today Your Compassion is my name. Tomorrow Your Satisfaction will be my name.
[To be continued]
Nigamananda said, “You may see your beloved Lord there, but I see only a piece of lifeless wood.”
At this the Master became furious. He insulted Nigamananda mercilessly and told him, “If you show disrespect once more to my beloved Lord, I shall throw you out of my Ashram! Be careful.” Then the Master left the room and went to his office to attend to Ashram business.
Nigamananda was humiliated and furious. He immediately took the statue off the shrine and gave it a smart slap, exclaiming, “You! For you I have got such a severe scolding from my Master. You deserve my punishment.” Then he placed it again on the shrine.
A few minutes later the Master came back and said to him, with a broad smile, “You said my Lord is a lifeless piece of wood, but does anybody strike a lifeless thing? Only when we see that someone or something has life do we get joy by striking it. You said that this statue was lifeless; for you it was just a piece of wood. Then why did you strike a lifeless thing? No, you do see something inside the statue. I was so pleased when I heard you speaking to my Lord. One does not speak to a lifeless thing, for a lifeless thing cannot understand or respond. My Lord not only has life, but embodies the universal and transcendental life. So from now on please worship this statue.”
Nigamananda bowed to his Master and said, “Please forgive me. I shall worship this statue, and inside the statue I shall see and feel you, Master.”
The Master said, “That is absolutely the right thing, my son.”
Commentary
Faith is of paramount importance. One needs faith in infinite measure in one’s Master. The human mind may find it difficult to believe in the Master’s way, but the aspiring heart is always one with the Master’s inner and outer operations. The seeker always has to remain in the heart. To have faith in one’s Master is to feel God’s own presence here, there and everywhere. It is not what the object is, not who the man is, but if one retains faith in one’s Master’s spiritual realisation, then one achieves success in the outer world and progress in the inner world convincingly, easily and rapidly.
When Nigamananda arrived, he bowed to his Master first and then bowed to Shankaracharya. Everybody was shocked. How was it possible for him to bow to Satchidananda first, when Shankaracharya was sitting right beside him? Some people said to Nigamananda, “You are such a fool! Don’t you know how to discriminate?”
Nigamananda replied, “I do know how to discriminate. I tell you, nobody can be superior to one’s own Guru. My Guru is and will always remain highest to me; therefore, I did the right thing by bowing to him first.”
On hearing this Shankaracharya gave Nigamananda a broad smile and said to him, “You are right, my son, you are right.” Then he asked Nigamananda a few spiritual questions which Nigamananda answered perfectly. Then Shankaracharya said to Satchidananda, “What are you doing? Why are you not asking this disciple of yours to have his own disciples and to help illumine mankind? I clearly see that he is ready for that.”
Then in front of Shankaracharya and all the seekers who were nearby, Satchidananda declared, “My son Nigamananda has realised God. From now on he will accept disciples and illumine the minds and fulfil the hearts of seekers.”
Commentary
At the journey’s start the Master is the boatman, the boat and the river. At the journey’s end the Master becomes the Goal itself. A beginner-seeker sees the Master in the beginning as the boat. When he crosses beyond the barrier of the mind, he sees the Master as the boatman. When he establishes his oneness, constant oneness, with the Master, he sees the Master as the river. And when he becomes the most perfect instrument of the Master, he sees the Master as his Goal itself. When the hour strikes for the disciple, the disciple too has to play the role of a Master, for progress is a must in the world of self-giving and God-becoming.
Fearless
Be fearless. Ignorance-tiger will immediately disappear.A teacher
A spiritual teacher is he who not only tells us and shows us where God is, but also teaches us how we ourselves can eventually become Gods.The sun
The outer sun is inspiration.
The inner sun is at once aspiration and realisation.Fire
If you constantly keep your inner fire burning, then God will be nearing you before long.I am Brahman
To say that I am Brahman, or God without a second, is to smash the pride of ignorance-night.Pride
Human pride destroys us. Divine pride employs us for God-manifestation. What is Divine pride? I am of God only. I am eternally all for God.Non-violence
To practise non-violence what I need is a pure heart and a sure life. India’s Gandhi did it. I, too, can do the same.
[To be continued]We pray for our protection. We meditate on God’s Perfection.
We pray to become divinely great and supremely good. We meditate to realise who we eternally are.
We pray so that we can see the beauty and the divinity of the higher worlds. We meditate so that we can receive invitations from the inner worlds.
When we pray, our Father-Friend lovingly feeds us. When we meditate, we soulfully feed our Father-Friend.
When we pray, our pure hunger itself is our striking success. When we meditate, our sure satisfaction itself is our illumining progress.
Our soulful prayer makes us our Lord’s choice instruments. Our fruitful meditation makes us our Lord’s Vision-Voice.
Our heart’s prayer-cry serves the divine in us. Our life’s meditation-smile awakens and enlightens the human in us.
SUNY at Albany, Albany, N.Y., 4 March 1978, 2:00 p.m.↩
Each difficulty discourages and delays our success-life. Each opportunity encourages and expedites our progress-life. Each Vision-manifestation of God helps us march faster toward our destined Goal.
Life is love, love is oneness, oneness is perfection and perfection is satisfaction.
Human life fails; divine life succeeds.
Human love binds; divine love liberates.
Human oneness is a rope of sand; divine oneness is at once birthless and deathless.
Human perfection disappears in the twinkling of an eye; divine perfection constantly transcends its own heights.
Human satisfaction is the fulfilment of our desire-life; divine satisfaction is the fulfilment of ourselves in and through the fulfilment of our Beloved Supreme.
Human satisfaction says, “My will must cover the length and breadth of the world.” Divine satisfaction says, “Let Thy Will be done.”
Human satisfaction is necessary as long as we care for the animal in us, the hungry wolf in us. Divine satisfaction is necessary only when we care for God for God’s sake.
We start our journey with the desire-life. The desire-life helps to free us from the world of sloth, inertia and ignorance. Then we come to the aspiration-life. The aspiration-life helps us to reach higher goals, higher ideals and higher realisations. The self-giving life constantly makes us feel that we are of the One and for the One. Him to please in His own Way is our sole choice.
Union College and University, Schenectady, N.Y., 4 March 1978, 7:00 p.m.↩
A liberated man is he who has smashed the shackles of birth and death. Birth is a painful cry. Death is a fruitless sigh. A liberated man is he who does not suffer from self-created ignorance. Ignorance is the unreal in us. The unreal is the source of all our teeming maladies. But our own birthless and deathless aspiration-ascent is the panacea for all these maladies.
Aspiration is Heaven-power. Heaven-power continuously sings and dances with enlightenment. Desire is earth-strength. Earth-strength is afraid of enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a boon; it is not even a gift. Enlightenment is a supremely fulfilling unfoldment from deep within.
Illumination, liberation and realisation. These three are inseparable friends. These are the rungs in our aspiration-ladder, which reaches the highest Absolute. Illumination conquers darkness. Liberation conquers ignorance. Realisation transforms both darkness and ignorance so that we can become a perfect instrument which is used by the Absolute Supreme in His own way.
SUNY at Oneonta, Oneonta, N.Y., 5 March 1978, 2:00 p.m.↩
When we concentrate, we concentrate on the finite in the Infinite. We concentrate on a drop in the vast ocean. When we meditate, we meditate on the Infinite inside the finite. We meditate on the blue-vast sea inside the tiny drop. We concentrate to silence the world of outer noise. We meditate to hear the world of inner voice.
When we concentrate, we feel that the world around us offers us tremendous obstacles. Therefore, we are apt to reject the outer world. When we meditate, we accept everything. The world around us and the world within us both remain at our disposal. Only we transform all that has to be transformed in the outer world and in the inner world. It is in the process of transformation that we derive satisfaction.
Concentration carries the message of conquest. Right after conquest we get happiness. Meditation gives us happiness amidst the battles of life. It gives us happiness both in success and in failure, in victory and in defeat. The message of meditation carries us far beyond the domain of success and failure, victory and defeat. Meditation makes us feel that success is an experience and that failure is also an experience. These experiences ultimately lead us to the self-same goal: satisfaction in our oneness-life with our Beloved Supreme.
Concentration reminds us of God the omnipotent. Meditation reminds us of God the omnipresent. When we concentrate, Infinity in its power-aspect appears before us. When we meditate, Eternity in its tranquility-aspect appears before us.
God created the world with His Meditation and in His Meditation. But in the process of involution, evolution, inner revolution and outer resolution, He uses concentration. God the Creator awakens us, inspires us and aspires in and through us with His Meditation-Light. God the creation is around us and for us with His Concentration-Power.
Concentration tells us, “Run, run fast, faster, fastest in order to reach the Goal.” Meditation tells us, “The Goal is not in front of you. It is not remote from you. The Goal is within you. Dive deep within. To your wide surprise, you will not only see the Goal within you, but you will see yourself as the ultimate Goal. You the seeker, you the aspiration and you the realisation are one and identical.”
We concentrate, we meditate.
Pace University, White Plains, N.Y., 7 March 1978↩
We shall not wait. If we wait, we shall fail. If we fail, we shall die. Who wants to die? Nobody. We want only to live on earth to spread the Light of our Beloved Supreme. We want to live on earth to manifest Him in His own way.
To wait is to make friends with empty hours, empty days, empty months and empty years. To wait is to miss God’s Perfection-Freedom-Train which is bound for the Ever-increasing-satisfaction-Station.
If we do not wait, our life’s inspiration and our heart’s aspiration will make us see the Face of our Creator. Our Creator needs no future; He has and He is the eternal Now.
If we do not wait, our Beloved Lord, the Author of all good, will make us His choice instruments by transforming our life within and without totally, Him to manifest in His own way. We shall be His perfect channels of revealing Light and fulfilling Delight.
If we do not wait, in the inner world revolution will be our name; in the outer world, evolution will be our name; and in our own world, satisfaction will be our name.
We shall not wait. We shall start praying and meditating. We shall pray continuously. We shall meditate continuously. If we continuously pray, one day at God’s choice Hour, we shall grow into God’s transcendental Height. If we continuously meditate, one day at God’s choice Hour, we shall grow into God’s universal Light.
SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y., 11 March 1978, 3:00 p.m.↩
Self-giving is a secret and sacred message which we get from acceptance of earth as it is and Heaven as it is: self-giving for the final transformation of earth and for the complete manifestation of Heaven on earth.
If we do this, then happiness is ours.Nobody can humiliate you.
But if your own inferiority complex tortures you, that is humiliation.If there is no inferiority, then there is no humiliation.
If there is a feeling of oneness, then there can be no humiliation.If my legs feel that they belong to this body, the same body that my head belongs to, then how can my legs suffer humiliation?
But if the legs maintain a sense of separativity, then naturally they may feel inferior to the head, because the brain is developed, and can compel the legs to go wherever we want to go.But if the legs feel that it is they who carry the head and all the rest of the body, then the legs will not feel inferior.
Humiliation is only the result of our self-imposed standard.
Nobody can humiliate us if we have a sense of oneness. When we separate one part of our existence from another, that is the beginning of our humiliation.Imagination is the private tutor of aspiration.
Aspiration is the only pride of God the Dream-Boat, God the eternal Journey and God the Reality-Shore.Intuition does not impose.
Intuition only brings forward the hidden reality.It brings to the fore the message of cosmic harmony.
Intuition is not merely to see the Truth faster than the fastest.
Intuition is to throw ourselves into the love-light and oneness-light of self-discovery and God-discovery.He is a greater fool who does not bring to the fore the joy of the inner world.
He is the greatest fool who does not do the first thing first — who does not invoke God the constant, eternal Joy first and foremost.From bright light to brighter light, from brighter light to brightest light we grow.
Light is our existence.
Bright light is our belief in our existence.Brighter light is our faith in our oneness with God.
Brightest light is to become conscious and constant representatives of God here on earth and there in Heaven.With divine love I see what God has already done for me in and through me, what God is doing in and through me for others, and what God wants to do for me in and through others.
What does He want to do? He wants to smile in and through all of us the Smile of Oneness-Height and Perfection-Light.What for?
Only to discover what we eternally are: God’s conscious Light and God’s constant Need.[To be continued]
When you suffer by making others suffer, then your vital ego, your sense of separativity, does not get any satisfaction. If you really hurt someone and you remain unhurt, only then have you won in the competitive world. When you lose the case before you actually make somebody else lose the case, then you are even, and your vital will not be happy with that. Your vital will be happy only when it is victorious. But your soul will be happy when you don’t hurt anyone at all. Before you hurt someone, if you intuitively enter into the experience of suffering of that person, and then take an oath not to hurt the person on the physical plane, then your soul will be extremely happy.
The vital knows how to attack. But in your case, before it attacks, it goes through the experience of being attacked. The funniest thing is that you want to be the victor, but instead of becoming the victor, you remain equal, although you attack first. To be the real victor, either do not attack at all, or after having the painful experience, do not inflict the same pain on the other person on the physical plane. This is how you can put an end to the funniest thing in your life.God the manifested man has everything and is everything. But when He wants to give His everything to the earth-consciousness, to humanity, He has to assume earthly form and earthly ways so that earthly human beings can feel some common bond, some connection with Him. If He comes with other forms, with countless arms, countless legs, countless eyes, and all that, He will not be accepted. He will be treated as a stranger, as a foreigner. Therefore, God the manifested man comes in exactly the same shape as a human being, so that ordinary human beings can see some resemblance. In this way it becomes infinitely easier for humanity to accept God’s Light.
But man the evolving God wants to acquire everything in God’s creation and beyond God’s creation. He wants to acquire everything, so He wants to make friends with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Therefore, He needs everything in infinite measure. God the manifested man already has everything within — Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. He comes into the world with a finite body, carrying inside Him the Infinite. The finite body is required so that the finite realities around Him can have an easy access to Him. But He knows perfectly well that this is just a game He is playing. Once He leaves the body He becomes what He eternally is inwardly: infinite, eternal and immortal.
Humanity gets the greatest blessing from God the manifested man. Again, humanity has to go up as man the evolving God. But first it needs blessings from God the manifested man. If not, it can never become man the evolved God.Now you love sleep far beyond your imagination. Similarly, the Sleep-Queen also loves you far beyond your imagination. If you love the Sleep-Queen so intensely and continuously, how can the Sleep-Queen remain without loving you to the same extent? Everything is reciprocal. You love her and she loves you. If you withdraw your love, you will see that the Sleep-Queen will also withdraw her love.
There is one thing you can tell the Sleep-Queen. Tell her, “I shall be extremely grateful to you, Queen, if you allow me to come to you whenever I want. And when you want to come to me, you will kindly let me know beforehand.” Then you will go to the Sleep-Queen only when you desperately need her help — when you are tired, exhausted, dead, and you have to sleep, then go. But when you are quite fresh, energetic, and you have work to do, at that time if the Sleep-Queen wants to come to you, you will simply refuse. Then the Sleep-Queen will be extremely displeased with you. She will say, “When you needed me, you came to me. Now I need you, but you won’t see me.” The Sleep-Queen will be displeased with you and stop coming to you.
You have come into the world to accept the spiritual life. You have to do much for the Supreme. When you are ready to work for the Supreme, eager to work for the Supreme, just because you want to become a faithful, devoted instrument, the Supreme will always give you work. If He sees that your health is breaking from lack of sleep, He will feel sorry, and He will give you the necessary sleep, but not unnecessary sleep. The hours that you need — six to seven maximum — He will give you, so that you can do His work. But if you want eight, nine, ten hours, He will say, “Then go back to the Sleep-Queen. I don’t need you.” Then you will be totally lost, because the Sleep-Queen by this time has left you, feeling that it is beneath her dignity to maintain a friendship with you when you have played the role of a rogue. But of course, you have played the role of a divine rogue.
So remember always what you have come here for: to work for the Supreme. I assure you that neither your body, nor anybody’s body, will ever be shattered by working for the Supreme. The Supreme grants each individual infinitely more capacity than the individual needs to do the Supreme’s work. Your body will not fail; nobody’s body will fail, if he or she works for the Supreme. What the Supreme wants is the fulfilment of His Mission. If He has to fulfil His Mission, He will keep His instruments in perfect shape. Nobody’s body will be ruined by working for the Supreme. Nobody’s body will fail because of obeying the dictates of the Supreme for His manifestation.Dream not of any other world;
This world really loves you.Think not of Heaven-God;
Earth-God really loves you.Who is Heaven-God?
Promise.Who is earth-God?
Hope.```
 Jedike phirai ankhi
Ke jena baliche dakiBritha bela baye jai
Jib kato asohaiNayan mudiya rakhi
Amar ki shunite bakiBritha bela bayi jai
Kena eta nirupai```
```Whichever way I cast my glance
I hear someone whisperingTime is passing by,
All human beings hopeless and helpless.I keep my eyes shut.
I have nothing more to hear.Time is passing by.
Alas, I know not why and howI am so helplessly and totally lost.
``` From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-5, No. 3, 27 March 1978, Vishma Press, 1978
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