You are your life's progress-joy-drum

Part I — Questions and answers

Viet Nam

Viet Nam, Viet Nam, Viet Nam, Viet Nam!

Your crying heart's streaming tears no more.

Part I — Questions and answers²

Question: What is the power that can be found in a smile?

Question: How will your coming here affect the future of Viet Nam?

Question: What ingredients are necessary to transform the body?

Question: How can we meditate eight hours a day?

The morning session has to be at least 15 minutes. If you want, you can do 20 minutes or a half hour. Then, in the evening you should do at least 10 minutes. But the rest of your meditations can last just five or 10 minutes or a maximum of 15 minutes.

Do not count it as a meditation if you are driving your car. If you are meditating while you are driving, it is good. But that meditation cannot be counted as serious meditation because all the time you are concentrating on your driving and watching out for other cars. While driving, you will definitely meditate for protection, for the perfection of your nature and for other good things. But do not count that meditation as one of your eight meditations. Also do not count as serious meditation the times that you meditate on the train.

Question: How can one bring spirituality into politics?

It is very easy to dislike some politicians because at every second they are trying to fool us. Even when they are sincere, at times they may not know what they are talking about. And if they do not know what they are talking about, then what are we going to learn from them? If the teacher does not know the subject, then how can the student learn from the teacher?

But spiritual people have to have patience and, more than anything else, humility. Even though some politicians enjoy falsehood at every second, we are not going to illumine them by breaking their heads. No! It is only through utmost humility, sincere humility, that spiritual people will be able to illumine them. We will not try to break their heads; we will try to touch their hearts.

If spiritual people cannot mix with politicians on a spiritual or psychic level, if they cannot bring the politicians into their hearts, then they have to touch the feet of the politicians. They cannot go to politicians as princes or commanders, saying, "We have the light!" The politicians will not respond to them. Spiritual people have to act like a mother who knows that her child needs milk. If the child is unruly and not listening to the mother, the mother goes to the child and begs the child to drink because she knows he needs the milk badly.

Question: How can we illumine leisure and pleasure?

In my case, to get relaxation I read funny, funny books. And yesterday I wrote a book called I am not the author. So you can see what kind of book it was! This is relaxation. If you take relaxation from time to time, it cleanses your mind, purifies your heart and helps you to get back your energy.

But we are making a serious mistake if we confuse leisure with wallowing in the pleasure of ignorance. For spiritual people, pleasure is undivine and unforgivable. We have to exercise our freedom wisely. A life of pleasure lasts for a few fleeting seconds or a few days at most. Then mental, vital, physical and other kinds of suffering start.

Question: Why?

These questions can be answered only by asking another question: Why did God create this world? God created this world to feel His own Capacity. Until we exercise our capacity, we do not know how much or what kind of capacity we have. God's Vision wanted to know God's Reality; Vision-Power wanted to know the actual Reality-Power. It is true that God the Omniscient knows everything, but that kind of knowing does not satisfy God. He wants to know in a practical way — not intellectually or in any other way — how much capacity He has and He is.

You embarked on your spiritual journey at a tender age. When you did so, your mind was not operating at all and your heart was operating only a little. What was operating most powerfully at that time was your soul. Your soul opened its all-illumining eyes inside your heart to awaken the heart and enable it to see the soul's beauty and divinity. The soul awakened the heart to the highest Reality and to the brightest Light.

Once you see the Light, the question is whether you are going to serve the Light or just watch the Light and appreciate its beauty and power. There are many, many, many people on earth who are satisfied just to see the beauty and the power of Light. But there are some who feel that this is not enough. They also want to feel the Light inside themselves; they want to grow into the effulgence and beauty of the Light.

Once they are part and parcel of the Light, once they are inside the Light, why do they have to do anything else? You are inside the boat, so even if you are fast asleep the boat will carry you to your destination. But if you are fast asleep, you will be able to accomplish nothing. Although you are inside the Light, there is still much you can do by moving around. You can help the Light and inspire the Light to increase its own Infinity.

At every moment you have to do something for the highest in yourself which is the absolute Highest. Whatever you feel as the highest inside you is the real Highest. Every day you have to be in touch with the real Highest and serve it; you have to pray to it for its own victory. Outwardly it may sound ridiculous to pray to the Highest for its own victory. What can prevent the Highest from going from glory to glory? What can prevent the Highest from achieving success every time? But that is not the question. The Highest needs our appreciation, admiration, adoration and love. Or we can say that it needs our oneness-willingness — our oneness with its Will and our willingness to see that it is always satisfied in and through us and able to manifest its own Divinity in and through us.

Many times it happens that only when the immortal gods and goddesses are appreciated and adored do they exercise their power. Otherwise, they remain dormant. Sri Aurobindo's poem Savitri starts, "It was the hour before the gods awaken." His critics said, "What kind of hour is it when the gods are sleeping?" The gods are not sleeping; only they are working in a silent way. Similarly, God is not sleeping inside us. But if we try to please and fulfil Him consciously, at that time He is able to do so much more in and through us.

Question: How can we silence the mind's cynicism?

When we cherish doubt, it is like cutting off one of our legs. When we cherish suspicion, it is like cutting off the other leg. If your legs are taken away, your heart still can function. But when cynicism enters into the heart from the mind, at that time the heart is gone; there is no longer anything inside it. The heart-flower is torn into pieces. The heart-garden is destroyed and the little flower that you have in the heart is also completely destroyed.

To silence the mind's cynicism, we have to call on a superpower. This superpower is not like an atom or hydrogen bomb. No! The absolute superpower here is faith — faith in oneself and faith in God. When we say faith can move mountains, it is absolutely true.

It is easy to have faith in God. The moment we think of God, immediately we think of Somebody greater than ourselves — Somebody who knows infinitely more than we do and who can accomplish things that we cannot accomplish. So it is very easy to have faith in God.

But to have faith in oneself is a most difficult thing. Sometimes we feel that our arrogance, haughtiness and stubborn qualities are our faith in ourselves. Many, many times I have seen this in my disciples. It is the height of stupidity to think that haughtiness and arrogance represent our implicit faith in our own capacities. Faith is not like that. Faith is something that constantly reminds us of our own divinity, whereas arrogance does not remind us of our divinity. Faith is something that we have inside us that is in the process of becoming infinite; it is part and parcel of our own divinity.

We cannot have faith in ourselves if we are all the time thinking of the past. "Yesterday I was not a good person. The day before yesterday I was worse, and the day before that I was impossible." If these ideas enter into our mind, immediately we have to discard them. We have to say absolutely, "No, I was not that." If the mind tells us that we did this bad thing and that bad thing, we have to say, "No! You are a liar. I didn't do it! I am not that person. I am only going forward, diving inward, flying upward. I have that kind of faith in myself."

How do we get this kind of faith? There are two ways. One way is by touching the Feet of our Absolute Supreme and crying helplessly like a child for a new life to please Him, fulfil Him and manifest Him. The other way is by offering gratitude. We have to say, "Although I am bad, although I have become useless, still You have not given up on me, still you have selected me as Your chosen instrument. If You had given up on me, I could not have stayed in Your Boat even for a day." If we feel this, then gratitude has to come forward.

Question: Here on earth are we hosts or guests?

But as we develop spiritually by virtue of our aspiration and dedication we gradually change roles. As we pray and meditate, we receive light from Above in boundless measure and enter into the higher worlds. At that time we start playing the role of hosts. Spiritual Masters of the highest order are always hosts. Once we have started playing the role of hosts, we do not become guests any more so long as we are on earth.

Question: Is physical fitness absolutely necessary for progress?

The physical does not operate alone. The body, vital, mind, heart and soul go together. Let us say you are walking or running soulfully. Each time you draw in a breath you feel freshness and newness. At the same time, your soul is dreaming a new vision and your heart is also participating, watching to see if somebody is in front of you or just behind you. And the vital is full of enthusiasm. So you can see how physical exercise done in a soulful frame of mind can help the whole being.

No matter how old you are, if you want to make progress in your spiritual life, if you want to make progress in your vital, mind, heart and soul, then physical fitness is absolutely necessary. If the physical fails, everything fails. The physical is the temple. If there is no temple, there can be no shrine. I happen to be a spiritual Master, but I work so hard to remain physically fit. If I am physically fit, I know I will get tremendous joy. I am not physically perfect; I get so much pain in my back and my knee. But still I take exercise every day. I have completed thirteen books since I left New York and drawn 4,000 little birds. If I had been bedridden, if my body had been racked with pain, I could not have done these things.

I am begging each and every one of my disciples to take exercise or run to keep the body fit in whichever way you can. If you are really physically fit, then you will be able to think more clearly in the mental world, and psychically also you will be able to accomplish many things that you otherwise would not be able to accomplish.

Physical fitness does not mean having the strongest body. We are not going to become wrestlers or boxers. No, no, no! Only we want to keep the body fit so that we are able to get up early in the morning to pray and meditate. Otherwise, it is very easy for the mind to convince us to stay in bed. Someone will try to get up early in the morning because his roommates are getting up. But then the mind will come forward and say, “Who cares for their opinion? I know how good my roommates are; I know how great they are. Let them meditate for as long as they want; I am already 20 million miles ahead of them." This is how we convince ourselves to sleep and snore!

We say, "Easily I can get up at six o'clock to pray and meditate; only I don't want to." But we are not able to get up, although we convince ourselves very cleverly that we can.

Some people say, "The day that I meditate well is the day that all the hostile forces attack me. The dog is inside the door fast asleep. But if I open the door, then the dog will wake up and bite me. So the best thing is not to open the door."

Question: How can we overcome the mind's limitation at every moment?

Previously you were dealing with heaviness; you thought of your mind as a heavy load and it was torturing you. But now you should try to feel that the mind is like an elastic belt. Try to feel that it is something very subtle, very light — lighter than the lightest.

The progress of the mind will come only by stretching and widening the mind. The mind is constantly binding us. It tells us, "I have only so much strength. I can only do this or I can only do that." The heart, on the other hand, is constantly expanding. It is always telling us that there is no limit to what we can do in fulfilling God's Will. So in order to overcome the mind's limitations, we have to see the mind as something that can be expanded like the heart and not as something that can only bind us. Only then can the mind make progress, since expansion means progress.

Question: When does a seeker's life become God's Playground?

You want your life to be God's Playground. That means you want to be God's choicest instrument so that God can play in and through you at every moment. If you want God to play in and through you at every moment, then you have to give God all that you have — your positive and your negative qualities. You have to give God your desire, your aspiration, your stupidity and your wisdom. You may think it is better to give God only your purity and aspiration. But when God comes to you, He does not say, "Give Me only your good qualities. Your bad qualities you keep for yourself because I do not have time to deal with them." He wants all your qualities.

When God stands in front of you and says, "Give Me what you have!" there is no time for you to even think of whether you should give God a flower or a glass of water. Immediately you have to give anything you have. If you try to give God only your good qualities, do you think He will be fooled? Do you think He will say, "Oh, Pulak is so good and pure!" No, no, no! God will say, "Pulak is such a rogue! He is hiding something from me, either because it is very precious or because it is very bad." So if you want your life to be God's Playground, immediately give to God all your weaknesses along with your strengths and good qualities.

There is another thing also you should do. Try to feel that your heart is a vast playground, and that inside this playground there is a special and sacred place where God likes to play. That chosen place is inside your life-breath. Each time you breathe in or breathe out, try to feel that the breath you are inhaling or exhaling is for God. When you are breathing in good thoughts, you have to feel that those good thoughts are for God. And when you are breathing out undivine thoughts, you have to feel that those undivine thoughts are also for God. You don't have to count how many good thoughts you have breathed in or how many bad thoughts you have breathed out. No! Only you have to remember that, good or bad, each breath of yours is for God only.

Question: What is humanity's fate over the next decade?

There is going to be no more destructive dance. There will be no third world war. Already one superpower has gone. One superpower still exists, but this superpower can only mediate in little, little countries and little villages. That is because the United Nations — or you can call it the heart-power of the world — is becoming infinitely, infinitely more powerful than the mind-power.

For centuries the mind-power has dominated. But the time is coming, not only in the outer or political world but also in the inner world of my disciples, when the mind-power will surrender. At one time the mind-power was very rebellious, but now the mind-power is surrendering to the heart-power.

Brightness and luminosity have already started blossoming. Every day and every hour this brightness and this luminosity are going to increase inside our hearts. And, by virtue of our own aspiration, from our hearts we will be able to offer these qualities to the world at large.

Now it has become extremely clear to me that the spiritual life is going only in one direction; there is not going to be any U-turn. Before we used to go slowly, cautiously and hesitantly. But now I am seeing clearly that our life-boat is sailing confidently towards the destination. We no longer have to go cautiously and carefully. We can go as fast as we want to provided we feel the necessity of reaching our destination as soon as possible so we can embark on a new life and a new journey. There is no end to our journey and no end to our destination.

Question: How can we get extra energy?

When you go to bed, feel that you are going to take rest for at least ten or twenty hours. Even if you are only getting a half hour's rest, think of it as ten hours. As soon as you think of ten hours, Eternity comes to mind. But if you think that it is now two o'clock in the morning and your alarm will go off at five o'clock or six o'clock, then you are doomed.

A child may think that he does not have the capacity to lift up a heavy weight, but the mother knows that the child has the capacity. She only has to convince the child. Similarly, you have to convince the mind that it has the capacity to embody the amount of rest that the physical needs. You are not fooling the mind, but only illumining it and making it feel how much of the reality it is capable of holding.

If every time you take rest you feel that you will be resting for ten or twelve hours, then immediately the mental pressure will go away. When the pressure goes away from the mind, the mind is relaxed and expanded. Expansion means receptivity. And if receptivity is there, you will not be tired when you get up. Tiredness remains in the body only when our receptivity is very limited. If the receptivity is there, in five minutes you can draw the unlimited energy you need from the cosmos.

Part II

Question: What benefit is there when we visit different countries?⁴

So we come to give something and to learn something. We give them what we have and what we are and we learn from them what they have to offer.

Remarks by Sri Chinmoy at the dedication of the Mekong Delta as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Delta⁵

You had something that is so rare in human beings: you saw and felt that each human being has something good in him. Most people find it extremely difficult to see any good qualities in their enemies. Once we consider someone our enemy, we do not see anything good in him. But you had that rare wisdom which allowed you to see good qualities even in your worst enemies.

After you had liberated your country and made it independent, you took light from the American Declaration of Independence, which was the vision of President Jefferson.

The French tried to dominate your country and you fought so hard against them; finally you threw them out of your beloved country. But at the time of your inauguration, you took inspiration from their message on the Rights of Man. No human being on earth will be able to do what you did for mankind.

I come from India; I am a son of Mother India. Here in Viet Nam I feel very strongly the presence of Mother India. Simplicity of life and purity of heart are two most significant qualities that a country can have. These two divine qualities give me utmost joy, for I am a seeker of truth and a lover of peace. In India I feel these qualities and also I feel them here.

I am extremely, extremely grateful to the authorities here for allowing my name to be closely connected with your achievements and with your vision of tomorrow's progress. When we live in the mind, we quarrel and fight. But when we live in the heart, we only love, for we feel that we all belong to one world-family. If we can live in our hearts, there will be peace within us and harmony in the world. Then we will have accomplished everything.

Here we are offering our dedicated service to Viet Nam and praying to God to bless us with peace. Peace can be found in our inner existence. It is not something that we can see; it is something that we can only feel and grow into. An American general, in a different context, once said about your soldiers: their presence was always felt, but they were not to be found. Peace is like that, too.

Viet Nam, you have suffered. Your suffering knew no bounds. Again, it is you who will be able to offer joy and happiness to the world. You are the chosen country, for the country that has suffered the most is the right country to offer joy to mankind. After the darkest night, we see the beauty and light of day.

Viet Nam, we love you and adore you because you are a true believer, lover and promoter of world peace.