Without creativity,
No great soulCan offer anything substantial
To mankind. ```Detachment is not an escape. Detachment is to say, "This is God's world. Let God take care of it. My only obligation is to please God in His own Way. He is the Creator; I am the creation. I can only be of real help to God, real service to God, by praying to Him."
When you try to remain detached, you have to feel that it is your wisdom-light that is coming to the fore. Detachment is not an escape from life. Detachment is a way to see or to feel that God knows that what is happening is for the ultimate good of mankind or for the ultimate good of Mother Earth.If there is no determination,
Life is bound to beA constant failure.
```Inner surrender
Has an exquisite inner beautyWhich our outer eyes
Fail to notice. ```If somebody tells you that your name is 'Anxiety', you will vehemently deny it. You will say, "No, my name is such-and-such. It has such a lofty spiritual meaning. My entire existence is flooded with light."
You will not identify yourself with the name 'Anxiety' at all. Nor will you identify yourself with your fears and doubts. At that time, you will separate yourself from these negative thoughts. In the spiritual life, always try to cultivate faith in yourself and in this way you will not identify yourself with any negative qualities. You have to know that when fear, doubt, anxieties and worries come, it is an attack. If anybody calls you by the name 'Worry', are you going to respond? No. But if anybody calls you by the name 'Faith', you will immediately say, "Yes, I am that, I am that, I am that. God has so much faith in me. I have so much faith in God."
In our ordinary human life, we may lose faith in God for two days or four days. Then we will say to ourselves, "This is God's vast Creation! Is He really useless? If He is useless, then He cannot be the Ruler of the world, the Governor of the world." And our faith in God is restored.
But when it comes to our faith in ourselves, all the stupid things that we have done in our lives come forward to destroy our joy. We lose faith in ourselves because twenty years ago perhaps we told a lie. Twenty years ago perhaps somebody asked me which direction to go in Augsburg and I showed him the wrong way! So all kinds of things happen in life. When we deal with our human faith, we are only digging up the past. We remind ourselves of how many bad things we have done. But divine faith is not like that. Divine faith is always going forward, forward, forward. We have to throw our human faith into divine faith. Then we shall be able to go forward.
Even the term 'human' faith is always mixed with doubt because we cannot separate faith from doubt, specially self-doubt. But when it is a matter of divine faith, as soon as we say the word 'divine', beauty comes into our life, light comes into our life. The divine is something beautiful, pure, absolutely glorious. When we say 'divine', immediately light comes to our mind; whereas, when we say 'human', it is always mixed with some negativity, some darkness.
On the human level, there is negativity inside everything and everyone. So when we are dealing with our own faith in ourselves, we have to constantly separate ourselves from doubt because doubt and faith go side by side.
Once we accept the spiritual life, we have to say, "I am of God, I am for God." If you can say this, then immediately you will have faith in yourself. Your faith automatically becomes divine and your anxieties, worries, fears and doubts will all disappear. If you are of God, then how can you be full of doubt?
Then there is another point: whatever you have suffered in your life, it is God who has experienced it in and through you. That same God is now telling you, "Only identify yourself with Me." If we can identify ourselves with God all the time, then all the divine qualities within us will be brought to the fore. Just say, "I am of God. I am for God." Then your doubts will become like a football and you will be able to kick them away. They will not be able to come near you.
If you are really for God, you will be like a deer running towards your Beloved Supreme. Who can prevent you from reaching Him? Our devoted qualities have to run towards God faster than the fastest. When you say, "I am of the Supreme," those little, little animals — doubts, worries and so forth — will all get frightened because they are afraid of light. We are afraid of darkness, but they are afraid of light. So always say, "I am of the Supreme. I am for the Supreme."
Unfortunately, we cannot maintain that feeling. When our old worries and anxieties come back into our minds, God disappears. At that time, we do not try to illumine those negative thoughts. We are helpless. In India, one Acharya used to say, by way of joke, "I am a divine warrior, but what can I do? I have a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. My hands are all occupied, so how can I fight?"
But fight we must. Our heart has to say, with all its affection, love, kindness, sweetness and fondness, that we are of God and we are for God. Then we will be able to maintain our feeling. Otherwise, if this idea comes from the mind, we will forget that we are of God and for God sooner than at once. It is our heart that has to say, "All the good qualities that God has given me I am offering to Him, and He will give me much, much more than before because I am of Him and I am for Him."When we receive
Even an iota of Grace from Above,We enter into a higher race
Of divine existence. ```Gratitude is the shortest road
And fastest speedTo arrive at God's Palace.
```If you want to develop intuition through prayer and meditation, imagine that you are following a road that is longer than the longest. Imagine somebody is walking beside you and that person has a flashlight. When he starts using the flashlight, you see that the road is becoming shorter and shorter and shorter. Intuition brings the longest road right in front of you.
Sometimes when I ask what is happening in Germany or Russia or some other place, I do not know the details, but my intuition just brings a particular family or some individuals who are in need of my inner help right in front of me. So intuition can go to the farthest and, again, intuition can bring the farthest right in front of you.
But if it is difficult for you to develop intuition through prayer and meditation, only appreciate the beauty of the flowers, the beauty of the grass. If you can identify yourself with the beauty aspect of Nature, then you will develop intuition. That intuition is very, very pure, but it is limited.
If a spiritual person has intuition, his intuition is infinitely stronger than the intuition of those who do not pray and meditate. But I have to say, why should you pray and meditate in order to acquire intuition? You need only realisation. Realisation is a vaster than the vastest oneness. Intuition is not oneness. With your intuitive capacities, you will try to know what is happening somewhere else. Why do you have to know what is happening somewhere else when you have the capacity to become everything and everyone? That is realisation.
Awareness, on the other hand, is far inferior to intuition. We may be aware of something — a tree, for example — but we have no way to bring the beauty and purity of the tree to us. However, if you have intuition, you can inwardly go to where the tree is and enjoy the beauty and purity of the tree.
Intuition gives you an inner connecting link with the object. You can either go where it is or you can bring it right in front of your vision. For intuition, there is a connecting road, but awareness does not have a road.
Again, realisation goes far beyond intuition. When you have realisation, you see the tree with all its leaves and flowers and fruits right inside you. You do not have to go anywhere.
We may be aware of something, but we cannot bring it to us. Intuition can go there or intuition can bring the reality of that object to you. So intuition is infinitely more important than awareness.
We can be aware if somebody is very bad and we can be aware if somebody is very good. But simply by becoming aware of somebody's bad qualities, we cannot remove those bad qualities. We are aware of his bad deeds, but we are helpless; we cannot do anything. But if, by intuition, we know of somebody's bad qualities, then we will try to do something. Whether we will be successful or not, we will try to help him turn over a new leaf.
Again, if we have realisation, which is oneness, we will take it even more seriously. At that time, we will take it as our bounden duty to be of service to that person.Light is even in darkest darkness.
But we need Infinity's Light to transform the darkest darkness of ignorance-night.When we sincerely feel
That we are nothingness incarnate,Then God comes
And turns our nothingnessInto His Infinity's Fulness.
```God-oneness means
Heaven-fulfilmentAnd earth-enlightenment.
```One-pointedness you develop only by making the subject or object as small as possible. One-pointedness you cannot apply to vastness. Again, when you develop this capacity to concentrate on objects which are smaller than the smallest, tinier than the tiniest, it will become so easy for you to identify yourself with the vastness of the Reality. At that time, if you use your one-pointedness to reach your Beloved Supreme, you will see that He is coming towards you. Your one-pointedness will come into the category of contemplation.
Suppose you are looking at my Transcendental Photograph. Gradually, gradually you will try to look at the smallest portion possible. Only try to see the eyes. Then forget about two eyes and try to see only one eye. First you will see the whole face and then, gradually, gradually bring your focus to two eyes and then only one eye. When only one eye remains, feel that that one eye is entering into you and you are entering into that eye. Use your one-pointedness.
So again and again I am saying that for one-pointedness, make the vastness as small as possible, as tiny as possible. When you are successful in piercing through it, even if you are looking at the ocean itself, your one-pointedness will make the vastness disappear.Let us say that we have been making very good progress and all of a sudden our progress has come to a standstill. Whether it takes two hours or four hours or four days in a row, whatever amount of time is needed, we must cry and cry and cry. Many people give up the spiritual life when they see that they are not making any more progress. But they do not realise that progress can sometimes be made in a different way. Progress can be made either by pulling or pushing. You can try to pull the ocean of Light towards you, or you can push yourself towards the ocean of Light.
In this connection, I wish to narrate a humorous story. A man found that his sleep was disturbed. Days ran into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. Still he could not get proper rest at night. Every night he suffered from nightmares and then he could not go back to sleep. His nightmare was always the same. He would see a huge house. The house was always in darkness, but he felt that there was something inside the house; he was convinced that he would find a room that was flooded with light. Every night, in his nightmare, he approached the house carrying a little flashlight. Then he would struggle to open the door. Alas, each night he failed. His mind was fixed on the idea of pulling open the door. He felt that if he could only pull open the door, then he would be able to go inside the house. But he always tried and tried in vain. Then he would wake up from his nightmare.
Eventually, the man decided to visit a famous psychiatrist to receive treatment for his condition. He narrated his pathetic story to the psychiatrist. He felt that if he had to go on suffering in this way, he did not want to live on earth any more. The psychiatrist listened to the whole story and said, "All right, before you die, let me ask you a few questions. When you are standing at the door, do you see anything there that you have not told me, apart from the fact that the house is in darkness?"
"Yes," said the man, "on the door there is a small sign with one silly word — PUSH. However, I do not pay any attention to it. I know that only by pulling will the door open up."
The man's mind was focussed on the idea that if he pulled the door, it would open up, but, according to him, pushing was of no value at all.
Similarly, in the spiritual life, sometimes it happens that we cannot make any more progress. Why? We are trying to pull the ocean of Light towards us. But how can we pull the ocean? It is simply impossible. So we have to grab ourselves and push ourselves into the water. Then we will become the ocean of Light itself.
Many times I have said that one cannot make progress in the spiritual life by hook or by crook. I have said that spirituality is not a matter of pushing and pulling. Here I wish to qualify my statement. Spirituality is not a matter of pushing or pulling others aside in order to reach the goal.
Again in some ways, life is always a kind of push or pull. When it is safe to push, we should push. Unfortunately, we always try to pull something. That is the mistake we always make. We should not try to pull the infinite expanse towards us. No, we should push ourselves towards the infinite expanse.
When you want to make progress, just think of yourself as a mischievous monkey. Feel, "I am nothing but a monkey!" Then grab that naughty monkey and throw it into the water. Only in this case, the ocean does not contain water, so you do not have to be afraid. In the ocean of Light, you will see that so many Gods and Goddesses are waiting for you to receive you with utmost affection, love, sweetness and fondness.
When the time comes for us to enter into Infinity by pushing or throwing ourselves, we do not do it. We feel, "No, no, if I can pull Infinity towards me, then only will I make progress." Every human being suffers from this problem. Our progress stops when we try to pull the largest and heaviest object towards us. But our progress continues if we push ourselves or throw ourselves into the ocean. You have to feel, "I am a tiny drop. How can I bring the ocean into me? It is I who should enter into the ocean." That is the wisdom that you have to apply to yourself in order to make the fastest progress. Consciously push yourself into the water.
Progress is always made by taking ourselves to the superior, God, and not by bringing the superior into us. Just say to yourself, "Why should God come to me? Who am I? I should go to God."
If we know that God is in the adjacent room, it is we who should go to Him and not the reverse. Are we fools? If God is there, we have to run towards Him! By going to Him, we can please Him. True, He can come to us, but if He comes to us, we will not get the same joy. When we run to Him, we feel that we have done something. When we cut a mango into pieces and eat it, we get more joy than if somebody hands us a piece of mango. Always our action gives us more joy. Something more, if God comes to us, pride can enter into us. But if we go to God with our humility, with our love, with our fondness for Him, then we are safe.
If I am sitting somewhere and you come running towards me, I get much more joy as your spiritual Master than when I go to you. When I go to you, you may say, "Oh, now I have really become something! The Master has come to me." So instead of drawing something towards you, always go to the destination. The destination can come to you, but you will not get the same satisfaction. If you go to the destination, you will get infinitely more joy.Purity of the mind
Expedites astonishinglyOur Godward journey.
```So when we are in the physical or when we are in the mind, and we offer ourselves, we give an iota of our existence and immediately we feel that we have given the equivalent of one million dollars. But if we remain in our heart, we will feel that we have so much more to give, so much more to give — our love, our peace, our light, our bliss. We will feel that what we have given is next to nothing.
So when it is a matter of self-giving, when we are in the mental world, we feel that it is a waste of time. We feel that we are just wasting our energy. But when we are in our heart, we feel that we have much more to give. We feel that our self-giving can never come to an end. We say, "Let the person come again. I will give him more, more, more."
When you remain in the heart, self-giving has divine reality in it; it is inexhaustible. The qualities that you are offering — joy, love, goodwill, concern — are absolutely infinite. Anything divine you have in infinite measure, provided your self-giving comes from the heart. If it comes from the mind, you will give practically nothing, but you will feel that you have given everything. At that time, what is the use of self-giving?
When you give from the heart, you always feel, "I am a fool! I could have given much more, much more." Self-giving in the heart always unites us with vastness. Self-giving in the mind always binds us and binds us. It makes us miserable. We regret it because we feel that we have wasted our precious time. But when we give from the heart, we feel an endless supply of joy, light and so many other divine qualities.
So when you perform an act of self-giving, always feel that it is coming from the heart and not from the mind.If you want to know which one pleases God more, love or service, then I must say that love is good, but service is better. Love is an inner feeling. Service is also an inner feeling, but service manifests, whereas love identifies.
Identification is not enough. It must be followed by manifestation. If you want to do something for the world, love and service must go together, but God will appreciate your service more because you are doing something for Him that is tangible here, there and everywhere.
God-service means God's immediate manifestation on earth. Those who serve God are all the time creating something new, new — new for God on earth.Today's speed can take us to a particular destination, but with that same speed in the inner world, we will not be able to arrive at another destination. We have to increase our speed. And again, when we want to arrive at a new destination, we have to increase our speed once more.
In our outer life, we can run a marathon at a constant speed — a six-minute or seven-minute pace. Mile after mile you can go at the same speed. But in the inner world, each time you arrive at a new destination, you have to increase your speed in order to arrive at the following destination. Otherwise, you are not allowed to arrive at a new destination with your old speed.Each time we have sweetness
In our thought,God comes one step
Closer to us. ```Sweeter than the sweetest
Are the heart-tearsOf a God-seeker.
```The vastness of the mind
Can purify and beautifyA seeker's life.
```When we have zeal
In our dedicated service,We enter into God's Heart
With a very special thrill. ```From:Sri Chinmoy,The heart-tears of a God-seeker, Agni Press, 2005
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/htg