Progress is the world within. Success is the world without. Progress consciously liberates the finite. Success unconsciously dominates the finite. Progress devotedly and soulfully embraces the world at large precisely because it is an inner awakening, inner revelation and inner manifestation. Success unconsciously and sometimes deliberately tries to lord it over the world at large. Success quite often sees a yawning gulf between its own achievement and the world’s lack of achievement; therefore, success quite often assumes the authority of superiority.
Perfection is the world within. Manifestation is the world without. Perfection is cherished and treasured by both the finite and the Infinite, by man and by God. Manifestation is measured by both man’s expansion and God’s Transcendence. Perfection is the voice of the inner world. Manifestation is the voice of the outer world. The inner voice tells us that what we see and feel today is the reality that we are going to possess and grow into tomorrow. It tells us that everything is at our disposal, that there cannot be anything in God’s Creation which we cannot claim as our own, very own. The outer voice quite often tells us that what we see, we may achieve; but there is no surety, there is no guarantee. Still, the outer voice says, “Try, it is good to try. There is no harm in trying, but I cannot assure you of success.”
The world within inspires us first to dive deep and then to look around. This is what we hear from the world within. When we dive deep within and look around, to our wide surprise we see Immortality’s Life awaiting us with boundless love, boundless concern and boundless pride. The world without inspires us to go forward and look around. When we go forward and look around, to our wide surprise we see Infinity’s Beauty awaiting our arrival.
The world within tells us that to love God is our supreme responsibility, our sole responsibility and our bounden duty. The world without tells us that to serve God, the Supreme Authority, is our bounden duty.
If we live in the outer world and do not aspire at all, then we shall be plagued by many questions. The first and foremost question will be, “Who is God?” The answer will be given by the inner world, but we will not hear it. The inner world’s answer is, “Who is not God?” This is the unmistakable answer we will get from the inner world. Although it is also a question, inside the question looms large the answer: everybody is God, God in the process of self-preparation, self-revelation and self-manifestation.
There are mature seekers and there are immature seekers. There are aspiring people on earth and there are unaspiring people on earth. The unaspiring people will tell us that the inner life is worthless. They will say that spiritual seekers are running after a goalless shore. There is no goal: it is all mental fantasy, mental hallucination and self-deception. Aspiring people who are not mature from time to time try to make others feel that they are mature. They offer their own wisdom and judgement. They say that the outer world is nothing short of a mad elephant, that aggression reigns supreme, destruction reigns supreme. They feel there is no soul, no goal, no reality, but only a mad elephant or a devouring tiger that is destroying the outer world.
But seekers of the supreme Truth who have some light know unmistakably that the inner world and the outer world are both God’s Creation. When we think of the inner world, we are at once reminded of God the Creator. When we think of the outer world, we are at once reminded of God the Creation. The Creator and the Creation must go together. God feels that He is complete and perfect precisely because He has Creation within Him, with Him, around Him and for Him. Creation feels that it is perfect because God, who is all Perfection, is the Source. Without the assistance and capacity of the inner world, one cannot make progress; he is blind. He needs inner light in order to walk along the road of perfection or he cannot reach his Destination, which is far, very far. Again, if one does not offer due value to the capacities of the outer world, to the achievements of the outer world, then he will not be able to make progress, for he will have no legs. Both eyes and legs are needed, both the inner world and the outer world are necessary in order to become perfect. The inner world embodies vision, which is the real reality. The outer world embodies power, the dynamic power, which is also indispensable. Light is necessary and indispensable for realisation in the inner silence-world and dynamism is necessary and indispensable for manifestation in the outer sound-world.
The world within and the world without. He who wants to grow into Infinity’s Life, Eternity’s Reality and Immortality’s Beauty must offer due attention to both worlds. Both worlds are of paramount importance: the inner seed-world and the outer fruit-world. It is from the seed that we get the fruit and from the fruit that we get the seed. In the inner world God claims us and eternally keeps us as His very own. In the outer world we try and cry to claim God eternally as our very own and reciprocate God’s Love for us.
When we pray and meditate, when we dive deep into the inmost recesses of our being, we not only feel that we are in the inner world, but we also feel that we are the inner world itself. When we make our outer existence into a helping hand, a serving heart and a loving life here, there, everywhere, when we become an all-loving existence — not only do we live in the world without, but we become one with the world without in all its Reality’s Height.
In the world within there is an immortal, invaluable treasure, and that treasure is constant inner cry to know the Highest and to grow into the Absolute. In the world without there is also an invaluable, immortal treasure, and that treasure is smile, illumining smile. The seeker smiles at God’s vast Creation. His smile is the identification-oneness of his own existence-reality with God’s entire Creation. Both in his inner world and in his outer world the seeker cries and smiles devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally. He cries to reach the Absolute Height in God’s own Way, at God’s choice Hour. He smiles in order to see, feel and manifest God. He sees God, feels God and manifests God, the Supreme Reality, in the way God wants him to see, feel and manifest Him.
7. Marvin Center, George Washington University; Washington, DC, USA, 11 February 1976↩
From:Sri Chinmoy,The oneness of the Eastern heart and the Western mind, part 3, Agni Press, 2004
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/oeh_3