St. Paul’s Chapel
11 April 1973The outer experience of Light is immediate inspiration. The inner experience of Light is eternal aspiration.
With inspiration, we run towards the farthest Beyond. With inspiration, we fly to the highest Height. With inspiration, we dive to the deepest Depth. With aspiration, we become the Goal of the ever-transcending Beyond.
The outer experience of light is the transformation of binding desires into liberating freedom. The inner experience of Light is the transformation of earth’s fate into God’s Face.
The outer experience of Light is necessary in order to build the Palace of Transcendental Truth on earth. The inner experience of Light is essential in order to watch and enjoy the Cosmic Dance of Reality, Divinity and Immortality.
Reality is the dreamer in us. Divinity is the lover in us. Immortality is the fulfiller in us. The dreamer dreams and acts. The lover loves and becomes. The fulfiller fulfils and transcends.
The inner experience of Light. In our spiritual existence, we find quite a few seekers who cry for the inner experience of Light, but among these seekers there are two who are quite prominent — that is to say, who are really trying to have the inner experience of Light. These two seekers, these two members of our inner existence, are the mind and the heart — the searching mind and the aspiring heart. The searching mind and the aspiring heart come together to the transcendental Light, the Light Supreme, and say, “O Light of the Supreme, save us, illumine us. We are far apart, but we want to live together. We want to become inseparable.”
Light answers, “That is quite easy. I shall fulfil your wish. But I wish to ask each of you one thing. Mind, tell me, what is your best quality?”
The mind hesitates and says, “You want me to tell you my best quality, but I have no good qualities! My best quality is my stupidity.”
Light consoles the mind, saying, “Oh no! Your best quality is your sense of boundless vastness. Your sense of boundless vastness, O mind, is your best quality.”
Then Light asks the heart, “What is your best quality?”
The heart spontaneously says, “I, too, have no good qualities. If I have to tell you what my best quality is, then I feel that it is my insecurity, for I always feel insecure.”
Light consoles the heart and says, “No! Your best quality is your universal oneness. Your universal oneness, O heart, is your best quality.”
Then Light asks the mind, “Have you any idea how far you are from your Goal?”
The mind replies, “I have no idea at all. But I feel that I am far from my Goal, farther than the farthest.”
Light says, “O searching mind, your farthest Goal you can bring right into you if you once can make yourself feel that your very existence on earth is for the Supreme Reality and the Absolute Truth.”
Light asks the heart, “Heart, how far are you from your Goal?”
The heart answers, “I feel that my Goal is very near, right in front of me. But, alas, to my utter astonishment and sorrow, I do not see it. If I do not see my Goal face to face, then my feeling has no conviction. First I want to actually see my Goal right in front of me, and then I want to grow into my Goal.”
Light says to the heart, “Heart, you can see your Goal right in front of you and you can grow into your Goal immediately if you know how to discover the eternal truth: that your existence on earth has come directly from the eternal Existence of the Supreme and that you are part and parcel of the Supreme. O heart, when you have discovered this Truth — that you are of the Supreme — then you are bound to see your Goal right in front of you.”
Now the mind asks Light, “O Light, please tell me if there is anything I have done that has displeased you.”
Light says, “Yes, you have displeased me. You have misused time. When you foolishly misuse time, you displease me deeply.”
“How can I stop misusing time?”
“You can stop misusing time if you believe in my illumining Reality and if you believe that I need your service unreservedly for my full manifestation on earth. If you believe in my illumination and if you believe that I badly need your assistance, then you will stop misusing time.”
The heart asks Light, “O Light, is there anything I have done that has displeased you?”
“Yes, you have displeased me by wasting time, and you are still wasting time mercilessly. That is why I am displeased with you. You can stop wasting your time if you believe in my illumining Reality and if you believe that I need your dedicated service, your soulful service, for my immediate and permanent manifestation on earth.
“O mind, O heart, if you listen to me, if you fulfil my needs, then both of you can stay together permanently, inseparably.”
The mind says to Light, “O Light, I give you my word of honour: I shall serve you; I shall fulfil your manifestation.”
The heart says to Light, “O Light, I shall serve you unreservedly and unconditionally for your immediate and permanent manifestation on earth.”
When we have the inner experience of Light, we realise that the finite can embody and reveal the Infinite and, at the same time, the Infinite can manifest its Infinity, Eternity and Immortality in and through the finite. When we have the inner experience of Light, we feel the constant necessity of knowing whether we are working for God, whether we are constantly taking God’s side or whether God is taking our side. After we have had the inner experience of Light, we always want to take God’s side. We do not want and do not allow God to take our side. This is the experience that transcends all other experiences. A seeker of the highest order, a Yogi of the highest order or even a spiritual Master of the highest order may at times ask the Supreme to take his side. But when one has had the full inner experience of infinite Light, one always takes the side of the Supreme.
In the ordinary life, there are many people who feel that there is no happiness on earth, and so the best thing is to live without happiness. But a spiritual Master does not see eye to eye with them. He asks them to have the inner experience of Light just once. If one has the inner experience of Light, then his life is all happiness. For him every day is happiness, every hour is happiness, every minute is happiness, every second is happiness.
In the ordinary life, there are many people who think that there is no fulfilling love on earth. They claim that there is only one kind of love, the love that binds us, the love that chains our hands and shackles our hearts. But a spiritual Master tells them, “No, there is something called real Love, divine Love, and you can have this divine Love, this Love that liberates, this Love that perfects human imperfections, this Love that fulfils. You can have this Love if you have had an iota of the inner experience of Light. The inner experience of Light tells us that human life is a constant unfulfilling want, whereas the divine life is a constant fulfilling and fulfilled achievement. Before we have the inner experience of Light, we try to live on earth and hope to live in Heaven in the future. But once we have had the inner experience of Light, we actually do live in Heaven on earth: we live in the heart of Eternal Time and in the lap of Immortality.”From:Sri Chinmoy,The oneness of the Eastern heart and the Western mind, part 2, Agni Press, 2004
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