Question: How can a realised soul manifest himself?

Sri Chinmoy: A realised soul is like an expert climber. He has climbed a tree and he has the capacity to stay on the topmost branch or to come down and touch the foot of the tree. The subconscious mind is the foot of the tree and above that are the physical mind, the intuitive mind, the illumined mind, the overmind, the supermind. A realised soul enters into the highest level of consciousness on the strength of his inner realisation. Then again he has to come down into the subconscious plane of the disciples for his manifestation. If you live on the top of the tree all the time, you cannot fulfil God's Dream on earth. The tree is complete, the tree is whole because it has the roots, it has the trunk, it has the branches, it has leaves, fruits, flowers and all the other different members of its family. A realised soul enters into the Highest and again he has to enter into the lowest in his spiritual disciples to work for their nature's transformation and for God's manifestation. If there is no manifestation, then he is incomplete.

There are many Indian spiritual Masters who have accepted life, but again there have been spiritual Masters who negated the world, who did not care for the world. They wanted their own Self-realisation and when they got it they said good-bye to the world. Those who accepted the world said, "The world is within me. Unless and until the world is perfected, how can I be perfect?" Unless perfect Perfection dawns on earth, God's Vision is not manifested. God's Vision can be transformed into Reality only when the earth-consciousness is totally transformed. In order to transform the earth-consciousness, man has to aspire, physically, vitally, mentally, psychically and spiritually. So we must not negate the body. The Indian spiritual Masters who did not care for the body at all said, "Meditate, remain in the other world, realise God and then leave the body." But if you love God and if you really want to serve God, then here on earth is the golden opportunity to manifest Him and fulfil Him. If you get your realisation and you say to God, "I don't want to work for You. I'm tired, exhausted, totally exhausted, now I want to take rest," God may allow you to take rest. But in the case of a real divine hero, he will say, "I have worked hard, but now I wish to offer the fruits of my realisation to the world at large. Then God will say, "Work here. Do it."

Our path is the path of acceptance. Acceptance of what? Acceptance of this material world. While operating in matter, Spirit has to sing the song of Immortality. The material life and the spiritual life must run together. The material life can be perfected only by listening to the inner dictates of the soul. We have to accept the world as it is, but we must not think that the world has completed its task. No. Far from it. We have to work and work for the earth-consciousness. We have to free it from limitations, imperfections, bondage and ignorance.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Realisation-Soul and Manifestation-Goal, Agni Press, 1974
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