The oneness of the Eastern heart and the Western mind, part 1

Section: Australia

Philosophy, spirituality and yoga¹

Philosophy most of the time operates on the mental plane. Spirituality most of the time operates in the outer being. Yoga operates in the oneness-heart and in the perfection-life.

Philosophy has come to the conclusion that God is stupendous. Spirituality has come to the conclusion that God is glorious. Yoga has come to the conclusion that God is gracious, loving, compassionate, illumining and fulfilling.

God says to philosophy, “My child, you have known Me as someone stupendous. I shall make you stupendous.” God says to spirituality, “My child, you have known Me as someone glorious. I shall grant you all My Glory.” To Yoga God says, “My child, you have known Me as someone gracious. Of all My qualities, My most treasured quality is Grace. You are also aware of My Love. Nothing is equal to My Love. Because you are aware of My Compassion and Illumination, I shall bestow My choicest, blessingful Compassion and Illumination on you in infinite measure. And not only that, but also I shall eventually fulfil you by making you another God.”

A student of philosophy studies in the mind-school. He wants to measure God’s Infinity. A student of spirituality studies in the body-school, vital-school and mind-school. He wants to reach God’s Eternity. A student of Yoga studies in the heart-school and in the soul-school. In the heart-school he studies for liberation from ignorance-night and in the soul-school he studies for the perfect Perfection of life here on earth.

Who can measure God’s Infinity? It is absurd to think of trying. Who can catch God’s Eternity? Nobody. But who can try to become liberated? Who can try to become perfect? Everybody. You, he, I, everybody. Everybody in God’s Creation can make a soulful attempt to become free from the meshes of ignorance and to be perfect. In the heart-school and the soul-school, the student of Yoga learns something else: he learns how to become an unconditional instrument of God. He learns to live on earth only to please God in God’s own Way.

The student of philosophy is puzzled. The student of spirituality is astonished. The student of Yoga is awakened, totally awakened. The student of philosophy wants to address the world assembly. He wants to prove that God exists. The student of spirituality wants to carry God’s Light throughout the length and breadth of the world. The student of Yoga has been commissioned by God Himself, out of His infinite Bounty, to embody, reveal and manifest God in God’s own Way.

Philosophy and spirituality belong to the domain of knowledge, whereas Yoga belongs to the domain of wisdom. I am extremely happy to learn that the motto of this august university is “Seek Wisdom”. When a seeker practises true Yoga, he comes to realise that there can be nothing more important in his life than wisdom-light. He discovers that there is a vast difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is nothing more than the accumulation of world facts and information. These facts and pieces of information do not and cannot illumine his aspiring consciousness. But wisdom-light can and does illumine his entire being — his earthly life and his earth-bound reality. What is proper wisdom? Proper wisdom is the realisation that God is at once one and many, the Creator and the Creation. In the inner world He is Silence and in the outer world He is Sound. The seeker with wisdom-light also realises that God needs him as much as he needs God.

Each individual has to launch into the path of the spirit. He can start as a philosophy student. Then he can become a spirituality student. Then he can become a student of Yoga. The most important thing for each human being is to start the journey. There is no end to our journey. There is no end to our goal. One should consciously start, even if he starts only out of curiosity. If he has even a little thirst for God-discovery, let him start with curiosity. Naturally, there comes a time when mere curiosity does not satisfy him. So he tries to go deeper. Then he resorts to imagination. He tries to imagine God in whatever way he wants to. But soon there comes a time when he is no longer satisfied with imagination. Then he goes one step ahead: he knocks at the door of inspiration. Then he continues his journey with inspiration for some time.

But eventually there comes a time when the seeker realises that imagination and inspiration cannot carry him far enough. Then he tries to go deep within to discover if there is anything else he needs for his inner journey. He discovers that he is missing something, and that thing is aspiration. Once he has discovered aspiration in the inmost recesses of his heart, all his problems are solved. All past, present and future problems put together are helpless in the face of aspiration, for aspiration is the burning, glowing flame within. It is a birthless and endless flame that mounts high, higher, highest and purifies the things that have to be purified in our unlit, obscure, impure nature. While illumining the unlit, obscure, impure qualities in us, it immortalises the divine qualities in us: faith in God, love of God and unconditional surrender, which says to God, “Let Thy Will be done.”

The eternal seeker²

He loves himself divinely. This love is not self-flattery: this love is not self-centred love. This is not the love that he has for the individual ego-consciousness. This is not the love that he has for the body or the vital. This love is not in the mind, where it would be full of suspicion, doubt and separativity. No, this love is in the heart, of the heart. The seeker loves himself because he wants to become a good, divine and perfect instrument of God, so that he can play the role that God wants him to play, so that God can act in and through him.

He loves humanity devotedly. This love is not an imperfect, selfish love of humanity, but his own self-offering to humanity. In this kind of love, the entire being is a manifestation of divine self-giving. He loves humanity because he feels that each human being is a member of a large family, the universal family to which we all belong.

He loves God unconditionally. Why does he love God unconditionally? He could easily love God conditionally. He could tell God, “I shall pray to You for five minutes in the morning if You give me abundant Peace, abundant Light, abundant Bliss.” But the Real in him, the soul in him, will not be satisfied by loving God conditionally. It will not be satisfied to say, “If I do this, God, will You give me that?” or, “God, if You do this, then I will do that.” The Real in us, the seeker in us, will always try to please God in His own Way. Only then can we actually achieve satisfaction, abiding satisfaction in life. If we walk along the desire-road, no matter how much God gives us, we desire more. Each time one desire is fulfilled, another desire comes. Our constant begging and begging never stops, for the beggar in us will never obtain satisfaction.

But the seeker in us is a divine prince. He knows his father is the King. Whatever his father has, he also shall have; whatever his father is, he also shall be — at the choice Hour when he reaches his maturity. When the Golden Hour strikes, the child comes to his father and the father endows him with all his wealth. In the spiritual life, when we have attained spiritual maturity, God gives us everything that He has and everything that He is. What is spiritual maturity? Spiritual maturity is our unconditional love for God, our unconditional devotion to God, our unconditional surrender to God’s Will.

Each individual seeker has an intimate friend, a constant companion, a friend who is always with him. Who is his best friend? The Real in him. The Real in him is the eternal seeker who has an eternal longing for Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure.

A seeker discovers inside himself his best friend. His best friend is the Inner Pilot, his own soul. He discovers the Inner Pilot with his aspiration, the inner mounting cry that is constantly reaching towards the highest Reality. As it is climbing, it is illumining the seeker’s unlit ignorance with the Reality-existence. While the seeker’s own ignorance is being illumined, he realises that time is of the utmost importance. Each second is a portion of life; life and time go together. When the seeker thinks of time, he sees it as a most precious portion of his own life, and vice versa. His existence is in time and his existence is in life.

There is an earth-bound time and a Heaven-free time. When we live in earth-bound time, in each second we have to aspire to see the Reality. In earth-bound time, each second misused is a curse; each second properly used is a veritable blessing. When we enter into Heaven-free time, we see that Heaven-free time is nothing other than eternal Love. In Heaven-free time we see Eternity in our hearts: eternal Consciousness, eternal aspiration. In Heaven-free time, everything is here and now. When a seeker makes considerable progress in his spiritual life, he comes to realise this eternal Now. He establishes a free access to this sole Reality, the eternal Now. Then, no matter whether he is on earth or in Heaven, he sees every second as part and parcel of his own illumining vision. Every moment of God’s Divinity, God’s Perfection, God’s Cosmic Plan and God’s ever-transcending Reality is being manifested in and through humanity’s success and humanity’s progress within each seeker’s life.

At this time, the seeker clearly sees the difference between success and progress. In his inner life, he cries only for progress. He sees that success in the mental plane and the vital plane can create unnecessary problems for him. If he is successful, he may be touched by pride. When he is successful, unconsciously or consciously he may try to lord it over others and claim his successes as his very own.

Progress, which is founded upon self-giving, is something continuous. This progress does not offer pride to the seeker in us. It only makes us feel that we are moving on our spiritual journey, walking along Eternity’s Road. Each time progress touches the goal, it sees a new goal farther beyond. It is constantly transcending its own reality-existence. Eventually, when this ever-transcending process reaches God, it finds that God also is progressing, ever transcending His own Reality-Existence.

Soulful, hopeful and fruitful the seeker becomes, because his goal is not success; his goal is only progress. While he is making progress, he sees that he is not competing with the world around him, but only with his own unaspiring existence.

Each of us will reach our goal. But each discovery that comes, each goal that we reach, is not and cannot be the Ultimate Goal. The Ultimate Goal is the realisation of the inner Reality. After that Goal is reached comes the revelation and manifestation of the Goal. So these are three Goals and none of these three Goals can ever be the finished product. Inside realisation is the ever-mounting inner cry, the ever-transcending expansion of consciousness and the constant expansion of the limited self into the divine Self. Similarly, inside revelation is the constant inner urge to reveal Eternity’s Goal. And inside manifestation are realisation and revelation; so in manifestation there is also the same process. It is an endless process of the universal self-transcendence.

Who is our best friend? The seeker in us, our constant inner cry, inner urge. Inside this inner urge, we discover and become aware of the expanding self within us. In this part of ourselves, we eternally remain in God, with God, for God. We remain as Eternity’s seekers, the eternal treasures of mankind’s aspiration. There comes a time when the seeker in us sees that his entire existence is composed of the inner cry of aspiration. In aspiration is our very existence. At that time, we experience total aspiration. Then the outer reality becomes one with the inner reality. The outer reality is the plant, the tree, the fruit. The inner reality is the seed, the inner seed. Inside the seed are the plant and the tree and the fruit; and inside the plant and tree and fruit is the seed.

In the outer life, aspiration plays the role of the tree. In the inner life, in the inner existence, aspiration is the Reality-Source. The inner world is of realisation. The outer world is of manifestation. The inner world is for realisation. The outer world is for manifestation. By striking a synthesis between the inner world and the outer world, we achieve complete satisfaction and perfect Perfection.

The reality within³

Each individual seeker has to struggle inwardly to overcome his inner enemies: fear, doubt, limitations and so forth. Here we are all seekers on the sunlit path, the path of faith: faith in the spiritual life and faith in our existence here on earth. We have faith that what is unknowable today will become unknown tomorrow and known the day after tomorrow. Just because something is unknowable today, we cannot say that that very thing will forever remain unknowable. No, in the inner realm we see there is a higher Force that we shall not only one day know but actually become. Right now we feel there is not an iota of light or wisdom within us. But we have to know that we started from Light and Delight in the inner worlds, we travel towards the highest Light and Delight and, at the end of our journey’s close, to Light and Delight we return.

A child is one who has faith in the unknown future and also in the past. This same child, when he grows up spiritually, is still not afraid of the past; neither is he afraid of the Unknown, for he has established an inseparable friendship with the Unknown.

Why are we afraid of the Unknown? We are afraid precisely because we feel that the moment we see the Unknown or the Unknown sees us, we shall lose our individuality and personality. On the one hand we are afraid to establish oneness with the reality of the Unknown. On the other hand we feel that the Unknown has no reality and we are afraid to become one with that non-reality. So we are mistaken twice.

The Unknown is not a tiger; the Unknown is not a stranger. The Unknown is our own inner Reality; it is our own, our very own Self. Unfortunately, we do not have a free access to the unknown Reality, so very often it appears before us as a stranger, as something threatening, very frightening. But once we dive deep within and try to establish our oneness with the soul, with that strange and unknown Reality, we come to realise that that very Reality is ours, absolutely ours. Then, in a very limited way, we begin to have some feelings about this Reality; we begin to have some experiences. Just because we do not know a way to other places or other realities, we cannot say that these realities do not exist or that we will create problems for ourselves if we come to know them. Let us think of these realities as secret treasures along the sunlit path. Only for those on earth who aspire will these realities have something absolutely special to offer.

So far we notice that we doubt our inner experiences, we doubt that our Goal can be reached, we doubt our own aspiring existence. In the spiritual life doubt is our worst adversary. Everyone is sometimes assailed by undivine forces during the course of his progress. But when doubt attacks us, when we are assailed by doubt, we are weakened in our entire spiritual system.

When we doubt others, we do not weaken them; but when we doubt ourselves, we can easily see that we are weakened. Each time doubt is allowed to enter into us, into our minds, and is allowed to make problems for our own spirituality, our inner cry is weakened. Doubt is slow poison. When this poison enters into our system, we do not aspire and we actually lose our inner cry. Therefore, let us try to walk along the road of faith. Slowly, steadily, unerringly we have to walk along the road of progress. With aspiration, slowly, steadily and unmistakably we make progress towards our destination.

We must realise that within us is our Source. There is Eternity within us, a world within us. Without fear, without doubt, we are free to establish our oneness with this Source. Once oneness is well-established, fear and doubt are abolished. At that time, not even an iota of doubt can be visible in our whole life. So it is obligatory for each divine soldier to conquer both fear and doubt. If fear and doubt loom large in our life of aspiration, then we cannot make any progress whatsoever.

After conquering fear and doubt, we notice that impatience with our spiritual progress is our next obstacle. Each seeker at times wants to discover and realise God in the twinkling of an eye. He becomes a victim of impatience. But he has to know that for everything there is a choice hour. We pray and meditate and work devotedly in our selfless service to create a life of aspiration and dedication within us. But he who wants to discover his inmost Reality overnight, or he who wants to discover the highest Transcendental Truth in the twinkling of an eye, is bound to be frustrated.

In its own way, in its own time, everything will happen. Everything has an hour of its own. This inner awareness at times goes away and then we make friends with impatience. Each time impatience attacks us we find that we lose something very precious; we lose our inner joy. Wisdom is something very precious. Faith is something very precious. Faith in God’s own Hour is very precious. With our faith, with our unshakeable, indomitable faith, we discover boundless Peace, boundless Light and boundless Bliss.

Each seeker must develop his own capacity and his own receptivity. Receptivity houses all capacity. Capacity is our growing reality. When we enlarge our inner reality, we call it receptivity. And when we look about and notice a higher Reality, we have to know that this Reality is bound to increase our inner prayer, inner meditation, inner awareness. Receptivity within us increases and expands when capacity enters into us. Both capacity and receptivity make us a divine instrument of God. Each time we awaken our existence by invoking Peace, Light and Bliss from Above, we increase our capacity; and this capacity can again increase our receptivity. This is why we say our receptivity and capacity are inseparable.

Of all the capacities we have, one capacity is of paramount importance and this capacity is peace of mind. This world of ours is wanting in peace of mind. If we are endowed with peace of mind, if the members of our being are endowed with peace of mind, then with this power the darkness that is within us can easily be transformed into total inner Peace, Light and Bliss.

In each seeker, there is a promise to God, a promise to the inner Reality, to the highest Reality, that he will become a perfect, unconditional instrument of God to play the inimitable role God has created for him. As the seeker advances in his own spiritual life, he becomes more aware of his promise. Inside our promise we see God’s Transcendental Vision and God’s Universal Reality, the Reality that we eternally are. Once we are aware of this undeniable Reality, we notice that we are progressing most satisfactorily. Then God, the Author of all Good, showers His choicest Blessings upon our devoted heads and our aspiring and surrendered hearts.

Happiness⁴

We want happiness and we need happiness. In this life of ours there are many things that we want but actually do not need. But when it is a matter of happiness, we not only want it, but we also need it. There is no happiness in mere seeing. There is no happiness in mere feeling. There is no happiness in mere achieving. Happiness can be found only in our conscious surrender to God’s Will.

Right now, here on earth, we enjoy false happiness in the body, vital, mind and heart. The body enjoys happiness in the world of pleasure and lethargy. The vital enjoys happiness in the world of aggression. The mind enjoys happiness when it doubts and suspects. The heart enjoys happiness when it treasures insecurity. This is the way we enjoy happiness in the beginning. But there comes a time when real happiness, divine happiness, dawns. At that time the body is fully awake and consciously offering its service-light, the vital is dynamic, the mind is calm and quiet and the heart feels its oneness, its inseparable oneness, with the rest of the world.

We have two main instruments: the mind and the heart. The mind finds it difficult to be happy, precisely because the mind consciously enjoys the sense of separativity. It is always judging and doubting the reality in others. This is the human mind, the ordinary physical mind, the earth-bound mind. But we also have the aspiring heart, the loving heart. This loving heart is free from insecurity, for it has already established its oneness with the rest of the world. This heart carries the message of self-offering, and self-offering is God-discovery.

Possession and satisfaction⁵

Geography taught me that Australia is vast, a very vast continent. On my arrival I most sincerely felt that Australia is not only vast, but also one; not only one, but also illumining; not only illumining, but also fulfilling. Vastness, kindness, magnanimity, a sense of responsibility: all these things I have felt right from the beginning in the soul of Australia.

Tomorrow when I leave Australia, I shall leave behind my soulful gratitude, my ever-growing gratitude, for here I have been given ample opportunity to be of devoted service to the sincere and genuine seekers. Nothing gives me more joy, delight and sense of satisfaction than to be of service to sincere seekers.

My students have just sung a song that was composed by me. It is my salutation to the soul of Australia: that is to say, my salutation to the real in you, the divine in you. Now I wish to give a short talk on possession and satisfaction.

Possession and satisfaction are like the North Pole and the South Pole. The sense of possession enters into our earthly existence right from our birth. A child wants to possess his parents. When he grows up, he wants to possess his village. Then he wants to possess his province, his country, the world. Right from the beginning he wants to possess his parents and the other members of his family, but he finds no satisfaction in this. When he grows up, he finds no satisfaction in trying to possess the length and breadth of the world.

Then he decides he wants to change the process. He decides to please his parents, his village, his province, his country and the world at large on the strength of mutual giving. He will give to them something of his own and he expects something else in return from them. But he finds no abiding satisfaction in this mutual give-and-take. What he wants is abiding satisfaction. Finally he realises that abiding satisfaction can be received and achieved only if he gives himself unconditionally to his parents, to his village, to his province, to his country, to the world at large. In unconditional self-giving, satisfaction looms large.

Possession is our desire-life. Our desire at every moment wants to possess something more. Each time we possess something more, we become a greater beggar. Although we accumulate, we end up with no real possessions; in the inner world we have become a great beggar. When we walk along the road of renunciation, each time we renounce something we get tremendous joy. But renunciation cannot give us real satisfaction, abiding satisfaction. If we renounce everything — body, vital, mind, heart and soul — how are we going to realise the highest Truth? If we renounce society, if we renounce everyday life, if we renounce our near and dear ones in the name of spirituality, then we cannot achieve pure, lasting, immortal satisfaction. The real answer lies in the transformation of our nature, the perfection of our human limitations, shortcomings, imperfections, bondage and death. Abiding satisfaction comes into existence only when we can transform our sense of possessiveness into self-giving.

The life of possession constantly makes us think at every moment of success, success in life. In order to arrive at the door of success, many times we adopt foul means. Even if we do not adopt foul means, we are always in the world of competition. By competing with others, even by defeating others, the joy and satisfaction that we get cannot last. When we feel that we have become something on the strength of our success, our sincerity tells us that there is someone better than we are, someone superior to us. When somebody becomes a great poet, a great sportsman, a great singer, he is bloated with pride. But when he looks around, in the twinkling of an eye he sees that there is somebody who writes far better than he does, somebody who plays sports or sings far better than he does. In every walk of life he sees somebody better than himself. So success finally becomes frustration, and frustration is bound to be followed by destruction.

In material possession we find a sense of want, not need. There are many, many things, countless things we do not need, but when we walk along the road of possession, we want these things. Everything we want. But eventually there comes a time when we feel we need something to satisfy our soul’s inner cry for God, our inner cry to manifest the divine Reality within us. At that time we realise that there is another road we can walk along, and that is the road of progress. On this road at every moment we walk forward. Here we are not competing with others; we are only competing with ourselves, with the ignorance we have inside us. Ignorance is another part of our own existence. We are divided into two parts: ignorance-night and wisdom-light. We and ignorance are running side by side; we have been doing this since time immemorial. But now we are awakened and we are trying to run fast, faster, fastest to reach our destination. When consciously we become one with wisdom-light, we run fast, faster, fastest to our Destined Goal, which is our ever-transcending Reality, the ever-illumining and fulfilling Beyond. Once we reach our destination, ignorance is defeated. This is the meaning of competition with ourselves.

The seeker gets satisfaction not by exercising his own will but by surrendering his earth-bound will to his Heaven-free will. The seeker is he who has received the message of surrender to a higher force, a more illumining force, within himself. By praying and meditating and aspiring, he realises he can grow into his own highest Reality. His is not the surrender of the slave to his master. His surrender is founded upon inner wisdom. He realises that he is composed of both the highest Reality and the lowest reality. He is not surrendering to another person, to somebody else; rather, his own unlit, unconscious part is surrendering to his most conscious, illumined existence. The finite in him is surrendering to the Infinite in him in order to grow into the Transcendental Reality. And in this surrender he finds abiding satisfaction.

The same seeker also discovers something else that gives him ceaseless satisfaction, and this is his gratitude. Each time the seeker offers his soulful gratitude to his Inner Pilot, the Absolute Reality within him, he gets abiding satisfaction. This gratitude-flower he places at the Feet of his Inner Pilot. At that time, God-Satisfaction envelops his heart and God the Satisfaction embraces his entire being.

Part II — Austria

A peaceful mind, a useful life⁶

In spite of my teeming mistakes and failures, my life has implicit faith in my soulful prayer, in my powerful meditation and in my fruitful surrender.

Only when my mind is peaceful can my life be useful. A peaceful mind is the source of a useful life. And this useful life I use to love God the Creator in His own Way and to serve God the Creation in His own Way.

Alas, this world of ours ceaselessly talks about poverty, starvation and undernourishment in man’s outer life. But the world does not pay attention to the inner poverty, starvation or undernourishment. If the inner life is not nourished, if the soul is not fed regularly and punctually, then peace will never dawn in our outer life.

The abode of peace can be found in the inner life. We have to dive within and remain there. Then, at God’s choice Hour, we shall bring to the fore the beauty, purity, divinity and immortality of peace and offer these qualities to our outer life, to our human mind and to God’s entire Creation. This is the only way we can have true peace. Individual peace, collective peace and universal peace can come into existence only after we have nourished our inner life and our soul, the God-representative here on earth.

To our utter surprise and sorrow, there are countless human beings who are unconsciously afraid of peace. Instead of feeling that peace will make their lives happy, meaningful and fruitful, they feel that peace may throw them into more confusion and finally destruction. Again, there are innumerable human beings who feel they do not need or want peace, for they think peace is something strange. They have never seen or felt it, so they are unwilling to consciously accept it. These unlit human minds undoubtedly need illumination, and these imperfect lives undoubtedly need perfection.

It is on the strength of the prayer and meditation of God-lovers and God-seekers that peace will one day be something natural and common to all. It is by virtue of the prayer-life and meditation-life of seekers that peace will inundate the length and breadth of the world. The life of prayer and meditation is the beginning and the eternal continuation of the peace-life here on earth. It is our prayer-life and meditation-life that will offer peace individual, peace collective, peace universal and peace transcendental. There is no other way and there can be no other way.

My success-life and my progress-life⁷

The human in me wants success.

The human in me wants success-might.

The human in me wants

The divine in me wants

```

My success-life has a fleeting breath. My progress-life is an enduring reality. My success-life has an all-conquering thirst. My progress-life is an all-loving thirst. My success-life has a world-devouring hunger. My progress-life is a world-illumining hunger.

The moment I enjoy success, I proudly shake hands with greedy division-superiority. The moment I make progress, I am embraced by the world’s oneness-longing divinity.

My Lord, I am never happy with my success-life. No matter in how many ways I am successful, I always see a beggar in myself. And this beggar in me cries and cries because he feels that there is insufficient reality in him.

But when I make progress, my Lord, I see in myself a king, an emperor. At that time I see the whole world as my own, very own, for I claim the entire world and the entire world claims me.

O my Lord, do make my success-life and my progress-life inseparably one. Do give me the capacity to see my success-life as the divine beauty of my heart-rose and to feel my progress-life as the celestial fragrance of my heart-rose.

May the beauty and the fragrance of my heart-rose please You, my Lord Supreme, in Your own Way at every moment.

Part III — Canada

Self-control: self-offering to God<sup>8</sup>

For self-mastery, self-control is of paramount importance. Self-control takes time. It cannot be achieved overnight. Through self-introspection, self-examination and proper meditation, one achieves self-control.

I wish to tell about an incident in the life of Socrates. Once Socrates and a host of his admirers went to see a palmist. The palmist read Socrates’ hand and said, “What a bad person you are, ugly and full of lower vital problems. Your life is full of corruption.” Socrates’ admirers were thunderstruck. They wanted to strike the palmist. What gall he had to say such things about Socrates, who was truly a pious man, a saint. But Socrates said, “Wait, let us ask him if he has said everything.” Then the palmist continued, “No, I have something more to say. This man has all these undivine qualities, without doubt, but they are all under his control. He has not shown any of them. They are all under control.”

Before one gets illumination, he may be attacked by all the undivine forces of the lower vital. But he can easily place them at his feet. Socrates did it. Any aspirant can easily conquer these wrong forces after a while. Countless times he may be attacked by vital impulses. Each time he can manfully, boldly and courageously place his feet on the heads of these dark forces. The golden day will come when illumination will dawn in his life, and then everything will be transformed. Emotional problems will be transformed, becoming the dynamic strength of the divine for the divine to use. But until then the aspirant has to fight hard.

Sri Ramakrishna used the phrase “Master of everything, slave of sex.” Sri Ramakrishna, the great spiritual giant, saw what was actually happening in the world. Now the same story is being repeated in the world today. Sri Ramakrishna tells a story about a man who had been hunting for a job for a long time. Nobody would offer the poor man a job. Finally he went to the manager of a small factory, for he had been told that this manager had a broad heart and would give him a job. But the manager said there was no vacancy. A few days later he asked again; still no vacancy. The poor man kept going back, and each time he was rejected. One day he told one of his friends how the manager had been constantly turning him away without a job. His friend said, “You are a fool. Why do you go to him? Today go to his mistress, and tomorrow you will get the job.” The manager was a very wealthy and important man, but he had this weakness. So the poor man went to the mistress and cried out, “Mother, I have a big family and they are starving. Save me, save me. Please tell the manager to give me a job.” She replied, “Do not worry, my child, tomorrow I shall settle it.” On the following day the manager said to his English boss, “Here is a man who has great ability. In everything he will bring much credit to our factory.” Shortly afterwards the man was offered a high post there.

This is Sri Ramakrishna’s story. It is still applicable today. The world atmosphere has not yet changed. But it is bound to be changed. Who will do it? It is we, the aspirants; we, the seekers of the infinite Light. God has given us this matchless, unique task. And we have to accept and fulfil it here on earth.

In the outer world one can be a slave only to one master, but in the inner world one is bound to be a slave to many masters. These masters are doubt, fear, anxiety, temptation, frustration, imperfection, limitation, bondage and death. Self-control can be achieved only if we stop deceiving ourselves. We are apt to say that the world is deserting us in and out of season. But if we are sincere and we go deep within, then we come to see, feel and realise that it is we who started this game of deception. We came from God. We could have continued our game in infinite Light. We could have retired at our journey’s close in the same infinite Light. But we entered into ignorance and became enamoured of it. We loved ignorance and it loved us. Finally, we started eating greedily the fruits of ignorance. The result has been self-destruction. It is we who have opened the door of deception within us. When the forces of ignorance see that the door is wide open, they enter into us, into the innermost recesses of our heart. How can we pull them out and push them aside? We can do it through aspiration, through our inner mounting flame. This flame will kindle the unlit forces in us, awaken the slumbering beings in us and inundate our life with the Light of the Golden Beyond. Aspiration is the answer.

Spiritual sickness is an impurity in our heart, and this sickness has only one medicine, devotion: devotion to the Cause, devotion to the Goal, devotion to the Inner Pilot.

Self-control. Self-control means self-giving to God. Let us play our part. Let us give what we have. God will play His part. He will give us what He has. What we have is teeming ignorance. What He has is infinite Light. Let us trade.

Attachment and detachment<sup>9</sup>

Attachment is my teacher:

I learn.

“God lives in a Palace,”

Attachment demands my body’s breath,

Detachment offers my soul’s promise,

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India’s great philosopher Shankaracharya said, “Who is your wife, who is your son? This world is very peculiar. Brothers, think of the One who is eternally yours.” This is the message of detachment. If you are attached to the physical person — the wife, the husband, the son, the friend — then you are only binding yourself and the other. But if you see the Object of adoration inside the wife, inside the husband, inside the son, then divine knowledge can dawn in you.

Lord Buddha left his beautiful wife and his little child when they were asleep. Before departing he said, “I loved you. I still love you. But I have to love the entire world also. Only if I can love the entire world will my love for you be complete.” His human attachment had to surrender to the Divine Love in him. While they were leaving the kingdom, the Buddha’s charioteer asked him a significant question: “Are you not mean? How is it that you are leaving behind your wife who has been so affectionate to you? You are her treasure; you are her peerless wealth.” The Buddha said, “You are mistaken. My wife’s affection was binding me, and my affection was binding her. Now I am entering into the world at large where there is no one to bind me, and where I will not bind anyone. I am going to free myself and others.”

At the root of all attachment is ignorance. Is ignorance invincible? The philosopher Aldous Huxley once said, “Ignorance is vincible. We don’t want to know something; that is why we don’t know it.” He is absolutely right. Ignorance is not something permanent and unchangeable. We can enter into the very breath of ignorance and transform it into wisdom and knowledge. But instead, we deny the existence of the ignorance inside us. This is a mistake. We have to accept the fact that right now we are full of ignorance. That does not mean that we have no light within us. Deep inside there is a little light, but we have to bring this light to the fore and make it grow in order to realise our own highest Truth.

A real philosopher is one who is detached. He alone can have the vision of Truth. Once he has this vision, he can easily be indifferent to success and failure, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. His detachment does not mean that he will not help the world or receive help from it. It means he will not be bound to those he is helping or to those who are helping him. If we are attached, we are frustrated; but if we are detached, we are fulfilled. If we can feel that it is God who is operating in us and through us, as well as in and through the world, then we can be truly free.

It is said that before marriage a man is a woman’s aspiration and after marriage he is a woman’s exasperation. But what is the woman aspiring for? She is aspiring for the fulfilment of desire. When the object of desire is attained, disappointment and frustration reign. When we fulfil any desire of ours, we will find that we are not eating the delicious fruit that we expected, but rather some destructive, poisonous fruit.

In India there is a proverb that whoever has eaten the Delhi ka laddu (sweet cake of Delhi) feels disappointed, and whoever has not yet eaten it feels denied. That is always the case with desire fulfilled and desire unfulfilled. Fulfilment may follow desire, but it will not be the fulfilment that energises you and gives you greater inner strength to do the right things. On the contrary, it will only destroy what little aspiration you already have.

Attachment does not diminish with age. Only through aspiration can we conquer attachment. In order to be free from attachment, we have to go through several stages. We have to study the scriptures and religious and spiritual books. We have to associate with spiritual aspirants who have studied these books and are now crying for the real light, or with those who have already received some light, insignificant or considerable, in their life of aspiration. We have to see and feel that in the ordinary world all around us is temptation, that at any moment we may fall victim to it, and that we must valiantly fight against it. We have to take our minds away from the physical consciousness and bodily demands. We have to enter into the world of expanded consciousness. We have to feel the necessity of attaining the divine Goal. We have to follow the guidance of our Inner Pilot, who is God, either in the form of a God-realised spiritual Master or in His own unembodied Form.

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To love those who do not love us is to do the nice thing.

When we do the right thing, we are free.

When we do the wise thing, we are fulfilled.

Perfection<sup>10</sup>

What is perfection? Perfection is realisation. Perfection is manifestation. Perfection in the inner world means realisation. Perfection in the outer world means manifestation. A seeker is a fusion of individuality and personality. When a seeker carries his selfless individuality into the highest Vision of Reality and offers his all-loving personality to the Absolute Beyond, he achieves perfection in the world of Infinity’s Eternity.

Some people say that perfection exists neither in Heaven nor on earth. I cannot see eye to eye with them. Perfection does exist both in Heaven and on earth. The very cry of earth is perfection. The very Smile of Heaven is perfection. Earth’s soulful cry and Heaven’s glowing Smile must go together. Then only will satisfaction dawn on God’s Face. God can have satisfaction only when earth’s cry and Heaven’s Smile run together. When earth cries, we must not think that earth is inferior to Heaven and, when Heaven smiles, we must not think that Heaven is superior to earth. No, it is not so. It is God, the growing man, who cries in and through earth to realise all that he can eventually be. And it is again God, the fulfilled man, who smiles in and through Heaven in realising what he already is.

Perfection is an impossibility: this is what today tells us. But tomorrow will tell us that perfection is an inevitability. There is always some time lapse between the planting of a seed and the harvest. In the spiritual life, the seed is aspiration and the harvest is realisation. Without aspiration, realisation can never dawn. What is aspiration? Is it something that we already have, or is it something we are going to have? It is both. If we say that we have aspiration, we are right because we do think of God and meditate on God at times. If we say that we do not yet have aspiration but are some day going to have it, we are also right, because our love for God is neither spontaneous nor constant. When we sit at the feet of Eternity, we realise that aspiration is bound to be followed by realisation. And after we have made friends with eternal Time, we come to understand that realisation was always there, hidden in our aspiration.

Perfection means living, spontaneous and constant oneness with the Inner Pilot. If we have a free access to the inner life, then perfection is our very soul and at the same time our only Goal. Now, why is it that we are still imperfect? We are imperfect precisely because we do not consciously cry for perfection in ourselves. We demand, or at least expect, infinitely more perfection in others than in ourselves. He and she are imperfect and I am trying to perfect them, we say. But is it not absurd on my part to criticise and try to perfect others when I myself am imperfect? In this we make a Himalayan blunder. If we are sincere enough, we will realise that we spend too much time thinking of others. It is good to think of others, but not with our criticising, jealous, unlit mind. If we think of others with our soul’s light, our soul’s oneness, then automatically we are running towards perfection.

Let us think of perfecting ourselves and, while thinking of ourselves, let us include the entire universe, or embody the entire universe in ourselves. Then we do not have to think of each individual on earth, for all are inside us. When I meditate, my entire body meditates with me. I do not have to think of my internal organs; they are inside me, meditating and aspiring with me. Similarly, during your concentration, meditation and contemplation, if you can feel that the entire universe is within you and that you are running towards your Goal, then the universe in totality will run with you.

We are all aspirants, seekers of the infinite Truth, Light and Bliss. If we do not achieve perfection in our inner and outer life, who else can achieve perfection? It is we, the seekers of the Infinite, who have to embody, realise, reveal and manifest perfection. At every moment of our earthly existence, in fleeting time and in eternal Time, we have to embody the message of perfection. If we feel that the eternal Time is somewhere else and that only the fleeting time is at our disposal, we are mistaken. If we live in the body, we are making friends with fleeting time. If we live in the soul, we are making friends with eternal Time. Since we are in the body, let us try to bring down the highest perfection from Above into the body. If we can live in the soul even while in the body, let us reveal our already-achieved perfection to the world at large.

My imperfect gift to God is yesterday, yesterday’s experience. God’s perfect Gift to me is today, today’s realisation.

Inspiration, aspiration and realisation<sup>11</sup>

Arise, awake! This path is arduous. So we learn from the wise, and we have to follow in the footsteps of the wise. The path of spirituality is not a bed of roses. But neither is it a chimerical mist. The Golden Shores of the Beyond are not a mere promise. The crown of human aspiration is bound to be fulfilled on the Golden Shores of the Beyond.

Arise, awake! Here we must not stop. We have to walk, march, run, dive and fly. The moment we arise from our slumber, we see and feel the need for God in our human life, in our outer and inner life. When we wake up, we see that not only do we need God, but God also needs us. Why? We need God to realise our highest, the Ultimate, Transcendental Height. God needs us for His Self-Manifestation here on earth, His Manifestation in us and through us. When we walk along the path of spirituality, we see that God is already inside us. When we march, we see God marching beside us. When we run, we see that God is running in and through us. When we dive deep within, we see the peerless treasure waiting for us. When we fly, we see that we are flying in the welkin of the infinite Peace, Light and Bliss of the Beyond.

In the spiritual life everybody wants to realise God. But when it is a matter of aspiration, dedication, renunciation and surrender to the Will of the Inner Pilot, very few people are prepared to undergo the spiritual discipline. Everybody wants to realise God overnight; everybody wants to become the highest possible preceptor or Guru without going through the spiritual discipline of inspiration and aspiration.

It is like this. A seeker comes to a spiritual institution. The head of the institution asks him, “What do you want?” The seeker says, “I want to join your spiritual institution. Please give me some work.” The head of the institution says, “There are only two kinds of work available here. Either you have to play the role of the disciple, or you have to play the role of the Guru or Master. You have to listen to the Guru, or you have to be the Guru and make others listen to you.” The seeker immediately says, “Please, I want to play the role of the Guru.” This is what actually happens in our spiritual life. Very often, when a seeker comes to the Master, he unconsciously thinks that he can also be a Master overnight. But I wish to say that it is not possible to become a spiritual giant or to achieve self-discovery or to realise God overnight. It takes time. Here most of you are students. You know how many years it takes to get your Master’s degree — fifteen or twenty years. To acquire spiritual knowledge also demands many years of study. This study has to be undertaken before one becomes a spiritual Master.

We are all living in a world of duality, multiplicity and variety. When we want to elevate our consciousness to the Highest and try to aspire, desire — the thief — robs us. He takes away our psychic aspiration, our pure devotion towards God, our surrendering will which we offer to the Almighty Will. The Christ said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” What do we learn from this lofty message? We learn that the life of desire has to give way to the life of aspiration. If the life of aspiration does not come to the fore, then a new life can never dawn. The Kingdom of God can be established only when we kindle the flame of aspiration deep within us.

Every day we are facing the ideal and the real. Our ideal is God, but the reality that we are facing is something totally different: ignorance. We are caught in the meshes of ignorance. The ideal and the real must go together. God is the Ideal; God is also the Real. We make solemn promises every day. We say that our ideal is to raise our consciousness to the Highest, our ideal is to achieve perfect Perfection. But when we face the real within us and without, we see that we are imperfection incarnate. Why? Because we are wanting in aspiration. We are wallowing in the pleasures of desires. Naturally, aspiration cannot play a proper role in us.

There are two Sanskrit words, abhyasa and tyaga. Abhyasa means practice and tyaga means renunciation. Every day we have to practise the inner life. When we practise meditation for fifteen minutes, God practises Compassion. We offer Him our heart’s soulful cry and, in His own Way, He offers us His boundless, infinite Compassion. This is what we and God both practise. Now, renunciation. What are we going to renounce? The world? Society? Humanity? No! We are going to renounce our imperfections, bondage and death. When we go deep within, we see that we do not actually renounce these negative qualities of ours. Rather, we transform them. If imperfection looms large and important in our life, then we try to perfect our imperfection with our conscious awareness of light. If we notice bondage within us, then we try to transform our bondage into freedom. If death is constantly knocking at our door, which it always is, we try to transform our death into Immortality.

Earlier, I spoke about the need for aspiration to realise God. But inspiration is also necessary. Why do we need inspiration? Can we not immediately achieve realisation without first going through inspiration? Let us take an example. An artist creates a painting. If he is not inspired, his creation will have no meaning or significance. It will be a mechanical creation; it will be wanting in life. I wish to say that on the strength of his inspiration, the artist gives life to a portrait. When people see and appreciate the portrait, their appreciation takes the form of an offering of their own life. The portrait gets new life from the admirers. And when a spiritual person looks at the picture, he offers it divine life. So first we see the artist’s creation, then we see the admirers’ creation and finally we see the Master’s creation, which offers divine life to the picture.

When a man walks along the path of spirituality, his inspiration is the awakening life that he offers to himself. When he aspires, his aspiration is the illumining life that he offers to himself. And when he becomes a realised person, he offers the Life Divine, the Life of Immortality, to his awakened and illumined life.

What is realisation? When we use the term ‘realisation’ in our spiritual life, people are very often confused. They feel that a realised person is totally different from an ordinary person, that he behaves in a very unusual way. But I wish to say that a realised person need not and should not behave in an unusual way. What has he realised? The Ultimate Truth in God. And who is God? God is someone or something absolutely natural.

When a man realises the highest Truth, he tries to offer the highest Truth to humanity at large. Most often unrealised people or unspiritual people think that a realised person, if he is truly realised, has to perform miracles at every moment. Miracles and God-Realisation need not and should not go together. When you stand in front of a spiritual Master, what you expect to see and what you do see are Peace, Light, Bliss and divine Power. Now, where does he hold this power? Not in his arms or legs, or in his head, but deep inside the inmost recesses of his heart. Enter into him and you are bound to feel infinite Peace, infinite Light and infinite Bliss. But if you expect something else from a realised soul, if you come to a spiritual Master thinking that because he has realised the Highest he can fulfil your teeming desires, make you a multimillionaire in the twinkling of an eye, you are totally mistaken. These are the kinds of things he does not do. If it is the Will of the Supreme, the Master can easily make someone a multimillionaire overnight. He can bring down material prosperity in abundant measure, but this is not the Will of the Supreme. What you can expect from a Master and from a Master’s realisation are Peace, Light and Bliss.

Realisation<sup>12</sup>

I see here quite a few sincere seekers. With your good wishes, your hearts’ love and your souls’ blessings, I launch into this divine task. But before I begin my talk, I wish to offer my blessingful gratitude to my Canadian disciples who have made this divine journey in every way divine.

Since we are all seekers here, our Ultimate Goal is God-realisation. As ordinary human beings we have realised one thing: ignorance. But when we aspire, we realise that there is one person who embodies Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, and that person is God. He is at once personal and impersonal. We can see Him face to face right in front of our nose as a most illumined Being, infinitely more illumined than the most beautiful child on earth. Again, we can see God as an infinite expanse of Energy, Light and Bliss. We see ourselves as ignorance-sea, but God sees us as another God. This is the difference between our realisation of our earthly existence and God’s realisation of our divine potentiality.

Realisation has its stages; it is always in the process of evolution. Realisation is self-awakening, realisation is life-revelation, realisation is love-manifestation and realisation is God-becoming. Self-awakening, life-revelation, love-manifestation and God-becoming: these are four principal stages in the evolving process of eternal Time.

Human realisation is the fulfilment of our teeming desires; divine realisation is our perfection, our perfection within and without. Human realisation is constant success; divine realisation is soulful progress. Success moves from a greater bondage to a lesser bondage; whereas progress moves from one peak to another — from a high peak, to a higher peak, to the highest peak. Limited fulfilment we notice in the world of desire. Once a desire is fulfilled, another desire dawns, and then we try to fulfil that particular desire. There is no end to our desires and, at the same time, there is no end to our earth-bound satisfaction. When we stay in the desire-world, we come to realise that we are living in a prison-house. But when we live in the aspiration-world, we discover that we are flying in the firmament of the freedom-sky.

Realisation is the self-unfoldment of the Eternal and the Infinite within us. The Eternal beckons us to reach the highest peak of consciousness; the Infinite constantly reminds us of our Source. The Eternal is the silence of our God-light; the Infinite is the reality of our God-sufficiency.

Infinity is our Source. The Upanishadic seers have given us a most soulful and meaningful mantra: “Purnam adah purnam idam…—Infinity is that. Infinity is this. From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence. From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away, Infinity remains.”

No human being can remain unrealised. Today we are consciously aspiring, and tomorrow others will aspire. For, on the strength of His Cosmic Vision, God has made it a supreme law that no human being on earth will forever remain unrealised. Divinity has descended into the heart of humanity, and it will in time regain its normal consciousness. It will reach its Transcendental Height after it has established Immortality here in the aspiring heart of Mother Earth. Realisation is the expansion of our consciousness. The individual becomes the universal. The one becomes the many, and the many become the Whole, the Absolute. The cry of the finite will grow into the smile of the Infinite. This is what realisation is. We can realise the Highest Truth in the light of the soul, in the love of the heart, in the silence of the mind, in the dynamic energy of the vital, in the dedicated service of the body.

The light of the soul whispers in the ear of the sleeping world, Uttisthata jagrata... — “Arise, awake, run towards the Goal. The road is arduous and as sharp as the edge of a razor, but you have to travel it. Stop not until you have attained your highest Goal.”

The love of the heart tells the binding world, “If you want to bind, you will be bound. To your wide surprise, the world will bind you long before you have bound the world. So do not bind.”

The silence of the mind tells the doubting world, “Do not doubt. Doubt is detrimental to your inner health, your inner life. Doubt is poison. If you want to run fast, faster, fastest towards your Goal, then do not doubt.”

The dynamic energy of the vital tells the weak, impotent world, “Dive deep within. Your inner being is surcharged with an indomitable will. Bring to the fore your adamantine will!”

The dedicated service of the body tells the idle, lethargic world, “Charai veti — Move on!”

Here we are all seekers, we are all students of the inner life. We study the inner books of faith, love, devotion and surrender. When we are assiduous in our outer studies, we acquire world-knowledge and world-wisdom. Similarly, when we soulfully and devotedly study our inner lessons, we get abundant peace, light and bliss. If we are sincere, nothing can deter us from diving deep within and discovering our inner wealth.

Realisation is self-discovery, and self-discovery and God-discovery are one and the same. Realisation is self-mastery and self-transcendence: our mastery over the lower nature of the lower world, and our transcendence to the higher nature of the higher world. The lower world embodies two bosom friends: darkness and ignorance. The higher world embodies two intimate friends: light and delight. Ignorance devours our outer existence, and darkness envelops our outer existence. Light illumines our existence here on earth, and Delight immortalises our existence within and without. Delight is our permanent Source.

Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante...

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In Delight we grow.

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Give, receive and become<sup>13</sup>

Give, receive and become. Let us give what we have: love. Let us receive what others give: love. Let us together become what God eternally is: Oneness, Transcendental Oneness and Universal Oneness.

Real giving is self-offering. Real receiving is self-expansion. Real becoming is God-perfection.

There are many ways to give, receive and become, but usually we adopt one of two principal ways: the way of the mind or the way of the heart. When we give with the mind, we give love plus uncertainty. When we receive with the mind, we receive love plus doubt. When we give with the heart, we give love plus concern. When we receive with the heart, we receive love plus fulfilment. When we become with the mind, we become an uncertain illumination. When we become with the heart, we become fulfilled perfection.

When the mind gives something, it thinks that it is being most generous and helpful, and it tries to inject this feeling into the one who receives. When the heart gives something, it feels extremely fortunate that it is privileged to become a soulful server, and it offers its humble gratitude to the one who receives.

Right now we feel that our human mind is the supreme member of our inner family. But unfortunately, this member ponders and forever thinks in an effort to know the solution to life’s teeming problems. But thinking, doubting and pondering will not lead us to any permanent solutions. It is only the illumination of the heart which offers a final solution and ultimately becomes the solution itself.

Again, we have other members in our family: the vital and the physical. When the vital wants to give something, it tries to draw all attention to itself like a magnet. When the physical wants to offer something, it delays and delays, and the hour of offering never strikes at all. But if we wait, we shall stay in the world of doubt. Fear, anxiety and worry will all join together the moment we want to give our love to our dear ones, and then these undivine qualities will enter into our dear ones along with our love.

God gives us His Compassion-Sea; we give Him our gratitude-drop. His Gift is unconditional and perpetual; our gift is conditional, and it has a secret motive. We feel consciously or unconsciously that if we offer a drop of gratitude to God, then eventually we shall be able to win His Heart. At our journey’s start, we are sincere to some extent. We enter into the spiritual life with the aspiration for self-offering, God-receiving and God-becoming. But while we are running along the road, deception assails us and we consciously try to deceive even God the Almighty. Our ignorance within tells us that we shall be able to dethrone God, that we shall be able to win God’s Power with our tears and excruciating pangs. And once we achieve this Power, we shall be able to lord it over others.

It very often happens that a seeker launches into the spiritual life and comes to a spiritual community because he is disgusted with the outer world. The spiritual leader of the community knows that he has two types of disciples. One type practises the spiritual life most devotedly and sincerely and is constantly learning. The other type is constantly preaching and offering sermons. The leader tells the new seeker, “It is up to you to become either a teacher or a student.” The seeker immediately says, “I would like to be a teacher, and not a student.” It has happened countless times that when the earthly life disappoints us and fails us we want to enter into the spiritual life. But before we make any progress, we start deceiving others and soon we begin to deceive ourselves. We deceive our own aspiring existence. But if we start giving to our inner life what we have and what we are — our outer ignorance and our inner aspiration — then God, out of His infinite Bounty, will come to the fore and give us what He has and is: a flood of Compassion, a flood of Light and Delight.

When a child offers his mother a penny that he has found on the street, the mother receives that penny with greatest joy and offers him a dollar in return. The child has spontaneously given the mother all his tiny wealth, and the mother joyfully gives the child wealth far beyond his imagination. In the case of an aspirant, his surrender is like a drop of nectar to God. When this drop offers itself soulfully to the mighty ocean, the ocean inundates the drop with its own vastness, and the drop receives all the inner wealth of the mighty ocean.

There are two types of seekers. One type will give and immediately expect ten times more in return. The other type will just give, and then wait for God’s choice Hour to strike. Even if God’s Hour does not strike, this kind of seeker will not mind in the least. There is an anecdote about this that I would like to tell you.

Once God’s messenger entered into the world-arena and saw an aspirant singing and dancing in the street in praise of the Lord. He was a half-lunatic, but in his own way he was praising the Lord. The messenger also saw a serious seeker seated at the foot of a banyan tree practising spirituality in a most austere fashion.

Now, when the God-messenger approached the singing lunatic, immediately the lunatic asked, “Please tell me when I shall realise God.”

“Right now I do not know,” replied the messenger. “Let me go back and ask the Lord and, on my return, I shall let you know.”

Then the messenger approached the seeker who was practising austerities. This particular seeker asked the same thing: “Please tell me when I am going to realise God.”

The messenger said, “I do not know right now. But I am going back to the Lord, and I shall ask Him. When I come back, I shall let you know.”

A few months later the messenger came back to the same place, where the one seeker was singing and praising the Lord and the other was in deep, contemplative meditation.

As soon as the singer saw the messenger, he was overjoyed. He said, “Now, please tell me my fate.”

The messenger replied, “Yonder is a tamarind tree. Look how many leaves are on that tree! It will take you as many incarnations to realise God as there are leaves on that tree.”

Immediately the singer was overjoyed. He said, “Then definitely I shall realise God. It is only a matter of time before I realise God.”

Then the messenger went to the seeker who was practising penance and told him that it would take him only three more incarnations to realise God.

The seeker immediately felt intensely disappointed. “Three more incarnations!” he cried. “I have been practising spirituality so sincerely, so devotedly, and yet I have to take three more incarnations? Then there is no use in even trying. I shall give up this austere life. If God is so unkind then I do not need Him, and He does not deserve me.” With that, the seeker gave up his spiritual life altogether.

One seeker was ready to wait millions of years in order to realise God. That is called waiting for God’s choice Hour. The other seeker could not wait even for three incarnations; it seemed too long for him. But the real seeker offers himself and does not expect anything in return.

In the spiritual life we have to feel the necessity of surrender. Our self-giving is nothing but surrender to the Inner Pilot, the eternal Source within. This surrender is not demanded or exploited. On the contrary, only surrender consciously and cheerfully offered blossoms into Infinity in our aspiring consciousness.

If our attitude is to wait and decide whether to give or not, then we shall never see the face of satisfaction. But if we do not wait, if we feel that God’s Hour has already struck, then we shall give to God what we have and what we are. At that time our spiritual progress will immediately be enhanced.

When a seeker fails to give, he ceases to be. The moment his giving comes to an end, he becomes non-existent. Existence is the radiation of our self-offering. Non-existence is the destruction which results from our self-withdrawal.

Let us offer God our solemn promise to fulfil Him unconditionally in His own Way. And let us receive God’s solemn Promise that He will make each of us a conscious representative of Himself on earth, so that He can manifest Himself in and through us.

When, as a seeker, I give, I become a chosen instrument. When, as a divine lover, I love, I become an immortal instrument. When, as a devoted server, I serve, I become a perfect instrument.

When I become a chosen instrument, I embody God the One, the sole Reality, the Transcendental Truth. When I become an immortal instrument, I reveal God the Many, the divine Multiplicity in Unity. And when I become a perfect instrument, I manifest God the Whole, the Golden All.

Oneness<sup>14</sup>

Oneness is the only relationship that can forever last, because all human beings are either conscious or unconscious sharers of one divine and supreme Reality. For the unconscious sharers, dissatisfaction is the deplorable reality. If we are unconscious sharers, the body-consciousness separates us, the vital personality separates us, the mental individuality separates us. But for the conscious sharers, there is only the psychic unity. If we are conscious sharers, the psychic unity awakens us, illumines us, fulfils us and immortalises us. The human personality is a grain of sand on the shore of Infinity. If I maintain an existence separate and different from yours, then I need you to be my supplement and my complement. Our human unity ultimately blossoms into divine oneness. If I am one with you and you are one with me, then together we will grow into the highest Reality. Together we will increase our length, depth and height. Eternity’s rest will welcome us, Infinity’s breath will shake hands with us, Immortality’s height will embrace us.

In this world, we notice that one thing alternates with another. Day alternates with night, fear alternates with courage, doubt alternates with faith, self-love alternates with God-love. But when we become unconditionally surrendered seekers of God, our oneness with God never alternates.

With our human ego we try to establish oneness with others. We feel that we have more capacity than others, so therefore we are entitled to oneness with them. But if we try to use ego as an instrument to establish oneness, then we will never succeed. Our oneness with others entirely depends on our soulful love. If we use the reasoning mind, then we can never discover love within us. If we use the demanding vital, then we can never discover love within us. But if we use the loving, fulfilling heart, then oneness becomes a reality in our day-to-day life.

When we are sincere, we feel that God loves us. When we pray, we feel that God belongs to us. When we meditate, we feel that we are of God. Our sincerity leads us along the right path. Our prayer accelerates our speed. Our meditation brings the Goal nearer to us.

Here we are all seekers. This means that God is within us and God is for us. This is not imagination, but a reality that we can experience in our everyday life. We start our journey with religious training. Each religion is absolutely right in its own way. All the religions are branches of the one God-Tree. The Tree has established its oneness with the branches, and the branches have established their oneness with the Tree. The seekers do not all use the same branch to climb up the Tree; they use different branches. And sometimes they claim that their branch is the only branch to climb up to the top. But if the seekers are sincere, then they come to realise that all the branches belong to the same Tree. The same oneness pervades the Tree, the branches, the leaves, the fruits and the flowers. God was one, but He wanted to become many. When He became many, He did not lose His oneness. The dance of God’s unity in multiplicity and multiplicity in unity we call God’s eternal Game. God and we are both playing this game. The sincere and devoted seekers are very aware of their inseparable oneness with God, the unity in multiplicity. For the insincere seekers and for the non-seekers, though, it takes time. Unless and until they become sincere seekers, their conscious oneness with God will remain a far cry.

When evening sets in, the glow-worms offer their light. They feel that it is they who are illumining the entire sky. A few hours later the stars appear. Immediately the light of the glow-worms becomes insignificant, and their pride is smashed. After some time, the moon appears. When the moon appears, the stars pale into insignificance. Finally, the day dawns and the sun brilliantly illumines the whole world. The glow-worms, the stars and the moon all come to realise that it is the sun that illumines the entire world, that it is the sun that has boundless light. In the spiritual life, we eventually come to realise that there is an inner sun. This inner sun is infinitely brighter than the outer sun. When we bring to the fore this inner sun on the strength of our aspiration, we establish our inseparable oneness with the world at large.

Most of us here are sincere seekers; only a few have come out of curiosity. But I wish to say that even those who have come out of curiosity have done the right thing in coming to tonight’s meeting. For today’s curiosity will turn into tomorrow’s sincere cry for reality. Aspiration is the key to unlock the door of universal oneness, and those seekers who are really sincere already have the key. For them God’s Hour has struck. And at God’s Hour, the chosen instrument of God begins to spread the message of light and delight.

Our sense of immortality, our sense of spirituality and our sense of an inner bond, compel us to feel the necessity of oneness. Oneness is our Transcendental Light and oneness is our Eternal Delight.

The human, the Divine and the Supreme<sup>15</sup>

I am a seeker. That means I am a spiritual farmer. As a farmer cultivates the land and, in the course of time, collects a bumper crop, even so, the seeker in me is cultivating the spiritual soil of Canada. Geographically, Canada is a very vast country. And spiritually, she can become extremely fertile.

Fear is human. Courage is divine. Love is supreme. A thing human is short-lived. A thing divine is long-lived. A thing supreme lives forever.

Doubt is human. Faith is divine. Surrender is supreme. A life of doubt cannot start. A life of faith walks along the path. A life of surrender reaches the Goal.

The human in us says the Goal is far, very far. The divine in us says the Goal is here, right here, and nowhere else. The Supreme in us says we ourselves are the Goal.

The human in us is stark complexity within and without. The divine in us is pure simplicity. This simplicity houses the Infinite and the Eternal. The supreme in us is sheer luminosity. In this luminosity the seeker becomes the divine Lover, and the lover becomes one with the supreme Beloved.

The human in us thinks that it has conquered everything. The divine in us feels that it can conquer everything if such is the Will of God. The supreme in us has become what it eternally is: oneness, inseparable oneness.

I am one individual and God is another individual: this is my human discovery. God and I are sempiternally one: this is my divine discovery. God is my most illumined part and I am God’s most unillumined existence: this is my supreme discovery.

The human in me feels that it is all sacrifice, that it has sacrificed everything for the world at large. The divine in me feels that it makes all possible sacrifices because the Absolute has given it the capacity to sacrifice. The supreme in me knows that there is no such thing as sacrifice. When we are all one, the question of sacrifice does not arise at all.

My body has a mind, a heart, two legs. My legs take me to school, where my mind and heart receive knowledge and wisdom. Now, my legs do not feel that they are making a tremendous sacrifice in carrying my heart and head to school, for my legs have established their inseparable oneness with my heart and my head. Similarly, when my legs and feet want to run, my head and heart co-operate. They do not feel it is any sacrifice on their part to come along.

In the inner world, there is no such thing as sacrifice; there is only the song of oneness. The physical in us ponders and thinks, and it feels that it has made tremendous progress when it starts to reason. The human in us feels that the reasoning mind is the pinnacle of perfection. But when the divine in us comes to the fore, it makes us feel that the soulful heart is what is of paramount importance, for the inmost recesses of our heart house the Infinite and the Eternal.

The human in us desires constantly and demands constantly. The divine in us aspires devotedly and inspires unreservedly. The supreme in us only loves, consciously, constantly and unconditionally.

The human in us prays, Asato ma sad gamaya... — “Lead me from the unreal to the Real. Lead me from darkness to Light. Lead me from death to Immortality.”

The divine in us prays, Hiranmayena patrena... — “The Face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden orb. Remove it, O Sun, so that I who am devoted to the Truth may behold the Truth.”

The supreme in us knows what its Source is and where its journey will lead. It says, Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante... — “From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow. At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire.”

The human in us has to be transcended on the strength of our inner cry. The divine in us has to be manifested, and for that we need God’s infinite Bounty along with our own aspiration-cry. The supreme in us is perfect Perfection, and this perfect Perfection must be established here on earth, through our conscious prayer to reach the Transcendental Consciousness. Only when we meditate do we bring down the Transcendental Consciousness, the supreme Perfection, into our lives of self-dedication, our lives of self-transcendence.

Each seeker once lived in the world of pleasure. Now he lives in the world of aspiration. Tomorrow the same seeker will live in the world of illumination. Yesterday we were human. Today we are divine. Tomorrow we will be supreme. It is our intense inner cry that will make us again what we were once upon a time. Our Source was God the Delight, and now we are trying to establish here on earth the Peace, Light and Delight of the Source through our conscious prayer, our soulful meditation and our devoted surrender to the Will of God.

As seekers we know that the human in us has to be transcended so that the divine in us can play its role most effectively. We also know that the divine in us must have an immortal existence here on earth. For that the divine in us needs the life supreme, and this life supreme we get only when our human existence is all love, all devotion and all surrender to the Inner Pilot.

Freedom<sup>16</sup>

There is nobody who does not need freedom. At the same time, there is not a single person who has freedom in abundant measure. We are all seekers. We need freedom from ignorance, bondage and death. Now, our freedom is our conscious, constant and unconditional acceptance of the Will of our Inner Pilot. Our freedom is God’s Heart of Compassion. Our freedom is the manifestation of His Will here on earth. Our freedom lies in our service and in our dedicated life.

We love; therefore we are free. How do we love? We love through our self-offering. Why do we love? We love because God, our Source, is all Love.

We serve; therefore we are free. How do we serve? We serve devotedly and unreservedly. Why do we serve? We serve precisely because we wish to expand our heart and heighten our life.

We are detached; therefore we are free. We are detached because of our awareness of the fact that we are not indispensable in anybody’s life. We tried being attached to others, but we found that this attachment in no way relieved them from their sufferings; on the contrary, it only added to their ignorance-night.

But we do feel that there is someone who is indispensable, and that someone is the Inner Pilot. Our devotion to the supreme Inner Pilot is the thing of paramount importance in our life. On the physical plane some may see this as attachment, but on the spiritual plane all will know that it is devotion to the supreme Cause. When we pay all attention to the ignorance of the world, we call it attachment. But when we pay all attention to the Light within and Above, we call it devotion. Since we are devoted to the Supreme, it is our bounden duty to inspire others to devote themselves to the same Inner Pilot if so He wills.

Here we are all seekers; we are all seekers of freedom-light. Once we become freedom-seekers, we know freedom represents our conscious satisfaction in a life of constant frustration. Although we are wedded to ignorance-night and constantly suffer from excruciating inner pangs, still we feel there is a streak of light in our life, and this light is our ever-growing, ever-expanding inner freedom.

Ignorance-night tells us that we are building castles in the air, that there is no abiding truth in our conception of light, no reality in our feelings. Ignorance says that we are of night and we should be all the time for night. But our inner freedom tells us that today we are of God and for God, and that tomorrow God will make us future Gods. It tells us that God wants us to be equal to Him in every possible way. He feels that if we are an inch below Him, then He cannot manifest His Divinity, Eternity and Immortality to the fullest extent. Only when we are on the same footing as God can His divine Enjoyment reach the acme of perfection.

Freedom is the beauty of our aspiring heart. Freedom is the duty of our devoted life. Our aspiring heart is the Dream-Sky of God. Our devoted life is the Reality-Sun of God.

With the Dream-Sky of God, we pave an eternal road for our eternal journey to the ever-transcending Beyond. With the Reality-sun of God, we grow into the very image of the Absolute Supreme.

Freedom is peace. Peace is an inner experience of our totality. Totality is the silence-sound and the sound-silence of Reality. When the sound-silence ascends, we realise our true Self. When the silence-sound descends, it is time for God-manifestation. We ascend with sound-silence, and that is our God-realisation. We descend with silence-sound, and that is our God-manifestation.

Freedom is simplicity. Simplicity does not mean the absence of complexity; it in no way stands against complexity. Simplicity is our conscious acceptance of our own integral nature. Freedom includes and it excludes. It excludes hunger from our human existence. It includes the divine feast that we constantly enjoy with the Lord Supreme in our divine existence.

Freedom is purity. Purity expedites our divine journey towards the Transcendental Goal. It constantly, consciously and devotedly makes us feel what we are and what we are not. What we are is God’s chosen children, seeking to manifest Him unconditionally in His own Way here on earth. What we are not is the chosen children of ignorance.

Freedom constantly reminds us that our Source is Light, and that our existence can therefore be nothing but a flood of Light. We realise the authenticity of this statement only when we dive deep within and feel the necessity of listening to the dictates of our inner being. Freedom reminds us of the supreme fact that our divine Source is eternal and our existence here on earth is going to be supremely divine. It is a matter of time. At God’s choice Hour, today’s imperfection is bound to blossom into tomorrow’s perfect Perfection. The human in us feels that freedom is the fulfilment of our individuality. But when the human in us aspires, it comes to realise that this kind of freedom is nothing but earth-bound individuality. The divine in us sees and feels that real freedom is the experience of Universal Reality or universality itself. As the ordinary person feels that his freedom is his individuality, the aspiring person feels that his freedom is his universality. And the Supreme in us feels that the real freedom lies in our all-embracing, all-illumining and all-fulfilling love for the world which is within us, which is without us, which is all-where.

We are all human beings. Most of the time we dwell in the world of hope. Hope is right now by far our best friend. When we hope for freedom, we know that it is our human friend, our human realisation, that is speaking within us. Hope for freedom is our human realisation. Promise for freedom is our divine realisation. Finally, our will for freedom, our adamantine will-power, is our supreme realisation.

Freedom we need, precisely because the Inner Pilot within us wants us to be free, totally free from the meshes of ignorance. Only then can we sing, dance and play with Him in His Garden of ever-blossoming, ever-illumining and ever- fulfilling Dream and Reality.

Purity<sup>17</sup>

I wish to give a talk on purity. Purity is not a matter of study; purity is a matter of living reality. Purity is not the sound of life; purity is the silence of the soul. Purity is the conscious aspiration of our aspiring life. Purity is the integration of our aspiring heart.

To be pure is to be free. To be free is to be divine. And to be divine is to fulfil God’s Promise here on earth. What is God’s Promise? God’s Promise to mankind is that He will make each human being a true God like Himself. This Promise is fulfilled by God in and through the God-seekers and the God-lovers. We are all seekers and lovers of God, so it is our bounden duty to realise God here on earth.

A life of purity is a life of self-sufficiency, because it is deeply rooted in love divine. Love is the source of humanity, love is the source of divinity. Human love ultimately ends in frustration. Why? Because human love proceeds from one limited body-consciousness to another limited body-consciousness. Divine love is all illumination. At the journey’s start, in the middle of the race and at the journey’s close it is all illumination. Divine love descends from the soul-freedom into the body-consciousness. Divine love is the sun of freedom both in Heaven and on earth.

Purity is a divine child within us. This divine child embodies peace, light, love and delight in infinite measure. The physical mind is at first baffled by the effulgence of this divine child. But ultimately it surrenders to the child’s effulgence and receives illumination from him. The aspiring heart is immediately thrilled at the very sight of the divine child. It wants to enter and it does enter into the child’s infinite peace, light and bliss, and it starts swimming in the consciousness of the divine child.

Purity is harmony; impurity is disharmony. Harmony puts up a brave fight against the teeming challenges of life. Disharmony helplessly surrenders to the teeming challenges of life.

The inner light is purity. The outer life is ignorance. The inner light wants to conquer the outer ignorance. Likewise, the outer ignorance wants to conquer and devour the inner light. The inner light wants to conquer the outer ignorance with a view to transforming it. When the outer ignorance is transformed, it becomes a divine warrior fighting to establish the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

A life of purity is the life of a perfection-lover. We feel that perfection is the fulfilment of our desires. But this is a mistake. Real perfection is the fulfilment of God’s Will in and through us. No matter how many times our desires are fulfilled, we do not see the face of abiding satisfaction. But the fulfilment of God’s Will is our supreme satisfaction. Perfection is satisfaction divine, and this satisfaction we get when we offer to God what we have and what we are. What we have is our aspiration and our mounting inner cry, and what we are is ignorance-sea. Both we have to offer to the Supreme.

In the spiritual life, purity is of paramount importance. A seeker may have high experiences, but if purity is not well-established in his being, then at any moment he may lose the strength and the reality of his experiences. An experience can be permanent in the seeker only when his inner being is flooded with purity. A seeker may reach a very high state of consciousness today, but if impurity enters into him tomorrow, he may fall to the nadir of consciousness, the very lowest level. And once he falls down, his life is filled with the most deplorable remorse. It may take him many years to climb back up to his previous height.

Purity builds the inner life; impurity obliterates the inner life. How can we have a solid edifice which can never be destroyed by impurity? We can have a permanent building, a solid edifice in our inner life, if we cry soulfully and ceaselessly for the Absolute Supreme to descend into our inner life.

For a seeker, the inner purity and the outer purity must go together. Inner purity may be compared to having a clean body, and outer purity may be compared to wearing freshly laundered clothes. If an individual takes a shower but then puts on filthy clothes, what kind of purity will he have? Again, if for a week he has not taken a shower and then he puts on clean clothes, this is also unsatisfactory. His outer purity will not satisfy him because his inner impurity is creating a problem for him. Likewise, with spiritual purity, the inner and the outer must both be there. The body must be pure and clean, but so also must the mind be pure, as well as the vital.

Purity is the shrine within us. In this shrine we see the living spirit of the Supreme, our Beloved. It is said that a life of purity sees God. But I wish to add that a life of purity not only sees God but actually becomes God. A man of purity is a warrior of divinity. This warrior establishes the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth on the strength of his constant self-giving. Today what we call self-giving, tomorrow we shall call God-becoming.

Aspiration<sup>18</sup>

A man of aspiration knows that what he has is human knowledge. Human knowledge is limited or unlimited ignorance. Aspiration is divine knowledge. Aspiration knows what binds us and what liberates us. What binds us is ignorance-night; what liberates us is wisdom-light.

Aspiration does not and cannot learn anything from or with the physical mind. Aspiration learns everything through the heart, through the heart’s perfection. Aspiration is not head-learning; aspiration is heart-becoming. Head-learning doubts. Doubt is slow poison in our spiritual system. It obliterates our purity, our serenity, our reality and our profundity. Heart-becoming is founded upon our faith, our self-giving and our feeling of universal oneness. Heart-becoming accepts. In acceptance looms large the message of total satisfaction, for through acceptance we eventually transform imperfection into perfect Perfection. First we see and accept a thing which is undivine. Then, on the strength of our inner light, we give it a new life. Finally we make it supremely divine.

Aspiration is the acceptance of life and the transcendence of death. Aspiration is the transformation and transcendence of the death-force. Through our aspiration we try to establish a free access to the immortal life so that here on earth we can establish the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom need not and cannot remain eternally imaginary. It must be established in our life of aspiration.

When we go deep within, we discover that aspiration is the very Breath of God which we utilise for our own sake. Again, aspiration is the death of the ignorance of millennia. When ignorance comes to an end in a seeker, God claims that particular seeker as His chosen instrument and God manifests Himself here on earth through that seeker.

There are two worlds on earth: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. In the world of desire, frustration looms large and the animal life reigns supreme. In the world of aspiration, our satisfaction-flower blossoms petal by petal. In the world of aspiration, the seeker’s dream is transformed into supreme Reality. The seeker comes to realise that God is man yet unmanifested, and that man is God yet unrealised. Man’s realisation and God’s manifestation take place when the seeker’s entire being becomes all receptivity to God’s ceaseless flow of Compassion and Light. On God’s behalf, aspiration prepares our inner being. And on our behalf, aspiration welcomes and receives God. Aspiration welcomes the divine in us and fulfils the human in us. Man and God need each other equally and sempiternally. Man needs God to realise his Transcendental Reality. God needs man to manifest Himself totally, integrally and universally on earth.

Aspiration expedites man’s journey towards the Transcendental Goal and accelerates God’s manifestation here on earth. The seeker can expedite God’s choice Hour, providing his aspiration-flame every day climbs up high, higher, highest. Today, on the strength of his aspiration-flame, he reaches the Highest. Tomorrow he comes down to reveal the highest Transcendental Reality in the heart of aspiring humanity. Aspiration houses the outer world and the inner world, the world of realisation and the world of manifestation, the world of ego and the universe of universal oneness.

With aspiration we begin our journey, and with aspiration we continue our journey. Since there is no end to our journey and, since God is infinite, eternal and immortal, our aspiration will constantly flow towards God’s Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. There is no end to our journey. Aspiration is the endless road that leads eternally towards the ever-transcending Beyond.

Limitation<sup>19</sup>

Why are we imperfect and limited? We are imperfect and limited precisely because we do not consciously and soulfully claim God the Infinite, the Eternal and the Immortal as our very own. If we dare to claim God consciously and constantly as our very own, all our limitations will be transformed into boundless opportunities to climb high, higher, highest in the process of our cosmic evolution.

Now, what is limitation? Limitation is our unconscious or conscious expression of separation from our Source. What is limitation? Limitation is our conscious acceptance of the non-essential as our very own. What is limitation? Limitation is our failure to integrate the Dream-Sky of Heaven with the reality-land of earth. Limitation is the yawning gulf between our present realisation and our future revelation. Limitation is the yawning gulf between our illumining revelation and our fulfilling manifestation. Today there is an undeniable chasm separating our realisation-world from our revelation-world, and our revelation-world from our manifestation-world. This chasm is our limitation.

A life of complexity is a life of limitation and abstraction. A life of simplicity is a sunlit path that leads to the fulfilment of our life’s multifarious goals. Complexity deliberately ignores the divine beauty and the limitless capacity of humility. Simplicity knows that humility is not the painful awareness of our limitation, but the conscious recognition of our real divinity.

Self-deceit and self-acclaim are limitation. Self-deprecation is also limitation. When we deceive ourselves, we unconsciously try to uproot our life-tree. When we uproot the life-tree forcibly, it is broken and torn asunder. When we aggrandise our ego, we just feed our earthly existence and kill our inner life. Again, when we underestimate our own existence, our capacities and potentialities, we starve our divine existence, we grow weaker and weaker, and finally we die. When we deprecate ourselves, when we try to keep ourselves forcibly in a tiny prison cell, we do not allow our life-seed to germinate. Self-deceit is the conscious negation of our inner divinity, and self-deprecation is the conscious misconception of our inner divinity.

To conquer limitations is to grow into the process of conscious and speedy evolution. When we have conquered our limitations, we realise that everyone without exception has been blessed with unique capacities and potentialities. Once an individual discovers his own uniqueness by conquering his limitations, he feels certain that others also have a uniqueness of their own.

Limitation is self-thinking. Self-thinking is the conscious, disproportionate adoration of our finite self. When self-thinking gives way to God-thinking, the tiny individual drop becomes the ocean of Infinity, and limitations disappear sooner than at once. When universality comes forward, the blossoming of the divine personality immediately follows. In our continuous universality, Eternity glows and Immortality flows. To conquer limitation is to grow into the process of illumining and convincing revelation. To conquer limitation is to live in the process of direct and perfect manifestation. Earthly possessions limit us. Heavenly renunciation frees and liberates us. Supreme illumination immortalises us. Limitation abides in the cave of the unlit mind. Freedom grows in the land of the aspiring heart. Immortality abides in the kingdom of the illumining soul.

Right now we are limited. But limitation is not and cannot be our eternal Reality. Each limitation of ours can easily be overcome provided we know that our Source is unlimited. Once we dare to claim God the Almighty Father and God the Mother Supreme as our very own, in the twinkling of an eye we are bound to feel ourselves unlimited in every way. And in the unlimited expansion of our consciousness, we come to feel that it is our bounden duty to manifest our Beloved Supreme here on earth in His own Way.

Progress<sup>20</sup>

A man of pleasure wants success, continuous success. A man of aspiration wants progress, soulful progress. A man of success is always hungry for name and fame, for material wealth and possessions. But there comes a time when he realises that even though he satisfies all his teeming desires, still he does not feel even an iota of solid satisfaction. A man of outer success only can never expect a life of satisfaction. But a man of progress dives deep within in order to discover his inner wealth, his inner treasure. He and satisfaction become bosom friends. A man of success cannot distinguish between the finite and the Infinite. But a man of progress knows how to separate the finite from the Infinite. He embraces the Infinite in the finite with a view to growing into the Infinite.

A man of desire wants God the Giver, but a man of progress needs God the Receiver. A man of aspiration says to God, “O Lord, take me. What I have is for You. What I am is for You. What I have is an inner cry, and what I am is unlimited ignorance. O Lord, do take what I have and what I am.” A man of desire prays to God for earthly wisdom, material possessions and the fulfilment of his desires. Immediately God tells him, “Take whatever you need, then.” But when a seeker prays for inner progress, God tells him that he has to work hard for it. That does not mean that God will deny us progress. No! He will rain down His Compassion, but we have to make our inner vessel vast, vaster, vastest, so that we can hold His infinite Bounty.

Success is an experience of pleasure and stimulation. Progress is an experience of joy and fulfilment. Pleasure’s future names are frustration and destruction. Joy’s future names are satisfaction and illumination. Success finds its existence between the doubting mind and the strangling vital; progress has its reality between the aspiring heart and the dedicated life.

Progress is our inner assurance of a deeper manifestation. Progress is founded upon evolving experience and manifesting experience. When we cry for God the Absolute Reality, we grow into the evolving experience. When we, as divine lovers, become inseparably one with our Supreme Beloved, we become the manifesting experience.

Human progress and divine progress. Human progress wants to see more and more of the world; it wants to understand the mystery of the world. Divine progress wants to see more and more of God in each human being. Human progress feels that slow and steady wins the race. Divine progress teaches us that Grace is the swiftest way to the Goal.

In the spiritual life we deal with Eternity: Eternity’s past, present and future. In Eternity’s past, we made considerable progress. God inspired us and commanded us, “Arise, awake!” and immediately we listened to His inner dictate. In Eternity’s present, we are still making considerable progress. We are running very fast towards the ever-transcending Beyond. And in Eternity’s future, we shall see and feel that the Goal itself is running towards us.

We are like hungry children. Although we know not where our mother is, we run here and there in search of her. But when our mother hears us crying, she immediately runs to us. We cry to the Supreme because we have an inner hunger, and the Mother Supreme runs to feed us. The seeker who makes real progress always preserves the divine and transforms the undivine. How does he preserve and how does he transform? When he ascends the reality-tree to the highest realm of consciousness, he acquires the capacity to preserve the divine within him. Then, when he climbs down the reality-tree and brings back the Smile of the Transcendental Beyond, he is able to transform the undivine.

Since we are all seekers, we are supposed to make progress at every moment. But there are two things that prevent us from making progress: self-love and self-indulgence. Self-love makes continuous mistakes and Himalayan blunders, while self-indulgence is a Himalayan blunder itself. Now, there is one way for us to make constant and conscious progress, and that is through God-love and God-service. God-love does everything perfectly, and God-service is nothing short of perfect Perfection.

Progress is movement, and movement is progress. Thousands of years ago, the Vedic Seers offered their divine message, Charai veti, charai veti — “Move on, move on!” Again, the Seers of the Upanishads taught us to be dynamic and not to fear action. If we perform disinterested action, this action cannot bind us or claim anything of our existence. Action cannot claim a man of devoted and dedicated service. Lord Krishna taught us the supreme Truth: “Thou hast the right to action, but claim not the fruits thereof.”

As seekers, at every moment we are devotedly doing selfless service. The result can never be of importance to us. It is only our attitude, our motive, that concerns us. The result will come in the form of failure or success, and both of these experiences we have to offer at the Feet of the Lord Supreme with equal joy and delight. In this way we can make the fastest progress.

Beauty<sup>21</sup>

Beauty is the inner voice of silence. Beauty is the duty of the loving heart. Beauty is the perfection of the aspiring life. Beauty is the message of the illumining soul. Beauty is the Reality-Embrace of God.

Beauty is inspiration. Beauty is aspiration. Beauty is realisation. Inspiration runs, it runs to the farthest Beyond. Aspiration flies, it flies to the highest Beyond. Realisation consciously becomes what it has eternally been in the inner world, in the world of silence. The mind needs illumined inspiration. The heart needs inseparable union which is founded upon aspiration. The soul needs the integration of life and the realised perfection of the entire being. Sincerity is our evolving beauty. Purity is our illumining beauty. Humility is our fulfilling beauty.

Beauty is freedom. We can gain real freedom only by establishing a free access to our inner reality, by consciously and constantly listening to our soul’s inner dictates, by being conscious of our highest and most illumined part, which is God.

Beauty is peace. A life of beauty is a life of peace. Peace is not merely the absence of quarrelling and fighting; peace is the manifestation of our inseparable oneness with all. This oneness is not the oneness of the finite with the finite, but the oneness of the finite with the Infinite. When the finite identifies itself with the Infinite, the Beauty of the Infinite transforms the very breath of the finite, and earth’s beauty and Heaven’s Beauty are joined. Earth’s beauty is a soulful cry; Heaven’s Beauty is a soulful Smile. When earth’s cry and Heaven’s Smile meet together, Beauty’s Perfection dawns.

Beauty is in unity’s multiplicity and multiplicity’s unity. When we look at a beautiful flower in its entirety, the flower offers us the beauty of oneness, of multiplicity’s unity. When we look at the same flower petal by petal, we see unity’s multiplicity offering us its beauty supernal.

When we observe a beautiful flower, we feel that our life should be as beautiful as a flower, because there is someone whom we have to garland with our life’s gratitude-beauty. That person is our eternal Beloved, our Lord Supreme. When we look at a burning incense stick, we feel immediately the beauty of purity. The fragrance of the incense purifies our inner existence and transports our aspiring consciousness to a higher plane. When we observe a candle flame, immediately we notice inside us another flame which has been burning from time immemorial, and this inner flame is God’s eternal Beauty.

We look at the blazing sun, and immediately the divine warrior in us is surcharged with power divine. This power energises us to fight against ignorance. This power constantly makes us feel that we are the chosen warriors of the Supreme, chosen to fight against teeming ignorance-bondage, chosen to establish divinity’s Perfection here on earth. We look at the moon, and its beauty immediately inspires us to become divine lovers of God. It is only with our devoted love and unconditional surrender to the Supreme Beloved that we can grow into His very Image.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” This immortal utterance of Keats can easily be cherished and treasured in the hearts of all sincere seekers. Beauty is a divine expression of the true Reality. Reality and divine beauty are inseparable, like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. Beauty expressed is divinity manifested in our life of aspiration and realisation.

It is said that physical beauty is skin-deep. But, from the spiritual point of view, I wish to say that the Divine Father often expresses Himself through beauty in the gross physical, the subtle physical and the vital as well as in the mind, heart and soul. But when we observe beauty in the physical, beauty in the vital, beauty in the mind or beauty in the heart, we have to use our soul’s eye — that is to say, our soul’s light. If we use our soul’s light, we can see beauty even in outer ugliness, even in darkness, imperfection and bondage.

A spiritual seeker uses his heart and his soul to see the world within and the world without. He does not use his outer eyes. He has seen time and again that the vision of his outer eyes is limited precisely because this vision is guided by the subtle or unconscious operation of the unlit, unillumined mind. It is simply impossible for the outer eyes to identify themselves with the quintessence of beauty. But if we use the heart, immediately we become part and parcel of the substance and essence of what we are seeing.

Beauty and the duty of the heart must go together. The duty of the heart is to become one with the reality of the outer world and with the reality of the inner world. Those who do not aspire try, consciously or unconsciously, to separate the outer beauty from the inner beauty. But a sincere seeker has discovered the truth that the outer beauty has a source of its own, and that source is the soul. The soul expresses itself outwardly through beauty. When we embody our divine duty, automatically we express and reveal pure beauty all around us. Duty is our dream-boat. We have been sailing this dream-boat through Eternity. Beauty is the Reality-Shore, the Shore of Immortality, which we are destined to reach. If we consciously, devotedly and unconditionally please the Inner Pilot, then He accelerates our journey, He leads us, He carries us in His Boat towards the Golden Shore of the Beyond.

A genuine seeker has discovered the secret of secrets: from the inner beauty we have to enter into the outer beauty. The inner beauty will have to go from the soul to the heart, from the heart to the mind, from the mind to the vital and from the vital to the physical. If we know what the source is and where the source is, and if we commence our journey from the source, our journey is safe. We reach the shore, and we are convinced of the reality of our attainment.

An unaspiring human being thinks that his ignorant pleasure-life is the only source of his satisfaction. But for sincere seekers, for true lovers of God, Delight is the source. Beauty is Light and Light is Delight. This Delight is the Harmony, Peace and Satisfaction of the Absolute. We can treasure this divine wealth only when we appreciate, admire and adore the inner beauty. When the inner beauty comes to the fore, the world of darkness will immediately be transformed into the world of luminosity.

When we pray, we offer the beauty of our heart’s intensity to the Supreme. When we meditate, we offer the beauty of our inner silence to the Supreme. When we love the outer world, knowing that the outer world is the manifestation and expression of the Supreme, then we offer the beauty of our universal oneness to the Supreme.

When a sincere seeker prays and meditates, he radiates beauty. This beauty comes directly from his inner existence, his soul. All human beings, without exception, are the manifested Beauty of the Supreme; but spiritual aspirants are trying to be perfectly and consciously the manifested Beauty of the Supreme.

In ugliness there is beauty, in imperfection there is beauty, in everything that exists in God’s universe there is beauty. Again, beauty has its degrees, and when we become conscious seekers, we aim at the highest beauty, at the perfect Perfection of beauty. This beauty looms large in us only when we become conscious and constant divine soldiers of self-giving. When possessiveness leaves us and selflessness takes its place, the beauty of the Transcendental Height enters into our life of aspiration. Today what we call self-giving, tomorrow that very thing we call God-becoming, which is beauty unparalleled. Self-giving is the flowering of our love divine. God-becoming is the ultimate blossoming of our dedicated, devoted and unconditional surrender to the Inner Pilot.

Spirituality and satisfaction<sup>22</sup>

If you want me to define spirituality, I can define it by using only one word: satisfaction. Spirituality is nothing more and nothing less than satisfaction. Now, what is satisfaction? Satisfaction is the manifestation of oneness. Manifestation is the song of permanence, and oneness is the crown of evolution. And what is evolution? Evolution is our heart’s ascending cry for the Highest, for the Absolute. This cry needs only one thing: God’s descending Smile. When our heart’s ascending cry and God’s descending Smile meet together, we fly in the sky of infinite freedom.

Some enter into the spiritual life because the world has disappointed them. Others enter into the spiritual life out of sheer curiosity, because they feel it may offer something worth achieving. Still others feel that no matter how much they give to the world at large and no matter how much they receive from the world, they will never be able to see the face of satisfaction. They feel that only by leading a spiritual life will their inner satisfaction loom large. They feel that satisfaction lies in self-giving, self-giving to the root of the life-tree: God.

Those who enter into the spiritual life because the world has disappointed them or because they have disappointed the world may be tempted to go back to the life of the ordinary world. But those who accept the spiritual life for real and abiding satisfaction will eventually succeed.

A real spiritual life is a life of inner acceptance. Inner acceptance means allowing oneself to be shaped by the Will of God. When we pray and meditate, we try to become consciously one with the Will of God. We know that it is only the Will of God that can ultimately fulfil us and our near and dear ones. No matter how hard we try to please others, we shall fail. No matter how sincerely and genuinely others want to please us, they will sadly fail. But if we invoke the Will of God to please mankind in Divinity’s own Way, then and then only, will the world be satisfied.

A spiritual man is he who does first things first. For an ordinary human being who does not pray and meditate early in the morning, the first thing in his life is his breakfast. He feels that if he eats, he will be energised so that he will be able to perform his daily activities. But a spiritual person feels that there is someone inside his heart whom he has to feed first: a little child, a divine child. This little child is the soul, which is the direct representative of God. A spiritual person feels that he must feed his inner existence first, and then only will he be fulfilled in his outer life. He feels that he has to come outward from within, and not the other way around. Early in the morning, therefore, he prays and meditates. When he prays most soulfully, his inner cry immediately knocks at God’s Door and God listens to his cry. His prayer is his speech. He starts conversing with God and God listens. Then, a few minutes later, he meditates. When he meditates, he becomes the listener and God becomes the talker. In a conversation, one talks and the other listens, and then it is reversed. Similarly, when a seeker prays, he talks and God listens; and when a seeker meditates, God talks and the seeker listens, by silencing his mind and by opening his heart.

Here we are all spiritual people. According to me, a spiritual person is he who is constantly serving God in humanity. A life of selfless service is his only credential. A spiritual person is he who does not and cannot separate his being from his doing, or his doing from his becoming. For him there can be no yawning chasm between being and doing, or between doing and becoming.

Very often people who do not follow the spiritual life think that spiritual people are deliberately negating society. But I wish to say that spiritual people are not negating anything. They are only trying to do the first thing first. The essence, the quintessence, of society is God. So spiritual people try to enter into the essence first.

They want to enter into the root, for then only can they climb up to the topmost bough of the life-tree and become one with its millions and billions of leaves and hundreds and thousands of fruits and flowers.

A sincere seeker has to accept the world, but he has to accept the world from within. His heart of love offers love, peace and bliss through silence. He feels that if he can inspire someone inwardly, silently, then that person can really get some benefit from his dedicated service.

There are some seekers who think that they will be able to realise God sooner if they enter into the Himalayan caves. But I feel that the days of withdrawal from the world are buried in oblivion. If we enter into the Himalayan caves with a view to realising God, then God is likely to tell us, “My child, I am not going to appear there. In that cave I will be suffocated.” Then again, there are people who wallow in the pleasures of ignorance and feel that they will be able to realise God in the superfluous luxury of a palace. But God tells them that He is not going to appear there, either. To them He says, “That place is too vast for Me.” The life of idleness and comfort cannot associate with the life of divine oneness.

Then what is the place that a seeker must choose in order to receive his Supreme Beloved? The place is his heart. If we meditate on the heart and in the heart, then we will bring to the fore our inner light, which constantly tries to be of service to aspiring mankind.

A spiritual person feels that God is very simple. He wants to simplify his life, for the moment complexity enters into his mind, God-realisation becomes a far cry. When he remains in the heart, when he is a child, he feels that God is nearer than the nearest, dearer than the dearest.

We have a physical mind, and at every moment this mind wants to be convinced. Therefore we talk and listen, just to convince our physical mind. But real spirituality, real meditation, real yoga, is all inside the heart. In the heart is our ceaseless cry, our ever-mounting flame that reaches up to the Supreme’s Transcendental Smile and then comes down to offer its inner wealth to aspiring humanity and to the world at large.

Right now the physical mind is the leader of our family. Whatever the physical mind commands us to do, we do — either willingly or unwillingly. But once we begin to pray and meditate, we feel that there is a higher member of our inner family, one which is superior to the mind, and that is the heart. When we remain in the heart, we feel that we have established a free access to the soul, which is flooded with light and delight. A genuine seeker knows that he needs God not because God is omniscient and omnipotent, but because God is all Love.

As in the ordinary human world, in the spiritual world also somebody may be very strong and powerful, but his power or strength does not conquer our heart. Somebody may be an authority on every walk of life, but still that particular person does not conquer our heart. But if somebody is all love, then that person is bound to conquer our heart, for the heart is oneness, universal oneness.

Bliss<sup>23</sup>

Bliss is the peerless experience of the aspiring body, vital, mind and heart. When bliss descends, the insecurity of the heart, the frustration of the mind, the depression of the vital and the limitation of the body disappear. This experience of bliss we have in our soul-consciousness, which is the Reality-Light of God.

An unaspiring human being consciously or unconsciously carries two undivine weapons with him: self-love and world-hatred. But a seeker, an aspiring soul, carries with him two divine weapons: God-love and world-embrace. When we love God from the very depths of our hearts, we feel that our inner existence is inundated with bliss. And when we embrace the world as a divine manifestation of God, again our inner being is inundated with bliss.

Bliss has a dear brother, a most affectionate brother: peace. Peace paves the way, and then bliss walks along the way and enters into us. The difference between peace and bliss is this: when we have an experience of peace, we feel that we are satisfied. We do not want to go an inch farther, higher or deeper, precisely because we are satisfied with the peace that is reigning supreme in our life. When we have an experience of bliss, we are also fully satisfied; yet we have an inner urge or inner hunger to receive still more bliss, ever more. This hunger is not due to dissatisfaction with what we have already achieved. No! It is just that we feel a continuous hunger for satisfaction in an ever-increasing measure.

When we experience peace, we usually feel it in the heart centre. Then from the heart chakra, peace may enter into our other spiritual centres. But when we experience bliss, we feel it all over our body, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. When we pray and meditate soulfully, we are bound to attain peace. But there is a specific kind of meditation that is the easiest way to acquire peace. If a seeker can meditate on the setting sun, then it is easy for him to feel the presence of peace. And if the same seeker meditates on the rising sun, then it is easy for him to achieve bliss. We have to know that in the spiritual life it is always advisable to meditate on the thing that embodies the reality that we want to achieve. The setting sun embodies peace, and it offers peace to the world at large. The rising sun embodies bliss and offers bliss to the world at large. And the seeker receives bliss and peace from the rising and setting sun according to his capacity and receptivity.

Bliss is freedom: freedom from the past, freedom from the future and freedom from the present. The tenebrous influence of the past does not allow us to move forward. But our philosophy says the past is dust. Why? Because it has not given us what we actually need: salvation, liberation and realisation. True, we have had a few sweet experiences. But these experiences are buried in oblivion. When we think of the past as a whole, we feel a sea of failure, a sea of frustration, a sea of dissatisfaction within us.

Now, we also have to be free from the future, the future that wants to enter into us with its theoretical thoughts and imaginary ideas. When we try to enter into the heart of the future, we see that it is all wild imagination, with no reality there. It is only castles in the air, not founded upon solid, concrete reality. So, just as we have to be totally free from the past, we should not allow the future to enter into us, either.

Then again, we have to be free from attachment to the present as well. The present is nothing but insecurity, constant insecurity. No matter what we have achieved, no matter how much power we have, there is always a sense of insecurity in us. No human being on earth can say that he is always secure. This moment he may be secure, but the next moment fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, darkness, ignorance and bondage can shatter his security-wall to pieces.

When we free ourselves from the darkness and ignorance of the past, we see God smiling at us. When we free ourselves from the imaginary hopes of the future, we see and feel God embracing us with His effulgent Light. And when we free ourselves from the insecurity of the present, we hear God promising us that He will make us another God, an exact prototype of His eternal and immortal Existence.

The Vedic seers of the hoary past offered us a sublime message, a soul-stirring mantra or incantation:

Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante...

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In Delight we grow.

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Bliss is the creation of life and bliss is the life of creation. The creation of life is the Silence-God. The life of creation is the Sound-God. Creation enters into inconscience and then gradually comes back to its Source, and regains its Source. When it enters into inconscience, into the lowest chasm of reality, we call this involution. And when from that lowest chasm creation again climbs up high, higher, highest, we call this evolution. The Silence-God has another name: Spirit; and the Sound-God has another name: matter. Progress requires involution of spirit and evolution of matter.

Bliss enters into inconscience because it wants to offer its light and delight, its very reality, to the dark side of existence. Then, from the darkness and inconscience of matter, bliss comes back again to its Source. But on its way back, when it reaches the human level — which is still half-animal — its promise to the Absolute Supreme becomes vivid and real. When bliss enters into inconscience, it does so with the solemn promise that there, too, it will offer light. In God’s Creation there will be no place where Light will be missing. When bliss evolves from the mineral, plant and animal life to the human level, it becomes conscious of its original promise to the Absolute Supreme.

Human life, which is half-animal, will be conquered on the strength of our inner cry. From the human life, the divine life wants to grow. So we practise concentration, meditation and contemplation, which carry us into the domain of aspiration.

We are all seekers, and we want to achieve bliss or taste it consciously. At times it happens that non-seekers may feel bliss for a fleeting second, either in a dream or during their waking hours. But this unexpected bliss does not last. Unexpectedly it comes and, in spite of their desire that it stay, it soon disappears. Why? Because their body, their physical consciousness, is not fully dedicated to the service of the Supreme, because their vital is not sufficiently expanded, because their mind is not totally silenced and their heart is not implicitly purified. Only in the body’s freedom from limitation, the vital’s freedom from depression, the mind’s freedom from frustration and the heart’s freedom from insecurity can bliss permanently abide.

If bliss enters into a seeker’s aspiring consciousness, he is not astonished. He has been expecting bliss because he has prayed and meditated. And bliss enters into him precisely because he is fully prepared. Now, when this bliss enters into a seeker who is well-prepared, it lasts for good.

A seeker’s inner preparation is called his capacity and receptivity. He who has capacity is ready to choose God as his very own. He feels that there is nothing on earth that he can call his own except God, so therefore he chooses God. But he who has receptivity is chosen by God Himself; he is chosen by God as God’s very own. Inside his receptivity, God is constantly playing His Cosmic Game. So we can safely say that capacity is the first giant step towards God-realisation and receptivity is the second and last giant step towards God-realisation. When a seeker is on the verge of illumination, he achieves boundless bliss. At that time, bliss is not a vague idea but a living reality. Either when he is on the verge of illumination, or right after his illumination takes place, the seeker will be inundated with infinite bliss in his entire being.

We use three most significant terms in our spiritual life, in our life of aspiration: salvation, liberation and realisation. We can call them three giant realities. When we have salvation, we grow into bliss. When we have liberation, we grow into bliss. When we have realisation, we grow into bliss. When we achieve salvation, we feel that the sin-consciousness has totally left us. Sin, as a reality, has no place in our existence. When we achieve liberation, we feel that the limitations of the world have totally disappeared from us. At that time there can be no such thing as limitation in our life. When we achieve realisation, when we discover ourselves, at that time we feel that the finite has at last reached the Infinite. The tiny drop has merged into the Infinite ocean and become the ocean itself.

We can have bliss in our life of salvation, in our life of liberation and in our life of realisation. When a seeker achieves salvation, God gives him the promise that he will have liberation and that, after his liberation, realisation will dawn. Salvation, liberation and realisation are like three brothers. First you please one brother, then you go to the second brother and then you go to the third brother. These brothers are constantly playing with the Supreme in His Cosmic Lila. When a seeker achieves salvation, liberation and realisation, he becomes a conscious representative of God and helps to illumine the unlit humanity.

On the practical level, we can receive bliss every day when we do not expect anything from anyone — from others, from God, or even from ourselves. We can have bliss on the physical plane when we offer something unconditionally either to our conscious being or to others. Then again, we can have bliss in our multifarious day-to-day activities if we pray and meditate sincerely and soulfully. But if we expect something from God because of our soulful prayer and profound meditation, then we shall not achieve real bliss.

Real bliss is self-giving without any expectation. We have to give what we have and what we are, freely, soulfully and devotedly, to God. What we have is sincere aspiration and what we are is a sea of ignorance. If we can give to God unconditionally what we have and what we are, then God also will give us what He has and what He is. What He has is Love, and what He is is Bliss. When we give our little possessions cheerfully, devotedly and unconditionally, He gives us His infinite possessions: His infinite Bliss and His Transcendental, Universal Reality.

The Christ said, “Let Thy Will be done.” This is the highest form of prayer. Only in this kind of selfless prayer can we get supreme Bliss.

Service<sup>24</sup>

Service, from the spiritual point of view, is self-giving. Now, this self-giving has to be sincere, direct, spontaneous, unreserved and unconditional. When our service is sincere, the world-body needs and utilises our service. When our service is direct, the world-vital needs and utilises our service. When our service is spontaneous, the world-mind needs and utilises our service. When our service is unreserved, the world-heart needs and utilises our service. Finally, when our service is unconditional, the world-soul needs and utilises our service.

Service is self-expansion. A sincere seeker serves precisely because he knows that there is and there can be nothing other than service. When he serves aspiring humanity, it is because his inner necessity commands him to serve. Each seeker has to be true to himself all the time. It is easy for him to fool the world around him, but if he is not sincere to himself, God-realisation will always remain a far cry.

Before we become sincere seekers, we follow the path of ego. Ego is our self-made human reality. This reality has to be transformed, or illumined and perfected. Otherwise, before we know it, the ego will destroy our ideals and our inner potentiality.

An ordinary, unaspiring human being does not serve. What he wants to do and what he does is to offer a kind of help. His ego tells him that it is beneath his dignity to serve anyone. To him, service is a sign of inferiority. But in the spiritual life, if a seeker serves someone it means that God, out of His infinite Bounty, has entrusted that seeker with superior capacity. A seeker knows that each time he gets an opportunity to serve, he is nearing his destination. A man of service is constantly on the move. He is running fast, faster, fastest towards his Transcendental Goal.

On the physical plane, service is very often misunderstood. We feel that, if we are going to serve, we have to serve each and every one, all and sundry. But in the spiritual life, we know that service has to be rendered only to those who are ready to receive it. If not, our service will be misunderstood. If somebody is fast asleep and you try to arouse that person because you see that the sun is up, he may become angry or displeased. He may say, “What right do you have to disturb my precious sleep?” But if our service is rendered to someone who wants to be awakened or who is ready to be awakened, to someone who wants light or who needs light, then only can our service be properly used.

Service is self-purification. Self-purification is the precursor of the physical nature’s transformation. The transformation of the physical nature and God-manifestation are inseparable, like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. The transformation of the physical and the manifestation of the spiritual always go side by side. Transformation is the dream-fulfilled Reality on earth; manifestation is the reality-fulfilled Dream in Heaven.

Service is God-receiving. We receive God with the devotion of our body, with the purity of our vital, with the eagerness of our mind, with the oneness of our heart and with the vastness of our soul.

The seeker realises God on the strength of his concentration, meditation and contemplation. Concentration, meditation and contemplation live in the world of aspiration. Aspiration is the mounting flame in us that climbs high, higher, highest, trying always to reach the ever-transcending Goal. When a seeker concentrates, God the divine Warrior energises him so that he can face world-ignorance and establish God’s divine Kingdom on earth. When a seeker meditates, God the Liberator descends into his life of aspiration and grants him the capacity to liberate the world from the meshes of teeming ignorance. When a seeker contemplates, God the Supreme Beloved descends into him to love the world, serve the world and become one with the world. At that time, God becomes one with the sufferings, the excruciating pangs of the world so as to transform the very face of the world with His Love.

A seeker can also use his power of concentration, meditation and contemplation to serve God. When he concentrates, he decreases the obscure, undivine thought-waves in the world. When he meditates, he serves the world of inner reality in infinite measure. And when he contemplates, he serves the Supreme Beloved in himself, with whom he wants to establish his inseparable oneness. He is the supreme Lover and, through his contemplation, he becomes one with his Beloved Supreme. The seeker can serve God not only through his outer deeds but also through his inner silence. When one maintains deep silence, one’s divine reality radiates from within and serves mankind. A spiritual Master serves the Supreme in his disciples through his silent gaze. He does not have to speak to his disciples. He does not have to give outer instructions. No! Through his inner gaze, through his inner silence, he serves the Divine in his disciples and illumines the disciples.

A seeker has to be like a tree. A tree always serves. From the root of the tree right up to the topmost bough, it is all sacrifice. The seed, the branches, the leaves, the fruit — everything in the tree is constantly ready to serve. When a tree serves us, we do not feel that the tree is inferior to us in any way. On the contrary, we offer our gratitude to the tree. The nobility of the tree and the generosity of the tree receive our gratitude.

A seeker serves God so that he can be God’s chosen, perfect instrument. God serves His children so that they can be conscious and constant representatives of Him. The life of a seeker is the life of a server, and the life of a server is the life of a liberator of aspiring humanity.

Spiritual seekers<sup>25</sup>

Everybody wants something from life. In our case, what do we actually want here on earth? We want Infinity to breathe through us, Eternity to shine through us and Immortality to speak through us. We want Infinity, Eternity and Immortality to play their respective roles in our life of aspiration, realisation, revelation and manifestation. In this life of ours, we want to live in the Cosmic Consciousness. Finally, it is our inmost cry to become the Cosmic Consciousness itself.

In us is the essence, the quintessence, of the Krishna Consciousness, the Buddha Consciousness, the Christ Consciousness. In us is the significance of God’s Creation and God’s Existence. With us is the radiation of Life Divine. For us is the Reality’s totality and the Totality’s reality.

We have two worlds at our disposal: the inner world and the outer world. The inner world awakens us; the outer world serves us. The inner world liberates us. It makes us aware of the ego-cave, which is created by our feeling of inferiority. The inner world also makes us conscious of the ego-palace, which is founded upon our feeling of superiority. This moment our ego plays with inferiority, and the next moment it plays with superiority. Before we become fully advanced as seekers, we enjoy this game. First we enjoy ourselves by identifying with the little ego, our feeling of inferiority, and then we enjoy our big ego, our superior feeling.

The outer world makes us conscious of our divine dedication, divine devotedness and divine oneness with the world at large. While the inner world is constantly pushing us forward, the outer world is constantly pulling us forward. Lo! We are in the heart-sky of God-realisation, we are in the life-sea of God-perfection.

Unlike unaspiring people, we are freed from the clutches of earthly time. Our sorrowful, hurtful past is buried in oblivion. Also, we have freed ourselves from the illusion and delusion of the future. We do not want to bind ourselves with the tempting and deluding future. Nor do we want to be caught by our present incapacity. We want only to live in eternal Time, the eternal Now that is carrying us into our ever-transcending Goal.

As seekers, we have a loving heart that can offer all the answers for the young, hungry and angry world. The present generation finds a haven in our heart. In our expanding heart the world abides. The world receives love-life, concern-life and perfection-life in the depths of our heart.

As individual seekers, we wish to enter into our Source, to regain our Source once again. Our Source is the growing and glowing Silence. Our Source is the divine, eternal Soundlessness. How do we regain our Source? We know that the Unknown cannot be reached by something known; the Unknown can be reached only by the unknown. Our physical mind is known. Our physical mind with all its doubts, fears, anxieties and insecurities is known to us; therefore, our limited physical mind cannot take us to the Unknown. But we also have the heart. The divine potentialities and capacities of the heart are still unknown to us, so the unknown heart we can employ to reach the unknown Reality. Again, the unknowable Reality approaches us very fast when we use the heart to carry us to the Unknown. The Unknowable is the elder brother of the Unknown. When the younger brother is pleased with us, the elder brother comes on his own and loves us, blesses us and fulfils us.

It is said that life is not a dream, but a reality. But in our case, life is a divine dream. In this divine dream, reality is constantly manifesting itself. During our sleep, when we have ordinary dreams in which fear, doubt and anxiety play their respective roles, we have a disturbed and unfulfilled night. Similarly, if we are not confident in our dream-life, then the fulfilling reality cannot be found there. But as seekers we know that fear has left us, doubt has left us, anxiety and worries have left us. Our present and eternal friends are faith, courage, love, adamantine determination and the Source-Light, which is will-power.

When we want to go from the body-consciousness to the soul’s height, we fly like a bird, and this bird is called the dream-fulfilling bird. Again, when we want to come down from the soul’s height to the body’s reality, we are like a bird flying down. We call this bird the reality-manifesting dream.

Since we are seekers, we are divine lovers of God. A divine lover is a divine enjoyer of the world within and the world without. Others suffer, but we do not. We do not suffer precisely because we are not attached to the finite. We do not bind the finite, for we know that when we try to bind the finite, when we claim the finite as our very own, suffering enters into our life. That is because the finite does not last for long. When we possess a thing that is finite, it lasts for a few hours, a few days, a few months or years, and then it leaves us. Anything that leaves us creates a sense of loss, and the loss causes us to suffer. But if we get something eternal, immortal and divine, then we never lose it, and the question of suffering does not arise at all. When we get peace, light and bliss as our very own, when we embody these divine qualities consciously, soulfully and constantly, we feel that we can never lose them, for they have an eternal life. We cannot suffer, for we are one with the Infinite, the Eternal and the Immortal. We are of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. We are for Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

We are God-lovers, we are God-believers, we are God-fulfillers. Now, others challenge the God-believer in us. They say, “Where is the proof? Prove God’s existence.” We tell them that God’s existence defies all proof. God is self-existent; He needs no proof. We say to them, “In order to see and feel God’s existence, you must have the capacity of receptivity. If you do not keep your eyes open, no matter how many times I tell you that this is my arm, you will simply say that you do not see it. To see God, you have to keep your third eye open.” Now, people may also deny the existence of the third eye. But then we tell them, “You may not be aware of the third eye, but you do know that you have a heart. If you want to see and feel the Presence of God, you can open your heart-eye. Then you are bound to see God the infinite Light, eternal Bliss and immortal Life. Open your heart’s door just once and see if Somebody is entering. If you open it and leave it open, you are bound to see Somebody entering into your heart. At the very beginning, you may consider this guest a stranger, but gradually you will come to feel that He is not a stranger at all. On the contrary, you will discover that He is your eternal Companion, eternal Lover, eternal Beloved.”

If one wants to know about a doctor’s qualifications, one has at least to become a nurse. Similarly, if one wants to know about God, about aspiration, realisation, revelation and manifestation, one has to know at least the ABC of spirituality: sincerity, simplicity and purity. If one does not know the ABC of spiritual life, how will he understand the spiritual life in its highest plane of consciousness? As a nurse, in a very limited measure, can appreciate a great doctor, in the same way, a budding seeker can appreciate a spiritual Master in a limited measure. But non-believers and disbelievers do not even know what to look for in a spiritual Master. They have to learn that they can expect from a spiritual Master only those things that the Master embodies: peace, light and bliss. If they expect something else — such as scientific knowledge or political power — then they will be sadly disappointed. They are knocking at the wrong door. If one goes to a grocery, he should ask for food, and not for clothing. A non-believer or disbeliever does not want peace and bliss. He feels he does not need these qualities, and he does not seek or recognise them in a spiritual Master.

People are under the impression that a sincere seeker, a real seeker, is totally different from the rest of the world. But why? A sincere seeker is a normal human being. The only difference is that a spiritual person embodies the inner cry for truth, light and bliss, whereas an unspiritual person does not embody this cry.

Now, what is the difference between a spiritual Master and an ordinary human being? The difference is this: an ordinary human being finds it extremely difficult to believe in the existence of God all the time in his day-to-day life. For an ordinary person it is simply impossible to believe that God thinks of him and meditates on him twenty-four hours a day. But a spiritual Master knows that God is not only constantly thinking of each individual but also dreaming His Reality in and through each person. A spiritual Master eats, works and does all the other necessary things in life, but his attitude is totally different from that of an ordinary man. When he talks to an individual, he feels he is talking to the Inner Pilot, to the Supreme in that person. When he eats, he feels that he is feeding his Beloved, the Supreme. There is always something divine in his approach to reality, an everlasting divinity in his everyday activities. Just because he is a spiritual Master, this does not mean that he will have an unusual appearance. No! He is a human being, but in his inner life he embodies Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. And he offers Peace, Light and Bliss to those who are in need of these qualities.

Those who have a genuine inner cry, God will bless with the capacity of receptivity. Once they develop receptivity, God fills their inner vessel with Divinity, Eternity and Immortality.

Desire-man, aspiration-man, dream-man, reality-man<sup>26</sup>

Man is desire; man is aspiration. Man is dream; man is reality. Man desires; therefore, basically he always remains the same. Man dreams; therefore, basically he always remains the same. The desire-man and the dream-man always go together. They are two most intimate friends. The aspiration-man and the reality-man also go together and they, too, are most intimate friends. At the end of their journey, the desire-man feels that his desires have proved totally useless and the dream-man comes to realise that his dreams are all fruitless, mental hallucinations with no reality inside them. Desire-man and dream-man gain practically nothing. They develop only one thing: tears in their eyes and tears in their hearts.

Desire has no path, no map, no guide, no direction. Desire is the song of future frustration, and in frustration looms large destruction. Earth-bound dream is only a dream. There is no reality inside it. But aspiration-man avoids the desire-life, which is based on frustration. And reality-man avoids the dream-life, which is most often founded upon mental hallucination and delusion. For he knows that real divinity can never grow in the unlit, earth-bound dream-land.

Aspiration is a long road, but this road is sunlit. Each seeker who walks or runs along this road knows that at the end there is a Goal. His Supreme Beloved is there to receive him, to garland him and to fulfil him here on earth and there in Heaven.

Reality is the root of Ultimate Truth; reality is the life-tree of divine realisation. Reality is the life-river that flows into the sea of Infinity and Immortality. Aspiration becomes; reality is. Aspiration eventually becomes the Transcendental Reality, and reality always embodies Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

Desire calculates; dream hesitates. When desire calculates, the desire-man cannot start. When dream hesitates, the dream-man cannot start. Man’s hesitation and man’s calculation see that something from within or from behind is dragging them backward while they themselves are not fully prepared to go forward. But the man of aspiration and the man of reality constantly move on. When they move on, they see that they are marching forward to the farthest realm of consciousness; they are climbing upward to the zenith of illumination; they are diving inward in order to reach the inmost Goal, the Goal of Goals.

Desire binds us; aspiration liberates us. Dream tempts us; reality inspires us, aids us and leads us to our destination. Desire tells us what we can do and what we cannot do. What we can do is possess one car, two cars, one house, two houses, and so on. But what we cannot do is realise the vast, infinite, eternal Truth, for it is beyond the vision of desire to house the Infinite. Desire offers us the world of pleasure, and not the world of abiding joy. Abiding joy is far beyond the capacity of desire.

Aspiration tells us that abiding joy is our constant necessity, and that we are growing into this abiding, Transcendental Joy. What is impossible for desire to achieve or even dream of is an easy achievement for aspiration. For aspiration there is no such thing as impossibility; everything is possible at God’s choice Hour. When the Hour strikes, today’s impossibility will be transformed not only into possibility and practicability, but into absolute inevitability. This is the message of aspiration.

Earth-bound dream embodies practically no reality. It is wishful thinking that gives birth to our dream in the mental and physical worlds. This dream first fascinates us, but eventually it disappoints us. Seizing this dream is like trying to catch a bird that is flying away; it is impossible.

But there is also a divine dream, which is the precursor of reality. Inside this dream, reality grows and glows. This dream is the fruit of our self-giving. The divine dream and reality are not two different things. No! The divine dream and reality are inseparable, like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. When we look up, we enter into the divine dream-land from where reality descends, and when we look around, we see the manifestation of this dream in reality here on earth. And once the divine dream is manifested, it tries to expand its domain. It tries to dream of something higher, vaster, deeper.

God the Dreamer Supreme once dreamt of Cosmic Consciousness; He once dreamt of the entire Creation. He was one, but He was not satisfied, and He dreamt of making Himself into many. He wanted to become many so that He could taste and experience Himself in infinite forms and shapes. Easily He transforms dream into reality, for His Dream-Boat shall always reach the Reality-Shore.

We have to dream the divine dream and then grow into our dream through our inner cry, our soulful prayer and our profound meditation. Otherwise, the dream that we cherish will have no solidity. We will simply wallow in the pleasures of ignorance and lethargy, feeling that the reality will come and stand right in front of us. But personal effort is of paramount importance. Lazy people want to feel that it is not necessary. They say, “If God is really kind, if God is generous, if He is all-compassionate, then He is bound to inundate us with peace, light and bliss in infinite measure.” This is the attitude of the unaspiring human in all of us. But the divine in us, the divine within the human, tells us that we have to play our role. We have to offer to the Supreme our own capacity. Although our capacity is extremely limited, if we can offer it to the Inner Pilot, then the capacity, the reality and the divinity of the Inner Pilot have the opportunity to grow inside our aspiring heart, dedicated life and surrendered existence.

We started our journey with teeming desires. Our desires were fulfilled to some extent, but satisfaction remained a far cry. Then we entered into the life of aspiration. There we discovered that even an iota of peace, light and bliss would give us a sense of satisfaction. Now, although our Ultimate Goal is infinite peace, light and bliss, just a fraction satisfies us, for we feel certain that in the long run our inner being will be flooded with these divine qualities in abundant measure. Then one day we shall become the man of reality. The man of reality is a man of ecstasy. He is divine, perfect, supreme and immortal. This is the quality of ecstasy. When we see the quality of ecstasy, we see Infinity’s song and Infinity’s dance. The quantity of ecstasy is immeasurable; it is infinite in every possible way.

As desire-man we treasured dream, only dream. We desired, but we did not want to work for the fulfilment of our dream. Naturally the dream had nothing to offer us, because there was no inspiration, no enthusiasm, no dedicated service to water the dream-tree and make it bear fruit. But now we know there is a divine dream as well and, inside that divine dream, reality is constantly growing and flowing. When we aspire, when our life becomes consciously, constantly, spontaneously and unconditionally dedicated to the supreme Cause, to the perennial Source, we see and grow into the divine dream and the divine reality. When that happens, man becomes fully, totally and integrally realised, and God becomes universally manifested in perfect Perfection here on earth.

Yoga and faith<sup>27</sup>

Here we are all seekers. In the life of a seeker, aspiration is of paramount importance. Now, aspiration is a most complicated word for those who wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. But aspiration is something natural, normal and spontaneous for those who want to simplify their life. How can we simplify our life and, at the same time, receive God’s boundless Bounty so that ours can be a life of complete satisfaction? The answer lies in the acceptance of yoga.

Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means union, conscious union with God. There is a vast difference between conscious union with God and unconscious union with God. The seeker who practises yoga becomes consciously aware of his union with God. He constantly feels that he is of God and for God. An unaspiring person, on the other hand, does not know or care to know who his Source is or what his role should be here on earth in God’s Cosmic Game.

Yoga is love. We love God because He is all Love. We love human beings because we feel that God abides in each human being, and that we and they are sailing in the same Boat, the Boat of Love. We all have a destination, and this destination is perfect Perfection.

In India, there is a well-established path of renunciation. Aspirants who walk along this path say, Neti, neti — “Not this, not that.” What do they want from life? They want something abiding, something sempiternal. From the finite they want to go to the Infinite; from the mortal they aspire to reach the Immortal. These seekers are not satisfied with what they have or what they see around them. They want to live in the flow of the ever-transcending Beyond.

Now I wish to tell you an amusing anecdote: there were once two friends, an atheist and a believer. One day the atheist said to the believer, “Brother, I am so surprised at your renunciation. This world is full of pleasure, full of comfort, but you have renounced all of it! Just for God you have renounced all these enjoyments. You are really great.” The believer replied, “If I am great, you are infinitely greater than I am. God is infinite Love, infinite Joy, infinite Peace — not only for me, but for the entire world. Look at your capacity for renunciation! You have renounced all this merely for the enjoyment of a few fleeting, earthly pleasures. So your renunciation is far greater than mine!”

We know that there are millions of people here on earth who do not believe in the existence of God. But they do believe in something; they believe in negation. They believe that there is no God, no God whatsoever. Yet even in that ‘no’ we feel the presence of the living God. In their negation of divine Truth and Light, of God Himself, we feel an affirmation of our divine Beloved, precisely because we see in their negation the seed of faith — even if, right now, it is faith in their denial.

Now, in addition to the atheist, we have another friend, the agnostic. Our agnostic friend doubts the existence of God. He asks us, “Where is the proof? Prove God’s existence, and then I will have faith in God!” Let us just ask him one thing: “Do you believe in anything?” He is bound to reply, “Yes, I believe in my body, in my mind, in my vital.” Then we shall say, “Stay with your belief. According to our wisdom, your belief in your body is your belief in God, your belief in your mind is your belief in God, your belief in your vital is your belief in God. It may not be my God, but it is your God. I am so glad that you have faith in something.”

In this world, sooner or later, everybody feels the necessity of sincerity. Today an individual may try to fool the world, but tomorrow something within him, some inner urge, will compel him to be sincere, precisely because inside him divinity does exist. Now, a doubter has faith in his body-consciousness, but he doubts the existence of God. I tell the doubter to have faith in his body. But there will come a time when the body will tell him that it cannot constantly satisfy him. There are many things that he wants from life which the body cannot give him. Naturally he will someday go to somebody else who will be able to give him satisfaction. The body will tell him, “I have tried my best to satisfy you, but my capacity is limited. Now please go to the soul. There you are bound to see and feel satisfaction.”

The soul is the conscious representative of God, but the soul itself is not God. A child has wealth, but the source of the child’s wealth is his parents. God the Father and God the Mother are the soul’s parents. The soul, being totally illumined, tells the seeker who was formerly a doubter but who, with the grace of his own aspiring body consciousness, came to discard his doubt, “Come, I will show you my Father and my Mother. They are God the Father and God the Mother.”

Now, in the spiritual life, there is another way to approach a doubter besides telling him to believe in the body. We can say, “Instead of doubting, just give a chance to your heart. Right now you feel that the highest member of your inner family is the mind. If the mind asks you to do something, you immediately do it. On rare occasions you may revolt, but most of the time the mind is your lord. Now give your heart a chance. It is a higher member of your family.”

In order to know the reality, we have to approach it in a specific manner. If God is the Reality that we would like to experience, then we need to approach Him through faith and love. If we can develop faith, then inside this faith, divinity is bound to loom large.

Faith is for those who have consciously, soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally begun to walk along the path of Truth. Faith is of paramount importance in the life of a seeker. A seeker needs faith in his own life of aspiration and he also needs implicit faith in God.

The mother tells the child, “This is your father.” Immediately the child believes. The mother tells him, “This is the alphabet and this is the letter A.” Immediately the child believes. “This is fire,” she explains. The little child does not argue with his mother. Then, when he grows up, he understands for himself who his father is, what the alphabet is and what fire is. In the spiritual life also, we start our journey with faith and we grow with faith.

When a man of faith completes his journey, he has a special realisation. In the beginning, before his God-realisation, he thinks that he has worked very hard. He realises that his personal effort and God’s Grace go together, but he feels that his effort brought about ninety-nine per cent of the result, and God’s Grace perhaps one per cent. But when he realises God, immediately he comes to know that God’s Grace did ninety-nine per cent and his personal effort did one per cent. And then, because he knows what God’s Compassion and infinite Bounty did for him as a seeker, he comes to realise that even the one per cent of his own aspiration and progress was the result of God’s Grace. In his immediate family he sees that there are individuals who are still wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. How is it that he is fully awakened? It is the Grace of God operating in and through him that has made him realise God while others are still fast asleep.

There is a false yoga and there is a true yoga. One reason that many people are reluctant to accept yoga is that they have misconceptions about it. False yoga will tell us we have to enter into the Himalayan caves in order to realise God. False yoga will tell us that God-realisation can be achieved overnight. False yoga will tell us that if we offer millions of dollars to a particular spiritual Master, he will grant us God-realisation immediately. False yoga will tell us that we have to renounce everything — everything that we have and everything that we are.

True yoga will tell us that we do not have to go to the Himalayan caves in order to realise God. We will be able to realise God wherever we are, for God is realised in the heart. The heart is not only the best place for God-realisation, but the only place. True yoga will say that God-realisation cannot be attained in the twinkling of an eye; it is a long, arduous process. True yoga will say that we do not have to renounce anything; we have only to transform. If we have night within us, we shall transform this night into Light. Many people are frightened to death when the idea of renunciation enters into their mind. But I wish to say that the people who are afraid of renunciation are bound to discover one day that there is no such thing as renunciation; there is only the transformation of ignorance into knowledge, of darkness into light, of earth-bound frustration into Heaven-free Delight.

In order to get a Master’s Degree, which gives us only earthly knowledge, earthly wisdom, we have to study right from childhood for perhaps twenty years. Now, God-realisation is also a subject. When we realise God, what we achieve is Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure in our inner being. At that time, we are not dealing with limited knowledge, but with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Naturally it will take us many years, many incarnations to reach this supreme Goal.

When God wants to expedite our progress, He becomes the ever-compassionate Father and brings into our life a spiritual Master. When we first hear of a spiritual Master, immediately our human ego comes to the fore. “Why do I need a teacher?” it asks. “Can I not be my own teacher?” Now, this ego is ignorance. To learn something we always need a teacher. We can go to a bookstore and buy the texts that are studied in school, and we can study at home alone. But when we read these books without the help of a teacher, we are at times confused. We may feel that what we are learning is untrue or incorrect. So we go to a teacher for expert help and proper guidance. He convinces us of the truth of what we learn. In the spiritual life also, a teacher is of paramount importance. It is true that the first person on earth who realised God had no human Guru. But we know that from time immemorial, all spiritual Masters have taken help from their predecessors.

Today we are students, but we will not remain students forever; someday we ourselves will be teachers. We shall realise the Truth as our Master has already done. If we are wise, we want to expedite our spiritual journey. We feel that time is a great factor. If we can achieve something today, we shall not wait for tomorrow. To go from New York to Canada, I chose to travel by aeroplane rather than car, because the aeroplane is much faster. After an hour’s flight, I touched down on Canadian soil. Right after my arrival I started my journey, and I have been able to serve the Canadians according to my capacity in many cities during my two-week stay. In the spiritual life, we feel that speed is of tremendous importance.

The first and foremost Goal for us right now is the realisation of Truth. Let us forget about the word ‘God’. It often creates tremendous problems for us. But if we are very sincere, we cry for Truth. There is nobody who will deny the existence of Truth. We want to be sincere, and the proof of our sincerity is that we want to see the face of Truth. First we see the face of Truth, then we try to reveal the face of Truth and finally we try to manifest the face of Truth. The sooner we can attain to this Truth, the better, for the realisation of Truth is not the end of our spiritual journey. Revelation and manifestation are necessary. Only when we can manifest the Truth will satisfaction dawn in our life.

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madhumat punarayanam

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Sweet be my return.

Love and serve<sup>28</sup>

Inspiration has many, many friends. Of all its friends, aspiration is by far the best. Illumination has many, many friends. Of all its friends, perfection is by far the best. Aspiration is our heart’s inner cry. Illumination is our life’s outer smile. The inner cry climbs high, higher, highest and tries to become devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally one with the ever-transcending Reality. The outer smile spreads all around and tries to manifest Divinity, Eternity, Infinity and Immortality.

A true seeker is he who continually wants to grow, glow and flow in the Heart of the Absolute Supreme. He loves God and serves God not because God is all powerful but because God is all goodness. He loves God because he knows that without God he does not exist. He serves God because he feels that without him, God does not exist.

At every moment, a true seeker has to love God and serve God with a pure heart and a clear mind. A heart of purity and a mind of clarity each seeker must possess in order to accelerate his inner progress and outer success.

A true seeker offers to God what he has and what he is. What he has, is ignorance. What he is, is a gratitude-heart. When he offers his gratitude-heart, he becomes a chosen instrument of the Supreme. A chosen instrument at times pleases God in his own way; at other times he pleases God in God’s own Way. There comes a time when the chosen instrument is transformed into an unconditionally surrendered instrument. An unconditionally surrendered instrument of God pleases God at every moment in God’s own Way.

There are two worlds: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. In the aspiration-world, there are three things that we have to discover: divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender. Today’s human love is tomorrow’s frustration and the day after tomorrow’s destruction. Divine love is today’s illumination, tomorrow’s perfection and the day after tomorrow’s satisfaction, complete and perfect. Human devotion is nothing short of unconscious, unrecognised attachment. Divine devotion is conscious, spontaneous and continuous dedication to one’s own higher existence-reality. Human surrender is the surrender of a slave, a forced surrender. Divine surrender is totally different. In divine surrender, the finite recognises and accepts the Infinite as its very own. The drop enters into the ocean and becomes the ocean itself. In divine surrender the unlit, the obscure and the impure part of us enters into the illumined and illumining portion of our existence. Our ignorance-world enters into our wisdom-world; the little “i” merges into the infinite “I,” which is the Universal and Transcendental Consciousness.

Before we enter into the aspiration-world, we remain in the desire-world. When we live in the desire-world, greatness is of paramount importance to us. Even when we first enter into the aspiration-life, in the beginning the message of greatness at times looms large. But the real message of the aspiration-world is goodness. Desire cries for greatness; aspiration cries for goodness.

Greatness has two standards of existence: a higher and a lower. He who is great consciously or unconsciously wants to remain an inch higher than the rest of the world. But he who is good wants to remain consciously, soulfully and devotedly one with all human beings to love and serve the Supreme in them. In this feeling of oneness, perfection dawns and, in perfection, what looms large is Eternity’s Satisfaction.

Julius Caesar declared: Veni, vidi, vici — “I came, I saw, I conquered.” This is the height of the greatness-world. But the height of the goodness-world is totally different. It comes from the inmost recesses of the seeker’s oneness-heart and declares: “I came into the world, I loved the world, I became one with the world.”

This expresses a real acceptance of life, not a rejection of life. True spirituality is the acceptance of earth-life. A true seeker is he who accepts life, transforms life and perfects life so that the earth-life can become a conscious instrument of God. Earth-life is constant thirst, constant hunger. This hunger is the soul’s eternal hunger to become inseparably one with the Highest, and then to manifest the Highest here on earth. True spirituality advocates both God-acceptance and life-acceptance. In true spirituality, the seeker first tries to realise God and then to manifest Him in and through his own life.

When the seeker is on the verge of realisation, he sees goodness within and goodness without. On the strength of his goodness, he feels a true and abiding satisfaction. But God-realisation cannot be achieved overnight. It is not like making instant tea or coffee. True spirituality is a slow and steady process. Slow and steady wins the inner race. Gradually the seeker makes inner and outer progress. In true spirituality, this progress offers the seeker at every moment a sense of satisfaction, and satisfaction alone can immortalise him. In the beginning of his spiritual life, the seeker finds success. This success inspires him; therefore, he makes friends with it. But the same seeker, when he is advanced, feels only the necessity of progress; for success is a short-lived experience, whereas progress is continually carrying him into the everlasting and ever-transcending Beyond.

Imagination, inspiration, aspiration and realisation<sup>29</sup>

The poet imagines. The singer inspires. The seeker aspires. The lover realises. The poet here is the seer-poet who envisions the realities of the world beyond. The singer here is the divine singer who has a free access to the world of celestial music. He is in tune with the music that elevates the consciousness of humanity. The seeker here is he who has freed himself from the desire-world, from the meshes of ignorance. He wants only the truth and nothing else. The lover here is a God-lover. Here on earth and there in Heaven he loves only God. Each creation of God he takes as the living manifestation of God. In each creation he sees and feels God’s Silence-Vision and God’s sound-reality.

Imagination says to inspiration, “I have discovered something great: God is great.”

Inspiration says to imagination, “I fully agree with you. Your discovery and my discovery are the same. And you are speaking, I am sure, on the strength of your own personal experience, for I have had the same experience: God is great.”

At this point, aspiration says to imagination and inspiration, “Friends, you two are right. I wish to add only one thing: God acts ceaselessly and compassionately.”

Then realisation comes into the picture and says, “Friends, you three are perfectly right. Only allow me to add something more: God gives us everything unreservedly and unconditionally, but we receive according to our receptivity.”

Imagination is not mental hallucination. Inspiration is not self-deception. Aspiration is not earth-negation. Realisation is not Heaven-glorification.

Imagination is not mental hallucination; it is the reality that grows and glows in our physical mind at God’s choice Hour. Imagination has a world of its own. From there, the reality descends into our physical mind, our earth-bound mind.

Inspiration is not self-deception; inside inspiration abides and looms large the reality of our own existence. Inspiration carries us to the farthest Beyond, to the highest Heights, to the Universal Depths. It has the capacity to embody the Transcendental Height and also to measure the Universal Depth.

Aspiration is not earth-negation; aspiration is earth-acceptance. Earth is God’s Creation. If we accept God as our very own, we cannot separate earth from His Existence. God is everywhere in a greater or lesser degree. A true seeker is he who sees God not only in the highest plane of consciousness but also in the lowest, unlit plane of consciousness. The seeker enters into the lowest in order to bring down the Reality-Light of the Highest so that he can transform the lowest into the Highest. The seeker accepts earth as a reality and in this reality, through this reality, the seeker knows that God-Vision manifests itself.

Realisation is not Heaven-glorification. Some people think that if someone realises God, he will all the time talk about Heaven-Realities, for he alone knows what is happening in Heaven. Since he is an authority on Heaven, he will try to glorify the Realities that exist in Heaven. But, on the contrary, a realised soul is he who feels that it is his bounden duty to spend most of his time starving with humanity’s hunger, crying with humanity’s pangs and smiling with humanity’s joy. To serve God in humanity, to bring to the fore the divine Light that humanity embodies, is his soul’s primary task. Here on earth he has to fulfil God’s Dream. For him, not Heaven but earth is the Reality Supreme.

Imagination knows no obstruction. Inspiration knows no hesitation. Aspiration knows no test. Realisation knows no rest.

Imagination knows no obstruction. It runs, it flies, it dives. There is nothing here on earth that can remain a distant impossibility to imagination. Imagination has a free access to all of God’s Reality.

Inspiration knows no hesitation. Once the divine in us is inspired, there is no delay, no hesitation whatsoever. It runs the fastest towards the destination.

Aspiration knows no test. Some people are of the opinion that God examines our aspiration, but this is absurd. God knows what we have and what we are. He never examines us. It is we who examine ourselves, for we are not sure of our own capacity, of our own reality or achievement. Also, we examine ourselves because we want to prove to God and to humanity our worth and value, and see whether we are fit to stand against teeming ignorance-night.

Realisation knows no rest. It would be a deplorable mistake to come to the conclusion that once we have achieved realisation, then for us it is the journey’s close. No, realisation is preparatory to revelation, and revelation is preparatory to manifestation. Manifestation is preparatory to perfection, and perfection is the song of eternal transcendence. Perfection is not and cannot be a finished product. Perfection is continuously in the process of transcending its own height. Again, today’s realisation has to be the beginning of tomorrow’s new aspiration. As a matter of fact, inside realisation, revelation, manifestation and perfection there is always aspiration.

Imagination, inspiration, aspiration and realisation are all divine qualities, but aspiration preponderates. It has the strongest capacity to lift everything that it sees around or within, to lift it up to the ever-transcending Beyond. This is what our aspiration can do and always does. The divine child in us is imagination. His very being is surcharged with imagination. The divine deer in us is inspiration. The deer symbolises speed, which inspiration has in abundant measure. The divine bird in us is aspiration. This bird flies and flies to the farthest Beyond. It embodies the flaming inner cry that has to reach the Highest, the Absolute, the farthest Beyond.

Imagination, inspiration and aspiration eventually grant us realisation. Realisation is the perfection of our inner nature and our conscious surrender to God’s cosmic Will. At every moment a realised soul feels his conscious and constant oneness with the Will of the Absolute Supreme. Inside himself he sees a swan. This swan symbolises realisation. It is the swan of wisdom-light, the swan of victory-height and the swan of nectar-delight.

Usually, imagination is in the mind, inspiration is in the dynamic vital, aspiration is in the crying, loving heart and realisation is in the entire being. When we have imagination, we feel that we can do everything; it is only a matter of time. At God’s choice Hour we shall be able to accomplish everything that we want to accomplish. When we have inspiration, we feel that everything can be done, for that is what our adamantine will wants to do for us. When we have aspiration, we feel that God is going to do everything for us, for we are helpless, we are hopeless, we are useless; yet we are still His loving children. Therefore, out of His infinite Bounty, He will do everything for us. Finally, when we have realisation, we clearly see in unmistakable terms that God has already done everything for us. There is nothing that we have to accomplish; everything has been done for us by God Himself. Now we only have to share in His infinite Wisdom-Light.

Warriors of the inner world<sup>30</sup>

Simplicity shortens the road that leads to God-discovery. Sincerity expedites the journey. Purity feeds the seeker and the journey together. Aspiration loves the journey. Dedication enjoys the journey. And surrender completes the journey.

Simplicity is a very simple word, but it embodies tremendous power. When we enter into the spiritual life, we value this most significant achievement. We have countless desires. But from our list, if we can take out one desire, then to that extent our life becomes simple. When it becomes simple, an iota of peace dawns in our mental firmament. Each time we become simple, simpler, simplest, our desire-life becomes short, shorter, shortest. Then we enjoy peace of mind; we enjoy light and delight.

Sincerity is our peerless achievement. If we can become sincere, then we can run the fastest in our spiritual life. When we make friends with insincerity, at every moment we have to justify our insincere life. Once we tell a lie, we have to tell twenty more lies in order to justify that particular lie. And each time we tell a lie, we add a heavy burden to our shoulders. How can we run the fastest when there is a heavy load on our shoulders? But when we are sincere, we accelerate our progress; we run the fastest like a deer.

Purity is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. Purity means the power of receptivity. When our heart is inundated with purity, we feel that our inner receptacle has become large, larger, largest. Peace, light and bliss enter into that vessel from Above. And inside the vessel we see our divine qualities sporting, dancing and fulfilling their reality’s light and delight. Purity is receptivity’s capacity. Purity is the same thing as capacity’s receptivity. When we are pure, immediately our self-expansion, our divine reality, looms large.

Aspiration, dedication and surrender. Aspiration is our journey’s start. Aspiration is the flow of our journey, the continuous, endless journey itself. Aspiration is an inner cry. This cry liberates us from the meshes of ignorance. This cry eventually makes us one with the Eternal, the Infinite and the Immortal. When we aspire, we feel that deep within us there is a higher Reality which we unfortunately right now cannot claim as our very own. But there comes a time when, on the strength of our own aspiration, we can claim this Reality — our own Reality, our highest, supernal Reality — as our own, very own. Each time we aspire, we bring to the fore our own hidden, divine, immortal Reality.

Dedication. When we dedicate ourselves to a cause, we expand our own reality-existence. This dedication is not done under any compulsion. Responsibility has not been thrust upon us. It is we who want to expand our reality, so we adopt the right approach and try to expand ourselves through dedication. One becomes many: again, many become one. As an individual, when we dedicate ourselves devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally, we grow into the many. And when we do this as a collective body, we become one. So it is through dedication that we become many and that we become one. When we become one, we fulfil God as Infinity’s Silence, birthless and deathless Silence. When we become many, we fulfil God as the eternal, infinite Sound, birthless and deathless Sound. Finally, we fulfil God the soundless Sound.

Surrender. Surrender completes the journey. This surrender is our conscious awareness of our highest Reality. It is not the surrender of a slave; it is the surrender of the finite in us to the infinite in us. The unlit, obscure, impure existence of ours is making surrender to the illumined, pure and perfect existence of our own Reality-Height. We are not surrendering to a second or third person. We are surrendering to the divine within us, to the Infinite within us, to the Immortal within us. Surrender here is our conscious and constant expansion, illumination, liberation and perfection. Each time we surrender our earth-bound existence to our Heaven-free life, we enjoy Nectar, divine Bliss.

When a seeker establishes his body’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Supreme, he becomes the simplicity-warrior. When a seeker establishes his mind’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Supreme, he becomes the sincerity-warrior. When the seeker establishes his vital’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Supreme, he becomes the purity-warrior. When the seeker establishes his heart’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Supreme, he becomes the aspiration-warrior. The same seeker, in the course of time, when he establishes his life’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Supreme, becomes the dedication-warrior. Finally, when the seeker consciously, devotedly, untiringly, unreservedly and unconditionally establishes his soul’s reality-oneness with the Will of the Absolute Supreme, he becomes the surrender-warrior.

As there are many divine warriors of the inner world, even so, there are many undivine warriors of the inner world. The main undivine warriors are insecurity, fear, doubt, lethargy, disobedience and indulgence.

Insecurity starts in the mind, but the mind is not aware of insecurity at the beginning. From the mind it enters into the vital and finally it comes to the physical consciousness. At that time, we are fully aware of the presence of insecurity. Insecurity is a poisonous disease. If we do not get rid of it, this poison spreads and destroys the whole system eventually.

Fear is worse. Fear of the unknown, not to speak of fear of the unknowable, is a fatal disease within the seeker’s life. The seeker is afraid of everything that is not in his domain, of anything of which he is not aware. He fears others, he fears the unknown, he fears the Vast; finally he becomes afraid of himself. Suppose he has a knife. When he looks at his knife, fear enters into his mind. He feels that at any moment this knife can cause an accident in his life. He enters into the kitchen. There is a stove, and he uses it at his sweet will. But even when the stove is not on, he is afraid it may catch fire. At every moment he is afraid of his own possessions, not to speak of others’ achievements or realities. When he is afraid of himself, he loses badly, miserably, in the battlefield of life. Fear is a fatal disease.

Then comes doubt. When the seeker treasures doubt with a view to judging others, he digs his own grave. Each time he doubts someone, he digs his grave. If we judge others with our unlit human mind, with the intellectual mind, with the sophisticated mind, the persons whom we judge do not lose an iota of their achievement, of their reality. But we lose. How do we lose? When we start doubting others, we offer something of our own existence to the outer world; something of our own reality goes and eventually we become very weak.

Doubt is the almost incurable disease in us. When we doubt others, we feel that we are now sitting on a high pedestal and, at the same time, we are on a safe footing. But this is a deplorable mistake. We cannot judge others. We do not know their heights; we do not know their depths. We do not know what is actually happening in others. It is the cosmic Will that is operating in and through each and every individual. So we are in no position to judge others. Each one is guided, moulded, shaped and prepared by the Will of the unseen Hand.

First we doubt someone and immediately afterwards we try to see whether we are correct in doubting that person. Then we begin to judge and doubt ourselves. When we doubt ourselves, we lose everything. So we should follow the path of faith. Faith is the commander in us. Faith tells us of the existence of Reality and Truth in us, for us. Then faith tells us that we not only embody the Truth, Eternal Truth, Infinite Truth, but as a matter of fact we are this Transcendental Truth, this Universal Truth ourselves. Right now we are not aware of it precisely because we have made friends with ignorance.

Then comes lethargy. When the Hour of God strikes, if we do not respond, then we cannot start our journey. The road is long, very long. When the Hour strikes, owing to lethargy, if we do not respond to the call of the Hour, we unconsciously lengthen our road. The mind becomes totally immersed in ignorance and feels the road is longer than the longest. When the Hour strikes, if we do not respond, then the road is bound to become longer than it was before. So those who wallow in the pleasure of lethargy will have to walk along the road that never ends.

Disobedience is the worst weakness in the seeker’s life. A seeker may listen to the inner dictates quite often. But if one day he disobeys the inner command, then he is bound to notice a hole in the life-boat which is destined to take him to the Golden Shore of the Beyond. His life-boat has sprung a leak. Gradually the hole will become large, larger, largest, and his spiritual boat will capsize and sink. But if he is obedient, then his life-boat will sail fast, faster, fastest towards the Destined Goal, the Goal of the highest, ever-transcending Beyond.

The last undivine force or warrior is indulgence. When we enter into the world of indulgence, we run backward and enter into the animal kingdom. We believe in evolution. From the stone world we came to the plant world. From the plant world we came to the animal world. From the animal world we came to the human world. Now we have to go to the divine world. But if we enter into the world of indulgence, then instead of running forward we run backward. And each time we run backward, we again make friends with our old friend doubt.

A spiritual seeker has to be aware of these undivine forces: insecurity, fear, doubt, lethargy, disobedience and indulgence. The divine warriors have only one thing to tell us: accept light and reject night. Acceptance of light is the only thing that is needed. Night is the ignorance within us. Ignorance-night binds our body, blinds our eyes, stabs our heart. Ignorance-night represents the undivine warriors of insecurity, fear, doubt, lethargy, disobedience and indulgence. When we are attacked by these undivine warriors, the divine warriors come to our rescue and offer us perfection-light. As the representative of the Supreme, this perfection-light first liberates us, then illumines us and grants us vision. It grants vision to our eyes and then immortalises our heart. This is what perfection-light does for us.

There are divine warriors of the outer world as well as of the inner world. The outer warriors are our divine personality and divine individuality, which say, “I am of God and I am for God.” The inner warriors do not fight outwardly. They become one with God’s Will and, in this way, feel that they are establishing God the eternal Truth and Light in the inner world. The outer warriors feel that they have to fight. The hero-warriors fight for God’s Victory on earth at every moment in the outer world.

The outer hero-warriors want to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. They want to see the Infinite in the finite. But the inner hero-warriors see that Infinity is already there in the finite. They see that the finite does not have the eye to see the Infinite, whereas the Infinite can envision its own presence in the finite itself. The inner warriors are aware of what they eternally are, whereas the outer warriors are not aware of what they eternally are. Therefore, they do something in order to become. By doing something, the outer warriors want to become. The inner warriors feel that they do not have to become: they already are.

But there comes a time when the inner and outer warriors become one, inseparably one. The inner warriors bring to the outer warriors the message of realisation: realisation of the infinite Truth, eternal Light and immortal Delight. And the outer warriors try to manifest the divine realities, the divine treasures, that are offered to them by the inner warriors. The inner warriors bring these realities to the earth-arena. The outer warriors manifest these realities in the earth-arena. In this way both the inner warriors and the outer warriors complete the Cosmic Lila, the divine Game.

God the universal beauty<sup>31</sup>

Who was I? I was God’s birthless and deathless Vision-Light. Who am I? I am God’s earth-ascending aspiration-cry. Who will I be? I will be God’s Heaven- descending manifestation-delight.

When I occasionally think of God, He says to me: “My son, you have to cover the length and breadth of My entire Creation walking all by yourself.”

When I soulfully pray to God, He says to me: “My son, My son, I am waiting for you. I am expecting you in the blue of My Infinity’s Sky.”

When I silently meditate on God in the inmost recesses of my heart, He says to me: “My son, My son, My son, your fond invitation-hospitality I am accepting with immense Joy.”

My soul unconditionally loves my Lord Beloved Supreme. My heart faithfully loves my Lord Beloved Supreme. My mind cautiously loves my Lord Beloved Supreme. My vital dramatically loves my Lord Beloved Supreme. My body fearfully loves my Lord Beloved Supreme. And I love my Lord Beloved Supreme secretly, breathlessly, openly and sleeplessly. Secretly and breathlessly I love my Lord Beloved Supreme in His Eternal Duty. Openly and sleeplessly I love my Lord Beloved Supreme in His Universal Beauty.

Poetry the winner<sup>32</sup>

They say a poet is born and not made — not true, not true, not true. I am an eye-witness. Many supreme poets at the dawn of their poetry-adventure were nothing but pathetic. Again, there are many late-bloomer poets. We do not know how and when God’s Compassion-Eye descends on them.

True, poetry and poverty are good friends, but poverty has its own joy. To feel that joy, we needs must have a different heart-breath. That heart-breath only a poet can claim. At times, the outer poverty can be an illumining expression of an inner purity.

Poetry and invisibility are dear friends. Poetry and invisibility are great admirers. Poetry and invisibility are perfect oneness-heart-flyers, divers and runners.

When a poet sits in deep contemplation, who can say to which realm his thoughts are winging? Lord Byron jests, “Poetry should only occupy the idle.” But the idle moments of his own life were not spent uselessly. Even in idleness, the inspiration-promise of dynamism can burst forth. In “Don Juan”, for example, Byron writes:

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And Marathon looks on the sea;

I dream’d that Greece might still be free.

When the present mind enters into the bosom of the past, we tend to glorify the past, but when the present is with us, we treat the present either in a humorous vein or in a contemptuous vein:

> A poet in history is divine, but a poet in the next room is a joke. – Max Eastman

Indeed, inside each human being there is a poet. I fully concur with Joubert:

> You will find poetry nowhere, unless you bring some with you.

We must have a subtle poetic touch of our own to appreciate and admire poetry.

Poetry and truth are inextricably linked. The Sanskrit word for poet is kavi. Kavi means ‘he who envisions’. What does he envision? He envisions the truth in its seed-form. Once more I wish to invoke Joubert. His sublime realisation is: “You arrive at the truth through poetry; I arrive at poetry through truth.”

I have been a poet all my life and I have been a dreamer of truth as well. Inside my heart I feel that these two players — the poet and the dreamer — are at once interchangeable and inseparable. That is why I wrote many years ago, at the dawn of my poetry-journey:

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Arise, awake, O breath of my life.

O seer-poet in me,

And through me.

What is my poetry and what do I actually expect from my poetry?

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You are the lotus of my heart.

Nectar-Light from Heaven.

With the river of sorrow

May your magic touch

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Each time you pick a daffodil

Or touch a leaf or see a tree,

‘This is Me.’

Something of tremendous importance in my life I wish to share with you. I cannot help reproducing a few momentous words from India’s greatest poet Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Fruit Gathering:

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You gave me only voice, yet asked for more, and I sing.

Being both a prose-mind-writer and a poetry-heart-writer, I have made a supreme discovery in my own life: every time there is a competitive race between my prose-mind and my poetry-heart to arrive at God’s Golden Palace, my poetry-heart invariably wins. How and why? Because, unlike my prose-mind, my poetry-heart sees invisibility’s reality-existence-life.

Creativity: The amalgam of sorrows and joys³³

The mind is a creativity. So also is a thought.

The thought says to the mind, “You I am.”

The heart is a creativity. So also is love.

Love says to the heart, “You I am.”

The soul is a creativity. So also is life.

Life says to the soul, “You I am.”

The learning of the mind is a creativity, an expanding creativity.

The becoming of life is a creativity, a manifesting creativity.

Art is Eternity’s cry.

Art is Immortality’s delight.

Music is not the mind’s creativity-noise.

Poetry is not an earthly chimera’s mist-creativity.

Art and God sleeplessly talk together.

Poetry and God unceasingly look at each other.

My life is God’s creation.

My streaming tears are my heart-creations.

The inner creation is the source.

The inner creation is indispensable.

My aspiration-heart’s inner creation is God-exploration-delight.

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My creativity-boat plies between my desire-earth-tears and my aspiration-Heaven-smiles.

On a lighter note, only an English conductor perhaps can dare to declare: “The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes!”

Being an Indian, I feel I have the legitimate audacity to declare: the Indian music of yore touches, illumines and fulfils my very earth-existence. The modern—with an ultra-modern touch—Indian music chases me into the land of nowhere!

From the spiritual point of view, creativity is the beauty of God-revelation and the fragrance of God-manifestation. Creativity is multiplicity’s bloom in unity’s blossom. In the outer world, creativity is the light of individuality. In the inner world, creativity is the delight of universality.

No matter how sublime the creativity is, the creator of it is not indispensable. If he comes to realise that, only then will he have peace of mind and abiding satisfaction.

Finally, I wish to invoke the most celebrated of the ancient Greek mathematicians—Archimedes. “Eureka! I have found it,” was his discovery-cry.

O aspiring world, Him I have found, my Lord Supreme, in the aspiration-beauty and dedication-fragrance of my art, music and poetry.

Part IV — England

Is death the end?<sup>34</sup>

Death is the road. Life is the traveller. The soul is the guide.

When the traveller is tired and exhausted, the guide instructs the traveller to take either a short or a long rest, and then the traveller’s journey begins again.

In the spiritual life, when an aspirant does not cry for a higher light, bliss and power, it is the birth of his death.

In the ordinary life, when an unaspiring man wallows in the mire of ignorance, it is the real victory of death.

What can we learn from the inner life which desires the extinction of death? The inner life tells us that life is soulfully precious, that time is fruitfully precious.

Life without the aspiration of time is meaningless.

Time without the aspiration of life is useless.

Our mind thinks of death. Our heart thinks of life. Our soul thinks of Immortality. Mind and death can be transcended. Heart and life can be expanded. Soul and Immortality can be fulfilled.

When the mind and death are transcended, man will have a new home: Light, the Light of the Beyond.

When the soul and Immortality are fulfilled, man will have a new Goal: Delight, the Transcendental Delight.

Today man feels that death is an unavoidable necessity.

Tomorrow man will feel that Immortality is an unmistakable reality.

Unfortunately, most of us cherish wrong conceptions of death. We think death is something unusual, something destructive. But we have to know that right now death is something natural, normal and, to some extent, inevitable.

Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “O Arjuna, certain is death for the born and certain is birth for the dead. Therefore, what is inevitable ought not be a cause for thy sorrow.”

The Chandogya Upanishad tells us something significant: “When the hour of death approaches [that is to say, in the final hour], what should we do? We should take refuge in three sublime thoughts: we are indestructible; we can never be shaken; we are the very essence of life.”

When the hour of death approaches us, if we feel that we can never be destroyed, that nothing can shake us and that we are the very essence of life, then where is sorrow, where is fear, where is death? No death.

Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna, said something very significant. She said, “The difference between a spiritual man and an ordinary man is very simple. Easily you can know the difference between the two. An ordinary man cries and sheds bitter tears when death approaches him; whereas, a spiritual man, if he is really spiritual, will laugh and laugh when death approaches him, for to him death is fun, nothing else.”

Here we have to say that a spiritual man enters into the Cosmic Game; he becomes a conscious instrument of the Cosmic Game. That is why he knows that death is not an extinction. It is only a short or a long rest.

Again and again, we shall have to come back into the world. We have to work for God, here on earth. There is no escape. We have to realise the Highest here on earth. We have to fulfil the Highest on earth. God will not allow us to waste or squander the potentialities and possibilities of the soul. Impossible.

Kipling’s immortal utterance runs,

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As long as the red Earth rolls.

Do you think He would squander souls?

Each incarnation is leading us towards a higher life, a better life. We are in the process of evolution. Each incarnation is a rung in the ladder of evolution. Man is progressing consciously and unconsciously. But if he makes progress in each incarnation consciously, then he is expediting his spiritual progress. Realisation will take place much sooner for him than for those who are making progress unconsciously.

We know that we started our journey from the mineral life, and then entered into the plant life. Then we entered into the animal kingdom. From there we have come into the human world. But here is not the end. We have to grow into divine beings. Unless and until we have become divinised and transformed, God will not be satisfied with us. He can manifest in us and through us only when we are totally transformed and fully illumined. So when we think of our evolution— inner evolution and outer evolution—we get abundant joy. We lose nothing, nothing, in the so-called death.

Jalalu’d-din Rumi most beautifully and soulfully tells us about evolution:

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A plant I died and rose an animal;

Why should I fear? What have I lost by death?

What is death after all? Death is a sleeping child. And what is life? Life is a child that is playing, singing and dancing at every moment before the Father.

Death is the sleeping child inside the heart of the Inner Pilot. Life is inspiration. Life is aspiration. Life is realisation. Life is not the reasoning mind. Life is not the intellectual mind. Life is not a game of frustration. No. Life is the message of divinity on earth. Life is God’s conscious channel to fulfil divinity in humanity on earth.

There is much truth in Confucius’ saying, “We do not know life. How can we know death?”

Now I wish to say that we can know life. If we realise life as God’s embodiment of Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss, then we know what life truly is, and recognise death as nothing but a rest, one necessary at the present stage of evolution.

There will come a time when rest will not be necessary at all. Only Life will reign supreme—the Life of the Beyond, the Life of the ever-transcending Beyond. This Life is not and cannot be the sole monopoly of an individual, no. Each human being is to be flooded with this Life of the ever-transcending Beyond, for it is here in this Life Divine that God will manifest Himself unreservedly—here, here on earth.

The end of all knowledge<sup>35</sup>

Aum

purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate

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From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence.

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Here at this point, the Son of God tells us, “I and my Father are one.” On the strength of his highest realisation and inseparable oneness with his Father, he says, “I and my Father are one.”

God-Knowledge tells us not only that God is within us and for us, but also that each human being is of Him. Finally, this God-Knowledge tells us that each human being has to become God himself.

/Brahmasmi... “I am the Brahman. I am God.” This is what we have learnt from the Vedic Seers of yore. The Vedic Seers realised the Supreme Truth and then offered the Supreme Truth to mankind. Today’s man—today’s unrealised, unfulfilled man — is tomorrow’s realised and fulfilled God.

The end of human knowledge is the beginning of divine knowledge. Divine knowledge and human ignorance: these are two things we see in our day-to-day life. Divine knowledge is an illumining, fulfilling and immortalising power. Human ignorance is a mad elephant, a destructive power. Divine knowledge is the very birth of Immortality. Human ignorance is the song of death.

I am sure most of you are well acquainted with our Upanishads. There is an Upanishad named Kanshitaki Upanishad. Unfortunately, this Upanishad is not well known. This Upanishad, which offers a sublime knowledge, says:

> Speech is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the speaker… The deed is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the doer... Mind is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the thinker.

Here at this point, I wish to say that, from the spiritual point of view, peace, light, bliss and power are not what one should desire to understand. Rather, one should seek to know the One who embodies Peace, Light, Bliss and Power. It is He who can bring to the fore these divine qualities in sincere, aspiring souls. It is He who has the capacity to inspire the seekers. At the same time, it is He who is of considerable help in awakening the slumbering consciousness of human souls. And finally, it is He who expedites the seeker’s journey.

The end of all knowledge is self-knowledge. You are all familiar with the expression ‘Know thyself’. The Sanskrit term for it is Atmanam viddhi. How can we know ourselves? We have to know ourselves by accepting help from someone who already knows himself. He is our teacher. He is more like our private tutor than a schoolteacher. A schoolteacher is entitled to examine us, to pass or fail us, but this private tutor helps us to pass the examination well. He wholeheartedly teaches us. So a spiritual Teacher is a private tutor and not a schoolteacher.

Self-knowledge is self-discovery, and in self-discovery we feel the conquest of our own self. Self-discovery, God-knowledge and self-conquest — these are one and the same.

The Welsh Triad says, “There are three kinds of men: man in man, who does good for good and evil for evil; man in God, who does good for evil; and man in the devil, who does evil for good.” In our spiritual life, we have one more category: the man of God, the messenger of God, the representative of God, the channel of God, the instrument of God. This instrument of God constantly feels that he is not the doer; he is a mere instrument.

Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song Celestial, tells his dearest friend and disciple, Arjuna, Nimitta matram bhava savyasachin — “Become a mere instrument.” So the man of God feels in the inmost recesses of his heart that he is a mere instrument. He works for God, he lives for God. He feels that God-realisation is not enough. He feels that God-manifestation here on earth is of paramount importance.

Many have realised the Highest, the Transcendental Truth. But there are few who cry for the perfection of humanity. There are very few who try to change the face of the world. The chosen instruments of God want to manifest God here on earth. They do not care much for earthly good or evil. They transcend the so-called good and evil. They care only for God’s inner Dictates. Constantly they listen to the Dictates of their Inner Pilot and then, on the strength of their oneness, inseparable oneness with their Inner Pilot, they offer their selfless, dedicated service to humanity. They try to offer knowledge, divine knowledge, to aspiring humanity. Again, they tell humanity that God-realisation is not their sole monopoly.

Everybody has to realise God, the Transcendental Truth. Everybody is destined to realise the highest Truth, but he who cries for the inner light will naturally reach the Goal sooner than the one who is still fast asleep.

The great Saviour has taught us, “No man can serve two masters.” Here we have two masters: ignorance and knowledge. Now, if we want to wallow in the pleasures and mire of ignorance, we are serving ignorance the master. Again, it is we who have the opportunity to serve the other master, knowledge, the light. If we aspire, then our master is knowledge and knowledge-light. If we want to serve our master, knowledge-light, then the message of realisation, the message of perfection can never remain a far cry.

The immortal poet, George Eliot sings, “Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.”

From the spiritual point of view, what do we learn from this soulful message? We come to learn that we have been victims to teeming desires and here is the result: we are still earth-bound. We are bound by the fetters of ignorance; we are caught. We want to possess the world. To our widest surprise and sorrow, we are already caught; we are already possessed.

Now again, it is we who have the capacity, potentiality and opportunity to free ourselves from the mire of ignorance. If we aspire today, tomorrow we shall grow into a divine reality, and in that divine reality our realisation will loom large.

We have to know at every moment that we have to be true to ourselves. Do we want light? Do we want perfection? Or, out of curiosity, do we want to have an iota of light and truth? Unless and until we are true to ourselves, true to our inner quest, we can never, never see the face of reality, fulfilment and perfection.

Most of you know that the immortal dramatist Shakespeare, in Hamlet says,

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And it must follow, as the night the day,

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When we enter into the spiritual life, we come to realise that there is no end to our journey. Today we may think that this is the goal we have been crying for. But when we go deep within, we feel that today’s goal is tomorrow’s starting point.

God is in everything. We have to see God in everything, feel God in everything, in every human being. But that is not enough. We have to see, feel, realise; then we have to go one step further. We have to realise that there is no end to our realisation. Every moment we have to feel that, on the strength of our highest realisation, we are running towards the ever-transcending Beyond.

The end of all knowledge is God-knowledge. We have to see God. This is the ultimate knowledge. Now, there are three ways to see God. One way is to see God through a window. This we can do if we concentrate daily, say, for six hours, on God. If we want to see God through an open door, then we have to meditate. We have to meditate daily for at least twelve hours. But if we want to see God face to face, as you are seeing me and I am seeing you, then we have to meditate twenty-four hours a day.

To see God constantly face to face is the beginning and blossoming of the Transcendental Knowledge.

Perfection-goal<sup>36</sup>

Man’s speculation about perfection is his ignorance. Man’s concentration on perfection is his knowledge. Man’s meditation on perfection is his wisdom. Man’s contemplation on perfection is his world-illumining, world-transforming inner eye.

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Man’s message is temptation.

God’s Message is Perfection.

God’s Message is Perfection.

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Cry and try.

When we cry to see the Transcendental Light and when we try to perfect our outer nature, our perfection does not remain a far cry. Perfection is ours.

Exert and control.

When we exert the divine in us and control the animal in us, perfection begins to dawn within us. The flower of perfection blooms.

See and be.

When we try to see the truth with the Eye of God, not with our eyes, and when we consciously try to be the surrendered instrument of God, perfection in no time dawns. The Golden All of perfection beckons our aspiring hearts. It is true that perfection cannot be achieved overnight. Realisation cannot be achieved all at once. It takes time.

Let me tell you a story. A young seeker once came up to a spiritual Master for initiation, and was duly initiated. Then the following day he said, “Master, now that you have initiated me, you have to give me realisation. I want to see God.”

The Master said, “My child, how is it possible for you to realise God in one day?”

Two days later, the seeker said, “Oh, I want to realise God.”

The Master said, “You are not ready.”

A few days later, again the same request: “Master, I want to realise God.” He had not completed his task. He had not launched into the spiritual path properly. Just the other day the Master had initiated him, but now he was crying for realisation without following the proper method. Without swimming in the sea of aspiration, he wanted to realise God.

On his way to the Ganges for a dip, the Master invited this particular disciple to come with him. As the two entered the water, the Master pressed the disciple’s head underwater for a couple of minutes. When he released it, the Master asked, “What did you feel when I was pressing your head into the water?”

“Master, I was gasping for air. I was practically dying and I thought I would not survive. The moment you released me, I got my life back.”

The Master said, “If you can come to that same state of consciousness and feel that without God you cannot live even for a few minutes, you will realise God. You will realise God at that moment on the strength of your highest aspiration. Your inmost inner flame has to be kindled, and then you have to cry — cry for God as a child cries for his mother. Only then is God-realisation possible.”

The disciple learnt the lesson. Truly and soulfully he entered into the spiritual life and listened to his Master’s dictates. Wholeheartedly he launched into the spiritual life. He felt the necessity of freedom from the domain of desires. He felt the necessity to grow into the mounting flame of aspiration, constant aspiration. Then realisation for him was not a far cry. He did realise God.

When we use the term ‘Heaven’, we feel Heaven is all light, delight and perfection. But where is that Heaven? It is deep within us, in the inmost recesses of our hearts. High Heaven, higher Heaven and highest Heaven are all within us.

When we offer our soulful thoughts to our brothers and sisters, we live in high Heaven. When we offer the results of our soulful actions to mankind, we live in higher Heaven. Finally, when we offer our soulful existence to humanity at large, unreservedly and unconditionally, we live in the highest Heaven.

We can live in the highest Heaven every day. God has given us the capacity. He has given us the potentiality. It is we who have to manifest our inner potentiality and capacity. We all are surcharged with indomitable inner courage. Unfortunately, we do not use our inner unlimited capacity. We use our outer limited capacity. We are afraid of diving deep within. Inside is the treasure. Inside is the key. We do not know where we have kept the key. We have totally forgotten. We do not know where the treasure lies.

At this point we see the need for a spiritual Master who knows where the key is and where the treasure lies. He does not give something of his own to the seeker. He only brings to the fore the seeker’s inner wealth. God-realisation is not his sole monopoly. Everybody will realise God, without fail. It is a matter of time. One realises God today on the strength of his inner inspiration. Another realises God tomorrow on the strength of his sincere aspiration. Everybody will realise God at God’s choice Hour. Again, those of us who are sincere seekers can expedite our journey. We can walk towards our Goal. We can march towards our Goal. We can run towards our Goal. If we run, naturally we shall reach the Goal sooner than those who are walking towards their Destination.

Perfection-Goal. Perfect Perfection here on earth has to be manifested, but how? We have to start our journey with inspiration. We have to feel every day deep within us in all our activities the necessity of inspiration. Without inspiration, there can be no proper achievement. Then we have to go one step further. After inspiration we have to feel the momentous necessity of aspiration. Inspiration is not all. We have to aspire to reach the Golden All, to see the Golden Shores of the Beyond, the ever-transcending Beyond. This is what we expect from aspiration, the mounting flame within us.

But, aspiration is not enough either. We have to meditate. Aspiration includes meditation. When we meditate, we have to feel that we are entering into Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. These are not vague terms, but our true possessions. To some day enter into our own divine possessions — Infinity, Eternity and Immortality — is our birthright.

Then, when we become advanced in our meditation, when meditation starts offering us its fruit, we enter into the realm of realisation. We realise the highest Truth in this body, here on earth. We do not have to go elsewhere to realise God. We do not have to enter an Himalayan cave or sit on a snow-capped mountain in order to practise spirituality. No. Here on earth, in the hustle and bustle of life, we have to practise spirituality. We have to accept earth as it stands, as it is. If we are afraid of earth, if we shy away from earth, then God-realisation will always remain a far cry. Here on earth we have to realise the highest Truth.

But even realisation is not enough. After realisation we have to reveal our realisation. If we do not reveal our realisation, we act like a miser, hoarding our treasure. This is not right. We have to offer our realisation in the form of revelation to mankind.

Yet revelation is not enough either. We have to enter into the domain of manifestation. If we do not manifest what we have realised here on earth, if Mother Earth does not receive the fruit of our realisation, and if She does not have it for good, we can never be truly fulfilled. Mother Earth has to be fed with the fruit of our realisation. Here on earth the manifestation of realisation has to take place; and when manifestation takes place, perfection is bound to dawn. Perfect Perfection is nothing other than the absolute manifestation of God’s Transcendental Will here on earth.

We are all seekers of the infinite Truth. It is our bounden duty to rise high, higher, highest. Each human being has come into the world with the message of perfection. No human being on earth will remain unrealised. No human being on earth will remain unfulfilled. No human being on earth will remain imperfect.

Realisation, fulfilment and perfection: these are three brothers. Realisation is the youngest, fulfilment is the middle, and perfect Perfection is the eldest in the family. These three brothers must go together. They have to walk along the field of aspiration. They have to swim in the sea of meditation. They have to fly in the sky, the blue welkin of contemplation.

God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation can take place only when man feels that he has to transcend himself. His goal of today is not the Ultimate Goal. Today’s goal has to be transcended tomorrow. Today’s goal is the foundation-stone. Every moment we have to transcend ourselves and, while transcending, deep within us we shall cherish the message of perfection.

Perfection is bound to loom large and important in all our activities if we feel that aspiration is the only thing we need, the only thing we are striving for.

In aspiration lies the key that can ultimately open up the door of perfect Perfection.

The inner promise<sup>37</sup>

The outer promise we make to ignorance, to teeming ignorance; but the inner promise we make to God.

Our outer promise is to torture the world either consciously or unconsciously, or to try to destroy the world.

To change the face of the world and to fulfil the world with the Divine Will, this is our inner promise that we have made to God.

Now, there are three significant steps to this inner promise:

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God is to be felt.

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To feel God, we have to live in the domain and realm of aspiration, the mounting flame within us.

To realise God, we have to grow into divine, constant and supreme surrender.

After we have attained God-realisation, there are two most significant steps, two more significant promises we have to make. These promises are God revelation and God-manifestation.

God-revelation is the promise made by God-realised souls on the strength of their unconditional concern for suffering humanity.

God-manifestation is the unconditional promise of God-realised souls to love mankind unconditionally and to manifest the Reality of Divinity here on earth.

In our day-to-day life, we see a child making promises to his mother: he will not tell a lie, he will not do anything wrong. But unfortunately, he does tell lies, he does make mistakes. Yet the mother has boundless patience. She feels that sooner or later her child will tell the truth and do everything right. Then, as a young boy, a teenager, he does quite a few things wrong and he promises his parents that he will not do them any more. Unfortunately, he fails to keep his promise. But his parents have the capacity to forgive him. They feel that either today or tomorrow he will turn over a new leaf. This is the inner confidence that they have in their son.

In the spiritual life also, many seekers make an inner promise, an inner commitment. They say they will enter into the spiritual life and give real importance to the life of purity, the life of aspiration, the life of realisation. But unfortunately, they fail to fulfil their promise. Nevertheless, God’s boundless Compassion never abandons them. God, with His adamantine Will and Vision of the ever-transcending Beyond, sees that these seekers will sooner or later enter onto the right path and walk, march, run towards the Destined Goal.

Then there are some advanced seekers who have made considerable progress in their inner life, and who have made a promise to their own inner beings and to God that they will not give up their spiritual quest until they have realised God. God-realisation is their sole aim. But, as ill-luck would have it, after having some higher experiences, they do not want to march further. They feel that these experiences are more than enough, at least for this life. So they do not want to go any further. They do not need or do not want God-realisation at this point, so God-realisation remains a far cry for them.

But God knows that these seekers entered into the spiritual life with utmost sincerity and made considerable progress. Only now they do not want to run towards their Destined Goal. They do not want to reach the farthest end of the Golden Shore.

Again God, with His boundless Compassion, observes the situation and tells the seekers, “Look, you will never be fulfilled. You will never see the face of satisfaction until you have seen the Golden Shore. You have not fulfilled your promise. But My Promise to you is unconditional. I shall wait for you. I shall take you, carry you, to the Destined Shore of the Golden All at My choice Hour. If you do not want to run fast, faster, fastest, it is up to you; but you have to know that nobody on earth can remain unrealised, unfulfilled.”

Each individual has to realise the highest Truth, but he who aspires will naturally reach the Goal sooner than the others who are still in the world of sleep.

As human beings, most of us are extremely clever. We are clever, but we are not wise. We try to deceive other human beings. Not only that, we go to the length of deceiving our Inner Pilot, God. In spite of knowing that we can never, never deceive the Inner Pilot, we unconsciously and sometimes even consciously try to deceive the Inner Pilot, God. We tell God, “O God, if You give us some inner wealth (that is to say, peace, light and bliss), we shall offer half of it to mankind. We shall not use it all for ourselves.” It is just like saying to God, “If You give me a dollar, I will give half to mankind and keep only half for myself.”

Now, God observes our sincerity. He examines the face of our sincerity and sees whether we are really sincere. And what happens? God gives us some peace, light, bliss and other divine qualities, but we feel that it is not satisfactory. What do we do? Immediately we say, “O God, You have not given me the full amount, the full quantity. I wanted to have a dollar, but You have given me only half a dollar. You are very clever. You have already kept half a dollar for Yourself, that is to say, for humanity. So I do not have to give humanity the peace, light and bliss that I already have.”

How we try to deceive the divinity in humanity! Everybody here at this place has something to offer: peace, light, bliss, sincerity, simplicity. There is nobody on earth who is not in a position to help the rest of mankind. This help, this service, if I can use the term ‘service’, can be offered by any individual here on earth.

If somebody feels that he is more sincere than somebody else, then let his sincerity be shared with other persons.

If somebody feels that he is purer than somebody else, than his neighbours or friends, then let him share his purity.

If somebody feels than he has more aspiration than his friends or neighbours, then let him share it.

This is the promise that we can make to God at every moment.

Then we come to realise that every time the soul enters into the field of creation and manifestation, it makes a most solemn promise to God, the Pilot Supreme, to try its utmost to reveal God here on earth. But, unfortunately, when the soul enters into the world, the sea of ignorance tries to envelop the soul. Then the body, vital, mind and heart consciously or unconsciously get pleasure in identifying themselves with the ignorance-sea. But the soul is all-forgiving. It does not cast aside the body, vital, mind and heart. It has boundless patience.

If this body, vital, mind and heart identify themselves with the soul, and if they want to see the Truth with the soul’s eye — if that is their promise, their only promise, their inner promise—then the date of God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation on earth is not very far off.

Each individual can make a solemn promise to himself and to humanity at large. This is a promise of dedicated self-service. And when he fulfils his inner promise, God fulfils His highest Promise of absolute Perfection in and through the aspirant.

The inner teaching<sup>38</sup>

But unless and until one has the capacity to dive deep within, it is always better and safer to listen to one’s Master. It is not that one has to have a spiritual Master all his life. No. For just a while, especially at the beginning, one must have a spiritual Master. When the seeker himself realises the highest Truth, he does not need any spiritual guidance. He himself grows into effulgent light. The inner soul within him comes to the fore and leads him, guides him and moulds him, perfecting his inner and outer nature.

The inner teaching. The inner teaching teaches us how to love mankind and how to serve the divinity in humanity.

Simplicity, sincerity and purity. These are the three things that we need in our inner life.

Simplicity we need at every moment. For if the mind is not simple, if the mind is complicated and complex, then there can be no peace in the mind. A child is simple. He is all joy. In our day-to-day existence, unfortunately, we do not pay any attention to simplicity. If we go deep within, if we have a simple mind, a simple existence, we shall feel how lucky, how happy and fortunate we are.

Sincerity is the life of our heart. If we have sincerity, then we have to know that we are already marching towards our Destined Goal. Sincerity is our safe-guard. A sincere seeker is running towards his Destined Goal, either consciously or unconsciously, at every moment. If we want to make constant progress here on earth, then what we need is a sincere heart.

Purity. Purity in the body. This purity does not mean that we have to take a bath ten times a day. No. It is the inner purity that we need and not just the outer cleanliness. When we are pure, we can receive the divine peace, light, bliss and power in abundant measure. When we can maintain our purity, then peace, joy, light, bliss and power can dawn on earth. The whole role of purity is of paramount importance in our spiritual life.

In the inner life we see the roles of fear and doubt, courage and certainty.

Fear. What is it? When we follow the spiritual life, we come to realise sooner than at once that fear is a real enemy. What does it do? It buys our coffin long before we are destined to die.

Doubt. What does it do? It starts digging our grave while we are still alive, while we are still performing our earthly duties.

Courage. Courage is our inner indomitable will. The outer expression of our inner indomitable will is manifested in the form of outer courage. Each moment we can see the reality, stand in front of the reality and grow into the reality if our existence is inundated with the inner will and the outer courage.

Certainty. God is ours. God is not the sole monopoly of an individual. It is not that only realised souls can dare to claim that God belongs to them. No, far from it. Each individual has the right to proclaim that God is his and that he belongs to God. He has to feel that God and he are eternally one and that God-realisation is his birthright.

The inner teaching. What do we learn from the inner teaching? Aspiration. Aspiration is the inner flame, the mounting cry within us. Each individual has this burning flame within. But unfortunately, most of us do not take the trouble to use the flame of aspiration within us. We are fond of using something else in our day-to-day life: desire.

Desire is something that binds us.

Aspiration is something that frees us.

The message of desire is to possess and be possessed.

The message of aspiration is to expand, enlarge and immortalise our earthly existence.

When we desire, we live in the world of anxieties, worries, frustrations, limitations, bondage and death. When we aspire, we live in our divine consciousness here on earth. We feel the message and life-breath of Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality. These are not vague terms; far from it. He who prays, he who meditates, he who concentrates, he who contemplates daily can easily enter into the domain of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. His consciousness is bound to be flooded with Infinity’s Peace, Eternity’s Light, and Immortality’s Bliss.

The outer knowledge tells us how we can lord it over the world, how we can destroy the world. But the inner knowledge tells us how we can be inseparably one with God’s entire Creation. The inner teaching means inseparable oneness, not only with the Creator, but also with His Creation.

The inner teaching is very simple. As my introducer was kind and wise enough to say, real Indian philosophy is not complicated, but people make it complicated and then they misunderstand it. The inner teaching has also at times been expressed in complicated terms, but it is very, very simple. Anyone can learn the inner life, can try to live the inner life. Anyone can fulfil his inner existence, his divine existence here on earth.

Philosophy is not the answer to the inner life. Nor is religion the answer. Philosophy helps. Religion, too, helps to some extent. But spirituality — let us use the term ‘Yoga’, a Sanskrit word — is by far the best answer to the inner life. Yoga means union, conscious union with God. If we cry for conscious union with God, then without the least possible hesitation, we can easily live the inner life.

Philosophy: let us use the Sanskrit word darshan, which means to envision or see. One of India’s greatest spiritual Masters, Sri Ramakrishna, said, “In days of yore people used to have visions. Now people study darshan!” This is the difference between the Vedic seers, who had the highest illumined vision, and those who just study philosophy.

Religion. When we go deep inside religion, without fail we get the message of truth; but we do not practise it. I say, “My Hinduism is by far the best.” Immediately you tell me, “Stop! Stop! No comparison. Christianity is by far the best.” Then a follower of Judaism will contradict us both. He will say, “No, Judaism is by far the best.” So this goes on, with no end. This is our outer teaching. Each one is right in his own limited way.

But we have to have the inner oneness, the inseparable oneness with God and His Creation. We can consciously achieve this oneness only through real prayers, concentration, meditation and contemplation. Yoga transcends all religions. Religion is right in its own way. Philosophy is right in its own way. Philosophy can lead us right up to the door. Religion can lead us a few steps inside the room. But real meditation and spirituality, Yoga, not only leads us right up to the throne, but makes us sit on the throne itself.

When you follow the path of Yoga, you will see that there is no quarrel, no conflict. I must add, however, that one has to follow the path meant for him, or conflicts will, indeed, arise. Each path claims to be by far the best. But a sincere seeker, if he is really a sincere seeker, will not find fault with any path.

As you know, there are three principal paths: Karma Yoga, the path of action and dedication; Bhakti Yoga, the path of love and devotion; and Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge and wisdom. Again, in Jnana Yoga, there is a special branch we call Raja Yoga, which you in the West call ‘mysticism’.

But I wish to say that if we are true, sincere, genuine seekers, and if we follow the path of love and devotion, we cannot say a single word against the seeker who is following the path of knowledge, because we know that all roads ultimately lead to Rome. I take one road and you may take some other road, but Rome is the Goal for both of us. Each road can lead the aspirant to his Destined Goal. So how can I contradict other paths? It is sheer foolishness on our part to scorn another’s discovery.

Our inner teaching tells us that it is true that all paths will lead to Rome, to our Destined Goal, God. But there is a path that leads us faster than the other paths, and that is the path of love, devotion and surrender. All roads will lead us to our destination, but one can say that there are short-cuts. The path of love leads us much faster to our destination.

When we follow the path of love, we find our spiritual life, our inner life, most satisfactory. Here God is dearest to us, not because He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent or Omniscient, but because He is all Love. A child feels that his father is dearest to him precisely because he feels all love inside his father. He does not care how great his father is, whether his father is the magistrate or barrister or president. Just because his father is all love to him, his father is dearest to him.

Similarly, God, our eternal Father, can be approached most successfully and in a way that seems most convincing through love. When we approach Him through love, we see that He is all Love; and when we just open our eyes and try to look at Him, we see that He is right in front of us, blessing us, embracing us. He says, “My child, I have been all the time waiting for you.” Here, love means one’s constant feeling of inseparable oneness with one’s Beloved.

The end of all inner teaching is love: Divine Love, not human love. Human love binds; the result is frustration. And at the end of frustration, destruction looms large. But Divine Love is expansion, enlargement, the feeling of true oneness. So if we love someone, we have to know that we love him precisely because deep inside that person is God. It is not because the person is my father, or my mother, or my brother, or my sister. No. I love him just because inside him I feel, I see, the living presence of my dearest Beloved.

For those who want to follow the spiritual path, for those who want to feel God as their very own, I wish to say that Love Divine is the answer. In Love Divine the seeker’s real fulfilment and perfect Perfection loom large and important. This is the easiest path. This love is most convincing, most effective. We all can practise the inner teaching by offering our true love to God, to the divinity inside humanity. The more we offer this Divine Love, the more we fulfil the Inner Pilot within and without us.

Life Divine is not a far cry here on earth. The fulfilment of Divinity here on earth can never remain a far cry, if we know the secret of secrets. And that secret is to grow into the Divine Love, where the lover and the Beloved become one, the creation and the Creator become one, the finite and the Infinite become one.

It is here on earth that we shall hear the message of the soul-stirring flute of Infinity. We do not have to go to Heaven; we do not have to go to any other realm of consciousness. Right here, here and now, we can hear the message of liberation, enlightenment and divine fulfilment if we follow the inner teaching, which is Love Divine: Love for Love’s sake, Love for God’s sake.

The universe<sup>39</sup>

Oxford, to you I bow because you hold your tradition dear.

Oxford, to you I bow because you are the English pride.

Aum. Aum is God. Aum is the Inner Pilot. Aum is the Universe.

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Purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate

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Infinity is that. Infinity is this.

From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away, Infinity remains the same.

Marcus Aurelius said, “The man who does not know what the universe is, does not know where he lives.”

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The universe is God’s Creation and man’s realisation.

The universe is God’s Concentration and man’s transformation.

The universe is God’s Contemplation and man’s manifestation.

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The singer in me tells me that the universe is enchanting.

The Yogi in me tells me that the universe is soulful.

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My poet sees the truth.

My Yogi realises the truth.

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The aspiration of today is tomorrow’s salvation.

In the finite we have to hear the message of the Infinite.

In the domain of death, we have to hear the message of Immortality.

Here at this point, the immortal poet Blake sings through us and for us,

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And Heaven in a wild flower,

And eternity in an hour.

This is a message the spiritual seeker can cherish. His inner being and inner life can be surcharged with this message, which can reverberate in the inmost recesses of his aspiring heart.

The outer universe, the inner universe and the inmost universe. My physics friend, my chemistry friend, my geography friend, my astronomy friend all inform me about the outer universe. I am most grateful to them. My psychology friend and my philosophy friend tell me about the inner universe. I am most grateful to them. My Yogi friend and my Avatar friend tell me about the inmost universe. I am most grateful to them. I ask them all if they are totally satisfied with their achievements, discoveries and realisations. They flatly say, “No.”

My friends in the outer universe tell me that they have much more to discover and unravel. My friends in the inner universe tell me that they have much more to embody and realise. And my friends in the inmost universe tell me that they have much more to reveal and manifest.

The visible universe and the invisible universe. The thinker in us sees the visible universe with the aspiring mind. The knower in us feels the visible universe with the aspiring heart.

In order to enter into the invisible universe, what we need is the soul’s illumining light. If we do not see with the soul’s illumining light, if we do not listen to the dictates of our soul, it is simply impossible for us to enter the invisible universe.

The living universe and the evolving universe, the dying universe and the perishing universe. When we aspire, when we consciously, soulfully and spontaneously try to go beyond the boundaries of the finite, we live in the living and evolving universe. When we consciously or unconsciously cherish doubt, jealousy, fear, imperfections, bondage, limitations and death, we live in the dying and perishing universe.

If we want to live in the universe — the spiritual universe or the real universe — we have to know that we have to abide by the laws of the universe.

What are the laws of the universe? Love and serve.

Love humanity. Serve divinity.

We have to love humanity in divinity. We have to serve the divinity in humanity.

At this point, we can recollect the message of Plato, who said, “Through obedience we learn to command.” If we obey the laws of the universe, then we can command ignorance and govern death.

The scientist wants to discover the entire universe. The spiritual person, the seeker of the infinite Truth, also wants to discover the universe. So the spiritual scientist and the spiritual seeker will always run together, for they have the same message.

The scientist of scientists, Einstein, offers us the most sublime message: “His life is worthwhile who lives for others.” This is precisely what a spiritual person, a seeker of boundless Light and Peace, tells us. Only he who lives for others has a meaningful life. Verily, this is the message of all hallowed religions: live for others.

Although science and religion run abreast in this respect, there is something else. We call it Yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word which means union, union with God, union with Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. When we enter into the field of Yoga, we feel that the love and service we offer to mankind is not for others, but for us, for our enlarged part. There is no such thing as ‘others’. All are members of the same family.

When we remain in the mire of ignorance, we say ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘him’; but when it is a matter of oneness — inseparable oneness, oneness with God, oneness with mankind, oneness with God’s Creation — then we cannot say that it is for others. It is for our sake, for the sake of our enlarged and more complete self.

Discovery. Science will discover the truth. Religion, or should I say spirituality, will discover the truth in the universe. And Yoga, oneness with God, will realise the Ultimate Truth for the universe.

When the discovery of science is complete, it will see that its universe is manifesting the Truth of the Ultimate Beyond.

When religion or spirituality discovers the Ultimate Truth, it will see that its universe is realising the Truth of the ever-transcending Beyond.

And when Yoga, or conscious union with God and mankind, completes its journey, it will transform the face of the world. It will illumine the face of the earth.

The discovery of the scientist, the discovery of religion and spirituality, and the discovery of one’s highest oneness, inseparable oneness with God, will run together like three brothers, speeding towards the eternal Father, the Goal.

The higher worlds⁴⁰

There are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. The higher worlds are: Bhur, Bhuvar, Swar, Jana, Mahar, Tapas and Satya. One of the Upanishads names seven higher regions. These are: Agniloka, Vayuloka, Varunaloka, Adityaloka, Indraloka, Prajapatiloka and Brahmaloka. Certain spiritual figures are of the opinion that the first-mentioned group of the worlds corresponds to the second. Others, equally qualified, dispute this. Strangely enough, all without exception agree that the world Satya and Brahmaloka are one and the same.

We can enter into these worlds on the strength of our aspiration and receptivity. When we have aspiration and receptivity, these worlds can never remain a far cry.

Aspiration. What do we mean by this term? The inner cry, the mounting flame within us. Aspiration is reality’s constant necessity.

Receptivity. How can we have receptivity? We can have receptivity if we grow into purity and sincerity. When sincerity and purity loom large and important in our earthly existence, then we can easily have receptivity.

A sincere seeker needs aspiration and receptivity. Without aspiration, he is rootless. Without receptivity, he is fruitless.

The higher worlds. Each individual seeker has the divine right to enter into the higher worlds. His aspiration can easily guide him and lead him to God’s Throne. To enter into the high, higher, highest worlds, what we need is the inner cry. We cry for name and fame. But if we inwardly cried for abundant peace, light and bliss here on earth, then our entire being could be flooded with peace, light and bliss.

These higher worlds are within us and not without. When we concentrate, when we meditate, when we contemplate, we enter into these higher worlds. When we concentrate dynamically, we near the door of these higher worlds. When we meditate soulfully, we enter into the room divine. When we contemplate unreservedly, and unconditionally, we reach God’s Throne.

Since we aspire to enter into the higher worlds, we pray to the Cosmic Gods. We feel that the Cosmic Gods will come to our aid and they will help us enter into the higher worlds.

Here, at this point, I would like to invoke the soul of Marcus Aurelius: “Either the gods have the power to assist us, or they have not. If they have not, what does praying to them signify? If they have, why do you not pray that they would remove your desires rather than satisfy them, set you above fear rather than keep away the thing you are afraid of?”

Now, if we want to enter the higher worlds in order to fulfil our desires, then we can never enter higher worlds. We can enter the higher worlds only when it is the Will of our Inner Pilot, the Lord Supreme. When we go deep within, when we meditate for a couple of hours, if our meditation is most soulful and, at the same time, unconditional, then we will envision the higher worlds. No sincere seeker of the highest Truth, the Ultimate Truth, will be denied the higher worlds.

Porphyry throws additional light on the matter, “We must ask of God only such gifts as are worthy of God, that is to say, such things as we cannot obtain from any except God.”

In order to enter into the higher worlds what we need is sincerity; what we need is purity; what we need is peace; what we need is delight.

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Purity: The name of God’s first child is purity.

Delight: Delight is the name of God’s permanent Home.

There are two things we observe in our day-to-day life: the human and the divine. In everything we do, say or grow into, we see either the divine or the human.

The human world and the divine world. A clever man is he who knows how to deal with the outer world. He does not want to be deceived by the world, by mankind, but unconsciously or consciously he deceives the world, the world of ignorance. A wise man is he who knows all about the inner world, the higher worlds within. He does not deceive anybody. He wants to conquer the outer world, the world of ignorance. But his is not the conquest of Caesar, “I came, I saw, I conquered” — Veni, vidi, vici. Far from it. When a wise man wants to conquer ignorance, he does so only because his inner being compels him to transform the face of the world. He does not take pride in conquering the world. No. Feeling the breath of ignorance, he feels it is his bounden duty to transform ignorance into knowledge, darkness into light, death into Immortality.

There are two ways to enter into the higher worlds. One is the way of knowledge, the other is the way of devotion.

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Devotion: I am devotion, I am dedication and I am salvation.

Knowledge enlarges itself, expands itself into Infinity. Devotion identifies itself with the absolute Truth. On the strength of its identification, devotion grows into Infinity.

A sincere seeker of the Ultimate Truth can follow either the path of knowledge or the path of devotion. But at the end of the journey’s close, the seeker who follows the path of knowledge and the seeker who follows the path of devotion will meet and shake hands, because they have reached the selfsame Goal.

We live either in the world of human thought or in the world of Divine Will. Human thought slows down and dies out, but the Divine Will constantly grows and swiftly flows.

Similarly, human power is born of futility. Divine power is born of reality.

Finally, we observe our love: human love and Divine Love. Human love is an express train — destination: frustration. Divine Love is a local train — destination: illumination. Human physical love is slow poison. Divine Love is the running stream and the unceasing source of nectar. Human love can be transcended. Divine Love can be manifested. Human love is fruitless expectation. Divine Love is fulfilled perfection.

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Unreserved devotion is what man needs.

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The Golden Hour, God’s Hour, is dawning fast. Let us offer our heart’s aspiration to the lofty realisation of the seers of the hoary past,

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Anandena jatani jivanti

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From Delight we came into existence.

At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we shall retire.

The permanent and the impermanent⁴¹

What is permanent is reality. What is impermanent is non-reality.

Reality is the existence of light, in light and for light. Non-reality is the existence of night, in night and for night.

Reality’s parents are Divinity and Immortality. Non-reality’s parents are bondage and ignorance.

When we see the Divine Light, we feel happy. When we feel the Divine Light, we become strong. And when we grow into the Divine Light, our life becomes fruitful.

When we see the undivine night, we become weak, impotent. When we feel the undivine night, we feel sorry, we feel miserable. And when we grow into the undivine night, our life becomes meaningless, fruitless.

Illumining light and illumined light; darkening night and darkened night. Illumining light is the light that is within us. Illumined light is the light that is without us. Darkening night is the night that is before us. Darkened night is the night that is around us.

That which is real is permanent, and what is permanent is spiritual. What is spiritual? The life of the ever-transcending Beyond. But this life of the ever- transcending Beyond has to be manifested here on earth. This life is real; it is reality itself.

What is unspiritual? Let us use the term ‘material’. Something material is the wealth of the fleeting time.

Divine wealth and material wealth. Divine wealth is our inner aspiration. This aspiration is the song of Infinity, Eternity, and Immortality within us. Material wealth is desire. It is the cry for immediate and constant possession. When we try to possess, unfortunately we feel that we are already possessed. But when we try to see someone with our soul’s light, we feel that we are already liberated, and that he, too, is already liberated.

A thing permanent is divine. A thing impermanent is undivine. When divine wisdom dawns on earth, we will realise that an impermanent thing is useless.

Divinity and Immortality are within us. Immortality tells us what to do and Divinity tells us how to do it. Immortality tells us to listen to the dictates of our soul, which is a spark of the Supreme Light. It tells us to be always conscious of the Inner Pilot. Divinity tells us how we can do it. We can do it through a self-disciplined life, through dedication to a higher cause, through purification of our outer nature, and through undying and unreserved love for God.

Bondage and ignorance are the parents of night. Ignorance tells us what to do and bondage tells us how to do it. Ignorance tells us to destroy the world and bondage tells us how to do it — through cruelty and brutality, through unfair means.

A spiritual seeker tries to enter into the inmost recesses of his heart, and from there he tries to bring light to the fore. With the help of this light, he wants to grow into the breath of the permanent. Now, to grow into the breath of the permanent, what he needs is inner wisdom. What is this inner wisdom?

Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song Celestial, says to Arjuna, his divine instrument, “O Arjuna, a wise man is he who has mastery over the senses.” That is to say, when we conquer our senses, we enter into the realm of wisdom, where reality grows and divinity flows.

To enter into the world of wisdom we need constant love: love for truth, love for light. But right now we are fond of fleeting truth, fleeting light, fleeting possessions. The fleeting wealth that we have or cherish is terribly afraid of truth. It doubts truth and it fears God. But our divine wealth, aspiration, invokes truth and adores God. Each day we are seeing with our own eyes and feeling with our own heart the impermanence of the man-made world. The things that we create with our thoughts and the ideas that result from our actions do not last. This moment I have a thought and the next moment that thought is gone. Perhaps it gives me a result. This result lasts, again, for another fleeting second.

But there is something else which we call will-power: the soul’s will, the adamantine will of the soul. If we can exercise an iota of this will-power, then we will see that not only the action but also the result is an everlasting reality. In order to develop the will-power of the soul, we have to enter into the life of the Spirit. We have to have a self-disciplined life. A self-disciplined life does not mean the mortification of life or a conscious torture of life. A self-disciplined life means a life that needs the Light and wants to be guided by the Light, moulded and shaped by the Light. When the life is disciplined, we shall not act like animals. When the life is disciplined enough, the real divinity will grow. At that time we can say that God-realisation or self-discovery is our birthright, and in God-realisation we acquire the wisdom of the everlasting Truth.

It is not that one individual or some individuals are chosen to realise the highest Truth. No, far from it. Each individual is an instrument of God; but he has to be conscious. Right now he is not; he is unconscious. But when he prays, when he meditates, he automatically becomes a constant, conscious instrument of God. And he who becomes a conscious instrument of God hears in the very heart of the finite the message of the Infinite, and feels in the fleeting the Breath of the Eternal.

To think of God, to meditate on God constantly, is to live in God unreservedly. When we live in God constantly, soulfully, and unreservedly, God unconditionally does everything for us. In infinite measure He offers His Light, Peace, and Bliss, and we grow into His very Image.

Here on earth the message of the permanent Truth, the Transcendental Truth has to be fulfilled, for God has chosen earth as His Field for Manifestation. The eternal Light has to be manifested here on earth and we, all of us, have to become conscious instruments of God. We can be so if we have the inner cry, and this inner cry has to be the cry of a child. When a child cries for his mother, the mother, no matter where she is, comes running to him. The child may be in the living room or in the kitchen, but the mother comes running to feed him.

Similarly, when we have the inner cry, the spontaneous cry for Light and Truth, God out of His infinite Bounty will show us the Light, and in that Light we will grow.

We shall fulfil God. While fulfilling God, we shall fulfil ourselves. Our only prayer to God is:

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Lead us from darkness to Light.

O Lord Supreme!

Three lessons in spirituality<sup>42</sup>

All of us here are seekers; we are all spiritual people. On the strength of my own realisation, I wish to say that all of us without exception are studying spirituality. There is no human being on earth who is not studying this subject at least a little. From this subject, everybody learns something according to his capacity or receptivity. There is nobody who has not learnt anything. Your learning will not be the same as mine, but that does not mean that you have not studied the subject as well as I have.

What have I learnt from spirituality? I have learnt only three things. Love of God is the first thing I have learnt. The second thing is self-discovery. And the third thing is the importance of doing first things first. Love of God. Self-discovery. First things first.

Love of God. Is there anybody who does not love God? No, not even an atheist. The atheist negates God. But, to me, his very negation is an act of God. And whatever he does love is God, because everything comes from God and is of God. Atheists and agnostics are all in the one boat that leads to the Destined Goal, though perhaps in spite of themselves. Love of God is oneness with the Universal Consciousness. Conscious oneness with the Universal Consciousness is conscious love of God. God is one; God is many. He is the tree; He is the branches, the leaves and the flowers. He is unity and multiplicity. When we look within, He is one; when we look without, He is many.

Self-discovery. What do we mean by self-discovery? Self-discovery is our recovery from ignorance-illness. When we are ill, we suffer for a while and then we get better, only to fall sick again. But self-discovery is our permanent recovery from the illness that is called ignorance.

Self-discovery is God-discovery. There is no difference between self-discovery and God-discovery. When you discover yourself, you feel in the inmost recesses of your heart your oneness with God — your inner Divinity, your inner Immortality, your inner Infinity, your inner Eternity, which are nothing other than God Himself. This realisation is not the sole monopoly of a spiritual Master. Everybody without exception can discover it. But when we make a conscious effort, when we pray consciously and devotedly, we come to realise God’s Light, Peace and Bliss infinitely faster than those who wallow in the pleasures of ignorance.

First things first. What is the first thing? The first thing in our lives should be God. Our first thought should be: “Let Thy Will be done.” When the finite consciously accepts the Infinite as its very own, the finite is blessed with liberation and perfection. When I say, “Let Thy Will be done,” it means I am consciously surrendering my lower existence to my higher existence. I can say that my feet are my lower existence and my heart is my higher existence. Both my heart and my feet are mine; they are both part and parcel of my existence. But my feet are in ignorance and my heart is bathing in the sea of Light and Wisdom. My heart can easily help and guide my feet if my feet are willing to surrender to their higher part, the heart. The feet must feel that now they are in ignorance, but when they enter into the heart, at that time they will be illumined.

I have to know that I embody the lowest and the highest. When I am in the highest, I am consciously one, inseparably one, with the Supreme Pilot. In that consciousness I represent Him, and one day I will become what He eternally is. My lowest part is ignorant, imperfect, undivine, hostile. But if I can remember that the highest part also is mine, then I will see nothing wrong in carrying the highest part to the lowest part with the message of liberation.

So to do the first thing first means to surrender our individual will to the Will of the Supreme, and then to feel that this surrender is the surrender of our lower existence to our higher existence. When we surrender our lower existence to our higher existence, we become the chosen instruments of the Absolute Supreme.

When it comes to studying the spiritual life, we find there are two students in us: the head and the heart. These two students have come to us to learn the higher wisdom, and we have to teach them both. But we have to know which of the two students has more learning capacity and which has less, which is more progressive and which is less progressive, which deserves more attention and which deserves less attention for the time being. Two students, the mind and the heart, have come to learn. The mind is the inferior student and the heart is the superior student. Unfortunately, the inferior one often creates problems for the superior one.

Our inner being is the teacher. It tells the mind-student, “You have learnt much, but your knowledge is only information and it is actually standing in your way. We always say that knowledge is our hope but, in your case, knowledge has become a veritable obstruction. You have absorbed too much knowledge. You do not know how to utilise it and you cannot digest it. So please, for God’s sake, unlearn. If you can unlearn it, then you will be in a position to learn something really useful from me, your inner being.”

Then our inner being tells the heart-student, “You have to learn only one thing: to give. Offer yourself, offer what you have and what you are. Empty yourself.” The heart immediately says, “I am ready. What I have right now is insecurity and ignorance. What I am is uncertainty. But I am ready to offer it all immediately. I will offer up all my insecurity, uncertainty and ignorance.”

The heart is ready and eager to surrender what it has and what it is, but the mind finds it very difficult to unlearn. What it has learnt is how to doubt. This is the most important thing to the mind. If the mind can doubt others, then it really feels that it has some wisdom. The moment I doubt you, I feel I have done something great. Here I have made my doubt a spiritual authority. But this kind of spiritual authority is nothing but slow poison. It kills our spiritual life. The heart, however, is just the opposite. Today it receives, tomorrow it achieves, the day after tomorrow it becomes and, finally, it realises what it eternally is.

There comes a time when the heart, out of its own inner spontaneous love for its brother, the mind, comes and knocks at the mind’s door. With tremendous reluctance, the mind opens its door and, to its wide astonishment, sees that the heart, its own brother, is fully illumined. There is not even an iota of darkness inside the heart. Then the mind asks the heart how it has accomplished this. It says, “You are also a part of the family. How is it that I see in you all illumination, all divinity? What is wrong with me that I am still ignorant and unillumined?”

The heart replies, “I listened to the dictates of the Inner Pilot. I did what the Inner Pilot asked me to do. In your case, the Inner Pilot asked you to unlearn. What you have learnt is not illumination. What you have discovered is not realisation. You have learnt and discovered information and, on the basis of this information, you have built a palace of obscurity and divided consciousness. You have always separated yourself from the rest of the world. You are not accepting my realisation as your very own. You do not claim me as your very own, but I accept you as my very own. I accept each and everyone as my very own. In your case, there is no oneness, but only separation. You do not run to the Light. Your goal is still a far cry. I listened to the Inner Pilot when He asked me to do something, and now I am all illumination.”

The mind thinks for some time, and then says, “All right. I will listen to you,” and it starts unlearning. First it unlearns doubt, then it unlearns fear, then it unlearns jealousy, then it unlearns the feelings of superiority and inferiority. All the things that divide and separate the mind from the whole, the mind consciously tries to unlearn. The mind chases away doubt; immediately faith grows. It chases away insecurity; immediately confidence dawns. It rejects all feelings of superiority and inferiority and embraces the feeling of oneness. Impurity leaves the mind and purity enters. The mind now accepts the light and thinks of its ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of the mind is illumination. The ultimate goal of the heart is liberation. When the two meet together on the way to their destination, they become inseparably one. Then perfection dawns, and man the seeker becomes the conscious representative of the Absolute Supreme on earth.

The seeker's journey<sup>43</sup>

As a spiritual Teacher, I teach my students or disciples with my heart’s love. I have no other way. I have no other knowledge but the knowledge of love. With my heart’s love, I try to teach my followers and disciples.

As a Yogi who is constantly one with his Inner Pilot, I try to be always at the Command of my Inner Pilot. I try to execute His Commands and thereby be of service to those who come to me for inner guidance.

As a seeker, I am always at the Feet of the Transcendental Supreme. I am a seeker, a seeker of the infinite Truth. A seeker knows that his journey will never come to an end. He realises the Truth, but he feels that there is no end to his realisation. He discovers the loftiest Truth, the Transcendental Truth, but then he feels there is no end to his Truth-discovery. He comes to realise that because God is infinite, eternal and immortal, there is no end to God’s Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. God Himself is constantly transcending His own Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. So we must realise that we are seekers of the ever-transcending Beyond. Each seeker is transcending his own capacity, his own reality, his own dream, his own realisation every day, every hour, every minute and every second.

When one becomes a sincere seeker, he discovers something which a non-seeker has not discovered. A sincere seeker of the highest Truth discovers the fact that he made a solemn promise to the Supreme before he entered into the world arena. This promise was very simple and, at the same time, very soulful. His promise was to be the conscious instrument of the Supreme and to manifest the Supreme here on earth through his dedication, through his aspiration and through his conscious oneness with the world at large. This is the promise each aspiring soul has made, according to the seeker’s own vision. All human souls, without exception, make this promise to the Absolute Supreme. Unfortunately, when we enter into the world, we enter into the sea of ignorance. We bathe for thousands of years in this sea of ignorance but, when we become tired of this ignorance-bath, we enter into the sea of knowledge and wisdom. Then we remember our promise, our promise of God-manifestation on earth. Each individual being will one day come to realise that he has made this promise to the Absolute.

Unconsciously, everybody is trying to fulfil this promise. But a seeker is trying consciously to fulfil it, and a realised soul has already begun to fulfil it consciously and unconditionally. A seeker of the highest Truth fulfils his promise consciously and soulfully. A spiritual Master fulfils his promise consciously and unconditionally. But the individual who is not aspiring and who does not care for God-realisation or God-manifestation right now, is fulfilling his promise unconsciously.

When one is fulfilling or trying to fulfil God consciously, he is fulfilling God in a perfect manner. When he is fulfilling God unconsciously, he is fulfilling God in an imperfect manner. When one has realised God consciously, one goes a step further and tries to reveal God consciously. Finally, one tries to manifest God consciously. In conscious realisation, conscious revelation and conscious manifestation, we see God the eternal Perfection. God is for everyone, but one who is conscious of God’s Existence-Reality is undoubtedly ahead in the divine race.

Each individual looks for something here on earth and there in Heaven. Here on earth we look for something in God. When we enter into the spiritual life, we pray to God, we meditate on God, we contemplate on God. First we start with our prayers. We learn how to pray from our parents. Then we try to concentrate on something which we want to achieve. We know that when our mind wanders we cannot achieve anything, whereas, when we focus our attention and power of concentration on a particular thing, we achieve success. We learn the art of concentration, then we go one step ahead to meditation. When we meditate, we try to embody the Vast, the Infinite within us, or we try to dive into the vast, infinite sea of Light and Delight. The last step is contemplation. When we contemplate, our consciousness becomes one with the thing that we contemplate upon. The lover becomes one with the Beloved. The finite loses its finite existence and becomes one with the Infinite, becoming the Infinite itself. The earth-bound consciousness becomes one with the Heaven-free consciousness.

A seeker wants to see God. When he sees God face to face, he wants to see a certain thing in God, a special thing, and that thing is a sweet smile. Just by seeing God, he will not be satisfied. He wants to see God’s exquisite Smile. If he sees that God is smiling at him, he will achieve everything. Then the seeker wants to see a certain thing in man, and that thing is gratitude. He looks around. He feels that at every moment, consciously or unconsciously, he is offering something to mankind. He feels that if he can observe an iota of gratitude in mankind, then his self-offering will be fulfilled. But mankind is not responding.

Then the seeker looks up to Heaven. He wants to see a certain thing in Heaven, and that thing is Compassion. He feels that if Heaven does not supply him with infinite Compassion, he is helpless. Although he has achieved something in life and the world extols him to the skies, he knows in the inmost recesses of his heart that he is helpless. He feels that if he gets more encouraging and fulfilling Compassion from Heaven, then he will be able to complete his task on earth most convincingly and powerfully.

The seeker expects something from earth. What does he expect? Patience. Earth has given him everything, but when he wants to do something for the earth-consciousness, he feels that the earth-consciousness is restless. It wants everything in the twinkling of an eye. He wants to see patience in the earth-consciousness, and eventually there comes a time when the earth-consciousness does have the necessary patience which permits him to manifest the highest Truth on earth.

The seeker expects something from his own life. What does he expect? Unconditional service to mankind. If he can serve mankind unconditionally, then he will be satisfied. If he serves conditionally, then he can never be satisfied or fulfilled. He expects from himself unconditional service to the world at large, and ultimately he grows into that unconditional service-tree.

The seeker expects something when his present earth-pilgrimage comes to an end. What does he expect? He expects the Song of Immortality. He feels that if he can hear the Song of Immortality, then he will someday achieve everything for the earth-consciousness.

Here we are all seekers. Now, there are two categories of seekers: mind- seekers and heart-seekers, or mental seekers and psychic seekers. The seekers who want to realise the Highest with the help of the mind, through the mind, eventually come to know that they are travelling on a very crowded train. This is the mind-train. While they are travelling on the mind-train, they see that with them are quite a few other passengers, and these passengers are fear, doubt, anxiety, jealousy and other negative and destructive forces. The train is overburdened. It goes slowly, very slowly — creeping sluggishly towards its destination. God alone knows when it will reach its journey’s goal. With utmost uncertainty, the mind-train crawls towards its destination. But those who want to realise the Highest through the heart and with the help of the heart travel on another train. That is the heart-train. When the seeker travels on the heart-train, there is nobody else with him. He is alone, he and the mounting flame of his aspiration. The train flies towards the destination at top speed because there are very few passengers weighing it down, and it reaches its destination sooner, much sooner than it even expects.

God is an eternal Player. We are His children, who are also playing in the Cosmic Game.

When we live in the physical, we play with sleep, day in and day out. Our consciousness is not awakened.

When we live in the vital, we play with depression and frustration. When we do not achieve our goal in the vital, we are frustrated and depressed; and when we do achieve our goal, we also feel frustrated and depressed, because we feel that it was something else we wanted.

When we live in the mind, we play with doubt. While playing with doubt, at times we feel that doubt is not a good partner, so we suffer a lot.

But there comes a time when faith looms large within us, and then we transfigure our mental doubt. On the strength of our inner faith, we begin to live in our heart and we play with surrender. Sometimes we surrender to the Absolute, sometimes we try to compel the Reality which we are praying for to surrender to us. And Reality, being all one, surrenders, because of our sincere inner cry. But when Reality enters into us in the form of aspiration, it makes us feel that by pleasing us in our own way, it will never be able to satisfy us. Only if we please the Ultimate Reality in its own way can we be fulfilled. In the spiritual life, many times when we are pleased in our own way, we are not satisfied. Only when we are pleased in the way of the Divine, of the Supreme, can we be inwardly fulfilled.

At the beginning, we start our journey to please ourselves. In order to please ourselves, naturally we have to go through some discipline, for without discipline, we will not have any success. We have to practise mental, vital, psychic and spiritual discipline in order to see the face of inner satisfaction. Even when satisfaction looms large, we are not satisfied unless we please the Inner Pilot in His own Way. Only then does real satisfaction, eternal satisfaction, dawn in our lives. We try to control our lives, we try to perfect our lives and that is good. But when we try to please the Inner Pilot in His own Way on the strength of our unconditional surrender, when we make an unconditional surrender to His Will, when we become His chosen instruments and fulfil Him in His own Way, at that time we become perfect instruments. When today we have the inner dedication to say, “Let Thy Will be done,” tomorrow we will have the right to say, “I and my Father are one.”

Spirituality<sup>44</sup>

In the beginning, it is extremely easy for us to think of God as the Creator and not as the Creation, because when we look around we see that God’s Creation is full of imperfection.

At the dawn of his spiritual awakening, a child asks his mother, “Where is God?” The mother immediately answers, “God is in Heaven.” Then the child asks, “Where is Heaven?” The mother’s immediate answer is, “Heaven is up in the sky.” The child is satisfied; he feels that his mother’s answer is quite adequate. Then, when the child grows older and goes to a church for religious training, the child asks his teacher the same question: “Where is God?” The teacher may say that God is in Heaven or that God is in the child’s own heart. Years later, when the child enters into his young adulthood, he may want to go deep within and see for himself where God is. Then eventually he comes to hear about spiritual Teachers who have realised God. He goes to a spiritual Master and asks about God’s authenticity. When he is convinced that God does exist, his immediate question is, “Where is God?” The spiritual Master will tell him that God is everywhere and in everything. But until the seeker has realised God himself, this will be just mental knowledge. He must go deep within in order to feel these truths.

God is in the ‘yes’ of the heart, and God is in the ‘no’ of the mouth. When the heart says ‘yes’, God exists inside the ‘yes’. God is visible; He is really there. But when we try to speak about God, very often we are subject to doubt and our own inner feelings are confused. The mouth says, “No, no God,” but God exists even in the mouth that denies Him. It is only in the heart, however, that we can feel, see and grow into the highest Divinity.

We need God. Why? We need God because we are wanting in satisfaction. We have everything save and except satisfaction. A child is not satisfied with what he has. Today his father can give him ten toys, but tomorrow he will want to have more. An adult may have two cars, but he will feel that he needs three cars or two much more beautiful and expensive cars.

We can easily see that material possession rarely gives a person satisfaction. Only when we aspire and go deep within can we see the face of abiding satisfaction. We try to satisfy ourselves with desire-life, but we fail, we badly fail. Then we try with aspiration-life, and we succeed, we easily succeed. But among those who aspire, there are some who aspire to become great but not necessarily to become good. There are some seekers who enter into the spiritual life because they want to have worldly power, and they hope that God will grant them this boon. These so-called aspirants are not satisfied with the world as it is at present. They want to govern the world in their own way, and show their inner realisation or their spiritual supremacy to the world. Those seekers can never be God’s chosen instruments. Only those who aspire for God-realisation, for the sake of fulfilling and manifesting God in His own Way, can offer satisfaction to humanity. The seeker feels that it is his dedicated and unconditional service that can save and transform humanity, and not his wise wisdom.

There is a way to see God face to face. There is a way to grow into our inner Divinity. There is a way to perfect the face of the earth. But who can show the way? The Inner Pilot, the inner Being. Where is that inner Being? Who can tell us about the inner Being? Very often we hear a voice or get a feeling from within, but this is not always the voice of the heart. It may be the voice of our demanding vital, or the voice of our doubting or sceptical mind.

At this point who can help us? Who can take us into the inner realm of our consciousness where we can distinguish the voice of our Inner Pilot? A spiritual Master can do this. A spiritual Master teaches the seeker how to enter into his own heart and how to listen to the dictates of his own inner being. He can easily lead the seeker into the realm of his inner consciousness and make him feel and hear the voice of the Inner Pilot. The Inner Pilot is the real guide, the only guide. Until one has free access to the Inner Pilot, a spiritual Master is of paramount importance.

How can one know who his spiritual Teacher is? One can easily know, provided he does just a few things. First he has to silence his mind. There can be no doubt, no thought-waves, no negative or positive forces in the mind — nothing, nothing. When the seeker sees that he has become the possessor of a calm and quiet mind, he asks his dear friend, heart, to choose its proper Master. His heart looks at the spiritual Masters and makes the choice. When the heart sees a spiritual Master, if it is overwhelmed with joy, then there is every probability that that spiritual Master is the right one for the seeker. When the heart sees a spiritual Master and can make a solemn promise that it will please this Master in his own way, without asking anything in return, then that is most certainly the right Master. When the seeker sees a Teacher and finds his entire being inundated with joy and, if he wants to go one step ahead and say, “I will give you my whole existence, my inner and outer existence with no expectation, to serve you, to love you, to fulfil you,” then he and his Master will definitely be able to please each other. If the seeker can dare to make that kind of promise to the Master, if this promise comes from the very depth of his heart, then without doubt this particular Master is his.

Otherwise, a seeker may think that because so-and-so has ten thousand disciples, naturally he is a great Teacher. Well, he may be a great Teacher, but he may not be your Teacher. Your spiritual Teacher is only he whose very presence will make you swim in the sea of Light and Delight. Your Teacher is the one to whom you will want to surrender your entire existence.

Your Master will make you feel and discover that the inner treasure that you are searching for, and have for millennia been searching for, is within you and at your command. It is not the sole monopoly of the spiritual Master. As he has it, you also have it as your very own; it is your birthright. Inside you is the coffer, inside you is the key. Unfortunately, you do not know where the coffer is hidden or what is inside it. The Master just shows you your key and helps you to open the box. Then, to your wide surprise, you see that the infinite wealth which is inside belongs to you and nobody else.

Right now, realisation is a far cry. It is a distant, unrealised dream. But today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality. Today we are living in a cottage, let us say the cottage of dreams. Tomorrow we shall be living in the palace of Reality. Today we are crying to see just once the Face of God. If we can see the Face of God only once, we feel that our life will have a purpose. Once we see the Face of our Beloved Supreme, our dream will become a reality. And, sooner or later, on the strength of our aspiration, we shall definitely see the Face of our Beloved Supreme.

But we shall not be satisfied with that joy, with that reality. We will soon have another dream, a higher dream: to be blessed and embraced by our divine Pilot Supreme. This dream, too, will one day be fulfilled. But again, we will not be satisfied with this reality, either, with being blessed and embraced by God. We will have a third and last dream. This is the dream of becoming inseparably one with the Absolute Supreme and of growing into His Transcendental Illumination, Perfection and Infinity. This is our last dream, and for that we aspire, aspire for years, for lifetimes, for centuries. But at last all our dreams bear fruit, all our dreams are manifested in the form of reality.

We are now living in the world of dreams, but these dreams are not mental hallucinations. These dreams are not the result of vague ideas. These dreams are the precursors of a new dawn. In the new dawn we will see the God-touch, God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation on earth.

God and love<sup>45</sup>

We started our journey from Heaven. There we were fond of God’s Dream. While we were in the soul’s region and not in the gross physical body, we loved God’s Dream, or we can say, we loved God the Dream. Now, what was God’s Dream? His Dream was to become many. He was one and He wanted to become many so that He could divinely enjoy Himself in infinite forms and shapes. In the realm of the soul, we all loved this Dream of God and wanted to become cosmic players so that we could participate in His Cosmic Drama.

Our soul entered into the world arena to become a conscious player in God’s Cosmic Drama. Then, when we entered into the world, we started loving God’s Beauty: God’s Beauty in nature, God’s Beauty in art, God’s Beauty in our life. We started loving God the Beauty. His infinite beautiful Forms we tried to see with our eyes. We appreciate beauty in various forms in our experiences, in our actions, in our realisations. But there is one thing we want to achieve and grow into, and that is God’s Beauty and God the Beauty.

Then we feel the necessity, as we make progress in our spiritual life, of sensing and feeling Infinity. We are finite. We are now in earth-bound time. We are now wallowing in the meshes of ignorance. But we want to free ourselves from the meshes of ignorance. We feel that if we can come out of the finite and enter into the Infinite, then all our problems will be solved, we will have found ourselves. We look for Infinity here, there and everywhere, but we do not even begin to see or feel Infinity. But if we go deep within, if we enter into the inmost recesses of our hearts, we feel Infinity: we feel infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.

In Infinity there is a reality. But what is its source? Its source is Divinity in Immortality and Immortality in Divinity. To see, to feel, to grow into Divinity and Immortality, we enter into God’s Heart. How do we enter into God’s Heart? How do we have a free access to God’s Heart? Only on the strength of our inner cry, which we call aspiration. When our inner aspiration-flame mounts high, we enter into the Supreme, our eternal Pilot.

For an ordinary human being, desire is everything. For a spiritual seeker, aspiration is everything. In the field of aspiration, there comes a time when a seeker becomes consciously aware of the fact that he has to do the first things first. Now what is this ‘first thing’? It is God. ‘First things first’ means that God should come first in our life — not only in our inner life, but also in our daily multifarious activities. It means that God is to be loved first and foremost, both as the Deity and as all human beings. It means that first we have to love God as a personal Being and then as an impersonal Being. It is infinitely easier for us to approach God in His personal aspect than in His impersonal aspect. In His impersonal aspect, God is infinite Peace, infinite Light and infinite Energy; and in His personal aspect, He is a most beautiful Being. He is much more beautiful than the most beautiful youth on earth. He has far more beauty than any human being. So first we go through the personal aspect of God and then to the impersonal, but we love both aspects — the personal and the impersonal.

Sometimes it happens that we accept God and enter into the spiritual life, but after a few years we give up the spiritual life. That is to say, we reject consciously and deliberately God’s Concern, Compassion, Love and Blessings. What does God do then? When we reject Him deliberately, after having accepted the spiritual path, what does He do? God offers us His compassionate Smile. He tells us, “Children, I am ready to wait for you. I shall wait for you to give Me another chance.” He will wait indefinitely. This is how the compassionate Father fulfils Himself in and through us when once we have appreciated God’s Love or God the eternal Love.

In our spiritual life, God comes first, then our self-discovery, then our unconditional surrender to God and then our God-realisation. If we want to have abiding Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure in our inner being, then we have to make an unconditional surrender to the Will of the Lord Supreme.

A difficulty arises at this point in our spiritual life when we start to make progress on the strength of our devoted surrender. Quite often, the mind comes forward. The mind right now is in ignorance. It is unillumined. The mind has acquired much outer knowledge, but the mind is enmeshed in the physical and the vital. So what does this knowledge bring? Doubt and suspicion. The mind is constantly doubting. It doubts others, it doubts God and it even doubts its own existence. Doubt is its own authority. There is a constant battle going on between the doubting mind and the surrendering and surrendered heart. The mind tries to destroy the heart’s potentiality. But if we stick to our spiritual life, eventually the heart wins the battle. In the surrendered heart we notice tremendous faith. Faith is our wisdom, our inner wisdom. This inner wisdom tells us that we are of God and we are for God. We came from God and we are going to God the Light and Delight. Here we are consciously and soulfully trying to manifest God on earth. And, at the end of our journey’s close, we shall enter into the infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.

Once we have accepted God, it is up to us to continue loving Him and to accept Him wholeheartedly, or to reject Him. When we enter into the spiritual life, we feel that we have entered consciously into God’s domain. We can make conscious progress, fast progress and fulfilling progress, when we accept God wholeheartedly on the strength of our sincerity, purity, humility and love.

Once we have accepted God wholeheartedly, then God becomes our eternal friend and our eternal slave. At that time, when we pray to God, “God, give me this; God, give me that,” it becomes His bounden duty to please us. Once we offer our very existence to God, it becomes His responsibility to please us and fulfil us in His divine, supreme Way.

When we pray, when we meditate for a number of years, God, out of His infinite Bounty, offers us a passport. If we have this passport, we can enter into Heaven — the higher worlds. There are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. If we do not aspire regularly, devotedly, systematically and soulfully, then this passport is confiscated. We lose our free access to the higher worlds, the inner worlds of Peace, Light and Bliss.

But there comes a time when each individual has to possess Peace, Light and Bliss. God’s choice Hour is for everyone. Today God’s Hour has struck for you. Tomorrow for him. The day after tomorrow for her. God will not be satisfied unless and until we all have achieved this Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure in our inner beings. He will be pleased only when we have discovered our inner existence and only when we consciously, soulfully and unconditionally take part in His Cosmic Game, fulfilling Him in His own Way. This we shall do only on the strength of our pure love, divine love, devoted and surrendered love to the Will of the Supreme, who is our Inner Pilot.

We are eternal travellers. In Heaven, we were dreamers, and on earth we are travellers along the Road of Eternity. We shall reach our Goal of the Golden Beyond. This Golden Beyond is the eternally transcending Beyond. Today’s goal will be tomorrow’s starting point, just as yesterday’s goal is today’s starting point. There is no end to our realisation. We are always in the process of cosmic evolution, of our nature’s transformation, of our inner illumination and perfection.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow<sup>46</sup>

In my view, spirituality means acceptance of life — acceptance of the inner life first and then acceptance of the outer life, the ordinary life. First we have to accept the inner life. Then, from the inner life, we have to discover and bring to the fore the light, peace and bliss from our soul, to inundate our outer life.

In my view, spirituality can never mean the rejection of life or the total negation of life. To me, spirituality means the true acceptance of life. We have to accept life as it is now. But we must not be satisfied with this life, we cannot be satisfied with this life as such. It is our bounden duty to change the face of the world. But how can we do it? We can do it only when we ourselves are changed within and without. When we are transformed, we are in a position to be of service to mankind. When we can live in the soul and not in the gross physical, we are ready to offer our dedicated service to aspiring mankind.

According to my humble philosophy, spirituality should never take shelter in the Himalayan caves. Those days of the hoary past are buried in oblivion. Now we have to face the world. If we enter into the Himalayan caves to look for God, then we are deliberately ignoring the possibility of an integral change, the transformation of our physical, vital, mental and psychic life. Here on earth, amidst multifarious activities, we have to realise the Highest, we have to fulfil the Transcendental Supreme.

Our spiritual philosophy tells us that today needs a man of action. Today’s man cannot build castles in the air. Today’s man cannot remain unillumined. But who are these men of action? If you say that men of action are only those who are practical, it is true to some extent. But really practical men of action are those who have the divine courage to drink of something vast, infinite, eternal and immortal. Men of action are those who challenge ignorance and are ready to fight against ignorance-night, those who want to establish the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Yesterday these men of action were all dreamers, but these dreamers were divine dreamers. In their case, dream and reality went together. Dream was the direct vision and reality was the manifestation of this vision. Yesterday’s divine dreamers are today’s men of action, today’s divine warriors. Tomorrow these men have something else to do — tomorrow they have to be the pathfinders and the harbingers of a new dawn, a new light. They have achieved Light; they have grown into Light. Now it is their bounden duty to reveal Light to the world at large. These divine warriors, these men of action, tomorrow have to offer Light to the suffering, bleeding and sinking humanity.

Today we are all seekers. What were we yesterday? Yesterday we were in the world of doubt, teeming doubts. Our mind allowed teeming doubts to enter into us, or our mind cherished teeming doubts and made us feel that doubting others or doubting oneself was the acme of self-discovery. Yesterday we doubted God’s existence, we doubted our friends, our relatives, we doubted ourselves, we doubted everyone.

When we doubt others, in the outer world we may not lose anything. When we doubt God, in the outer world we may not lose anything. But when we doubt ourselves, we lose everything. We lose in the outer world and we lose in the inner world as well. We become veritable beggars. The moment we start doubting ourselves, we weaken our possibilities and unconsciously destroy our inner potentialities.

Today we are seeking infinite Truth, infinite Light and infinite Peace. Now, where can we get infinite Peace, Light and Truth? Here, inside the spiritual heart. We talk about the Universal Consciousness; we talk about the Transcendental Reality. Where is the Universal Consciousness? Where is the Transcendental Reality? Where is the message of the eternal Beyond? They are not in the physical but in the spiritual heart. The spiritual heart houses the Universal Consciousness, the Transcendental Reality, the message of the eternal, ever-transcending Beyond.

Tomorrow, what will we become? Today we are seekers; tomorrow we have to become divine lovers. In human love we are bound to be frustrated sooner or later, but in divine love we establish our oneness with our Beloved consciously, devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally.

We have to offer to the Supreme in humanity everything that we have achieved on the strength of our today’s aspiration. Self-offering is our self-revelation. Self-revelation is our self-offering. When we offer our peace, light and bliss, we have to know that we are offering it to our own ignorant, obscure, impure, unillumined part. We are not offering it to somebody else at all. Let us say that the heart is illumined. We have to know that the feet are also an integral part of our body. The feet, legs, arms, hands, eyes and every other part complete the whole human body. Similarly, we can take the rest of the world as part and parcel of our being, the part that needs illumination. I do not mean to say that the rest of the world is our feet, far from it. I am only saying that a portion of our entire being is unlit or unillumined.

We have two rooms: the heart and the mind. The heart has achieved or received illumination. It is now obligatory on the part of the heart to enter into the mind to illumine it. We have to feel at every moment that the mind-room — which we can call with utmost simplicity, honesty and humility our unillumined part — is ours. We have to claim the mind-room as our very own, and the mind-room also has every right to claim us. It is we who have to offer light from the heart-room to the mind-room. And from whom have we already received this light? From the soul, which is the divine representative of the Supreme.

We who are here on earth have come from somewhere else — far, very far away — into the world arena. What did we do, what did we say to the Lord Supreme when we left our celestial Abode? We made a solemn promise to the Supreme that here on earth we would realise Him most perfectly, and here on earth we would reveal Him, manifest Him and fulfil Him in His own Way. This was our solemn promise to the Supreme, and He was extremely proud of the soulful promise of His divine children.

But now we do not remember our promise. Now we may consciously and deliberately try to deceive the Supreme and go back on our promise because we want to wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. But He knows that our promise was sincere and genuine, and He knows that we shall fulfil our promise to Him either today or tomorrow, either in the near future or in the distant future. He has that Vision. But we have eclipsed our vision by deliberately making friends with ignorance. We are fond of swimming in the sea of ignorance instead of swimming in the sea of Knowledge and Light.

Once we actually enter into this world, we make an inner promise to our soul and to the world at large that we will help mankind, serve mankind and illumine mankind. In silence, we consciously make a solemn promise in the inner world that we will offer constant and conscious service to humanity. Like a beggar, the world looks to us to fulfil our promise. The world looks to each individual to fulfil his promise, but we do not do it. That is why the world is suffering, and that is why it is still caught in the meshes of ignorance.

Is there anything on earth that can help us fulfil our promise to the Supreme and to the world? Yes. It is called experience, divine experience. Experience carries us into the past. It brings the message of the past and tells us how foolish we were yesterday. Yesterday we did not care for sublime realities, we did not care for God-manifestation. But today we do care for God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation. How foolish we were yesterday! Today we are the same person, but now we earnestly pray and meditate for God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation.

Experience tells us something more. The mistakes that we made in the past can easily be rectified by virtue of our inner awakening and self-discovery. A room can remain unlit for years, for centuries, but the moment we bring light into it, it is lit, it is illumined. We can see that our inner room has been unlit for millennia, but that is no reason why it cannot be illumined as soon as possible. We can illumine it and we have to illumine it. How do we do it? We do it on the strength of our inner cry, which we call aspiration. In the outer life, when a child cries, the mother runs immediately to the child. Whatever the child wants and needs the mother brings. Likewise, when we cry inwardly for the highest Truth, Light and Bliss which we desperately need, the Transcendental Supreme runs to us and fulfils us in infinite measure.

Failure<sup>47</sup>

I wish to speak on failure from the spiritual point of view. There is not a single human being on earth who does not feel that he is a failure. For his failure he blames many others: he blames the world, he blames his friends and acquaintances, he blames his enemies. But he finds it difficult to blame himself. Here we are all seekers, so we are all God-lovers. For true seekers, for God-lovers, for oneness-dreamers, there is no such thing as failure; there can be no failure. For earth-transformers, for God-fulfillers on earth there can be no failure.

There are two lives: the human life and the divine life. The human life sings the song of failure. The human life fails, but the divine life succeeds and proceeds. The divine life always succeeds and continuously proceeds. The human life fails precisely because it does not claim God’s Eternity, Infinity and Immortality as its very own. The divine life succeeds precisely because it does claim God’s Eternity, Infinity and Immortality as its very own. The divine life not only claims them, but also feels that it is always of Immortality and always for Eternity and Infinity.

The human in us binds; the divine in us expands. The human in us wants to wallow in the pleasures of the finite, at times unconsciously and at times consciously and deliberately. The divine in us wants to fly in the firmament of Freedom, Light and Bliss. The human in us and the divine in us both want happiness. Both feel that if they achieve happiness, then there can be no failure. But the human in us feels that happiness lies in sense-enjoyment or in pleasure-hunting, while the divine in us feels that happiness lies in aspiration, in realisation, in self-transcendence and in God-manifestation.

Aspiration is our inner cry to reach the highest pinnacle of Truth, Light and Bliss. Aspiration is the only key that can unlock God’s Door. The very thing that is aspiration today, tomorrow is achievement. Achievement is self-conquest; self-conquest is self-mastery. Self-mastery and God-discovery are one and the same. In God-discovery, earth-transformation looms large; in earth’s transformation, God’s Satisfaction-Smile dawns.

Realisation is our conscious, constant and inseparable universal oneness. Self-transcendence is our ever-glowing and ever-expanding receptivity that lets us house God’s infinite Truth, eternal Light and immortal Life. God-manifestation is our fulfilled promise. Before we entered into the world arena, we made a solemn promise to the Lord Supreme that we would manifest Him here on earth. When we manifest Him on earth, we fulfil our promise.

I wish to tell you an amusing incident about Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde once went to a party after seeing one of his plays. His friends asked him about the play. His reply was that the play was a success but the audience was a failure. In the Cosmic Game, we are playing with the Supreme. He has allotted a specific role to each of us. If we play our role satisfactorily, then that is our success. World-appreciation and world-admiration cannot elevate our consciousness. It is only in the expansion and heightening of our consciousness that we can see the Face of God and grow into the very Image of God.

In the spiritual life first we have to be awakened. Then we have to aspire and then we have to surrender our will to the Will of the Supreme. He who is awakened can never fail. He who aspires can never fail. He who surrenders his earth-bound will to the Heaven-free Will can never fail.

Quite often seekers of the Ultimate Truth are misunderstood by unaspiring people. Unaspiring people are very often loud and emphatic in their insistence that God-realisation is of no avail. Without the perfect knowledge of God one can easily exist: this is their discovery. Although they are not atheists, they do not care for the living God. But a seeker cries for the living God. Since we are all seekers, we are crying for a God who is living; at every moment we try to see Him, feel Him and talk to Him face to face. Unaspiring people put forth many tenuous arguments, but we offer them our compassion-smile for we know that they are totally mistaken. When these people become vociferous and supercilious, at that time we have to offer them our forgiveness-weapon. With our forgiveness-weapon we can conquer them in the inmost recesses of our aspiring heart. God is living, and He can also be living for us. What makes Him living for us? It is our inner cry, our aspiration. We can feel Him constantly. When? When the inner flame within us is constantly burning.

We are seekers, but we also work; we do dedicated service. When we work, we have to ask ourselves whether or not we work and serve devotedly, cheerfully and unconditionally. If we serve God in man devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally, then success is bound to dawn. Success we attain only through our dedicated service, only by offering our service with joy.

When we offer our success to mankind, we can offer our success as an inspiration, as something to increase the world’s aspiration. But very often we offer our success to the world at large only for our own ego-aggrandisement. We want the world to appreciate our success and laud us to the skies. If we offer our success for ego-aggrandisement, we commit a Himalayan blunder. We are all cosmic players in God’s divine Game. Let us play the Game the way it has been ordained by the Lord Supreme. Let us offer our success to the world in the right way, in the divine way. Otherwise, at the end of our journey, we shall miserably fail.

Just because we are seekers, we have to know that success is not our goal. Progress is our goal. Success is earth-bound. It is noticeable mostly in our vital life, the life that struggles and strikes and gets satisfaction when it notices an iota of success. In our life of aspiration, progress is of paramount importance. If we make progress, automatically we are succeeding in our aspiration, in our realisation, in our God-manifestation.

At every moment a seeker should feel that he is a murmuring and flowing river. Eventually he will enter into the vast sea of Knowledge, Light, Peace and Bliss. In this sea of infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, he will feel continuous progress. Today’s achievement will be only tomorrow’s starting point. A seeker is a divine climber: he climbs up the evolution-tree slowly, steadily and unerringly and reaches the Highest. But when he reaches the Highest, he comes to realise that this height is only the starting point for something still higher. He realises that he is growing into the ever-transcending Beyond.

When a seeker assimilates his realisation, he feels that there can be no failure. In his Heaven-life of aspiration and in his earth-life of self-dedication, his life becomes a life of continuous progress in God’s manifestation on earth.

Love divine<sup>48</sup>

To be loved is a good thing. To love others is a better thing. But to love God and man in God’s own Way is by far the best thing. When we are loved, our life becomes meaningful. When we love, our life becomes soulful. When we love God and man in God’s own Way, our life becomes fruitful.

In ordinary human life we value love and treasure love precisely because we are afraid that the object of our love can be lost at any moment. In the spiritual life we value love because we feel that love is the only thing that can offer us abiding satisfaction. In the spiritual life the love that we experience, the love that we offer, is divine love. Human love is the song of possession. But before we possess others, we see to our utter sorrow that we ourselves are badly possessed. Divine love is the song of emancipation. When we try to emancipate others through divine love, we see that we can emancipate others only after we ourselves have been totally liberated.

Love is courage. Courage is self-giving. Self-giving is God-building and, in God-building, God-manifestation takes place. God’s total manifestation is today a dream. Tomorrow the dream will be transformed into hope, and the day after tomorrow this hope will be transformed into an inner assurance. When we get the inner assurance, our earth-bound consciousness hears the message of the Heaven-free consciousness. At that time, the finite in us consciously, devotedly and soulfully surrenders to the Infinite and becomes inseparably one with the Infinite.

Love is the best form of prayer, love is the best form of worship. There is a striking difference between love and worship. We love because we feel the need of expansion, the need of oneness. When we love God, the lover and the Beloved eventually become one. The lover loses his individuality, his personality, his height, his ego-centered ‘I’ and he and the divine Beloved become one and inseparable. But when we worship, we quite often maintain our own individuality and personality. We feel that we are at the foot of the tree while our Saviour is at the top of the tree. Always there is a reverential awe. Because of this reverential awe, we find it difficult to merge totally into the consciousness of our Saviour. But the divine lover, because of his inner oneness, dives deep into the Consciousness-Sea of his Beloved and becomes the Sea itself. Like a tiny drop, he enters into the mighty ocean and becomes the mighty ocean itself.

In the spiritual life, the more we make progress, the more we feel the necessity of love. God has infinite Power, infinite Peace, infinite Light and infinite Bliss. He has everything in infinite measure, but we feel that even an iota of His Love can quench our lifelong thirst. He can and He will give us everything that He has and everything that He is, but we will not be satisfied unless and until He has given us His Love. Needless to say, His Love Divine encompasses all His other attributes: Peace, Light, Delight and so on. In this world everything may fail us, we may even fail ourselves, but the divine love within us can never fail us, for this love has a permanent Home and Source. That Source is God the infinite Concern, God the infinite Compassion, God the infinite, blessingful Pride in mankind. Love ultimately gives us transcendental happiness. This happiness is not a thing that we can talk about or see around us, but it is something that we can experience in our day-to-day multifarious activities. We can grow into this inner happiness at God’s choice Hour.

As seekers we have to be extremely cautious when we deal with divine love. Very often human love cleverly tries to play the role of divine love. How can we tell whether something is divine love or human love? We can easily know, the moment we dare to examine ourselves. Is this love for the truth within us, is it for the light within us? If the answer is in the affirmative, then we can easily know that it is divine love.

I wish to tell you an incident that took place in the life of the American President, Abraham Lincoln. A certain official said to him that God would be on his side. Lincoln said that he was not concerned about that. His concern was that he would be on God’s side. He was concerned only about his acceptance of God’s Light. Whether or not God took his side was not the question. He said that God will always be on the right side and it was his bounden duty to be on God’s side. Here the real seeker, the real lover in Lincoln spoke.

Through our prayer, meditation and dedication, we can also have God on our side. But this will not satisfy us. If we really love God, we shall offer our love, devotion, surrender, aspiration and dedication to God; at the same time, our fervent prayer and most soulful meditation will be to please God unconditionally in His own Way — to take God’s side. If we please God in one way or another, naturally He will please us: but our sincerity will one day loom large and we shall suffer miserably because we have not pleased God in His own Way. We must not expect God to please us in our own way, although He can easily do so. If we want to have something, He can give it to us; but sooner or later that thing will not satisfy us. Our sincere heart will never be satisfied unless and until we have pleased God in His own Way. But if He gives us what He had intended to give us, then the seeker in us is bound to be happy and this happiness will be everlasting.

We can please God in His own Way only when we have discovered and developed within ourselves an unconditional love for our Supreme Beloved. Our love for God is our inmost cry. His Love for us is His life-transforming, life-illumining, life-fulfilling Smile. When we cry for Him, we offer Him our love. When He offers us His Satisfaction-Smile, it is nothing else but His Love that is being expressed.

Love, devotion and surrender. We offer love to God just because we know that there is nothing and there can be nothing, there is nobody and there can be nobody other than God who can rightfully claim our love. We offer our devotion to God because He is the only one who can utilise our devotion for a right purpose. We offer our dedicated surrender to Him not because we are His slaves, but because we feel that God and man are one. He is our most illumined part, while the part that we represent right now needs illumination.

It is our inner obligation, our bounden duty to be totally illumined from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. Within and without we must be surcharged with God’s infinite Light. When we surrender to the Supreme, we must know that we are surrendering to our own highest part, which is fully illumined. When the lower part enters into the higher part, when the finite in us enters into the Infinite, at that time we become flooded with infinite Light, Peace and Bliss.

Spirituality as an art<sup>49</sup>

Art is creation; creation is art. Human art is often a forced creation. In ordinary human art the body, vital, mind and heart are often forced to try to create something beautiful, lasting and immortal. But in spiritual art nothing is forced. In spiritual art the psychic being comes to the fore and tries to offer the inner art, which is already immortal. The psychic being inspires the body, vital, mind and heart to participate and co-operate in the creation of the work of art.

The great American philosopher, Emerson, said something most significant with regard to art. He said that in art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire. In spiritual art the same rule is applicable. But here we have to say also that the heart can never execute anything higher than the soul can inspire. In ordinary human art we often notice a yawning gulf between the heart’s loftiest inspiration and the hand’s limited capacity. But in spiritual art there is no yawning gulf between the soul’s capacity and the heart’s receptivity. The heart becomes a conscious instrument of the soul’s capacity and the soul’s capacity operates in and through the heart’s receptivity. The aspiring receptivity of the heart and the illumining capacity of the soul complement each other.

Each artist has a human artist and a divine artist within himself. The divine artist and the human artist play hide-and-seek within his creativity. When the human artist within him comes to the fore, he exhibits his art with the hope of receiving appreciation and admiration. He wants the critics and admirers of art to extol his art to the skies. But when the divine artist comes to the fore, the artist does not need or want appreciation; he wants only to elevate the earth-consciousness through his divine art, to energise and immortalise the earth- consciousness through his divine art.

Both spiritual art and ordinary human art deal with beauty. The human artist has come to feel and realise that the beauty in his art is skin-deep. But the divine artist has discovered something totally different. He has discovered that beauty is soul-deep. When one discovers soul-deep art, one is inspired to dive deeper. When he dives deeper, he discovers God the Art. God the Art is at once the revelation and the manifestation of the ever-transcending consciousness of the Eternal Now. Soul-deep art is constantly leading and guiding the terrestrial consciousness to the ever-transcending Reality.

Spiritual art is divine discovery. It realises that the supreme discovery can be made only in and through spirituality. The supreme discovery is God-realisation. The ultimate aim of spiritual art is God-realisation. God-realisation comes only through hard work. Nothing lasting can be achieved overnight. It may take quite a few incarnations, quite a few centuries, before one sees God face to face or merges with the infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. In the ordinary human world, we know how hard Hillary and Tensing worked in order to climb Mount Everest. Spiritual art, the divine discovery, also means climbing up to the highest pinnacle. The motto of this august university is most significant: “Through hard work to the heights.” This motto is the universal message, the universal teaching, of all spiritual art.

It is said that one can simplify everything, that everything can be made easy. If the supreme art, the art of God-realisation, could be made easy through money-power or some other power, then every day thousands or millions of human beings would be able to realise God, the supreme Artist. But this is not the case. For the art of God-realisation we need aspiration. This aspiration eventually will knock at God’s Door, and God will open the Door to the aspiration of each divine artist. If we want to discover the supreme art or the supreme Artist, we have to strengthen our friendship with two divine friends of ours: aspiration and patience. With aspiration and patience eventually we shall reach God’s Transcendental Height.

Right in front of me is a harmonium. If I tried to draw or paint this harmonium, if I tried to offer all my artistic talent to reveal and manifest the essence of this harmonium, the divinity that I would offer to the world would be very limited and insignificant. But if I placed in front of me a picture of the Saviour Christ and tried to draw him, if with my utmost inner aspiration I used my artistic talents and capacities to try to reveal the quintessence of the Christ Consciousness, then if I succeeded in revealing just an iota of this Consciousness, my achievement would become a unique treasure of Mother Earth. If our painting reveals more of the potentiality of the soul and makes it easier for this potentiality to be assimilated, then we have brought to the fore the essence of all-pervading divinity.

There is a very common maxim that says: “Art for art’s sake.” But I wish to say that spiritual art cannot be just for art’s sake. Spiritual art can be only for God’s sake. When God-manifestation can take place in abundant measure, spiritual art is consciously, soulfully and devotedly playing its role. In human art there is a creative motive and a finished product. The cause is followed by the effect. In spiritual art there is no motive or cause; everything is spontaneous. The result, which is already there, is only waiting for God’s choice Hour to be manifested. In spiritual art, the artist depends entirely on his soul’s awakening, his heart’s inner mounting cry, his mind’s conscious and constant search for the highest Truth, his vital’s dynamic approach to the Ultimate Reality and his body’s unconditional service to divinity’s Height.

In ordinary art very often the artist and the critic inside him go together. Each must play his respective role; otherwise, the artist will always think that his art is by far the best, and that it transcends all criticism. Each time an artist creates something, if the critic in him also plays a significant role, then the artist may attain a satisfactory standard. But again, if the critic constantly and mercilessly plays his role, then the artist may not survive: he may die through his own self-criticism.

When a spiritual seeker enters into the field of art, he does not criticise his art. He does not play the role of a critic; he plays the role only of a conscious, constant, awakened and unconditional instrument of his Inner Pilot, the supreme Artist. He is not the doer; he is only the conscious instrument of the doer within him. He feels that the supreme Artist within him is the supreme Inspirer, the supreme Revealer, the supreme Liberator and the supreme Fulfiller of the Consciousness divine that is going to be manifested through his art.

Here we are all seekers; we are all spiritual artists. Let us dive deep within and discover the supreme Artist within us, who is constantly supplying us with infinite inspiration and aspiration to reveal the supreme Light, Delight and Perfection through our spiritual art. Our spiritual art is self-discovery. Self-discovery and God-discovery are one and the same. Today self-discovery is our Goal. Tomorrow God-manifestation will be our Goal. Today let us dive deep within for God-realisation. Tomorrow we shall dive deeper for God-manifestation, which is the supreme, ever-transcending, eternal Art.

Confidence<sup>50</sup>

We all know that there are two types of confidence: human and divine. Human confidence is very often founded upon our little ‘i’, our ego. Ego means ignorance-pleasure and sense-enjoyment. This little ego binds us, imprisons us. But divine confidence is founded upon our Transcendental Self: the Self that liberates us, the Self that brings us the message of Universal Consciousness, the Self that helps us transcend our earth-bound consciousness and enter into the Infinite. I wish to speak about divine confidence.

Confidence is the unification of God the Compassion and man the reliance. Confidence is the expression and revelation of God’s Will through the human heart, mind, vital and body. Confidence is the God-Beauty in us. Confidence is truth-unity and truth-multiplicity in us. Confidence is truth-recognition in us, Heaven-vision by us and God-decision for us. Confidence is our life-acceptance and life-transcendence, our earth-transformation and God-manifestation.

Confidence is not pride; it is the conscious awareness of our own height and depth. Confidence is not the aggrandisement of our ego; it is the awareness of our developing strength in the battlefield of life. Confidence is not the precursor of destruction; it is the precursor of achievement, of abundant, divine achievement for the Absolute Supreme.

Confidence is our divine contentment which knows what to enjoy, how to enjoy, where to enjoy and why to enjoy. What to enjoy? God’s Smile. How to enjoy? Through selfless service, through self-offering. Where to enjoy? In pure consciousness; in the inmost recesses of our aspiring heart, mind, vital and physical. Why to enjoy? Because we need the expression of the inner Self.

In the inner world we feel that divine confidence is housed in our aspiration. Aspiration is the harbinger of Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. He who embodies aspiration in the purest sense of the term can reveal and manifest Light, Truth and Delight. According to the world’s receptivity, the world receives these qualities from the supreme seeker who embodies confidence in the form of aspiration.

Confidence is like a divine muscle. It can be developed slowly, steadily and unerringly if we know the secret of disciplining our body, vital, mind and heart. In order to discipline ourselves what we need is an inner cry, the cry that carries our entire being into the highest realm of Silence. In this way we develop confidence, and with this confidence-muscle we can be strong, stronger, strongest. Each human being represents the physical world, the vital world, the mental world and the psychic world. In the physical world he is hunting after pleasure. He achieves a little pleasure and feels that his achievement is his confidence. In the vital world he brings the message of Julius Caesar. He declares, Veni, vidi, vici — “I came, I saw, I conquered.” In the mental world, if his mind is illumined to a certain extent, he feels that through his mind’s light earth can be illumined, perfected and liberated. He feels that earth can be a conscious receptacle of divinity, that divinity can be housed in the earth-consciousness. And when he is in the psychic or heart’s world he soulfully offers this unique message to the world at large: “I came into the world to love God in mankind and to be of unconditional service to God in mankind.”

In our spiritual life, belief is of importance, but we have to know whether this belief is mental or psychic. If belief comes to the fore from an inner realm of consciousness, then it is a superior type of belief, a psychic belief. This type of belief abides in the silent home of our soul’s light, and it is synonymous with divine confidence. It is powerful and unassailable. This type of belief, this divine confidence, inspires and energises us to fight for truth, for light, for world harmony, for world peace and for world salvation. But mental belief can be battered and shattered in a moment by doubt, suspicion and other hostile forces in the world.

In the spiritual life we have two giant friends: faith and confidence. Faith can hear the message of the highest Silence. Faith can guide us and lead us to our soul’s Goal of goals. Confidence can hear the message of the cosmic sound. Confidence can act like a hero-warrior in the battlefield of life. It can change today’s world of darkness, imperfection and bondage into a world of light, perfection and freedom.

Death<sup>51</sup>

There are two types of desiring human beings. One type considers death to be an evil force, since death’s arrival prevents all his teeming desires from being fulfilled on earth. Therefore, he considers death an enemy, an unwelcome guest. The second type has come to realise that desire itself is painful. When he exercises his capacity and talents in order to fulfil a desire, he sees that this very process is hurtful and painful. When the result comes, it comes either in the form of failure or in the form of success. If it comes in the form of failure, he is doomed to disappointment. And if it comes in the form of success, even then he is not totally happy, for he thought that the success would be something more illumining and more fulfilling than it turns out to be. Alas, he does not get the kind of success that he actually expected from his tireless efforts. So neither desire nor the result of desire is satisfactory; both are extremely discouraging, disappointing and painful. This kind of desiring man welcomes death; he longs for it. Since he cannot stay on earth even for a day without desire and frustration, he wants to leave earth. But again, when death knocks at his door, his whole being is shattered; he cries for life. At that time, he does not want to welcome death. When desire-life proves unsatisfactory he wants death; but when death actually knocks at his door he wants something else; he wants to stay on earth.

As there are two types of desiring persons, even so are there two types of aspiring human beings. One type always longs for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. For him, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a chimerical mist; it is something within his aspiring heart. He wants to bring it to the fore and manifest it here on earth. But he can do so only by conquering death. He has to conquer death for good; then only will it be possible for him to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to the fore or bring it down from Above.

The second type of aspiring person wants to offer another message. He says that no doubt we have to conquer death, but it is not the physical or human body that will conquer death; it is the consciousness within the physical frame that will conquer death. The earth-bound consciousness has to enjoy the Heaven-free Light and Delight. Just by staying on earth for a long span of time — four hundred or five hundred years — we do not accomplish anything significant. If we go to some Indian villages, we see that there are many people who have been on earth for more than one hundred years. But when it is a matter of inner experience, inner growth, spiritual development, divine achievement, they have achieved next to nothing. They are leading an ordinary human life, if not a half-animal life. It is not the mere prolongation of physical life that we need. The consciousness of the reality within us must be expanded, enlarged, energised and immortalised. True, in order to achieve a divine and immortal consciousness, we have to stay on earth for quite a few years. But this is not for the sake of the body’s pleasure-life, but for the expansion and enlargement of the consciousness within the body.

The Vedic seers of the hoary past offered a most significant prayer: “Lord Supreme, grant us the eyes to see You for a hundred years. Grant us the ears to hear Your divine Message for a hundred years. Grant us the hearts to serve You for a hundred years.” Then they say not just for a hundred years, but far beyond a hundred years. Why? Just to serve God, fulfil God and manifest God here on earth. They want to live on earth for the divine manifestation. They want from God an infinite period of life so that they can realise, reveal and manifest Him. This is their aim. The body will die eventually, but the Immortality of the divinised consciousness must be offered to Mother Earth so that Mother Earth receives something unique, unprecedented, immortal and supreme.

Spiritual people have discovered something else. They are of the opinion that he who does not aspire is a dead soul. One has not to die physically in order to be considered dead. No! He who does not aspire is dead because he is making little or no progress. When we make progress, we are heading towards a new reality. Each time we enter into a new reality, a new life dawns on earth and we are utilised by it. A moment used undivinely increases the reach of the hands of death. A moment used divinely extends and adds to our life.

If we want to live in the Eternal Now, we have to feel that the past is dust, that the past is a dead experience. We have to obliterate it from our consciousness. Each second that is disappearing from our life is dead. If we identify ourselves with the passing second and enter into the past with it, then we experience death. But if we utilise each second for a divine purpose, then it has new life. The future we do not know, but we want to grow into the future or we want to bring down the life of the future into the immediacy of today.

The Vedic seers realised that movement is life, that if we do not move in the spiritual life, then death knocks at our door. But again, there is life in deep silence, in the inmost recesses of silence-life. In silence-life, the sound-body is constantly coming into existence. But this is the deepest and most meaningful discovery: one has to reach the highest realm of Consciousness in order to live in the Transcendental Silence-Life. Then one can consciously create at every moment the sound-body that is necessary for God-manifestation on earth.

Death is preparation; death is relaxation. Until it is time to prepare ourselves once more to enter into the battlefield of life, we relax for a short while in death. Life is first of all an experience, the experience that will free us from ignorance-sea and inspire us to swim in the sea of Wisdom-Light. Then life becomes God- satisfaction; in God-satisfaction we experience the height of God’s ever-transcending Dream and the depth of God’s ever-fulfilling Reality.

The desiring man thinks that death is destruction. A beginner-seeker feels that death is a supreme mystery. An advanced seeker knows that death is a short rest. A God-realised person has unmistakably discovered that death is an instrument of God. Death is an instrument of God when it frightens the desiring man so that he does not wallow in the pleasures of ignorance, so that he cries for a higher, more illumining and more fulfilling life. Death is also a divine instrument when it plays its role by increasing the aspiration of the seeker. Before death’s arrival, a seeker wants to accomplish quite a few things for Mother Earth and Father Heaven, so he invokes peace, light and bliss from Above with ever-increasing aspiration, for he wants to inundate his earthly being with these qualities in infinite measure long before death’s arrival at his life’s door.

Here we are all seekers. Some of us are unconsciously growing into immortal Life or flowing with the river of immortal Life; others are consciously invoking the infinite Light of the ever-transcending Beyond, the Light of immortal Life which we utilise for God’s total, complete and perfect manifestation on earth. Each seeker is a creator. Each seeker is a saviour. Each seeker is a liberator. Each seeker is the conscious representative of the Absolute Supreme precisely because in his creation, in his aspiration and in his realisation he discovers a life which is constantly transcending its own height. In this ever-transcending movement, death plays the role of a devoted, surrendered and all-fulfilling instrument of the Absolute Supreme.

When one lived the life of desire, death stood as an obstacle, an ignorance-force. But when one became a seeker, he saw that death is only a loving instrument, that death is nothing but the younger brother of life. As a younger brother, death feels that it is its bounden duty to help its elder brother, life. It does this by offering Immortality’s Light, Eternity’s Height, Infinity’s Smile and Perfection’s Satisfaction to earth.

Inner obedience<sup>52</sup>

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 right from the wrong? 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 comes to see that his animal-life and desire-life served a purpose, but they 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 that 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.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow<sup>53</sup>

Yesterday I wrote good things; therefore, my Lord Supreme was pleased with me. He shook hands with me. Today I have good thoughts; therefore, my Lord Supreme is more pleased with me. He is blessing my devoted head and surrendered heart. 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. Today I am a peace-hungry man.

Yesterday I was God-preparation. Today I am God-dedication. 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 pray to God because my sweet Lord has once taken me into His Soul-Room. 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 loved God once; therefore, I wish to love 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 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.

Greatness and goodness<sup>54</sup>

Students who want to cultivate mental knowledge of the highest degree come here from all over the world to achieve greatness. Then they go back to their respective countries to offer the knowledge-light that they have achieved here. This knowledge-light that they spread is goodness.

To have greatness is to have faith in oneself — in one’s physical, in one’s vital, in one’s mind and in one’s heart. If one has a strong body, he has faith in his physical strength. If one has a dynamic vital, then he has implicit faith in his vital. If one is blessed with a brilliant mind, then he has faith in his mind. And if one is blessed with a pure and unalloyed heart, then he has tremendous faith in his heart.

Goodness is faith only in God, in Truth, in Light. When one becomes part and parcel of Truth, then one takes the side of Truth and Light. And when one is always for God, this is nothing but goodness. Goodness always has faith in God, Truth and Light.

Greatness is a universally acknowledged fact. Goodness is also a universally acknowledged fact. But it is something more. It is universally loved reality. Greatness we observe in our outer life. Goodness we observe in our inner life. With our human eyes, we observe greatness around us, all over the world. With our divine heart, we feel goodness within us and within others.

God is great because He has created this world. This is a fact that we have been taught by our parents, by our friends, by the world body. God is also good, kind, compassionate. He is our Source within us; He is for us, eternally for us. He wants to liberate us, He wants to illumine us, He wants to grant us realisation, satisfaction and fulfilment. He is the Author of all good. This is God the Goodness. God the Creator is Greatness and God the Lover of His Creation is Goodness. We love God not because He is supremely great, but because He is universally, transcendentally good. Greatness astonishes us. Goodness illumines us and liberates us from the shackles of bondage.

Greatness we can express in an animal way when we quarrel, fight and try to destroy one another. When we stay together in a family and love one another, then greatness is expressed in a human way. When we try to elevate one another and help one another reach the highest heights, at that time greatness is expressed in a divine way. Finally, greatness is expressed in the supreme way when we tell the world that God the Eternal Reality is also eternally good; He is the Source. He is waiting for us, Him to please in His own Way. Here we reach greatness, supreme greatness, on the strength of our conscious and constant surrender to God’s Will.

Usually our human mind craves greatness, whereas our divine heart longs for goodness. Sometimes we notice a yawning gulf between the mind and the heart, between the goal that the mind wants to reach and the goal that the heart wants to reach. The mind tries to see its goal by separating one reality from another. Everything it wants to see in an infinitesimal measure, whereas the heart wants to see the goal, the reality, as a unit, one and inseparable. The mind and the heart approach reality in different ways, but they cannot always remain separated. They have to be unified in order to achieve the highest truth. There are two kinds of mind: the physical mind and the illumined mind. The physical mind is bound by the physical world. It wants to lord it over the world. It wants to stay at least an inch above others so that it can dominate others. Consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, it gets tremendous joy from its sense of separativity. The illumined mind is totally different. It longs for vastness within and without. It wants nothing but vastness and, inside vastness, it wants to grow and glow.

The human heart, which is very near the vital centre, is quite often insecure. It does not want to house others inside it. It feels that when others want to take shelter in it, they may break the vessel. It feels it is too small. Therefore, the human heart is quite often insecure, timid. And just because it is quite near the vital, unconsciously or consciously, like a magnet it pulls impurity from the undisciplined vital. But there is also the spiritual heart. This heart is always united with the soul; it has established its oneness with the soul. The soul, which is the direct representative of the Lord Supreme, has light in boundless measure. And the spiritual heart has a free access to the soul. Therefore, it can easily bring down the soul’s light into its system.

The oneness of the spiritual heart and the vastness of the illumined mind must be brought together. Oneness we can establish with another individual or with some tiny object. But if we have vastness along with the oneness, if we can establish our oneness with God’s vast Creation, then we become perfect. Likewise, vastness without oneness is of no avail. God’s Creation is very vast, but if we fail to establish our oneness with this vastness, then vastness remains a barren desert. In order to become perfect, we have to create within us vastness and oneness, and we have to grow into both vastness and oneness.

There are two worlds. One is the world of desire; the other is the world of aspiration. When we remain in the desire-world, greatness looms large. But when we remain in the aspiration-world, goodness looms large. Just because we are seekers, we are consciously trying to come out of the domain of the desire-world and establish our abode in the aspiration-world.

The desire to know the world and the desire to know oneself are totally different things. When we want to know the world around us, without caring for our oneness with the world, unconsciously we are aiming at greatness. And this greatness, without fail, separates us from the world. But when we want to know ourselves implicitly, what we realise is that we are part and parcel of the whole, of the integral reality. Even if we start with the desire-world and try to become great, no harm. It is far better than remaining in the world of lethargy and somnolence. But there shall come a time when we see that our greatness has not given us an iota of satisfaction; for inside greatness what we see is frustration. There comes a time when our greatness is challenged. An individual feels that he is a great singer. But sooner or later his pride is smashed when he sees that another singer is far better than he. Then what does he do? He resorts to goodness.

Goodness is not in competing with the world around us; it only offers the message of self-transcendence. If we at all have to compare, then the comparison is with ourselves. If we at all have to compete, then we will compete with our own previous capacities. Here there is no other world. There is only our own world of constant and continuous progress. We try only to transcend ourselves. In the desire-world there is comparison and competition. But in the aspiration-world, we do not want to make others feel that we are superior. No. When we feel that we have an iota of light, we aspire to have abundant light, infinite Light. Only by virtue of our constant aspiration do we transcend our own capacities. We feel that the more we increase our capacity and the more we utilise our capacity to please the Inner Pilot in His own Way, the sooner we become His perfect instruments.

Confidence<sup>55</sup>

Confidence awakens our physical. Confidence energises our vital. Confidence illumines our mind. Confidence purifies our heart. A pure heart, an illumined mind, an energetic and dynamic vital and a wakeful body can and will manifest the divine realities here on earth.

Confidence is a divine revelation of our inner assurance. There is an unseen reality within us, a divine Pilot, an Inner Pilot who moulds and shapes our lives. When we hear the message of the Inner Pilot, in our outer life we feel confidence. Confidence is an outer gift from Above, whereas assurance is an inner gift from Above.

Confidence is self-awareness. We want to be aware of ourselves. We want to know what our source is, where we came from, what we are doing here on earth. We want to know our respective roles in this Cosmic Game, this Lila. Our confidence brings to the fore the inner vision, the reality that we are aiming at, that we want to grow into.

Confidence is not a display of our egocentric life. Confidence is a divine force. Ego binds us and blinds us. Ego offers us the message of separativity and self-enjoyment. Confidence, on the other hand, wants to express its universal oneness. It is for all; it is for the Infinite, the Vast. Confidence cannot be satisfied all by itself. It wants to grow into the Universal Light and Transcendental Height.

When we have confidence in ourselves, we realise the Ultimate Truth and Light, the Absolute Supreme. When God has confidence in us, He makes us not only His perfect instruments, but conscious representatives of His Divinity, His Reality, His Infinity, His Eternity and His Immortality on earth. With our confidence in God, we go up and reach His Transcendental Height. With God’s Confidence in us, God comes down and makes us His Infinity, His Eternity, His Immortality. And this is not the end of His Game. Then He wants us to manifest what we have become.

Confidence is introduction. Confidence introduces our earthly reality to the divine Reality. And the divine Reality introduces its wealth — infinite Peace, Light and Bliss — to us when we are confident.

Life is either meaningful or meaningless. For those who do not seek, life is meaningless, a barren desert. For seekers, at every moment life is meaningful and fruitful; life has a purpose, a meaning, a reality and an Ultimate Goal. What brings us the message of the Ultimate Goal, what brings us the reality of the inner world, the more illumining, more fulfilling higher world? It is our confidence. With our confidence-light, we dig deep within and, while digging within, we cultivate the bumper-crop of realisation, liberation and perfection.

An unaspiring person talks to himself and talks to the world. But he cannot talk to the Ultimate Reality. It is only a man of confidence, inner confidence, divine confidence, supreme confidence who can talk to the highest Reality: the Transcendental Vision and the Universal Reality.

One portion of divinity comes down into the world and another remains Above. The one that remains Above is known as the Father-Reality and the one that comes down is known as the Son-Reality. Again, there comes a time when the two realities become inseparably one and tell the world of their oneness. Jesus Christ, the Saviour, announced, “I and my Father are one.” His confidence-light he brought down into the world; and it was his confidence-light that uttered, “I and my Father are one.” When Divinity enters into humanity and illumines humanity, at that time humanity claims Divinity as its very own.

Confidence is oneness with the Beyond, the oneness of earth-life with Heaven-life. Where God is, confidence is bound to be. God has given us the secret key to open up His Heart’s Door and that secret key is confidence. We pray, we meditate, only to cultivate one divine quality and that one divine quality is confidence. Confidence shows us the way to go ahead, the way to dive deep within, the way to fly above. Confidence is the pioneer that constantly leads us, guides us, beckons us to the Ultimate Source.

Each individual has teeming questions: “Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my Ultimate Goal?” All the questions of our inner and outer life can be answered by one solitary thing: confidence. If we have confidence, then we can explore the inner world. If we have confidence, then we can explore the outer world.

Here we are all seekers. We want to know the reality that we eternally are and that we are going to offer to the world at large. And for that what we need is perfection, self-perfection. It is only in self-perfection that we can please the Inner Pilot, the Supreme Pilot, the world around us, the world within us. This perfection is our constant confidence in ourselves and in our Inner Pilot.

Again, this confidence has a Source. Its Source is God’s Compassion-Light and Compassion-Delight. God grants us Light in boundless measure at our journey’s start. And it is He, the Supreme, the Eternal Pilot, who grants us eternal, boundless Delight as we continue along the way. Light energises us. Light leads us, guides us to our Ultimate Destination, where we see the transformation of Light into Delight. Delight fulfils us. Delight immortalises us.

We aspire to become good, to become loving, to become devoted, to become useful to the world at large. But this aspiration also needs something from us. It is confidence that aspiration expects from each seeker. If the seeker is wanting in confidence, then his aspiration can never be regular, it can never be spontaneous, it can never be continuous. But if, inside his aspiration, confidence looms large, then he walks along a sunlit road to his Destined Goal.

A child has confidence in his parents. He feels that his parents know everything, have everything and are everything for him. Similarly, a seeker has all confidence in his Inner Pilot, the Supreme, who is guiding his destiny, his life, his aspiration, his realisation, his reality to the Ultimate Goal.

Each day we are granted by the Author of all good, out of His infinite Bounty, confidence both in our inner life and in our outer life. But if we use our physical mind — our earth-bound, sophisticated, obscure, unlit, unaspiring, intellectual mind — to search, we may not feel God’s Confidence-Light. For the earth-bound mind feels that it is complete in itself; it does not need any reality other than its own existence.

But the heart constantly feels that it can house something more, that it can see something more, that it can grow into something more, that it has something more to offer to the world at large. The heart has the eagerness to receive and to achieve from the world within and from the world without. The heart has a constant, inner thirst to be universal, to be transcendental. Therefore, the heart always looks within and around to grasp and invoke the infinite Realities that abide in God’s entire Creation. The heart comes to realise that there is only one way to achieve and grow into these infinite Realities and that is the way of self-giving. What is self-giving today, tomorrow that very thing is God-becoming. On the strength of self-giving, our aspiring heart becomes both universal and transcendental. This self-giving heart has a source of its own and that source is confidence. Confidence also has its source. Its source is God’s Compassion, God’s infinite, unconditional, immortal Compassion in man, for man.

Progress-delight<sup>56</sup>

Asato ma sad gamaya

Mrityor ma amritam gamaya

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Lead me from darkness to Light.

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Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante

Anandam prayantyabhisam visanti

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In Delight we grow.

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My progress-delight is my Lord’s revealing Sound. My progress-delight is my Lord’s fulfilling Silence.

Thoughtful inspiration I need, soulful aspiration I need, fruitful meditation I need. My thoughtful inspiration will make me a great God-seeker, my soulful aspiration will make me a good God-server and my fruitful realisation will make me a perfect God-lover.

I cry and I smile. I cry in my heart and I smile with my soul. My heart’s cry reaches the perfection-sky. My soul’s smile transcends to the satisfaction-sun. I must ascend and transcend. My ascendance is my aspiration-cry and my transcendence is my satisfaction-smile.

There are human beings who think that life is a dream, an illusion, while others claim that life is a battlefield. Still others think that life is a divine play and each human being is a divine instrument. A seeker is he who has become a conscious instrument of his Beloved Supreme. Him to love, Him to serve and Him to manifest in His own Way is the aim, the sleepless aim, of the seeker.

Here we are all seekers. What we have is a mounting cry and what we are is a gratitude-flame. On the strength of our aspiration-cry and our gratitude-flame, we are bound to reach our Destined Goal: the Goal that is beckoning us, the Goal of God-satisfaction in God’s own Way at God’s choice Hour. There can be no better way to feel progress-delight and to feel our entire being flooded with light and delight than to please God in God’s own Way. How do we achieve this? We achieve this great realisation-height only when we value at every moment the real self within us and not the usual self within us. The real self within us is our constant inner cry. The usual self within us is our desire-cry, which at every moment wallows in the pleasures of ignorance.

Success-life is not our goal. Progress-life is our goal. We compete not with others. We compete with our teeming doubts, worries and anxieties. When we minimise our doubts, worries and anxieties, we make more satisfactory progress, and there comes a time when we free ourselves, liberate ourselves totally, from doubts, anxieties, worries, insecurities and so forth. That is the moment when we enjoy our progress-delight.

Soulfully let us pray, fruitfully let us meditate, and ours will be the Goal of goals: God-realisation in God’s own Way.

Success-height<sup>57</sup>

Success-height, what is it? It is futile emptiness. What is missing? Light, light that illumines man’s endless darkness, is missing. What else is missing? Delight, delight that feeds man’s beginningless hunger, is missing. In the life of a Truth-seeker, success-height is utterly meaningless and, in the life of a God-lover, it is absolutely useless. A Truth-seeker constantly needs progress-vision. A God-lover sleeplessly needs progress-realisation. Progress-vision and progress-realisation alone can inundate a Truth-seeker’s and a God-lover’s life with infinite Peace, infinite Bliss and infinite Satisfaction.

Success-life is an outer cry. Julius Caesar represents this cry for humanity: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Progress-smile and the inner life go together. Inner aspiration-cry and outer progress-smile will always go together. Here we can invoke the soul of the immortal poet William Blake. The seeker-heart in him envisioned the Infinite in the finite; his was a cry of the finite for the Infinite:

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And Heaven in a wild flower,

And eternity in an hour.

This is what a seeker-heart longs for. Each second is a golden opportunity for a Truth-seeker and God-lover to make progress. His heart’s mounting cry constantly helps him grow into something high, higher, highest and deep, deeper, deepest. It is his bounden duty to pray soulfully and meditate fruitfully so that his progress, which is undoubtedly the progress of his Pilot Supreme in and through him, will be limitless.

In order to achieve success, an individual may adopt foul means. Again, in order to achieve success, he has to face countless difficulties: the challenging world, the teeming doubts, fears, worries and anxieties, the frightening experiences he has to encounter. But he who wants progress, only progress, in his life takes these unfortunate incidents as his experience-light. For him, each incident is an experience and each experience helps him grow into a larger reality.

Progress-life alone can satisfy a seeker’s Lord Supreme. His Lord Supreme tells him that He is extremely proud of him, for in him He has discovered a chosen instrument of His. Again, the seeker is extremely proud of himself, for he has chosen to express, to reveal and to manifest the inner divinity in fullest measure. God’s Vision and Reality — His Eternity’s Vision and His Infinity’s Reality — only a seeker-heart can embody, reveal and manifest this immortal message. He does it by virtue of his progress-life, and his progress-life is always founded upon his self-giving. Today what we call a self-giving experience, tomorrow that very thing presents itself before us as a God-becoming realisation.

A conversation with my Lord Supreme⁵⁸

Peace is in the beauty of my silence-mind.

A new flame of aspiration inside my heart

Peace for mankind.

My Lord Supreme, I would like to ask You a few soulful and spiritual questions. Will You kindly answer them, my Lord Supreme?

“Certainly, My child. I shall answer all your questions.”

My Lord, I am a Truth-seeker and I am a God-lover. My Lord, I wish to glorify You. Please tell me how I can glorify You.

“My child, if you sincerely want to glorify Me, then never be afraid of Me, but be all love. Love Me soulfully, love Me sleeplessly, love Me breathlessly and, finally, love Me unconditionally if you want to glorify Me here on earth.”

My Lord, please tell me how my spiritual life can deal with Your Greatness-Mind and Your Goodness-Heart.

“My child, never, never try to understand My Infinity’s Greatness-Mind. Never. Try to feel at every moment My Immortality’s Goodness in your heart of aspiration and in your life of dedication.”

My Lord Supreme, You know I have an animal vital, a human mind and a divine heart. How can I use them properly?

“The animal vital of yours, never, never use. Never use it to challenge the world, to devour the world. Never. Your human mind, never use it to lord it over others, to achieve supremacy. No, never. Your divine heart, use it at every moment to establish oneness-peace here, there and everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the world. Use your divine heart to establish oneness-peace, peace universal.”

My Lord Supreme, out of Your infinite Bounty, You have given me Your Joy, Blessings and Compassion. These are Your Gifts supreme to earth. Quite often, I forget that I have received these Blessings from You. I do not remember them. Do You feel sad when I do not remember Your supreme Blessings?

“No, My child, I do not feel sad if you do not remember My Blessings supreme which I have bestowed upon you. But I do feel sad when you forget the things that you have done for Me since you entered into the spiritual life: your aspiration-heart, your dedication-life, your willingness-breath and your gratitude-heart. Always try to remember the good things you have done. Only by remembering the good things that you have done for Me will you be able to increase your good qualities. By thinking of your good qualities and meditating on your good qualities, you are bound to increase them and you are bound to improve your spiritual life. You will be able to run fast, faster, fastest and this will make Me happy, divinely happy and supremely happy.

“So, My child, always remember the things that you have done for Me most devotedly and soulfully. What I have done for you and what I will do for you is all done unconditionally. I do not expect anything in return from you. Always try to remember what you have given Me so that your present achievements can be the foundation of your supreme life-temple that will reach high, higher, highest.”

My Lord Supreme, what is the difference between outer education and inner education?

“My child, the outer education tells you how to scrutinise Me. While scrutinising Me, you are unconsciously trying to crucify Me. Your outer education also teaches you how to possess the world. To your utter surprise, while trying to possess the world, you are possessed mercilessly.

“Your inner education is an eternal thirst, an eternal hunger. This eternal thirst and this eternal hunger bring you into My Heart of complete Satisfaction. My child, if you want the life of spirituality, if you want to make yourself divinely and supremely happy, then your inner education is of paramount importance.”

My Lord Supreme, my last question: what do You think of me?

“My child, I think of you exactly the way I think of Myself. I think of you as another God. In Heaven you are My dreamer-partner and, here on earth, you are My action-partner. Together we dream of a better and more illumining creation. On the strength of your unconditional surrender and your gratitude-heart, My child, we have become inseparably one. Each seeker-heart is inseparably one with Me for My manifestation here on earth.”

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In my gratitude-heart is the peace-plant.

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Oneness-education⁵⁹

Peace is not

Peace is

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You and I have the same God, yet we quarrel and fight. God asks you to trust me; you fail to obey God. God asks me the same thing, He asks me to trust you; but I certainly fail.

You and I have the same God. God asks you to see Him in me, and He asks me to see Him inside you. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme. You see in me countless imperfections when you look at me. I do the same when I look at you. You do not see in me the Presence of God. I do not see in you the Presence of God. You do not see anything divine, inspiring, aspiring, illumining and fulfilling in me. Alas, I also fail to see in you anything divine, inspiring, illumining and fulfilling. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme.

You and I have the same God. You think and you know and you feel that your God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. I, too, see and feel the same. But when you look at me, you think I am imperfection incarnate, you feel I am past correction. You forget that your God is omnipotent. If so is His Will, He can perfect my life in the twinkling of an eye. Similarly, when I see your countless imperfections, I fail to see the Presence — the loving and benevolent Presence — of my Lord Beloved Supreme. I, too, forget the fact that my God, whom I claim to be my God, is omnipotent. If your God is omnipotent and if my God is omnipotent, how is it that we cannot have faith in God’s Power supreme? You can pray to God for my perfection; I can pray to God for your perfection. This is one way for us to make God happy, although it may take a long time for you to see my perfection and, vice versa, for me also to see perfection in you. But the very fact that you and I are praying mutually for our mutual perfection will make our Lord Beloved Supreme happy far beyond our imagination.

You and I have the same God, yet we disagree most of the time and we quarrel and fight. You and I pray to God for happiness. We pray to God and we speak to God. You say to God, “O God, please make me happy first and then I shall make You happy. You please fulfil all my teeming desires. Once I am happy, then I shall make You happy, O Lord Supreme.” This is your prayer. I, too, have the exact same prayer. I say to my Lord Supreme, “My Lord, please fulfil my desires first, all my desires please fulfil, then I shall definitely make You happy. First make me happy, then I shall unfailingly and undoubtedly make You happy.”

Here, in this case, you and I are sailing in the same boat. We want our happiness first, and then God’s Happiness. But God says to us, “Since you are begging Me for happiness, pleading with Me, it is you who have to make Me happy first, not the other way around.” And, again, God says to us, “My children, if I make you happy first, it will be the fulfilment of your desire-life. No matter how many times I fulfil your desires in order to make you happy, I will not be able to make you happy, never! But if you make Me happy first, on the strength of your aspiration-life, then you will feel that in My Happiness alone your happiness can be discovered, for I am the Source of all happiness. So please, My children, be wise. Make Me happy first. Then you are bound to be happy, and this happiness will last forever.”

You and I have the same God. You want to see perfection in me. I want to see perfection in you. By speaking to God day in and day out against me, do you not think you are displeasing God and irritating God? For He is all Compassion for both of us. Again, I do the same. I speak ill of you to God at every moment. I think that by speaking ill of you, I am making my point clear to God, I am making God feel I am far better than you. “Oh no, that is not the way,” my Lord Supreme tells me. We have to see all the divine qualities in each other to make our Lord Supreme happy. Our imperfect nature can only be transformed by His Compassion-Eye and Forgiveness-Heart.

You and I have the same God. You are God-thirsty and God-hungry; this is absolutely true. I, too, am God-thirsty and God-hungry. But if our hunger is genuine and if, at every moment, we want to be fed and nourished by God’s Nectar-Delight, by His infinite Compassion, infinite Love and Light and Delight, then can we have even a fraction of a moment to think of each other? When I think of you, I think of your imperfections, your weaknesses. You do the same. Such being the case, who is actually our Lord? We pray to God for five minutes a day, but we think of each other for ten or twelve hours a day.

When we accept the spiritual life, we make a fervent promise to our soul, to our heart, to our inner life, to our Inner Pilot, that we shall always think of God, our Lord Beloved Supreme. And yet, instead of thinking of our Lord Beloved Supreme at every moment, you think of me daily for hours and I also do the same with regard to you. You think of God for just ten minutes a day. I do exactly the same, not a minute more than you. So we have made each other our God, and poor God, the real God, is buried in oblivion in our ignorance-mind and ignorance-life.

No, my friend, since we wish to sail in the same boat, the boat of aspiration, the boat that will lead us to our Destined Goal, the Golden Shore, let us believe in our oneness-education; let us start today with our oneness-education. This oneness-education is founded upon our mutual aspiration and reciprocal dedication. Together we must aspire, in spite of our weaknesses, difficulties and imperfections. Together we must raise our consciousness to high, higher, highest heights. Together let us sail in the same boat, the boat that will take us to our Destination, the Golden Shore. Our Beloved Supreme is eagerly waiting for our arrival. Let us make Him happy in His own Way, and His own Way means our oneness-education, oneness-perfection, oneness-satisfaction.

Sri Aurobindo: a glimpse (abridged)<sup>60</sup>

> — Sri Aurobindo, Savitri

On August 15th, 1872 Sri Aurobindo took human birth in Calcutta, Bengal, to awaken Mother Earth from her somnolence deep and lead her to the heights of God-rapture-fire. For seventy-eight fleeting years did this mightiest of souls live among us, accepting the world pain and making sacrifice after sacrifice to transform humanity’s age-old ignorance into perfect Perfection.

> My God is Love and sweetly suffers all.

When Aurobindo was just seven years old, his father took him and his two older brothers to England to receive their education. Aurobindo was to remain in England for fourteen years, far removed from his parents and his homeland. He attended St. Paul’s School in West Kensington, London, and was accepted into King’s College, Cambridge, as an Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) probationer. Aurobindo was at Cambridge from October 1890 to October 1892. At the end of his studies, Aurobindo secured a First Class result in Latin and Greek, but was disqualified from the open I.C.S. examination for failing to present himself for the riding test. In later years, Sri Aurobindo revealed that he was wandering the streets of London at the time of his appointment. He had resolved to bring about his rejection from the I.C.S. because he felt no call for the administrative life. He preferred poetry, literature, the study of languages and patriotic activities.

At this time, he was introduced to the Gaekwar of Baroda, who offered him a position in his State Secretariat. Aurobindo accepted the position and decided to sail for India in January 1893. Aurobindo’s father was extremely attached to this son, whom he had not seen for fourteen years. He had almost intuitive high hopes that his Auro was to brighten the face of India. Alas, the ship which was to carry Aurobindo sank off the coast of Portugal. On the assumption that his son must have perished with the lost ship, his father died of a broken heart. But Aurobindo boarded a second ship and he reached India safely in February 1893.

As soon as Aurobindo stepped on India’s soil at Apollo Bunder, Bombay, he had a most significant spiritual experience. His entire being was inundated with peace. The all-pervading Presence of the Infinite he felt. This lofty experience came to him unsought. Aurobindo’s father had been an atheist and his children’s upbringing in England did not encompass spirituality. Aurobindo’s spiritual experiences came to him gradually.

Aurobindo spent thirteen years in the Baroda State Service, first in the Secretariat, later as Professor of French and English, and finally as Vice-Principal of the Baroda State College. When one of his students ventured the question, “How can nationalism be developed?” Aurobindo replied, pointing to a wall map of India:

> Look at that map. Learn to find in it the portrait of Bharat Mata. The cities, mountains, rivers and forests are the materials which go to make up Her body. The people inhabiting the country are the cells which go to make up Her living tissues. Our literature is Her memory and speech. The spirit of our culture is Her soul. The happiness and freedom of Her children is Her salvation. Behold Bharat as a living Mother, meditate upon Her and worship Her in the nine-fold way of bhakti.

Consecrated to India’s independence from his Cambridge days, Aurobindo devoted his spare time at Baroda to learning Indian languages, absorbing Indian culture and practising yoga. He conducted secret societies for work towards independence and wrote articles constructively criticising the thinking of India’s political leaders of the National Congress.

In 1903 the Maharaja of Baroda took Aurobindo with him as secretary on a tour to Kashmir. There, on Shankaracharya Hill, high above the valley of Kashmir, Aurobindo had a vivid experience of the vacant Infinite. This experience left an abiding impression on his mind.

> The day-bringer must walk in darkest night.

In 1906 Aurobindo left Baroda for Bengal. He became the Principal of the Bengal National College. He entered into the vortex of the Bengal national movement. Aurobindo was at once the cynosure and the sanctum sanctorum of Bengal’s heart-shrine.

While Principal of the Bengal National College, he conducted the journals Bande Mataram in English and Yugantar in Bengali. A leader of the secret societies, he also worked ceaselessly — publicly and behind the scenes — sowing the seeds of love of country and her independence in the national mind and heart.

As Aurobindo’s stars were ascending in Bengal politics, India’s greatest poet, Rabindranath Tagore — a patriot and nationalist of the supreme height—proudly and unreservedly voiced forth from his unhorizoned vision-eye:

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O my friend, O our country’s friend,

Of our Mother India’s soul...

[translated from the original Bengali]

In 1907 Aurobindo resigned from the Bengal National College. At his farewell party, his dear students made a loving demand of him to bless them with encouraging and illumining advice as to how they could become choice and worthy sons of Mother India. He responded with a most significant speech, saying:

> ...There are times in a nation’s history when Providence places before it one work, one aim, to which everything else, however high and noble in itself, has to be sacrificed. Such a time has now arrived for our Motherland when nothing is dearer than Her service, when everything else is to be directed to that end... Work that She may prosper. Suffer that She may rejoice.

On May 4th, 1908 Aurobindo was suddenly arrested on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Alipore Jail. He was to remain there for twelve months. This period of enforced seclusion was actually a blessing in disguise for Aurobindo. It enabled him to carry on his yoga uninterrupted and he passed hour after hour in his cramped cell in silent contemplation. For fifteen days he vividly heard the voice of Swami Vivekananda speaking to him about the Supermind. As Aurobindo Ghose progressed towards his God-realisation, he had the vision of Vasudeva, Lord Krishna, everywhere and in everything.

Sri Krishna assured him that He would work in and through Aurobindo’s junior counsel, Chitta Ranjan Das, to secure Aurobindo’s acquittal. There would be no need for Aurobindo even to involve himself in the trial. Lord Krishna advised him to remain silent. Aurobindo felt in the inmost recesses of his heart that each surrender-step of his to Lord Krishna would become an entirely new creation. In this way, Aurobindo conquered once and for all his imprisonment-release-doubt-troops.

Sri Krishna also gave Aurobindo direct assurance that India’s independence would be achieved—but that the rest of the work towards that end would be carried out by others, while he himself would have to work for a higher Cause.

While concluding the case for the defence, C. R. Das said:

> ...My appeal to you is this—that long after this turmoil, this agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed not only in India but across distant seas and lands...

Shortly after his acquittal on 6 May 1909, Sri Aurobindo delivered his historic Uttarpara Speech in which he vividly described his direct experiences of God in Alipore Jail. He concluded by saying:

> ...it is the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatan Dharma declines, and if the Sanatan Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatan Dharma it would perish. The Sanatan Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you.

In order to give a wider voice to his views and those of other nationalists, Sri Aurobindo started two publications: the Dharma in Bengali and the Karmayogin in English. In 1910 he received an Adesh or ‘Command’ from Above and abruptly quit all his political activities. He retired into seclusion, first at French Chandernagore, then at French Pondicherry, to work for the greater Cause of the world’s spiritual transformation and divinisation.

From 1910 to 1920, from his base at Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo conducted the Arya, a philosophical monthly into which he poured his spirituality-flooded message. These writings formed the basis of his major works: The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita and many more. He also wrote essays on poetry and literature, including The Future Poetry, Hymns to the Mystic Fire and two volumes of Collected Poems and Plays. His last and greatest work is Savitri, the epitome of spiritual autobiography. It is an epic of 23,814 lines, far surpassing in height, depth and length any epic in Greek, Latin, English, Italian or German. It is, indeed, a new Veda for the New Age.

On November 24th, 1926 Sri Aurobindo attained to his spiritual perfection. He withdrew from all contacts and put into the hands of his spiritual Collaborator, the Mother, the disciples who had gathered around him. This marked the beginning of the Ashram at Pondicherry.

For over twenty-four years, with the Mother working in front, he continued with his yoga, not caring to rest on the laurels of his first Victory, but pushing upward till he found himself within sight of his supreme and final Victory which alone could achieve the end of his Mission: the descent of what he called the Supermind into the very cells of his physical body.

India’s independence was won on 15 August 1947. Most significantly, this was Sri Aurobindo’s own Birth Day. He was requested to offer a message to the free nation, and he began:

> August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it, by our life and acts as a free nation, an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity.

At the age of seventy-eight, for purposes of his own, Sri Aurobindo decided to part with his body, and he carried out this decision on 5 December 1950 after a brief “illness”.

And now, with the kind permission of your souls, I would like to share with you some of my most precious outer possessions and memories. When I joined the Ashram in 1944 as a young boy of twelve years old, I received from Sri Aurobindo a copy of his book Kara Kahani (Tales of Prison Life). Sri Aurobindo had blessingfully written down my name, Chinmoy, in his own handwriting. Needless to say, I was overjoyed.

At the Ashram I had many mentors who encouraged my literary attempts. In 1946 I was inspired to render one of Sri Aurobindo’s Bengali stories about the Vedic sages Vasishtha and Vishwamitra into Bengali verse. Sri Aurobindo’s story is called Kshamar Adarsha (The Ideal of Forgiveness). My poem ran to about two hundred lines. Timidly and devotedly, I submitted it to the Mother. Out of her infinite compassion for me, the Mother gave it to Sri Aurobindo. In a few days’ time, at four-thirty in the afternoon, I was on my way to the volleyball ground. One of Sri Aurobindo’s dearest attendants, Mulshankar, stopped me and said, “Chinmoy, Nirod is reading out to Sri Aurobindo your long poem and Sri Aurobindo is smiling.” When I heard this, I was in the seventh Heaven of delight! A few hours later, Nirod-da sent for me and returned the poem. He told me that Sri Aurobindo had remarked: “It is a fine piece of poetry. He has capacity. Tell him to continue.”

In 1948 I translated one of my Bengali poems about India’s independence into English and, as usual, with utmost timidity, I gave the Mother the poem. Smiling, Mother said to me, “I know it is for Sri Aurobindo that you are giving it to me.” She took it from me to give to Sri Aurobindo.

In 1958 I began writing a play about the Life of Sri Aurobindo, entitled The Descent of the Blue, and I was told by Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo’s sleeplessly self-giving assistant, that the Mother enjoyed hearing my play. It was published serially in the Mother India.

In 1959, on my birthday, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram manager, Amrita — a pioneer-pillar-disciple whose name, meaning ‘Nectar; Immortality’, was bestowed upon him by his Lord Sri Aurobindo himself — presented me with a Parker fountain pen: “Chinmoy, I am giving you my most precious and my most treasured possession. This was the pen our Lord gave me on one of my birthdays many years ago, long before you were born. He himself used it many, many times.”

Finally, my prayerful heart is all gratitude to the Divine Mother for granting me the invaluable blessing-opportunity to be allowed to meditate every morning very early in front of the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s pictures at the place where they used to give Darshan four times a year and also at the two doors of Sri Aurobindo’s main room. This unimaginable privilege started in 1958 and continued until 1964 when I came to America.

No more about myself. Aurobindo’s Cambridge and Sri Aurobindo’s Mother India more, ever more!

> We are sons of God and must be even as He.

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India and India’s heart received and treasured Sri Aurobindo.

The Universe and the Lord of the Universe claimed, claim, and forever and forever shall claim Sri Aurobindo.

```

Cambridge, I bow to your aspiration-height.

I bow to your divine pride.

But you are also of the world at large.

```

Aurobindo versus Sri Aurobindo<sup>61</sup>

Aurobindo saw.

Aurobindo — the boldest revolution.

Aurobindo — “British, out!”

Aurobindo — a Cambridge-education-zenith-mind.

And the earth-transformation-Harbinger.

Aurobindo — “Cambridge, you gave me

Sri Aurobindo — “Cambridge, I give you

Oneness-nectar-delight.”

Aurobindo was

Par excellence.

A cosmos-heart-lover-feast

Aurobindo came down.

Only to be all-where.

In England, a waking lion.

In Bengal, a roaring lion.

Within, Aurobindo heard.

Aurobindo’s heart

Sri Aurobindo’s life

Aurobindo — the perfect definition

Sri Aurobindo — the absolute definition

In Bengal, he was

India-awakener

In Pondicherry, he became

God-possessor

Aurobindo saw the world.

And so does he still.

His The Life Divine

Aspiration-victory-song.

His Savitri

Transformation-manifestation-gong.

Aurobindo accepted humanity’s imperfections

God accepted Sri Aurobindo

As his own, very own.

Aurobindo was humanity’s

Sri Aurobindo is Divinity’s

Sri Aurobindo is caught

Man for his transformation;

```

Part V — Finland

I need peace⁶²

In order to have peace, I need confidence in my inner life and determination in my outer life. Confidence is to be found only in the very depths of my heart. Determination is to be found in my mind proper. The union of confidence and determination will definitely bring peace to my life. Every day I must try to strengthen my inner confidence and my outer determination and grow into a sea of peace.

My dear ones, relatives, friends, neighbours and acquaintances quite often give me advice and tell me what I need in my life. But it is I who have to discover what I need most in my life, and it is I who have to pray for it and meditate on it. What I need most in my life is peace — peace in abundant measure, peace in infinite measure.

When I pray, I feel peace. When I meditate, I feel peace. I feel this peace in the inmost recesses of my heart. So my inner wisdom-light tells me that I should try to increase my prayer time and my meditation time. For an extra five minutes I shall soulfully pray and meditate to increase the divine peace within me. This additional five minutes will give me an added portion of peace and silence.

Quite often I commit Himalayan blunders. Thinking that I am a superior human being, I try to save the world. But here I am making a most deplorable mistake. I must not try to save the world with my imperfection-night. As long as I remain imperfect, I can only cry for the world — cry for its improvement and perfection. I can soulfully pray to my Lord Supreme for the liberation and perfection of this world. It is only after I liberate and perfect myself that I can try to liberate and perfect the world. It is only after I discover and embody peace within myself that I can offer peace to the world at large.

I must not live in my superficial mind if I truly and sincerely want and need peace for myself and for the world. I must live in the depths of my aspiration-heart. My mind quite often wants to dominate the world around it, whereas my aspiring heart only wants to liberate me from the meshes of ignorance and show me the way to the Golden Shore. So I must remain always in my aspiration-heart for the purification of my mind, for the liberation of my earthly life and for the transformation of my nature. This is the only way that I can have peace within and peace without. This is the only way my soul-bird can spread its wings all-where and fly in the firmament of light and delight.

Part VI — France

How to conquer fear⁶³

To free our body from fear, what we need is the glorious experience of our soul. To free our vital from fear, what we need is the dynamic and conscious expansion of our soul. To free our mind from fear, what we need is the transforming illumination of our soul. Finally, to free our heart from fear, what we need is the fulfilling perfection of our soul.

Man’s fear does not allow him to see the face of reality, the Ultimate Reality. Man’s fear does not allow him to reach the Golden Shores of the Beyond. Man’s fear does not allow him to fulfil God for God’s sake. But God, the Author of all good, has boundless Compassion, Concern, and Love for mankind.

```

God’s Concern liberates man.

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Now, earth is afraid of Heaven’s Transcendental Light. Heaven is afraid of earth’s abysmal ignorance. God says to earth, “My son, do not act like a fool. Heaven’s Transcendental Light is not going to blind you. Heaven’s Light is not going to expose you. On the contrary, Heaven’s Light is going to illumine you. Heaven’s Light is going to transform you.”

God says to Heaven, “Do not be a fool. Earth’s abysmal ignorance cannot bind you. It cannot destroy you. On the contrary, earth’s ignorance will be offered to you. It is you who will transform the face of earth.”

God says, “I need both of you — Heaven and earth. Heaven! The message of realisation you will have to give to earth. Earth! The message of manifestation, My divine Manifestation, you will have to offer to Heaven.”

Fear comes from our deep-rooted ignorance. We do not see the light with our inner vision. We see the light with our outer, human, limited, earth-bound understanding.

Let me tell you a short story. An old man walking along the street one evening came across a rope. There was no light, and he thought the rope was actually a snake. He was all fear, and let out a scream, running as fast as he could. While running, he fell down and broke his leg. Some friends nearby heard him shouting and screaming, so they came with sticks. He was shouting all the time, thinking that there was a snake there. When his friends came, they too thought that it was a snake. In the dark they started striking the rope and, unfortunately, began hitting one another.

The shouting continued, and soon another party came with a light and discovered that it was just a piece of rope and not a snake.

Similarly, in our human life, when light enters into our physical consciousness, every kind of fear is bound to disappear. We are wanting in light. That is why fear, at every moment, consciously and deliberately looms large in our life of desire and in our life of aspiration.

But if we are sincere enough to go deep within and feel that inner courage belongs to us, inner courage can dawn at any moment. It is more than willing to come to the fore. Bringing this inner courage to the fore is the conscious awakening of our inner being. Everyone has this inner being. But, unfortunately, very few of us want to feed it. We feed our body in order to strengthen ourselves. We study books to feed our minds. We do many things to energise our outer being, but we do practically nothing to feed our inner being.

It is in our inner existence that we can grow into an adamantine will and, when we use our adamantine will, which we can easily have at our behest, we can conquer the very breath of fear. Here on earth our inner adamantine and indomitable will can and will reign supreme. Only one thing we need: a conscious awareness of the Divine Light which is ours. It is our birthright to realise and fulfil this inner Light.

There can be no fear, there cannot be even an iota of fear when we live in the effulgence of our soul. To live constantly in the divine effulgence of our soul only one thing is needed: a conscious inner cry. This inner cry is called aspiration, the mounting flame deep within us. When this flame rises up towards the highest, it illumines everything around it. Darkness is transformed into light, fear into strength, doubt into certainty, ignorance into wisdom, and death into Immortality.

Part VII — Germany

Spiritual strength⁶⁴

Why do we enter into the spiritual life? Why do we need God? We need God because God alone can give us abiding and everlasting satisfaction. We cry for material wealth. Eventually, we acquire material wealth, but from material wealth we get practically no satisfaction. Today we have a house, tomorrow we want to have two houses, the next day we want three houses. We may get what we want, but in our acquisition there is no real satisfaction.

When we pray and meditate, we feel that there is something in us, someone in us who is more than eager to satisfy us. That something in us is our inner cry, and that someone in us is our Inner Pilot, God. From the spiritual life, which is the life of pleasing God, we can expect everything. We can and we do get everything if we can truly please God. If we pray to God most soulfully to give us a million dollars, if we can please Him with our sincere aspiration and our soulful prayer, there will come a time when He will make us really rich. Through our prayer, we can fulfil our desires.

But there is another type of prayer which we call aspiration. With aspiration we do not try to get anything. We just try to expand and liberate ourselves and to manifest the Divine on earth.

In the spiritual life, as I said before, will-power and strength are most important. We need strength in the physical, we need strength in the vital, we need strength in the mind, we need strength in the heart. When we have physical strength, when our physical body is full of dynamic energy, we do not fall sick. If we want to meditate early in the morning, the body is ready to help us. If we do not have a healthy, sound body, in spite of our best intention to meditate, the body will revolt and will offer us a stomach upset or a headache or some other ailment that will disturb us.

If we have strength in the vital, then we dare to hope, we dare to accomplish, we dare to conquer all negative forces within us and around us. Strength in the vital we can utilise either to build or to destroy. But we must use this vital strength to build the palace of light, peace and truth, and not to destroy anything.

Two things are constantly trying to destroy our mind: one is fear and the other is doubt. When we have strength in the mind, we do not allow fear or doubt to enter into our mind. Real death comes to us only once in life. But, in a sense, death comes to us almost every day when we allow fear and doubt to enter into our mind. When we welcome or cherish doubt, it is like drinking poison. Doubt negates all our divine possibilities and divine capacities. However, with our prayer and meditation, we strengthen our mind.

If a man does not have strength in the heart, he may have hundreds of friends, but he will feel lonely. He may be very wealthy, but he will feel insecure. But when one prays and meditates, he makes his heart strong and feels there the Presence of the Almighty God. And when one feels the Presence of God in his heart, how can he feel lonely or insecure?

When we have strength in the body, in the vital, in the mind and in the heart, we become fully ready to realise the Highest. God has given the capacity to each and every one of us to discover the real Divinity, the real Reality within us. But we need regular prayer and meditation in order to bring our capacity to the fore and utilise it. If one likes to pray, he can pray. If somebody else likes to meditate, he can meditate. If one wants both to pray and to meditate, he can do so.

It is only through prayer and meditation that we can eventually discover our Dearest, our absolutely Dearest One on earth and in Heaven. And who is this Dearest One? Is He somebody other than ourselves? No! He is our own highest and most illumined part. When we pray and meditate, we discover our own highest part. It is our feet discovering our head. It is a leaf discovering its source, the tree. It is the finite discovering its Source, the Infinite.

Inner peace and world peace

20 June 1980

What is peace? Peace is satisfaction. This satisfaction can be achieved in the body, in the vital, in the mind and in the heart. Again, the satisfaction that the body will have may not or need not satisfy the vital, the mind or the heart. The body gets satisfaction when it sleeps or rests, whereas the vital gets satisfaction only when it is active and dynamic. The mind gets satisfaction when it can house a progressive, illumining and fulfilling thought, a thought that embodies vastness. The heart gets satisfaction when it feels closeness with an inner reality or a higher reality. So we see that each member of our inner family gets satisfaction only when it achieves something of its own, and this satisfaction is nothing other than peace.

In the ordinary human life, we feel that if we can multiply our earthly riches, then we can have satisfaction. But when we multiply our possessions, we see that multiplication is not the answer. Then we try to achieve satisfaction with addition. We try to add a few things to our lives. We feel that this is the way we will be able to achieve satisfaction, which is peace, fulfilling peace. Then, when addition fails, we try to see what division can do. We divide our realities here, there and elsewhere. When division fails to give us satisfaction, which is abiding peace, then we try subtraction. But there also we fail.

Multiplication does not help, addition does not help, division does not help, subtraction does not help. No! We think that, in order to get peace, either possession or renunciation is needed. If we are sincere in our inner life, we will see that by possessing, we can never be happy. From one car we will go to two cars, from one house we will go to two houses. Even if we are satisfied with the house that we live in, if we possess it and claim it as ours, still we are lost. The moment we claim a thing, we are possessed by that thing. While possessing, we are possessed; and satisfaction is nowhere to be found.

Again, by renouncing we can never be happy either. Today we renounce material wealth; tomorrow we shall renounce our mental faculties, vital faculties or physical faculties. We can renounce even the entire body. But then how are we going to get satisfaction? Satisfaction is delight and delight is God. If we say that the body is not aspiring, that the vital is not aspiring, that the mind is not aspiring, that even the heart is not aspiring, we can renounce them one by one. But will this give us peace, lasting peace? Will this give us satisfaction? No! So renunciation is not the answer either.

Possession is not the answer. Renunciation is not the answer. Addition, multiplication, division, subtraction — these are not the answers either. Then how can we have the satisfaction that we call peace? We can have peace only by accepting God’s Will. All the time we are praying fervently for God’s Peace, Light and Bliss. But right after our prayer, instead of getting peace, light and bliss, let us say, we are more agitated, more frustrated, more angry, more disappointed. Let us say that all the hostile forces have attacked us, and we have become perfect victims to wrong forces.

At this point, we may want to give up. We want peace from mankind, but we do not get peace. We pray to God for peace but, instead of peace, we get all wrong forces, destructive forces and so forth. But if we are true seekers, we shall not give up. We shall just place the results cheerfully at the Feet of God. Cheerfully if we can place all the wrong forces that have attacked us at the Feet of the Supreme and not find fault with Him, then only will we get peace.

Otherwise, at every moment we are acting like beggars. We are begging for something, and whoever is in the position to give us what we want may or may not give it to us. Or, he may give us something, but not in the quantity that we want. If it is a material thing, an earthly thing that we are praying for, then there will never be any happiness. If we ask for spiritual things and we are not surrendered to God’s Will, then again we may not be satisfied. But if we are sincere seekers, then we feel that whatever we get from God — even if it is just an iota of peace — is more than enough. For we know that this iota of peace God Himself has given to us. We also know that He is watching us to see if we are using it soulfully, devotedly, cheerfully and unreservedly for a special cause, or whether we are just misusing it. If we can have this kind of surrendered attitude, then satisfaction will be ours. If our surrender to God’s Will is complete, and if we can make ourselves feel that God thinks of us infinitely more than we can ever think of ourselves, then whatever God gives us will bring us satisfaction. For we know that the higher oneness, the deeper oneness, the more illumining oneness are all His responsibility. So we will leave it up to Him.

There is also another way to have satisfaction or peace, and that is to have the faith of a child. A child, knowing that his father is a multimillionaire, can ask his father for a million dollars. For his father to give him a million dollars is nothing, since the father is a multimillionaire. But the father knows that the child is not in a position to spend the money properly. He knows that if he gives the child more than ten dollars, the child will just misuse it. So the father does not give the child more than he knows how to handle properly. It is not that the father is insecure; it is not that he thinks, “Oh, if I give him all my money, then he will be in a position to challenge me.” No, it is the father’s wisdom that is operating. Just because the father has inner wisdom, he does not give his son more than ten dollars. The son is not sad that his father is not giving him a million dollars. He knows that what the father is doing is for his own good, and he knows that one day his father will give him all his wealth. So, he is satisfied to wait.

In the spiritual life also, many times it happens that a seeker asks for infinite Peace, but his inner vessel, his receptivity, is not big enough to hold this infinite Peace. Also, the seeker does not even know what he is asking for. ‘Infinite’ is a vague term. The mind is saying ‘infinite’, but what do we know about Infinity and Eternity? It is all a vague conception in our mind. But if we can feel that we are children, and that God, our eternal Father and Mother, is watching over us, then all our problems are solved. If a little child cries a few times during the day, what does the mother do? The entire day the mother looks after the child. Here also, from time immemorial God has been looking after earth. He is taking care of us in His inimitable Way, with His infinite Compassion, Love, Light and Bliss.

If we can have this kind of faith, then we are satisfied with whatever God gives us, for we know He is preparing us to receive His Infinity and Eternity. We may pray for years and not get an iota of peace, or we may get an iota of peace, but feel that it is not enough. We want peace in abundant measure, if not in boundless measure. But if we have receptivity, then God will give us His infinite wealth. God our eternal Father will give us abundant Peace and abundant Light when we have the receptivity to receive it.

God and man must have mutual faith and confidence in one another. The seeker in us must have confidence that God, at His choice Hour, will grant us without fail infinite Peace. Our role is only to pray and meditate soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally. God has taken it as His bounden Duty to help His seeker children, to guide them, mould them and shape them into His very Image. But He has His own choice Hour which, unfortunately, may not tally with our hour. If we have faith in God, that He will do everything for us, and if God has faith that we can be His perfect emissaries, His perfect representatives and instruments on earth, then perfection is bound to dawn. Only in perfection does satisfaction abide. Again, satisfaction is nothing short of peace. So peace is satisfaction; satisfaction is perfection.

When we think of perfection, we have to know that perfection does not have a fixed standard. We can never say that this is the final product, that there cannot be anything better or more illumining than this. No! Today’s conception of perfection will not and cannot be tomorrow’s conception of perfection. Since perfection is satisfaction, perfection has to be transcendence. Today’s satisfaction is to get a high school diploma; if we get it, that is our satisfaction and perfection. Tomorrow, we will think of a university degree and that will be our satisfaction and perfection. Then, after getting our university degree, we will see that we are still not satisfied, because we know that infinite wisdom abides in God’s universe. At that time, when we look at ourselves or dive deep within, we will see how helpless and hopeless we are in terms of infinite wisdom. Then, we will try to cultivate more wisdom so that we can achieve real satisfaction.

There is no end to the inner knowledge and inner peace that we can achieve, and there is no end to the satisfaction that we can get. Each moment, Infinity is transcending its own infinite Reality. Each time we achieve something new, that is our satisfaction and perfection. But, at the same time, a new hunger elevates us to a higher reality. This hunger is an inner hunger to receive more peace, more light, more bliss from Above so that we can be better instruments of higher realities.

In the ordinary human life, when we ask for things, we feel that these things will give us satisfaction, which is peace. But in the spiritual life, when we pray for peace, light and bliss, we are asking for these things not for our own satisfaction, but for the satisfaction of our Inner Pilot. We shall ask, and while asking we shall say: “If it is Your Will, God, grant me Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure, so that I can be Your perfect instrument.” But in the ordinary, unaspiring life, when we ask for something, we shall never say, “If it is Your Will, then give me two buildings or give me millions of dollars.” No! When we ask for something from the desire-world, we will never say, “If it is Your Will.” We will only die for the things that we need and want.

But when we ask for something from the aspiration-world, and when we are living in the aspiration-world, we will always say, “If it is Your Will, please give me Peace, Light and Bliss. We do not know what is good for us or what is bad for us. If such is Your Will, then give us what we need so that we can serve You more devotedly, more soulfully.” Here the prayer is totally different, and God listens to our soulful prayer with a loving Heart.

Here we are all seekers. At every moment we shall ask our Beloved Supreme for things divine and supreme. When we pray to God unconditionally for three boons — God-realisation, God-manifestation and God-satisfaction — then we are bound to be blessed by our Beloved Supreme. But while praying, while meditating, we have to keep or bring to the fore one sublime wish, one illumining goal: Him to please in His own Way.

We are praying for peace, inner peace, at His choice Hour. Once we have this inner peace, world peace can be achieved in the twinkling of an eye. Inside, if we feel a good thought, an illumining and fulfilling thought, then that very thought we will express and offer to our friends and dear ones. Our illumining, soulful, fulfilling thoughts will enter into our dear ones and then they, too, will have peace. So when we have inner peace, automatically it expresses itself. It spreads its qualities or capacities throughout the length and breadth of the world.

If we can prepare ourselves for God-realisation, God-manifestation and God-satisfaction in God’s own Way, then at every moment we will be inundated with inner peace. And this inner peace will spontaneously inundate the outer world. At that time, what we have within is bound to become part and parcel of our outer life.

A seeker is he who dives deep within in order to bring to the fore the reality that he has within. While bringing it to the fore, he discovers that his aspiration and his realisation are not two different things, but the same thing. He is bringing to the fore his infinite peace from within and, while bringing it forward, he discovers, to his utter surprise, that he is peace itself; eternally he is peace. Peace is nothing other than his own inner existence.

I pray for peace⁶⁵

Peace is my mind’s only happiness. My mind’s happiness is my heart’s satisfaction. My heart’s satisfaction is my Lord Supreme’s stupendous Joy and Pride in me.

Every day I pray to my Lord Supreme to convince me that I am not burdened with the teeming problems and difficulties of the past. Every day I pray to my Lord Supreme to convince me that I am not burdened with the teeming, imaginary problems of the future. I also pray to my Lord Supreme to convince me that my life is not burdened with the problems of the present.

My Beloved Supreme tells me that I do not have to be burdened even with the problems of a single day; I have just to bear the vanishing problems of a few fleeting seconds. He tells me that all my problems lie in my thinking mind, so I must be on guard against uncomely, unhealthy thoughts. At every moment there is a battle going on between my doubting mind and my loving heart. Sleeplessly I must support my loving heart if I want to have peace of mind.

I must also be aware of the fight that has been going on since the beginning of my life-journey between fear and courage. I must sleeplessly support courage so that I can have ceaseless peace. At the same time, I must sympathise with the weak and inferior members of my earth-family in order to have harmony in my heart, mind, vital and body. I must not pity my weak body, vital, mind and heart. My pity will not be able to strengthen or cure their weakness. I must sympathise with them and, while I am doing so, in silence my Beloved Supreme will shower His Compassion, Light and Delight upon me. His Compassion, Light and Delight I shall offer to my weak body, vital, mind and heart. Once these members of my earth-family are strengthened to my soulful satisfaction, I shall have abiding peace not only in my inmost being, but also in my multifarious outer activities.

Peace individual and collective⁶⁶

If I care only for myself — for my own happiness, my own needs and necessities — then I shall have no peace. If I care only for other human beings, not knowing what their actual divine needs are, then again I will have no peace. But if soulfully, devotedly and sleeplessly I care only for God, my Lord Beloved Supreme, then undoubtedly I will have abundant Peace, boundless Peace, universal Peace and transcendental Peace. Who is God, after all? God is my heart’s Eternity’s oneness-tree. At the same time, God is the fulness-flowers and fulness-fruits of this oneness-tree.

A seeker each day prays devotedly and meditates soulfully. By virtue of his prayer and meditation he acquires an iota of peace. Alas, he quickly loses this iota of peace because of his idle thoughts. He has no idea how destructive an idle thought can be. Idle pleasure-thoughts are his worst enemy. His hard-earned peace he loses in the twinkling of an eye when he enjoys an idle pleasure-thought.

The moment he acquires peace, on the strength of his soulful prayer and powerful meditation, the seeker has to be on the alert. At every moment he has to keep himself away from idle thoughts and the idle pleasure-life so that he does not lose his most precious inner wealth, which is peace.

Peace is the seeker’s sweet and fond hope. Peace is the seeker’s purity-aspiration. Peace is the seeker’s inspiration-promise fulfilled by God Himself in and through the seeker.

Today’s seeker has an inner urge for peace, but he thinks and feels that peace is something unknown. He feels that his search for peace is an adventure-jump into the unknown. He is willing to jump into the unknown because his inner urge for peace gives him sweet joy and inner confidence.

But in the near future or in the distant future, this same seeker will see peace in a different light. He will see peace as something ever-known. He will come to realise that not only the unknown reality but also the reality that is unknowable to the mind does not and cannot remain forever unknowable to him. An unknowable reality is only a hidden reality. At God’s choice Hour it comes to the fore not only as something known, but also as something ever-known. The Truth-seeker and God-lover tells the world, “Something that is unknown today need not, cannot and will not remain so forever, since this is the Will of the Absolute Supreme.”

In the long march of aspiration, the reality deep within must come to the fore and be revealed and manifested, for God the Supreme Beloved does not want to remain hidden to man the lover. He wants man to realise Him and manifest Him. Sleeplessly He tells His seeker-soldiers and seeker-lovers that they are His own Essence.

He also tells them that without having peace of mind, His Gift unparalleled, no human being will be able to realise Him in His highest Divinity and Reality. He says to the seekers: “Pray and meditate! Pray for the peace that will inspire and illumine your own life, and meditate for the peace that will spread and radiate to the world around.”

Our prayer-life will grant us peace for ourselves, and our meditation-life will grant us peace for the entire humanity. Let us devotedly pray! Let us soulfully meditate!

My passport⁶⁷

I must acquire a heart full of faith-blossoms and aspiration-flames. I must acquire a doubt-banished mind and a confusion-illumined mind. I must acquire a vital that is always a stranger to restlessness and aggression. I must have a vital that is surcharged with energy and dynamism. I must acquire a body that is divinely strong — as strong as a fort. I must have a body that is supremely pure — as pure as the heart of a temple.

I must say good-bye to my centuries of insecurity. I must say good-bye to my centuries of self-importance and pride. I must say good-bye to my centuries of ignorance-multiplication-game.

Every day, without fail, I must learn a new surrender-prayer that will reach the Forgiveness-Feet of my Lord Supreme. Every day, without fail, I must learn a new gratitude-meditation that will fly into the Heart of my Lord Beloved Supreme. Every day, without fail, I must learn to love my Lord Supreme and manifest Him unconditionally in His own Way.

In my heart-garden I must sow the seeds of patience, compassion and forgiveness slowly, steadily, cheerfully and unerringly. In my heart-garden I must most devotedly and faithfully grow the plant of universal oneness. In my heart-garden I must grow into a world-nourishing and world-fulfilling tree. This is the tree that aspires to reach the highest heights. This is the tree that offers cheerfully what it has within. This is the tree that becomes inseparably one with earth’s excruciating pangs as well as Heaven’s infinite Delight.

Lo and behold, I am now the holder of a lifelong passport to humanity’s heart-country.

Part VIII — Iceland

Aspiration and dedication⁶⁸

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 for 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 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 demonstrated 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 then demonstrated meditation.]

Now I shall contemplate. When we contemplate, the seeker in us becomes the divine Lover, who is inseparably one with the Supreme Beloved. [Sri Chinmoy then demonstrated 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 ploughing 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. Your genuine enthusiasm and cry for God have impressed my heart deeply. 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.

Part IX — Ireland

Attachment and detachment⁶⁹

What is attachment? Attachment is the dance of our outer pleasure. What is detachment? Detachment is the song of our inner joy. Attachment ends in the prison-cell of frustration and destruction. Detachment fulfils itself in the palace of Divinity and Immortality.

I am a fool if I consciously live in the physical. I am a greater fool if I constantly admire and adore my physical body. I am the greatest fool if I live only to satisfy the needs of my physical existence.

I am a wise person if I know that there is something called the soul. I am a wiser person if I care to see and feel my soul. I am the wisest person if I live in my soul and for my soul constantly and soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally.

When we are attached to the body, we in no time become impulsive. When we are attached to the vital, we very soon become explosive. When we are attached to the physical mind, we ultimately become destructive.

But when we are in the body, detached, we consciously feel our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the vital, detached, we expand and widen our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the mind, detached, we fulfil supremely our unlimited consciousness here on earth.

Many people, unfortunately, mistakenly feel that attachment and devotedness are one and the same thing. But attachment means that we are in the finite and attached to the finite. Devotedness means that we devote ourselves to the Infinite and are liberated by the Infinite.

Here in Ireland, nearly a hundred years ago, a young aspirant named Margaret Noble left for India to become a famous disciple of Swami Vivekananda. This great Yogi had come to the West in 1893 to participate in the “Parliament of Religions” at the great World’s Fair in Chicago. His spiritual stature was immediately recognised, and he became famous overnight.

When he went to England from the United States, Margaret Noble attended his talks and became his dearest disciple. He called her Nivedita, “one who is totally dedicated to the Supreme Cause.”

Indian people are all admiration for what Nivedita did for India. She helped Indian women in infinite measure. She helped to awaken their slumbering consciousness so that they could envision themselves as divine instruments and grow into the perfect embodiments of aspiration, dedication and illumination for their Mother India. We Indians are filled with divine pride when we utter the name of Nivedita.

Her father was a clergyman, a great seeker and lover of God. On his deathbed, he said to his wife, “Do not stand in Margaret’s way. If she wants to go to India, let her go.” Margaret’s mother had been very upset by her daughter’s desire to leave Ireland for distant India, but at her husband’s last request, she did help Margaret and inspired her. Nivedita went to India and became India’s veritable pride. Hers was the heart that knew no despair. Just before she passed behind the curtain of eternity, she uttered under her breath, “The frail boat is sinking, but I shall yet see the sunrise.”

I wish to offer my humble talk to the hallowed memory of Sister Nivedita, Margaret Noble of Ireland.

Detachment is misunderstood. We feel that if someone is detached, he is indifferent. Spiritual seekers also make the same mistake in thinking that when we want to be detached from someone, we must show him utter indifference, to the point of total neglect. This is not true. When we are indifferent to someone, we do nothing for him. We have nothing to do with his joy or sorrow, his achievement or failure. But when we are truly detached, we work for him devotedly and selflessly and offer the results of our actions at the Feet of the Lord Supreme, our Inner Pilot.

It does not matter if the result is success or failure. If we are not at all attached to the results, we get an immediate expansion of consciousness. If we do not care for the fruit of our action, the Supreme rewards us in the Supreme’s own Way.

Lord Krishna said, “Thou hast the right to act, but not to the fruits of action.” The Upanishads declare, “Action cleaves not to a man.”

If we work devotedly and selflessly, action does not bind us. There will be no difficulty in working for God’s sake if we work without caring about the result. This is true detachment; this is spiritual detachment. When we can renounce the unlit, unaspiring action, we can enter into the divine action which is our real life; and in this there is always perfection and fulfilment.

When we pay all attention to the material world and neglect the inner world, we starve the soul in us. The soul has to be brought to the fore. If we think we can get infinite wealth from the material world, then we are totally mistaken.

Yagnayvalkya, the great Indian sage, had a wife whose name was Maitreyi. Yagnayvalkya wanted to spend the evening of his life in meditation and contemplation, so he decided to give away his earthly possessions. He asked Maitreyi if she wanted his riches. She asked, “Will your riches give me immortal life? Of what use to me are the things that cannot make me immortal?”

We need the material world, undoubtedly, but we cannot give all our energy to it. We feed our body three times a day. Unfortunately, we do not have time to feed our soul even once a day. We, the seekers of the infinite Truth, feed the body so that we can become the perfect instrument of the soul.

The soul has Divinity, Eternity, Immortality. The soul wants to offer its world to the body. If the body becomes receptive, it will receive all that the soul has to offer. The body itself will echo and re-echo in the life of aspiration and dedication. It will march along as the most humble servitor of the soul. Its existence will be the existence of glory and divinity, divine service and supreme fulfilment.

We fulfil the Supreme on earth. He treasures us in His Heart’s Heaven.

Transcendental height and aspiration-light⁷⁰

When I was twenty-three years old, for the first time I read her book about her Master, Swami Vivekananda. The great spiritual Master, Sri Aurobindo, once remarked that this book of Nivedita’s was written with the blood of her heart. From this book I learnt how a disciple can become inseparably one with the Master on the strength of implicit love, devotion and surrender to the Master’s will.

There are two types of people on earth: spiritual people and unspiritual people. Spiritual people are often accused by those who are not spiritual of being abnormal. They supposedly want to live in the clouds and eat the moonlight; they have no sense of reality; they are just fooling themselves. This is the accusation that is often thrown at them. Spiritual people, in return, say that they are absolutely normal, whereas the unaspiring people are abnormal.

An unaspiring person accuses a spiritual person of not paying attention to the outer life. But a really spiritual person is bound to pay full attention to the outer life. If he is not sincerely spiritual in the truest sense, then in the name of spirituality he will ignore and revile the outer world. But the outer world is the manifestation of God. If someone wants to realise the highest Truth, how can he ignore God’s outer manifestation? A really spiritual person will not ignore the outer world. On the contrary, he will accept the world. He will accept the challenge of the world. Then he will conquer the ignorance of the world and he will offer his wisdom-light to the world at large.

Unaspiring people often say that a spiritual person is afraid of the world; he is a coward; he does not brave the world, but runs away and hides like a thief, while the ordinary, unaspiring person shoulders the responsibilities of the entire world. But I wish to say that if a genuine spiritual person does not involve himself in the activities of the world, it is because he is preparing himself to shoulder the responsibilities of the world. He knows very well that it is God alone who can give him infinite Light, infinite Bliss, infinite Peace and infinite Power to change the face of the world. Just by mixing with the multitudes, he will not be able to help the world. But by serving the Inner Pilot, by fulfilling the Inner Pilot, he can one day be of real service to mankind.

Among the spiritual people, there are some who are accused of too much spirituality, and there are some who are accused of too little. The latter are like students who go to school for a while, but do not want to complete their studies. They want to stop at grammar school or high school. These seekers are satisfied with an iota of peace, light and bliss. They do not feel that they need infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. But at times frustration looms large in their lives, and then they expect infinite Peace, Light and Bliss overnight. God feels that it is absurd on His part to give them infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. They are still children. We do not give a child thousands of dollars. We give him just a penny; that is more than enough for him. Even if this child begs his father to give him a thousand dollars, the father knows that he will not be able to appreciate it or utilise so large a sum properly or wisely.

In the spiritual life, when his aspiration does not immediately satisfy the craving mind of the budding, beginning aspirant, this person very often leaves the spiritual path. He thinks he is wasting his time. He says, “I have tried. I have prayed to God to give me Peace, Light and Bliss, but He has not fulfilled my prayer. I tried so hard, but He has not listened.” But his conception of what kind of aspiration he has offered to the Supreme is not the Conception-Light of God. He is a child in the spiritual world. If he meditates for fifteen minutes a day, he feels that he has played his role and that it is now God’s bounden duty to satisfy him, to fulfil his desires. But when one becomes a sincere seeker, one feels that it is God’s duty to bless him with Peace, Light and Bliss only in God’s own time.

At our sweet will, we cannot demand Peace, Light and Bliss from Above. Who wins the spiritual race? He who has patience. He who has inner courage. He who has the mounting inner cry, which we call aspiration. Each individual has only two things. When he is not in the inner life or in the life of the spirit, when he is in the body, in the vital and in the mind, at that time he has desire. But when he accepts the inner life, when he lives in the heart and the soul, he has aspiration. Desire has to possess one thing today, two things tomorrow and three things the day after tomorrow. Desire is like that. But aspiration does not go from one to two to three. Aspiration just tries to immerse us in the sea of Peace, Light and Bliss. It does not try to possess the drops of this sea one by one.

From the ordinary point of view, desire is the most important. From the spiritual point of view, aspiration is the most important. If we desire something strongly, naturally we will get it sooner or later. In the world of desire, if we try very hard to get something or to achieve something, in the course of time we will succeed. And in the world of aspiration, if we desperately cry for Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure, we are also destined to achieve our Goal in the course of time.

Now what do we need along with our aspiration? We need inner confidence. Right now hesitation looms large in our life. We want to do something, but hesitation does not allow us to do it. Doubt constantly plagues our mind. Hesitation kills our inspiration. It is impossible for us to achieve our purpose. But when we have aspiration, we automatically develop confidence in our life, inner confidence.

What is confidence? Confidence is the harbinger of success. With confidence we can accomplish everything sooner or later. Success is a very complicated thing. It is very difficult to achieve. When we think of success, we think of something pleasing and comforting to us. But this is success on the physical plane. On the spiritual plane, success is something that energises us and liberates us from the body-consciousness.

When we achieve success in the ordinary life, we feel that it is not sufficient. Today we achieve success in a particular sphere. Immediately we are subjected to more desires. We achieved success, but success does not satisfy us; success does not please us. We cry for success, but when this success dawns we want to achieve something else.

In the spiritual life, success is a different matter; success is an inner progress. Progress is success in the process of evolution. We have evolved from the mineral life through the plant life to the animal life, and from the animal life to the human life. Now we are longing for the divine life. We are always in the process of evolution, and success is nothing other than our progress. When we make progress, what do we actually do? We manifest our inner Divinity, our inner Reality, our inner Immortality. When we manifest our Divinity and Reality, we feel that this Divinity and Reality, and God, are one and the same. The manifestation of our inner Divinity is the manifestation of God Himself, and what we call our manifestation is actually God’s own Manifestation.

When we go deep within, we see that God Himself has chosen us as His instruments in order to manifest Himself in and through us. But when He manifests Himself in and through us we have to play our part, because the Creator and the Creation always go together. The player and the instrument always go together. If there is no instrument, the player is useless; and, again, if there is no player, the instrument cannot do anything. Both are equally important in this case. When God manifests Himself in and through us, He gives us equal credit. When manifestation takes place, man and God smile together. The divine man and the Lord Supreme smile together. That is the sign of perfect manifestation.

We talk about aspiration. We talk about concentration, meditation and contemplation. Why do we need them? We need them because we want to go back to our Eternal Home. Earth is our temporary home. Here we stay for fifty, sixty or seventy years. But we have an Eternal Home where we live forever, and that Eternal Home is deep inside our heart.

Right now we have four homes: earth, Heaven, death and God. Earth is our home. But from earth what do we get? Frustration, only frustration. We work for the world. The world does not care. We work for our near and dear ones. They show no sign of gratitude. They do not fully acknowledge the fact that we are trying to help and serve them. So what happens then is that we look up. The song of aspiration dawns in our life. We want to see our Heavenly Home, but we have no idea where Heaven is. We feel that Heaven is in the sky. Spiritual Masters, however, say that Heaven is deep inside our pure heart. We are not in a position to enter into the inmost depths of our heart, so Heaven right now is sheer imagination for us.

Our third home we reach at the end of our earthly journey, and that home is death. When we enter into this home, we take rest from the battlefield of life. But our vast, eternal Home is God. When we think of God the Home, what happens to us? Consciously or unconsciously, we expect Love, Peace, Bliss, Infinity, Eternity, Immortality. These are the things God the Home is bound to grant us. Whatever we see in God the Home, whatever we expect from God the Home, we will get. If we need Peace, He will flood our being with infinite Peace. If we expect Light, He will surcharge our inner being with divine Light. Anything that we need or expect devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally, God is bound to give us. Why? Because He is all Love.

It is God who has taught us the secret of expectation. It is He who has taken the form of expectation in us, and it is He who meets with our expectation from Above. When we expect aspiration from God, He becomes aspiration. It is through aspiration that He enters into His own perfection. Spiritual seekers know that God is the eternal Player. He is playing constantly with His aspiration and His realisation. His highest Transcendental Height and His purest Aspiration- Light go eternally together. His Life-Boat plies between the shores of Aspiration- Light and Transcendental Height.

The inner hunger⁷¹

Is there anybody on earth who has never been hungry? No! Is there any soul in Heaven who has never been hungry? No! Each human being on earth is suffering from inner hunger. Each soul in Heaven also is suffering from inner hunger. Here we are all seekers. A seeker is hungry for God-realisation. A soul in Heaven is hungry for God-manifestation.

As an ordinary human being, an unaspiring being, we have already known what earthly hunger is. To fulfil earthly hunger we need material food and material possessions; we need a distinct individuality and personality and we need the pride of supremacy. This is what we notice in our unaspiring, earthly hunger, our ordinary human hunger. But when we become spiritual seekers, we have a different hunger. At that time we hunger for God’s Light, Truth, divine Beauty, Peace and Bliss. We hunger for Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

When we have earthly hunger, very often we adopt foul means to satisfy our hunger. We try to feed ourselves in our own human way without knowing, without feeling and without becoming the inner light. But when we try to satisfy our divine hunger, we try to satisfy it by pleasing God in His own Way. We are able to satisfy it only by pleasing the Supreme in His own Way. We become the song of unconditional surrender, divine surrender to God’s adamantine Will. This Will is also His all-loving Will.

A human child has hunger. He is hungry for affection and love from his parents, but his hunger is not illumined. His hunger is unlit. Within each human seeker there is a divine child. Call it a soul or anything else you want to. This divine child also needs Affection, Love, Concern and Compassion from God the Father and from God the Mother. But there is a striking difference between these two children. When the human child sees that his parents show affection and love to others, he immediately falls victim to jealousy. He feels sad and miserable. The divine child is pleased only when his divine, Transcendental Parents offer equal Love, Affection, Concern and Compassion to all his friends, relatives and acquaintances. This child will never be pleased in a selfish way. He will be pleased only if everyone gets the same things that he gets. This child is pleased only when he sees satisfaction within and satisfaction without.

Each individual soul is hungry for God’s Smile. It knows that there is nothing as important as God’s Light in the life of aspiration and dedication. God, too, is hungry, hungry for the seeker’s smile. That is the only thing He wants from us. He waits for millennia in order to get a smiling face from His earth-children.

In the ordinary life, we pray to God for millions of things; we pray to God to fulfil our countless desires. But when we become seekers we feel that there is only one thing that will satisfy us and that is God’s Smile. If a seeker is not advanced, if he is not on the verge of Self-realisation, he finds it difficult to feel that God is constantly smiling at him from His Transcendental Height of divine Concern and Compassion. Because this seeker does not dive deep within, he finds it difficult to believe that God is smiling at him while transforming his agelong ignorance into eternal Wisdom-Light.

It has been said that no clock is more regular than the sun. This truth is undeniable. But in the spiritual world we can say that no clock is more regular than our heart’s inner mounting cry. This inner cry wants to climb high, higher, highest and reach the acme of perfection. This cry is constant inside each fleeting second, and its climbing flame is birthless and deathless.

When we become soulful seekers, we become consciously aware of the inner cry of aspiration. Before that, this inner cry remained hidden inside; we did not feel it. But once we begin to consciously aspire, we feel the need of something eternal and perpetual; once we feel that terrestrial things do not please us, at that time we get the inner cry for something that can satisfy us permanently.

Right now we are beginners in the spiritual life, but we are not going to remain beginners forever. One does not remain in kindergarten all his life. One hungers for ever-increasing wisdom until there comes a time when he gets his Master’s Degree and PhD Similarly, the beginner-seekers will not be doomed to disappointment. Everyone plays the role of a beginner at some time. But ultimately the beginner becomes advanced and reaches the highest Height.

The body has a hunger of its own. The vital has a hunger of its own. The mind has a hunger of its own. The heart has a hunger of its own. The body’s hunger can be satisfied by material food or by wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. But the same body-consciousness eventually comes to realise that in pleasure-life there is not and cannot be any abiding satisfaction. Pleasure-life is eventually followed by a sense of tremendous frustration and, inside frustration, what looms large is a sense of utter destruction.

The vital’s hunger can be satisfied by domination. To lord it over the world like Napoleon or Julius Caesar is its desire. But the vital, too, eventually comes to realise that in domination there is no abiding satisfaction. There is only an ever-increasing craving and an ever-mounting frustration which houses destruction within its breast.

The hunger of the mind can be satisfied by doubting the world. If it can doubt the entire creation and nullify or annihilate the whole world, the physical mind gets tremendous satisfaction. The mind feels it is the highest member of the human family and that it alone can illumine the whole being. At times the mind goes so far as to feel that it is in a position to add to the light of the soul, although this idea is most ridiculous. The soul is the guide and representative of the Lord Supreme. The soul has infinitely more light than the mind even at its highest. Nevertheless, the mind cherishes this kind of absurdity. Frustration and destruction loom large in the hunger of the mind.

The hunger of the human heart is to love and to be loved. When the heart is hungry for love, the heart does not see in itself the light of the soul. This is because it consciously or unconsciously mixes with the vital, or we can say that the vital enters into the heart. Rather than inspire, the vital instructs or instigates the human heart to claim love from others, and the heart tries to force its way into others. This is absolutely wrong! When the human heart plays the game of possession, which is not a positive or divine quality, it finds no satisfaction because the person it possesses is a bundle of ignorance. Once again frustration and destruction play their roles. When the heart itself becomes a flood of sincerity, it sees its mistakes and feels miserable that realisation is still a far cry.

When we are insincere, we feel not only that we have reached the goal but also that we are ready to offer the goal to the world at large. When we are sincere, all our imperfections come to the fore and we realise how far we are from our goal. When we pray and meditate, our heart does become sincere. When this sincerity speaks, our heart feels miserable and immediately runs to the soul, to its elder divine brother, for guidance and illumination. Then the soul guides the heart. When the heart establishes a free access to the soul, the heart is safe. The human heart at that time becomes the perfect instrument for God-manifestation on earth.

Earth has a hunger, a special hunger. Earth hungers to see the Face of Heaven. Earth has had the vision of Heaven’s Face only in silence during its highest plane of wakeful consciousness. But earth wants to see the Face of Heaven inside its multifarious activities twenty-four hours a day. Earth wants to see the Reality of Heaven not in a dream but in its waking hours. Earth feels that Heaven embraces all the Glory, Divinity, Infinity, Eternity and Immortality of the Absolute Supreme. Earth feels that by establishing a deep friendship with Heaven it will be able to get God’s Grace, Compassion, Love and Blessing in the twinkling of an eye.

Heaven, too, has a special hunger. Heaven hungers to feed the heart of earth. It feels that earth’s heart is simple, sincere, genuine, pure and all-loving. Heaven feels that its dream can be manifested only through the aspiring heart of Mother Earth. Heaven tries to make friends with the heart of earth because it feels that this is the only way it can manifest and transform its dream into reality.

Earth feels that by pleasing and becoming one with Heaven’s consciousness it will be able to bring down God’s Light sooner than at once. Heaven feels that by establishing a deep friendship with the heart of earth it will be able to fulfil its dream as soon as possible. This dream was Heaven’s promise to the Absolute Supreme: that, with the co-operation of earth, it would manifest God’s Light, God’s Beauty, God’s Truth, God’s Peace and all His divine qualities here on earth.

Human hunger starts with ‘I’, but when it turns spiritual it becomes ‘we’. When it turns absolutely divine, this hunger becomes nothing short of ‘God- existence’. When we are hungry to achieve and fulfil God the Root, then only can we begin to fulfil the branches of the God-Tree. If we do not have a hunger for the Source, our hunger will not be perpetual, everlasting and immortal. A seeker of the highest Truth comes to realise that with human hunger there will be no satisfaction. Only if we are hungry for the infinite Light will real satisfaction dawn in our lives. The human satisfaction of claiming others we shall deny for the divine satisfaction of self-giving. Not by claiming others as our very own, but only by constant self-offering to the world at large do we attain lasting satisfaction. When we offer ourselves totally and unconditionally to our Inner Pilot, our lifelong hunger for oneness with our Source is satisfied for Eternity.

Part X — Jamaica

Spirituality: what it is and what it is not⁷²

In spirituality is man’s farthest vision. In spirituality is man’s nearest reality. God has Compassion. Man has aspiration. Spirituality is the consciousness-light that unites man’s aspiration and God’s Compassion. Spirituality tells man that he is God veiled and that God is man revealed.

Spirituality is not an escape from the world of reality. Spirituality tells us what the true reality is and how we can discover it here on earth. Spirituality is not the denial of life, but the purest acceptance of life. Life is to be accepted unreservedly. Life is to be realised soulfully. Life is to be transformed totally. Life is to be lived eternally.

Spirituality is not the song of ignorance. It is the mother of concentration, meditation and realisation. Concentration takes me dynamically to God. Meditation silently brings God to me. Realisation neither takes me to God nor brings God to me. Realisation reveals to me that God is the Bluebird of Infinity’s Reality and I am the Golden Wings of Divinity’s Truth.

Spirituality has taught me the difference between my speech and my silence, between my mind and my heart. In speech I try to become. In silence I am. When I open my mouth, God closes my heart. When I close my mouth, God opens my heart. My mind says, “God needs me.” My heart says, “I need God.” My mind wants to possess God’s Creation while negating it. My heart wants to embrace God’s Creation while serving it. My mind says it does not know whether it thinks of God or of itself. At times my mind feels that since it does not think of God, neither does God think of it. My heart sees and feels that God thinks of it even if it does not care to think of God.

Spirituality has told me secretly what my supreme necessity is and how I can have it. What is my supreme necessity? God’s Blessing. How can I have it? By simply borrowing it from God’s Bank.

How can I pay off my debt? Easily! Just by borrowing once again from God’s Bank. But I must borrow wisdom and nothing else. Wisdom possessed, debt nullified. Verily, this wisdom is the breath of spirituality.

I am God’s experiment. He has given me my name: Science. I am God’s experience. He has given me my name: Spirituality. I am God’s Realisation. He has given me my name: Oneness — Oneness within, Oneness without.

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Heaven is my Immortality.

On earth I grow.

In God I am.

Fear of the inner life<sup>73</sup>

12 January 1968

Strange is this world of ours. Stranger is our human understanding. Strangest is our fear of the inner life.

Most of us do not know what the inner life is. What is the inner life? It is the life that lives to grow and grows to live. It grows in the unhorizoned vision of the soul. It lives in the sublimest plenitude of the soul. This inner life always acts in accordance with the transforming and fulfilling light of the soul. If you do not know your soul, then in the world of divine wisdom you will be accused of dire ignorance. When you know your soul, in no time you become acquainted with God.

Please do not be forgetful of your great promise to God. Before you came into the world, before you donned the human cloak, you told God, your sweet Lord, with all the sincerity at your command, that you would participate in His divine Lila (Drama). He said to you, “My child, fulfil Me and fulfil yourself at the same time on earth.” You were divinely thrilled; your joy knew no bounds. You said, “Father, I shall. May my soulful promise be worthy of Your compassionate Command.”

As ill-luck would have it, you have now totally forgotten your promise. Here on earth you want to fulfil not God, but yourself. Your unlit mind prompts you to betray God. And you do it. You feel that God’s fulfilment must come only through your fulfilment. If it does not work out that way, you are not prepared to sacrifice one iota of your life-breath to fulfil God here on earth. Your divine promise sheds bitter tears of failure. Needless to say, to try to fulfil yourself before you have fulfilled God is to put the cart before the horse. It is the height of absurdity.

Perhaps by now you have come to learn what has made you fail in your most sincere promise to God. It is your fear. If I ask you how many enemies you have, you will jump up and say, “Quite a few.” But I have to say you are mistaken. You have just one enemy and that is all, even though, to your wide surprise, it seems like a host in itself. That single enemy of yours is fear, your unconsciously cherished fear.

You are afraid of the inner life. You feel that the moment you launch into the inner life you are lost, completely lost, like a babe in the woods. You may also think that in accepting the inner life, you are building castles in the air. Finally, you may feel that to accept the inner life is to throw your most precious life into the roaring mouth of a lion who will completely devour you and your outer life.

You have countless sweet dreams. You want to transform them into reality. All your dreams want to enjoy the world. You want to offer your momentous mite to the world at large; but you feel that if you embark on the inner life, you will be deprived of all these invaluable achievements. So now it is time for fear to make its appearance, and naturally you start shying away from the inner life. Fear starts torturing you. It tries to limit and bind you.

Unfortunately, your life yields to this deplorable mistake. But if once, only once, with the help of your all-energising meditation, you could carry your long-cherished fear into the inner world, you would see that fear loses its very existence there. In the twinkling of an eye, it becomes one with the dynamic strength of your inner life.

If you want to truly possess the outer world, you have to possess the inner world first, not the other way around. If you want to truly enjoy the outer world, you must enjoy the inner world first, not vice versa. If your heart pines to serve humanity, you have to serve the inner divinity first. Infallible is this truth.

Mahatma Gandhi<sup>74</sup>

Gandhi announces: “The votary of non-violence has to cultivate the capacity for sacrifice of the highest type in order to be free from fear. He recks not if he should lose his land, his wealth, his life. He who has not overcome all fear cannot practice non-violence to perfection.”

Gandhi proclaims: “Satyagraha is a force that works silently and apparently slowly. In reality, there is no force in the world that is so direct or so swift in working.”

Gandhi was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but both of his parents cared nothing for the so-called material wealth. They did care for something else, and it was the inner wealth. His father’s indifference to material wealth, his politically oriented brain and his tremendous will; his mother’s piety, purity, simplicity, sincerity, inner hunger and conscience of the soul; and his wife’s inspiration, dedicated service and constant sacrifice all loomed large in Gandhi’s life.

He went to England to study law when he was nineteen years old. Three years later he returned to India and started practising law. Alas, in those days, in his legal practice, he received not the garland of victory, but of sad failure. Such being the case, he wanted to be a high school teacher in Bombay. Here, too, God denied him this new career. Gandhi’s application to be a teacher was not favoured with acceptance. But in 1893, opportunity knocked at his life’s door. The heart of this young barrister cried with his fellow-countrymen who were victims of ruthless injustice in South Africa. He left for Africa. He defended their case, their cause. He helped them and served them. There, in Africa, he gradually became a lawyer of the superlative degree. Mahalakshmi, the Goddess of Beauty and Plenty, blessed his heart with Her beauty, and his outer life with plenty. Money, the bird, flew towards him and sweetly sat on his hand. Success, the dog, ran towards him and faithfully sat at his feet.

Behind the bird and the dog, a human being from a far-off land came and inspired his aspiring heart and illumined his searching mind to fulfil his life’s ideals. Gandhi’s life became the perfect expression of Tolstoy’s inspiration. With a view to practising his ideals, he cast aside the crown and throne of his outer achievements. He embraced Ahimsa. He embraced Satyagraha. He was one of those who awakened the slumbering nation and inspired the oppressed and depressed country to come out of the foreign yoke. He was successful. By this time, his frail body was no longer a stranger to inhuman brutalities. He had to undergo, several times, severe prison sentences. On being imprisoned for the first time, on 11 January 1908, he remarked:

> We shall feel happy and free like a bird even behind the prison walls. We shall never weary of jail-going. When the whole of India has learned this lesson, India shall be free. For, if the alien power turns the whole of India into a vast prison, it will not be able to imprison her soul.

His release from the last imprisonment was on 6 May 1944. He spent no less than two thousand three hundred and thirty-eight days in jail.

His outer life suffered. His inner life triumphed. His life and his soul’s conviction became indivisible. His country’s independence became the object of his soul’s concern. His country’s ‘untouchables’ became the object of his heart’s concern. Bharat Mata placed her hands of Infinite Bounty on the head of her devoted son. His country’s untouchables discovered their haven in his boundless heart.

For the redemption of the untold sufferings of the untouchables, Gandhi’s heart of supreme sacrifice voices forth:

> I do not want to be reborn, but if I have to be reborn I should be reborn an untouchable so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings, and the affronts leveled against them in order that I may endeavour to free myself and them from their miserable condition.

We all know the supreme necessity of humility in a seeker’s life. No humility, no realisation of the Infinite Truth. One must needs be as humble as the dust. But Gandhi’s humility does not want to stop even at this point. He says: “The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of the truth.”

The world, especially the Christian world, is afraid of the consequences of sin. A Christian is more concerned about his sin than is any other man on earth. The Indian heart in Gandhi speaks about sin: “I do not seek redemption from the consequences of sin, I seek to be redeemed from sin itself.”

A Vedantin — a student of Vedanta — will proclaim that there is no such thing as sin. It is merely a play of ignorance.

Gandhi throws light on conception and continence:

> I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. The world depends for its existence on the act of generation, and as the world is the playground of God and a reflection of His Glory, the act of generation should be controlled for the ordered growth of the world. He who realises this will control his lust at any cost, equip himself with the knowledge necessary for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of his progeny, and give the benefit of that knowledge to posterity.

Mother Earth is truly proud of her son Gandhi’s sincerity. He said: “For me the observance of even bodily Brahmacharya has been full of difficulties. Today [1929], that is to say, at the age of sixty, I may say that I feel myself fairly safe, but I have yet to achieve complete mastery over thought, which is so essential.”

Gandhi married at the age of 13. He was blessed with four sons.

Fasting played a major role in Gandhi’s life. His sound advice is “eat only when you are hungry and when you have laboured for food.” This reminds me of a Zen story:

The Chinese Zen master, Hyakujo, used to work very hard with his disciples, even at the ripe old age of eighty. He used to prune the trees, clean the grounds, trim the garden and so forth. His disciples were extremely shocked at these exertions. They knew well that it would be of no use to suggest to him to stop working, for he would turn a deaf ear to them. Then a brilliant idea flashed through their minds. They hid his tools. The Master played his part. He stopped eating. This went on for several days. The disciples discovered why he was not eating. They returned his tools to him. With a smile, he took the tools and exclaimed, “No work, no food!” He began eating as usual.

Gandhi often fasted to get things done in his own way. Let me tell you two amusing but significant incidents in Gandhi’s life. His wife once saved twenty-five rupees to spend for a special purpose. When Gandhi came to know about it, he brought his poor wife’s conduct to the attention of the public. He was furious. He exposed her in his weekly Young India under the caption, “My shame, my sorrow,” and observed a three-day fast! He had taught his wife that there should be no personal belongings and no hoarding up of money.

On another occasion Gandhi took a vow that he would fast unto death. Gandhi’s Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore, immediately said to his countrymen, having realised the gravity of Gandhi’s vow: “He has come after a thousand years. Shall we send him back empty-handed again?”

Tagore once remarked:

> I differ with Gandhi in many respects, but admire and revere the man highly.

In one aspect of life, at least, we see the difference between these two great souls. In renunciation Mahatma found his deliverance, while Tagore found his deliverance in the fruit of fulfilment. Tagore sings:

> Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.

The Upanishadic Seers sing through the heart of Mahatma, Tena tyaktena bhunjita — “Enjoy through renunciation.”

Prime Minister Nehru, during his speech to the Congress of the United States on October 13th, 1949, spoke about the Father of the Indian Nation:

> In India there came a man in our own generation who inspired us to great endeavour, ever reminding us that thought and action should never be divorced from moral principle, that the true path of man is the path of truth and peace. Under his guidance we laboured for the freedom of our country, with ill will to none, and achieved that freedom. We called him reverently and affectionately the Father of our Nation. Yet he was too great for the circumscribed borders of any one country, and the message he gave may well help us in considering the wider problems of the world.

Four days later, on October 17th, while addressing Columbia University, Nehru again spoke about his mentor, guide and master:

> The great leader of my country, Mahatma Gandhi, under whose inspiration and sheltering care I grew up, always laid stress on moral values and warned us never to subordinate means to ends. We were not worthy of him and yet to the best of our ability we tried to follow his teaching. Even the limited extent to which we could follow his teaching yielded rich results.

Krishnalal Shridharani, the well-known author of My India, My America, has something amusing but striking to share with us:

> Once I was invited by a decidedly liberal minister to address a church group. After my speech on Gandhi and his non-violence, we withdrew to my host’s office. He was full of praise for Gandhi’s character as a man, his high ideals, his conduct, but he sincerely doubted that Gandhi could ever enter Heaven until the burden of the Hindu saint’s sins was delegated to Christ. I answered that according to my way of thinking, Gandhi’s life had been the nearest approximation of the ‘Christ’s life’, and I also expressed some fear about the chances of the rest of us modern mortals if Gandhi were to be denied Heaven!

Now let us hear from Gandhi what he has to say about his own salvation or about his going to Heaven:

> It was impossible for me to believe that I could go to Heaven or attain salvation only by becoming a Christian. When I frankly said this to some of the good Christian friends, they were shocked. But there was no help for it.

Gandhi says about religion: “After long study and experience I have come to the conclusion that one, all religions are true; two, all religions have some error in them; three, all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism.”

Each individual has the right to have a God of his own. He is competent enough to define God according to his inner receptivity and outer capacity. Gandhi’s God is nothing other than Truth. He says: “There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe, for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only.”

Some of the world figures have called him the Saint Paul, Saint Thomas and Saint Francis of Assisi of the modern era. I call him the Pacific Ocean of Heart’s Love and Soul’s Compassion. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I am right. But I am adamant in my assertion that Mahatma Gandhi is not the exclusive treasure of India, but a peerless pride of mankind and will remain so down the sweep of centuries.

Part XI — Japan

New creation

When we approach God and humanity with our spiritual love, our soul’s love, the love that constantly breathes in purity, then we see God and the world as an ever-new Creation. We see them as All-Love. We see that the world is totally changed, changed for the better. Not only is God the Creator but He Himself is being created. God is also this new Creation which we are seeing and creating with our spiritual love or which God is creating through us with His Love.

When we approach God with devotion, soulful devotion, we see God standing right in front of us with all the Concern of His heart and Soul, and with all His Blessings. When we approach humanity with devotion, we experience total oneness with humanity. Until we devote ourselves unreservedly to the cause of humanity, we can never dare to be one with humanity. To be one with humanity the Creation is to be one with God the Creator.

If we approach God with our soul’s surrender, our heart’s surrender, our mind’s surrender and our body’s surrender, we see God standing right in front of us with all that He has and all that He is. He becomes totally one with us. All that He has becomes verily the slave of our surrender. His very Existence is to please us in every possible way. Our surrender has the capacity to bring God right in front of us and compel Him to be a slave of our absolute, unreserved surrender. It is in our surrender, in our constant self-offering in the Lap of God, in the Heart of God, in the heart of humanity, that our total and fulfilled oneness lies.

When we see God with our soul’s eye, we see that He is the Eternal, the One, and, at the same time, He is ever-changing. He is constant Peace, in the finite as well as in the Infinite. He is One in His Highest and He is many in the field of manifestation. In manifestation we see God’s Creation within us, without us, above us, below us and around us.

An ordinary man has no time to think of God. He is too busy. A spiritual man always has time to think of God. No matter how busy he is, no matter how great a responsibility he has to shoulder, he finds ample time for God. When he thinks of God, his very thought gives him a new life, a new hope, a new achievement.

Instead of living in darkness, ignorance, struggle, contention and competition, we can live in our soul’s plenitude, in God’s infinite Blessing, Compassion and Capacity. Let us utilise each day and found a new creation in our inner life as well as in our outer life. Each second we can utilise as a golden opportunity to achieve the Highest and realise the Deepest, not only in ourselves, but also in others.

Peace: God's universal language<sup>76</sup>

Peace lies in man’s renunciation of his desire-life. This peace is superb. Peace lies in man’s acceptance and transcendence of his present-day reality-life. This peace is divine. Peace lies in man’s sleeplessly unconditional surrender to God’s Will. This peace is supreme.

If I want and need peace in this world and from this world, then I must demand peace from my own heart, my own mind, my own vital and my own body.

Peace is at once God’s transcendental language and His universal language. Each seeker, during his Heaven-ascending prayers and earth-transforming meditations, must learn this language from God Himself. This peace-language only the Inner Pilot can teach to the Truth-seeker and God-lover.

Here at Tokyo University, I am offering my heart’s loving and soulful gratitude to the aspiring students and illumining teachers of the university. I am offering them my heart’s divine love-songs and I am requesting them to spread their hearts’ flower-fragrance all over the world.

My aspiring life sees, feels and knows that Japan is beauty’s flower-garden. A flower immediately gives me joy and, from this joy, I immediately feel peace in my outer life. A good thought also gives me immediate joy and, from this joy, I immediately feel peace in my inner life. My outer peaceful joy is illumining. My inner peaceful joy is fulfilling. I pray to God for the inseparable oneness of my outer peaceful joy and my inner peaceful joy.

From the inmost recesses of my heart I am praying to the Liberator, Lord Buddha, to inundate the aspiring consciousness of Japan, his Immortality’s choice abode, with his Infinity’s Peace.

It is here in Japan that Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the untold destruction-sufferers. May Hiroshima and Nagasaki become the two harbinger-peace-givers for the entire peace-longing world.

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God’s Dream-Reality’s Oneness-Boat,

Peace, Peace, Peace.

Part XII — New Zealand

Stupidity, insecurity and fear⁷⁷

There is not a single day when my mind does not cherish authority and supremacy. In my outer life I try to exercise supremacy over others; I show my undue and unauthorised authority. As soon as I show my authority and supremacy, I separate myself from the rest of mankind. With the disappearance of my oneness-life, my stupidity begins.

Why am I insecure and why do I remain insecure? I am insecure because I have not yet felt my inseparable oneness with the rest of the world. I remain insecure because inwardly I cherish insecurity in a very strange and peculiar way: I think that my insecurity is keeping me alert and cautious. I know that I have countless superiors but very few inferiors. But because of my insecurity I am always afraid that even these inferiors are going to dethrone me and start dominating me. As long as I do not have confidence in the purest sense, I feel that I have to keep insecurity at my heart’s door to protect me, which is absurdity on the face of it.

Why am I afraid? I am afraid of certain people for various reasons, but the main reason is that I dislike them. When I dislike anyone, I feel that the person I dislike is always speaking ill of me; I feel that sleeplessly and breathlessly that person is counting my shortcomings. I feel that he is leaving no stone unturned to expose me to the outer world. Because I dislike others, because I have no love for others and feel no oneness with them, I am afraid of the world. Where there is division and lack of oneness, there is always fear. But if I like the world, the world will also like me. If I love the world, my love will be reciprocated. In the life of a person who does not feel oneness with the rest of the world, stupidity, fear and insecurity can never come to an end.

Stupidity, insecurity, fear: these are my problems. But do I sincerely, soulfully and bravely try to liberate myself from these problems? No! I feel in a very peculiar way that my countless problems are keeping me alive. I feel that if I had no problems, by this time I would have become lifeless and inactive; and that my life of sloth and inertia would have made me even more miserable than I am. I feel that because I have problems to face, my inner energy comes to the fore. Alas, these are the strange ideas that I cherish.

At times, when I am beset with problems, I go to my friends and dear ones in the hope that they will be able to free me from my problems. But, like me, they too are loaded with problems and they cannot help me.

Each problem is an inner ailment, an inner disease, and only an inner doctor can cure me. My inner doctor is my Inner Pilot. He tells me, “My son, I can cure you of all your problems, but I have to charge you a fee. The fee that I need is your constant prayer-life. The fee that I want is your constant aspiration-life. If you give Me your prayerful heart and your aspiration-life, I shall cure you of all your centuries-old maladies. Only a life of prayer and a heart of meditation can cure you of your long-cherished ignorance-dream.”

Part XIII — Norway

World peace through culture⁷⁸

Where is the beauty of peace? The beauty of peace is in dedication-world-service. Where is the fragrance of peace? The fragrance of peace is in aspiration, an ever-climbing cry from the depth of our heart.

When do I not have even an iota of peace? Being a Truth-seeker and God-lover, I do not have even an iota of peace when God compassionately takes my side. Being a Truth-seeker and God-lover, when do I have Infinity’s Peace? I have Infinity’s Peace when I am cheerfully and self-givingly on God’s side.

Peace applauds peace. Unrest fights unrest. Love ascends. Peace descends. Love says, “I certainly have.” Peace says, “I soulfully am.”

Joy is in self-giving. Peace is in God-becoming. Peace is the expanding Heart of Infinity. Peace is the enlightening Breath of Immortality.

A man of peace does not prove; he just improves, improves himself. God Himself extols that human being to the skies who has discovered in life his life’s sole purpose: peace.

Some are blindly searching for world peace everywhere, while others are desperately searching for the same thing. Still others are soulfully, self-givingly and sleeplessly searching for world peace. But they do not know that peace has sempiternally been in the heart of aspiring humanity.

Again, to have peace within is not enough. We needs must bring it to the fore and offer it to the world at large.

As long as our mind is forced by the desire-world to carry the heavy and useless burden of thought, we can have no peace. The mind needs an indomitable will to go far beyond the domain of the thought-world to be inundated with Infinity’s Peace.

When our hearts have sky-high aspiration-cries, we discover peace-blossoms in our heart-garden.

The mental peace is no peace; it is a fleeting breath. The intellectual peace is no peace; sooner than at once it disappears. The compromising peace ends before it begins.

Peace knows not peace-talkers and peace-preachers. Peace knows well, very well, only the peace-dreamers and peace-servers. They are the intimate and indispensable friends of peace.

At the end of our journey’s close, when we enter into the Heavens, God does not measure our earthly life’s prosperity-power. He only measures our earthly life’s peace-towers.

The choicest child of Norway, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie, has so clearly and puissantly voiced forth the achievements of the United Nations: “The United Nations has not yet been able to enforce peace, but it has been able to persuade nations to keep the peace and to bring them back to the conference table when they threaten to fight each other, or even after they started fighting.”

Being the first Secretary-General, he wisely advised his successors what he himself practised in his own term while he was serving the United Nations: “It is necessary for the Secretary-General to act with full realisation of the consequences of taking public positions on matters closely affecting the peace of the world. At the same time, there have been and will be issues that affect the well-being and even perhaps the very life itself of the United Nations. On such occasions, I believe with all my heart and soul that it is necessary for the Secretary-General to speak out for what he believes to be right.”

His was the dauntlessly prophetic utterance: “The United Nations is the supreme law of the world.” May Trygve Lie’s loftiest vision be manifested here on earth.

I have peace when my life becomes a mountain of smiles. I have peace when my heart becomes a fountain of tears. I have peace when my entire being unconditionally surrenders to God’s Will.

I have boundless peace when I succeed in pleasing the human in me: God the Creation. I have boundless peace when I succeed in fulfilling the Divine in me: God the Creator.

Part XIV — The Philippines

Self-knowledge

30 October 1969

Let us try to know ourselves. Let us try to observe what we truly are. Very often we feel that we are insignificant creatures. We have nowhere to go, nothing to achieve and nothing to give. This is what we feel in our day-to day existence. But what we truly are is totally different from what we feel. We are all God’s children. At each moment, God is pouring into us something divine and something truthful. He expects much from us, but nothing beyond our capacity. He knows what we can consciously offer to Him. Right now, we feel that we are weak, unimportant, useless. But in God’s eyes, we are divine, we are fruitful, we are infinite.

We are constantly making mistakes. The root of our mistakes is our body, the physical. We feel that there is nothing beyond the physical and, at the same time, that there is nothing in the physical. It is here that we are making a most deplorable mistake. If we go beyond our body, beyond our physical consciousness, we see infinite Peace, infinite Joy, infinite Bliss and Power all eagerly waiting for us.

Then if we go deep within, deep inside our body, we see and feel the soul. This soul is the messenger of God on earth. If we can be in tune with the constant, spontaneous music of the soul, our lives will be free from suffering, misery, frustration, fear and worry. Our lives will be a constant success, a constant achievement and a constant fulfilment, a fulfilment that can and will be both inner and outer.

So either we have to go deep inside the body, into the inmost recesses of our heart, or we have to go beyond the body, beyond the physical sheath, beyond the physical consciousness. We have to discover our true Self, either today or tomorrow or the day after. Mere preaching will not do; book study will not do. If we at all preach the Truth, the gospel, the spiritual philosophy, then we must preach what we live and practise what we want to be. We have to practise what we want to be and, if we preach, we must preach only what we live.

God’s Vision is man and man’s reality is God. Man can deny God. His ignorance can make him feel that there is no God and no need for God. But God’s Compassion can never deny the existence of man. God is made of Compassion, infinite Compassion. Man is made of ignorance. Whenever I say ‘man’, I mean the human mind, the human body. For man is, in reality, the descendant of God. To realise God is man’s birthright. Divinity is his heritage. But man is tired, man is frustrated, man wants to live in darkness. Man is very often satisfied with his limitations. So what can God do? If there is no sincere seeking, no striving, no aspiration, God has to lower Himself into this unlit, ignorant human being.

Man needs God, but he denies it. God needs man, and He is proud to tell the world of His need. Man certainly wants to get everything from God, but he wants to give God no credit for His infinite Grace and Compassion. But God openly shows His pride in human achievement. If we are aspiring, we will in no time see and feel the truth of this. God is constantly proud of our achievement, our aspiration, our existence.

So I wish to tell all of you not to cherish the idea that God has failed His Creation, that God has been a failure. This idea is completely wrong. God has not failed. It is we who constantly feel that God and God’s Creation are two totally different things. We think, “God is in Heaven and we are on earth. God does not care for us. Or, if He does care for us, He has no strength to correct, rectify or perfect His Creation.” This is a wrong conception of the Truth. What do we know about God’s Perfection, God’s Vision, God’s Reality, God’s Consciousness? With our human eyes, what do we seek? Perfection, achievement, success. To God’s Eyes, these things look totally different. Man’s success and God’s success are not necessarily the same. God’s success is experience, and that experience can take the form of either success or failure. He gives us these two kinds of experience.

God, truth and love⁷⁹

Why should God love me? I just said that God loves me because I love mankind. There is another reason, too. God loves me because I love His entire Creation. I know and feel that God can never be separated from His Creation. Creator and Creation are one, inseparable. When we appreciate the Creation, the Creator is pleased and satisfied. When we ourselves create something, produce something, build something, if people notice our achievement and appreciate it, we are pleased because it is we who have done it. Similarly, the universe is God’s Creation. When we love the universe, we simultaneously love God the Creator and God the Creation; and both the Creator and the Creation will be pleased with us.

Because I love God, Truth loves me. Truth has no existence without God. God is the very breath of Truth. Truth and God are one, indivisible. On the one hand, Truth is another name for God. On the other hand, Truth cannot exist without God, whereas God can at each moment transcend Truth — earthly truth and Heavenly Truth, earth-bound truth and Heaven-free Truth. Even His own Transcendental Truth God can transcend at His own sweet Will. Although we can safely say that God and Truth are one, God alone has the power to transcend all truths, even the Truth itself. That is why Truth without God is helpless. But when we love God, Truth loves us because Truth is immediately fed by our aspiring soul. Inside God is the existence of Truth. In our very appreciation of God, Truth is fed and nourished. And Truth rightly feels that its unique message to the world can be spread only when we truly love its Possessor, God.

Because I love Truth, I love myself. A human being is the expression of Truth. He is not the expression of ignorance, falsehood, darkness and death. No, he is the embodiment, realisation and expression of Truth — the lesser truth, the higher Truth and the highest Truth. Each moment the divine Truth is transcending its boundaries in us. We see it, feel it and realise it when we live the inner life, the life of the soul. Because I love the Truth, I really and truly love myself. My existence and Truth are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin, which is the inner being or soul, the representative of the Supreme here on earth.

I love myself. What do I love about myself? Not my body. If I love my body for the sake of my body, tomorrow I shall be frustrated because there are millions of human beings on earth who are more beautiful than I am. Naturally I will feel miserable. If I love my physical mind for the sake of my mind, tomorrow I shall see millions of mental giants right in front of me, and my mental capacity will fade into insignificance. If I love my vital dynamism for the sake of my vital dynamism, then I shall see that there are millions of people who are simply inundated with striking dynamism. Similarly, if I love anything else of my own, for its own sake, I am bound to be frustrated. I shall defeat my own divine purpose. But if I love myself just because God is expressing Himself through this body, vital, mind and heart, then I see that I am unique and peerless in the whole history of the universe, because no other Chinmoy is going to be created by God with the same capacities, same understanding, same experiences. Each individual can love himself just because he is a direct channel of the Divine. God wants to express Himself in each individual in a unique way. When we become consciously and fully one with God, we not only fulfil Him but we also fulfil ourselves.

When I say that I really and truly love myself because I love Truth, it means that I consciously feel that Truth is constantly breathing in me, with me and for me. My very breath on earth is the living reality of Truth. I love and adore myself at every moment — not because of my sound body, dynamic vital, refined mind and pure heart, but because God is inside me, God is utilising me, God is fulfilling Himself in me and through me. This is the sole reason why my body, vital, mind and heart are loved by me and must be loved by me. Each individual has to be surcharged with this supreme Truth. He should consciously feel that his life on earth is the outer manifestation of the Supreme’s inner Breath.

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I am Thy Golden Plough.

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The body's reality and the soul's reality⁸⁰

Despite being real, the body feels that it is unreal. It always tries to discover reality in something else, in someone else or someplace else. The body, being unconscious, feels that it lacks the Truth, the Reality and the Plenitude. It always feels that it is a beggar. According to the body, Reality is something static. And, feeling that it is nowhere near the eternal Reality, the body seeks it somewhere else where it is permanent.

Let us take the example of a beautiful girl. Everyone knows that she is extremely beautiful. Beauty is a reality in her. But she is not satisfied with her beauty. She feels that someone else is more beautiful than she, perhaps even someone whom others consider ugly. No matter how many times her dearest ones tell her, “You are the beauty. Nobody is as beautiful as you are,” she is not satisfied. This is the case, not only with physical beauty, but wherever reality exists in the physical realm.

The physical is not and cannot be satisfied with its own possessions. It feels that others have the truth, light, beauty and bliss whereas it does not. The very nature of the physical is to feel that it is the eternal beggar. It wants something from somewhere else, either from human beings or from Heaven. There is always a sense of dissatisfaction in the physical. The physical is naturally the seat of dissatisfaction.

The case of the soul is not like that, however. The soul constantly feels that it has everything from God in infinitesimal measure and that it has the potentiality to house Infinity. It is satisfied with its reality. The soul is satisfied because it knows what it has and what it can grow into.

The soul now exists in the field of manifestation. It knows that it has the capacity to unveil the Infinite, either today or tomorrow. It is satisfied with what it has right now; and it is also satisfied with what it will have, what it will do and what it will reveal in the Infinite, for the Infinite. The very nature of the soul is to remain satisfied. It lives in divine satisfaction. Very often the body gets joy and still remains unsatisfied. But the soul lives in constant joy, for it sees the Eternal Reality.

The soul is aware of the truth that Reality is both static and dynamic. The soul is satisfied when it sees the Reality in its highest, in its deepest, in its all-pervading consciousness. The body never sees Reality from all angles, never sees Reality in its ultimate sense, the way it must be seen, felt and realised.

The body wants to feel Reality in its own way — that is, by separating it into infinitesimal pieces and seeing it bit by bit. But the soul wants to see Reality in all its phases, in all its activities both dynamic and static, in all earthly incidents and Heavenly experiences. The soul does not limit Reality. It sees Reality in its Infinity, it feels Reality as the infinite expression of the Absolute and it always tries to identify with Reality in its infinite ways of expression and realisation. Although the body is trying to get the highest Reality, which is both static and dynamic, it can never look at or feel the Reality unless it surrenders totally and unreservedly to the wisdom of the soul.

The ordinary human body is imperfection incarnate. This imperfection can be transformed into perfection only when the body voluntarily offers itself to the soul’s ever-growing light, wisdom and bliss. A day is bound to dawn when the body will make this offering. Then the body and the soul will run together to fulfil the Supreme’s Mission—the mission of nature’s transformation, the mission of the revelation, manifestation and fulfilment of the highest Truth here on earth.

University: The wisdom-source of world peace-makers⁸¹

The University was founded in 1927; I saw the light of day in 1931. The number twenty-seven is very significant in my life: on the 27th of August I was born. I am now sixty-one years old, and I add four more years to offer my gratitude from the depth of my heart to the source, to the foundation. My sixty-five million gratitude-flowers I am offering to the source.

Since its inception in 1927, this august institution has bestowed its honorary degree upon only four most illustrious citizens of the world. You are now blessingfully granting me the same lofty honour. My dedication-life and I are devotedly bowing to you, your wisdom-light and your compassion-height.

I wish to also offer my heartfelt appreciation to the distinguished members of the government and diplomatic corps, the university leaders, plus faculty, students and friends who are here now with their smiling, loving and inspiring oneness-hearts.

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Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

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Lead me from the unreal to the Real.

Lead me from death to Immortality.

O bountiful Soul of the University of Southern Philippines, my soul, my heart, my mind, my vital and my body are now here inside your hallowed heart-garden to receive from you three most significant blessing-gifts: my ignorance-death-certificate, my knowledge-birth-diploma and my wisdom-life-degree.

According to my aspiration-heart and my dedication-life, a university perfectly houses the all-illumining vision of the ancient world and the all-quickening discoveries of the modern world. Here the seers, saints and sages of the hoary past and the scientists and nation-builders of today together sing and together play. Here wisdom-troops are mobilised against the ignorance-night of millennia to declare life’s transcendental victory.

The human mind has endless questions. The heart of a university has sleepless answers. The soul of a university teaches the mind how to choose freedom-light in the world, which is immersed in ignorance-imperfections, and how to radically change the face and fate of the entire world.

A worldwide shortage of wisdom is responsible for the absence of universal peace, universal oneness and universal fulness. We want countless things from life and for life, but there is only one thing we desperately, unmistakably, sleeplessly and breathlessly need: peace, peace, peace. Peace we acquire from freedom, freedom of choice.

Freedom is of two types: the freedom of the mind and the freedom of the heart. The freedom of the mind wants to dominate us, bind us and blind us. It dreams of division and lives in division. While dreaming of division and living in division, it is helplessly wanting in oneness-joy and fulfilment-satisfaction.

The freedom of the heart is self-expansion, self-discovery and self-enlightenment. The freedom of the heart sings only one song, the oneness-home-peace-song. The freedom of the mind loves to make thunder-noise. The freedom of the heart loves to play the flute-melody.

In the inner world, peace and freedom are one, a oneness-reality. In the outer world, peace and freedom are two almost diametrically opposite realities. In the outer world, the war-mongers’ freedom is in world-confusion and life-destruction. In the inner world, the peace-lovers’ freedom is in world-perfection and God-satisfaction. Open your eyes. Lo and behold, war-mongers are dauntlessly marching right in front of you. Close your eyes. You immediately see beautiful, soulful and fruitful peace-lovers in the inmost recesses of your heart.

I am happy not when I say my mind has everything. I am happy only when I feel my heart is everything.

Grandiloquent peace-talkers are countless and everywhere. Closely examined, they are nothing but strangers to sincerity, reliability, purity and probity. Quite often they comport themselves in utter stupidity if not absurdity. Prayerful, soulful and meditative peace-dreamers are few and far between. Peace-lovers and peace-givers like the Polestar-guidance President Gorbachev — humanity-divinity’s colossal pride — are urgently needed to come to the fore and quench the world-mind-thirst and feed the world-heart-hunger.

The world does not need another Julius Caesar to declare, Veni, vidi, vici — “I came, I saw, I conquered.” What this world desperately needs it richly has — our Holy Father, our Universal Father, Pope John Paul II, who blessingfully tells humanity: “I came. I loved. I have become. I have become Divinity’s Compassion and humanity’s aspiration.”

The mind-pinnacle-compromise-meetings for the manifestation of world peace may prove to be of no avail and may even eventually end in total fiasco. It is the heart-summit-oneness-meetings that will without fail reveal and fulfil the all-illumining Heaven-sent message for peace throughout the length and breadth of the world.

When we live in the mind-prison we are compelled to be helpless and hopeless fatalists. We are convinced of the fact that man’s doleful destiny is inexorable. But when we live in the heart-temple, we sincerely feel and irrevocably know that man’s destiny has to be changed and can be changed. The limitation-mind will grow into the unlimited Universal Mind at God’s choice Hour. Perfect Perfection will dawn in humanity’s heart-home. Impossibility will unconditionally surrender to the blossoming possibility. Possibility will start an unprecedented race — the world-transformation-race — and arrive at the reality-destination, which is flooded with the ever-transcending Divinity of the Beyond.

To our great surprise and joy, the doubting mind is surrendering to the searching mind and, before long, we feel that the searching mind will be ready to capitulate to the aspiring heart, the heart that receives infinite Blessings from the highest Lord Supreme for the radical transformation of mankind. Not with a nebulous mind and not with a credulous heart, but with an adamantine will-power-mind and with a confidence-promise-inundated heart, the earth-bondage-night will be transformed into Heaven-Freedom-Light.

Our goal is where our peace is, and vice versa. As an individual has a goal of his own, even so, each country has a goal of its own. The goal of the individual is to see the Truth in everything. The goal of the country is to become the Truth in everything.

It is the individual that sees and augments the potential of the country. Momentous is the utterance of our beloved President Fidel Ramos. On the strength of his inseparable oneness with his own country, he tells the whole world: “My goal is simply to transform our country into a peaceful, productive and progressive society.”

Each university has a special dream — happiness, happiness within, happiness without. Each university’s mother-heart-children are destined to play the role of world peace-makers. Again, here we must realise that there are two types of world peace-makers: a human peace-maker and a divine peace-maker. The human peace-maker happily feels and proudly proclaims how much he has already done for the world. The divine peace-maker sincerely and soulfully feels how much he has yet to do for the betterment of the world, for the poor Mother Earth and for the unfulfilled God.

The motto, the heartbeat of the University of Southern Philippines, runs: “Knowledge, integrity, industry.” This special message is a unique pathfinder to world peace. ‘Knowledge’ is humanity’s birthless and deathless thirst for ever-expanding and ever-transcending horizons. ‘Integrity’ is the harbinger of self-illumination and world-perfection. ‘Industry’ means dedication; industry means self-giving.

We give what we have. We are giving the world-transformation-message-light to the four corners of the globe. This message we have received from the Transcendental Heights. We give what we are. We are Eternity’s Readiness, Infinity’s Willingness and Immortality’s Oneness.

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Purnam adah purnam idam

Purnasya purnam adaya

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Infinity is that. Infinity is this.

From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away,

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Part XV — Puerto Rico

Know thyself<sup>82</sup>

“Life is effort.” So says the body. “Life is blessing.” So says the soul. The human in man does not want to go beyond morality, society and humanity. The divine in man comes down from divinity into humanity, from unity into multiplicity.

Atmanam viddhi “Know thyself.” The Seers of the Upanishads not only discovered this Message Transcendental but offered it to the suffering, crying and striving mankind. In order to know oneself, one has to discover oneself first. What is self-discovery? Self-discovery is God-realisation.

Without Yoga there is no self-discovery. Yoga is not a religion. Yoga is the Universal Truth. It is the traditional truth of India. It is the most important experience of life. True Yoga and life go together. They cannot be separated. If you try to separate them, you will fail. Yoga and life are as inseparable as the Creator and the Creation.

Is Yoga another name for severe asceticism? Positively not. Is Yoga another name for self-discipline? Decisively yes. Does Yoga demand the rejection of the world and the starvation of the senses? No, never. Does Yoga demand the acceptance of the world and mastery over the senses? Yes, a mighty yes. Is Yoga for everybody? Yes and no. Yes, because each human soul has come from God and inwardly aspires to return to Him. No, because some people, at their present stage of development, feel they can live without God.

Can learning and reasoning offer man self-realisation? No. Mere book knowledge ends in self-deception. Why? Because a man of knowledge feels that he has achieved the infinite wisdom. Unfortunately, he does not know that the real infinite Wisdom can come only from God, from God-realisation. Mere mental reasoning ends in frustration.

Can dedication and aspiration offer man self-realisation? Yes. Man’s dedication is his heart-flower offered at the Feet of God. Man’s aspiration is his soul-fruit placed in the Lap of God.

For self-realisation, man needs freedom. God gives him freedom. What is freedom? Freedom is God’s sacrifice-power and man’s miracle-power. Sri Ramakrishna, the great spiritual Master of India, once remarked, “The wretch who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound’, only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’, verily becomes a sinner. One must have such burning faith in God that one can say, ‘What? I have repeated God’s name, so how can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more?’ ”

We must cherish positive thoughts, positive ideas, positive ideals. Only then will our Goal no longer remain a far cry. Each man has to feel, “I am at the Feet of God, my own Master. I am in the Hands of God, my own Creator. I am in the Heart of God, my only Beloved.”

“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” I asked. My Lord bestowed His boundless Compassion on me. I sought. My Lord gave me His infinite Love. I knocked. To my utter surprise, the door was not bolted from inside. My sweet Lord was eagerly expecting my arrival. Lo, I am come!

The meaning of life<sup>83</sup>

Life is man’s experience of wisdom and faith. Wisdom without faith is the bondage of futility. Faith without wisdom is the smile of stupidity. Faith and wisdom can go together. Faith awakens us to see the Truth. Wisdom helps us to live the Truth.

The outer world is a play of conflict between the fleeting and destructive thoughts of man’s mind and the constructive and lasting will of man’s soul. The inner world is a play of harmony between the mind’s surrender and the soul’s acceptance.

Life is will. There is only one will that mediates between God and man. That will is at once the descending cry of Concern and Compassion and the ascending cry of love and helplessness.

Life is man’s conscious attempt to see God face to face.

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First give. Then take. If necessary.

First be the doer. Then be the talker. If necessary.

Thought, human thought, rules the world. But mere thinking is of no avail.

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When I cry, God is my consolation.

When I will, God is my illumination.

We must love God first if we really love life, for God is not only the Source but the very Breath of life. Love of God costs nothing, absolutely nothing, but is worth much. Our mind knows this truth. Our heart practises this truth. Our soul embodies this truth.

The ultimate aim of the human life is liberation. Liberation is the choice of man and the Grace of God. Liberation is man’s total freedom and God’s constant responsibility.

You cry because you have no plans to make your life meaningful and successful. He cries because all his plans have come to a lame conclusion. I cry because I do not want to have any plans. What I want is to be seated all the time at the Feet of the Supreme, who is at once the Vision and the Reality.

My life has three doctors: Dr Love, Dr Devotion and Dr Surrender. Dr Love cures my mind’s narrowness. Dr Devotion cures my heart’s impurity. Dr Surrender cures my life’s ignorance.

My life has three Gods: God the Existence, God the Consciousness and God the Bliss. God the Existence eternally lives in me. God the Consciousness constantly grows in me. God the Bliss immortally lives with me.

Part XVI — Scotland

How to conquer doubt<sup>84</sup>

The Sanskrit word for philosophy is darshan. Darshan means vision, to envision the Truth. Sri Ramakrishna said, “In days of yore people used to have visions. Now people study darshan!” It is one thing to study the Truth; it is another thing to have the direct vision of the highest Ultimate Truth.

Here I am in no way throwing cold water on the students of philosophy, far from it. I also happen to be an insignificant philosopher. But what I wish to say is this: philosophy leads us to spirituality, and spirituality offers us God- realisation and self-discovery. So let us start our journey with philosophy. This is the first rung of the spiritual ladder. The next rung is spirituality, and the final rung is God-realisation.

Doubt. Doubt means absence of real knowledge. Real knowledge is true light, and true light is our inseparable oneness with the world.

Faith and doubt. These are like the North Pole and the South Pole. Unfortunately, a man of faith is very often misunderstood. We are apt to call a man of faith a fanatic. Here we make a deplorable mistake. A fanatic hates reason and ignores the reasoning mind; whereas a man of faith, if he is really a man of faith, will welcome reason and accept the doubting mind. Then his faith will help the doubting mind to transcend itself into the infinite Vast, into something eternal and immortal. This is what faith offers to the doubting mind.

A man of faith is also a man of divine humility. The farther he advances spiritually on the strength of his faith, the deeper he grows into the supreme humility.

Here at this point I wish to quote Keats’ immortal utterance, “My greatest elevations of soul every time make me humble.”

Doubt is our self-imposed ignorance. Faith is our inner vision of the Ultimate Truth. Faith is our soul’s expansion and soul’s illumination.

We see darkness all around. We see impurity all around and imperfection all around. Again, it is we who have the inner inspiration, aspiration, capacity and adamantine will to transform the very face of the earth. How? By conquering doubt, our self-doubt; by conquering our doubt of humanity and of God.

Doubt. Why do we doubt? We doubt because we do not have conscious oneness with somebody else, with the rest of the world. If somebody doubts me, shall I doubt him in return? If I doubt him, then I sail in the same boat. But if I offer him my faith, my implicit faith, then either today or tomorrow, sooner or later, I can transform his nature.

What do we learn from a tree? When we vehemently shake a tree, what does the tree do? The tree immediately offers us its flowers, its fruits. Now, similarly, if others torture us with their teeming doubts, let us offer them our snow-white faith. Then our snow-white faith will transform their life of teeming, darkening and darkened clouds of doubt.

With our eyes wide open, we see that the world is ugly. With our ears wide open, we hear that the world is impure. But we also have the mind. Let us use our mind or compel the mind to see only the right thing, the pure thing, unlike the eyes. Let us use our mind or compel the mind to hear only the right thing, the divine thing. It is the mind, the developed mind, the conscious mind, the illumined mind that has the capacity in abundant measure to transport us to the highest regions of consciousness.

We are all under the laws of Mother Earth. Mother Earth is under the laws of Heaven. Heaven is under the express Law of God. But our doubt, our cherished doubt, is under its own law. Its law is frustration and, in frustration, destruction looms large.

Why do we doubt? Because we are wanting in proper understanding. There was a great spiritual saint named Kabir, who said, “Listen to me, brothers: he understands who loves.”

If we love, then we understand; and if we understand the Truth, then we have neither the opportunity nor the necessity to cherish even an iota of doubt in our day-to-day existence.

We doubt God at our own sweet will. We doubt God precisely because we think He is invisible. We doubt Him because we think He is inaudible. We doubt Him because we think He is incomprehensible.

But to see Him, what have we done? To hear Him, what have we done? To understand Him, what have we done?

To see Him, have we prayed soulfully every day? The answer is no. To hear Him, have we loved mankind devotedly? No. To understand Him, have we served the divinity in humanity? No. We have not prayed to God. We have not loved mankind. We have not served the divinity in humanity. Yet we want to see God face to face. It is impossible.

God can be seen on the strength of our inner cry, which we call aspiration, the mounting flame within us. Every moment this flame is rising towards the highest. If we know how to cry within, then this flame will mount, will climb high, higher, highest; and, while it is climbing, it will illumine the world around.

There is an Indian proverb which I am sure most of you have heard: “A strong man fears his enemy when the enemy is far off, but when the enemy is near, he is no longer afraid.” I wish to add that when doubt attacks a spiritually strong man, he becomes stronger, infinitely stronger. He does this by bringing to the fore his own soul’s light which energises him to fight against doubt and conquer it.

There is another way to conquer doubt: by feeling at this very moment that we are children, children of God; and again, by feeling that God is a Divine Child playing with us. We are human children and He is a Divine Child.

A child does not doubt. He has implicit faith in his parents. He has implicit faith in everyone he comes across. We can play the same role in our day-to-day life. Let us play with God, the Divine Child. There can be no shadow of doubt in our life when we speak, eat and move around if we feel we have a Divine Child within us, sporting with us. We are not alone. There is someone playing with us at every moment. If we know and feel this, then doubt can never eclipse our mind.

A lover of God, an adorer of God feels that deep within him, in the inmost recesses of his heart, there is an island of ecstasy; and this island can never be submerged by the floods of doubt, for his love has already made him one with this divine certitude.

A seeker of the highest order said, “Some say ‘He [God] is too far’. Some say, ‘No. He is living here’. But I have found Him. He is in the cradle of love.”

When we love God, our problem is over. True, we all do not see God face to face. But we can imagine for a fleeting second that God with all His Love abides in our dear and near ones. Let us try to see the Face of our Beloved in our dear ones. Where there is love, true love, there is all oneness. Where there is oneness, there can be no doubt — no darkening, no threatening, no destructive doubt.

How to conquer doubt? In order to conquer doubt, we have to constantly purify our nature. This purification has to take place in our physical. The body has to be purified constantly. It is not by taking six or seven baths a day that we can purify the body. Our body will be purified only when we feel a living shrine within us. Then we have to install the living deity of light and truth within us. Then in no time the body will be purified. At that time, we will not have any doubt in our body, or in our physical mind.

The vital. The vital has to play the role of divine dynamism. It is dynamic energy that we have to offer to the vital, and not aggressive and destructive power, in order to conquer doubt in the vital.

The mind. Each moment the mind has to be flooded with clarity and right thinking. Each moment the mind has to consciously house divine thoughts, divine ideas and divine ideals. Then doubt will not be able to breathe in the mind.

The heart. Each moment we have to make the heart soulful so that we can easily conquer doubt in the heart. The heart has to offer the message of sacrifice for others, for the rest of the world. While sacrificing his very life-breath, a sincere seeker feels that he is not sacrificing anything, but rather is just expanding his own inner consciousness and fulfilling himself here on earth.

Doubt can be conquered. It has to be conquered. How? The only answer is constant and soulful concentration on the mind, meditation on the heart, and contemplation on the entire being.

Divine duty and supreme reward<sup>85</sup>

In our human duty, we think of man in man. In our human duty, we see man in man. That is to say, we love bondage in ignorance. Our divine duty is to meditate on God in man. Our divine duty is to see God in man. That is to say, to love Divinity in Immortality.

Human duty begins with compulsion and very often ends in frustration and repulsion. Divine duty begins with inner necessity and ends in a flood of ecstasy.

Human reward and divine reward. Human reward is the fleeting joy from an insignificant man. Human reward is the dying love from a weak human being. Divine reward is the constant Joy, the everlasting Joy, that flows from God. Divine reward is the constant Love, the all-fulfilling Love, from God.

In our unaspiring life, we perform duties and feel that duty is another name for labour. We also feel that duty is self-imposed, while reward is a most coveted pleasure. In our aspiring life, duty is voluntary. No, never is it obligatory. And reward is the energising joy of selfless service. In our life of realisation, duty is our divine pride, and reward is our glorious, transcendental height.

In our unaspiring life, and even in our aspiring life, we see that duty precedes reward. Duty comes first, then it is followed by reward. In the life of realisation it is otherwise: reward first, then duty. How? When God offers His Transcendental Height, His highest Illumination to someone, it means that God has already granted him full realisation. God has accepted him as His chosen instrument. The very fact that God has accepted him as His chosen instrument indicates that he has already received the highest reward from God. Later God tells him about his duty: to love mankind, to help mankind, to serve the Divinity in humanity, to reveal God the eternal Compassion, and to manifest God the eternal Concern on earth, here and now.

Many years ago, an eminent Indian scientist, PC Ray, was a student at Edinburgh, here in Scotland. After completing his studies here, he went back to Bengal, India, to offer his knowledge to his Indian brothers and sisters. Now, it happened that one day somebody asked him how many children he had. He took out from his pocket a list of his children. Can you guess how many children he had? He had seventy-three children, in spite of the fact that he was a bachelor in the purest sense of the term! Then he said to his questioner, “Look, these are my children: seventy-three brilliant students. They are my true children. I am not married, but I consider them as my own children. They have given me the opportunity to serve mankind, and this is my duty. By serving these children of mine, I perform my highest duty.”

I wish to say that I am in the same boat, unmarried. I have a few hundred spiritual children. Out of His infinite Bounty, God has showered His choicest Blessings upon my devoted head. My spiritual children give me abundant encouragement and opportunities, and meet with all my needs when I move around the world. This is my service, my dedicated service, and this is my bounden duty.

Today, at this august university, I am offering my selfless service. This is my last talk. My tour has come to an end. I have been away from New York for about a month. I have spoken at Cambridge, Oxford and other universities. I have just come from Switzerland, Wales, France and Ireland. Yesterday I was in Ireland and today I am here in Scotland. What am I doing? I am trying with utmost sincerity to be of service to sincere seekers. Each individual has the capacity to be of service to others. Only God can help us, and He always does. What we can do is to serve everybody here on earth. As a servant of God, each individual has the capacity to serve mankind. Service is our matchless duty.

Duty and reward, from the spiritual point of view, go together. It is like the obverse and reverse of one spiritual coin. Duty is man the aspiration, and reward is God the Realisation and God the Liberation. Again, in reward is man’s eternal journey, his ever-transcending journey; and in duty is God the ever-transforming, ever-manifesting, ever-fulfilling Reality here on earth, there in Heaven.

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O Lord Supreme,

Thou art my Father.

Thou art my Comrade.

Thou art the inner Wealth.

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God's school<sup>86</sup>

In this school, as in other schools, there are quite a few steps. We get six degrees or diplomas. The first diploma is the purification of our nature, the purification of our outer being. The second is salvation, salvation from the world of miseries and tribulations. The third is liberation from the snares of ignorance. The fourth is the realisation of our Transcendental Self. The fifth is our revelation of the Absolute. The last and highest degree is our manifestation of the Absolute Supreme. These are the degrees we get in God’s School.

No seekers who want them will be denied these degrees. In the course of time, in the process of our inner evolution, we are bound to get at least the first three degrees. Each seeker, if he is sincere, has to feel that at every moment his life needs discipline — physical discipline, vital discipline, mental discipline, psychic discipline. If there is no discipline, then the individual will make little or no progress. But if there is discipline or self-control, then he can run very fast towards his goal.

Life has to be taken seriously. But if it is taken too seriously, then we will be pulling the Truth or pushing the Truth. By pulling or pushing we cannot achieve the Truth the way the Supreme within us wants us to achieve it. If we take life too seriously, immediately we expect something grand, great and momentous from life; and if we do not get what we want, immediately we feel frustrated. We feel that we are in a prison of futility. Life is fruitless, work is fruitless, everything is fruitless. We have to take life seriously, but if we take it too seriously, then we demand from life something which it is unable to give us immediately. Slow and steady is the answer here. Slowly, steadily, unerringly, we have to carry life towards its destination. We carry life with our aspiration; life carries us with its patience and perseverance in the journey towards the Destined Goal.

Some people take life very lightly, however. They think that life has nothing to give, so they wallow in the pleasures of ignorance, either consciously and deliberately or unconsciously. We have to know that these people have made friends with absurdity. Each life has come directly from the Highest Absolute. We cannot squander life. We have to feel that each life has a serious meaning of its own. The individual life will eventually be merged in the Cosmic Life. The finite, the light of the finite, the life of the finite, will be merged in the Infinite. We came from the Infinite. Here on earth we play our roles for fifty, sixty or seventy years, and then we depart. Then after a while with a new message, with a higher light, with a stronger power, we once again enter into the world to fulfil the Universal Life which abides in the individual life on earth. If we take life too lightly, if we do not pay enough attention to life, then we are unconsciously or consciously negating our inner possibilities and destroying our inner potentialities.

There is another way of accepting life, a human way. We can feel that we are, after all, human beings and thus are allowed to do certain things. We can feel that the experiences we get from life will eventually lead us to our Destination, but since we are human beings, we may remain in the sea of ignorance for as long as we like. We can constantly err and still expect forgiveness from God. This is the human way of accepting life, or taking part in the human drama. But this attitude is also a deplorable mistake. We should feel that we have to come out of ignorance as soon as possible — not by violence, but on the strength of our aspiration. With our inner strength, inner urge, inner life, we must come out of the sea of ignorance.

There is a fourth way. We can take life divinely. Each moment we can feel that there is something called Divinity that is trying to loom large in our life. Every second Divinity wants to come to the fore but, consciously or unconsciously, we are not allowing it to do so. But if we pray and meditate, Divinity gets ample chance to come forward. That is why a sincere seeker, a seeker of the Absolute Truth, meditates daily. He feels the necessity of bringing his own Divinity forward, for in Divinity he feels a real sense of satisfaction.

Each individual seeker is crying for satisfaction. A child gets satisfaction from a piece of candy. A man of desire becomes satisfied when he gets a million dollars. A seeker who has just launched into the spiritual life is satisfied when he gets an iota of light and peace. We are all running after satisfaction. But real satisfaction, complete satisfaction, is still a far cry. Complete satisfaction will dawn only when God-manifestation in its highest aspect has taken place on earth. Right now, God-manifestation is taking place in a veiled and unenlightened way. Many, many people have realised God. Many of them have revealed God. But very few have been able to manifest God because they are surrounded by the unenlightened and unaspiring earth-consciousness. Unless and until the full manifestation of the Supreme takes place on earth, no seeker can be completely satisfied.

Realisation is one thing and manifestation is something else. Until manifestation has taken place, perfect Perfection cannot dawn. To climb up the mango tree is realisation. To climb down again with the mangoes and distribute them to those who do not have is revelation. And after the distribution, to make them feel that this mango is Nectar and Immortality, and that it is from each human being’s Immortality that the earth-consciousness will eventually be divinised and fully immortalised — this is manifestation. To climb up the mango tree is great, but it is not enough. We have to climb down again to distribute the mangoes and to make the world aware of their significance. Until we do this, our role is not complete and God will not be satisfied and fulfilled.

Every seeker is playing a significant role. At the very beginning of his journey, he should feel that he is a chosen child of God. If he thinks he is a chosen child of God, then many undivine attributes will automatically drop from his nature. If he can say, “I am a chosen child of God,” immediately he will have the inner courage to vehemently fight and chase away doubt, fear and temptation. Doubt will not be able to tell him that God-realisation is something absurd, or that he does not have the capacity to realise the highest Truth. Fear will leave him at once, because he will feel his oneness with God. The Christ used his Realisation-power to say, “I and my Father are one.” If an aspirant starts saying, “I and my Father are one,” it will be on the strength of his imagination-power. But what today we call imagination will be transformed into reality tomorrow. A scientist imagines the result of an experiment, then he performs it and discovers the reality. Today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality.

We have to start our spiritual journey with imagination. Inside imagination we have to feel our inner cry, which is aspiration, constantly trying to climb high, higher, highest in a never-ending, upward journey. We all have this aspiration, so we are bound to realise the highest Truth.

God-realisation is not the sole monopoly of any individual. Many have realised God and many more will realise God, until a day comes when all will have realised the Highest. But there is something called God’s Hour. God’s Hour is the hour chosen by God. Today God is pleased with me. Tomorrow God will be pleased with you. The day after tomorrow He will be pleased with somebody else. The moment He is totally pleased with us, He grants us the boon of boons: God-realisation, God-discovery.

There are some seekers who are weak in their aspiration. I wish to tell them that if their aspiration is weak today, they will not always be doomed to disappointment. Carry on slowly, steadily. If you feel that you are weak, then immediately pray to the Lord, to the Inner Pilot, to offer you shelter. He is bound to give it. The cry of the weak seeker is for shelter and protection, and he can expect to get these from his meditation.

There are some seekers here who are strong, who meditate regularly, devotedly and soulfully. To them I wish to say that what they can and should expect from their meditation is joy, inner joy — the joy that conquers limitations, imperfections, bondage and death. Once one has conquered limitations, imperfections and bondage, one’s inner being will be flooded with immeasurable joy.

When the seeker is cheerful, when he is flooded with inner joy, inner light and inner delight, he must offer something to the Inner Pilot in order to fulfil and manifest Him. That offering is gratitude. He knows that it is the Inner Pilot who has surcharged his inner being with this Peace, Light and Delight in boundless measure. He now wants to manifest the Inner Pilot, the Supreme, on earth, and he does it through gratitude, soulful gratitude, constant gratitude. When he offers gratitude, the power, the quantity, even the quality of his Joy, Light and Delight automatically increase. How can he offer gratitude? He can offer gratitude easily and, at the same time, effectively through constant and conscious surrender of his will to the Will of the Supreme. He has to make himself feel that he is nothing other than an unconditional instrument at the Feet of the Lord Supreme. When he becomes an unconditional instrument of the Lord Supreme, the manifestation of Divinity, the manifestation of Reality, the manifestation of Immortality can and will take place here on earth.

Today we are thinking of God, meditating on God, contemplating on God, with the idea that one day we shall see God face to face. When we finally do see God face to face, we will not be satisfied. At that time we will try to have God as our very own. When we get God as our very own, we will then feel the need of consciously and constantly trying to become God. But it is not we who try; it is God within us who aspires. Today’s man is God unrealised. Tomorrow’s man will be God fully realised.

There is no end to a seeker’s journey. Every day we are surpassing our past achievements and transcending our previous goals. If we pray, if we concentrate, if we meditate, we will feel deep within us that we are constantly transcending ourselves. It is not a barrier that we are transcending, but an achievement. Yesterday’s goal was to see something. Today’s goal is to feel something. Tomorrow’s goal will be to become something. We have seen during our meditation that Reality, Divinity and Immortality do exist. We now feel that these are a part of our lives. It is only a matter of time before we grow into these Realities and embody them in our lives.

Desire and aspiration<sup>87</sup>

Spirituality is a vast subject. Yoga teaches us how to study this subject. Yoga also teaches us how to have a free access to God, the Absolute.

We are all one, inseparably one with God. But our oneness is an unconscious oneness. If we follow Yoga, if we practise spirituality, then our oneness with God becomes conscious. More than that, it becomes constantly and inseparably conscious.

Two things govern the world, only two things: desire and aspiration. Desire is for those who want to live an ordinary life, practically the life of an animal; and aspiration is for those who would like to live the life of the Cosmic Gods. The life of desire is immediately followed by destruction. The life of aspiration is followed by revelation, and revelation is followed by manifestation — manifestation of our Divinity, manifestation of the Inner Pilot and manifestation of the Absolute, fully and completely here on earth.

Some people are satisfied with what they have and what they are. What they have is material wealth and what they are is desire. They have desire, but their desires are fulfilled to a great extent and they are satisfied. For these people aspiration is nowhere to be found. They are lifeless, static beings. Those who suffer from frustration and dissatisfaction in the life of desire at least feel that desire is not giving them abiding satisfaction. They want to have something more, to achieve something or grow into something that will give them real satisfaction. In time, these people will feel that the life of desire and material prosperity is not the answer.

There are various reasons why people enter into the spiritual life or want to practise Yoga. Some people enter into the spiritual life because the world has disappointed them or deserted them and they are filled with bitter disgust for the world. They feel that spirituality is the only answer.

Some people enter into the spiritual life because they see that suffering is omnipresent. Suffering is within, suffering is without, suffering is in their families, suffering is in themselves, suffering is in the world at large. They know that suffering is not the answer. Something else — peace, light and inner delight — is the answer. And they feel that they can get these only from the spiritual life.

Some people have come to know that the root of suffering is desire. Because people consciously or unconsciously cherish teeming desires, they are compelled to suffer. When their desires are not fulfilled, they suffer from frustration; when their desires are fulfilled still they suffer, for they thought that the fulfilment of their desires would have been infinitely more meaningful and satisfying.

Some people have gone a step further and have come to realise that desire is not the real culprit. It is ignorance that is the real culprit. We wallow in the pleasures of ignorance, and ignorance compels us to desire at every moment. Our inner sky is overcast with clouds, and these clouds are ignorance. We can illumine this inner sky through our constant inner cry, the cry that we hear ceaselessly inside the very depths of our heart, in the inmost recesses of our being. When we cry inwardly, in our inner being we feel that there is a climbing flame. This flame goes high, higher, highest and touches the acme of perfection. This conscious inner cry has a special name, and that name is aspiration.

This inner cry will carry us into the world of infinite Beauty, infinite Delight, infinite Perfection. These worlds are for the people who enter into the spiritual life. They are blessed. They know the Truth. They know that material prosperity cannot give them immortal Life, immortal Light and Delight. It is impossible. Only the inner life, the life of aspiration and dedication, can give them this immortal Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure.

Of course, it does not matter why you enter into the spiritual life — whether suffering or frustration or any other factors have compelled you. Once you have accepted the spiritual life soulfully and devotedly, that is enough. Your readiness and eagerness on the spiritual path is the only important thing.

In the spiritual life there should not be any kind of calculation or intellectual approach, but only self-giving to the Inner Pilot. The approach has to stem from the inner being directly, and should not go through the mind or the intellect. This does not mean that you will totally discard and disregard the mind. But the mind that you are using right now is the physical, earth-bound mind. Its capacity is very limited; but in spite of that it constantly judges you and others. The mind is always eager to suspect others. It feels that suspicion is the greatest wisdom. It feels that its doubting capacity is the greatest achievement. If the mind suspects or doubts, then it feels that it is doing something very great and significant. Naturally, very often you see that its judgements are totally wrong, because the mind’s judgements are based on its preconceived ideas and prejudices. But the heart is all love, all oneness, all spontaneity.

Stand in front of the ocean of spirituality and use the mind. It will say that the ocean is very cold and its waves are dangerous and ferocious. Doubt will tell you that the waves will drown you. But the heart will see the ocean, not as an ocean of destruction, but as an ocean of Illumination, an ocean of Perfection and Fulfilment. It will feel that if you jump into this ocean, you will be jumping into the sea of Reality, and that sooner or later you will become the Reality itself.

Some people are badly frightened by the ocean of spirituality. They feel that there will be no escape for them and that the ocean of spirituality will drown them. Just because they do not care for the ocean of Reality, they are now swimming in the ocean of ignorance. We can be in only one place: either in ignorance-night or in Wisdom-Light. Ignorance-night is right in front of us and, at the same time, Wisdom-Light is deep within us. It is we who have to make the choice. If we accept Wisdom-Light, then our life is bound to be transformed, illumined and perfected. But if we accept ignorance-night, then our life will be devoured and destroyed by ignorance.

If we really want to walk along the path of spirituality, then constantly we will be inspired from deep within to follow the path of Light, and to grow into the Light slowly, steadily and unerringly. Then, at the end of our journey’s close, we will see the Inner Pilot, our Supreme Beloved, garlanding us with His Transcendental Joy and Divine Pride.

Divine hope<sup>88</sup>

What is hope? Hope is man’s preparation for the unknown. Hope is man’s aspiration for the unknowable. The unknown right now is man’s ultimate achievement; the unknowable is God’s eternal Now.

Hope is man’s inner effort. An ordinary man is not aware of this inner effort, but a seeker of the highest Truth is fully aware of it. This inner effort inspires the seeker to see something new, to feel something new, to say something new, to do something new and, finally, to become something new.

When I smile, I see something new around me. When I cry, I feel something new within my heart. When I pray, I say something new to the higher worlds. When I meditate, I do something new for the inner and the outer worlds. When I surrender, I become something new: God’s chosen instrument.

In the spiritual life, hope is newness. In this newness is our self-transcendence. Our self-transcendence is God’s Pride, His supernal Pride in us. And God’s Pride lives in our conscious and constant gratitude.

Hope and faith are two intimate brothers; they always go together. Hope nourishes faith and faith treasures hope. Hope dreams of God-Beauty in God-Reality. Faith dreams of God-Reality in God-Beauty. Hope pulls the heart of tomorrow into the body of today. Faith pushes the body of today into the heart of tomorrow. When tomorrow’s heart enters into today’s body, man’s aspiration is crowned with success. When today’s body enters into tomorrow’s heart, Heaven’s vision is crowned with success. Man’s success is the victory of God’s Compassion-Light. Heaven’s success is the victory of God’s Realisation-Height.

To hope is to see with the eye of the heart. To hope is to make the heart captain of the vital and the body. To hope is to send darkness-night into exile. To hope is to feel the presence of the inner sun. The inner sun is; the outer sun becomes. When we live in the consciousness of the inner sun, we reach the highest Height of God’s Silence-Light. When we live in the consciousness of the outer sun, we become one with the sound-life of God’s manifestation on earth.

In the spiritual life, hope is humility’s light. At the present state of evolution, human humility is a forced humility. But divine humility is soulful, spontaneous humility. Humility is God’s Dream-Boat that reaches His Reality-Shore. Humility is God’s Beauty in man’s reality

When a spiritual pilgrim starts walking along the road of Eternity, his hope is nothing but humility’s light. Eventually it is transformed into divinity’s birthright. Then, finally, divinity’s birthright is transformed into Infinity’s Smile, Eternity’s Light and Immortality’s Life.

Divine hope is our soul’s promise to the Eternal Supreme that here on earth we shall realise Him fully, reveal Him fully and manifest Him completely and perfectly. Again, there are mundane hopes or undivine hopes. We want to become a multimillionaire overnight. We want to lord it over the world and see the supremacy of our dauntless vital. We want the whole world to be at our feet and accept light from our mind. The world is in darkness; we alone are bathing in the sea of light: this is our firm conviction. Therefore, we feel that we are in a position to offer light to the world at large. We feel that we have everything and we are everything; our only hope is for the world to be at our feet. Mundane hope is not like divine hope. It is an unlit desire that binds us. This desire will eventually bring frustration, which is immediately followed by utter destruction.

In our spiritual life what we now call hope, hundreds and thousands of years ago we called our soul’s promise to the Absolute Supreme: Him to realise, Him to reveal, Him to manifest on earth. At that time our divine hope was our soul’s promise that we would enter into the world-scene and participate in God’s Cosmic Play as conscious players. When we entered into the spiritual life, slowly, steadily and unerringly this promise came to the fore from within. Gradually in our awakened consciousness the power and light of this promise began to loom large. Now we do not see hope as a promise; we feel it as a necessary preparation for our God-manifestation on earth.

In the ordinary, unaspiring world, hope is often no more than building castles in the air. But in the spiritual life, inner hope and the inner cry, which we call aspiration, always go together. Here our hope is playing the role of a divine harbinger. Hope is like the dream which is always just one step ahead of the reality. God is using His beckoning Hands to lead and guide the aspiration of the seeker to the Destined Goal. God is sailing His Dream-Boat to the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond.

The hope of a human child is to get the highest degree or diploma. The hope or climbing aspiration of a divine child is to receive and achieve Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. A seeker’s hope is his aspiration-light, and the Inner Pilot’s hope is Perfection-Delight. Each individual seeker represents a conscious and constant promise to his Inner Pilot. Similarly, the Inner Pilot represents a conscious and constant promise to the individual seeker.

In his aspiration-light, the seeker enters into the Supreme’s Cosmic Dream to play his unique role in God’s Drama and manifest God in God’s own Way. Through His Perfection-Delight, God enters into the seeker’s aspiration-light to give him what He eternally has and what He eternally is. What He has is the Golden Boat that carries humanity’s excruciating pangs; what He is is the Golden Shore of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Again, He Himself is the Pilot and He Himself is the Boat that carries humanity’s excruciating pangs and teeming ignorance, imperfections, limitations, bondage and death to the Golden Shore of His ever-transcending Beyond.

The way, the truth, the life<sup>89</sup>

Two thousand years ago, the Saviour Christ proclaimed: “I am the Way; I am the Goal.” His revealed aspiration was the Way; His manifested realisation was the Goal. Humanity’s first and foremost achievement is the Way. Humanity’s last and most glorious achievement is the Goal. There is a method to shorten the Way. There is a method to bring the Goal closer. How to shorten the Way? Increase our receptivity. How to bring the Goal closer? Surrender our will unconditionally to God’s Will. We increase our receptivity through soulful, devoted and ceaseless self-offering. We make our surrender unconditional by realising the fact that our satisfaction lies in God alone and that God alone is our supreme satisfaction. If we have discovered this lofty truth, then only can we make an attempt to grow into unconditional surrender to God’s Will.

God has infinite children. In God’s family, Truth is the eldest son. Right after Truth is Peace. Truth and Peace are extremely close to each other; they complement each other. They are constantly trying to please each other. Truth offers its Transcendental Height to its brother Peace, and Peace offers its eternal Depth to its brother Truth.

Their Father, the Lord Supreme, observes this act of mutual offering by His two devoted sons. God tells them that they are supremely indispensable in His Creation. God says to Truth: “Truth, My son, earth succeeds because of you. If you did not exist, earth could never succeed in anything.” God says to Peace: “Peace, My son, just because of you earth is able to receive Me. If you did not remain on earth, earth could never receive or reach Me.”

Both Truth and Peace say to their Almighty Father: “Father, it is true that we are of some service to You, but we are not indispensable. Never! We are Your Creation. You are the Creator and You alone are indispensable. We are extremely grateful to You for granting us the opportunity to be of service to You. We wish to become; we wish to be. We wish to become Your messengers. We wish to be the carriers of earth’s sufferings to Heaven-Delight. We wish to bring down Heaven’s Delight into earth’s excruciating pangs. Please allow us to perform this task so that through us You may fulfil Yourself, Father.”

This is their hope and desire. They want to be constantly at the Feet of their Lord Supreme. They feel that if they stay at the Feet of their Supreme Beloved, then only will earth know how to value the supreme Height and the eternal Depth of the Absolute Supreme. Truth and Peace feel that they can act as intermediaries or representatives to show earth who the Supreme is and how He can be approached. How can He be approached? He can be approached only through the aspirant’s devoted surrender to the transcending Height of Truth and the illumining Depth of Peace. Truth is the connecting link between the Way and the Life. Truth energises and illumines the Way that the seekers of the Infinite travel: Eternity’s Road. It is Truth that feeds the life divine. It is Truth that helps the life divine in its total manifestation on earth. Truth is the connecting link between the path to the Goal and the Goal itself, which is the divinely perfect life on earth.

Human life and divine life. Human life is the life of earth. What we need on earth is the transformation of our nature, the transformation of our limited consciousness, the transformation of our earth-bound necessity and reality. The divine life is the life in which we manifest the highest Reality. The Reality-Song we have already learnt, but we have not yet started singing it here on earth.

The realisation of the human life is this:

```

Beyond my reach, I know.

Finds room to rage and flow.

A raft am I on the sea of Time,

How can I hope to reach the clime

```

But hark, I hear Thy golden Flute.

Now safe am I, O Absolute!

```

The seekers who are walking along Eternity’s Road always feel it is their bounden duty to do the first thing first. The first thing is God-realisation. God-satisfaction blossoms into reality only when God-realisation has taken place. If we can satisfy God, even in an infinitesimal measure, through our divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender, then our life of insufficiency, desire and frustration will be transformed into a life of considerable satisfaction. But if God is missing inside our achievement, there will not be an iota of satisfaction there. So seekers of the infinite Truth have come to realise that it is in God and God alone that supreme satisfaction resides.

The human truth tells us that God is in Heaven or somewhere else, but not inside us. He is a foreigner or a stranger to us. He is in the highest Heaven and we are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance on earth. How can God’s Existence loom large in our life of impurity, in our life of inconscience, in our life of death? This is what the human truth says. But the divine Truth tells us in soulful and unmistakable terms that God is bound to be within us. It tells us that the Heaven we are talking about is not somewhere else, not in the highest plane of imaginary consciousness. Heaven is not a location; Heaven is a plane of consciousness inside our illumined heart. This plane of consciousness, which is fully illumined, lives for the illumination of earth, the illumination of human consciousness. If we know what Heaven is and where Heaven is, then it is extremely easy for us to lead a divine life, for we see that Heaven is part and parcel of ourselves.

God is nearer to us than our eyes and nose, only we do not have the vision to see Him. When we keep our human eyes closed, we cannot see anything; we cannot see even the things that are near us. Similarly, if we keep the inner eye shut, then we cannot see God. When we open this inner eye, this third eye, we can see the past, we can see the future, we can see God’s Height, we can see God’s Depth.

Unfortunately, our third eye is fast asleep precisely because we do not feel the need of that eye. Most human beings are afraid of seeing their past and their future because they know what they were in the past. They know what kind of animal life they led and they do not want to see it again. Also, if they see the enormity of the future, the vastness of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, they will be frightened to death. Again, some people are eager to open their third eye, but God’s Hour has not struck for them. They meditate for a few years to open up the third eye, yet it does not open. But if the third eye does not open in the span of five years, they should feel either that they are not praying and meditating well or that this boon is not meant for them.

In the spiritual life aspiration is of paramount importance, but patience is also of paramount importance. We have to wait for God’s Hour. Aspiration is like the runner’s starting point. When the starter fires the gun, he runs at his top speed. This is his aspiration. The Goal is God’s Hour. He has to run fast, very fast to reach the Goal. The distance he has to run to reach the Goal is fixed by God. If God wants the seeker to run one hundred metres, and if the seeker runs only seventy metres and then feels that he should have reached the Goal by then, whose fault is it? The seeker has to cover the whole distance; he must run the full one hundred metres. Then only will he see God’s Hour waiting for him. In the spiritual life aspiration is the starting point and patience is God’s Hour. If the seeker starts his journey with aspiration and continues with aspiration plus patience, then he is destined to reach his Goal.

The unlit, obscure, ignorant and earth-bound human life can get its realisation, liberation and salvation only when it enters into Heaven’s conscious and constant Blessings, Love, Compassion and Concern. How do we discover Heaven? In self-offering — self-offering according to God’s Will and not our will. In the human way of life, the offering of reciprocal understanding or misunderstanding is the order of the day. I give to you and you give back to me. I strike you; you strike me. I speak well of you; you speak well of me. This is the human way. But the divine way is totally different. If it is God’s Will, without the least possible hesitation I give to you what I have and what I am. What I have is the inner cry to climb up high, higher, highest. What I am is constant dedication to you and to the world at large, without expecting anything in return. Our life of aspiration is the life of constant awareness, constant self-giving, constant feeling of inseparable oneness with God and humanity. This is the divine way.

Sometimes we give of ourselves and feel that we are most generous. But it may happen that our offering is going to the wrong person, to one who does not need it or want it right now, to one who is fast asleep. The hour has struck for us to get up and to go to the inner school to learn, but our friends may still be fast asleep. We feel that we are doing them a favour by waking them, but they may not like the idea of getting up at this early hour. They may be irritated and angry. Our self-offering should be to the Divinity in humanity, but not to each individual as such. We will make a Himalayan blunder if we offer our dedication to someone who is still fast asleep in the inner world. He does not want our help right now. If we obey God’s Will, we will help the right person, the person who is ready to come out of his ignorance-sleep and run with us to the Golden Shore.

When we follow the divine life, when we lead a divine life, we always place God first in all our activities. His Will we execute. It is He who chooses the person or persons in whom we shall serve Him.

Ignorance and knowledge⁹⁰

Ignorance wants to conquer; knowledge wants to illumine. Ignorance wants to conquer the world by fighting, strangling and killing. Knowledge wants to illumine the world by loving and by becoming one with the world. Ignorance is hunger for constant separativity. Knowledge is hunger for constant unity. Ignorance teaches us how to consciously or unconsciously bring to the fore the destructive, animal qualities of the world. Knowledge teaches us how to dive deep within and bring to the fore the illumining, divine qualities of the world. I come, I see, I conquer: this is the message of ignorance. I love, I serve, I become: this is the message of knowledge. I come into the world, I see and feel God’s Creation around me and I want to conquer it, dominate it, lord over it. This is the message of the ignorance-teacher within me. The knowledge-teacher within me teaches me to love and serve the world and to become God’s instrument in the world. By listening to the knowledge-teacher within me, I love and serve God and I grow into my inner Being, the highest Reality that is at one with God Himself.

When we pray to God to fulfil our desires — our teeming, countless desires — at that time it is ignorance that is playing its role in and through us. When we request God to take our side, to be on our side, then again it is ignorance that is playing its role in and through us. But when we pray to God to fulfil our aspiration and grant us the capacity to be on His side, at that time it is knowledge that is playing its role in and through us.

Aspiration is our inner cry, the cry that climbs up high, higher, highest. While climbing, it illumines the unlit human in us, purifies the impure animal in us and serves the divine in us for God’s manifestation on earth. When we are on God’s side, the finite in us consciously merges into the Infinite and the individual ‘I’ becomes one with the Universal Reality.

In the world envisioned by God, there are two divine members of God’s family that have been playing the eternal game of Light and Delight on earth: faith and purity. Each human being is constantly attacked by ignorance-forces. These ignorance-forces are doubt and impurity. Faith is the Supreme within us, the divine representative within us, the divine child within us that is growing and glowing, illumining and fulfilling. Doubt tries to conquer the faith within us and poison it. Faith also wants to conquer doubt. But when faith conquers doubt, it does not poison doubt, it does not destroy doubt. Only it illumines doubt, for faith regards doubt as the younger member of its family. Therefore, faith feels that it is its bounden duty to illumine doubt, which is a younger, destructive member of the family.

Just as doubt tries to destroy our faith, so does impurity try to destroy the purity that is within us and around us. It tries to destroy not only our purity, but also our divinity. If impurity is successful, then it does destroy our purity, but it can never destroy our divinity. Purity is of the heart and for the heart, so it can be destroyed. But divinity is of the soul and for the soul; therefore, it can never be destroyed. In the course of time, slowly, steadily and unerringly, purity and divinity conquer impurity. They do not destroy impurity, but they purify its very existence. They show impurity a part of the divine reality that is within.

Doubt is a destructive force that will destroy not only faith but also itself. Impurity also is a destructive force. When faith, purity and divinity conquer these ignorance-forces, these forces are illumined, perfected and fulfilled. Let us say ignorance is a thorn that has entered into our foot. It takes another thorn to rid ourselves of this ignorance-thorn. This second thorn is temporarily our saving- power. Then what do we do? We throw away both the thorns because we fear that the thorn that has become our saviour will eventually create problems for us.

At this point, wisdom has to enter into the picture. Wisdom is not the information that we get from the world around us. Wisdom is what we get from our soul. Wisdom at every moment energises the physical in us, the vital in us, the mind in us and the heart in us. When the physical is energised, it opens its door to the supreme Reality. When the vital is energised, it opens its door to the supreme Power. When the mind is energised, it opens its door to the universal Peace. When the heart is energised, it reaches the height of Transcendental Oneness.

The finite in us is not aware of the Infinite, but when it is made aware of the Infinite, it has an inferiority complex, and it does not want to be consciously one with the Infinite. The finite is an ignorance-force. But the Infinite feels its oneness with the finite. It feels that there was a time when it was not the entire ocean. It was just a tiny drop, like the finite. And then, from that tiny drop, it widened its consciousness and expanded into the ocean itself. This occurred through the process of evolution. Again, the Highest, the absolute Truth, was originally One. God was One and then He decided to become many. The Infinite consciously decided to become the finite. Knowledge tells us that within the Infinite, we can find the finite and, within the finite, we can find the Infinite. Just because God is infinite, He can enjoy Himself in the tiniest atom as well as in the infinite Vast.

Knowledge tells us something more. Divine knowledge tells us that the many and the One were, from the very beginning, identical; they were made together. The One is the Vision; the many is the Reality. God the Vision and God the Reality are all the time together. From God’s Vision-Power, immediately Reality came into existence. Again, with Reality-Power, Vision came into existence. God wanted to enjoy Himself. He wanted to offer Nectar, Immortality, to His whole Creation. With the Creation He felt the expansion of His Self-Form, His manifested Form. When He first created the world, with His inner Vision He saw the ultimate future. Now, slowly, steadily and unerringly, He is unfolding His Vision.

Ingratitude and gratitude⁹¹

Ingratitude is not our inability to acknowledge the gifts we receive from others. Ingratitude is our deliberate unwillingness to acknowledge the gifts we receive from others. Gratitude is receptivity, the receptivity that acknowledges others’ gifts, others’ love and concern. Each time we express gratitude, we expand our hearts.

Receptivity can be increased. How can we increase our receptivity? We can increase it by cultivating it. The farmer cultivates the ground and then he sows the seed. He waters it and eventually the seed germinates and grows into a sapling and a tree. Here also, when we cultivate our gratitude-heart, we get the opportunity to sow our pure love there. This pure love grows into true concern, and true concern eventually becomes inseparable oneness.

When we want to pick a beautiful flower from a tree, we look around to see if anybody is observing us. We feel that nobody should know that we had to take the flower from some other place. We want to show the world at large that this flower was ours right from the beginning. In order to do that, we try to destroy the branches of the tree.

We receive gifts from our friends in the inner worlds but we do not want others to know about it. So we speak ill of our inner friends, consciously or unconsciously. We want to make the world believe that we are self-sufficient, but the rest of the world knows that we are receiving something from others. Ingratitude is nothing but a sense of inferiority, an inferiority complex. The gifts we get from others we do not want to acknowledge. We are afraid to expose ourselves to others.

Ingratitude, impurity and the doubting mind go together. It is impurity that divides and separates us and does not allow us to have the feeling of oneness or gratitude. And this impurity unconsciously or consciously is treasured by the doubtful mind. Gratitude, purity and the loving heart always go together. The gratitude-flower grows in our purity-heart. Purity expands our heart. Purity awakens our entire being within to the highest level of consciousness. The heart is self-giving. And what is self-giving today becomes tomorrow God-Delight and God-Perfection.

Here we are all seekers. Some of us are extremely sincere, while others are to some extent sincere. Those who are sincere seekers of the highest magnitude are all gratitude to the Supreme. When they observe their relationship with their Beloved Supreme, they see that He showers upon them Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure from Above. If they forget to offer their gratitude to their Inner Pilot, the Inner Pilot does not mind. He immediately forgives them. The Beloved Supreme is bound to forgive even insincere seekers if they forget to offer their loving gratitude while on the way to the Ultimate Goal. God is infinitely above our ingratitude-heart. But although God may forgive the seeker, the sincere seeker may find it impossible to forgive himself. When his sincerity-flower petal by petal fully blossoms, he gets tremendous pangs in the inmost recesses of his heart if he has not offered gratitude to the Supreme.

God does everything unconditionally. We try to become His perfect instruments and we try our utmost to become worthy of His infinite Compassion, infinite Love and infinite Light, Peace and Bliss. Our ideal is to be like Him. Our inner cry is to become exactly the same as our Transcendental, Universal Pilot Supreme.

Within us is the animal kingdom, the human kingdom and the divine kingdom. The animal in us does not allow us to become fully human. The human is us does not allow us to be fully divine. The animal in us is anger, jealousy, impure thoughts — these are the animal forces within us. They do not want us to become properly human. The animal in us is a hungry tiger. The human in us often feeds the tiger. But instead of being grateful, sometimes the tiger devours us. The human in us is our sense of division. The human in us wants to control itself without being part and parcel of any collective group. Always it wants to remain off by itself. It does not want to go to the divine, to the all-pervading, the all-loving, all-illumining and all-fulfilling divine. The divine in us brings us joy, love and satisfaction. But the human in us devours this joy and then does not care for the divine. It speaks ill of the divine. It falls short of the divine and then it becomes totally indifferent to the divine. It remains aloof and makes us feel that the divine does not exist. So the animal in us does not want the gift that it gets from the human in us, and the human in us does not want the gift from Above.

But again, we are all evolving. The animal in us is evolving into the human and the human in us is evolving into the divine. The divine in us wants to go to its Source, the Supreme. The human in us tries to become divine by mixing with someone who consciously embodies divinity and spirituality. When we see a spiritual Master, when we see a saint or a sage, someone who is embodying Peace, Light and Bliss, we try to serve him, please him, become a member of his inner family, his spiritual family. Then, when we become spiritual, we try to please our Eternity’s Beloved Supreme. We try to become the exact prototype of His Universal and Transcendental Existence.

The animal grows into the human by serving, the human grows into the divine by serving, the divine grows into the Absolute by serving. While serving, we offer our gratitude, for it is the higher force that has granted us the opportunity to develop through our service. There are millions and millions on earth who are still fast asleep. But we have been awakened. By whom? By a higher force. So each time we get the opportunity to serve, we feel that it is because a higher force has kindled the flame of aspiration and dedication inside us. Therefore, we are grateful. Gratitude looms large when we are given the opportunity to be of service to the Supreme in mankind.

This gratitude-power is our expansion-power, our self-expansion-power. Each time we offer our gratitude to the Supreme, we expand our hearts and grow into the Universal Heart and Transcendental Reality.

Part XVII — Sweden

The secret of joy⁹²

The secret of joy is not to be found in the life of desire; 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 many 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 else 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 spiritual 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 it 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.

My peace-life⁹³

From my prayer-life and meditation-life I have learnt the importance of belief. There are many things that I do not see, and I cannot prove their existence to the world at large; but I do know that they exist somewhere. Similarly, I may not feel peace in my day-to-day life, but I believe that it exists in the inmost recesses of my heart, and this believing will eventually turn into seeing and feeling. Although the sky may be overcast with clouds, there shall come a time when the sun will be visible. Right now ignorance-night has covered my mental vision, but eventually my inner sun will come to the fore and inundate my mind of doubt with light and delight.

I am a seeker. That means I pray and meditate, and I practise my peace-life. I consciously try to live a life of self-giving, for I know that this is the only way to get peace of mind. If I can walk soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally along the path of self-giving, then I will be a perfect stranger to frustration and self-contradiction. Right now my life is all self-contradiction. This moment my inner being is flooded with faith; the next moment teeming doubts are covering my entire mind. Always I hear the song of self-contradiction. But if I can offer my life to the Supreme in others consciously, devotedly and unconditionally, and become the very breath of self-giving, then I will have no frustration or self-contradiction.

As a seeker I know that I become a victim to helplessness from time to time. But I also know that there is a way to conquer and illumine this helplessness — by turning to a higher force. When I feel helpless, it is because I know that my capacity is extremely limited. But I can get the guidance and assurance I need from a higher force by virtue of my prayer-life, my meditation-life, my aspiration-life and my dedication-life.

Although I aspire for peace of mind, very often I surrender to ignorance-night. Then I become very clever and invoke my Lord Supreme to inundate my mind with peace while I, on my part, do nothing. But my Lord Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, tells me, “No, My child, let us play together. I am ready to give you Peace in infinite measure, but you have to receive what I give soulfully. I shall play My part generously and you have to play your role devotedly by being soulfully receptive. I shall give you what I have and what I am, and you will receive it with your heart’s inseparable oneness, light and delight.”

I need peace within; I need peace without. Although I have created my own outer world, I am afraid of it. Because I am afraid of it, I have no peace of mind. But since I am the owner of my outer world, I must not be frightened while dealing with it. I must be fully in charge of my creation, my outer world.

My inner world also has a Creator. My Lord Beloved Supreme is the Creator of my inner world. Out of His infinite Bounty, He has created me. That means He loves me; He loves me far, far beyond my imagination’s flight. Therefore, I must not be afraid of my Creator. It is absurd! What He needs from me is not fear but unconditional love. My love for Him and His Love for me will make me feel that He and I are inseparable, and that we have been singing the song of inseparable oneness from time immemorial.

Who can grant me peace?⁹⁴

I want peace and need peace desperately. But how can I get peace? Where can I get peace? Who can grant me peace?

My Lord Beloved Supreme alone can grant me peace. But before He grants me peace, He wants something from me. What is that thing? My oneness-love. If I can offer Him my soulful and sleepless oneness-love, then He will, without fail, grant me peace in infinite measure in my inner life.

I know that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. But these attributes quite often frighten the human in me. So I will not think of Him in these terms at the present stage of my spiritual development. I will only think of Him as the Supreme Dreamer, from whose Dream this reality came into being. If I can think of Him in this way during my prayer and meditation, then I will always feel His Sweetness, Beauty and Divinity. When I think of God as the Supreme Dreamer, and meditate on God as the Supreme Dreamer, He will grant me peace in boundless measure.

My outer life also needs peace. This peace I will get only when I can offer freedom to mankind. When I do not try to bind any human being, I get peace in the outer world. Also, I must try to think of myself in exactly the same way that God thinks of me. He thinks of me as a choice instrument of His who has come into the world to love Him, to serve Him and to manifest Him in His own Way. So in order to get peace from Him in the inmost recesses of my heart, I must gradually become an exact prototype of Him.

In my outer life, if I want to have peace, then I must think of myself the way other human beings think of me. Others think of me as someone striving for perfection but still far, very far from my goal. If I think of myself as an imperfect human being longing for perfection, then I perfectly fit in with all human beings. At that time there is no feeling of supremacy, no feeling of superiority or inferiority, no feeling of separation. I am one with them and I am one of them. Together we are going along Eternity’s Road with our teeming imperfections, but always aiming at perfect Perfection. If I can think of myself in this way in my outer life, then I can have peace of mind.

Again, I have to think of others the way they think of themselves. Each human being sees himself as a satisfaction-seeker. Either consciously or unconsciously, he is longing for satisfaction. If I can think of each individual on earth as a satisfaction-seeker, I will see that we are all sailing in the same boat, longing to reach the Golden Shore that promises complete, ultimate satisfaction. This also will bring me peace of mind in my outer life.

There is one more thing I can do to get peace in my day-to-day life. Early in the morning, before I pray and meditate, every day I must enter into my mind-jungle and discard one desire-thorn. My mind is filled with desire-thorns, but every day I shall try to diminish their number. Then I shall enter into my heart-garden and plant there another aspiration-plant. By decreasing my desire-thorns and increasing my aspiration-plants, I am bound to receive peace from within. And if I pray soulfully and meditate devotedly and unconditionally, I am bound to receive peace from Above.

Poetry — poem — poet⁹⁵

Poetry is the short-cut to reach the subtle and tangible Goal of goals — Delight infinite. A poem starts in streaming tears and ends in soaring smiles.

The poet beckons tomorrow’s dream-dawn and then transforms tomorrow’s dream-dawn into today’s reality-day. It is a deplorable mistake we make when we try to understand poetry. Poetry is not to be understood. Poetry is to be felt. Poetry is to be loved. To try to understand a poem is like touching a rose with innumerable thorns. To try to feel a poem is to lovingly hold a rose without a single thorn. And to love a poem is to grow immediately into the beauty and fragrance of the rose itself.

The soul of the poet creates. The heart of the poet originates. The eyes of the poet initiate.

Inside each human being there is a poet. This poet can bring down the loftiest heights of truth and, at the same time, can powerfully eclipse the darkest falsehood if and when necessity demands.

Poetry whispers, “O my friends, O my admirers, adorers and lovers, metres and metrical dance-foot-movements — iambus, trochee, anapaest, spondee and others — are my fondness-children. They can scale the measureless height, fathom the deepest depth and run the farthest length. Let us embark on Eternity’s voyage with my children, my fondness-children.”

When we write a poem or read a poem self-givingly, we spend a quiet moment with God the Beauty, God the Compassion and God the Satisfaction.

I am a poet. I started writing poems right from my infancy. Before I write a soulful, powerful and significant poem, I concentrate with my vision-eye, I meditate with my liberation-heart and I contemplate with my realisation-soul. And then I focus my life-camera on God’s Transcendental Divinity and God’s Universal Beauty.

After I have written the poem soulfully and devotedly, the Absolute Poet Supreme, to my extreme surprise, tells me that He has prepaid my ticket to reach the highest height of boundless ecstasy.

When I read the poem in absolute silence, the soul of the poem tells me, “Come in, come in. Ah, you have come to see the real in me, to feel the real me.”

There are poets — ordinary poets, great poets. Again, there are seer-poets. The seer-poets are of supreme heights. A seer is he who envisions the present, the past and the future all at once.

The great difference between music and poetry is this: music is a universal language. I do not have to learn a particular language in order to appreciate the melody, the soulfulness and the fulness of the music. Just because music has a universal appeal, I can appreciate, admire and love the music. But the poetry that has a universal appeal is the creation of a seer-poet. Seer in Sanskrit is drashta — “he who has a free access to the past, present and future and has the rare capacity to divinely grow and supremely glow.”

It is said that poets are born and not made. Unfortunately, I do not and cannot subscribe to this view. There are many, many poets I have seen in my lifetime who were not born as poets but, by virtue of their hearts’ climbing cries and one-pointed, dedicated lives, have become excellent poets. So, as it is true that poets are born, even so, it is equally true that poets can be made. Now, here in the audience, I am sure there are some who are not poets but, at the same time, have a genuine desire to become poets. To them I wish to offer a few humble and soulful suggestions.

You want to be a poet. You can be a poet. You are bound to be a poet. Do not allow yourself to be ensnared by doubt. Self-criticism — no, no, no; self-enthusiasm — yes, yes, yes. Try to free your mind for a few minutes from the coil of thought. Just for a few minutes try to keep your mind silent. I am not saying for a few hours — far from it. Just for four or five minutes keep your mind silent. And then place your silent mind on the beautiful, illumining and fulfilling throne that your heart has created for you.

When you write a poem, you can read it time and again — as many times as you want. Each time you read it, you can try to increase your heart’s joy with your imagination-power. Imagination is a world of its own. The Creator has created His Creation. He is observing His Creation and He is enjoying His Creation. In exactly the same way, you can create a poem, you can observe it and you can enjoy it. You are the creator, you are the observer and you are the enjoyer.

There are critics here, there and everywhere. You must not heed the chorus of impossible critics. Critics, it is said, are the worst failures. There is considerable truth in this. Our goal is perfection. It is enthusiasm and not criticism that can perfect us. Self-criticism is not the correct way. What we constantly need is an inner cry. It is through self-search and self-illumination that we can arrive at perfection. What we need at every moment is enthusiasm in measureless measure and not criticism by others or even self-criticism.

Poetry is humanity’s aspiration-cry and poetry is Divinity’s satisfaction-fruit. There are many, many planes of consciousness from which poems can descend. And again, the poet can also climb up like a bird — high, higher, highest—and enter into these planes of consciousness and bring down the loftiest truth, light and delight.

A poet can write a poem from the mind proper. He can write a poem from the intuitive mind. He can write a poem from the higher mind. He can write a poem from the overmind and even from the Supermind. But when a poet enters into Sat-Chit-Ananda—Existence-Consciousness-Bliss—which is higher than all the planes that I have mentioned, the poet feels that he has covered the longest possible distance. It is like making a long-distance telephone call. Once he reaches this highest plane of consciousness, the Absolute Lord Poet Supreme tells him, “My poet-child, you are mistaken, completely mistaken. Once you reach the Highest, once you become one with the Highest, your journey’s start and the Highest are not at two different places. They are at one place. So it is not a long-distance telephone conversation. You can say it is a local call. On the strength of your heart’s immense cry, you as a poet have reached the Ultimate Height. Once you reach the Ultimate Height, the journey’s start and the journey’s close become inseparably one.

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I barter nothing with time and deeds.

The One Transcendental I was.

I am the Soul-Flower

I am the Heart-Fragrance

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Part XVIII — Switzerland

Love, devotion and surrender⁹⁶

Love is sweet. I have felt this truth in my mother’s spontaneous love for me.

Devotion is sweeter. I have discovered this truth in my mother’s pure devotion towards the perfection of my life.

Surrender is sweetest. I have realised this truth in my mother’s constant surrender towards the fulfilment of my joy.

Again, love is mighty, devotion is mightier, surrender is the mightiest.

Love is mighty. This truth I feel when I look at my father’s face.

Devotion is mightier. This truth I discover when I sit at my father’s feet.

Surrender is mightiest. This truth I realise when I live in the breath of my father’s will.

Love, devotion and surrender. St Augustine has blessed us with a profound message, “Love and then do what you like.”

Our mind thinks that this is absolutely true. Our heart feels that this is undeniably true. But unfortunately, in our day-to-day life we are not able to practise it. That is to say, we do not know what love is. We do not know why we love something or someone. Finally, we do not know how to love.

What is love? From the spiritual and inner point of view, love is self-expansion. Human love binds and is bound. Divine Love expands and enlarges itself. Here we are dealing with Divine Love.

Devotion is the intensity in love, and surrender is the fulfilment of love. Why do we love? We love because at every moment we are pinched with hunger to realise the Highest, to feel the inmost, to be consciously one with the universe, with the Universal Truth, Universal Light, Peace and Bliss, and to be completely fulfilled.

How to love? If we love with a view to achieving something from others, then our love is no love. Love means constant self-offering on the strength of our own inner aspiration.

This world of ours needs peace, joy, bliss, harmony, and understanding. We feel that here on earth there is no light, no truth, no divinity — nothing of the sort. All the divine qualities, all aspects of the Lord Supreme, are in the skies, in the deep blue skies, not here: this is what we feel. Hence we always look up high for help. We feel that God is in Heaven, not on earth. To rescue us, God will come down into the world. He is not to be found here on earth. Here we are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. There can be no light, no truth here.

But we must realise that God, being omnipresent, is here, too. He is within us. He is without us. In the inmost recesses of our heart, we feel His living Presence.

As you all know, George Bernard Shaw has warned us, “Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.” But our God is everywhere. He is not only in Heaven, He is also here on earth. He is with us, He is within us, and He is for us. We do not have to enter the highest regions of consciousness to see God. Our inner cry will bring to the fore our inner divinity, which is nothing other than God.

Surrender. Surrender is protection, and surrender is illumination. Surrender is our perfection. We begin our journey at the very commencement of our life. We surrender our existence to our parents and receive, in return, protection. We listen to our parents. We surrender to their will, to their advice and suggestions, and we are protected, well protected. Joy boundless we feel in our day-to-day life when we are children. Why? Because we surrender our personal will, our own inner thinking, to our parents, and immediately we receive joy plus protection. In protection is joy, and in joy is protection.

Now, in the evening of our life, what happens? If we follow the inner life and the spiritual life, in the evening of our life we also surrender. To whom? To the Inner Pilot, the Lord Supreme. At the end of our journey we surrender our very breath to the Supreme. Then we again get joy, perfect joy, unalloyed joy.

To quote Dante, “The happiest man is he who can connect the evening of his life with the beginning.”

Now, if we are all sincere seekers of the Ultimate Truth, then our journey begins with surrender to our parents, who are our well-wishers, our dearest and nearest ones. When we surrender our existence to them, we get joy in abundant measure. Then, when we walk along the path of spirituality, at every moment we try to listen to the dictates of our inner being. The more we listen to our inner being, the greater is our joy, and the higher our fulfilment. And then, when our term is over, when we have to enter into another world for a short rest, if we consciously surrender to God’s Will, ours will be the supreme joy, the glory supreme.

It is difficult to love mankind. It is difficult to devote ourselves to mankind. It is difficult to surrender ourselves to mankind. This is true. In the same way, it is difficult to love God, to serve God, to devote ourselves to God, and to surrender our living breath to God.

Now, why? The simple reason is that we want to possess and be possessed. We are constantly making ourselves victims of ignorance. That is to say, our desires can never be fulfilled. We have countless desires. God will fulfil only those desires that will be of some use, from which we will derive benefit. If He were to fulfil our countless desires, then He would be doing an injustice to our aspiring souls. That He will not do. He knows what is best for us and He has given us beyond our capacity, though unfortunately we are unaware of this.

St Francis, from his own experience, has offered a unique truth to the world at large, “He who thinks that God’s Love is inadequate is very greedy.” Truly, we are all greedy people. If we go deep within, we see, we feel, we realise that God has given us infinitely more than we need and, needless to say, more than we deserve.

Love, devotion and surrender. These are the three rungs in the spiritual ladder, or should we say the ladder of our evolving consciousness. The first rung is love; the second, or penultimate, is devotion; and the ultimate is surrender.

A tiny drop enters into the ocean and becomes the mighty, the boundless ocean. Unfortunately, in the West, surrender is misunderstood. We feel that if we surrender to someone, he will then lord it over us. We will have no individuality or personality. From the ordinary point of view, the human point of view, this is true. But from the spiritual point of view, it is absolutely wrong. When the finite enters into the Infinite, it becomes the Infinite all at once. When a tiny drop enters into the ocean, we cannot trace the drop. It becomes the mighty ocean.

Each moment we are given ample opportunity to love mankind. And if we really love mankind, then we have the feeling of wanting to offer devoted service to mankind. And then when we really want to enlarge our existence, expand our consciousness and be one, inseparably one, with the Vast, then surrender is the only answer.

Each moment we see right in front of us a barrier between one human being and another — an adamantine wall between two people. We cannot communicate properly, wholeheartedly, and soulfully. Why? Because we are wanting in love. Love is our inseparable oneness with the rest of the world, with God’s entire Creation. We can break asunder this adamantine wall on the strength of our soulful love.

India’s greatest poet, Rabindranath Tagore, said, “He who loves finds the door open.” So our heart’s door is already open for those who really, truly and soulfully love.

God loves us out of His infinite Bounty, and His Heart’s Door is always wide open. Just because He is all Love, we approach Him. He is our dearest, not because He is omniscient and omnipotent, but just because He is all Love.

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To serve and never be tired is love.

To offer and never to end is surrender.

Love is man’s Reality.

Surrender is man’s Immortality.

Reality is all-pervading.

Immortality is all-fulfilling.

The seeker's four lives<sup>97</sup>

Four thousand years ago the Indian seers of the hoary past, the Vedic seers and sages taught us this sublime truth: Nayam atma bala-hinena labhyo — “The soul cannot be won by the weakling.” Only the strong can face the teeming ignorance-night and transform it into wisdom-day. He who lacks strength will never dare to enter into the spiritual life.

When we enter into the spiritual life, we become fully conscious of our four simultaneous lives. It is only in the spiritual life that we become aware of our animal life, human life, divine life and immortal Life. Before we enter into the spiritual life, these lives are practically unknown to us, simply because we are not conscious of their existence.

What do we mean by the animal life? The animal life is the life of jealousy, doubt and destruction or conscious annihilation. The animal life is like a strong and binding rope. Although the propensity of the animal life is to fight and destroy, there is something in the process of evolution that tries to curb this destructive tendency. That is why from the animal life we enter into a higher form: the human life.

In the human life we still notice a half-animal life. That is to say, we still quarrel, fight, destroy and do many other undivine things. But in the human life we also notice something very meaningful and fruitful, which is called hope. We cherish and treasure an illumining hope. Hope is not something vague and tempting yet millions of miles away from the actual blossoming of reality. No, hope is something that is pushing us forward and pulling us upward to a sublime Reality. Hope is constantly helping us and energising us to run towards the Destined Goal.

At times we see that our hopes are smashed into millions of fragments. Why does this happen? It happens precisely because we do not feed our hope with aspiration, with our inner cry. We hope for something, but when difficulties arise we just calmly and peaceably give up our hope. Instead of hope deserting us, very often we desert hope. We do not give hope a full chance to continue its journey.

In the spiritual life, we become aware not only of the animal and the human life, but of the divine life as well. In the divine life we get constant opportunities. We are told that opportunity does not often knock at our door, but when we try to live the divine life, we come to realise that opportunity knocks at our door at every second. We are told that God’s choice Hour dawns once in a blue moon, but this is not true. When we enter into the spiritual life we see that God’s Hour strikes at every moment. We have only to avail ourselves of each glowing opportunity and of each golden moment.

When we follow the spiritual life, we have to make friends with joy. God is constantly offering us this joy, but we are rejecting it ruthlessly at every moment. We prefer to wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. Now, there is an easy and effective way by which we can inundate our being with real joy. It is through our constant inner cry. Outwardly we cry for name and fame, outer achievements and material possessions. But when we cry inwardly, when we cry from deep within, from the inmost recesses of our heart, what we are crying for is Light, Delight, divine Illumination, divine Perfection. The inner life tells us that Delight in infinite measure is at our disposal, that it is our birthright. But because we do not consciously try to claim it as our very own, Delight is still a far cry.

Now what is the difference between pleasure and Joy or Delight? Pleasure is something that is bound to be followed by frustration and, inside frustration, what looms large is destruction. We can confidently say that today’s pleasure will be tomorrow’s frustration and the destruction of the day after tomorrow. But when we follow the spiritual life, we see deep within us the fountain of Joy and Delight. This Delight continuously increases in our awakened being. The seeker in us knows perfectly well that our origin was Delight. Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante “From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow or expand our consciousness. At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire.” Delight is our origin, and our Goal is to go back consciously to the Source, which is all Delight.

What is Delight or Bliss? It is inner freedom, nothing else. This inner freedom, when properly used, brings to the fore the outer freedom. If the inner freedom does not energise or instruct or illumine the outer freedom, the outer freedom will often act like a mad elephant. In today’s world, we see how freedom is misused by millions and millions of people. But when the inner freedom comes to the fore and inspires the outer freedom, the outer freedom will reach the Destined Goal safely and, at the same time, most convincingly and most satisfactorily.

The immortal Life is the life that contains the divine life in its fullest measure. At the same time, it has destroyed the binding rope of the animal life and energised the human life to enter into the divine life. When we enter into the immortal Life, the animal in us is either destroyed or totally transformed, as night is transformed into day. Our human weakness is transformed into strength. Our imperfection is transformed into perfection. All our human frailties are illumined and transformed into an ever-growing, ever-fulfilling Light and Delight.

How can we make steady progress, convincing progress, in our spiritual life? We can make satisfactory, conscious and fulfilling progress only by smiling — smiling at the world, smiling at our reality, smiling at Heaven. Each time we smile at any particular reality, if it is a divine reality, our smile immediately increases our capacity and, if it is something undivine, then our smile weakens or destroys its undivine possibilities and potentialities. Now, this smile is not just an ordinary human smile. This smile comes directly from the depths of our heart and from the full awakening of our soul. It immediately makes us feel that we have pleased and fulfilled our Inner Pilot.

We get this inner smile through prayer and meditation. When we pray, we feel that sooner or later God will come to us and fulfil our prayer. Or very often we go to God through our prayer, and then God fulfils us. Either we go to God or God comes to us. Here in the Western world, we give more importance to prayer than to meditation. There is nothing wrong with this. If I like my right eye more than my left eye, and if you like your left eye more than your right eye, there is nothing wrong in it. Prayer and meditation are like two eyes. Both eyes are eager to show us the Light and offer us the Light.

There are many people in the West who go to churches, synagogues and other spiritual places to pray. But their prayers have frequently become a mechanical, monotonous routine. You have to eat your breakfast; you eat it, but there is no joy in it. It has become a daily routine. But I wish to say that when we pray, we must pray with a feeling of intensity, with the idea of working for the thing we want to have. If we do this, there is every possibility that our prayers will be sanctioned and granted. We have to envision the result while praying. If we do not envision the reality we are praying for, then immediately there will be a yawning gap between our prayer and the result we are seeking, between the dream and the reality.

But it is only the beginner who will pray in this way, always wanting what he calls satisfactory results from his prayers. When we grow in the spiritual life, in the process of our inner evolution there comes a time when we see that what counts most is not the fulfilment of our prayer at all. We want good results, but if good results come in the form of defeat or failure, so to speak, we accept them with equal joy. In fact, we get enormous joy when we can offer our so-called defeat at the Feet of God. In the spiritual life, victory and defeat are like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. This is the second stage of our development, when we can offer the same joy to God whether our prayer is fulfilled in our own way or not.

The third and last stage is when we pray to God constantly, but do not care for the result whatsoever. We feel that our business is only to pray, and the rest is God’s business. We have the inner urge to pray unconditionally, and we feel that it is the divine responsibility of our Inner Pilot to sanction our prayer or not. If He does not sanction it, we do not mind at all. When we can pray unconditionally, we make the fastest progress.

There is another way to make the fastest progress, and that is through conscious and constant surrender to the Will of the Supreme. Now, surrender is a very complicated word. An idle human being surrenders to ignorance, to the world. He does not want to make any progress. He has surrendered to his fate, and he will not lift a finger. But that kind of surrender is no surrender. That is only self-deception, and self-deception is nothing other than self-destruction.

Then again, there is the surrender of a slave to his master. A slave surrenders to his master out of fear or outer compulsion. But in the spiritual life, there is no outer compulsion, none whatsoever. It is our inner being that compels us from deep within to offer our surrender to the Supreme Pilot. It makes us feel an inner urge to surrender. We feel that we are right now just an iota of the infinite Truth. But when this little iota of truth merges into the Sea of Truth, it loses its individual personality and becomes the Universal Reality, the Universal Individuality, the Universal Immortality.

In the spiritual life, we have to offer our aspiration, our prayer, our concentration, our meditation and our contemplation consciously to God. We have to make a conscious personal effort and, at the same time, we have to offer our inner surrender to God. We must feel that we can sincerely say, “Lord, this much I can do with my hands. This much I can do with my eyes. This much I can do with my physical capacity. The only thing more than that which I have is the capacity to surrender, and this I am giving to You.”

In the spiritual life, conscious and divine surrender is the only way to realise the Highest, to grow into the Highest, to reveal the Highest and to manifest the Highest — the Transcendental Reality. When we consciously try to offer all our capacity to God, and to offer Him also our divine unconditional surrender, then in return He will offer us His infinite Joy, Light, Peace and Power. At that time He offers us the message of His divine Victory and gives us the capacity to become His chosen instruments to establish the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

Spiritual purity<sup>98</sup>

In the outer world, at every moment we expect something from others or from ourselves. Very often we do nothing for others, but still we expect quite a few things from them. We may work very hard for others or for ourselves and yet not get anything in return, but we expect. At every moment we expect. But we are making a deplorable mistake here. We should expect only from the right person, and the right Person is God. If we knock at the wrong door, then we shall never get the result. We have to knock at the right door, which is God’s Door: our spiritual heart.

Now we have to know what we can expect from the spiritual life. If we expect from the spiritual life the things that we expect from our material life, our mundane life, then we will be sadly disappointed. If we follow the spiritual life in order to fulfil all our teeming, countless desires, to become the richest or most famous person on earth, or to become the supreme sovereign of this world, then we are not fit for the real spiritual life. But if we follow the spiritual life to get peace of mind, or because we love God, then we can expect results: we can expect Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure. Just because God is inside the spiritual life and His constant Blessing is being showered on all seekers, a seeker may still expect a most comfortable, pleasant life, a life of name and fame. But if he wants to follow the real spiritual life, the life that needs only God, that needs only Peace, Light, Truth and Bliss, then he will not care at all for earthly possessions and earthly achievements.

The world has everything to offer us save and except peace. We can travel the length and breadth of the world and still not find real peace. So where can peace be found? It is deep within us. In the inmost recesses of our heart we all have peace, but unfortunately we have not discovered it. How do we discover it? We discover peace through our constant prayer and meditation. But if this prayer comes only from the physical mind, it will not be very soulful. Only if it comes from the very depths of our heart will this prayer be soulful, and only then will God be bound to answer it.

In the spiritual life, if we can pray well, if we can meditate well, then peace of mind, light and delight are bound to dawn on our devoted heart, searching mind and illumined soul. In order to follow the spiritual life, we must lead a life of purity. Otherwise, like a bad student, we shall always fail our examination and remain in the same class. But if we can establish purity in our physical body, in our vital and in our mind, then we will pass our examination with great honours.

How do we establish purity? We establish purity in the physical through the feeling that we do have inner light, through our conscious awareness of our inner light and through the feeling that this light is eagerly waiting to come to the fore. When we have established purity in the physical, the success we achieve in any sphere of life becomes permanent. But if we have not established enough purity, then nothing is permanent either in our ordinary life or in our spiritual life. We establish purity in the vital by opening ourselves to the soul’s light. When we have established purity in the vital, the life of aggression leaves us and is replaced by the life of dynamism, vital dynamism. Vital aggression destroys everything but vital dynamism creates. It builds a new world for the seeker within us. When we establish purity in the mind, we consciously and deliberately annihilate doubt, fear and anxiety in ourselves. When we have established purity in our mind, we notice that we do not cherish even an iota of doubt, an iota of suspicion or any wrong, undivine, obscure, unlit or impure thoughts. How do we achieve purity in the mind? We do this by constantly offering our mind to our heart, our spiritual heart, which is in constant touch with the soul. When the mind gets illumination from the heart it has free access to the soul’s light. We can also derive abundant purity from our concentration, meditation and contemplation. But those who do not want to go through this discipline, even those who are not following a strict spiritual life, can establish purity in their life through proper breathing.

The moment we speak of breathing, we find that people become frightened. They feel that if they do not breathe properly, they may get into serious trouble. But I wish to say that even if you do not find a spiritual Master who can teach you how to breathe properly, there is still a way that you can regulate your breathing. It is through constant repetition of the name of your chosen deity or of God. This repetition is called japa. If you can repeat the name of God constantly during your prayer and meditation, automatically the sincerity of your japa will regulate your breathing. There are many, many who do not have spiritual Masters to teach them the Indian methods of pranayama, or breath control, but they learn to breathe properly on the strength of their most sincere repetition of God’s Name.

A child, before his mind is developed, before he knows what thought is, breathes in properly, systematically, in a divine way. But when he grows up, when his mind develops and he enters into the hustle and bustle of life, he loses this capacity. The spiritual life is actually a conscious return to our divine childhood. In the spiritual life we must always feel that we are children of God, chosen children of God. It is a child who makes progress. A child is always open to new feelings, new ideas, new dreams, new ideals. In the spiritual life also, a seeker is always open to higher truths, higher thoughts, sublime ideals and soulful aspiration. It is the bounden duty of the parents to take care of a child. Likewise, in the spiritual life, when we consciously become children of God, it becomes His bounden duty to guide us, mould us and shape us into His very Image.

Miracles<sup>99</sup>

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 beginner 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, Naren [Swami 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.” Naren 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.”

Naren 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, Swami 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 and 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 spelt 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. A spiritual Teacher is also a performer of miracles. Not what he does, not what he says, but what he is inwardly is the most important thing. The real miracle is his meditation. This is the miracle that you 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 do not need them or do not care for them, then we do not 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 do not 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. Some day we will want Him; nay, we will need Him badly. At that time God-realisation, the supreme miracle, will be ours.

The aspiring life<sup>100</sup>

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.

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For me, life is a forward march.

For me, life is an inward dive.

When I march forward, I see God’s Sound-Power.

When I dive deep within, I feel God’s Love-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 truth 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 have 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.

Unreality and reality¹⁰¹

Unreality is a discouraging reality and nothing short of a negative reality. Reality is a positive and encouraging divinity. Unreality is the conscious fear of reality. Unreality is the continuous non-acceptance of reality. Unreality is the constant rejection of reality. Even from the dawn of creation, seekers of the Absolute Truth wanted to discover reality in unreality. But the Vedic Seers came to realise that it is from the unreal that we come to the real. They said, Asato ma sad gamaya — “Lead me from the unreal to the Real.” They also thought that anything that is dark within us is less than reality. Again, inside the night, they felt and saw an abundance of Light. Inside human imperfection, they found an iota of perfection. And, inside that iota of perfection, they found that life was immortal.

Then there came a time when the Vedic seers of the hoary past wanted to discover reality in unreality in a different manner. They saw how much suffering there was in the world, and they felt that the only way to have satisfaction or joy was to renounce the world. They said that suffering is unreal and joy is real. They also felt that anything that exists creates problems for human life. Therefore, they sang, Tena tyaktena bhunjita... — “Enjoy through renunciation. Do not try to possess the world, for possession is nothing short of frustration.”

But in the course of inner evolution, the seekers discovered something else. They discovered that renunciation is not the way; acceptance is the only way. They felt that if they claimed to be children of God, it was their bounden duty to please God in His own Way. They felt that if God was real, then His Creation must also be real. God the Creator is reality; therefore, God the Creation is also reality. It is the seeker within us that consciously tries to unify both God the Creator and God the Creation.

The seeker tries to elevate his consciousness through prayer and meditation and reach the highest state of consciousness. This state of consciousness is God’s Transcendental Consciousness. The Transcendental Consciousness houses at once the reality of the Infinite and the reality of the finite. The real reality of the finite and the real reality of the Infinite is to grow into everlasting love. The unreal reality of the finite is to live with limitation, ignorance, bondage and death.

Reality has a consciousness in the inner world and also a consciousness in the outer world. In the outer world, reality deals with the body, vital, mind and heart. In the inner world, reality deals exclusively with the soul. The consciousness of the body-reality is to give and take. The consciousness of the vital-reality is to take and take only. The consciousness of the mind-reality is to take and give. The consciousness of the heart-reality is to give, only to give. The consciousness of the soul-reality is to fulfil God in God’s own Way. The soul does not maintain any role of its own. It always soulfully and cheerfully abides by the Supreme’s adamantine Will.

Each individual offers to the world at large unreality and reality in a unique manner. In the outer world, when an individual says that he knows everything in God’s Creation, he is offering unreality to the world. In the outer world, consciously or unconsciously, he is forced to be in the realm of division and partition. Therefore, he cannot know the Absolute Truth in its infinite reality. Again, if the same individual says that in the inner world he knows everything, then he is not exaggerating. What he says is true, absolutely true, for in the inner world, his oneness with deep, abiding wisdom is complete. On the strength of his inner oneness with the Absolute Lord, he is knowledge itself.

In the outer world, on the physical plane, each thought unfulfilled is a symbol of unreality; each thought fulfilled is a symbol of reality. But in the inner plane, the spiritual plane, each thought is real in itself, each thought is a world itself. Whether it is manifested or not manifested on the earth-scene is of no consequence. As long as it represents a world, it is undoubtedly a reality.

In the outer world, if an individual says that he loves God, then he is not telling the absolute truth, he is not offering the absolute reality. The outer world is the world of countless desires. In the outer world, God does not get the love, the loving life-breath of the individual. Unless and until God gets the life-breath of love, which gives Him total satisfaction, God does not call it real love.

In the inner world, the same individual offers love to God on the strength of his aspiration. And what is his aspiration? His aspiration is nothing short of God’s illumining Compassion. This illumining Compassion has the capacity to please God in God’s own Way. When a seeker acquires God’s illumining Compassion, he becomes not only the divine love, but also God the Love Himself.

Fear and courage¹⁰²

God is both Truth and Light. God the Truth tries to lead us to the perfect Truth. But, unfortunately, we feel that God the Truth is always examining us. We feel that since we are a mountain of falsehood, since we are making mistakes at every moment, God the Truth will punish us. But God is all Compassion. He does not punish us. On the contrary, He tries to illumine our mistakes and make us perfect. In the process of evolution, He tells us that falsehood is nothing but lesser Truth. We have to transcend falsehood and then enter into Truth. And for that, we need a constant inner cry, which we call aspiration.

Just as we are afraid of God the Truth, so also are we afraid of God the Light. We feel that God the Light will expose us, since we have done many undivine things. If someone commits a theft, he wants to hide. He is afraid of light. He feels that if he is in light, he will be exposed. But God the Light is totally different. Here the Light does not expose us; it illumines us. The Light tells us that darkness also has a little light, that night, too, has a little bit of light. God, being all Light, is all-pervading. Therefore, He is bound to be in darkness as well as in Light. Of course, when He is in darkness, He will have only a very small amount of Light, whereas, in an aspiring human being, He will manifest boundless Light. Again, even if there is just a little light, this light will grow into boundless Light. It is like the seed that grows into a banyan tree.

Fear and courage. Fear has capacity in a negative way. It rejects oneness. It wants to remain always individual and separate. Fear is like the tiny drop that does not want to merge into the vast ocean. It wants to maintain its individuality and personality. The finite is afraid of the Infinite and, at the same time, it does not want to confess its fear. But the vast ocean knows that its individuality and personality are composed of countless drops of water. The Infinite knows that it has become Infinite precisely because it houses the finite in infinite measure.

On the physical plane, there are two types of fear: fear of the imaginary and fear of the real. Imaginary fear is far worse than real fear because we are afraid of something that we can only imagine. We are afraid of death because we feel that death will take away all our earth’s wants, all our earth’s love, all our earth’s oneness. Here we achieve, here we accomplish; but we have no idea what is going to happen to us in the other world. We have no idea if we shall go to Heaven or to hell. Here on earth at least we know that we have our dear ones and relatives to look after us. But we do not know whether we shall meet with our dear ones in the other world or whether there will be anyone to look after us. In fact, we do not even know if there is another world. Therefore, the very thought, the very idea, the very conception of death frightens us.

Like imaginary fear, we can have imaginary courage. The worst possible imaginary courage is the courage of an atheist. He is infinitely more insignificant than an atom and yet he challenges and denies God’s Existence. God is Infinite. God is Eternal. God is Immortal. Yet the atheist challenges God’s Existence; he denies God’s Existence or speaks ill of God.

There are some human beings who do not pray and do not meditate, yet they feel that they have boundless peace to offer to the world at large. This is their imaginary courage. Or there are some human beings who feel that they can have the world drop down at their feet at the twinkling of an eye. Like Julius Caesar, they feel that they will be able to say, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” This is all imaginary courage, for they are still afraid of something or other. They are afraid of a tiny, imaginary thought. A tiny thought will enter into them. Then for quite a few years this wicked thought can command them most mercilessly. Yet these human beings say that the whole world can be placed at their feet if they want it.

Fear of the known, fear of the unknown and fear of the unknowable. We have done many things undivine; therefore, we are afraid of the consequences. We know that as we sow, so we shall reap. The law of karma nobody can deny. If we have done something wrong, then we have to pay the penalty. Here what we fear is quite known. But there is also the unknown fear. If we do something wrong today, then we feel that in the near future we are going to suffer for it. We have no idea if the punishment will be severe or not. But we do know that we will be punished. The very thought of the punishment tortures us. Although the real punishment we shall get later on, right now the unknown fear, the fear of the unknown, tortures us.

Fear of the unknowable is fear of what is going to happen in our life or after our death — fear, for example, that there may be a catastrophe and this world of ours will not last. This unknowable can be positive or negative. Infinite Light is an unknowable Reality and it can frighten us. Infinite night, darkness, is also an unknowable reality that can frighten us. The infinite Light is a positive force; the infinite night is a negative force,

We speak of the Universal Consciousness; we speak of the Transcendental Consciousness. We achieve both the Universal Consciousness and the Transcendental Consciousness on the strength of our inner courage. Inner courage is nothing but constant self-giving. Here we are all seekers. Before we became seekers, we stayed with our desire-friends, but now our friend is aspiration. God granted courage to our body before we were spiritual, before we aspired. He thought that with this courage we would be fully alert. He gave courage to our vital. He thought that with this courage our vital would be dynamic. He gave courage to our mind. He felt that with this courage our mind would be completely clear. He gave courage to our heart. He thought that with this courage our heart would be totally pure. Then we became seekers. Now God has given our heart the power of oneness. He has given our mind the power of wideness. He has given our vital the power of compassion. He has given our body the power of sacrifice.

Then He tells us, “Children, do not be afraid of the known, do not be afraid of the unknown, do not be afraid of the unknowable. Have courage in the known. And then, after a while, you will have courage in the unknown. And have courage that even the unknowable will one day become not only knowable but completely known.

“Your parents, your grandparents, your ancestors, prayed to Me. Therefore, they received Light from Me. Their light has entered into you and you have become spiritual. And now, if you pray and meditate, you will also get Light from Me. Your light will far surpass that of your parents, grandparents and ancestors. There is no competition, but in the process of evolution I am manifesting Myself in and through human beings more and more. There shall come a time when I, the Unknowable, will appear before you with My infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, and these will all become known to you. At that time, you shall have courage within, courage without. When you dive deep within with your inner courage, you play with God the Creator. And when you bring your outer courage to the fore, you play with God the Creation. This is how you participate in My Cosmic Game.”

How can I have peace?¹⁰³

“My seeker-son, extinguish the mind’s desire-fire. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Reject your expectation-dreams once and for all. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Drink no more from the fear-cup. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Do not ride the frustration-train any more in this lifetime. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Be sleeplessly on the alert at every moment. Do not allow worry-anxiety-mosquitoes to bite you. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Try to catch the doubt-thief red-handed. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Think at every moment that you are of Me alone, and try to feel at every moment that you are for Me alone. Peace will immediately be yours.

“Increase your mind’s dynamism-flames every day devotedly and selflessly. Peace will sing its beauty-song and divinity-song in and through you.

“Spread your heart’s meditation-fragrance every day devotedly and soulfully. Peace will sing its beauty-song and divinity-song in and through you.

“Ask your mind to study the subject of silence-delight. Peace will sing its beauty-song and divinity-song in and through you.

“Feed no more the hunger-pride of your vital-demon. Peace will sing its beauty-song and divinity-song in and through you.

“Learn from your private tutor, the soul, the secret of surrender-perfection, devotedly, soulfully and selflessly. Peace will sing its beauty-song and divinity-song in and through you.”

My sweet Lord Beloved Supreme, how can the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, the Cosmic Gods and the spiritual Masters of the highest order have peace? Have You ever asked them whether they want peace from You?

“My sweet child, I asked the members of the animal kingdom what they actually wanted from Me. They immediately told Me they needed power to destroy, and not peace.

“I asked the human beings what they wanted. They said they wanted power to exercise their supremacy. They did not want peace.

“I asked the Cosmic Gods what they wanted to have from Me. They said they wanted to have a sea of Delight so that the animal kingdom and the human kingdom could never equal them. They wanted to remain unparalleled and enjoy the divine ecstasy of the nectar-sea. They did not want peace.

“I asked Sri Krishna, Lord Buddha, the Christ and other spiritual Masters of the highest order what they wished to have from Me. Their immediate answer was, ‘Let Thy Will be done’. I asked them specifically what they wanted from me. Again the same answer! Therefore, I asked these representatives of Mine on earth to carry only one message, the message of peace — peace in the animal world, peace in the human world, peace in the divine world, peace in the entire universe. Nothing in My Creation will satisfy either Me or any Creation of Mine save and except peace.

“My sweet child, what I want from you, and what I have been dreaming of since the beginning of Creation, is peace — peace in My entire universe.”

Peace, happiness and freedom¹⁰⁴

The freedom that we use every day is not freedom; it is slavery. Each individual wants to fulfil himself in his own way and be happy in his own way. Each individual wants to be his own master, his own teacher; nobody wants to obey anybody else. But alas, when we dive deep within, we see that we are not in command of our life at all. There is not a single day that we do not listen to the mind. Our mind is our master. Our fearful mind, our doubting mind, our dividing mind, our unlit mind is what guides us. So naturally we have no peace.

When we are in the desire-life, our desire-life becomes our teacher. “Possess and be possessed” is the message that we get from our desire-life. We try to possess the world, but we fail. Therefore, there is no joy or happiness in our life. We want the world to possess us, but it fails to do so. Again we are unhappy and dissatisfied. So how can the desire-life bring us peace?

There was a time when we thought that if we remained only in the physical consciousness, we would be happy. But the physical consciousness led us only to a life of lethargy. Lethargy became our teacher and guide. We did not budge an inch; we only idled away our time. Naturally we did not get peace from a lethargic life.

Then we tried a new teacher: the vital. We expected the vital to make us happy. But alas, the vital only made us aggressive. We tried to lord it over others, thinking that supremacy would give us satisfaction. But all it did was create destruction, for we ended up destroying the world within us and around us. After some time we realised that being superior to others cannot make us happy. Equality must reign supreme if we are to get happiness, which is peace.

When the body and the vital failed us, we employed a new teacher: the mind. But the mind, too, failed us miserably. We expected silence, peace and vastness from the mind. Alas, instead the mind started giving us doubt and fear. Every day it started teaching us the songs of limitation, insecurity and jealousy. The mind also failed to bring us happiness.

Then we asked the heart to be our teacher. Since the heart cares for love and oneness, we felt that the heart would give us joy and, in that joy, we would have abiding peace. But alas, the human heart did not aspire properly. It unconsciously became friends with the body, vital and mind, and their weaknesses entered into it. Finally, instead of being cheerful and expanding its reality-existence, the heart became fearful and timid. The heart was not able to bring us peace.

So now we must dive deep within and discover our Inner Pilot, who embodies Infinity’s Peace, Eternity’s Peace and Immortality’s Peace. We must pray and meditate regularly in order to have a free access to this Pilot Supreme. We want to make Him our only Teacher, our only Guide, for it is He alone who can and will grant us peace.

He tells us that our goal should be loftier than the loftiest. But while we are pursuing this goal, we must remember one thing: perseverance-light. If our goal is to climb up the Himalayas, we must do it slowly, steadily and unerringly. Also, we must not set a fixed hour. Otherwise, if we do not reach our goal at that particular hour, we shall be doomed to disappointment. If we are ready to reach our destination at God’s choice Hour, then only can we have peace.

A Truth-seeker and God-lover can have peace only on the strength of his surrender-light. At every moment he must sing the song of surrender. Our surrender-song to the Will of the Absolute Supreme we must sing sleeplessly, soulfully and self-givingly every day, at every hour. And this surrender-song we can learn only through our soulful prayers and prayerful meditations. Without a prayerful life and soulful meditation, no one can acquire peace. So let us observe and practise the God-life within us. It is only in the aspiration-life, the life of surrender, that we shall one day get peace within and peace without in boundless measure.

Part XIX — Wales

Curiosity or necessity¹⁰⁵

I understand this is a small university — small in size, but not in height and depth. I understand that there are three hundred and fifty students here. I have been to Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and most of the other important universities in the United States. There you will find thousands and thousands of students. But what we need is quality and not quantity. What we need is aspiration, the search for Truth, and nothing else. When we have that inner cry for Truth, we do not need anything else.

Yesterday I was at Oxford. Today I am here. On the twenty-third I will be in Cambridge. Then I will be visiting Scotland, Ireland, France and Switzerland. What am I doing? I am doing only one thing. Like a bird I am flying from one place to another. My wings are love and service. One wing is love, the other wing is service. I try to love mankind. I try to serve mankind. This is what I have been doing so far. So I have come here to offer my love to the God inside you and to serve the divinity within you.

Curiosity or necessity. Curiosity is not necessity. Necessity is not curiosity. These two are like the North Pole and the South Pole. It is quite simple. A curious man does not want the truth. He does not need the truth. He just wants to hear from others what the truth looks like. On very rare occasions, he may want to see the truth from a distance. But he is afraid of personally approaching the truth. He feels that the moment he approaches the truth, the volcanic power of the truth will destroy him, his earthly existence. His earthly existence is nothing other than ignorance.

Curiosity commits two unpardonable sins. It kills our spontaneous love for light, the illumining light that transforms our life and enables us to realise the highest Truth. It also extinguishes our inner flame, which is a normal and natural fire. This inner flame we call aspiration. The higher this flame of aspiration rises, the sooner we reach the shores of the Golden Beyond.

Curiosity is afraid of two things: the highest Reality and Divinity. When reality — that is to say, the Transcendental Reality — looks at curiosity, curiosity immediately runs away, looking for an escape, a hiding place. For curiosity feels that in no time it will be exposed. When Divinity looks at curiosity, curiosity, out of tremendous fear, curses Divinity. It feels that a perfect stranger is entering into its very breath.

Curiosity has, however, two intimate friends: doubt and jealousy. Doubt feeds curiosity just at the moment when the divine Peace, Love, Bliss and Power of the spiritual Master want to help mankind unconditionally. Doubt feeds curiosity at that very moment. Jealousy makes curiosity feel that it is far inferior to the genuine seekers of the infinite Light. So jealousy does not permit curiosity to make friends with the spiritual seekers or to take spiritual help from them. Jealousy says, “If the spiritual seeker or Master is so great, then what of it? Let me remain in the meshes of ignorance. No harm.” Here jealousy instigates curiosity to remain where it already is.

Now, let us focus our attention on necessity, divine necessity. Necessity is spirituality and spirituality is necessity.

What is spirituality? It is the common language of man and God. Here on earth we have hundreds and thousands of languages to allow one person to understand another; but when it is a matter of God and man, there is only one language, and that language is spirituality. If one follows the path of spirituality, one can easily speak to God face to face.

Necessity, divine necessity, is the pressure to see the highest and to feel the deepest. Today we see the highest, tomorrow we feel the deepest, and the day after we grow into the highest and into the deepest.

God is not only a necessity, but the necessity. How and why is God the necessity? We know that everything has failed us or will fail us in one way or another, but God has never failed the sincere seekers of the infinite Truth. So if we really cry for the inner Truth, the infinite Truth, God will not fail us.

We expect from mankind perfection, perfect Perfection. Now, no person on earth is absolutely perfect. Then how can we expect perfect Perfection from anyone? We expect absolute Divinity from human beings, but absolute Divinity is still a far cry for the individual. But if we want to see perfect Perfection, absolute Divinity, only God can show it to us. He can show us His absolute Divinity. What is more, He can offer us His perfect Perfection, His absolute Divinity.

Today’s desire compels us to deny and avoid the Truth, God. Tomorrow’s aspiration will compel us to see God the Divinity, God the Inner Pilot. There can be no choice.

Now, what do we mean when we say God is the only reality, or God is the necessity, the only necessity. When we speak of God, what do we actually mean? We mean God-realisation or self-discovery. Let us use the term God-realisation. God-realisation is not only possible but practicable; and, what is more, it is inevitable.

The outer cry we have. With our outer cry we feel that satisfaction is in possessing and being possessed. With our inner cry, we enlarge ourselves, we expand ourselves, we fulfil God here on earth.

The immortal poet, Shakespeare, said,

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There is no virtue like necessity.

Necessity is the greatest blessing. We cannot fathom the depth of necessity.

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God’s necessity is man.

Man needs God for his highest transcendental realisation, and he will have it in God. God’s necessity is man for His absolute Manifestation here on earth. We need God to realise our highest Truth or highest existence. God needs us to manifest Him here on earth, totally, divinely and supremely.

Without realising God, we cannot have abundant Peace, Light, Bliss and Power. God-realisation is of absolute necessity here. Without God, we remain unrealised. Similarly, without man, God remains unmanifested.

Philip Sidney said, “Thy need is greater than mine.” When we follow the spiritual life, when we walk along the path of spirituality, one word constantly looms large and important, and that word is ‘sacrifice’. We have to sacrifice our very existence for others — what we have and what we are. What we have is willingness and what we are is cheerfulness. This cheerfulness we can have only when we go deep within. When we are cheerfulness within, we are willingness without. If our inner existence is flooded with joy and delight, then only shall we be eager, more than eager, to help the outer world. If there is a barren desert within us, if there is no light within us, how are we going to help or serve mankind? So, if we have joy within, sooner or later, we can bring this joy to the fore and offer it to mankind. We have to love mankind soulfully, serve mankind unconditionally. God-realisation is of the utmost importance. First things first; and our first necessity is God-realisation or self-discovery.

As I said before, curiosity is not necessity, curiosity is not spirituality. But we cannot be sincere overnight. If I am not sincere, I cannot become sincere in the twinkling of an eye. If I have not realised the Truth, I cannot realise the Truth overnight. It is impossible. But if, out of curiosity, I want to see what is happening in the sincere spiritual seekers who feel that God is the only necessity, then I can try to act sincerely myself, because I see something divine and fulfilling in them.

So if, out of curiosity, one goes to a sincere spiritual seeker or a spiritual Master, then he may see something which he has not seen before, in him or around him. I have some students or acquaintances who come to me with very limited aspiration (I beg to be excused, I must say that I also have most sincere students). But I do not throw cold water on those who are right now unfortunate, and do not have genuine aspiration. I tell them, “Do not worry. If you have come to me just out of curiosity, no harm. Mix with the sincere seekers. See what they are getting from their genuine spiritual life; and if you feel that their spiritual life has changed their nature or is giving them a new light and new peace, giving a new meaning to their outer life, then try to follow their example. Be one with them.”

I have come across quite a few totally and exclusively curious human beings who have been transformed into serious, sincere seekers. Truth, either today or tomorrow, has to be realised; and if we do not have utmost sincerity right now, no harm. Sincerity grows. Everything grows. Like a muscle, everything can be developed. If we do not have implicit aspiration right now, no harm. We can develop aspiration, our inner cry.

So, dear sisters and brothers, here I am seeing many, many sincere seekers. To them I say: run fast, faster, fastest towards your Destined Goal. And, I beg to be excused, here I am seeing one or two, very few, curious seekers. To them I say: do not stop with the achievement which is your curiosity. Please try to go one step further. Then you will see today’s curiosity transformed into tomorrow’s sincerity and, in your sincerity, you will see the inner cry, the mounting flame which we call aspiration.

Today’s aspiration is tomorrow’s realisation. This is the only truth. This is the only realisation that I can offer to you, dearest sisters and brothers, seekers of the infinite Truth. Start here and now.

Force¹⁰⁶

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 us cries for domination. When our consciousness is in the divine world, the force that enters us 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 and for us.

Section: Notes

Alphabetical listing by country and by university

Adelaide, University of; Adelaide, South Australia

12 March 1976

Australian National University; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

8 March 1976

Melbourne, State College of; Melbourne, Victoria

9 March 1976

Monash University; Melbourne, Victoria

11 March 1976

Western Australia, University of; Perth, Western Australia

3 March 1976

Austria

Medical University; Vienna

9 June 1986

Vienna, University of; Vienna

1 April 1989

Canada

British Columbia, University of; Vancouver, British Columbia

2 June 1998

Dalhousie University; Halifax, Nova Scotia

16 March 1974

Guelph University; Guelph, Ontario

25 March 1974

Laval University; Quebec City, Quebec

19 March, 1974

McGill University; Montreal, Quebec

9 October 1970

27 May 1989

McMaster University; Hamilton, Ontario

24 March 1974

Montreal, University of; Montreal, Quebec

21 March 1974

New Brunswick, University of; Fredericton, New Brunswick

17 March 1974

Ottawa, University of; Ottawa, Ontario

8 October 1970

22 March 1974

21 February 1976

Queens University; Kingston, Ontario

22 March 1974

Sherbrooke, University of; Sherbrooke, Quebec

21 March 1974

Sir George Williams University; Montreal, Quebec

20 March 1974

20 February 1976

Sir Wilfrid Laurier University; Waterloo, Ontario

26 March 1974

Toronto, University of; Toronto, Ontario

7 October 1970

24 March 1974

Trent University; Peterborough, Ontario

22 March 1974

Victoria, University of; Victoria, British Columbia

15 October 1975

3 June 1998

Western Ontario, University of; London, Ontario

28 March 1974

Windsor, University of; Windsor, Ontario

27 March 1974

York University; Toronto, Ontario

7 October 1970

29 March 1974

Birmingham, University of; Birmingham

25 June 1974

Bristol University; Bristol

30 November 1970

13 June 1973

16 July 1974

Cambridge, University of; Cambridge

23 November 1970

12 June 1973

24 June 1974

21 June 1976

15 May 1981

27 June 1989

12 November 1997

1 November 2000

Essex, University of; Essex

17 November 1970

Kent, University of; Canterbury

9 November 1970

Leeds, University of; Leeds

18 November 1970

20 June 1973

London, University of; London

11 November 1970

22 June 1973

24 June 1974

Newcastle, University of; Newcastle-upon-Tyne

27 June 1974

Nottingham, University of; Nottingham

10 November 1970

Oxford, University of; Oxford

19 November 1970

11 June 1973

25 June 1974

19 June 1976

16 May 1981

26 June 1989

South Bank Polytechnic; London

19 July 1974

Finland

Helsinki University; Helsinki

18 July 1986

France

American College; Paris

13 November 1970

Germany

Frankfurt, University of; Frankfurt

4 July 1973

“My Passport”

Stuttgart, University of; Stuttgart

20 June 1980

10 June 1986

“I Pray for Peace”

Iceland

Reykjavík, University of; Reykjavík

21 July 1974

Dublin, University of; Dublin

1 December 1970

14 June 1973

1 July 1974

Jamaica

West Indies, University of the; Kingston

10 January 1968

12 January 1968

1 April 1969

Japan

Institute of Technology; Tokyo

25 October 1969

“Peace: God’s Universal Language

New Zealand

Auckland, University of; Auckland

8 July 1989

Norway

Oslo University; Oslo

12 June 2001

The Philippines

San Carlos, University of; Cebu City

30 October 1969

Siliman University; Dumaguete City

1 November 1969

Southern Philippines, University of; Cebu City

18 January 1993

Southwestern University; Cebu City

31 October 1969

Puerto Rico

Inter-American University; San Juan

17 October 1968

“Know Thyself”

Scotland

Aberdeen, University of; Aberdeen

18 June 1973

Dundee, University of; Dundee

25 November 1970

Edinburgh, University of; Edinburgh

28 June 1974

17 June 1976

Glasgow, University of; Glasgow

2 December 1970

16 June 1973

29 June 1974

16 June 1976

Sweden

Musikaliska Akademien; Stockholm

16 October 1990

Stockholm, University of; Stockholm

17 July 1986

Uppsala University; Uppsala

10 July 1974

17 July 1986

Switzerland

American International School; Zurich

27 November 1970

ETH (Technical University); Zurich

11 June 1986

Geneva, University of; Geneva

28 June 1973

7 July 1974

14 June 1976

12 June 1986

Zurich, University of; Zurich

25 June 1973

5 July 1974

11 June 1976

Wales

St. David’s College; Lampeter

20 November 1970

Swansea, University of; Swansea