Meditation: man's choice and God's Voice, part 2

Author's preface

God alone knows

Talk to others.

Talk to yourself.

Stop talking,

God will talk and God will learn

You will learn everything

Question: I used to feel and see a golden light around my heart, but now I no longer do. How can I regain this wonderful presence?

This golden light has a special significance. Golden light is divine manifestation. When this light of divine manifestation comes down and touches the earth-consciousness, it becomes red. Sometimes the light recedes if it feels that it is unable to stay in the heart due to lack of purity. When the heart is not pure it is impossible for the light to stay indefinitely. When the heart is pure, this light first functions most properly and satisfactorily in the heart region, and then it moves into the vital and the physical.

If you do not see this light, do not be depressed. It is functioning on another level of consciousness. When a beginner sees light, he feels that he is making extraordinary progress. To some extent, it is true. If God gives you light, naturally you will try to dive deep into the sea of spirituality. But if God feels that light is not required and that what you need is peace, then He will act through you in a different way. In you, because of your abundant purity, the light still abides. Now it is working inside your vital and sometimes it comes into the physical. To regain the visible presence of light is not necessary. If you want to follow the spiritual path, it is not the light that you want — it is God's constant Concern for you, God's real Love and God's Blessing. When you have God's Concern it can take the form of Light or Peace or Power.

Question: Yesterday when I was meditating, I got a message from the silence which said, "Love one another." When we get this kind of message in our meditation, should we meditate on it and take it into ourselves?

Suppose you are meditating and after a few minutes there comes to your mind a thought which is divine, progressive, encouraging, inspiring. Please try to feel that these kinds of thoughts are like tender roots — roots of infinite Light and Bliss — and try to let your body, mind, heart and soul grow with these roots. Let us say that during your meditation you get a thought about sacrifice, that you will sacrifice something for a friend or relative or someone you know. This is not just an idea at that time; it is an ideal. When you accept an idea as your own, the idea does not remain an idea but becomes an ideal.

Question: When I meditate and I force myself to go deep within, something inside me accuses me of trying to reach God for myself and not for God's sake.

Question: How can we discipline the mind?

Question: When one meditates, is he conscious of what is going on around him?

But if one is advanced, very advanced, he will be aware of things happening, but he will not be disturbed. If it is the highest type of meditation, then one goes deep within and there one sees everything that is happening, but he is not disturbed by anything external. Within and without, one is aware of what is happening, but at the same time one is not affected at all.

Question: Sometimes during my meditation I feel I am attacked by very undivine thoughts. How can I fight against them?

Question: Should you reject all thoughts during meditation?

Say you are standing inside your house by the door. It is up to you to open the door, your mental door, and allow in only those divine thoughts that will encourage you, inspire you, uplift your consciousness. They are your friends. If you see that your friends are outside wanting to come in, immediately you will allow them in. But if you see your enemies there — doubt, fear, jealousy, anxiety, worry — you will not let them in.

But again, if you have enough inner strength, when an undivine thought comes into your mind you will not reject it; you will transform it. It is like this. Somebody has knocked at your door. If you know that you have enough strength to compel him to behave properly once he enters, then you can open the door and allow him to come in. But if you do not have the power to compel him to behave, then it would be wise to keep your door closed. Let it remain closed for a day or for a month or for a year. When you gain more strength, then accept the challenge and open the door. For if these wrong thoughts are not conquered, they will come back to bother you again and again. First you reject, then you accept and transform, then finally you totally transcend.

We have to be a divine potter with the dirty clay of our thoughts. If the potter is afraid to touch the clay, if he refuses to touch it, then the clay will remain clay and the potter will not be able to offer anything to the world. But the potter is not afraid. He touches the clay and shapes it in his own way into something beautiful and useful. It is our bounden duty to transform undivine thoughts. But when? When we are in a position to do it safely. If I am not a potter, what can I do with a lump of clay? If I touch it, I will only make myself dirty.

God is all for you

Fear nothing,

Of lightning.

God the Compassion is all for you.

Fear nothing,

Of ignorance-night.

God the Compassion is all for you.

Fear nothing,

Of the universe.

God the Compassion is all for you.

The soul of Paradise

You have thought

Lo, you have become

You have meditated

Lo, you have become

You have dedicated

Lo, you have become

Question: What is the difference between a thought that comes to you during meditation and an ordinary thought?

Question: Always when I try to go beyond the mind, it says, "No, carry me with you. I want to go there, too."

To the demanding mind, you have to say, "No, you have created enough problems for me and now if I go into a room that is all Light, you will extinguish the Light and make it dark again. You will create problems for me no matter where I go. If I go to Heaven, you will create hell for me there."

Question: For the past year I have been practising concentration and meditation with my attention focused on my navel chakra. But I don't seem to be making as much progress as I would like in controlling my thoughts. Have you got any suggestions?

Now if you want to control your thoughts, you should concentrate on the centre between the eyebrows. If you become very stiff and your concentration is intense, then you should not concentrate here for more than two minutes. Otherwise, you will become exhausted in the beginning. Now if you concentrate on the heart centre, you will get peace, love and joy. Try to hear the cosmic sound, the soundless sound, when you enter into the heart. If you bring love, joy, peace and bliss up from the heart to the centre between the eyebrows, then you will see that there will be no thoughts.

Question: Why do you want us to meditate in the heart? I find it easier to meditate in the mind.

You have to be wise. There is a vast difference between what you can get from the mind and what you can get from the heart. The mind is limited; the heart is unlimited. When you meditate on the heart, you feel a sense of delight, a sense of oneness with something vast and infinite. In the heart there is infinite Light, Peace and Bliss. Other centres in the body have these qualities too, but the place where you can get them in abundant measure is in the heart. So you have to be wise. If you are hungry, you go to the kitchen for food, not the bedroom. Even though there may be a very small amount of food in the bedroom also, when you are really hungry you immediately go to the kitchen for food. Similarly, if you want a limited quantity of Light, Peace and Bliss, meditation in the mind can give it to you. But you can get infinitely more when you meditate in the heart. Suppose you have the opportunity to work at two places. At one place you will earn $500, and at the other place $200. Naturally you will not want to waste your time at the second place.

If you concentrate on the mind, you will not get what you want, because you have gone to the wrong place. Inner aspiration does not come from the mind. It comes directly from your heart. Aspiration is the harbinger of realisation; aspiration is the seed of realisation. Aspiration comes from the heart because the illumination of the soul is always there. True, the Light and the consciousness of the soul permeate the whole body, but there is a specific place where the soul resides most of the time. Reality is everywhere, but the actual manifestation of the Reality has to be in a particular place. It is like my situation now. I am here at the United Nations. If someone asks, "Where is Chinmoy?" you can say that I am at the United Nations, or you can say that I am in Conference Room 10. My presence is spiritually pervading the entire United Nations, but my living consciousness is right here in this room. If you come here, I will be able to do more for you than for others who are elsewhere in the building. Similarly, when you focus your concentration in the heart, you get much more inner satisfaction than when you meditate in the mind, because the heart is the seat of the soul. But it is difficult for some people to meditate in the heart because they are not used to doing it.

In the ordinary human life, the mind is of paramount importance. Without it we would not be able to function properly. But if you enter into the spiritual life, you will see that what the mind has mostly given you is information, and not illumination. The mind that you feed with books, the mind that you utilise to converse with people, the mind that you require in order to exist on earth cannot take you even an inch closer to God-realisation. As long as you have tremendous faith in your mind — the mind that complicates and confuses everything — you will be doomed to disappointment. Ordinary people think that complication is wisdom. But spiritual people know that complication is dangerous. God is very simple, Light is very simple. It is in our simplicity and sincerity, not in complexity, that the real Truth abides. Complexity cannot give us anything. Complexity itself is destruction. Once you are totally dissatisfied with the limited capacity of the mind, it will be possible for you to concentrate on the heart.

Real meditation is not information; it is identification. The mind tries to create oneness by grabbing and capturing you and this may easily make you revolt. But the heart creates oneness through identification. The mind tries to possess. The heart just expands and, while expanding, it embraces. With the mind you only divide yourself. The mind may try to do something and immediately the body or the vital may try to prevent it. But if the heart wants to do something, no matter how difficult, it will be done. If the mind gets no satisfaction when it tries something, it just says that there is no reality there and gives up. But when the heart does not get satisfaction, it feels that it has not done the thing properly. So it tries again, and continues trying until satisfaction dawns at last.

Question: What is the relationship between consciousness and truth?

The guide

You want to know the way

Just give a chance to your proud mind.

To be a matchless guide.

You want to know the way

Just wake your soulful heart.

To be a faultless,

and

guide.

Who can save me?

Who can save me

Nobody, save and except

From the problem-game of death?

The God-seeker in my life.

Question: What is universal Consciousness? How does one recognise it?

The term “universal Consciousness” means that the aspirant is fully conscious of his inner divine existence. This experience makes him feel that he is of the One, and at the same time he is for the many, for all: One for all and all for One. When his awakened consciousness makes him feel the reality of "One for all and all for One," then it is the universal Consciousness.

A mounting possibility

A mounting possibility:

A mounting possibility:

A mounting possibility:

A mounting possibility:

Therefore

From ancient times

From ancient times unto this day

That resembles his God-smile.

From ancient times unto this day

That resembles his universal heart.

Question: Sometimes during my meditation I find that my mind seems to be dwelling on worldly or unspiritual thoughts.

It is the very nature of our lower mind to deceive us. But our tears and the mounting flame in our heart will always come to our rescue.

Your age-long hunger

Lord, today You are

Alas, how can I offer You my food,

"Son, I am terribly hungry;

My cosmic hunger cares not for taste;

Soon I shall invite you to be My guest.

Like Me, you too must not care for taste,

Of your age-long hunger."

Glorious is the path

Adventurous

My body and I knew it.

Glorious

My heart and I know it.

Generous

My life and I shall know it.

Question: When we come to meditate with you, we get Light. But we have to keep coming back to get refilled. How much of the Light which you give us remains permanently in us?

We sometimes say that a person is doing something, but his mind is somewhere else. Now, instead of the mind, let us say that the aspiring heart is not there. Your mind will take dictation from your boss, but your aspiring heart will keep its oneness with this room where it received Peace, Light and Bliss.

What more do I need?

Earth, my earth,

With Eternity's gaze.

Absolutely nothing.

Heaven, my Heaven,

With Immortality's blaze.

Absolutely nothing.

God, my God,

With Infinity's face.

Absolutely nothing.

Question: What kind of attitude should you have when you meditate on the heart?

They wait

My heart waits

My soul waits

My Lord waits

My life waits

Question: Should a person shut himself away all alone and reject humanity in order to meditate?

Question: Is there any danger in going off to a cave to meditate and trying to realise God in seclusion?

My earth-life, my Heaven-life

I fasted to realise God;

God laughed at my earth-life

I cried to realise God;

God smiled at my Heaven-life

I prayed to realise God;

God appreciated my earth-life

I meditated to realise God;

God embraced my Heaven-life

Question: It you have a job and work, can you meditate at the same time?

Question: One may obtain peace for a few minutes during meditation, but the instant he returns to the hubbub of life, it all disappears.

Question: If meditation is the only way of seeing God face to face, what advice would you give to the man who has a family to look after?

If the head of the family meditates on God, on Light — for God means Light — then Light descends. It starts to decrease his worries and anxieties. When one concentrates, whatever he wants to do becomes easier. Similarly, if an individual who has many family problems meditates for five or ten minutes before he thinks of his family, it will immediately help him by reducing the difficulties he faces; also, the Light that he receives will operate in him. He does not have to meditate for ten or twelve hours. He knows that his progress may not necessarily be very fast; but slow and steady wins the race.

Illumination I need

Illumination

Perfection

Satisfaction

God

God-compassion

Question: How can we convince the unaspiring part of humanity that meditation is a natural experience?

The master

You be the master of your every hour.

Of your every moment on your behalf,

And

You be the master of your soulful smile.

Of your heart's excruciating pangs on your behalf,

And

Question: What is the best way to meditate during action?

God has to occupy one's mind, and in this state of divine concentration, one should serve humanity. At that very hour, service itself becomes the greatest reward. In the field of spirituality, although meditation and concentration constitute a totally different approach, work and dedicated service are nothing short of pure meditation.

Question: Some people are very absent-minded and they seem to be in another world. Are they meditating all the time?

There are some spiritual Masters and very advanced seekers who appear to be absent-minded and forgetful at times. But with them, it is a different story. At that time their consciousness is not in the physical. They are on a very high plane. Again, a few — very few — Masters can remain on this high plane and still function normally in the world.

My Lord's favour

My Lord's favour

I am afraid

My Lord's disfavour

I am certain

Question: How can a person detach himself emotionally from irritating people and situations?

Question: What is the best way to get the fruits of our meditation in our daily life?

Editor's preface to the first edition