Part III — Questions and answers: University of Utah

FFB 162-165. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 24 April 1974 — 10:00 am.

Question: Sometimes when I talk to others, my mind sees a duality. In the act of trying to see the good in others, I feel a separation. What do you recommend?

Sri Chinmoy: The difficulty is that if you try to see good in others with your mind, you will see good for only one minute. Then the next minute you will try to see bad in them as well. And even when you do see good in others, you will doubt whether you have seen good; you will not know whether what you have seen is really good or bad. You want to see goodness in your friend and you do see it. But the next moment doubt will come and make you say, "Is it really good? Perhaps I am fooling myself."

But if you want to feel goodness in others, then please use your heart. The heart immediately identifies with the consciousness, with the essence of a person or thing. Our philosophy is the philosophy of identification. From identification we enter into oneness, inseparable oneness. First we identify ourselves with the Reality; then we feel that we are constantly, inseparably one with the Reality. In the case of the mind, the mind may see the Reality, but then the mind doubts the Reality.

If you use the mind you may say, “Today’s lecturer is a good man.” Then you start doubting. Before you leave the church you may say, “No, he is a very bad man.” Then, after going a few steps, you may say, “Am I right? Was I right in judging him?” First I am good, then I am bad. But whatever I am, whether I am good or bad, your judgement does not affect me in any way. If I am good, I am good; if I am bad, I am bad. I do not lose anything when you doubt me. But the moment you doubt yourself, you have lost everything. By doubting others and by doubting yourself, you never get any sense of satisfaction. But by becoming one with the thing that you love, you get real satisfaction. Now, if you use your heart and if your heart says I am good, at that time you become one with me. And if you feel that I am a bad man, then immediately you will reject me. Then you will use the capacity of your heart to establish your identification and oneness with someone else.

In our path we always try to give importance to the heart first. Then we give importance to the mind. What has the light? The soul has the light. And where is the soul? The soul is inside the heart. Right now the heart has more light than the mind. This is what we feel and what we know. But the mind will not remain always unlit, obscure. Eventually we have to bring the same light into the mind. Otherwise, the doubting mind, the suspecting mind will never leave us.

Right now let us use the heart-room and remain in the heart-room as much as we can. And once our inner being is surcharged with light, then let us enter into the mind-room. At that time, the mind-room will be illumined. We have to illumine the mind-room, we have to illumine the vital-room, we have to illumine the physical-room. But let us do the first thing first. Let the light descend from above into the heart and from the heart into the mind. Let us not try to reverse the course. If we try to deal first with the mind, then no matter how many hours or how many years we stay in the unlit mind-room, the mind-room is not going to be illumined.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 5, Agni Press, 1975
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