Purity-river wins

Part I — What is purity?

Question: What is purity?

We must have purity in our entire existence. If we don't have purity, we cannot expand ourselves. Purity alone can solve ninety-nine per cent of the problems of our existence.

We feel that purity is something very delicate and feminine, which we can crush. But purity is neither delicate nor feminine. It is something solid, dynamic and powerful. When we are aware of the dynamic quality of purity, we can really create a new life at every moment of our earthly existence.

Question: Could you name some impurities? Do they affect us outwardly as well as inwardly?

Question: What is the highest kind of purity I can aspire to?

You have to aspire for purity in the gross physical. How can you do it? It is through constant elevating prayer and constant inner cry for light. Light and darkness cannot stay together; it is impossible. Similarly, purity and impurity cannot stay together. When you pray for purity you have to feel that what you actually need is light. And you must not just repeat the word "purity" like a parrot. You should meditate on the transcendental Light. When light descends into your emotional vital and physical body, then automatically, spontaneously, the light will purify the conscious, the superconscious and the unconscious or lower worlds within you.

Question: Is it possible for a person to become unintentionally involved in the vibrations of someone who is impure?

Part II — Purity in the various parts of the being

Question: On what part of our being should we meditate for purity?

We need to invoke purity through aspiration and meditation on the physical, the vital and the mind. After that the heart and the soul are left. The soul is always pure; the heart can be impure at times, when the impurity of the vital has captured it. But the heart has boundless purity when it has a free access to the soul's purity. The light of the soul must be brought into the heart as often as possible.

Question: How important is the body's cleanliness?

Question: How can I separate myself from my physical desires?

When you are in the ordinary world, you imagine the fulfilment of desire in the form of satisfaction. That is why you get some happiness from trying to fulfil your desires. But when you enter into physical or lower vital desire with your mind, you are caught. You enter into the very jaws of a devouring tiger. When you concentrate on desire, you can feel inwardly that in the beginning there is no light, in the end there is no light and in the middle there is no light. There is only darkness from the beginning to the end and darkness means the absence of divine satisfaction.

For a seeker, aspiration is the most necessary thing on earth. But for an unaspiring person, desire is the most coveted thing on earth. You have to feel that what you want is aspiration and not desire. An ordinary, unaspiring, or even a morally-minded person will need desire because he does not yet have the capacity to go beyond the boundaries of pleasure. But he who wallows in the mire of desire will sooner or later feel that inside desire is frustration and inside this frustration is destruction. For the sincere seeker, divine satisfaction looms large inside aspiration. The moment one begins to aspire he feels true satisfaction. This true satisfaction comes because aspiration has the capacity to identify itself consciously and soulfully with the farthest corner of the globe, with the deepest and inmost being and with the highest transcendental Self. If you feel the real necessity of aspiration you will see that physical, vital and mental desires will stop knocking at your heart's door.

At every moment you have to aim at your goal. If you want to concentrate and meditate on the sun as it rises early in the morning, then you have to face the east, and not some other direction. If you are looking towards the west and running towards the east you will stumble. If you want to be certain of your goal of God-realisation, then you will not look behind you or around you, but only towards the light. You can conquer your physical desires only by running towards the light. Don't think of your physical desires, but think of your aspiration. You have twenty-four hours at your disposal each day. If you spend half an hour, an hour or two hours thinking of physical desires, then be fully prepared to spend at least three times as much time in conscious aspiration. Otherwise you will not be able to make much progress. Be an inner runner and always try to surpass all obstacles that stand in your way. If you run forward with one-pointed determination, limitations and desires will fade away from your life. Aspiration is the only answer. Cry. For outer things you cry; for inner things you can also cry. If you can cry sincerely, you can fly spiritually.

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When I choose, I lose.

Question: You said that we must keep divine thoughts in our mind, not undivine thoughts. How do we know which are divine thoughts?

Question: Although I am a human being and not an animal, sometimes it seems almost impossible for me to purify my vital life as you say I should.

A spiritual Master sees his own past, present and future. He consciously knows that once upon a time he was also in the same difficulties that his disciples are in now. He is conscious of his weaknesses of two or four or six incarnations ago. He knows that for his disciples, desires are very difficult to overcome, and he shows them compassion on the strength of his identification with them. But his compassion will not wait indefinitely. His compassion will act dynamically. He will tell his disciples, "Look, here is the path. Hundreds of years ago I started aspiring and now I have reached the goal. Now you people also start aspiring. You will also reach the goal."

Question: I really feel that I need purity in the mind, so I started doing japa in the morning. But after a few hundred times it is agony for me.

Question: What is the psychic being, and what is its role in our spiritual life?

Question: What are the predominant qualities of the body, vital and mind?

If we accept the spiritual life, the body has to be active. Even if it runs in the wrong direction at first, at least there should be some movement. The body has to be energetic, but not restless. Otherwise, although the physical body itself may not sleep twenty-four hours a day, the body-consciousness will be sleeping. An aspiring body is an active and energetic body. We are fast asleep when we are not aspiring.

The vital has to become dynamic instead of aggressive. It should try to energise and inspire others, instead of trying to control or destroy others. It should say to others "Don't waste your precious time. Get up and do something good for yourself or for humanity."

The clear, pure, divine mind, the mind which is illumined by the soul's light, will become vast. It will say, "I cannot be bound by anything; I will not suspect anybody; I will not belittle anybody. On the contrary, I shall expand my own consciousness and help others to expand their consciousness.

Question: How can we purify ourselves?

Inner purity also depends to some extent on outer cleanliness. If we have something divine within ourselves, then in the outer life we should also try to have that same divine quality. Sometimes we do see people who are outwardly very crude and unclean but who have fine, high souls, even God-realised souls. But for a sincere spiritual aspirant, inside and outside should be the same. Outer beauty should enter into inner beauty and inner beauty should enter into outer beauty. We should try to have cleanliness, which is outer purity. We should shower or bathe daily, and while doing this we should feel consciously not only that we are getting cleanliness but also that actual purification of the outer body is taking place.

It is quite easy to make the physical outwardly pure. But the vital and the mind must also be purified. The vital can be purified only through inner aspiration. The mind can be purified by cherishing only those thoughts that expand. A thought that binds us can never be pure. If a thought expands from the individual to humanity to the entire universe, it immediately makes us purer. The more we can expand, the easier it is for us to get purity. When purity is suppressed, it loses its existence; but when purity is extended, it increases its power. In order to have vital and mental purity, we should examine our inner feelings, inner thoughts and inner ideas. As soon as a thought enters our mind, we have to see whether or not it is a pure thought. An impure thought not only binds us, but its own capacity is very limited. Although it is destructive, the destruction that it causes is limited. A pure thought is a thought that expands itself and our consciousness. It has boundless power.

Part III — Purity in the vital

Question: What Is the vital?

Question: Does that mean that whenever we feel anything from the lower region it is the vital?

Question: What is a vital demand?

Question: I find it very difficult to control the senses. Is this an inner or an outer conflict?

Transcend is a very big word. How can we transcend desire or the life of the senses? We can do it through aspiration. We have to know the meaning of these two words. If we live in aspiration, which goes up, up, up, it will take us up with it. Then automatically the senses will be purified and will be under control; the senses or emotions will be transcended. But if we live in constant desires, then what happens? The senses come to the fore, hungry to be fed. We have millions of ordinary silly desires, which we try to fulfil. If the senses get nourishment they become more powerful and we are caught by them. Then we can never transcend them. If we feed them all the time, how can we control them?

Question: Whenever I see a beautiful woman, sex thoughts enter my mind. I try to destroy them, but they persist.

Question: Why have you come to America? Americans are all indulging in sexuality. Americans are all animals. Why have you come to America to help these people with your spiritual light?

Sex life right now is almost a universal necessity. It is not only an American problem or Indian problem or a European problem. If one wants to transcend it, there is a way: it is aspiration. But one has no right to hate or condemn America exclusively. If this is a disease, it is a universal disease. If it is a necessity, it is a universal necessity for those who have not consciously begun to transcend their imperfections and limitations. India's great Swami Vivekananda also had the idea that Americans were not at all pure, that they were all animals. But Vivekananda came to America to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and it was America who accepted his light first, while India did not recognise him.

Question: Could you talk about sexual abstention in terms of getting to a higher consciousness?

In our aspiration we have to know what our goal is. We have to know how high we want to go. For a child, a few feet is very high, but for a grown-up it is quite low, and for a pilot in an aeroplane it is no height at all. When our aspiration mounts, it goes infinitely higher than any aeroplane can go. If we want to lead an ordinary life and have just a little aspiration, we can do so. Those who have a little aspiration are better than those who have none at all, because at least they are trying to get a little light. For some time they remain in light and for some time they remain in darkness. They are just like babies. Their capacity is very limited. But again, there are people who want to remain in light twenty-four hours a day. For those who want to touch the Highest, physical abstinence is necessary. For everything we have to pay some price. The higher we go with our aspiration, the greater is our delight. The aspirant has to know what he wants. If his ultimate goal is the Highest, then gradually he has to give up the sex life. But if he stops the sex life all at once, he will be doomed. Inner purification has to be accomplished gradually.

If we have done something for many years and we stop it all at once, this sudden change may tell upon our health. But if we do it gradually, then it will not affect us. For centuries in many previous incarnations we have indulged in sex. Then we start aspiring and want to go to the Highest.

Question: If everyone followed the spiritual path they would reach a time when they would give up their sexual lives. If everybody did that, there would be no more incarnations!

Human procreation is one way to bring human life to earth. You are under the impression that if everyone stopped his sex life, no souls would be able to enter into the world. Unfortunately, you do not know that there are many souls in the vital world, in the intuitive world, and in other worlds which could come without that process. The spiritual Masters are seeing this in the inner worlds. These souls will take human form without going through the ordinary process. In a few hundred years you yourself will see this happening.

You know that once upon a time we were all in the animal kingdom. We were every kind of animal. But now that we have all become human beings, are all the animals gone? No! We have become human beings, but still we see animals all around us. Our evolution has progressed very far, and we are now in the process of realising God. But there are people who realised God thousands of years ago and who are now divinised supermen, transformed beings. When they come into the world you can see the same sort of difference between them and ordinary people who are not aspiring, as we can see between ourselves and the animals we once were. If a realised person showed his inner world to you, his inner Peace, inner Light and inner Power, then you would see an immeasurable difference between yourself and him.

Question: The analyst tells us that if we can bring our sex desires to the surface and express them we can become emotionally mature. But spiritual teachers say that sex desire stands in the way of inner growth. Who is right?

Question: I have been told by my spiritual Master that vital enjoyment and the spiritual life can go together. But I find that when I follow this philosophy my meditation as absolutely rotten. How can vital enjoyment and meditation go together?

Question: Sometimes I feel as if am two conflicting persons. Can you please explain this feeling?

Part IV — Emotion

Question: Is there any difference between emotion and the vital?

Some of you disappoint me very badly with your emotional vital problems. Please try to purify your vital world. I will be most proud of each of you the moment I see the purification of your vital. I shall be bloated with divine pride that my spiritual children are really pure.

If there is no effort to transform the vital emotional life into the purest spiritual life, then all your spiritual activities will be a kind of self-deception, and in self-deception there is no God-realisation. Many so-called aspirants feel that they can deceive their spiritual Master. They pretend to be the purest virgins and the most complete celibates. But God has given the true spiritual Masters a third eye which is fully open. They are always aware of the aspirants' imperfections and shortcomings.

Question: Is it wrong for spiritual aspirants to demonstrate their affection for each other physically in public?

Sometimes others may complain about your conduct because you are doing something which they themselves want to do, but which they don't dare to do. In this case, they are complaining out of jealousy. But in some people's cases no jealousy is involved. They are simply weak; they are not yet strong or solid in their aspiration, so their consciousness and their aspiration descend when they see their friends kissing or embracing, or even just touching each other. A young boy may be struggling to control his vital life, and although you may be superior to him, you can lower his consciousness and re-awaken his lower vital. This is very bad on your part. If something you do decreases the inspiration and aspiration of some of your spiritual brothers and sisters, then you should stop doing it out of the kindness, love and consideration which you feel for them.

Question: Should we try to help other people with their emotional problems?

Question: Sometimes when I stand next to certain people I feel a great warmth and energy exchange, a merging of hearts, as it seems, and a certain degree of excitement. Is this something that I should be cautious of or something that I should throw myself into, or should I just let it happen as it will happen?

Question: How are we to combat the obscure, dark emotions which wrack the world today?

Question: When we feel joyful most of the time, does that mean God is pleased with us?

When we separate ourselves from an individual who has done something wrong and derive satisfaction from it, this is our feeling of superiority coming to the fore. Only when we have the true feeling of inner oneness do we become one with vastness itself. Then no fear, no doubt, no jealousy, no anxiety, no limitations enter into us.

Question: How can I express love and manifest love in the physical world?

Part V — Desire

Question: Are we on earth just to desire? Is desire the only necessity?

What is the difference between desire and aspiration? Desire binds us. We always desire more and more and more. If we have one dollar, we will try to get two dollars. But this expansion is done in ignorance and darkness, so we are ultimately bound by our own desire. Even if we have ten houses we will not have any inner satisfaction. We will be bound by our possessions. But when we aspire we pray for Light, Peace, Bliss and Power. Each prayer is an expansion of our inner freedom. In the world of desire expansion has its limit, but in the world of aspiration there is no limit. From all the divine qualities which we attain, we get freedom in abundant measure.

In human existence we find both desire and aspiration. We cannot put desire on the same footing as aspiration, for they are totally different things. In desire there is always tension, fear and anxiety. We desire something, but at the same time we feel that our desire will not be fulfilled because we are unworthy. But aspiration is a great joy and a great delight. While we are still on earth we have to be aware of what we are striving for, whether it is the expansion of our consciousness or the aggrandisement of our ego. The sleeping human being will desire while the awakened human being will aspire. The necessity for desire will exist on earth as long as we care for the world more than we care for Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

Question: When you say we have to control our desires in order to realise God, does that mean that desires will be around forever but under the control of the soul?

Similarly, in spiritual life the soul tolerates everything in the beginning. The body, the vital and the mind are unruly members of the family. They mock and disobey the soul. They are like naughty children who do not want to bathe. They stand in front of the bath but they feel that the water is very cold or very unpleasant, and they do not want to enter. The obedient children enter the bath on their own and are properly bathed. There the mother is very happy with them. She observes the situation of the naughty children for about half an hour, and when she sees that they are not going to get into the bath themselves, she just puts them in herself and compels them to take a bath.

Question: How can we avoid the desire for the fruits of action?

There is no end to our begging and grasping when we live in the desire-world. We bind ourselves constantly by crying for some specific result in our relationships with our near and dear ones. Desire brings us to one point always, and that is the physical body. How can we be freed from this prison cell? Only through aspiration. If we walk on the path of aspiration it will tell us that the goal and the path are one. The goal is infinite, eternal Bliss and the path is the path of aspiration. In the path itself we see the goal.

But how can we free ourselves from desire for the fruits of action? When we work we naturally want the result. If we feel that it is we who have done something, then we will cry for the results. But if we feel that it is not we who are working, then we will not care for the results. If we feel that somebody else is working or studying, then we will not be concerned about the results. So let us feel that somebody else is working in and through us. Who is this somebody? It is God. If God is the Doer, then it is He who has to think about the results. The easiest way to free oneself from desire for the fruits of action is to feel that we are not the doer, that God is eternally the only Doer, and that He is acting in and through us; therefore, the results are His business.

Part VI — Marriage

Question: What Is the place of the sex life in your spiritual Centre?

Often people feel that they may lead all kinds of romantic life at our spiritual Centre since they know the Guru is all Compassion. But above the Guru there is someone called the Supreme, who does not permit me to allow such things.

Being your spiritual leader, I am compelled to remind all of you to remember why you have accepted this path. The Sri Chinmoy Centre is for God-realisation and God-manifestation, not for romantic life. If you want the ordinary life, then you are at perfect liberty to find your friends outside the Centre. But do not come here with a view to get your soul's mate. I will not be able to supply you with your soul's mate. I came into the world only to take you to your goal, not to find a husband or a wife for you.

If you want to enter into the married life, as long as you satisfy me with your aspiration, I will forever remain your spiritual Father. But you have to please the Supreme in me with your aspiration. You cannot please the Supreme in me if you put the blame on me whenever you do anything wrong in your vital life, or if you feel that I am responsible for your love affairs. If you expect me to take responsibility for your uncontrolled vital life, then you will be disappointed.

Question: For what purpose is the union between man and woman?

Question: Can you please speak about marriage with regard to the spiritual life?

Question: Is self-purification more difficult because we are married?

Question: You mentioned that the role of the husband is silence and the role of the wife is power. What do you actually mean by this?

Part VII — Practical methods of attaining purity

Question: What is the most effective way I can attain purity?

Question: Where should I concentrate my efforts towards purity, and how should I do so?

From the past you cannot expect anything. It has already given you what it had to offer. The past offered you its wealth, but this wealth was not fulfilling; it was all frustration. And when you dwell upon this frustration you have to feel that you are consciously and deliberately entering into something obscure, uncertain and, more than that, unfulfilled.

From the spiritual point of view what is unfulfilled, unrealised and unmanifested is now unwelcome. Things that we want to manifest and reveal in a spiritual way have to be pure. When you concentrate on your third eye, try to look forward and envision the future, a future which is flooded with light and delight, where there is no darkness. When we see something with our ordinary eyes, very often we see through uncertainty, through bias, through unclear light, and whatever we see is not clear, certain or fulfilling. But when the third eye sees something, it sees through light and it sees the light that is embodied in that thing. When we concentrate with the third eye everything is clear; there is no darkness, there can be no impurity.

Question: Can impurity be totally removed from my life? No matter how hard I try, it seems to stay with me like a chronic disease.

Question: What can we do during our meditation to transform or to help purify the mind, vital and body?

Question: I have been doing japa for purity, chanting 'Supreme'. Is this the best way to attain purity?

Question: Is it necessary to have beads or can you count on your fingers while doing japa?

Question: In japa does it make any difference whether you repeat the word fast or slowly?

Question: When people who have never meditated with a spiritual Master before come to a public meditation, what should they do to enter into his consciousness?

Question: Can we achieve purity by entering into you?

The best way to achieve purity is through sincere aspiration and deep meditation. But if you can't meditate well, if you do not have tremendous aspiration, you have to know that there is someone who is like an ocean, into whom you can throw all of your impurities to be swallowed up. If you throw yourself in, all your impurities will be washed away. But by holding your impurities inside you and hiding them, you harm yourself. You have to feel that you are a child. When a child is dirty he is not afraid to tell his mother and father. He knows he is well-protected by their love. It gives him the greatest joy to tell his mother and father because he knows that they will clean him. In terms of age you are adults, but in terms of spirituality you are all children. Please feel that your spiritual father is in front of you.

When I bless some of you people I see that evil thoughts are roaming around in your minds, but you are trying to hide them. You think, "Oh, Guru will catch us!" Guru has caught you before you caught yourself, but Guru is helpless because you are not giving your impurities to him, you are just cherishing them in your mind. If you throw them into me, immediately I will take them away from you.