In the human life, to stay together for one year is extremely difficult. Very often we can't stay together even for a day. Even with ourselves, we can't spend one day peacefully and harmoniously. As an individual, how often we have problems within us. How many hours a day are we happy with ourselves? Inside our body there are so many beings. These beings are ours and we are part and parcel of these beings, but they are in constant battle. This moment we take the side of one being, and the next moment we take the side of another being. We go on, go on, fighting and fighting; there is no peace, no harmony. But if we really become spiritual, then all these inner beings take only one side, the side of the Supreme.
Here we are all spiritual people. Even those who are not following our path are sincere seekers, extremely sincere seekers. They may not follow our path, but they will follow somebody else's path. As long as they follow any path, I tell you, I will be the happiest person. We need a boat in order to go to the other shore. Now, you can be in my boat or you can be in somebody else's boat. But if you remain on this shore and your goal is the other shore, the Golden Shore, then you will never reach your goal, never, never. You will only be watching the boats that are going to the other shore. You do not have the fee that is required by the boatman. What is the fee? It is sincere aspiration. This boatman will not ask five dollars or five million dollars to take you to God. He will only look at you and see if you really are aspiring. Again, you will look at the boatman and see if the boatman is sincere or not. If you are thinking of entering into his boat, then you have to know whether it will sink or not. If you feel that his boat is going to sink, naturally you won't go in that boat. You will go to some other boat. But if you stay on the shore and don't go inside any boat, then how are you going to reach the other shore? By swimming? That you can't do. The ignorance-sea is very vast; it is boundless. The English Channel is twenty-two miles wide, and some people can swim across it. But no one can swim across the ignorance-sea. It is impossible. If you try for a few years your life-energy will go away and you will just sink. Then you will have to wait for two hundred or four hundred or eight hundred years to get another chance to cross the sea.
I wish to tell all the seekers who have been coming here, please do not misunderstand me. In no way am I inspiring or instigating or compelling you to accept my path. Far, far from it. But again I wish to say that if you follow one path, that means you are in a boat. That boat is destined to carry you to the Golden Shore. My path is one path; it is not the path. I am not such a fool as to tell you that mine is the only path, and if you don't come to my path, then for you there is no goal. No, no, no, I am not that kind of fool. Only I will say that here we definitely have a path, we definitely have a boat. So, if you have faith in our boat, in our path, then we shall definitely take you to the other shore.
Again, if you do not follow our path, if you do not want to follow anybody's path, if you say that you have your own path, then you can try to swim across the ignorance-sea all by yourself. But you have to know that this ignorance-sea is so vast. It is boundless.
I am so glad and grateful to all those who have been with us for one year and all those who have joined us recently. Especially to those who joined us right at the start of our journey here, I wish to offer my deepest gratitude. You are the pioneers of our Saturday Group. But again, whenever you are awakened, that is when God's Hour strikes for you. It may be sooner or later, but better late than never. Your hour may strike quite late; but whenever you come, that is the best time for you. A year ago it was the best time for those pioneers who joined us at the very beginning. Again, if you joined us six months ago or four months or just one month ago, that was the best time for you. But I wish to say that these pioneer-members did inspire you to continue coming here. If they had disappeared, if they had deserted us, then after one or two weeks we could not have continued this Centre. So I am most, most grateful to each of the pioneers for coming here regularly and devotedly and inspiring others. Your contribution of love, devotion and surrender and aspiration to this Centre is most significant. You have really helped me in building a foundation. And for that I am most grateful to you.
Now, to those who have been with us for six months, I wish to say that I am also grateful to you. I am extremely grateful that you have been with us for six months. Please feel my deepest blessingful gratitude. And I wish to assure you that I shall not fail you. As you will not fail me, I also shall not fail you in this world. Our success, our progress depends on our mutual faith. If you do not have faith in me, then what am I going to do? But if you have faith in me, then I will also have faith in you. And your spiritual Master has much more faith in you than you have in yourself. This moment you feel that you are something very great, but the next moment you doubt yourself most powerfully. You may even go to the length of saying, "The spiritual life is not meant for me. The best thing will be for me to give it up. Why should I waste my precious time?" This kind of idea you may cherish. But once I accept you as my disciple, that doubt has to leave you. I take you as a chosen instrument of the Supreme. If you become a chosen instrument of the Supreme, then I cannot doubt you, because I know that the Supreme is inside you. I cannot doubt you; it is impossible. In your case, this moment you see Light inside yourself; the next moment you see darkness inside yourself. But I see the Light of the Supreme all the time inside you. So I am most grateful to all of you who have been with us for six months. Please continue to stay in our boat so that we can reach our destination together.
Now, to all those who have been with us for three months or less, I offer my loving appreciation and my blessingful gratitude. Right now you are beginners. You have chosen my path and I have chosen you. You have chosen to place your spiritual existence inside me and I have chosen to place my inner realisation inside you. For that I am so happy, so proud and so grateful to each of you. The spiritual life is a lifelong journey. It is an eternal journey. It is not a matter of one day or one year or one incarnation. We are dealing with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Now that we have become good friends, intimate friends, most intimate friends, we shall work together, we shall travel together to our destined goal.
All of you, please come to the Centre regularly. I am very proud of you. You do not have to be proud of me; only I am begging you to be proud of yourselves; that is to say, to be proud of your spiritual awakening and your inner cry for God. Please feel that you are doing absolutely the right thing by following a spiritual path. And since you are following my path, I am all loving gratitude to each of you.From:Sri Chinmoy,The Master's inner life, Agni Press, 1977
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