My Rose Petals, part 4

Miracles¹

A boat sails on water, an aeroplane flies in the sky and a hydrogen bomb can destroy a country. Who has built the boat, who has built the plane and who has made the bomb? Man! Without a man’s consent, the boat cannot sail; without a man’s will, a plane cannot fly; without a man’s conscious approval, the bomb cannot drop. A human being is necessary to sail the boat, to fly the plane and to destroy the country. Poor man! Unfortunately, he has totally forgotten that he is the creator of these things.

Who is superior, the creator or the creation? Undoubtedly, the creator! If the creator does not want the boat to sail, the boat cannot sail on its own. If the creator does not want the plane to fly, the plane cannot fly on its own. If the creator does not want the bomb to drop, the bomb cannot drop on its own. We are compelled to run after miracles just because we forget the undeniable fact that we are the miracle-creators.

Here we are all seekers, seekers of the infinite Truth and Light. What can be a greater miracle than when a finite human being cries to the Infinite for Peace, Light and Bliss? The finite wants to house the Infinite. The earth-bound consciousness wants to be transformed into the Heaven-free consciousness. The infinite Spirit wants to reveal itself in and through the finite body. Are these not miracles of the highest order? Can there be any greater miracle achieved by a human being than God-realisation? God-realisation means one’s conscious awareness of a living God. God-realisation means one’s embodiment of infinite Peace, Light and Bliss here in an earthly body. A beginning seeker feels that the greatest miracle on earth is God-realisation. But when he becomes advanced or when he realises God, he comes to know that God-realisation is something absolutely normal — more normal than our day-to-day habits of working, eating, sleeping and playing.

God is the cosmic Tree. A tree has branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. A tree without branches, leaves, flowers and fruits is no tree at all. By the example of the tree we can learn that God needs us and we need God. The tree needs leaves, flowers and fruits; and the leaves, flowers and fruits need the source, which is the tree. The vast sea cannot become a sea without countless drops of water. The sea needs the existence of countless drops of water, and the drops need the existence of the sea. We need God as tiny drops need the ocean, and God needs us as the ocean needs the drops. We need God for our highest realisation and God needs us for His supreme manifestation here on earth. When we are aware of the Supreme’s need, God-realisation is no miracle. But when we are not aware of it, for weaklings like us to think of God-realisation, and for God the Infinite to manifest Himself in and through a tiny, finite body, seems like the Supreme Miracle. On the physical plane, indeed, it is a miracle. But on the inner plane it is not a miracle because God and man are interdependent.

If we want to acquire miraculous power, we can concentrate on certain spiritual centres in the body. We first start concentrating on the base of the spine. Then we move two inches higher for the second centre. The navel is the level for the third centre; then the heart, the throat, the forehead and finally, the crown of the head. These centres are not in the gross physical body; they are located inside our subtle body. If they were in the physical body, by this time the doctors would have discovered them. Unfortunately, they are not for medical science to discover, but only for the seeker to discover through his inner cry.

The question at this point is whether or not these miraculous powers can be of any help to our God-realisation. The answer is definitely not. The great spiritual Master Sri Ramakrishna one day said to his dearest disciple, Vivekananda, “My son, I have practised so much meditation. I have achieved many miraculous powers, and I want to give them all to you. You know that I do not care for these things. I want to lead a most simple life; I want to wear the most simple clothes and eat the most simple food. Since you are my dearest disciple, let me give these powers to you.”

Vivekananda said, “Please tell me one thing first. Will these occult powers help me in any way to realise God?”

“Oh, no! Occult powers can never help you in God-realisation.”

Vivekananda said, “Then I do not want them. I want only God.”

Here we see the aspiration of a really sincere seeker. Because of his sincere aspiration, Vivekananda did realise God. If a less sincere seeker had been offered this gift by his Master, he would have immediately tried to grab the occult powers from his Master. But a sincere seeker knows that God must come first. Another spiritual Master of the highest order, Sri Krishna, told his dearest disciple, Arjuna, that if one cares for occult power, then he is millions of miles away from his inner existence, the divine existence.

The creator is superior to his creation. These occult powers, miraculous powers, come from God; they cannot come from anywhere else. If there is a mango tree in front of me, if I want to eat a mango, I can. But if I eat a mango without permission from the owner of the tree, then I take a risk. I may be scolded and insulted. But if I take permission from the owner first, then I may eat as much as I want.

The goal is very far. If we do not start walking along the way, then how are we going to reach it? There are many roads that lead to our goal. On one road we find occult powers or miraculous powers. They are like beautiful trees and flowers in a garden alongside the road that is leading to our destination. If we walk along this particular road, we may be tempted to enter into the garden. We may eat some fruits and enjoy ourselves there for a long time; we may forget that we even have a goal to reach. We enjoy the garden to such an extent that we just stay there, or we may go back home with the idea that we shall return to enjoy the garden every day. Then we totally forget about our destination. So this garden of occult powers is a garden of temptation.

There is another road we can also follow. If we walk along this road we find that there is no garden, no park, no trees, nothing to distract us. There is only the road with the golden goal at the end. If we walk along this road steadily, then we will unmistakably reach our destination. This is the advantage of the plain road. When we walk along the road that does not offer us the temptation of occult power, there is every possibility that we will reach our goal much sooner.

What is miracle-power, after all? Miracle-power is something I can do that you cannot do. If something can be done by both of us, then it is no longer a miracle. Here on earth when a thing is extremely difficult to do, when it is next to impossible, it is like a miracle. I will tell you an incident. A little boy of five came to my house with his elder brother. I told him I could spell his name properly. I spelled his name properly and he was wonder-struck. How was it possible for me to correctly spell his name? It was beyond his imagination! He himself did not know how to spell his name, but I knew how. To him it was a miracle because he could not do it. But to his elder brother and to me, it was no miracle at all. It was a most ordinary, everyday matter.

A child studies in the kindergarten and his elder brother studies at the university. When the child sees his elder brother studying big, big books on so many different subjects, when he sees him reading, writing and committing things to memory, to the child this is nothing but a miracle. But in fifteen years or so this very child will easily be able to do the same. He will study big books and go to the university and read and write like his elder brother. Right now he does not know that he himself will soon have the same capacity, and just because he does not know, he thinks his elder brother is performing a miracle.

Here we are all seekers. Some of us are half-sincere; some of us are fully sincere. Others are only curious to know what is going on. In the spiritual life we tell people that curiosity is not spirituality; but it can become half-sincerity and half-sincerity can become spirituality. It is better to start with a little than not to start at all. Today you are nothing but a curious seeker. But if you continue, tomorrow you can become a half-sincere seeker and the following day you can become a fully sincere seeker.

Even as we need a teacher to help us in our studies at school, so also do we need a spiritual teacher to help us in our inner studies. I happen to be the spiritual teacher of a small group of disciples. I wish to say that I am also a performer of miracles. Not what I do, not what I say, but what I am inwardly is the most important thing. The real miracle is my meditation. This is the miracle that you people cannot yet perform, but which you will definitely be able to perform one day if you aspire sincerely and devotedly.

The great spiritual Masters like the Christ, Sri Krishna and the Buddha performed a great many miracles in the outer world. But a far greater miracle was their very presence on earth. Outwardly, the Christ performed about forty-five supreme miracles, but in his inner life he performed millions and millions of miracles which were not recorded and which can never be recorded, except in the Heart of the Supreme. A far greater miracle than any of his outer miracles was his physical presence on earth, and the greatest miracle of all was his immortal Consciousness that guided and uplifted the earth-consciousness. The same thing is true of all real spiritual Masters from all countries.

We are all seekers. Just because we all have some inner cry for God, for Truth, for Light, for Bliss, we are here. If we did not have this inner cry, we would have gone out to a movie or to a party or somewhere else. But to those who have not come, to those who know that we are here listening to a spiritual talk or inwardly praying to God and meditating on God, it is nothing short of a miracle, because they do not dare to do what we are doing here. Not only do they not dare, but they cannot dare; so undoubtedly it is a miracle for them.

We do not need miracles. We do not need occult powers. What we need is God’s Compassion. In God’s Compassion alone abides our God-realisation. God-realisation is our birthright. If we want to acquire occult or miraculous powers, we easily can. If we feel that we don’t need them or don’t care for them, then we don’t have to take them ever. We have to know that God-realisation is something that everybody has to have. No one can escape it. If we don’t want God-realisation now, it is only a matter of time until we do. If we do not want God right now, God will not allow us to remain unrealised forever. Someday we will want Him; nay, we will need Him badly. At that time God-realisation, the supreme miracle, will be ours.

The aspiring life²

Life is a lost opportunity if I do not aspire.

Life is a lost soul if I do not aspire.

Life is an animal-destruction if I do not aspire.

When I do not aspire, earth does not need me and Heaven does not need me. When I aspire, earth needs me and Heaven needs me; also, God needs me. There was a time when I lived the desiring life. At that time, I wanted to capture the world; I wanted to own the world. Now I aspire. I wish to become a perfect instrument of God. I wish to serve humanity and be constantly dedicated to humanity.

For me, life is a forward march.

For me, life is an inward dive.

When I climb upward, I see God's Silence-Power.

God's Sound-Power has awakened my life.

God's Love-Power has immortalised my life.

My life needs inner guidance. When I am guided by my Inner Pilot, my life is safe amid earth’s storms. When I am guided by my Inner Pilot, I am certain amid the world’s insecurity. Life does not mean only to know the truths about God. Life means an intimate connection, an inseparable union, with my Inner Pilot. In order to be guided by my Inner Pilot, in order to know Him intimately, I have to pray and meditate. I have to know that each thought that I think is a prayer. I have to know that each action that I take is a meditation. In order to pray well and have a good meditation I have to offer my gratitude to my Pilot-Supreme. It is His Compassion that has given me the capacity to pray and meditate.

When I pray, I climb up God the Tree. When I meditate, I bring down the mangoes from above and distribute them to aspiring souls. Both my prayer and my meditation are of paramount importance. If I do not climb up God the Tree, then I remain unrealised. If I do not climb down with the fruits, then God remains unmanifested. Perfection dawns only when I am realised and God is manifested.

Countless human beings are afraid of the spiritual life because they feel that it will take them away from the life they are now living. They feel that their present life is a life of satisfaction. At times, when they are mercilessly frustrated by the life that they are now living, they feel the necessity of God and the divine life. But to them, God is a stranger and the divine life is something unknown. They feel that a stranger and an unknown life cannot be trusted. But here they are totally mistaken. God is not and cannot be a stranger. And the divine life is the real life. The real life is something that inspires us and makes us feel that Infinity, Eternity and Immortality are our birthright.

Nothing can be more normal and natural than a divine life. The life that we are leading now is abnormal and unnatural. Why? Because it has made friends with darkness, ignorance and bondage. How can ignorance offer us God-Beauty, God-Light and absolute Truth?

When we make progress in our spiritual life we feel that our life is of God and our life is for God. What we want from life is satisfaction and nothing else. When we live the desiring life, no matter what we gain, there can be no satisfaction. We have an unceasing hunger that constantly wants to devour others and the entire world. By devouring others and devouring the world we cannot have satisfaction. We can have satisfaction only by establishing our inner oneness with the rest of the world. In order to achieve satisfaction we must walk along the road of aspiration and not along the road of desire.

We have seen that the world’s richest man wants to become still richer. No matter how much money he gets, his needs increase more, and the more his needs increase, the more he becomes a beggar. The seeker wants to decrease his desires. The more he decreases his desires, the sooner he sees the Face of God. When he decreases his desiring life, only one desire remains; that desire is the aspiration which comes from the very depth of his heart. This aspiration wants only one thing: God. Aspiration feels that just realising God is not enough; it also wants to manifest God here on earth in His own Way. When our aspiration has realised God and manifested God in His own Way, then supreme Satisfaction dawns both in Heaven and on earth.

Spirituality³

Self-reliance is good. Dependence on God is far better. But when we offer our surrender to God’s Will, and when God’s Compassion accepts our surrender, this is by far the best. We say that we love God. If we really love God, then we have to serve God in humanity. In order to serve humanity, we must liberate ourselves from vital depression, mental suspicion and psychic disintegration. We have to be fully ready to love humanity even though humanity misunderstands us. A divinely crucified earthly life glorifies the Heavenly promise.

Earlier I mentioned the little “I”, the ego. Now I wish to speak about the big “I”, the universal “I”, which we can call the universal Consciousness. When we live in this Consciousness, we feel that we are the chosen children of God. If we are the chosen children of God, how can we mix with falsehood, darkness and ignorance? It is impossible. If we are God’s chosen children, then our friends are Peace, Light and Bliss.

Here we are all seekers of the highest Truth. At every moment our thoughts are judged, our prayer is judged, our meditation is judged, our surrender is judged by our Inner Pilot. If we have a pure thought, we then acquire solid strength. If we have a soulful prayer, then we gain divine confidence. If we have a sublime meditation, then we come closer to God. If we make an unconditional surrender to God’s Will, then we can claim God as our very own.

Among the seekers there are some who are afraid of light. There was a time when we were all afraid of light. We thought that our evil thoughts and evil deeds would be exposed by light. But now that we have become seekers we clearly see that light has not exposed us; on the contrary, light has illumined us. The outer light exposes us; the inner light only illumines us. This is the difference between inner light and outer light.

In the spiritual life we cannot and must not make earthly plans. Very often when we make plans, five-year plans or ten-year plans, we wait and wait until the last moment before acting on our plans. Then at the last moment it is too late and we achieve nothing. A spiritual seeker does not need any plan. He depends entirely on his inner guidance, which is spontaneous and constant. When we listen to the guidance of the Inner Pilot, we achieve everything immediately.

Life means action. Action is based upon meditation. Meditation eventually reveals God and manifests Him on earth. We pray to God and meditate on God — not because we have done many things wrong in this life, not because we want to compensate for our ego-directed actions, not because we have to offer Him a petition so that He can forgive us, but because we feel that our life is a constant preparation for God. This preparation is the indication of God’s revelation in and through us. This preparation makes us feel that God needs us for His manifestation. We need God to reach the highest Truth, highest Light and highest Bliss. God needs us to reveal His Dream and manifest His Divinity. What is His Dream? His Dream is earth-transformation. His Dream is nature’s perfection. Our real reality lies in our conscious embodiment of God, our conscious revelation of God’s Light and our conscious manifestation of God’s Perfection.

Here we are all seekers; some are beginners, some are a little advanced. The beginners may have some curiosity about God’s existence. But those who are a little advanced know that God does exist. They feel that it is God who is guiding them in a divine way. But when? Only when they inwardly cry. To love God and God alone, we have to cry inwardly at every moment and become a helpless inner cry. I always tell people in the spiritual life to start no matter where they are, no matter how developed or undeveloped they are. Unless we start, we can never reach our destination. Even if we start with curiosity, we will see that our curiosity will eventually lead us to faith. Faith is something divine within us. When we have faith in God, God gives us faith in ourselves. When our faith in God and our faith in ourselves work together, we become a perfect instrument of God. At that time, we gain inner experiences and these experiences carry us along the road of Immortality.

For those who follow the spiritual life there comes a time when we distinctly hear God’s Voice. God offers us His highest message: today’s imperfect man is tomorrow’s perfect God. Today’s unfulfilled man becomes tomorrow’s fulfilled God. But how? Through divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender. Human love binds us. Human devotion is nothing but attachment. Human surrender is nothing but compulsion. Divine love is the heart’s expansion. Divine devotion is the sweetest intimacy with God. Divine surrender is the complete satisfaction of our life. This surrender is the surrender of our unlit life to our own fully illumined soul. In the real spiritual life if we have divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender, then we accomplish everything. The Kingdom of Heaven we bring down into the world, and earth’s cry we carry up to Heaven’s Smile.

The secret of joy⁴

The secret of joy is not to be found in the life of desires; the secret of joy is in the life of aspiration. The life of desire blinds us and binds us. The life of aspiration illumines us and liberates us. The life of desire makes us feel that we are all beggars. The life of aspiration makes us feel that we are all God’s divine children. The life of desire is the life of pleasure. A life of pleasure can never be a life of joy, because pleasure is followed by frustration and frustration is followed by destruction. But joy is followed by deeper joy, deeper joy is followed by deepest joy and deepest joy is followed by infinite Joy.

In the spiritual life, we can have joy only when we surrender ourselves to God’s Will. Two thousand years ago the Saviour Christ taught us the supreme message: “Let Thy Will be done.” There can be no higher message, no deeper secret, than this. If we want to have infinite Joy, then here is the secret. As long as I am in the finite my joy is bound to be finite. I can have unlimited joy only when I enter into the Infinite. How much joy can a drop of water contain? But when this drop enters into the mighty ocean and becomes inseparably one with the mighty ocean, the joy it can contain becomes infinite.

We get joy from self-conquest. To conquer ourselves we have to discipline our life. From a disciplined life we get self-mastery. From self-mastery we get the message of self-discovery. Self-discovery and God-realisation are one and the same. When we realise God, our inner consciousness is flooded with Light and Delight. At that time we have infinite Joy, infinite Peace and infinite Light.

There are various ways to get joy, but the easiest and most effective way is through love. When the mother loves her child, how happy the child is! But the mother remains on earth for seventy or eighty years and then she dies. Her son, who has now become a grown-up man, does not get any more joy from his mother because she is no longer on earth. He has received love, which is joy, from his mother for thirty or forty years. This joy we call the joy of the finite. But when we love God, the Inner Pilot, who is eternal, then our joy will be permanent and eternal. I am not saying here that we should not give importance to a mother’s love. We can enter into infinite Joy without throwing aside finite joy.

In our life of joy service is as important as love. If we serve God in mankind, we can become happy. If we serve those who need our help, then we can become happy. Each time we serve, we expand our consciousness, and real joy grows in the expansion of our consciousness. Service means going from one to many, from many to the Infinite. First I eat and serve myself. Then I feed my near and dear ones. And then I try to feed the whole of humanity. As I serve more and more seekers, as I increase my service, I also increase my joy.

Something which is quite important in our spiritual life is freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from falsehood, darkness and ignorance. Every day God gives us freedom. It is we who have to use this freedom. With our freedom we need not pray to human beings to give us things. We can easily pray only to our Lord Supreme, who is our Liberator. We can love only God, who is our Beloved Supreme. But in order to pray to God, meditate on God and love God, we need inspiration. This inspiration we may get from a flower, from a flame, from the sky, from the mountains, from the sea, from the moon, from the stars, from the sun. Or we can get this inspiration from a God-realised man. We may look at a flower for inspiration or we may look at the flame of a candle, but we have to know that the flower has not realised God, the flame has not realised God. If we meditate on the picture of a Master, we get a kind of inspiration which is much more powerful than the inspiration that we get from a flower or a candle flame. If we meditate on a picture of the Christ, Sri Krishna, the Buddha or other spiritual Masters in whom we have faith, then naturally we shall get infinitely more inspiration than if we meditate on a flower or a candle flame.

Here on earth we are caught by the animal in us, by the human in us and by the Divine in us. When we are caught by the animal in us, we fight vehemently to free ourselves. What are the animals inside us? Doubt, jealousy and aggression. When we are caught by the human in us, it compels us to be satisfied only with a small, insignificant thing. It forces us to remain inside a tiny cave. It tells us that we cannot realise the Infinite. The Divine in us catches us most lovingly. The Supreme holds His divine child most lovingly and tells him that He is dreaming in and through him. He wants His child to grow up and one day become as great as He is.

In our daily practical life there is a way for us to get joy. If we lead a simple life and go to our goal on a direct path, if we walk along a sunlit path, then we can have joy. A simple life is the life of happiness. A direct path is the path of joy. A sunlit path is the path of constant joy.

We do not get joy because the world is full of chaos. Who has created this chaos? You and I. It is we who have to be blamed. When our body only sleeps and snores, we create chaos. When our vital strikes others, we create chaos. When our mind doubts others, we create chaos. But if we use our body to serve God in man, if we use our vital to inspire others, if we use our mind to illumine others, then we are bound to get joy.

We have made many, many promises to God. Every day we promise God that we shall do this for Him, we shall do that for Him, but we never, never do what we promise. God has made only one promise to us and that promise is that He will give us His Joy. His Joy He wants to give us in infinite measure, but when He wants to give it to us, we do not receive it. God is like the sun, an inner sun; He is all Light. If we keep our windows and doors shut, then the sunlight cannot come in. Similarly, if we keep our heart’s door shut, then God’s Joy cannot come in. But if we keep our heart’s door open, then we get light and illumination from God the inner Sun.

We have three special rooms: the room of the soul, the room of the heart and the room of the mind. There are two more rooms: the room of the vital and the room of the body, but most of the time we keep the doors to these two rooms closed. When we live in the soul’s room, we see that there is nowhere for death to stay. When there is nowhere for death, naturally we will be extremely happy. When we live in the heart-room, we see that at times there is a seat for death. Naturally, we cannot be as happy as when we are in the soul’s room. This moment, when our heart identifies with Light divine, naturally there can be no death; but the next moment, when our heart identifies with the ignorance of the world, at that time all is depression, frustration, destruction and death. In the room of the mind, not only is there a seat for death, but death is welcome to sit on any seat he wants to. Death comes in and sits either on its own seat or on any other seat it wants to occupy. So there can be no joy at all in the room of the mind. If we are in the mind-room, we have to pray to enter into the heart-room. If we are in the heart-room, let us pray and meditate to enter into the soul’s room. It is only in the soul’s room that we will find infinite Joy, infinite Satisfaction and infinite Perfection.

Capacity⁵

A child that is one day old knows how to move his hands and legs and how to cry. These are some of his capacities. As the child grows up, his capacities increase. When he becomes a fully-fledged man, either he misuses his capacities or he uses them properly. If he properly uses his capacities, he eventually realises the highest Truth on earth. If he misuses his capacities, then here on earth he lives in the world of ignorance and death.

Since we are all seekers, we all have some capacity to love God, to serve God and to surrender ourselves to God’s Will. If we love God, then we are doing the first thing first; we are watering the roots of the tree. If we serve God, we come closer to God and God comes closer to us. If we surrender ourselves to God’s Will, then we feel that we are complete.

Yesterday we cried and cried for God’s Love. Today we are smiling and smiling with God’s Love. Tomorrow with our smile we shall bring down the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. When we bring down the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, our Beloved Supreme will enjoy His rest on earth and all human beings will at last find their all-nourishing, all-protecting nest.

We must try to serve God in every human being. This service of ours has to be unconditional. If it is conditional service we will never be happy. Whenever we serve God or love mankind we have to do it unconditionally. Then only can we be continuously happy.

Two thousand years ago the Saviour Christ taught us the supreme lesson: “Let Thy Will be done.” Millions, billions and trillions of prayers have been offered to God, but there can be no better, no greater, no more fulfilling prayer than this. If we love God we become happy. If we serve God we become happier. If we surrender our individual will to God’s Will we become happiest.

There is a special way to become happy. If we know how to follow the inner guidance, then we can really be happy. This guidance comes directly from the soul. Unfortunately, quite often our vital being cleverly deceives us. It makes us feel that its own message is actually coming from the soul. How are we going to know whether a message is coming from the vital or from the soul? There is an easy, most effective way to know this. If it is the voice of the vital, then we will know immediately from the way we feel after we complete the action. After we act, the result of our action will come in the form of either success or failure. If we fail in something and then feel miserable, we can know that it was not the voice of the soul that told us to do that thing; it was the voice of the vital being. If we are successful and then become extremely happy and proud and try to dominate the world with our happiness and pride, again we can know that it was not the soul’s voice. The moment we get a message from the soul or hear its voice, we get an inner thrill. Whether we succeed or fail, we have an inner joy. This joy does not make us want to dominate the world; rather, it makes us feel our oneness with the world. With this joy we can enter into others’ hearts and help them to lead a better and higher life.

A life of peace is a life of tremendous capacity. How do we get peace? There are many ways to achieve peace but I wish to tell you of two main ways. One way is to minimise our desires. Since we are seekers, a day will come when we shall have no desires at all. But before that day dawns, our peace of mind will increase if we try to minimise our desires every day. The second way to get peace is to feel that we are not indispensable here on earth for anything or for anyone. Long before we came into the world, the world existed; long after we leave this world, the world will still exist. So how can we be indispensable? We stay here on earth for sixty, seventy or eighty years. Then we see our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren carry on where we left off in the supreme process of evolution.

In our daily life, sometimes we see good in others and sometimes we see bad. This is a form of capacity that we exercise every day. But we have to know that when we see bad in others we multiply our own bad qualities. When we see good in others we find that we can bring forward our own good qualities and see our own Source. This Source is the Unity which is trying to manifest itself through multiplicity.

Life is a constant battle between good forces and bad forces, between divine forces and undivine forces. When we lose in the battlefield of life we feel that we are doomed to disappointment. This disappointment is itself a negative force. During the fight we have already spent a considerable amount of energy. But if we pay attention to our disappointment and despair, we lose even more of our precious energy. To pay attention to anyone or anything is to expend energy. If we pay attention to the right people or the right things, then we get energy back from them in abundant measure. We offer our capacity to the human in them; then the soul or the divine in them gives us back even more capacity, out of gratitude. In the outer life, the more we offer knowledge to others, the more there comes to us a higher and deeper knowledge to illumine our mind and heart. In the spiritual life also, the more we serve others, the more capacity God grants us for service.

When we have earthly power, physical power, we feel that we shall be able to dominate the earth. When we have spiritual power, we feel that we can be of service to mankind. Spiritual power is the power of our inner cry. Spiritual power climbs high, higher, highest and brings down from above God’s Light, Peace and Delight. Then it distributes these qualities in the physical world. Spiritual power is the power of inseparable oneness. Physical, earthly power is the power of division and destruction. But when physical power is illumined and guided by spiritual power, then the physical power adds to the spiritual power in the tug-of-war against ignorance. Physical power, the younger brother, takes the side of spiritual power, the older brother, and together they battle against ignorance. When two strong persons are on one side and only one is on the other side, naturally the side that has two persons will win.

In the spiritual life there is a special way to increase our capacity every day, every hour, every minute. It can be done through gratitude. When we offer our soulful gratitude to God, our capacity for receptivity immediately increases. Our receptivity is like a vessel; this vessel can be enlarged. Naturally, the larger the vessel the more it will be able to hold of God’s Light and Delight.

The life of a seeker is the life of inner faith. Faith is something that constantly brings us the message of the Beyond. Faith is the foundation of our real life. We must have faith in God; we must have faith in ourselves. If we have faith only in God and not in ourselves, or if we have faith only in ourselves and not in God, then we cannot go very far. What is our faith? Our faith is our inner cry for God’s Light and Bliss in infinite measure. Our faith is God’s transcendental Smile, which transforms our life and carries us from the sea of ignorance to the sea of Wisdom. Our inner faith in God constantly helps us to run the fastest and constantly makes God run towards us in the fastest possible way. Because God’s speed is far greater than our speed, when we take one step towards God we see that God has taken ninety-nine steps towards us. Then we meet together.

Capacity means to give and to receive. What can we give God? We can give Him only what we have. What we have is a sea of ignorance. What He has is a sea of infinite Light and Delight. God is anxious and more than eager to give us what He has and what He is. It is we who do not want to give our ignorance to God. We feel that if we give our ignorance away to God, then there will be nothing that we will have or be able to claim as our own. But when we pray and meditate, we realise that we can claim God’s treasures as our own.

An unaspiring person feels that he can create a better universe. God not only feels that He can create a better universe but He actually has the capacity to do so. Seekers can help God in creating a better universe through selfless, dedicated service and through constant aspiration. If God wants me to be perfect, if I cry most sincerely and most devotedly, one day God will make me perfect. Then there will be one less imperfect person in this world. Tomorrow, if you also try most sincerely the way I have tried, then there will be two persons on the side of perfection. If every day one person takes the side of perfection, then this world of ours will eventually become perfect. The process goes from the one to the many, from the individual to the universal, from the earth-bound consciousness to the Heaven-free consciousness, from the finite reality to the infinite Reality which is God's Song of the ever-transcending Beyond.

We can do something for everyone: for earth, for God and for Heaven. We can bring down Heaven’s Smile for earth. We can offer our earth-cry to Heaven. We can offer our surrendered life to God. Finally, if we really want to love earth in a divine and supreme way, then we must remind ourselves of the long-forgotten promise that we are here on earth to embody God consciously, to reveal God devotedly, to manifest God unmistakably. Our embodiment of God, our revelation of God and our manifestation of God must be unconditional. If we do this, God’s infinite capacities will shower on us. At that time we become God’s ambassadors, His most perfect instruments on earth. And it is in and through us that He will then sail His Dream-Boat to the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond.

Satisfaction⁶

What is satisfaction? Satisfaction is perfection. Yesterday our perfection was God-realisation. Today our perfection is God-revelation. Tomorrow our perfection shall be God-manifestation.

Who is satisfied? Not he who has material wealth in boundless measure. Who is satisfied? Not he who rules a country. Who is satisfied? Not he who performs constant miracles. He alone is satisfied who is in constant communion with his Inner Pilot. He alone is satisfied who loves God unconditionally. He alone is satisfied who serves God in God’s own Way. In order to commune with God inwardly, love God unconditionally and serve God in His own Way, we need aspiration. Aspiration is the inner cry that rises from the very depths of our heart. It climbs high, higher, highest and touches the pinnacle of Light and Truth. Aspiration is the creation of God’s Compassion. Compassion is God’s highest and best divine quality. God has infinite divine qualities, but His Compassion far surpasses all His other divine qualities. God’s Compassion and man’s salvation are inseparable.

Satisfaction lies in our self-giving. Through self-giving we enter into the universal Consciousness and the limited human consciousness grows into the boundless divine Consciousness. Self-giving precedes God-becoming. God-becoming experiences the universal Consciousness in both its static and its dynamic forms. In His static form God enjoys His supreme Silence. In His dynamic form God enjoys His all-manifesting Sound.

On the physical plane we try to get satisfaction at every moment, but we try to get satisfaction by fulfilling our desires. We feel that each time we fulfil a desire we shall see the face of satisfaction. But unfortunately, each time a desire is fulfilled we feel tremendous dissatisfaction. We feel that something higher, something more powerful, exists; yet that very thing we have not yet achieved. We blame our circumstances. We blame others. We blame the world. We blame God. We blame circumstances because we feel that circumstances could have been on our side, but were not. We blame others because we feel that they could have been of considerable help to us, but were not. We blame the world because we feel that the world did not encourage us enough to win the victory. We blame God because we feel that God was indifferent to us and did not play His part. We feel that God did not give us the tremendous will-power we needed to achieve victory in life. We feel that He did not show us the Compassion we needed. But if we are sincere, we will see that it is we ourselves who have to be blamed; for no matter what we do or achieve, we will always have a sense of dissatisfaction unless and until we have realised the highest Truth, the Lord Supreme.

There are a few enemies we have within us that do not allow us to be satisfied. They are doubt, jealousy and despair. Doubt-power is contagious. It starts in the mind and then spreads to the vital and the physical. Gradually it poisons the whole of our physical existence. Jealousy acts like a ferocious animal. If it gets the opportunity it will not hesitate to devour the whole world. Despair is a destructive power, a negative power that feels that everything is lost and there is only darkness. Despair invokes frustration and frustration invokes destruction. In a negative way despair obtains satisfaction, but this satisfaction is nothing but self-destruction.

Divine satisfaction lies in renunciation. What do we renounce? We do not renounce the body. We renounce the things in us that are not aspiring — qualities like fear, doubt, anxiety and worry. After we have renounced these, we bring faith, joy, love, devotion and confidence into our life. These divine qualities give us real satisfaction. If we want to be satisfied in our spiritual life we have to cultivate devotion. Devotion can give us considerable joy and satisfaction. If we kneel down before our Lord Supreme, He blesses us and gives us joy. If we cry like a child, He embraces us, and in His embrace we get satisfaction. If we pray soulfully to Him, He employs us to serve Him in aspiring humanity, and through our soulful service we get satisfaction.

As ordinary human beings want satisfaction, spiritual Masters also want satisfaction. While they are here on earth they serve God. This is their satisfaction. They also make a solemn promise to the world at large that they will come back again and again to serve God in mankind and to fight the evil forces and help the divine forces.

“Whenever the undivine qualities prevail and the divine qualities decline, I embody myself for the protection of the good and for the destruction of the wicked.” This is the message that Lord Krishna offered to mankind. He also taught us that if we really want satisfaction, we have to live in the consciousness of the soul and not in the physical consciousness. The soul is the divine representative of God on earth. This is Lord Krishna’s description of the soul: “Weapons cannot cleave it; fire cannot burn it; water cannot drench it; wind cannot dry it. Eternal and immutable is the soul.” If we can remain inside the soul, we cannot be affected by the buffets of life, for we become immortal. It is in Immortality that we will find eternal satisfaction. In the finite there can be no satisfaction because the finite always wants to possess. In possession there can be no satisfaction. But in the Infinite there is all satisfaction.

The modern world is getting satisfaction from new scientific discoveries. What is God’s latest discovery? If we say that God’s latest discovery is man, then we are mistaken. If we say that God’s latest discovery is human aspiration, we are mistaken. If we say that God’s latest discovery is man’s dedication, we are mistaken. If we say that God’s latest discovery is man’s surrender to God’s Will, we are also mistaken. What, then, is God’s latest discovery? It is man’s gratitude, which is absolutely the rarest thing on earth. Each time God discovers it, He feels that it is really His latest discovery. When man offers gratitude to the Supreme, his power of receptivity increases in infinite measure. As his receptivity increases, his satisfaction-power also increases. The supreme Satisfaction lies in man’s constant offering of gratitude to God.

Inner experiences⁷

My first and foremost experience is the discovery of the importance of the spiritual heart. This heart constantly aspires to climb high, higher, highest in order to reach the highest pinnacle of Truth and Light. This heart is the heart of inseparable oneness — oneness with you, with God, with the world at large. Inside this heart, the seeker in me has discovered three most intimate friends and eternal friends: love, devotion and surrender. This love is divine love. This devotion is divine devotion. This surrender is divine surrender.

Human love we all know. It is a song of temptation, a song of frustration, a song of destruction. But divine love is the song of aspiration, the song of realisation, the song of perfection and, finally, the song of Satisfaction supreme here on earth and there in Heaven.

Human devotion is the song of attachment, conscious or unconscious. There is practically no light in the song of attachment. But when we have divine devotion, which is the devotion we offer to the Highest in order to become one with its Light and Delight, the seeker in us becomes the Lover divine. At that time, the seeker in us devotes his entire life and his entire being to a higher, more fulfilling reality, to the Supreme Beloved and the supreme Cause. He is devoted only to the Truth, Light, Beauty and Delight which abound in infinite measure in the heart of the universal Consciousness. His song offers him deepest joy, which he feels in the inmost recesses of his heart. The song of devotion leads him to the sea of Nectar-Bliss.

The third eternal friend that I have discovered inside the heart is divine surrender. This surrender is not imposed; this is not the surrender of a slave to his master, which is founded upon fear. The divine surrender that I am speaking of is the feeling of oneness with the Highest. This surrender is founded upon oneness, inseparable oneness. The unillumined in us is crying to enter into the illumined in us and become totally illumined itself. The finite has become conscious of its own infinite existence on the highest plane of consciousness; therefore, the finite aspires to become consciously one, inseparably one, with its own highest reality: Infinity. This surrender is not being compelled; it is spontaneous, willing and cheerful. Divine surrender has discovered that self-giving to the Divine is nothing other than God-becoming.

The seeker in me has discovered a cosmic tree. This cosmic tree has many, many branches, but the three most significant branches are love, devotion and surrender. When we climb up the tree and try to sit on the love-branch, we see God’s Door, His Heart’s Door, which is immediately opened for us. When we climb up a little higher and sit on the devotion-branch, we see someone inside God’s Room beckoning us to enter. And finally, when we climb up still higher and sit on the surrender-branch, we again see someone beckoning to us. But this time it is not a representative of God; it is God Himself. God Himself comes out and signals us to enter into His Room. He says to us, “My children, now you have seen in Me the perennial Truth, Light and Bliss. Here is My Crown. Here is My Throne. These are all for you. You have been wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance from time immemorial. There was a time when you claimed ignorance as your very own. Now is the time to claim Me, My infinite Light, Peace and Bliss, as your very own. It is time to claim Me as your birthright.”

A life of love divine tells us who God is.

A life of surrender divine makes us sit on the Throne of God and wear the Crown of God.

The seeker in me has discovered the path of the heart. There is another path — the path of the mind. There are people who want to follow that path, but there one encounters many risks. When one walks along that path, a few so-called friends make his acquaintance: fear, doubt, anxiety and worry. These so-called friends eventually prove to be veritable enemies. In the beginning, doubt makes the seeker feel that if he can doubt everything and everyone in the world, then he can play the role of a supreme judge. The seeker soon comes to realise, however, that his doubting faculty has not made him a chief justice; it has only created a malignant cancer in him.

Fear, in a tricky way, wants to make the seeker feel that it is warning him and cautioning him. But the seeker eventually comes to realise that fear is only blocking his mind and tormenting his entire being. He has not done anything wrong, so why should he be afraid of anything or anyone? Only a criminal, only someone who has done something wrong, need be afraid. So the seeker comes to know that the message of fear has no validity; then fear becomes forceless.

Worries and anxieties make the seeker feel that he needs them in order to keep alert. They make him feel that the reason he is so stricken by worries and anxieties is because he has concern for his outer and inner wants. But alas, there comes a time when the seeker who is following the mental path realises that it is not anxiety or worry that show real concern for his outer and inner wants or for mankind. When we are in the physical, we may say that worries and anxieties show our concern for others. But when we are in the soul, we discover that real concern is the feeling of oneness, the oneness of our expanded, unlimited self with the various parts of our own being and with the rest of the world.

Real concern for ourselves lies in our conscious awareness of our integral oneness with the body, vital, mind, heart and soul. Right now, we have established a physical unity from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. In all our limbs we feel unity. When our feet and hands hurt, we feel pain all over our body. Similarly, if our brain-power has achieved something, if we have stood first in a university examination, then immediately our entire body-consciousness becomes full of joy, delight and pride. Why? Precisely because our whole body has established inseparable oneness with the mind. This same kind of oneness that exists in the physical we have to establish with all the parts of our being — physical, vital, mind, heart and soul. If we can do this, we will have real concern for our own existence. But if we want to have concern for the world, we have to know that genuine concern has to come from our feeling of inseparable and indispensable oneness with our infinite existence, with our countless brothers and sisters.

When we live in the heart, our road is short. When we live in the mind, the road is long; also there are quite a few hooligans that come to rob us. If we are very brave and powerful and have indomitable will, then we can walk along the path of the mind successfully. But if we walk along the path of the heart, we find that it is at once the safest and the most effective way, for it is the path of divine children. When we follow the path of the heart, we automatically become divine children. When we become divine children, we spontaneously follow the path of the heart. If we follow the path of the mind, we feel that we can accomplish everything all by ourselves; we need very little help or practically no help from above. We feel that we are the doers, that we can do everything. But a child never feels that he is the doer. He always feels that his mother and father will do everything for him. He has the feeling because he has established his oneness with his parents. One smile from the child is enough to give the parents infinite pleasure. In the child’s smile, the Kingdom of Heaven is immediately brought down to earth. One cry from the child is enough to make the parents muster all their love-power, compassion-power and concern-power. It immediately builds a bridge between Heaven and earth. The child cries in the living room and the mother comes running from the kitchen, for she feels that it is her bounden duty to come and please the child. The divine child’s cry has the power of uniting earth and Heaven.

It is children who make constant progress. They live in the world of dreams, and dreams are nothing other than realities in the making. Today’s dreams are tomorrow’s realities. Today’s imperfect human being will be tomorrow’s perfect human being. Today’s weakness is tomorrow’s strength. A child is God’s Dream-Boat today. Tomorrow he will not only reach the Golden Shore, but he will also become the Shore itself. This is the path of the heart which the seeker in me has discovered.

Dear sisters and brothers, I wanted to share with you the experiences that I have had. Now I have offered them to the seeker in each of you with my heart’s deepest love, my soul’s deepest gratitude and with my feeling of inseparable oneness with each of you.

Inner obedience⁸

Obedience is a forced life; obedience is the surrender of an inferior man to a superior man. These are the realisations of an ordinary, unaspiring human being. But the obedience that I am going to talk about is the inner obedience. This obedience is our conscious recognition of our higher life, higher reality and higher height. This obedience represents the achievement of true knowledge. When we obey the higher principles, the higher law, we come to realise that we are living eternally in the eternal Now.

A child obeys his parents. While obeying he walks along the path of truth, light and beauty. Although his outer life may be full of fear, his inner life is approaching the destination of perfection. In the spiritual life we are all eternal children. As sincere seekers we become devoted children and surrendered instruments of God; we listen to the Voice of the Inner Pilot who is guiding our destiny and moulding and shaping us in His own Way. When we go deep within we feel that we are an exact prototype of His Being. We obey our Inner Pilot, not because He is all-powerful or because we fear He may punish us if we do not obey Him. No, this is not our realisation. Our illumined love-power wants to be one with His infinite Love and Light. We obey Him because He is all Love.

From the spiritual point of view, obedience is our self-giving to the illumined consciousness. The individual consciousness, the personal consciousness that we embody, is very limited. But we can offer our individual and personal life to something that is universal. Then the limited becomes universal and unlimited. A spark of divine light we are. When we enter into the vast Sun, we offer our individuality and personality to our highest source and then we become part and parcel of this vast Sun of Universality. From the finite we go to the Infinite; from the Infinite we go to the transcendental Absolute where all is universal oneness.

Our feet take us to school where we get mental knowledge and wisdom. This is because the feet and the mind have established their inseparable oneness. It is not obedience but inner necessity that makes them help one another. My legs will serve my mind when it is a matter of learning, and when it is a matter of running, my mind and heart come to the aid of my legs with their conscious concern and will-power. Obedience is our conscious acceptance of our entire existence. When one part of our being needs special attention, another part comes to its rescue. “United we stand; divided we fall.” This is the motto of our inner obedience.

In the spiritual life inner obedience and self-discipline go together; they are inseparable. When we discipline our life, we feel that we are no longer in the animal kingdom but in the human kingdom and, at the same time, we are aspiring for the divine kingdom. This divine kingdom is bound to dawn. In fact, on the strength of our aspiration, it is we who will give birth to the divine kingdom here on earth. Self-discipline leads us to self-discovery, which is God-discovery. God-discovery is followed by God-revelation and God-revelation is followed by God-manifestation. Finally, God-manifestation is followed by God-perfection and God-satisfaction.

Hesitation comes into our life when we do not obey the Inner Guide. Hesitation comes into our life when we do not nourish our inner existence with prayer and meditation. When do we hesitate? We hesitate when we live in the mind-room instead of the heart-room. When we are in the mind-room, we see a tiger in front of us, a lion behind us and other destructive animals all around us. We also hesitate when we shake hands with gloom, either consciously or unconsciously. When we open our inner door to the Prince of Gloom, we constantly hesitate. But if we obey the Inner Pilot, we are always cheerful. At that time the Prince of Gloom has no access to us. We also hesitate when we do not claim God as our very own. Our highest and only real Reality is God’s Dream-Boat. But if we do not realise that in us and for us is God’s Reality-Shore, then we are bound to hesitate.

If we follow the Will of our Inner Pilot, there is never any hesitation in our life. We must know that the moment an individual seeker obeys the Inner Pilot, a most beautiful rose comes into existence in the garden of God’s Heart. This heart-rose emanates a celestial fragrance that elevates the whole earth-consciousness.

How can the seeker know what the Will of the Inner Pilot is? How can he differentiate between the voice of the soul and the voice of the mind or the vital, which can create unimaginable problems for him? How will he separate the real from the unreal, the wrong from the right? The sincere seeker will be able to detect easily the wrong, the unreal voice. If the voice wants him to get satisfaction from the results of his efforts, then it is the unreal voice. After obeying the voice, if he will be satisfied only if victory dawns, and disappointed if failure comes, then he knows it is the wrong voice. The right voice, the divine voice, the voice of his soul will only inspire him to do selfless action and right action. This is not always the same as successful action in the outer world.

In India’s Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says to his dearest disciple: “Thou hast the right to action, but claim not the fruits thereof.” Action divinely performed is the supreme Victory. The result can come in the form of either success or failure. When a child learns how to crawl, he feels that he has achieved a tremendous success. But when he knows how to walk properly, he feels that yesterday’s accomplishment was very insignificant. Today’s success is never enough. Tomorrow we will try to get another, more gratifying kind of success. What we feel we want is something to satisfy our immediate need. But when it is a question of continual progress, our immediate need is also the eternal need. Our eternal need is progress. Progress is the continuous fruitful, ever-transcending fulfilment of our eternal need. Success is pleasing to the human in us, but when we take the side of progress, we get tremendous divine satisfaction. We see progress in the growth of a tree. A seed germinates and grows into a tiny plant. Gradually it becomes a huge Banyan Tree with hundreds of branches and thousands of leaves which can offer shelter to countless human beings. If we take life as a song of gradual progress, then life is constant satisfaction.

Inner obedience is responsibility and duty. When we look at responsibility with our unaspiring human consciousness, it seems like an unbearably heavy burden that we have to shoulder. But when we follow the spiritual life, we look upon responsibility as a divine opportunity. The more responsibility we have, the more we are able to fulfil both Heaven-consciousness and earth-consciousness. Responsibility is our immediate necessity. It is the necessity of our soul, the necessity of the real in us, the necessity of the ideal in us and the necessity of the ever-transcending in us.

A sincere seeker feels that it is his inner and outer necessity that has compelled him to cry for God and become inseparably one with God’s infinite Light, Truth, Peace and Bliss. He also feels that God’s Necessity and God’s Divinity are constantly in need of his existence. God’s Divinity needs him for God-realisation, and God’s Necessity needs him for God-manifestation. Necessity is founded upon mutual responsibility. The son has made a solemn promise to the Father that to realise and manifest Him he will go into the world-arena again and again. The Father has made a solemn promise to the son that in him and through him He will manifest His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.

A sincere seeker, an obedient seeker, feels that the desire-life is a dangerous thing. It is constantly destroying his inner power and inner realisation. When he becomes really sincere, really devoted, really obedient, he feels that his aspiration-life is constantly taking him away from the desire-life and animal-life. Each human being first lives the desire-life, then the aspiration-life and finally the realisation-life. When he lives the realisation-life, he finally comes to see that his animal-life and desire-life served a purpose, but were only stages in the soul’s slow and steady evolution.

Aspiration-life is the life of inner obedience. When we obey someone outwardly, even out of fear, we gain something. But when we obey someone inwardly because he is divine, then we grow into his very image, into his own divinity. When we inwardly and outwardly offer our obedience to the Inner Pilot, our first experience tells us that we are on earth and our Father is in Heaven. Our second experience tells us that we are where our Father is, or our Father is where we are. Our third and ultimate experience is that no matter where He is or where we are, our only wish is that His Will be done. Let Him be in Heaven, let us be in hell. Our only prayer to the ever-compassionate Father is this: “Let Thy Will be done.” This is the highest perfection founded upon the beauty of inner obedience.

Force⁹

Forgiveness is a powerful divine force. To forgive others in the physical plane is a difficult task. To forget others’ imperfections is more difficult. Not to notice anything wrong in others is most difficult. But when we think of God it becomes easy for us to forgive others; when we pray to God it becomes easy to forget others’ shortcomings, limitations and imperfections. When we meditate on God, it becomes easy for us not to notice anything wrong in others.

Self-discipline is a force that every aspirant needs. In the total perfection of our self-discipline we discover our true self. In order to discipline our physical we have to cry for light. In order to discipline our vital life, the life of pleasure, we need light from above and from within in abundant measure. In order to discipline our mind we need peace, boundless peace.

To conquer the heart, we need love-light. To conquer the soul, we need oneness-light. When physical force conquers something, it tries to destroy it. When spiritual force conquers something, it tries to illumine and perfect it. Human force often conquers and quite often destroys. Divine force ultimately conquers and always illumines darkness and ignorance with its light.

Unconditional surrender to the Will of the Supreme is the most significant force in our human life. This force must inevitably precede God-realisation. When we surrender to the Will of God, when our earthly existence becomes a song of surrender, a flower of surrender, we can place it devotedly at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

Undivine human forces rule most of the outer world. Divine forces guide the inner world. God’s Compassion for humanity does not allow the undivine human forces to destroy the world. God’s Love for divinity encourages the divine forces to try to liberate the world of ignorance, imperfection, limitation and bondage.

When our consciousness is in the animal world, the force that enters us is destructive. When our consciousness is in the human world, the force that enters cries for domination. When our consciousness is in the divine world, the force that enters expands our consciousness and perfects our nature. If we are good, if we are divine, if we are perfect, we will not have to use human force, for our very presence will be a divine force that will inspire others to become good, divine and perfect.

When we live in the body, vital and mind we do not and cannot see the ideal of life and the ideal in life. Life has no ideal at that time; life is only a pleasure-hunt. When we live in the heart and the soul we see and feel an ideal. At each second a divine ideal looms large in our life. Inside each ideal there is something called reality. This reality is the message of divinity; it is Immortality’s life in us. The seeker wants to see this inner reality.

Our ideal is the highest Truth, Light and Bliss. We shall not cease crying unless and until we have achieved these qualities in boundless measure as our own inner reality. This is the goal that a seeker aims at.

The force of the body, vital and mind is very limited. The force of the heart and soul is boundless. The vital force will sing with Caesar and Napoleon: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The spiritual force will say, “I came, I loved the world, I became one with humanity. Why did I come? I came because I was commissioned by the Lord Supreme to serve Him and to manifest Him here on earth.” In order to serve and manifest the Supreme, we need to love the world. If we do not love the world and become one with humanity’s excruciating pangs, then we cannot serve and manifest God on earth.

Physical force does not and cannot equal the force of the heart’s oneness. Thousands of years ago Lord Krishna, the Buddha and the Christ lived on earth, yet even now their consciousness is guiding and illumining the length and breadth of the world. This is because the force which they used was not the force of the body, vital or mind. When we use the force of the physical plane, we feel that it is the ultimate force, that there cannot be any superior force. If someone drops a bomb, he feels that since he is destroying everything, his is the greatest force. He does not realise that the force that is used in the physical can easily be conquered by a stronger force, and that force is his mental force. If his mind does not allow him or instigate him, he will not drop the bomb.

Even the force of the limited human mind is stronger than that of the destructive body. But spiritual force is infinitely stronger than mental force. The highest spiritual force is love. There can be no force as effective as love. Love on the physical plane binds and limits us. It is a song of possession and attachment. But spiritual love expands and liberates us. It is a song of illumination and liberation for ourselves and for others.

The force that is used by spiritual Masters is not physical force; it is not vital force or mental force. It is the divine love-force. Love-force is also perfection-force. If the Master loves someone, then it is his bounden duty to perfect that person. If the sweetest love-force does not bring about the necessary response in the seeker’s outer being, then the Master uses whatever other form of love-force is applicable at that time. Once we have an iota of peace, light and bliss, what will happen if we lose it? It will be an incalculable loss. A spiritual Master knows this far better than we do. That is why he uses his love-force, his perfection-force in us, for us.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow¹⁰

Aspiration is life. I discover this sublime truth.

Yesterday I wrote good things; therefore, my Lord Supreme was pleased with me. He shook hands with me.

Tomorrow I shall do good things; therefore, my Lord Supreme shall be most pleased with me. He shall bless me unreservedly.

Yesterday I was a power-hungry animal.

Tomorrow I shall try to become a love-hungry God.

Yesterday I was God-preparation.

Tomorrow I shall be God-perfection.

I knock at God's Heart-Door because my sweet Lord has once shown me His Heart's Door.

I cry and cry for my Lord Supreme because my sweet Lord has once made me sit on His Silence-Throne.

I have seen God once; therefore, I wish to see Him again.

I have surrendered to God's Will once; therefore, I wish to surrender my existence to God's Will again.

I know it will not be difficult for me to see God once again. I know it will not be difficult for me to love Him again. I know it will not be difficult for me to surrender my earthly existence to His Heavenly Will again. But there is something that will be extremely difficult for me, for I have not yet done it before. I have not claimed God as my own, very own, for it is difficult, extremely difficult, for me to claim Him as my very own. The day I claim God as my very own, He will proclaim me as His chosen instrument, His Dream-fulfilled Boat.

Aspiration and dedication¹¹

There was a time when we walked along the desire-road. At the end of our journey’s close we discovered that our destination was nothing but frustration. Frustration then persuaded us to meet with its most intimate friend, destruction. Together we sang with frustration; together we danced with destruction.

But now we are walking along the road of aspiration. This road is endless and the seeker’s journey is eternal. On this road life is progress, life is God-preparation, life is God-manifestation, life is God-satisfaction. On this road we sing with Eternity’s Silence and we dance with Infinity’s Sound.

There was a time when we dedicated ourselves to someone or to something with the hope of world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration. But when we discovered that world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration fell short of our expectation, we tried to console ourselves with a new hope. This hope was world-recognition. We thought that if the world recognised us, this was enough. But world-recognition was also not to our satisfaction. At this point, our self-styled knowledge-light revolted against God’s lack of Compassion. We despised the height of the world’s ingratitude.

But now we are sincere, dedicated seekers. We feel that world-recognition is absolutely unnecessary, not to speak of world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration. At this point, we have discovered something most significant: world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration are like devouring animals. They can devour us at any moment on our way to God-realisation unless we are well protected by God’s adamantine Will and unconditional Compassion.

In the spiritual life quite often we are disappointed. Why? Because every day our aspiration is not intense, because every day our dedication is not genuine. How can we have intense aspiration and genuine dedication in our daily multifarious activities? We can have these unparalleled divine qualities if every day we offer our soulful gratitude to the Inner Pilot. Gratitude is the only prayer that is immediately answered by our Inner Pilot.

We are seekers, but there are millions and millions of unaspiring people on earth. They may ask us what they consider a difficult question. They may ask us how we live on earth amidst countless sufferings, excruciating pangs and world-ignorance. We immediately tell them that our aspiration has the answer. We tell them that aspiration not only has the answer but also is the answer. They ask us how we can love people who are full of ignorance, full of imperfections and full of animal propensities. We immediately tell them that our dedication has the answer. We tell them that dedication not only has the answer but also is the answer. We employ our aspiration, our heart's cry, to help us propel the Dream-Boat of God. We employ our dedication to be of service to God with the hope that the Reality-Shore will come closer to us.

Our life of aspiration and dedication is the payment of our personal debt to our Mother Earth. Our life of vision and satisfaction is the payment of our personal debt to our Father Heaven. Our life of perfection and ever-transcendence is the payment of our personal debt to our Supreme Lord.

When we do not aspire we notice that human life is full of rules and regulations. When we do aspire we feel that there are no rules and regulations; we are flowing with the river of freedom and entering into the Perfection-Sea. When we realise the highest Truth we come to realise that there is only one rule and that rule is: God comes first. Then we go one step further and see that the sole rule is: God for God’s sake, and not for our personal satisfaction. It is our unconditional surrender to God’s Will that can make us really happy and fulfilled.

Aspiration and dedication have three most intimate friends to help them reach their destined goal. These friends are concentration, meditation and contemplation. Time will not permit me to speak on them at length, but I wish to demonstrate for a few seconds what concentration meditation and contemplation are.

First let us try to concentrate. When we concentrate we focus all our attention on a particular subject or object. Our concentration is like a divine arrow entering into the object. It pierces the veil of ignorance. I shall be concentrating on my heart. You can also concentrate on your heart or on anything or anyone you want to. [Sri Chinmoy demonstrates concentration for a few moments, in silence.]

Now I shall meditate. When we meditate we do not focus on a particular thing; we merge into something vast, endless, infinite. I shall meditate on the sky. You can also meditate on the sky or on something else if you like. [Sri Chinmoy demonstrates meditation.]

Now I shall contemplate. When we contemplate the seeker in us becomes the divine Lover, inseparably one with the Supreme Beloved. [Sri Chinmoy demonstrates contemplation.]

Dear seekers, exactly a month ago I left New York for Europe. I have visited quite a few European countries and I have given talks at several well-known universities. Today marks the end of my lecture tour, or rather, the end of my dedicated service here.

I am a spiritual farmer. God, out of His infinite Bounty, has entrusted me with the task of plowing the spiritual land. This is my first visit to your beautiful island. I have been here for about four hours. During these four hours, I have felt the Indian consciousness here in Iceland. India’s natural beauty I have observed here; India’s inner peace I have felt here. My presence here makes me feel that my life of aspiration and your life of aspiration in the inner world have built a bridge between spiritual India and spiritual Iceland. My Indian heart offers its soulful gratitude to your hearts of aspiration, for it is you who have given me the opportunity to be of dedicated service to you today. Nothing gives me greater joy than to be of dedicated service to the Supreme inside aspiring human beings.

Editor's note to first edition