the outer world, some people take me as a spiritual teacher, a Master. But I wish to say the real Master, the supreme Master, is God Himself. We are all representatives. He who knows a little more than we do in any field we are apt to call our teacher. But the real teacher, the absolute Teacher, who has infinite Knowledge and who is infinite Wisdom, Light and Love is God Himself and no human being.

Here in the West the Inner Pilot, my Supreme Pilot, expressed Himself in and through me according to the power of my receptivity when I gave hundreds of talks at various universities in America and in Europe. Hundreds of questions I have also answered. I have composed hundreds of songs both in Bengali and English and a few in Sanskrit. All these things are nothing but various ways of expressing my own inner cry.

Last but not least, I entered last year, exactly one year ago, into the field of art. This field was not my forte. In our family, as ill luck would have it, art-life was not cultivated. Of course, in the broad sense, poetry is an art, music is an art, undoubtedly, but painting as such was not appreciated. Our family was wanting in the capacity for appreciating this particular art. I was in no way an exception.

Eleven years ago when I arrived in New York, I happened to visit the Guggenheim Museum. I saw quite a few paintings. To my extreme sorrow I could not appreciate any of them. But my Fate-Maker one year ago wanted me to become an artist. I was in a hotel in Ottawa. Around 5:00 in the afternoon it was drizzling, but the command came from within to go out and buy a few crayons and drawing paper and so forth. I went out in the rain and bought a few drawing books and I started my journey. After I had drawn a few, I was totally disappointed and disgusted, but the Inspirer in me did not permit me to stop. He wanted me to continue, and I did.

Now some people call me an artist. Yes, I am an artist; this is true. But to be exactly true, one hundred percent true, I wish to say that I am a seeker. Here again, my aspiration is being expressed through art in the form of thousands of paintings in the short span of a year. The artist in my Beloved Supreme, according to my receptivity, according to my surrendering and surrendered existence, has painted and drawn in and through me. Then he wanted me to offer to these paintings an Indian name: Jharna-Kala. It means Fountain-Art. Like a fountain this art flows spontaneously. It has no birth, it has no death; a ceaseless, birthless and deathless flow.

I have quite a few admirers to appreciate my paintings. I am extremely grateful to them. Again, I have quite a few critics who feel they have legitimate reasons to find fault with me. They say, “Why deal with quantity and not with quality? Why not aim at perfection?”

I tell my critics that earthly perfection is a relative experience of and in the mind. A child’s perfection is to pinch someone. The satisfaction that he derives from pinching is perfection in his life. A child crawls and stumbles, he stands up, he walks, marches, he runs very fast. Each progressive stage that he masters is perfection in his life. When he was unable to crawl, he was having a particular experience in earth-life. But the day he started crawling he felt that that progress was perfection. Continuous progress is perfection. Constantly transcending one’s own existence-reality is perfection. Otherwise, perfection would be a finished product. If perfection is a finished product, then it is no perfection at all. Perfection is the song of ever-transcending reality that we embody and we eternally are in the cosmic Vision and transcendental Reality of the Absolute Supreme.

When I paint, I do not have in mind — I never use the mind — how many I am going to do. No, I only try to become a perfect instrument of the Supreme by surrendering to His Will. When it comes to thousands and not hundreds, I clearly see and feel that each painting of mine is a flame of aspiration. Now if I see thousands of aspiration-flames instead of one, then I see clearly that these thousands of aspiration-flames can more easily illumine ignorance-night than only a few could. Those who claim me as their very own, those who are my spiritual children, still need illumination. These thousands and thousands of paintings are for what? To be of service to them, to illumine them. If they see not one but thousands of flames, naturally they are bound to be carried far, very far, high, very high, deep, very deep. Instead of one if they have thousands of aspiration-flames to be of service to them, naturally their progress is bound to be much faster.

Again, each painting of mine is a spark of my own aspiration. One person will appreciate one painting of mine, a second person will appreciate another, a third person still another. This way each person gets the opportunity to identify himself with my aspiration-light. For my disciples, nothing can be as important as identification, identification with the Master’s life of aspiration and dedication.

As I said, I have written thousands and thousands of poems, I have given hundreds of lectures and composed hundreds of songs. Each poem, each talk, each song embodies my own aspiration. A disciple of mine may find his identification in one particular poem or song. The more he identifies himself with the consciousness-light of my creation, which is God’s own creation in and through me, the better for him, the sooner his illumination will take place on the strength of his identification with the Highest.

This is an opportunity for all art-lovers and all seekers of the transcendental Truth. Each painting, each poem, each thing that I undertake is at the express command of my Beloved Supreme. I have 900 disciples. I feel that each disciple can be given the golden opportunity to select whatever form of creativity inspires him most in his own way. There are also seekers who are not my disciples who feel something sublime in me. I wish to assure them that the inspiration and aspiration that my paintings and my writings embody is for them. He who sees something in me or in my creation is my soul’s friend, my heart’s friend. A friend of mine is he who gives me the best opportunity to be of dedicated service to his Inner Pilot. He who gives me this golden opportunity to serve him is my real friend. Here there are about fifty seekers who are not my disciples. But I wish to tell them that their very presence here has given me enormous joy and divine pride. Why? It is they who are giving me the golden opportunity to be of service to the Supreme in them. I say this with all the sincerity at my command. You may feel that I am sharing with you my inner wisdom, but I wish to say that what I feel in the inmost recesses of my heart is something else: the song of aspiration, the song of dedication. I sing in and through you my aspiration-song. I sing in and through you my dedication-song.

To my disciples, art-lovers and all those who are seekers of the transcendental Truth here, to you my fervent soulful request is that you try to identify even for a fleeting second with what I stand for, which is constant inner cry. What I am doing and what I shall be doing is aspiring, and you are all doing the same thing — aspiring, crying within to be conscious and constant instruments of God. The Goal is one; the roads are many. When the seekers see eye-to-eye with one another, then the road undoubtedly is shortened.