Question: What prevents us from working together as a unit to manifest you?

Sri Chinmoy: It is our sense of separativity that prevents us from working together. We feel, "If I do this job myself then I will get the full glory and satisfaction. But if I do it with somebody else, then I have to share the glory." But here we forget that we are all one. If we are one, then the right hand can do something and the left hand can join it. If both are put together, then we can do the job more quickly and effectively. But if we say that the left hand is not ours, that the right hand is our only hand and we try to do everything with the right hand, then it takes more time. If we have established our oneness, then it becomes not only possible, but inevitable to work together. Only our lack of oneness prevents us right now from working together.

You feel, "I am Shephali, not Nishtha or Pranika." But you have to say, "If I am Shephali, the root, then I need Nishtha, the trunk, and Pranika, the branch. Without the trunk and the branch, there is no proper tree." If you have oneness, then you see that you need the trunk and the branch. And if they also have oneness, then they will say the same. Each one needs the others. You are all interdependent. But when there is no oneness, the root will say, "I don't need anything," and it will remain underground. Then nobody will see it. The trunk will say, "I don't need the root." But that is impossible; it will fall down. And if the branch says, "I don't need the tree," then the branch will have to hang in the air without being supported by the tree, and that is impossible. So everything depends on mutual help and conscious oneness. The trunk, the root and the branch must go together.

You can think of it as the tree, the seed and the fruit. From the tree you get the fruit and, again, from the fruit you get the seed. Seed, tree and fruit are inseparable. Inside the seed is the tree; and again, inside the tree is the fruit. So if you look at the fruit, then you have to think of its predecessors: the tree and the seed. And if you think of the seed, then you have to think of its successors: the tree and the fruit. You always have to take the successors and the predecessors as one. You are the hyphen between the past and the future. If you don't connect the past and the future, then you don't exist, you can't do anything. Only the past, present and future together can make you feel your oneness with God's Reality.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Perfection in the Head-World, Agni Press, 1979
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