“Love me if you will.” Where human love is concerned, sometimes we expect love because of what we have done and sometimes we receive love without making any actual effort to be loved. And, of course, sometimes we don’t get the love that we feel we rightly deserve. In the spiritual world, it is not like that. God is constantly standing right in front of us with His all-fulfilling Love. He is All-Love; He cannot be otherwise. Very often an ordinary human being has to make a conscious effort to try to love others. But in God’s case, He does not have to will or desire to love us. Love is God’s very essence. It flows from Him eternally. An ordinary person sometimes feels that he is wanting in the capacity to love others and he tries to cultivate this divine quality in himself. But if a person is already endowed with a few divine qualities, then the love which is most essential in our human world and in our divine world, he will have in boundless measure.
God’s Dream and God’s Reality go together. He does not separate His Dream from His Reality. If, in His Dream, love looms large, then we can rest assured that in His Reality also love looms large. God’s potentiality and His expression go together. Love itself and its power of expression can never be separated in God’s case. And those who are consciously aspiring to be godlike will have this capacity. Divine love and the expression of this love will be one and simultaneous. Love is the quality and the expression of love is the capacity. So the quality and the capacity can both be achieved if one soulfully aspires for a better and more fulfilling life.
“Hate me if you must.” God can never, never hate us. A man who has even a little wisdom cannot hate his fellow beings. Why? Because he knows the reasons that one hates another. One reason is that an individual feels inferior. Another reason is that an individual is afraid of someone. A third reason is that a person feels that his oneness with the other person is not complete; his real identification with the other person is lacking and there is a feeling of division. That is why he starts hating.But how is it that sometimes one hates oneself? It is quite possible. Sometimes you get angry with yourself. You have done something wrong or you wanted to do something wrong; that is why you hate yourself. You want to do something, achieve something, but unfortunately you are not able to accomplish this. That is why you hate yourself. What do we actually observe in this hatred? We observe that our soul is separated from the physical mind and physical consciousness.
When we are living in the soul, we realise that we are not the doer. We are only an instrument. Also, when we live in the soul, we do not care for success. We care only for progress. It is our job to listen to the dictates of the Inner Pilot. Then it is up to Him whether He gives us the experience of success or failure. So if we live in the soul, we can never hate ourselves. Only we love the divine in us, the Supreme in us, who is also in the world.
If we care most for the soul, then when the soul comes to the fore, it acts like a pilot. The outer physical being can easily be shaped and moulded by the light of the soul. We cannot do it the other way around. From the physical we cannot take light and transform the soul. That is absurd. But very often we think that if we go deep within with our physical capacity or vital capacity or mental capacity, then a time will come when the soul and the physical, the vital and the mental will meet together and together establish the divine Truth on earth. But it is not possible. It is the soul that has to be brought forward and it is the light from the soul that has to inundate the body, the vital, the mind and the heart. From inside we have to come outside; from outside we can’t go inside. That is wrong.
“Don’t ignore me.” Who ignores whom? It is when there is no love, no hatred, no concern — when there is nothing between us and someone else — that the question of ignoring others arises. But we have to know that God can never ignore us. He Himself is manifesting in and through us, so He cannot ignore us. When God knows that we are His instruments, His chosen instruments, how can He ignore us? We are His children. He cannot ignore us just as we cannot ignore our eyes, our hands, our feet. Nor can we ignore God, for He is our higher part. God is man yet to be realised; man is God yet to be manifested and fulfilled.SCS 75. Puerto Rico, 27 January 1970.↩
The moment we expect things, we are bound to be frustrated. Expectation always creates frustration. If the individual has a desire and this desire is fulfilled, he is then satisfied for a few days. However, even if the desire is fulfilled, he will not be satisfied for very long because other desires will come and destroy his satisfaction. This moment a fleeting desire is satisfied, but the next moment another desire is not satisfied. And it goes on like this forever.
But if we feel our oneness with everything in God’s creation, then we become inspired. That does not mean we will become lethargic and wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. Far from it. Only we shall feel that we are not the doer and that someone else is acting in and through us. If we feel that we are not the doer, then we will not have expectations. If we can think of ourselves as divine instruments, we will feel that God is having an experience in and through us. And whether this experience takes the form of success or failure does not matter. It is only the experience that is important. In our human life, we feel that if we are successful, we have everything; and if we fail, we have nothing. In the divine life, we feel that we neither lose nor gain; we only rediscover what we are. We are not concerned with the results of our actions; we are interested only in rediscovering our birthright of Eternity and Immortality and bringing to the fore what we are. Everything that God has and everything that God is, is in us. So why do we have to expect anything? We expect only because we have separated ourselves from the divine Light. If we know how to rediscover within ourselves infinite Peace and Light, then we don’t have to expect anything; we only have to claim these qualities as our very own.When we say that physical beauty is skin-deep, there is much truth in this. But inner beauty, the beauty of the soul, is infinite, because in the inner world we are always growing; we are always singing the song of self-transcendence. In the physical everything is limited. Somebody is beautiful, but he can be more beautiful. Somebody is tall, but he can be a little taller. The physical beauty that we notice in human beings or in nature is always limited. But inner beauty comes from the soul and the soul is the direct representative of God, who is all Beauty. Since the soul derives beauty from God directly, the soul’s capacity to express beauty is limitless.
So beauty is truth when we speak of inner beauty. The outer beauty is also truth; but it is temporary and transitory because it fades away. A flower, after one day, fades away. Physical beauty is truth; undoubtedly it is a form of truth, but its capacity is very limited. But inner beauty, which is limitless, is eternal.Interviewer: Oh, that’s very kind of you to say so. Now that you have mentioned Scotland, perhaps we shall come to a Scottish lady who is sitting beside us. [Speaking to her] In fact you run and organise the Centre in Glasgow?
Disciple: Yes. We call it the Sri Chinmoy Centre and we practise meditation under Sri Chinmoy’s guidance. There are ten or twelve of us at the moment and we meet twice a week to meditate. We also make crafts and hope to have a store where we shall sell the things we make.
Interviewer: So there is some kind of practical outlet for this awareness and consciousness of what you are doing?
Disciple: Oh, yes. We are very close. We don’t live together, but we do meet very often. We have a theatre group that puts on plays that Sri Chinmoy has written. We also have a choir.
Interviewer: Sri Chinmoy, thank you very much for talking to Radio Clyde and I hope your stay in Scotland will be a happy one.
Sri Chinmoy: Thank you so much for your most interesting and significant questions. I am so grateful to you. This is the only way I and my students can be of service to mankind. If we had not accepted the world, we would not have met together today. I would have remained in the Himalayan caves and you would have remained in Scotland. Interviewer: Thank you very much.
O aspiration dawn of Canada, there is a special reason why we are planting this divine tree here in Ottawa. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. The capital is the heart. Inside the heart is the soul. Inside the soul is God-promise. A few minutes ago I was told that this divine child of ours is going to live for two hundred fifty years. We shall not be on earth for two hundred fifty years, but from Heaven we shall offer our love-light and our gratitude-life to this divine child of ours. The physical in us will pass behind the curtain of Eternity. The spiritual in us, the eternally Real in us, will remain here with this child of ours. Aspiration-dawn is Eternity’s treasure and Immortality’s pride.
It is my fervent wish that the disciples in Ottawa come to visit this divine child of ours once a month for fifteen minutes and pray for this child divine who will, in the course of time, bring us boundless joy, glory and divine pride. Also, I wish that disciples from all parts of the world, when they visit Ottawa, make it a special point to come to this place and offer their aspiration-dedication to this child of ours.
I offer my heart’s deepest gratitude to the government of Ottawa for granting us this unique opportunity to be of service to the soul and body of Canada. Finally, I wish to offer my most soulful blessingful gratitude to Don. You have been a chosen instrument, a supremely chosen instrument, for this divine journey. A tree represents aspiration. Aspiration-dawn is the ever-transcending soul and goal. When I climb up high, higher, highest, either I carry Don or I bring down the Nectar-fruit to offer to him and all his spiritual brothers and sisters, to all our spiritual children.
SCS 86. On 18 November, 1974, Sri Chinmoy planted a young oak tree in Federal Parkland in Ottawa, as an offering to the soul of Canada. What follows is a transcript of Sri Chinmoy's remarks at the planting ceremony.↩
A true seeker does not try to influence the world, for he knows that to influence the world is to ask the world to see the reality the way he himself sees it or the way he wants to see it. A true seeker wants only to inspire the world. When he inspires the world, he feels that he is giving the world ample opportunity to see the reality in its own way. Here there is no imposition. Here there is no direct or indirect insistence that the reality be seen in a certain way.
A true seeker is always ready to serve the Supreme Beloved in each individual. First he tries to serve the Supreme according to the world’s receptivity. Then, after he himself makes considerable progress, he tries to serve the world the way the Supreme wants him to serve the world. While he is a beginner, while he himself is making progress, he feels that it is his bounden duty to help the world accelerate its own progress and success the way the world wants to achieve progress and success. But there comes a time when he feels that he has to see the success and progress of the world the way his Inner Pilot wants him to see it.
A true seeker is nothing short of a lamp-post. This lamp-post offers its glow not only to the fellow travellers who walk along his path, but also to those who walk along other paths. He offers light and travellers walking along other paths are able to receive and achieve the light that he offers. His life is for all; but again, for those who want to be in the same boat he is in, he feels that he has extra responsibility. They are his fellow travellers, journeying to Infinity’s Shore.
A true seeker knows what divine authority is and he knows what divine responsibility is. To him, authority is not the power that lords it over the world; authority is the recognition of the illumining and liberating, transforming and immortalising reality as world-power. To him, responsibility is not an unwanted burden. Each responsibility is an added opportunity to serve the Inner Pilot in an inimitable way, in God’s own Way. He feels that each responsibility is an opportunity to add to his soul’s reality and he knows that he can increase this opportunity. How does he increase it? He increases his opportunity by creating happiness. Happiness increases opportunity. And what is happiness? Happiness is a quality of the soul. This quality of the soul we notice and grow into only when we see that the Vision-world and the reality-world can become one.
The Vision-world is God’s Silence-world; the reality-world is God’s sound-world. The seeker comes to realise that either he has to climb up from the body-consciousness to the soul’s loftiest height or he has to bring the soul’s loftiest height down into the gross physical world. When he climbs up, he lifts up humanity’s consciousness and places humanity’s consciousness in the lap of Divinity. And when he brings down Peace, Light and Bliss from above, he feeds humanity’s age-long hunger. But whether he carries humanity up the tree or brings down the fruits, he offers Divinity the golden opportunity to transform, to shape and to mould humanity’s life-breath the way the Eternal Pilot wants humanity transformed, illumined, perfected and fulfilled.
A true seeker has discovered the truth that his Pilot Supreme is not only the Highest but also the lowest. The magnitude and the infinitude of his Beloved Supreme is the reality precisely because the Supreme’s Love-power has become the Universal Consciousness, the Transcendental Consciousness, the Infinite Consciousness, which is expanding at every moment; and also because He is smaller than the smallest, tinier than the tiniest. The Beloved Supreme is the reality just because He can become Infinity and just because He can become the finite, the infinitesimal drop. The true seeker feels a one-pointed inner urge to see the Infinite in the finite and to see the finite in the Infinite.
When a true seeker aspires, he sees that it is the real in him that aspires. The unreal in him just waits for the opportunity to be transformed at God’s choice Hour. The unreal in him cannot aspire; only the real in him can aspire. What is the real in him? The real in him is happiness, delight. What is the unreal in him? The unreal in him is the suffering that he creates for himself. How does he create suffering? He creates suffering by mixing with the unreal in himself. The unreal is his desire-world; the unreal is his thought-world. Each desire is a world of its own; each thought is a world of its own. The unreal in him is sorrow. When he mixes with sorrow, with desire, with suspicion and doubt, when world-suffering assails him and he identifies himself with world-suffering and with his own suffering, at that time he sees darkness within, without, below, above. But when he identifies himself with inner happiness and outer happiness, at every moment he transcends his own reality. At every moment he dances with the reality of self-transcendence.
Instead of staying in the unreal — in the desire-world, in the thought-world — a true seeker wants to live in the aspiration-world and the will-power-world. His aspiration-world tells him, “Not this, not that, but something beyond this, something beyond that.” And what is it that is beyond this, beyond that? It is his constant inner flame, the flame that at every moment achieves satisfaction. Again, at each level of satisfaction he feels an eternal hunger to achieve higher satisfaction. This hunger is not simply a cry for the world of truth and reality which has given him his present satisfaction; it is a ceaseless cry for Light, abundant Light, infinite Light. A true seeker cries for satisfaction and when satisfaction dawns, he cries for higher satisfaction. He is not like an ordinary human being in the desire-world who can never be satisfied. The seeker is satisfied, but at the same time he still wants to go higher. The true seeker’s satisfaction in crying for a higher world, a higher reality, is his spontaneous inner growth. An iota of satisfaction can please him; but he feels that the greater his satisfaction, the greater the opportunity he will have to manifest the Divinity within him. It is not that from dissatisfaction he is going to satisfaction; but from satisfaction he is growing to higher satisfaction. From God’s aspiration-world he is climbing to God’s realisation-world. And inside the realisation-world he tries to see God’s manifestation-world, God’s Perfection-world.
A true seeker is he whose name is always synonymous with devotion. A true seeker has discovered the truth that it is his devotion that can fulfil the Divine in him, the Supreme in him. In his devotion, God’s perfect Perfection and God’s continuous Satisfaction loom large. His devotion is not the devotion of a man touching somebody else’s feet. His devotion is speed, the fastest speed of his own aspiration-reality and God’s Compassion-Reality. When his aspiration-reality and God’s Compassion-Reality are bridged by his own inner cry, which is nothing else but his devotion, at that time he sees the world of the Eternal Now as his own, very own. He sees that there is no past, no future; there is only one Eternal Now, only one Eternal Life, only one Eternal Love. What he has and what he is, and what God has and what God is, are nothing but the Eternal Now. Here he sows, here he grows. Here he is God the seed; again, here he is God the fruit. In the Eternal Now, God’s Self-Transcendence-Reality and his own life-liberating, life-immortalising reality abide.
SCS 87. St. Xavier Auditorium, New York, 2 July 1975.↩
If an individual takes his tasks as a responsibility, then he is shouldering a heavy burden. On his shoulders he is placing a very heavy burden. But if he takes his life as a supreme necessity for God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation, then no matter what he does, what he says or what he becomes, there will always be satisfaction, abiding satisfaction. Here it is an inner urge that he is fulfilling. It is not that from the outside world somebody has forced him to do something and he is doing it. He is under no compulsion to do it unwillingly. If we accept life as the supreme necessity to love God and serve God in mankind, then we can satisfy ourselves and we can satisfy the rest of the world in the midst of multifarious activities.
If we take life as a necessity, then there is all joy; we do the needful in order to derive happiness. But if we take the world as something foreign to us, as a stranger who is not part and parcel of our life and with whom we have not established our oneness, then naturally anything that we do we will feel was done either under compulsion or because we have a big heart. But if necessity prompts us, then we are not showing any kind of compassion; we are only trying to bring to the fore the oneness-reality that we have within us by loving and serving the human beings around us.In the spiritual life, when we try to control anything, that particular thing gets new strength, like elephant strength. When we try to control something, we focus attention on that particular object or subject. When we focus attention without the soul’s light, very often our opponent gets strength. If we pay attention to someone undesirable, he bothers us more than before. So we do not try to control anything; we try only to do the right thing. First things first. Instead of entering into the emotional life, we try to enter into the world of light.
Early in the morning, instead of entering into the vital or the emotional world, we try to enter into the soul. Then from the soul we get boundless strength. Since our goal is the light of the soul and not the life of indulgence, we shall always try to pay all attention to the soul’s need, to our life of aspiration. If our goal is situated to the north, we shall look only towards the north and not towards the south. If we cry for truth and light, automatically our need for pleasure-life and indulgence-life goes away from us. What we actually want is love, light and truth, so let us pay all attention to these things and ignore everything else that takes us away from our real life.Love human, love divine and love supreme. Human love wants to possess and be possessed by the world. Divine love wants to establish its inseparable oneness with the world and then it wants to divinely enjoy this oneness. Supreme Love transforms human love into divine love and blesses divine love with boundless joy and divine pride.
Fear and doubt quite often torture human love. Cheerfulness and confidence increase and support divine love. Perfection and satisfaction fulfil Supreme Love. This perfection is continuous progress and continuous self-transcendence. This satisfaction is something that each individual needs in his eternal journey towards the ever-transcending Reality-Height.
Human love is nothing but incapacity. If we dive deep within human love, then we see clearly that it is weak and impotent. Divine love is capacity. Slowly and steadily it wins the race. There comes a time when human love becomes transformed into divine love. When divine love wins the race, it is not filled with pride. It shares its success cheerfully and soulfully with the transformed human love. Supreme Love, out of its infinite bounty, grants divine love the boon of transforming humanity and, at the same time, living in the boundless immortal Consciousness. Supreme Love is the endless Reality which always transcends and the immortal Vision which always illumines the earth-consciousness and Heaven-consciousness.
Human love craves for a satisfactory result. Then, when it does not get a satisfactory result, it is doomed to disappointment. It sinks into a chasm where it finds something quite unknown, a stranger: despair. Despair soon is devoured by frustration and this frustration eventually devours human love itself.
Divine love makes a soulful attempt at reaching the goal. It does not pray for or long for the result as such. Its aim is to make a soulful attempt and then it leaves everything in the blessingful care of the Supreme Pilot. It says to the Inner Pilot, “It is up to You to give me success or failure, which is only an experience. I wish to please You, O Supreme, in Your own Way.” This is divine love.
Supreme Love unconditionally gives and gives. What does it give? Compassion in infinite measure, Love in infinite measure, Peace in infinite measure. It depends on the individual to receive its boundless Compassion, Light, Peace and Bliss according to his soul’s receptivity. According to his life’s progress, the individual receives these immortal treasures from above.
Human love says to the world, “I love you; therefore I have the supreme authority to strike you and punish you if and when necessity demands.” Divine love says to the world, “I love you; therefore I feel that it is my bounden duty to perfect you so that you can become a perfect instrument of the Supreme Pilot.” Supreme Love says to the world, “I love you; therefore I feel at every moment a constant necessity in My cosmic Vision and in My cosmic Reality to claim you as My own, very own. I also wish for you, too, to claim Me as your own, very own, at every moment here on earth and there in Heaven.”
Slowly, steadily and gradually human love decreases; and finally it dies. Slowly, steadily and unerringly divine love increases in the aspiring humanity; and then it flies. Compassionately, ceaselessly and unconditionally Supreme Love always remains the boundless sky. From there it guides and illumines the aspiring humanity and illumining divinity.
A doubtful mind, a suspicious mind, an insecure mind is quite often visible in human love. A soulful heart, a climbing heart, a glowing heart is always visible in divine love. A fruitful life, within and without, is eternally visible in Supreme Love.
Imagination reigns supreme in human love. With imagination human love starts its journey and at its journey’s end again it sees imagination. It sees the soul, the body, the vital, the mind, even the goal itself as imagination.
Conviction paramount, conviction illumining, conviction fulfilling always reigns supreme in divine love. This conviction is the soul’s Reality-Light that illumines the entire world. It is this conviction that divine love offers to the seekers of the absolute Truth. This conviction is the treasure-reality which, at the beginning, belongs to the Ultimate Source and which the Ultimate Source offers to the soul to share with aspiring mankind.
Compassion eternal reigns supreme in Supreme Love. This Compassion is the Supreme’s highest Power, deepest Peace and brightest Light. He offers His infinite and immortal Reality to us unconditionally and we receive it according to our inner capacity and our outer receptivity.
Love of the limited self, the very limited self, is another name for human love. Love of the entire world is another name for divine love. A cheerful, beckoning Hand the Supreme offers to divine love for earth’s illumination, salvation and perfection. Love of the limited, unaspiring, desiring, binding and blinding human in us and the unlimited, eternally aspiring, self-giving divine in us is another name for Supreme Love.
In the process of evolution, each individual starts with animal love, love that destroys. Gradually this animal love makes progress. It receives an iota of light and changes its consciousness. Then it goes into human love, which is the song of possession, the song of doubt and insecurity. Eventually this doubtful existence is transformed into faithful existence; this life of insecurity becomes a life of security and confidence. For human love grows into divine love, which feels its identification and oneness with God’s entire creation. Divine love is finally transformed or given the golden opportunity to grow into Supreme Love, which is Infinity’s Perfection and Eternity’s Satisfaction. This is how each individual walks along Eternity’s road to reach the ever-transcending and ever-fulfilling Goal.
SCS 93. State University of New York, at Purchase, 18 February 1976.↩
Spirituality is an inner cry for the Source. Spirituality is an inner cry, an inner decision and an inner determination for perfection. Perfection is not a fixed standard. It is continuous progress. Perfection is the seeker’s divinely surrendered self-expansion in God’s illumining Satisfaction and fulfilling Manifestation. Perfection is self-transcendence. Perfection is the act of piloting Eternity’s Boat in Infinity’s Sea towards Immortality’s Shore. Perfection is self-giving. Perfection is the flower which grows into a God-nourishing fruit.
Napoleon says, “Ability is of little account without opportunity.” Surprisingly enough, spirituality is both ability and opportunity. Ability is an inner and outer oneness with God’s Vision. Opportunity is an inner and outer oneness with God’s manifestation.
What does it mean to be spiritual? To be spiritual is to be normal, natural and spontaneous. To be spiritual is to be simple, sincere and pure. To be spiritual is to be a lover and server of truth and light. To be spiritual is to become a chosen and perfect instrument of God. To be spiritual is to become a God-representative on earth. To be spiritual is to become a liberator of humanity.
What does it mean to be spiritual? It means we long for God-discovery. It means we long for perfection in our body, vital, mind and heart. It means our old friend, desire-night, is no longer with us. It means we have a new friend: aspiration-day.
A spiritual person is he who loves God, not because God is great, not because God is good, but because God alone is.
How do we become spiritual? We become spiritual by loving, by serving and by surrendering.
Whom do we love? We love man in God. Whom do we serve? We serve God in man. To whom do we surrender? We surrender to God the transcendental Vision, God the universal Reality and God the eternal Will.
Why do we love? We love because love is life. Why do we serve? We serve because service is perfection. Why do we surrender? We surrender because surrender is satisfaction.
How do we love? We love soulfully. How do we serve? We serve devotedly. How do we surrender? We surrender unconditionally.
A spiritual person sees only one thing: God’s Beauty. A spiritual person feels only one thing: God’s Responsibility. A spiritual person becomes only one thing: God’s Compassion-Light. God tells the spiritual person only one thing: “You are My Satisfaction.”
You are spiritual; that means God comes first in your life. You are spiritual; that means God is the only reality in your life. You are spiritual; that means God is your heart’s constant choice and God is your life’s constant voice.
He is a great seeker who feels that God loves him. He is a greater seeker who knows that he loves God. He is the greatest seeker who knows that God and he love each other. God loves man because man is God’s creation. Man loves God because God is man’s salvation, liberation, illumination and realisation. God is man’s salvation from sin-consciousness. God is man’s liberation from bondage-life. God is the illumination of man’s darkness-existence. God is man’s realisation; and realisation is self-discovery and God-discovery. Let us cry and cry within. Then ours will be self-discovery. Let us smile and smile without. Then ours will be God-discovery.
SCS 97. St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University, New York, 25 February 1976.↩
We have to feel that we have within us all the divine qualities. If we feel that we don’t have them, then it is almost impossible to get them. If we feel that God is within us, for that reason one day we shall see God face to face. But if we think that God is not within us, that He is somewhere else, then we will never see God. If we want to achieve something in our life, first we have to feel that we have that very thing within us. And because we have not yet discovered it, we have to use our imagination-power to help bring it to the fore.
Also, we have to feel that we are God’s children. Now we can’t feel it. We have done many things wrong and to say that we are God’s chosen instruments is a self-mockery. This is what we feel. But if we continuously say, “No, we are God’s chosen children. Deep within us is divinity. God is there, only we have covered Him with our ignorance,” then we are bound to bring our inner divinity to the fore. So try to have that kind of feeling. You have to feel that God is within you, purity is within you; only you have to reveal it. How do you reveal it? You reveal it by imagining within yourself the things that you see around you as pure — flowers, incense, candles — and then automatically one day you do become purified.From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 4, Agni Press, 1976
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