Sri Chinmoy answers, part 1

Part I

Question: How can we make our inner life fulfil all our needs when our inner capacity is still so limited?

A similar thing also happens in the inner life. If a particular disciple has pleased the Master in various ways and the Master’s faith in that disciple is exceptionally strong, then the Master will do everything in his power to help that disciple. If the disciple has abiding faith in the Master, then the Master gets tremendous opportunities to increase the inner capacities of the disciple.

The Master always will have infinitely more faith in the disciples than the disciples can ever have in the Master. No disciple of mine will ever have the same amount of faith in me that I have in him or her, especially if the person is one of my chosen disciples. In a class there are always good students and bad students. Similarly, among those who follow our path there are definitely some very good students. These chosen disciples must always feel that the faith they have in the Master and also the faith they have in themselves is nothing in comparison to the Master’s faith in them.

What is the reason? It is because the Master sees in them the budding and blossoming God. When he looks at them he sees his own highest divinity-reality. He always sees the inner sun inside the chosen disciples, and he knows that definitely there shall come a time when their inner sun will come to the fore and illumine their mind, vital and physical.

But the disciples do not have the same kind of faith in the Master. Their faith is like a rope of sand. This moment they have faith or imagine they have a certain kind of faith. But the next moment, when the mind comes to the fore and clouds their heart, it is all gone. And when there is no faith in the Master, the Master is not able to increase their inner capacities.

Question: Which comes first: perfect obedience or unconditional surrender?

But obedience applies mainly to the mind. If I am telling you to do something, you can either walk as slowly as a turtle or run as fast as a deer. But no matter how fast, how enthusiastically, how willingly you go, only one part of your being is going: the mind. The mind is going with the hope that it will please God or please the Master. It is saying, “If I do not go, the Master will be displeased; God will be displeased.” Even if you are going fast, whether you are doing it of your own volition or whether you are doing it under some compulsion, still you are not getting a feeling of spontaneous sweetness in the entire being. But when you make unconditional surrender, all your limbs, each and every one of your 86,000 subtle nerves — everything — is giving you unimaginable joy.

Question: Is obedience-power the only way to please God with permanent aspiration-perfection?

So there are many ways to please God and run the fastest. If you choose the obedience-road, then I wish to say this obedience has to be cheerful, happy and spontaneously self-giving. Then obedience becomes a most powerful way for the individual disciple or seeker to please God. If you want to run the fastest along the obedience-road, then your obedience cannot be imposed. It must not come out of fear of punishment for disobedience. No, it has to come out of love.

If you have that kind of obedience, naturally you will be able to run the fastest on the obedience-road. At that time, your aspiration, like a flame, automatically will go high, higher, highest. That is because constant, sleepless and breathless obedience cannot be separated from the highest aspiration. The higher your aspiration goes, the more you value the importance of obedience. Similarly, the more you obey God’s Will, the higher you will be able to go in your aspiration.

But on the practical level there is something else to consider. Often the seeker says, “If I go to school and do not obey the teacher, then the teacher will punish me. If I am working in an office and I do not obey the boss, then the boss will fire me. But if I do not obey God, what will happen?” When the disciples start disobeying God, most of them feel that there is no retribution. There is retribution, but it does not come immediately. If today you disobey God in a very serious way, then God may wait ten days to punish you. But again, during those ten days, you may do many, many good things to please God, so God may forgive you.

Many times it happens that we commit Himalayan blunders. But when we do not get the punishment immediately or in the near future, we feel, “Perhaps God has forgiven us, or perhaps it was not a blunder after all. Our mind made us think that we made a mistake, but perhaps our mind was wrong.” Disobedience is a destructive force in us which often hides itself. We find reasons to justify it. But if we have done something really unspiritual and have not been punished, we have to feel either that the time has not yet arrived or that God has forgiven us on the strength of our good actions.

Question: Since you have been in the West, what has pleased you most about the disciples and what has pleased you least?

Oneness has to come not from thought or from the mind, and not even from the breath; oneness has to come from the imagination. We have to imagine that God at every moment is playing a Game, entering into us and going out of us. Let us take our body as a room. We must imagine that God, the most beautiful One, the most powerful One, is entering this room and playing His Cosmic Game in and through our physical existence. If we can have that feeling, then God will be most pleased with us.

A few things more I also wish to say. I have a heart, and my heart feels how many times you people do not take me seriously when I talk about the soul. For one day someone will value what I say about the soul: “Oh, Guru is telling me that my soul is pleased or displeased with me.” But even those who believe my utterances about the soul do not want to feel the presence of the soul or see the reality of the soul. And there are many occasions when these same disciples will even deny the existence of the soul.

For me, the soul is the most important reality. I have said that the soul can be not only felt but also seen, exactly the way I see you. If you cannot have faith in the reality of your soul, then how can you have faith in God? To realise God is infinitely more difficult than to come in contact with the soul. The soul is like a guide that takes us slowly, steadily and unerringly, according to our own speed, to the destination. If you do not believe in the guide, then how are you going to arrive at the destination, which is God?

When you die at the age of 70, 80 or 90, you clearly will see that your soul is your permanent, eternal reality. But in order to make real progress, you have to see and feel this now, while you are on earth. People who not only believe in the existence of the soul but also want to feel their soul’s presence and see their soul’s reality are pleasing me most. Again, people who are not paying any attention to their soul or who are not paying any attention to my utterances in regard to the soul are displeasing me tremendously.

I have so many Centres. On a daily basis I am getting messages from them, and I get the vibration about what is happening there. When I get a general vibration, I do not have to ask about each individual. When you boil rice and want to see if it is fully cooked, you just take a few grains and immediately you know if the rest of the rice is ready to be eaten. Similarly, I immediately get from one or two powerful souls in a Centre the correct feeling about whether others in the Centre are aspiring or not.

In this life I have thousands of disciples and many admirers, friends, acquaintances and so forth. On the physical plane, I am dealing with a few thousand people. But when I am in the inner world, the higher world, I am dealing with thousands and thousands of souls. Most of the disciples think that in the soul’s world I am dealing only with a few people like Agni and ten or twenty other disciples who have died over the years. This is a most deplorable mistake. In the inner world I am in touch with absolutely countless souls.

People who have accepted me and are close to me in this world, I shall be responsible for in the other world after they die, according to their acceptance and according to their closeness. Some people who are not pleasing me in this world think that once they go to the other world, they will all at once be close, closer, closest. But it is not like that. You people are not preparing yourselves. I am not thinking of your death — never, never! But when I am in another existence, most of you will have to come back and go through life and death again and again, whereas my Beloved Supreme has promised that this will be my last incarnation. So if you want to have a strong connection with me in future incarnations, you have to be close to me and please me now.

What will happen to people who do not think of the higher regions but think only of their earthly life and material needs? What will they have? If they do not have the aspiration to go to the higher worlds, then desire life will bind them. The more I am seeing that you people are thinking only of the material world and not of the inner world, the more I am disheartened. Each of you can imagine during your meditation that there is another world where you will one day have to go, either willingly or unwillingly. If you want to work for me and serve me when you go to that world, then do not spend all your time thinking of the material world now.

There are infinitely more things displeasing me on earth than things that are pleasing me. This is true whether I look at the disciples individually or collectively. Happiness comes only when I see that somebody has not given up. If somebody is still struggling to become a better person, a better seeker, a better disciple, then I am so happy. Many, many have given up. They are staying in the boat sleeping and snoring, but they have given up; they feel that it is a hopeless case. When it is a matter of progressing, going forward, diving deeper, jumping further and flying higher, they are not doing it.

I want my disciples not to give up. He who has not given up, she who has not given up — these are the ones who are pleasing me. People who have given up and are saying that theirs is a hopeless case already have become useless. But people who are still struggling to become good disciples, better disciples, best disciples are definitely pleasing me. I myself have not given up on them, but I have more faith in some than in others.

Question: What is the quickest way to overcome lethargy permanently?

While you are chanting ‘Supreme’, starting with your toes imagine everything that is inside you. Think of your muscles, nerves, blood or anything that you want, and try to feel that the Supreme is entering into that particular part of your body. Then move to other parts of your body. You do not have to see what is inside your legs or your heart or your brain. Only imagine that something is there, and that that very thing is being touched by the word ‘Supreme’. If lethargy has already stationed itself inside your knee or shoulder or somewhere else, that portion of the being has to be touched by the very Presence of the Supreme. So each time you say “Supreme”, chanting as fast as possible, try to feel that the Power of the Supreme, the Life of the Supreme and the Divinity of the Supreme are entering into you.

Question: How can spirituality escape the confines of religion?

Once we accept the spiritual life, however, our religion becomes our love of God. And when we love God, everything inside us expands. At that time we do not feel that our body is limited to a few feet in height; no, we are seeing the expansion of the body. We are also seeing the expansion of our vital, our mind, our whole being. Our love of God is the continuous expansion of our entire reality.

Love of God is the only true religion, the only religion a true seeker should practise. Is there any religion that will tell us not to love God? But the problem with religion is that it seeks to limit our love of God. Religion will say, “Only if you love God the way I love God are you doing the right thing.” Each religion will say, “Love God, but do it in my way. Only if you come to church, only if you come to the temple, only if you come to the mosque will your love of God be perfect. The other ways are all wrong.”

But love of God is not like that. If I love God, God will tell me, “Why should there only be roses in the religion-garden? There can be other flowers as well.” One person will come and appreciate the rose, and someone else will come and appreciate another flower. So we have to love God in every possible way — through what we say and what we do, through constant self-giving on each and every level of our consciousness. We have to love God in God’s own Way. Then only we will never be trapped in the confines of religion and we will never try to confine anybody.

What we want from religion is joy. Religion is not giving us joy because consciously or unconsciously it is trying to exercise its supremacy. But if we just love God, then we are getting tremendous joy. I am getting joy from loving God and you are getting joy from loving God.

Question: If we use intuition on the outer plane, does it become less effective in spiritual activities?

There are so many ways intuition-power can be used for a divine purpose. If a sincere seeker comes to his spiritual Master and wants to know why he is not making progress, then the Master can use his intuitive power to see what the reason is and help the person. He may say, “Your defect is in the mind. Doubt is not allowing you to make progress.” Or he may see that the defect is fear or insecurity or impurity. If somebody is sincerely crying that he cannot make progress because of some defect in his body, vital or mind, then intuition-power can be used to really help him.

But if somebody has lost something and you use your intuition to help that person find it, what good are you doing? You are not helping the person’s spiritual life; only you are creating or increasing curiosity in that individual. If you use your intuition to tell people on the physical or vital plane what is going to happen or what already has taken place, you are only misusing your power. Some spiritual Masters used to deliberately tell the wrong answer when people asked them silly questions so that these insincere people would not come back.

Question: What is the difference between disobedience and weakness?

The best way to deal with disobedience is either to hate it or to be afraid of it. If you hate it, you have to hate it so intensely that you will not want to keep it inside your being. You will feel that it is something dirtier than the dirtiest and just throw it out of your system. Again, if you are afraid of it, then you will be careful not to allow it to enter into you in the first place. If you feel that it is like a snake or a ferocious tiger ready to devour you, then you will stay far away from it.

But weaknesses you have to deal with in a very prayerful, soulful way. Weaknesses can be in the vital, in the mind or in the heart. You have to think of them as something that you can shape or mould. You have to regard them as something very weak and tiny that needs strengthening — like a helpless little dog that is just a few days old. If you give a tiny dog a little bit of food or energy, then it becomes strong. The food that you have to give your weaknesses is light, an iota of light. Each time you see any kind of weakness inside your vital, mind or heart, try to feel that you are bringing light into it.

Although a weakness may be small, it has tremendous power in a negative way. You can think of jealousy and insecurity as tiny insects, but they bite and bite you ferociously. So do not try to discard your weaknesses; it is impossible. Just try to turn your weaknesses into strengths by using light in a positive way. If you are weak and unable to do the right thing, if you cannot pray or meditate soulfully because of insecurity, jealousy, impurity or some other weakness, just take your weakness as something very small and unhealthy. Then try to use light to make your weak parts grow strong so you can become a good, perfect instrument of the Supreme.

Part II

Question: For a disciple, is it better to know your love or to feel your love?

Ordinary human beings who are not aspiring can only know from books that God loves them. Then, from that knowledge someday they can enter into the heart to feel God’s Love in their entire life. But once you accept the spiritual life, the story is different. Right from the beginning you have to feel God’s Love in your heart. No matter how many books you have read or you are going to read, you will never get the feeling of God’s Love or your Master’s love from books. If the heart does not support the feeling, then it does not last.

Question: How can spiritual people with leadership qualities come to the fore in American politics?

Before they enter into politics, spiritual people have to be fully convinced inwardly that they will be able to transform the minds of other politicians. Right now, this is practically impossible since most politicians are unbearably cynical. They do not care for the spiritual life. Spirituality is something very foreign to them. Not only outwardly but also inwardly they belittle spirituality. At every moment they say they are most sincere, whereas their opponents are only telling lies. What is worse, they do not even trust themselves. If I do not trust you, no harm. But when I do not trust myself, I cannot go even one step forward.

Before spiritual people enter into politics, they have to be absolutely sure that they have enough light. They cannot just do their best and place the results at the Feet of God. This is for people who are primarily involved in the inner life. But spiritual people who want to help mankind have to know their capacity; they have to know how much light they have. Otherwise, the darkness of the world is such that they will only cause problems, leaving the ordinary masses more confused than they were to start with.

Question: How is it possible for us to gain the same spiritual benefit from playing your music as we do from singing your songs?

If you can feel that a most soulful, haunting voice is singing the piece that you are playing, the soulful singing will enter into your music and make it very sweet. I will give you an example. When I play the Invocation in the morning, inwardly I sing along with it. When I sing in silence, I get much more benefit than when I just play and do not sing. Many, many times when I play the Invocation I get such joy when I hear my voice from within. As soon as I sing, “Supreme, I bow to Thee, I bow,” my whole world — my entire inner and outer world — offers its aspiration and dedication.

There is a great difference between singing my songs most soulfully and singing them in an ordinary way. When you sing my songs soulfully, it melts my heart. Again, when you sing the same songs like a parrot, just producing the melody and words, there is such a big difference! It is like the difference between the heart’s illumination and the mind’s mental understanding.

Question: You always ask us to claim you as our very own. Could you help me think about how to do it?

When I say to claim me as your own, very own, this can be done only by repeating, “I have become my Guru’s chosen instrument. Therefore, I can claim my Guru as my own, very own.” Claim me, claim me, claim me; then the very thing that you are saying becomes real. Otherwise, one moment you will try to think and the next moment you will try to feel, and you will never achieve anything. But if you can say, “I have become my Guru’s chosen instrument. Therefore, I can claim him as my own, very own,” then you can discard all the dirty, filthy blankets — fear, doubt, anxieties, worries, depression and frustration — that you have unnecessarily put on your back.

J. (age six): Where is God and why can't I see God?

Question: What do African-American and African people need most in order to overcome the obstacles that they're facing today? And in terms of bringing African-American disciples to the path and keeping them, what do we African-Americans need more of?

But now I am seeing that it is not enough to think of them as your little brothers, just a little inferior to you. No, now I am saying that you have to feel that they are part and parcel of your own body, only you have a little more light than they do. It is like this. You have two limbs. One limb is illumined and one is not illumined. In one part of your body you have illumination and in another part of your body you do not have it. Because of their proximity, the illumined part of your body can easily bring light to the unillumined part. So if you take it this way, definitely you will get better results.

Question: Is Thomas Jefferson appreciated in the proper way today?

People who bring new light into the world never, never get the appreciation, admiration, adoration and love that they deserve — never! I am speaking not only of Jefferson but also of Krishna, Buddha and the Christ. Did the world appreciate them, admire them and love them — not to the extent that they needed, since they did not need anybody’s appreciation or admiration, but to the extent that they deserved? No, and this will never happen, because the kind of gratitude that is worthy of their light and their vision has not been born and never will be born on earth.

Question: How do you know that you are really giving from the soul and not just fooling yourself?

Question: If you have problems with people in your daily dealings, how do you know when it is best to remain silent and when it is best to say something?

If from within you get the message to speak, then you also need an additional prayer. You have to pray that you will keep your prayerful meditation-consciousness while you are giving the advice, for then your advice will be more effective. Again, you have to know that you may not be able to convince the other person. The other person may be so undivine that no matter how much inner wealth you offer him, even if your advice is coming from the very depths of your being, still he may not listen.

Question: How can we best embody your light when teaching your philosophy in a class?

Then, while you are speaking about my philosophy, you have to feel that I am speaking through you. And when you are looking at the students, you have to feel that they are really me. On the one hand, I am the talker, in and through you. On the other hand, I am the listener, in and through the audience. So, if you can feel that I am speaking through you and also listening to you, then you will get tremendous inner strength.

Question: Should we think of happiness during our meditation?

You have to ask yourself what you want from the spiritual life. If you want happiness, spirituality is the answer. But this happiness will come only if you are prepared to make the Supreme happy in His own Way. No matter how many ways God pleases you, you will not be happy if in one particular way you are still displeasing God. God is ready to make you happy in your own way over and over again, in hundreds of ways. But your soul’s love of God is such that if in even one way you fail to please Him, your soul will not be happy. And if your soul is not happy with your body, vital, mind and heart, you yourself can never be happy. Your soul wants to be extremely, extremely, extremely proud of you. If your body, vital and mind do the wrong things, your soul tries to discipline these unruly members of its family and inspire them.

Part III

Real meditation is to make your Inner Pilot happy through obedience

Question: Why do I like crows so much?

In Indian villages, it is said that when a crow flies overhead, it means that some calamity is about to take place in your life. Either somebody in your family is going die or some other unfortunate thing will occur.

When I was a young boy, there were many trees in front of our house. Two or three days before my father died, a crow would come to a very tall tree that stood by our house and cry pitifully, sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. In our case, it was quite obvious what calamity was about to take place. My father was so sick, and we all knew it was only a matter of days. So the crow was acting in accordance with Indian village tradition.

Question: If crows are so bad, is it the ignorance in me that enjoys watching them so much?

Sometimes when people die unexpectedly in a plane crash or car accident, their dear ones feel sad because they did not have the opportunity to prepare themselves. Again, sometimes people feel sad when a dear one is lingering in the hospital for months and months in a coma. Outwardly they are showing sympathy and acting miserable, but inwardly they are saying, “For me to go to the hospital every day is so difficult! Why can my relative not die today!”

Question: I try to think of my Inner Pilot, yet I am constantly cherishing ignorance, which is flowing through me like my blood. What can I do?

Question: But it doesn't just attack me; I seem to like ignorance.

Question: What can I do to expedite my progress? I'm not even talking about reaching God-realisation, but just getting rid of the ignorance that is flowing into me almost intravenously.

Question: The Supreme doesn't get sick of it?

Question: What can I do to please the Supreme more?

When you see me on the physical plane, you get joy. When you see me on the inner plane, you have to get the same joy. You think of the Supreme so many times during the day. Each time you think of the Supreme in me, pray to the Supreme in me or meditate on the Supreme in me, if you can get the same kind of inner joy and inner thrill as when you see me in the physical, then definitely you will expedite your inner journey and please the Supreme more.

Where were you brought up?

Akuli: I was brought up in Indiana.

Sri Chinmoy: Many years ago, long before you were spiritually born, I was invited to give a talk at a Lion’s Club or Rotary Club. Three different men wanted to introduce me. God alone knows who was supposed to introduce me, but the man who said he knew all about me pushed the others aside. When he was introducing me, instead of saying that I was born in Bengal, India, he said that I was born in Bengal, Indiana. Then they threw him out and somebody else came to introduce me.

Akuli, since you are so fond of crows, how many of them are in Queens?

Akuli: I'm lucky if I see three a day, but maybe there are 3,000 in Queens.

Sri Chinmoy: Pulak, how many?

Pulak: Maybe about 30,000.

Sri Chinmoy: Govinda, how many?

Govinda: Twenty thousand.

Sri Chinmoy: Of you three, who can proudly justify his number? Who will dare to tell us that he or she is absolutely sure?

Akuli: You have said that it’s not how many mangoes there are in the grove, but how they taste. So it’s not how many crows there are, but how much joy we get from them.

Sri Chinmoy: Chidananda is already getting joy. Without seeing the crows, he is getting joy, so he is more advanced than you are. You get joy only after you see a crow, but Chidananda does not have to see even one in order to get joy, so he is more advanced.

Akuli, do you know the silly Indian joke about how many crows there are? Somebody will say one figure, and somebody else will say another figure. One will challenge the other and say, “I know how many there are, but you count. However, if you get more than I said, that means that some of their relatives have come. And if you count fewer than the number I have said, that means some of them have gone to their relatives.”

Part IV

Question: I am such a bad singer and know so little about music. I was wondering if I ever had any musical incarnation.⁴

Many great musicians in the West cannot appreciate subtle music when it is played. There are many, many excellent singers and excellent musicians, I tell you, who get nothing when they hear very subtle music. You can say it is because of insecurity or because of jealousy, or you can blame it on some wrong forces that have entered into them. But they lack the receptivity to appreciate the subtle feeling in the music. Then, by failing to appreciate, after a while they lose the faculty of appreciating. In your case, however, you are not identifying with the person or even with what he is playing, so you are able to receive more from the music than others can.

You do not know anything about music; you are not a musician or a singer. But when subtle music is played, your heart will appreciate it so much. At that time your appreciation is going not just to the person who is playing or singing, but directly to the Source — to the One who has given that particular individual the capacity to sing most soulfully or to play most soulfully or powerfully. So you are getting Blessings from God the Supreme Singer and God the Supreme Musician.

Outwardly nobody can understand music. Music is not something to understand. It is all a matter of feeling. There are many people, especially in the West, who have become good singers and good musicians mechanically — by training and training in a very disciplined, mechanical way. When these great musicians want to play or when they want to sing, they can do it very well. Their music may sound beautiful and soulful, but there is such a thing as counterfeit soulfulness. Their hands are moving and people are saying, “How soulful!” But it is because mechanically they have learned how to play soulfully. They have trained their mind or they have achieved a certain level of expertise that enables them to do it. But inside their music there is no soul, no feeling, nothing! They are playing so beautifully, but they are thinking of such rubbish, such mundane things — absolutely nothing spiritual. And in the inner world they are only quarrelling and fighting. Very often the listener, if he is in a soulful consciousness, is getting much more benefit from the music than the performer, for the performer is not embodying the soulfulness that he is expressing.

Sometimes we can reveal something without embodying it. For example, you may be telling the absolute truth, but your consciousness is not there. You have separated your consciousness from the truth itself. So while you are expressing the truth, you are not embodying the truth-consciousness. Only mechanically you are telling something that is correct. Because your expression is mechanical, you are not getting real blessings from the higher forces that are revealing the truth to you; you are not getting Blessings from God the Truth.

So, in your case and in the case of a few others who also are not singers or musicians, you are able to get something very high from music. When a singer or a musician does something very subtle, very soulful, silently you are appreciating it. You do not know which raga he is playing or whether he is playing Mozart, Bach, Chopin or Beethoven. You know nothing about the musical structure and you do not have to know. But your heart is going up because it is feeling something so soulful and powerful, whereas others who know all about music may be getting nothing because they have lost the ability to appreciate subtle music. And you are also getting more benefit than the performer, who may not be embodying the consciousness that he is revealing.

Again, there are some who know music very well and also have the ability to appreciate the very subtle, delicate aspects of music. They have the eagerness to dive deep within and continually learn. Some musicians, once they have learned something, do not want to learn anything more. They are afraid that if they learn more, people will think that they are borrowing or copying from somebody. So they are satisfied with what they already have. But someone who truly loves music and who is really great in music will never be satisfied with what he has. In the highest music world, our aspiration is constantly going up and our soulful and divine capacities are constantly increasing.

Self-sufficiency or God-sufficiency⁵

You have made it very clear to me that you want to be self-sufficient. Unfortunately, good girl, I have a different philosophy. In my philosophy I only want to be God’s Compassion-sufficient. That is my prayer to God. People who try to be self-sufficient in the financial field, the spiritual field or any other field will never be happy. People who try to be self-sufficient on the physical, vital or psychic plane, or on any other plane, are bound to be miserable.

Ordinary people want to be self-sufficient by having more money or by having more houses. They think that the more material wealth they have, the more self-sufficient they will be. But when they have more money, they start doing all kinds of bad things. And if they have four houses, they will see that these houses are only creating more problems for them. Even on the spiritual plane, if someone wants to have more spiritual wealth — occult power and all those kinds of things — he will only create headaches for himself. So if you try to become self-sufficient, not only on the earthly plane but even on the Heavenly plane, you will end up miserable.

But if, through your prayers, your meditations, your selfless service, your gratitude and your surrender to God’s Will, you try to become more worthy of God’s Compassion, then at every moment you will be happy. You will get the inner assurance from God Himself that He will make you happy — not only today, but also tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

A disciple’s letter can be private, but the answer that I am giving applies to all of you. Your mind is telling you, “If I do this and become self-sufficient, then I will be secure; I will be happy.” But this is not true. You can become secure and happy only if you become more receptive to God’s Compassion. If you pray to God, “Make me worthy of Your Compassion; make me worthy of Your Love,” then one day you will be able to receive God’s real Love, real Light, real Compassion and everything else that God wants to offer you.

So, to all my disciples I am saying this: If you think your security depends on your own self-sufficiency, then you are sadly mistaken. No human being on earth can become really secure by becoming self-sufficient. This applies not only to spiritual people, but to everybody. It is your mind that tells you that if you get a Master’s degree or a Ph.D., then you will become secure. But while you are studying, so many bad forces will attack you. Then where is your security? Where is your happiness? But if you become God’s Compassion-sufficient, if you become worthy of God’s Compassion, then God will guide you at every moment. At that time God’s own Light will be your security.

You are projecting the future with your mind and saying, “If I become this, then I will get that.” But you may not get it, or there may be something else that will sidetrack you and push you away from your goal. You may think, “Perhaps this is not the right thing, so let me do something else,” and you will become unhappy again. Again, even if you do what you wanted to do and become what you wanted to become, still you will not be happy, because these things will not bring you the security and happiness that you expected.

So, good girl, if you want to be happy and secure, just try to be more receptive and more worthy of the Supreme’s Compassion. Try to accept God’s Compassion in God’s own Way. Inside God’s Compassion is infinite Peace, infinite Light, infinite Love. Your whole letter I have read and understood, and your whole letter I have answered. When you are saying that if you do this and that, then you will not have to worry about your finances and your future — all this I have understood. But you are making a mountain out of a molehill — a mountain that will only collapse. On the other hand, if you follow the divine way, if you allow Somebody else and Something else — God and God’s Compassion — to work in and through you, then you will see God’s Light operating everywhere in your life. And that Light is the only happiness and security.

Question: Does my mind have any special message for me?⁶

Definitely your mind is not asleep anymore. You are not in ignorance-sleep. Your mind is between the awakened stage and the illumined stage. When you are in the illumined mind, when your soul’s light is powerfully working in your heart and inside your mind, at that time you are saying the right thing to the right person and doing the right thing for the right person. You are telling the right person to do the right thing, but the wrong person you are not telling this. It is not because the wrong person is your enemy or because it is beneath your dignity to tell him. No, only the wrong person’s hour has not struck, and if you tell him to do what for somebody else is absolutely the right thing, it will only expedite the other person’s destruction.

Again, when you are just in the awakened mind, at that time you show kindness and sympathy to people who not only do not deserve it but also misuse what you are offering to them. You will say that once you are kind to them, your task is over. But you have to know that your kindness can be used in a very wrong way. If somebody comes to you and asks for a dollar, because you have a big heart you will give him the dollar. But you have no idea whether the person is good or bad, or what he plans to do with the money. Perhaps he will use it to take a subway or taxi to a church, where he will pray and meditate and try to become a better person. That is very good. Again, perhaps the person will go to a bar and drink and lower his consciousness. Then who is the culprit? You are so happy that you have shown your generosity and charity, but you have actually made a mistake.

You may try to escape by saying, “I did not know.” But an unconscious mistake is still a mistake, and it can produce bad results. Even if unconsciously I touch fire, I will still burn my hand. Similarly, unconsciously you have helped someone become worse than he otherwise might have been. If you had not helped that person, at least for a short while he would have been a slightly better person.

In your case I will give you an example of what is happening. You are showing compassion to people who are misusing it and thus heading towards even greater destruction. When some people give up their spiritual life, you feel sad and miserable. You feel that perhaps if you had not said this or if you had said that, they would not have left the spiritual path — as though you are responsible for their leaving. God cannot save that person from destruction, the Master cannot save that person; but you think that perhaps if you had done something or said something, in some way you could have prevented or delayed that individual’s departure. That is a real mistake. I am saying “you,” but this applies to many people.

It is far better to remain in the awakened mind than in the mire of ignorance-sleep. But the awakened mind may not always have the necessary wisdom to do the right thing. You are awakened to the point where you want to be kind and nice to people. I am not asking you to be indifferent to people — far from it! But kindness has to be accompanied by inner light. If kindness does not carry inner light, then it can be misused very badly.

The awakened mind believes in charity, patience, compassion and so on. Because it is awakened, it feels a vast consciousness entering into it. It is like what happens when somebody’s flower-heart blossoms; at that time the heart becomes big. So the awakened mind immediately looks to this side and that side and tries to do the right thing. Unfortunately, it does not always know what the right thing is or how to use its expanded consciousness correctly.

So it is always good to use the mind that has got direct light from the soul, which comes through the heart. That is the mind that will save you. If you cannot use the illumined mind, then try to remain between the awakened mind and the illumined mind. But do not remain directly in the awakened mind. If you have got a big mind, and with your big mind you are trying to be generous, kind and hospitable, then you will be in trouble.

I am catching your mind; you have made mistakes. You have to know that, when the hour strikes, people come; and again, when the hour strikes, people go. We cannot make them stay on the spiritual path. It is very difficult, because our heart’s magnanimity comes to the fore and we want to use kindness. We see that so-and-so has been with us for so many years. For years and years somebody was on the top of the tree eating most delicious fruit. Now that particular person has come down, and there is every possibility that a hungry wolf or tiger will be waiting at the foot of the tree to devour him. But what can we do? Only at the top of the tree can he be safe.

I tell you, I make the same mistake; but in my case, I do not give up. In your case, you make the mistake and after two days you give up. But because I deal with the soul, I struggle and struggle and struggle. Some people who left our path ten or twelve years ago still very kindly show up at my heart’s door. At that time, my door is still not closed. Are you thinking of someone who left the path ten years ago? For you, enough is enough. But I go on trying to help them.

Gratitude⁷

If anything can disappear sooner than the soonest from our heart, then that thing is nothing other than our gratitude. Again, if anything on earth is really beautiful, really meaningful and really fruitful, if anything on earth can sustain our golden connecting link with God, our Source, then that very thing is also gratitude. Dear ones, I am telling you, if you have an iota of sincere gratitude and if you preserve that gratitude as the most precious thing in your life, then the breath of that gratitude will keep you alive in the Heart of God, your Lord Supreme. You people misbehave and torture your Master in so many ways; sometimes you even want to give up the spiritual life. But I assure you, if you keep gratitude alive in your heart, the beauty and fragrance of that divine quality will save you from your spiritual downfall and destruction.

I am speaking about sincere gratitude — the kind of gratitude whose living presence you can only feel inside your heart. If you feel that gratitude is your inner name and also your outer name, if you feel that your only name is gratitude, then immediately your gratitude will jump to the fore and establish its inseparable oneness with your God-oneness-reality.

Gratitude is a most powerful weapon in your life. There is nothing undivine that you cannot get rid of by virtue of the gratitude in your life. Again, there is nothing divine in your life that you cannot increase in boundless measure on the strength of your gratitude. There is only one thing that you need in order to increase your divinity, and that thing is gratitude. If every day you consciously strengthen your gratitude — not to Sri Chinmoy but to the Supreme, who is your Guru, my Guru and everybody’s Guru — you will see how much progress you will make and how many wrong forces you will be able to get out of your system. I tell you, all the physical, vital, mental and emotional fever that you are suffering from comes from the fact that you have lost your heart’s gratitude-breath. If your heart’s gratitude-breath is functioning well, then keep it so forever. This is unmistakably the right way to run fast, faster, fastest to the destined Goal.

Gratitude is not a mere word; it is not a mere concept. It is the living breath of your real existence on earth. There is nothing that God will not do for you if you really treasure the gratitude-breath inside your aspiring heart. Please, please, to each and every one of you I am telling this: If you want to run the fastest, then discard the thing that is delaying you. The thing that is making you lame or paralysed in your spiritual life is ingratitude. If you can always maintain your gratitude-breath, then nothing can stand in your way and nobody can prevent you from doing the right thing and becoming the right person: the most perfect instrument of our Lord Beloved Supreme.

Gratitude, gratitude and gratitude. The soul you do not know; the Supreme you do not know. And at this stage in your spiritual development you do not have to know them. But gratitude you do have to know if you want to connect yourself with your own Highest, with the Supreme. If you want to connect yourself with the Real in you, then your gratitude-breath you have to claim as your own, very own.