Life-tree leaves

Aspiration

Today's budding aspiration is not only the fulfilling but also the fulfilled realisation of tomorrow.

Awakening

In the spiritual life, the awakening of the soul is not enough. Many people are awakened to the truth, to the inner life. But after being awakened, one has to dive, one has to run, one has to fly. One has to dive into the innermost, run to the farthest, fly to the highest. Only then can the seeker's awakening blossom into the flower of realisation.

Bliss

To make oneself every day an object of total dedication and surrender is the highest form of bliss. Bliss comes when 'I and mine' and 'thou and thine' leave us for good. Only when we can say that God is ours and we are God's can bliss come. Then, when we feel that God is manifesting in and through us, we get greater bliss. And finally, when we feel that we exist to please God and God alone, when we feel that we came into the world only to please God, then the greatest bliss dawns in our devoted and surrendered heart.

Compassion

In the ordinary, unaspiring life, compassion is a very tricky word. We say 'compassion' when we mean to say 'attachment'. In the human world there is no compassion; it is all unconscious attachment. When people who live in the physical world say that they are showing compassion to someone because he is weak and he needs guidance, this is not true. It is only attachment, and from this attachment they expect an aggrandisement of their own ego. Consciously and deliberately, or sometimes unconsciously, they are trying to feed their ego.

In the human world, we can sympathise with someone and feel that we can become one with him because we are ignorant. I am ignorant; you are ignorant; so easily I can become one with your ignorance. But to say that we are showing compassion here is foolishness. The body cannot show compassion. The physical consciousness cannot show compassion. It is only the soul that can offer compassion to the physical, the vital and the mental. Only then do we see real compassion. At that time compassion is the only reality.

Outer compassion comes from inner illumination. If one is inwardly illumined, then automatically his illumination will take the form of compassion in the outer life. First comes inner illumination; then comes the manifestation of this inner illumination in the outer life. This is compassion. If one says that he is offering compassion before he is inwardly illumined, he is only deceiving himself. What he calls compassion is only his unconscious way of showing attachment towards the earth-consciousness.

In the divine world, we offer compassion because we have reached the highest. From the top of the tree we are coming down to meet the root of the tree. But if we stay at the foot of the tree and somebody else also stays at the foot of the tree, who is going to show compassion to whom?

Determination

The difference between determination and divine will power is this: determination is in the mind; divine will power is in the soul. Because the mind is very, very limited, mental determination is not enduring; it is all fluctuation. Mental determination is constantly being destroyed since the mind accepts different ideas at every moment. But the will of the soul is everlasting, ever-progressing and ever-fulfilling because it is one with the Will of the Supreme.

Discrimination

It is necessary always to discriminate between the soul's needs and the body's demands. When we become one with the body's demands, we automatically remain unfulfilled. But when we fulfil the soul's needs, at that time we sing the song of eternal fulfilment.

Divinity

God is in everything; that is why everything is divine. But with our aspiration we have to see how much divinity each thing has. In the tiger there is God; so the tiger is divine to some extent. But the quantity of divinity we find in the tiger cannot be as much as the quantity we find in a human being. We have to see the amount of divinity housed in each object. God is inside everything, but in the field of manifestation we have to know how much divinity a chair has and how much divinity a spiritual Master has. When one is wise one will see divinity infinitely more in a spiritual man than in a mad elephant. So in our life of aspiration, we have to be careful when we deal with people and mix with them. We have to approach the person or thing that embodies the most divinity. This is called divine wisdom.

Faith

There are people who mock at faith. They say that those who have faith are those who have failed in life. They say that we have faith in God just because we have been frustrated or have failed in our career. But faith is the one eye, the one real eye, that is shared by both God and man. Man sees God with the eye of faith, and God sees man with the same eye of faith. Man is not aware of the fact that he sees God with the eye of faith, but God not only sees with the eye of faith but at the same time is conscious of what He is doing.

Our faith in God is very often conditional; but God's faith in us is always unconditional. We start our spiritual journey with fifty percent faith, saying, "God, I shall give You this; then You can give me that. I shall give You my aspiration; then You will give me Your blessings and so forth. " There is a fixed hour when God will kindle our consciousness whether we have faith in Him or not. He waits for the choice hour, and when the hour strikes, He comes and gives us what He wants to give. But that doesn't mean that we shall not aspire, that we shall live in the world of sleep and not make any personal effort. No! We shall go on like a true farmer and cultivate the soil with sincere dedication and regularity, and after we do our part, we will leave it up to God to decide when He wants to give us the bumper crop of realisation.

Faith is the eye that sees the future in the immediacy of the present. If we have faith in the spiritual life, we do not stumble, we do not walk, we do not march. No! We simply run the fastest. If we have implicit faith in God, if we have implicit faith in the Inner Pilot and in our own aspiration, then we constantly run the fastest towards our destined goal.

Once faith is lost, it is almost impossible to get it back. Once we lose faith in a spiritual teacher, in an ordinary human being or even in an idea, we will have to suffer for a long, long time before we get it back. If we lose faith in somebody else, we may get it back with great difficulty after a few months or a few years. But if we really lose faith in ourselves, then we have lost everything. We are worse than a street beggar. If we have faith in ourselves, then we can ultimately become divine. But if we don't have faith even in ourselves, our case is really helpless. It is useless to have faith in God, whom most of us think is in Heaven, if we don't have faith in ourselves on earth.

We have to have faith that we can realise God, either in this incarnation or in some future incarnation. We have to have faith that we can be the possessor of infinite Light, Peace and Bliss. We have to have faith in our aspiration, in our concentration, in our meditation and contemplation. Then only will our goal of God-realisation and the divinisation of human nature and earth-consciousness become ours.

Faithfulness

We have to be faithful both in the inner world and in the outer world. When we are faithful to our inner cause, to our inner life, to our life of aspiration, or even when we are faithful to our outer activities, we feel that our divinity is blossoming petal by petal. When we go deep within we see that there is only one person who is constantly and eternally faithful to us, and that is God. From time immemorial He has been faithful to us, faithful to His creation. Unfortunately, His creation is not faithful to Him.

If we follow the spiritual life, naturally we will want to go to the Source, which is God. We will want to be as divine and great as the Source. If our ultimate aim is to become divine or to become God Himself, then we have to be faithful to the world that we are living in. How do we have to be faithful? We have to be faithful to attend at every moment to what we say and what we think. When a thought comes to us early in the morning, if it is a divine thought, then we have to feel that it is a blessing that has entered into us. This blessing we will have to offer to the world around us. If we can faithfully and silently carry this divine thought to the outer world, and offer it to the outer world, then we are fulfilling the God inside us.

If we are following the path of spirituality, we also have to be absolutely faithful to our own inner life. We have to have a path of our own and be one hundred percent faithful to our path. If we have a spiritual Master, we have to be one hundred percent faithful to him. We have to be faithful to our inner life, to the path and to the Master we follow. But a day will come when we will realise that we can be faithful to the inner discipline, the path and the Master, only when we are faithful to ourselves.

When we perform any action, we have to feel in this action the life of God, the hands of God. When we are eating we have to feel that the food is God. If we can see and feel God in everything and feel our constant oneness with God, then automatically we will be faithful to ourselves; and when we are faithful to ourselves, at that time we are bound to get what we are aspiring for.

God's Heart

God's Heart means God's Love. God's Love means God's Oneness. God's Oneness means God's Delight. God's Delight means God's Perfection. And God's Perfection means our unconditional acceptance of God's Will and God's unconditional acceptance of our ignorance. God's Heart is empty. When God's Heart is filled with man's gratitude, then God will be fulfilled both here on earth and there in Heaven. When we fill God's Heart with our constant gratitude, then God will play His role by manifesting Himself in and through us.

God-realisation

When human-realisation fails and disappoints us, God-realisation becomes a reality. Before that, human-realisation is all reality and God-realisation is unreality for us. God-realisation comes when we feel that God is the only person in Heaven and earth who cannot disappoint us. For God-realisation, what we need is outer strength and inner strength. Outer strength we shall use to see God in everything. Inner strength we shall use to feel that we are destined to reach our goal. The moment we feel that God-realisation is our birthright, God-realisation can no longer remain a far cry. We have to feel that we have been chosen to realise God in this incarnation. If we can grow into this reality, God-realisation will soon be ours.

Grace

Grace is our true meal. A true devotee can really and truly live on God's Grace. The Bible has taught us, "Man does not live by bread alone." This is true; but I wish to say that man can live by God's Grace alone. If a spiritual person, an aspirant, really cares for God's Grace, then I wish to say that he can live by God's Grace constantly and eternally. God's Grace is God's self-revealing, self-fulfilling eternal Existence. We have to know that it is God's Grace that will give us illumination, liberation and realisation. The infinite life, the eternal life, God's infinite wealth will belong to the aspirant who really cares for the Supreme's Grace, which is our only meal.

Gratitude

Let us take God as a shopkeeper. He sells many things: love, joy, beauty, purity, grace and many, many other things. But in his shop there is one thing that is most expensive, and that is gratitude. When we go to God the shopkeeper, everything we can buy because it is quite cheap. But when we try to buy gratitude we are shocked when we hear the price. We don't have that much money. Why? Because to buy gratitude we have to become aspiration itself, dedication itself, devotion itself, surrender itself. Our life of aspiration, dedication, devotion and surrender will be our currency to buy gratitude from God's shop.

We are under the impression that gratitude is something we have which we are not giving to God; but we are mistaken. We can have nothing to give to God unless and until we have first gotten it from Him. Gratitude has to come from God directly. If God does not give us the sense, the feeling, the flower of gratitude within us, then we can never offer gratitude to Him.

We must cry to God for the power of gratitude. In the spiritual life, a moment of sincere gratitude to the Supreme is equal to an hour of most intense aspiration, concentration, meditation and contemplation. Gratitude has the mightiest power to win God, but we have to get it before we can give it.

We all use the word 'gratitude'. We try to make others feel what gratitude means, but we ourselves do not know, we ourselves have never felt it in the strict sense of the term. Everything else has been born in the earth-consciousness, but gratitude has yet to take birth. When divine gratitude takes birth in our human life, God-manifestation will not remain a far cry. When gratitude takes birth in human life, God's Reality will be able to manifest itself on earth.

Guru

There is only one Guru, and His name is the Supreme. The human Guru is the door; the divine Guru is the Throne. You can come right up to the door, but unless and until you sit on the Throne, you won't be satisfied. If you knock at the door, the divine Guru, who is the Supreme, will come and open the door and take you to His Throne. But first you have to knock at the door. If you don't knock at the door, then this divine Guru will not hear. It is through the human Guru that you can go to the divine Guru. The disciple who feels that the Guru is going to do everything for him, the disciple who feels that the Guru loves him more than the disciple loves himself and has more concern for him than the disciple has for himself — that disciple is really wise. This kind of disciple will realise God much sooner than the disciple who thinks that his relationship with the Guru is one of give-and-take. Some disciples think that if they give the Guru five dollars, then the Guru will give them at least five dollars in return, if they give a little aspiration, then the Master will give them a little realisation — that it is always give-and-take. But the real disciple feels that whether he gives anything or not, the Master will give him everything. The disciple who has this feeling will be the dearest inside the Master's heart.

Humility

God in His highest and in His deepest quality is humility. If we ask why God is so great, the immediate answer is that God is great just because He is soulfully humble. God is omniscient and omnipotent, but all His divine qualities are housed in one divine quality of His, and that is His humility. If God had only played the part of the omnipotent God, then we would have made little progress by this time. But He comes to us as a sincere beggar in all humility just to awaken us from our self-chosen sleep.

One who knows the meaning of humility is truly divine. Humility is not a sign of cowardice. Humility does not mean false modesty. Humility is true divinity. It is the inner being that sustains, supports, guides, moulds and shapes us, but it does so with all humility. The inner being sees us through the eyes of constant humility. Very rarely do we see the inner being, but when we do see the inner being, we see it with pride of vanity.

The mother loves her child with affection and compassion. But if the mother goes one step beyond this love and compassion, then she feels in the child the presence of the divine. At that time she is all humility. She feels that it is the greatest honour to feed the child, to run with the child, to bring up the child, for in him she sees and feels God Himself.

It is through humility that we can dive the deepest and climb the highest in our meditation. The easiest way to enter into the universal Consciousness during our day-to-day activities is through humility. When we show humility, we immediately enter into the universal Consciousness, which is all-humility. In humility is oneness, and in oneness is our divine Reality.

Infinity

We feel that infinity is something beyond our reach when we try to grasp it with our mind. When the mind starts its journey, it feels that one millimetre is Infinity, one centimetre is Infinity, a few inches are Infinity. Then after it makes a little progress, it feels that one metre or a few miles is Infinity. The very function of the mind is to see the truth of Infinity in a limited way. But when we aspire, we see the truth not with the mind but with the soul. The soul not only sees Infinity but also feels Infinity as its very own.

With these two naked eyes we cannot see Infinity. But with our third eye we can see Infinity as easily as we can see a human being right in front of us. When the third eye sees Infinity, it does not see Infinity as something other than itself.

In our spiritual life, we can see Infinity if we feel that Infinity is not something foreign to us. In our inner self, in our heart where God dwells, we can possess Infinity. We belong to Infinity and Infinity belongs to us. In the inner world we are bound to feel Infinity and to grow into Infinity. It is not only possible and practicable, but inevitable.

Instrument

When we use God as our instrument, He is happy because He knows that we are doing the right thing. When we use God, God is happy because He feels that His son has wisdom and knows whom he can utilise. But when God uses us, we misunderstand. We feel that He is trying to lord it over us. Our life of aspiration is living proof of God's acceptance of us as chosen instruments.

Karma

Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning action. In the philosophy of the Lord Buddha, the law of karma has its most significant role. In all spiritual paths we must accept the law of karma to some extent. At present, the law of karma is essential because people are still wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. But when we enter seriously and completely into the sea of spirituality, the law of karma does not always apply.

"As you sow, so you reap" — this is what the law of karma tells us. But who has inspired us to sow? If an undivine force has inspired us, then naturally we shall reap something harmful and destructive. But if we can run towards the highest force, the Supreme, after committing a wrong action, immediately He will come to our rescue. A child does something wrong, but he runs immediately to his father to escape punishment for his deed. He knows that his father can protect him because his father is most powerful.

The past has not given us what we want, so why should we look back? If we think of yesterday as karma, then we will take today as the result. But if today's result is not satisfactory then we must change our outlook. We must take today as karma and tomorrow as the result. Yesterday we were unconscious, undivine, animal; today we have become divinely conscious and aspiring. So naturally, as the result of our karma, tomorrow's golden dawn will be fulfilling.

In the spiritual world, if an aspirant has already made an inner connection with a great spiritual Master, then most of his wrong actions will be nullified by the infinite Grace of the Supreme. At the same time, most of his divine karmic actions will bear fruit sooner than at once. This is because the Master can unite the aspiration of the seeker with the divine Grace, which is the omnipotent power of the Supreme. If there is no intermediary factor, no spiritual Master, then in spite of doing a good, divine thing, the aspirant will have to wait the full time for the result of his action to take place. Today we sow, and then we have to wait for the harvest. But if the Inner Pilot is consciously aspiring inside us and we are conscious of the Inner Pilot, then we will see that our divine karma will bear fruit immediately.

Liberation

When liberation is achieved in the entire being, first the heart tastes Bliss, then the mind, then the vital, then finally the gross physical. Liberation means our conscious return to the sea of Peace and Bliss. Liberation itself is Bliss. In liberation we feel that life is a constant realisation and manifestation of the Bliss of the Infinite.

Light

The very function of spiritual light is to illumine and transform our darkness. Spiritual light, inner light, illumines our agelong imperfections and bondage.

Outer light is knowledge; inner light is realisation. With our outer light we want to go toward God. With our inner light we see and feel that we don't have to go toward God because we already are in God and God is already in us; we see and feel that God is our highest and most illumined part. With our outer light we feel God is a Goal to be realised. With our inner light we feel that not only is God our own, but God is the essence and substance of our own reality.

Without light, nothing can be accomplished in the spiritual life. With light, everything can be accomplished. In light everything is already accomplished.

Oneness

Oneness with unaspiring people means dining with death. Oneness with aspiring people means dancing with God.

One-Pointed Consciousness

One-pointed consciousness is the manifestation of one-pointed will. One-pointed will is the manifestation of God's one-pointed Concern. One-pointed Concern is God's unconditional and unreserved Compassion. When God's Compassion descends to the bottom rung of the ladder, we see God's oneness with the obscure, impure, undivine, unaspiring humanity. One-pointed consciousness means our total surrender to the Will of God. One-pointed consciousness can be achieved through aspiration, constant inner strength, inner will and inner poise. One-pointed consciousness we can get only when we expect nothing from the outer world and everything from God. If God wants, He can give us His inner wealth Himself or He can give it to us through another seeker whom He uses as His instrument. But no human being in and of himself can fulfil us; only the divinity within can fulfil us.

Patience

Patience is divine strength. Very often ordinary people do not know the meaning of patience. They feel that it is something feminine, a form of cowardice or a reluctant way of accepting the truth. They feel that because there is no other way left, we have to be patient. But if consciously we can be patient, then we are strengthening our inner will and lengthening the scope of our divine manifestation.

Peace

Before one enters into the spiritual life, one sings or cries,

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A sea of peace and joy and light

Beyond my reach I know.

In me the storm-tossed weeping night

Finds room to rage and flow.

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An ordinary person feels that a sea of peace is beyond his reach. But this sea of peace is at his command if he enters and continues to practise the spiritual life. The foundation stone of the spiritual life is peace. In the spiritual life we achieve peace only when we knock at God's Door. If we knock at the door of a human being, then we shall never achieve peace. At every moment we have to feel that we can get peace only from God.

The life of peace is the result of a life of our unconditional dedication to the Will of the Supreme. If we do not expect anything from the world, either good or bad, then we will have peace in our entire being.

Peace is man's greatest and highest blessing. Man thinks that he can get everything with prosperity; but if he is wanting in peace, then he is the worst possible beggar. We say "peace of mind," but actually we do not have peace in the mind. By staying in the mind, we can never have even a glimpse of peace. When we want peace, we have to go beyond the realm of the mind. How can we go beyond the mind? It is through our constant aspiration. That aspiration will enable us to collect the mind like a bundle and throw it into the sea of the heart. Then we will see that our mind, vital and physical — our whole existence — will be inundated with inner peace.

God has all divine qualities, but His most cherished divine quality is peace. God's inner wealth and peace can never be separated. In peace we see His satisfaction, we feel His own worth and we realise His ultimate, self-fulfilling and self-manifesting Goal.

Personal God and impersonal God

The personal God and impersonal God are both the same God. The personal God will come to you with a body. You will be able to see His arms, His eyes, His nose and everything. He will be most luminous, infinitely more beautiful than the most beautiful human being on earth. This is God in His personal aspect. The impersonal aspect of God is His infinite Energy, infinite Light, infinite Power. A man stands in front of you; he is personal. But the moment he shows you his power or his capacity in any form, that aspect is impersonal. The figure that stands in front of you is personal; but the manifestation of his power or capacity is his impersonal aspect. When he houses his capacity, his potentiality, his power, his light, at that time he is personal. But when he expresses his potentiality, this expression is impersonal. God is both personal and impersonal. He has form and He is without form but, at the same time, He transcends both form and formlessness.

Prayer

Prayer and meditation must go together. When we pray we ask God to be responsible for us, and when we meditate we consciously accept responsibility for God. When we pray, we offer God our responsibilities; we give our helpless, hopeless, useless existence to God. When we meditate, we become like lions: we become divine, devoted instruments of God. At that time we take upon ourselves God's responsibilities. One moment we give our existence to God because we are helpless; the next moment we ask God if we can do something for Him. Prayer takes us up to God and God fulfils us. Meditation brings God down to us and then we fulfil God. The two should go together.

Purity

In the spiritual life, purity is as essential as our very life-breath, and God gives us purity only when we feel that He is our only necessity.

Reality

The physical reality is almost a dream. The spiritual reality is Eternity, Infinity and Immortality. If you concentrate daily on truth, you will feel your oneness with your own reality. This is your real life. And what is your own Reality, the ultimate Reality? The ultimate Reality is the fulfilled and manifested divinity that humanity will one day become.

Revelation

Today's realisation is tomorrow's revelation. What is revelation? Revelation is manifested realisation. What is realisation? Realisation is tomorrow's fulfilled manifestation. God has revealed Himself in you and through you. Now you have to reveal God in and through your totally surrendered and dedicated life.

Sanctity

Sanctity is the messenger, the harbinger of divinity. Sanctity is the message of God's inner Reality; sanctity is the fulfilling instrument of Reality. With sanctity God started His cosmic Game. In sanctity He feels His veritable Pride. For sanctity He is more than willing to give His All. And to sanctity He offers gladly His Reality and His Essence.

Self-confidence

Self-confidence comes into existence when we feel that there is some higher force that is constantly looking after us and guiding us. If we do not have that kind of feeling or belief, then we can have no abiding self-confidence. We have to cultivate faith in our Inner Pilot. Right now He is unknowable. If we pray and meditate, He becomes knowable. And if we continue along the spiritual path, He eventually becomes totally known. Self-confidence comes into existence when we offer our very existence to the feet of a higher force. If that higher force is right now only imaginary, no harm. If we have faith and if we surrender our existence to this higher force, then self-confidence is automatically achieved in our life of aspiration.

Selflessness

Man is infinite, man is eternal, man is immortal. But how can we really feel that we are infinite, eternal, immortal? We can do so only on the strength of our selflessness and sacrifice to the Supreme in ourselves and in humanity.

Selflessness must be properly understood. If one feels that it is by virtue of sacrifice that he is becoming totally one with the rest of the world, then that is not selflessness. To be really selfless, one must already feel and realise his oneness with the entire creation. Otherwise, one will always be under the impression that he is doing something grand and great by offering himself and serving someone. But when oneness has already been achieved, felt and realised, at that time selflessness really acquires its meaning. The seeker knows that he is one with the universe, and with this oneness he is now playing his own part. At that time we can't call selflessness something that we are offering. No, it is something that we are growing into. Each selfless act leads us to something greater, and that something greater also is ours.

Real selflessness we see only in God. He did not want to separate Himself from His creation. Creator and creation went together, go together and will forever go together. So it is God's supreme selflessness that we see in His creation. If we can have that selflessness, that reality and vision in our human life, this will be the full manifestation of selflessness in reality. Let us try to realise our oneness with the rest of the world and with God's creation. Then our Goal will be right in front of us.

Sight

When we see something outwardly either we are satisfied or dissatisfied. But if the inner sight or inner vision dawns when there is not sufficient wisdom, then problems arise. When inner vision dawns we become one with the reality that we see. Then, if we have a frightening experience, we may suffer for years.

In our spiritual life, when we identify ourselves with something, we become part and parcel of its consciousness. Suppose we are using our outer sight, and we see a chicken being killed in front of us. We will feel that it is something natural and normal. Our outer sight is not enabling us to identify ourselves with the consciousness or with the life-breath of the chicken. But if we have inner sight, we may see that we ourselves were a chicken many incarnations ago. Then what will happen? We will immediately identify ourselves with the chicken and then we will feel that we are being killed. We will be horror-struck. And the person who has killed the chicken will be an object of contempt forever.

In the spiritual life we should pray for God to grant us inner sight only when He feels that it is necessary for us. Many of you here think, "Oh, if only I had my third eye open." But your third eye may immediately tell you that in your last incarnation you were the worst possible scoundrel, and then you will feel miserable. Inner sight has to be opened only when there is inner maturity, when neither the past nor the future can disturb us.

Silence

When you meditate and go deep within, you enter into the realm of silence, real silence. In this silence Reality is growing. But when you are in deep silence, real silence, spiritual silence, there you will also see truth is growing, love is growing, beauty is growing; everything is growing and flowing. In real silence, Reality is constantly growing in different forms and shapes.

Simplicity

Simplicity is the most valuable treasure in God's creation, in God's realisation and in God's manifestation. God is always simple, but we think of Him as complex. With our fertile mind, it is we who make God complex and then create problems for ourselves. The simpler we can become, the sooner we shall reach our destination. A life of simplicity is a life of constant progress. It is in simplicity that we can make the fastest progress, progress which is everlasting. Simplicity is our natural or conscious awareness of reality. The moment we realise our highest transcendental Reality, we become simple. In the spiritual life, the higher we go, the deeper we go; the farther we go, the more we will see that Reality is only the song of simplicity and nothing else. The entire cosmic Game is extremely simple, but we look at it from a different angle in an obscure way. That is why we feel it is very complex, but everything is simple.

Sincerity

Sincerity God gives us only when we feel that we shall forever remain God's divine children. Everybody is sincere according to his own sense of sincerity, but a seeker has to be sincere at every moment in what he says and what he does in order to grow into the very image of God. His sincerity has to be constant and continuous. His life he must not separate from sincerity even for a second.

Soul's adoration

The soul's adoration is always for the Supreme. This divine adoration the soul got from the Supreme, and the soul gets its highest fulfilment when it returns to the Supreme its own achievement. The soul's adoration is the sweetest thing in God's creation. The day God created the soul's adoration, God felt that He created something for which He could really be proud of Himself.

Supreme

Think of the Supreme. You will feel that your life is of some meaning.

Meditate on the Supreme. You will feel that God needs you.

Offer yourself to the Supreme. You will feel that the Supreme has already offered His life-breath and very existence to you, to the aspirant in you, to the seeker in you, for all Eternity.

Surrender

In the spiritual life when we surrender, we consciously surrender our lower life to our higher life. We surrender our lower life because we feel that our higher part is truly our very own. True surrender means the conscious acceptance by the finite of Infinity's will and vision. We have to surrender only to the One in whom we have perfect faith. We shall not surrender to others' thought or will or command or demand, even if they are superior to us in terms of age or position. No! We shall surrender only to Him in whom we have perfect faith, to the Reality, to the Inner Pilot where we will get our true fulfilment.

Truth

There is a great difference between human or moral truth and divine or spiritual truth. When we come out of the animal kingdom we use the moral truth. It is absolutely necessary at this stage of our development. But when we enter into the spiritual life, moral truth is transcended by spiritual truth. Once an individual has attained to moral truth, then he will only have to wait for the inner command, which is truth's real self-expression. At that time, he cannot be bound by moral truth.

If we tell someone a moral truth, then we may create tremendous disorder in the cosmos. Suppose somebody who is being chased by another person with a knife has come to you for protection. You give him shelter because you know that the person who was chasing him wants to kill him. Out of your sincerity or love for truth, if you say that you know where the person is, then the man with the knife will grab him and kill him. Then your moral truth will be responsible for his death. If you say that you know where the person is but will not tell, then there will be a fight. But if you say, "I don't know," then you are exercising your divine wisdom and saving the life of the person. The life of one person is infinitely more valuable than your one utterance of truth. The truth will try to save a life; it wants to save, protect and illumine human life.

When we enter into the spiritual life, we must always listen to what our inner being says. Otherwise, in the name of sincerity we may act most stupidly. Very often we become stupid when we try to become overly sincere. Sincerity is very good, but we have to know that we have to go beyond the so-called moral truth if the inner being commands us. Otherwise, if we stick to our moral principle, then the higher truth will not be able to manifest.

In the field of manifestation we have to be very, very careful with truth. Truth has to be spoken, but we have to know what is beyond the earthly truth. God's Will is infinitely more important than the so-called utterance of truth. If we give the same importance to earthly mundane truth that we give to the eternal Truth, then we will be making a Himalayan mistake.

If we speak truth just for the sake of truth, then we create more disharmony, more frustration and more misery in life. Beyond the so-called earthly truth we have to see God's Vision, the ultimate Vision and ultimate Truth.

There is temporary truth and eternal Truth. The eternal Truth is that God is our Father and Mother and that we are God's children. But here in the field of manifestation, we live in temporary truth. Sometimes we feel that we are God's children and sometimes we feel that we have nothing to do with God. When we feel that we have nothing to do with God, we may act like animals, as if we have no past and no future, as if this is our first and last human incarnation.

In the case of a patient who is dying, the doctor may say, "No, you will live, you will live." Although the doctor knows that in a few minutes' time the patient will die, still he gives the patient encouragement and strength. According to earthly truth, the doctor is telling a lie. But although the doctor may not be conscious of it, his soul is giving the patient an opportunity to fight against death. The patient will say, "I have a chance to live. Let me pray and think of God." Then, God's Grace may descend and he may actually live for another few months or years. If he continues to pray and meditate during this period, then the doctor's lie will have proven to be a real boon.

Let us take another example. Suppose a young boy comes to you and asks for a dollar. You give him the money and he goes to a bar and drinks wine. Now, who is responsible for this? You have played your role, but you did not see this vision of the future. Just because the boy sincerely asked you for a gift, you gave it to him. His sincerity, his truth, you approved or supported with your ignorance. His sincerity is represented here as truth, but you have to go beyond this truth and see what is going to happen ultimately.

So in this world, temporary truth has to be surrendered to the ultimate Truth. The Truth that has more power and more meaning has to be brought down into the temporary truth. Temporary truth has its value; earthly truth has its value. But always we have to go and knock at the Truth which is beyond, which is constantly receiving God's Light.

Unity

God in His highest aspect is static and dynamic. In His oneness with the dynamic and static consciousness, we see God's true unity. God's journey started with unity, but when He entered into the world, His unity became multiplicity. In the highest, in the world of Silence, it is all unity. Here on earth, in the world of sound, it is all multiplicity. But unity and multiplicity go together.

The creation started with Existence Consciousness, Bliss — Satchidananda. This triple consciousness, where God is all Unity, is responsible for the entire creation. Below this triple consciousness is what is called the Supermind. The power of the Supermind is not a vital power like the power of Nietzsche's Superman. The Supermind is all luminosity. From here the creation actually started. The Supermind is the highest rung of the ladder of evolution. Here also there is unity. Truth can be seen in the form of unity; Power can be seen in the form of unity; everything can be seen in the garb of unity. The next descending rung is the overmind. Here multiplicity actually starts. In the overmind, unity is scattered.

Then we come down to the intuitive plane or intuition proper. Here we see the unity of Truth, the unity of Light, the unity of Power in a limited measure. Although we use our third eye in the intuitive plane and see everything as a whole, we do not see unity here the way we see unity in Existence-Consciousness-Bliss or in the Supermind.

Then below intuition, below the intuitive plane, is the mind. This mind can be called the calm or quiet mind, the vacant mind, because everything is calm, quiet and vacant. But here real unity is lacking. Truth is there, divinity is there, joy is there, beauty is there; but real unity is missing. Multiplicity reigns.

Then when we come to the vital, there is no unity at all. The vital quite often has aggressive forms of multiplicity.

In the physical we cannot even think of unity. But a day will come when we will have to bring down the highest unity consciously into the gross physical.

There is much truth in the maxim "United we stand, divided we fall." The soul, heart, body, mind and vital must go together. Otherwise, the soul by itself can do nothing, the mind by itself can do nothing, the body by itself can do nothing. All these must go together in order for us to realise God fully and integrally. It is only in their united effort that God the Creator and God the Creation can be realised, revealed and manifested.

Will

The physical will lasts for a fleeting second. The vital will very often plays the role of destruction. The mental will sooner or later finds satisfaction in contradicting itself. The psychic will, the soul's will, finds not only satisfaction but real fulfilment in identifying itself with God's Will. The psychic will gets its illumination and its message of perfection through unconditional surrender to the universal Will.

Wisdom

What do we mean by the word 'wisdom'? Usually we mean something superior to knowledge, something deeper. In the spiritual world, the word 'wisdom' is not used in that way. Here wisdom means Light, illumining Light, transforming Light. That which illumines our unlit consciousness is wisdom. That which transforms the finite consciousness into the infinite Consciousness is called wisdom.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Life-tree leaves, Agni Press, 1974
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