Each human being is a creator; again, each human being is a critic. If the creator feels that he is perfect, then he is wrong. Or the moment he creates something, if he feels that his creation is perfect, then he is wrong again. But when he creates something, if at that very moment the critic in him comes and throws cold water on it and does not allow him to create further or to go higher or deeper, then that is most deplorable. At that time, the critic in him is infinitely worse than his creation or his achievement can be. You are the creator; you are the critic. But when you create something, you have to feel that the real creation is the Supreme Himself. By criticising the Supreme, you cannot make Him perfect. He is perfect, only He is trying to maintain and offer His perfection in and through you, according to your capacity and your receptivity.
Again, you should not stop doing something or saying something just because the critic in you is wide awake. The moment you do something, in ten different ways this critic will criticise you. If you pay attention to him, then you are doomed. By being afraid of the critic in you, you will never achieve perfection. Again, by continuously doing or saying something without inspiration, without sincere aspiration, you are not going to achieve anything either.
When you create something, you have to know that it is an achievement. But do not take it as perfection. If you expect perfection the moment you create something, then you will be disappointed. Today you do something; tomorrow you will do something else. Hundreds of things you will do, one after another. But there is no guarantee that every day you do something, all of a sudden perfection will dawn. Again, this does not mean that you have to go on, go on, go on indefinitely until you can achieve perfection in one thing. No, perfection will come, but not necessarily at a fixed time. And if you don’t create in action or thought, then what do you have to perfect? First you create something; then only can you think of perfecting it. There is no other way to achieve perfection in life.
When you create something, you have to feel that it is sheer Grace that has created this thing in you and through you. Let us say you have composed a song, or written an article, or said something nice to your fellow human beings. At that time, you have to feel that it is the divine Grace, the Grace or the Compassion of the Supreme, that has acted in and through you. Do not feel that this creation is yours. You have painted or you have played on the piano or you have done something remarkable. If you can give the credit to the Supreme, then the next moment the same Grace will act in and through you again with infinite potentiality and power. If you sincerely feel that your achievement is most perfect according to your own standard and that the Supreme’s Grace has enabled you to do it, then your sincere feeling will touch His Heart. He will say, “My child is satisfied with this, but I know that there is much more to be achieved.” So, when your sincere appreciation enters into the Heart of the Supreme, He will immediately give you more Compassion, more Grace, and this will come to you in the form of capacity. Then, the next time you do something, you will have more perfection. It may not be perfect perfection. But perhaps the third time that you do something, you will have the feeling that right from the beginning it is the Grace, the Compassion of the Supreme, that is acting in and through you and this time it will be perfect perfection. Again, there is no end to your perfection. Perfection is always transcending its previous boundaries.
No matter what your standard is on the path of perfection, each time you do something or achieve something, feel that it is the unconditional Grace of the Supreme that is operating. And always use the term ‘unconditional.’ You feel, “This morning I got up early; that is why I was in a position to have a good meditation.” But how is it that you were able to get up, whereas your friend was still sleeping? In the same apartment someone was still sleeping and snoring, but you got up early to meditate. You have to know that it was because the Grace of the Supreme acted in you and you were able to receive it. The Supreme has given you the inspiration to meditate and after meditating you go and inspire people. It is like a human father and child. The child takes money and then he goes out and buys things. But where does he get the money from? He gets it from his parents. Similarly, where do you get the inspiration for your actions? From the Supreme. Each moment you do something, if you give all credit to the Supreme instead of to yourself, then you become perfect. This is the secret of perfection. For any good action you do, always give credit to the Supreme.
So, start by giving credit to divine Compassion, divine Grace, and then immediately show gratitude. First you create something and then you show gratitude to the Supreme. You will admire your creation just because it is the Supreme Himself who has created it. When somebody else appreciates your creation, or when you offer it to someone, you feel that naturally he ought to show gratitude to you. But I wish to say that this is not so. The moment you create something for someone in the inner world or the outer world, the one who deserves your gratitude, his gratitude and everyone’s gratitude, is the Supreme. There are millions of people all around you who have not been able to create something. How is it that you have done it? It is because Somebody has accepted you as His instrument, His chosen instrument, for an hour or for a day or for a month. The Supreme is the only Doer.If you are sincerely dedicated and devoted, then the suffering that you go through in life is nothing in comparison to the suffering that you might otherwise have gone through. And God alone knows how much suffering your Guru goes through on your behalf. The Supreme alone knows what this body of mine has gone through for the sake of the disciples’ imperfections. It was His Will for me to accept it and I did it. Let me not brag. Only I wish to tell you, whenever you suffer, please feel that it could have been infinitely worse.
If you really follow the path of spirituality, if you are really sincere, devoted and dedicated, then the law of karma can easily be negated or nullified. But what happens is that today you are sincere and tomorrow you are most insincere. Today this Guru is very good; today I am nice to you. But tomorrow I am absolutely useless. This moment you feel that I am good, the next moment you feel that I am bad. When you think that I am good, don’t think at that time that I am going to be very generous to you in the inner world or in the outer world. The Supreme in me will observe for how many days you maintain your faith in me. Today some of you will have faith in me just for half an hour. Then, when you go home, faith will go away. But I wish to say if you can forever maintain your faith in me, then there is nothing that you cannot do. I am not scolding you at all. I am only telling you how you can be fulfilled.
This moment I have smiled at you, so you feel that I am a very good man. The next moment, if I don’t get the chance to smile at you, if I turn to the other side to talk to somebody else, then according to you I am a very bad man.
Believe me, when you say that I am a good man, that I hear; and when you think that I am a bad man, that also I feel. You will think that since I have not looked at you, you will be able to deceive me. I may not see you at all, but my inner beings will bring me the message. Like a magnet they will bring the message.
By thinking that I am bad or by feeling that I am good, you will not gain anything. Only by becoming good will you gain something. If you can become good, then you will get everything. You think I am very bad, let us say; the teacher is not good at all. No harm. But if you can make your life better, automatically you will see good in me.
Quite a few of the disciples feel, “Guru does not care for me, Guru does not care for us.” Just by thinking repeatedly that Guru does not care for you, you won’t gain anything. If you think that I don’t care for you, that I will never care for you — if you cherish that idea for the rest of your life — you will not get one drop more of my concern from the sea of my consciousness. If you feel that I only care for others, you are not going to get one drop more from me.
Try to feel how many seconds I do think of you. Ask yourself, “How many times did I think to fulfil him in his own way?” Perhaps you will give yourself zero. Perhaps you will think that you try to fulfil me in my own way once a month. And, I tell you, there are disciples who do not make that attempt even once during the whole month.
The moment you think or feel that you can fulfil me in my own way, you have already fulfilled me. My concern, my love, does not depend on my smile or my blessing. It depends on your own inner and outer action. Inwardly, while you are walking, if you have a good thought about me, I wish to say that your whole inner being is flooded with joy. I don’t have to talk to you for a month. If you can have only once a divine thought, you are bound to get inner joy.
Why don’t you get this joy now? It is not because some people see me quite often and you do not. No, it is precisely because you are lacking in inner conviction. That inner conviction feels, “I am of you and I am for you.” Unless you feel, “I am of you,” you can never have the feeling, “I am for you.” You have to feel that I am one with you in your suffering. Right now you feel that only when you do something great am I for you, and that when you do something bad, at that time I am not with you. No, that is the wrong attitude. If you do anything wrong, immediately identify yourself and your wrong action with me. If you can identify yourself at that time with me, then you will be able to come out of it.
Suppose you have insulted or scolded someone. Already you are undivine. But then, if you separate yourself from me and feel that I am not in you, that I am not sympathising with you and with your thoughts, then immediately your anger will come towards me. You will say, “I have done such a wrong thing. I got angry with this person. It is very bad, very bad. And where was Guru? Why did he not protect me? What was he doing? Was he sleeping?” This is your reaction. But I wish to say, at the time you get angry with someone, try to feel that I am one with the action and with the result. You got angry; now you are getting the result. You are feeling miserable. But now you have to feel whether I am also suffering. Am I saying that I don’t want to see you, or that you deserve punishment? Am I saying that since you got angry and did not behave properly, you deserve this kind of suffering? No! Do not cherish the idea that I am saying that. At that time make me one with you. Bring me, pull me, into all your wrong forces, into your suffering.
Every day you can write down on the tablet of your heart many things that you have done wrong in thought and action. If you write them down, perhaps good disciples will get ten or fifteen wrong actions; bad ones will get fifty or sixty. Then tomorrow, again you start. Be your own examiner. Every day you examine yourself. When you have done something good, offer it. When you have done something bad, that also you offer. Everything, offer, offer, offer to me. But if you hold onto it, then it is impossible for me to enter into you.So when you are angry, don’t cherish this anger. Just throw it into me. When you have wrong thoughts, vital thoughts, anything undivine, just throw it into me. If you do not throw it into me but just hold it, what happens? Unconsciously you cherish it. And if you cherish these thoughts, they gain enormous strength and try to destroy your whole being. When these thoughts start, at that time they are like a few ants. If you can see them, easily you can destroy them. But when they grow and a few ants become hundreds and thousands of ants, at that time it is very difficult, very difficult.
But even if you feel that it is a hopeless case, I wish to tell you that nothing is hopeless. Even when you yourself give up the challenge, God will not give up the challenge in and through you. He may allow you to take rest for a day or a month or a year or a hundred years, but eventually He will again inspire you to accept the challenge.The disciple gladly gives what he has: his ignorance. But it has to be given spontaneously. Your wealth you have to give to the Master. Your wealth is your ignorance and the Master’s wealth is his light. When you receive the ultimate wealth of the Master, you become the possessor of boundless Light. Where does the Peace and Light come from? It comes from the highest Source. Then you try to manifest this Peace and Light.
I have not initiated my disciples in the traditional Indian way, which I do not care for. I have not asked you to bring me a coconut, a piece of cloth or some rice. Chanting from the Vedas and the Upanishads, invoking the cosmic gods and goddesses: this I have not done. For me it is not at all necessary. The Supreme, who is above all, has initiated you people through me. In my case, the moment I accept someone as a real disciple of mine, that very acceptance is initiation. When I accept someone, he is initiated. If I really accept him, and if the person also really cares for initiation, then I make the solemn promise of taking his ignorance. Initiation means real acceptance. If you have really accepted me as your Master, then I have really initiated you. If your acceptance is not sincere, then there is no initiation for you.In the spiritual life it is the same. In order to remain always in the heart, one must feel inside him the presence of a seeker, a seeker of utmost and constant sincerity. People are sincere, in general, when they start their journey. They accept the spiritual life and for five days or five months or five years they are sincere. To be sincere for five years is one thing; but to be sincere at every moment is something else. Let us say you have accepted our path. You say, “I am following Guru’s path.” But every day to have sincerity, every hour to have sincerity, every moment to have sincerity, is a different matter.
We say we are following somebody’s path, and it is true. But how do we actually spend our time? In each day there are twenty-four hours. For seven or eight hours we sleep. Then, four or five hours we waste by talking and mixing with others. On spirituality we spend hardly two or three hours. And even during these two or three hours, sometimes we are not sincere. While we are meditating, perhaps for two minutes we are sincere, and the rest of the time we are daydreaming; we are building castles in the air.
In our spiritual life, there is a constant battle between the heart’s inner cry and the mind’s rejection. When sincerity plays its role constantly in the spiritual life, we remain inside the heart. But sometimes sincerity fails and the heart loses. When the heart loses in the battlefield of life, life becomes a barren desert. But when this happens, we have to feel that the night will last only for a few hours, and then there will be day. Just because we are experiencing the night, we cannot say that there will be no day for us. There will be day. But if we want to remain in day all the time, then we can do two things. The first thing is to use our imagination-power. Imagination is not bad. Imagination is most important in the spiritual life. A scientist who discovers something really great attributes ninety-nine per cent of his achievement to the power of imagination. Today it is imagination, but tomorrow it is inspiration. Then, the day after tomorrow it becomes aspiration and the following day it becomes realisation. For those who are following our path, meditation in the heart centre has taken place many, many times. So if you use your imagination-power and remember how you used to meditate one or two years ago, immediately you will be able to go back and catch the bird that used to fly so well in your heart’s sky, psychic sky. Use your imagination-power and then, right after that, use your gratitude-power. As soon as you feel with your imagination that you have reached the stage where you were two years ago or one year ago, then immediately offer your heart’s gratitude-power. Show your gratitude to the Supreme or even to the heart, which has received Peace, Light and Bliss from above.
So, first use your imagination-power and then use your gratitude-power. In this way you are bound to get back in your day-to-day life the capacity to concentrate, to meditate, to contemplate on your heart. Once you have achieved something and then lost it, rest assured that you are bound to get that thing back again. It is only a matter of time. Again, if you have not got something, that doesn’t mean that you will not get it in the future. You will get it. But once you have already achieved something, it is always infinitely easier to get that thing back. How do you expedite the process? Through your constant, sincere cry and through your imagination-power and gratitude-power.How can we have power and humility at the same time? Think of Mother Earth, which is right around us. Mother Earth is holding all power, but she is so humble. We are doing so many undivine things on earth, but Mother Earth has infinite compassion. She is infinitely more powerful than any individual, but her heart is all forgiveness, because she feels her oneness with God’s creation.
Or take a mango tree. It has hundreds of mangoes. When we human beings achieve something, we are bloated with pride. If we have a dollar, we are bloated with pride because somebody else does not have a dollar. But the tree is not like that. When the tree bears fruit, at that time it could be very proud because everybody needs its mangoes. But the tree does not become proud. On the contrary, it gives its wealth to us and we are nourished. By offering its wealth to us, it feels a sense of satisfaction. True satisfaction is divine contentment. So, the tree teaches us how humility and power can go together. When we achieve something, our achievement is a form of power. But this power is not destructive power. It is a power that feeds. When the tree bears fruit, it offers its wealth, its life, to mankind. This wealth we can call power. The thing that helps mankind undoubtedly is a form of power.
Whoever is in a position to give is stronger than one who receives. I need something from you. That means that you are superior to me. The tree is in a position to give us fruits, leaves and everything. But when the tree becomes great as a result of its possessions and achievements, the tree bows down. When it offers us all its capacity, it bows down. A tree is a radiant example of how power and humility can go together. Humility means oneness with the rest of the world, whereas divine power is the power to give and become one. When we give, immediately we expand our consciousness. Again, on the strength of our humility, we become vast. Vastness itself is power.
In the spiritual life, when a Master really becomes great, at that time he becomes a child. Because of his prayer and meditation, God gives him spiritual power, occult power, many things. When the spiritual Master becomes flooded with inner power, at that time he will mix with humanity like one child mixing with other children in a garden. God is all Love, all Power; again He is all Humility. How does He do it? God is an eternal Child and this Child is always sweet and humble.There is another way which is most effective, but it may be a little difficult. In the beginning, feel that you have no arms, no nose, no eyes, no ears; you do not have anything but the heart. This heart need not be in the centre of your chest; it may be in your forehead or somewhere else. Only you have to feel that you have the heart and that you are the heart.
Then, after some time, you will locate the heart. How will you locate it? Your consciousness will tell you that the heart is here or that the heart is there. Medical science will immediately say that it is false, that the heart can only be here in the chest. But for spiritual people, the heart can be anywhere, for the spiritual heart means the abode of light. If the Divine within you, the Supreme within you, wants to show you the presence of light through your third eye, which is infinite light and power, then He will tell you that this is the heart. So, for you, the third eye will be the abode of light. That means that the Supreme within you wants to go and visit that particular place and stay there.
When you start your journey, you have to feel that you have the heart and that you are the heart. Then, after some time, your consciousness will tell you where the heart is or who the heart is. At that time, you will concentrate on that spot and feel that that is the only place for you to feel the heart or to become the heart. The heart means light and light means power. The more you have light, the more you will have power. God is all Light. That is why He is all-pervading; that is why He is all powerful. Light and power cannot be separated. Here we can see the electric lamp and we can see the place where it is plugged in. We can separate them. But in the spiritual life, we cannot separate light from power. Light itself is power. And what is light? Universal oneness.
If you want to make your power of concentration more effective, do not think of something vast. Think of something as small as possible. But when you want to meditate, at that time think of something very vast — the sky, the ocean, the mountains — and become one with the vastness, which is all power. But when you want to get the power of concentration, identify yourself with the tiniest thing possible. Then only will you become all-powerful. God is all-powerful not because He is Vastness itself, but because He is inside the elephant as well as the ant. God is all-powerful because He can be both elephant and ant. He is the infinite and He is the finite. Just because He is finite and infinite at the same time, He is omnipotent.
So if you want to meditate and acquire power, just think of Infinity itself, because there is God’s infinite power. But if you want to develop power through your concentration, think of something very subtle, very small.What do we mean by hostile forces? These are dark forces that eclipse the inner sun. They are like veils that cover the inner sun. If we can consciously meditate on our heart and discover there the living presence of our inner sun, then we are bound first to feel and then to see this most effulgent sun. When we feel and see our inner sun, the hostile forces cannot stay even for a fleeting second. This is how we conquer the hostile forces that have already come inside us.
Now, what do we do about the hostile forces that are attacking us from outside and trying to enter into us? How are we going to conquer them? If we want to fight against them with our own strength, it is simply impossible. Our vital may say that we have abundant strength, but actually our own strength is limited, very limited. So what do we do? The easiest thing is to pray for protection, divine protection. For two minutes early in the morning, if we pray for divine protection, God’s adamantine Force in the form of divine soldiers will be moving around us. And these soldiers are bound to protect us. Our meditation will immediately bear fruit or, we can say, our prayer will be transformed into a battalion. So, in the morning we have to pray for protection and illumination. There is no difference between protection and illumination. When we are fully protected, then illumination automatically takes place; and when we are illumined, fully illumined, protection will be there all around us.
So, for protection against hostile forces that are already lodged inside us, we try to bring to the fore our inner sun. For protection from the hostile forces outside us, we have to pray and meditate early in the morning. And while we are praying, we have to feel that the protection is already there with its power. It is not enough just to have a vague feeling that we are doing it. We cannot do it mechanically. Mechanical prayer is no prayer. Mechanical meditation is no meditation. Each time we pray or meditate, we have to try to feel tremendous enthusiasm, an inner urge. We have to feel that we want something and that we are getting it. We are growing into it; we are becoming it. Then, I tell you, we are bound to get protection from within and from without.So each attendant has inner power. This inner power is the power of his aspiration. This inner power is the power of his self-giving. He wants peace, he wants harmony, he wants love. All these qualities he has in his inner being in abundant measure. If he invokes them soulfully, they are bound to come forward because it is their very nature to come forward. But it has to be done soulfully. Every sincere invocation is immediately answered by the Supreme. There is not a single attendant who is not aspiring according to his capacity. When necessity demands that he bring to the fore his inner power, do you think his Inner Pilot, who is holding infinite power, will delay? The Inner Pilot will immediately supply him with most adequate power to cope with the outer circumstances.
Questioner: I think I was looking for some sort of magic word that I could say to stop any wrong force.
Sri Chinmoy: If there is a wrong force right in front of you, then immediately repeat “Supreme” very fast: “Supreme, Supreme.” But it has to be done very quickly. In a second try to repeat the Supreme as quickly as possible, hundreds of times. Let the other person feel that you are crazy. When somebody feels that you are crazy, automatically his power goes away. It is beneath his dignity to bother you. When you start repeating something, you are invoking the Supreme not to protect yourself, because you are physically stronger than the other person. You are invoking the presence of the Supreme only to illumine the other person. But he is thinking that you are invoking someone out of fear. He feels, “All right. He is terribly frightened, so let me leave him alone.” Or he will feel that you are invoking some magic power and then he will stay away from you. “Supreme” is a foreign word to him, so he will leave you alone.Sometimes we say that we had something most important to do, but we forgot. But if we go deep within, we will see that the most important thing we have not forgotten. Only we do not pay adequate attention to it. Can there be anything more important in a spiritual person’s life than God? Can there be anything more significant, more meaningful and more fruitful than God? No. Then how is it that we forget God? Just because we do not give adequate importance to Him. When the body is hungry, we think of food but when the soul is hungry, we do not realise it. That is because we do not identify with the soul. But if we know how to identify ourselves with the soul, which is constantly hungry for the manifestation of divine light on earth, then we shall always remember the Supreme our eternal Guru. Always we are bound to remember.
The other thing is unconditional surrender. Unconditional surrender we can make only when we develop the power of gratitude, only when we constantly feel the necessity of gratitude within us. Millions of people are not praying or meditating, but we are praying and meditating and trying to realise God. So each morning we have to be grateful that we are doing something that our friends and relatives are not doing. That means that there is somebody who is really kind and compassionate to us. If we can feel this, then we will see that automatically unconditional surrender will grow.
Many things we have tried in life but failed to accomplish. We may ask, “How is it that we have tried so sincerely, yet we have failed?” But we have to know that what we call sincerity may not be sincerity at all. We may try to do something out of greed or personal necessity, but this may not be the necessity of God. Again, there are many things that we have achieved, but we have not paid any attention to them.
Unconditional surrender grows like a mushroom if, every day early in the morning, we get up to pray and meditate. Who compels us to get up? It is our inner being. We feel an inner urge to get up to meditate in the morning while our neighbours are fast asleep. So for all that we have and all that we are right now, if we can make ourselves feel that it is due to God’s conscious benevolent Will, we will feel the gratitude-flower blossoming petal by petal inside our heart. And from this gratitude-power, unconditional surrender will come.When you offer the fulfilling and illumining power to mankind, you do it with the feeling that you as an individual are unsatisfied or dissatisfied with your possession. You will be satisfied only when you can claim the universe as your very own and when the universe can claim you as its own, on the strength of your mutual self-giving. By giving yourself you become one, and this oneness is founded upon sweetness, affection, sympathy, love, concern, compassion and gratitude. The oneness-tree has many branches. There you will see affection, sweetness, concern, compassion.
If you give me money, naturally I will be grateful to you. But if you are really spiritual, you will also be grateful to me because it is I who received from you properly and am using your gift properly. If I misuse it, then immediately the world will say, “Where did he get this power from?” Then you will also be the culprit. But if you give me something divine and I use it properly, people will first appreciate me and then they will appreciate the source. They will ask where I got it from, and then they will see you. So when we use divine power, it is not only the one who gives but also the one who receives that is important. He who gives and he who receives are of equal importance.Power manifests itself through each individual according to his soul’s quality, true. Every soul expresses itself and manifests the Supreme through some divine quality: through light, peace, bliss and so forth. We have to know that power can be light, power can be peace, power can be compassion. Light itself is power. When we have light, then we will do everything right. Peace is power. When we have peace, then nothing affects us. These qualities can easily be seen as power, because whenever we achieve something or perform something we feel that it is due to some power.
In our human mind, we only recognise power in a specific form: the power that breaks or the power that builds. But the subtle power which comes when we prayerfully meditate, when our mind is calm and quiet, is peace, light and bliss. At that time, how strong and powerful we are! Here we are not struggling, nobody is striking us; but once we feel that our mind is silent, we will feel that this powerful silence itself is power.Why do we give so much importance to the physical: sports and circus and all that? It is because the physical power is necessary. Physical, vital and mental power are all necessary, but only if they are being used for a divine purpose. If they are being used for an undivine purpose, then it is all a waste of life’s energy.
So first the physical power, the vital power and the mental power have to be transformed and illumined; then they have to offer their might, their capacity, to their eldest brother, the soul, who is already anxious that they become one. The eldest brother has much more money than the younger ones, but together they all want to buy something for the whole family. So the eldest brother gives a hundred dollars. Then the physical power comes with one dollar, the vital power with three dollars and the mental power with ten or twelve dollars. They combine their wealth and buy something for the whole family, the family of the Supreme. What is their wealth? It is their power of aspiration. This power goes up and brings down Light from above.From:Sri Chinmoy,Creation and perfection, Agni Press, 1976
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/cap