Illumination is not something very far away. It is very close; it is just inside us. At every moment we can consciously grow into illumination through our inner progress. Inner progress is made through constant sacrifice. Sacrifice of what? Sacrifice of wrong, evil thoughts and a wrong understanding of Truth. Sacrifice and renunciation go together. What are we going to renounce? The physical body, family, friends, relatives, our country, the world? No! We have to renounce our own ignorance, our own false ideas of God and Truth. Also, we have to sacrifice to God the result of each action. The divine vision no longer remains a far cry when we offer the result of our actions to the Inner Pilot.
In our day-to-day life, we very often speak of bondage and freedom. But realisation says that there is no such thing as bondage and freedom. What actually exists is consciousness — consciousness on various levels, consciousness enjoying itself in its various manifestations. In the field of manifestation, consciousness has different grades. Why do we pray? We pray because our prayer leads us from a lower degree of illumination to a higher degree. We pray because our prayer brings us closer to something pure, beautiful, inspiring and fulfilling. The highest illumination is God-realisation. This illumination must take place not only in the soul, but also in the heart, mind, vital and body. God-realisation is a conscious, complete and perfect union with God.
We want to love the world; the world wants to love us. We want to fulfil the world; the world wants to fulfil us. But there is no connecting link between us and the world. We feel that our existence and the world’s existence are two totally different things. We think that the world is something separate from us. But in this we are making a deplorable mistake. What is the proper connecting link between us and the world? God. If we approach God first and see God in the world, then no matter how many millions of mistakes we make, the world will not only indulge our mistakes; it will soulfully love us as well. Similarly, when we see the defects, weaknesses and imperfections of the world, we will be able to forgive the world and then inspire, energise and illumine the world just because we feel God’s existence there.
If we do not see God in all our activities, frustration will loom large in our day-to-day life. No matter how sincerely we try to please the world, no matter how sincerely the world tries to please us, frustration will be found between our understanding and the world’s understanding. The source of frustration is ignorance. Ignorance is the mother of devastating frustration, damaging frustration and strangling frustration. If we go deeper into ignorance, we see it is all a play of inconscience. Frustration can be removed totally from our lives only when we enter into the Source of all existence. When we enter into the Source of our own existence and the world’s existence, we are approaching the Reality. This Reality is our constant Delight, and Delight is the Breath of God.
This world is neither mine nor yours nor anyone’s. Never! It belongs to God, and God alone. So we have to be really wise. We have to go to the Possessor first, and not to the possession. The possession is helpless; it can do nothing on its own. It is the Possessor that can do what He wants to do with His possession. So first we have to become one with God, and then we shall automatically become one with God’s possessions. When we become one with God and with His possessions, we can certainly and unmistakably feel that the world is ours and we are the world’s.
Ignorance and illumination are like night and day. We have to enter into illumination first, and then bring illumination into ignorance-night. If we try to illumine ignorance the other way around, then the transformation of ignorance will be difficult, slow and uncertain. To enter into the field of ignorance is to take a negative path. If we pursue the path of darkness and try to find light in darkness, we are taking the negative path. The best way, the positive way to find light is to follow the path of light, more light, abundant light, infinite Light. If we follow the path of light, then illumination will assuredly dawn in us.
Let us look up and bring down the Light from above. The moment we look up, God’s Grace descends. The very nature of God’s Grace is to descend upon each individual on earth. When we want to go up to God with ignorance, it is like climbing up a mountain with a heavy bundle on our shoulders. Naturally it is a difficult task. Instead of doing that, we can remain at the foot of the mountain and cry for God’s Grace, which is ready and eager to come down to us from the highest. Needless to say, for God to come down into our ignorance is infinitely easier than for us to carry our ignorance up to God.
Illumination is the conscious awareness of the soul. Illumination is the conscious vision of the Reality that is going to be manifested. Illumination is possibility transformed into practicality. Illumination is like God’s divine magic wand. An ordinary magician in this world uses his wand to make one thing turn into another. When God uses illumination in the world, immediately the finite consciousness of earth enters into the Infinite and becomes the Infinite.
Illumination is humanity’s first realisation of God’s omnipotent Power, boundless Compassion, infinite Light and perfect Perfection. It is our illumination that makes us feel what God really is. Before illumination, God is theoretical; after illumination, God becomes practical. So illumination is the divine magic power that makes us see the Reality which was once upon a time imagination. When illumination dawns in a human being, God is no longer just a promise, but an actual achievement.
Illumination is in the mind and in the heart. When the mind is illumined, we become God’s Choice. When the heart is illumined, we become God’s Voice. Here in the physical world the mind has evolved considerably. Because man has developed his intellectual mind, he has become superior to the animals, for the standard of the mind is higher than the standard of the physical or the vital. Man has cultivated the capacity of the mind, but he has not cultivated the capacity of the heart. When we cultivate the heart, we will see that its capacity is far greater than we had imagined. When we cultivate the unique sense in our heart that we are of God’s highest Vision and we are for God’s perfect Manifestation, then illumination will take place.
— Sri ChinmoyIt is not that only spiritual people have divine consciousness. Ordinary people have it also, but in them it is dormant. If they would concentrate, meditate and contemplate properly, this consciousness would come forward, and then they would have a free access to the soul, which is all Light, Peace and Bliss.
Consciousness is only one. It houses silence and it houses power. When it houses silence, at that time it houses its own true form. When it houses power, at that time it manifests its inner reality. A portion of the infinite consciousness that has entered into the gross physical and is possessed and used by the physical itself, we call the physical consciousness, the vital consciousness and the mental consciousness. In these there is a tiny portion of the infinite consciousness, but it is not the pure infinite consciousness that we speak of.
The eternal soul and the infinite consciousness must go together. They have a common friend, or you can say, a common father, and that is life, eternal life. One complements the other. The soul expresses its divinity through consciousness, and consciousness expresses its all-pervading power or silence through the soul.
Consciousness and the soul can never be separated, whereas the body can easily be separated from consciousness. What we, in our human life, call consciousness is usually only a feeling. When we perceive something subtle, immediately we call it consciousness, but it is not consciousness at all; it is a very subtle desire. We enter into the desire and immediately feel that this is our consciousness. Everything which is subtle in us and which we cannot define with words, we call consciousness; but consciousness is something totally different.
Awareness and consciousness are also two totally different things. If I talk with someone or mix with someone, then my mind becomes aware of his qualities. That is awareness. But consciousness is not a mental awareness or understanding. Consciousness is an inner revelation or an inner state of being. It is something infinitely deeper and more inward than awareness.Human consciousness makes us feel that we can exist without God. When it is in deep ignorance, human consciousness feels that there is no necessity for God. We see millions and billions of people who do not pray or meditate. They feel, “If God exists, well and good; if He does not exist, we don’t lose anything.” Although they may use the term ‘God’ in season and out of season, they do not care for the reality, the existence of God either in Heaven or in their day-to-day earthly lives.
But the divine consciousness is not at all like that. Even the limited divine consciousness that we have makes us feel that at every moment there is a supreme necessity for God. It makes us feel that we are on earth precisely because He exists. And when we cherish divine thoughts, the divine consciousness makes us feel it is He who is inspiring us to cherish these divine ideas. In everything the divine consciousness makes us feel that there is a divine purpose, divine aim, divine ideal, divine goal. In ordinary human consciousness there is no purpose, no positive goal; it is only a mad elephant running amuck. In the divine consciousness there is always a goal, and this goal is always transcending itself. Today we regard one thing as our goal, but when we reach the threshold of our goal, immediately we are inspired to go beyond that goal. That goal becomes a stepping-stone to a higher goal. This happens because God is constantly transcending Himself. God is limitless and infinite, but even His own Infinity He is transcending. Since God is always making progress, we also are making progress when we are in the divine consciousness. In the divine consciousness, everything is constantly expanding and growing into higher and more fulfilling Light.When we are in the waking state, the identification that we make with anything or anyone is vaishwanara, that which is common to all men. When we are in the dream state, we identify with tejasa, which is our inner brilliant capacity, our inner vigour. And when we enter into deep sleep, there we identify with and experience the subtle. In this third state it is not the mental consciousness, not the intellectual consciousness, but the inner, intuitive consciousness that we deal with. In sushupti there is no collective form; everything is indefinite. It is all infinite mass. In this state we get an experience of a very high order.
There is also a fourth state, turiya, which means the transcendental consciousness. This consciousness is neither outward nor inward; at the same time, it is both outward and inward. It is and it is not. It has the capacity to identify itself with anything and everything in the world and, again, it has the capacity to transcend anything and everything on earth. Furthermore, it constantly transcends itself. Turiya is the highest state of consciousness, but there is no end, no fixed limit, to the turiya consciousness. It is constantly transcending, transcending its own beyond.
The turiya state is like being at the top of a tree. When we are at the foot of a tree, with great difficulty we see a little bit of what is around us; but when we are at the top of the tree, we see everything around and below. So when we enter into the turiya state, we have to feel that we have entered into the highest plane of consciousness. From there we can observe everything.
In order to enter into the turiya state, for at least five or ten minutes every day we have to consciously separate our body from our soul. We have to say and feel, “I am not the body; I am the soul.” When we say, “I am the soul,” immediately the qualities of the soul come to the fore. When we are one with the soul, that state is a kind of samadhi. We can function in that particular state safely and effectively.
Nirvikalpa samadhi is also a state of the soul. When we have become one with the soul and are enjoying the eternal Peace, Bliss and Light of the soul, this is called nirvikalpa samadhi. In this state there is no thought. The cosmic play has ended; there is absolute Peace and Bliss.
In sahaja samadhi, while we are meditating, thoughts may be taking form in us, but we are not disturbed by them. In ordinary life we are disturbed by thoughts, but when we are in sahaja samadhi with the waking consciousness, although the earth sends a variety of thoughts from various angles, we are not disturbed by them.If you know how to observe them, you can see that some of these worlds are already functioning in you. During meditation, you can clearly see that it is not the physical world that you are entering into. It is something else: the higher mind or the overmind, or intuition or some other subtle world. But only spiritual Masters and great aspirants are conscious of the fact that these worlds are manifesting in their day-to-day activities, in the outer world itself. The ordinary person, even when flashes of intuition enter into his mind, will not be able to know that they are coming from the world of intuition. But each person, either today or tomorrow, has to become conscious of these worlds. Not only that, but also he has to manifest the truth, the light, the beauty, the wealth of all the higher worlds in this world.
You are a disciple of mine, and I can tell you that even now you sometimes get true, conscious, higher light from the intuitive mind. I know that your writings, your poems, come entirely from another world. From another world you are getting the truths and ideas which you express. I see that you get joy in writing entirely from the intuitive world, the higher mind. So, in the world of manifestation, the physical world, you are expressing the ideas, the light, the truth of another world. At the same time, if you want to enter into that world without manifesting, just to realise or see the vision of the truth of that particular world, you can. But for manifestation you have to bring this vision down here to earth.Now, you have studied books on God, and people have told you that God is in everybody. But you have not realised God in your conscious life. For you this is all mental speculation. But when one is God-realised, one consciously knows what God is, what He looks like, what He wills. When one achieves Self-realisation, one remains in God’s Consciousness and speaks to God face to face. He sees God both in the finite and in the infinite; he sees God as both personal and impersonal. And in his case, this is not mental hallucination or imagination; it is direct reality. This reality is more authentic than my seeing you right here in front of me. When one speaks to a human being, there is always a veil of ignorance: darkness, imperfection, misunderstanding. But between God and the inner being of one who has realised Him, there can be no ignorance, no veil. So at that time one can speak to God more clearly, more convincingly, more openly than to a human being.
As ordinary human beings, we feel that infinite Peace, infinite Light, infinite Bliss and infinite divine Power are all sheer imagination. We are victims to doubt, fear and negative forces which we feel are quite normal and natural. We cannot love anything purely, not even ourselves. We are in the finite, quarrelling and fighting, and there is no such thing as Peace or Light or Bliss in us. But those who practise meditation go deep within and see that there is real Peace, Light and Bliss. They get boundless inner strength and see that doubt and fear can be challenged and conquered. When we achieve God-realisation, our inner existence is flooded with Peace, Poise, Equanimity and Light.In my case, I have seen God in both ways — with form and without form. But when I speak of God, I speak of Him as a being, because this idea is easier for the human mind to grasp. When you say there is a form, a shape, it appeals to individuals. Otherwise, God becomes only a vague idea. If I say God is Bliss, and if the seeker has not experienced Bliss, then he will be hopelessly confused. But if I tell a seeker that God is like a person, an all-powerful father who can say this or do this, he can conceive of it and believe it.
When a human being thinks of some being greater than himself, immediately he thinks of it as similar to a human being. It is much easier to conceive of the idea of God through form. But I will never say that those who want to see God without form, as an infinite expanse of Light, Delight, Energy or Consciousness, are wrong. I just feel that the other way is easier.The enlightenment that is spoken of here in the West and also in Japan is only a temporary burst of light in the aspiring consciousness. After a short while it pales into insignificance, because there is no abiding reality in it. Abiding reality we will get only with constant, eternal and Transcendental Illumination, which is God-realisation.
Sometimes when we speak of enlightenment, we mean that we have been in darkness about a particular subject for many years and now we have inner wisdom, or now that particular place in our consciousness is enlightened. But this is just a spark of the boundless illumination, and that little spark we cannot call God-realisation.When someone realises the Highest, it means he has inner Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. It does not mean that his outer appearance or outer features will be any different, for Peace, Light and Bliss are inside his inner consciousness. If a Master achieves realisation, it does not mean that he will grow two big horns or a long tail, or become in some other way abnormal. No, he is normal. Even after a spiritual Master has realised the Highest, he still eats, sleeps, talks and breathes just as others do.
It is inside the human that the divine exists. We do not have to live in the Himalayan caves to prove our inner divinity; this divinity we can bring forward in our normal day-to-day life. Spirituality is absolutely normal, but unfortunately we have come to feel it is abnormal because we see so few spiritual people in this world of ignorance. But this feeling is a deplorable mistake. Real spirituality is the acceptance of life. First we have to accept life as it is, and then we have to try to divinise and transform the face of the world with our aspiration and with our realisation.
Unspiritual people frequently think that a realised person, if he is truly realised, has to perform miracles at every moment. But miracles and God-realisation need not necessarily go together. When you look at a spiritual Master, what you see is Peace, Light, Bliss and divine Power. Enter into him and you are bound to feel these things. But if you expect something else from a realised soul, if you come to a spiritual Master thinking that he will fulfil your teeming desires and make you a multimillionaire, then you are totally mistaken. If it is the Will of the Supreme, the Master can easily make someone a multimillionaire overnight. He can bring down material prosperity in abundant measure, but usually this is not the Will of the Supreme. The Will of the Supreme is for inner prosperity, not outer affluence.A Master’s outer body may be very ugly, but in his eyes you will see all divine qualities. And if his eyes are closed, you may observe nothing outwardly, but deep inside yourself you will feel an inner joy that you have never felt before. You have felt joy before, true, but the inner thrill that you will get the moment you stand before a real spiritual Master for the first time can never be described. And if the Master is your own Master, then the joy will be infinitely greater.
You are bound to feel all kinds of divine qualities in the spiritual Master, provided you have aspiration. Otherwise, you may sit in front of the spiritual Master, talk to him, have all kinds of intimate friendship with him, but you will get nothing. It is your aspiration that permits you to receive all the divine qualities of the Master. If you have no aspiration, no matter what the Master has, he will not be able to give it to you.
Also, when you speak to a real Master, your own sincerity has to come forward. This does not mean that you will always express your sincerity. You may tell lies in spite of the fact that your sincerity is pushing you, compelling you to tell the truth. But when you are with a spiritual Master, you at least want to offer your sincerity, although insincerity may come and fight with you and sometimes prevent you.
When you are with a realised Master, you are bound to feel that the Master understands you; and not only that he understands you, but also that he has the capacity to comfort you and help you in your problems. Some people feel that there is nobody on earth to understand them. But, if they are lucky enough to find a person who understands them, they come to know that this person still cannot solve their problems because he does not have inner light, inner wisdom, inner power. A spiritual Master not only understands your problems, but also has the capacity in infinite measure to help you in your needs.
When you stand before a Master, you will feel that he can never be separated from your inner or outer existence. You feel he is your highest part and you want to grow into him. You want to become a perfect part of his highest realisation, for the very divine qualities that you are aspiring for — Light, Joy, Peace, Power — a spiritual Master has in boundless measure.A liberated soul is liberated from ignorance, from worldly, undivine qualities. A liberated soul will inspire others with his presence. He will inspire them to be pure, simple, kind-hearted and loving. Tremendous purity and serenity will flow from him, and others will want to touch him, speak to him, look at his face. You can say that he is much more than a saint. True, worldly obscurities, impurities and other things will not enter into the liberated soul, or he will be all the time cautious so as not to allow them to enter into him. But a realised soul is much higher. He is consciously part and parcel of God.
A liberated soul knows that there is a special room where he stays and has his shrine. He knows that there is also a kitchen, which is all dirty and full of impurities. Ordinary human beings have no special room, no shrine at all. They are all the time locked in the kitchen, and naturally they cannot come into the room where the living deity is. The liberated soul is able to live in the room with the shrine, but he is afraid that if he enters into the kitchen, the undivine things there may attack him, and he will again become their victim as he was before his liberation.
But realised souls are extremely powerful. They know what they are and where they have come from. On the strength of their universal and transcendental consciousness, they can enter into the ignorance of humanity, into the earth-consciousness as such, and illumine it with their torch-light. They do so only because of their infinite compassion, not because they still have some temptations or wrong forces in them. No! They enter into ignorance deliberately so that humanity can be radically transformed. But only realised souls of a high order accept this bold challenge.
A liberated soul is like a child, so beautiful and pure. But how long can you stay with a child? With his capacity you cannot go very far, or reach the Highest. But a realised soul is like a mature person, who can offer you tremendous aspiration, light and wisdom, the living reality. A liberated soul will inspire you to walk along the path, but a realised soul will not only inspire you, but also guide you and lead you to your destination.
A realised soul is not only the guide, not only the way, but the Goal itself. First he pretends he is not even the guide, but just someone to inspire the seeker. Then he comes and tells the seeker that he is the guide, but not the road. Gradually, however, he shows that he himself is also the road. And finally he makes the seeker feel his infinite compassion and shows him that he is not only the guide and the road, but the Goal as well, the seeker’s own Goal.
The realised soul touches the foot of the realisation-tree, climbs up to the topmost branch and brings down the fruit to share with humanity waiting below. That is realisation. But even the one who only touches the realisation-tree and sits at the foot of the tree without climbing up or bringing anything down is far superior to the liberated soul.
But again, to reach liberation is no easy matter. It is very, very difficult to become freed from ignorance. Out of the millions and billions of human beings on earth, there may be ten or twenty or even a hundred liberated souls. But God alone knows how many realised souls exist. To realise the highest Absolute as one’s very own and to constantly feel that this realisation is not something you have actually achieved, but something you eternally are — that is called realisation.According to our Indian tradition, there are thousands of cosmic gods, and there are as many presiding deities as there are human beings. These presiding deities and gods remain in higher worlds — the vital world, the intuitive world or some higher plane. Right now they have more power, more capacity than we have, and they are satisfied with what they have. They do not want to go one inch beyond. But still, their capacities are limited in comparison with the Light, Bliss and Power of the Supreme. When we are liberated and realised, when we are consciously one with the Supreme’s Consciousness, we will have infinitely more capacity than the deities and cosmic gods.
When the creation started, the souls that wanted to make progress followed a different path. They wanted the ultimate Truth, the infinite Truth. Even the cosmic gods, if they want to achieve infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, must come down to earth in human form and then realise God on the strength of their absolute love, devotion and surrender. Only here, in the physical body, can we pray and meditate and realise the Highest. Only this planet is in evolution. Evolution means constant progress, constant achievement. When one wants to make progress, when one wants to go beyond, then this is the place to come. It is here alone that God must be realised, revealed and manifested.We have to feel that matter and spirit go together. Matter has to be the conscious expression of spirit. If you say that matter is everything, that there is no spirit, no higher life, no inner reality, then I have to tell you that you are mistaken. There is an inner reality, there is an infinite Truth that wants to express itself in and through matter. Matter is asleep, and it has to be aroused. The material life has to be guided and moulded by the spirit.
But first we have to understand what the material life is for. If by material life we mean lower vital enjoyment and the fulfilment of gross desires, then it is useless to try to accept the spiritual life simultaneously. But if the material life means the life of expansion — the expansion of the heart, the expansion of love — then matter and spirit can easily go together. In this material life we have to see Peace, Light and Bliss. What we see right now in the mind is jealousy, fear, doubt and all undivine things. But in this very mind we can and we must feel harmony, peace, love and other divine qualities. If we want these divine qualities from the material life, then the material life can go perfectly well with the spiritual life.
The true material life is not just eating, sleeping and drinking. The material life is a significant life. And it eventually has to become a life of dedication. Right now in the physical we are trying to possess people and things. But the material life will have meaning only when we stop trying to possess and start trying to dedicate. When we dedicate ourselves to the Supreme, to the unparalleled goal of realising God, only then will life reveal itself to us as the message of Truth, the message of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.But if one just enters into the spiritual life and wants to realise God without the help of a Master, it is impossible. For an ordinary human being, hundreds and thousands of incarnations are required. Even if one has a good Master, if the disciple is not one hundred per cent sincere, it may take six, seven, ten or twenty incarnations. But the very best disciples get realisation either in one incarnation or in a few incarnations, under the constant guidance of the Master.
Occasionally someone realises God without having a spiritual Master. How is it possible? In his past incarnation, perhaps he had a very, very powerful Master. In this incarnation his Master has not taken human incarnation, but from the inner world this Master is constantly guiding him, moulding him and instructing him. The seeker knows that his Guru is instructing him during his dreams and during his meditation.
Then, of course, there is also another possibility. If a seeker has been meditating for quite a few incarnations and God is most pleased with him, and if the seeker is not favoured with a spiritual Master in this incarnation, then God Himself plays the part of a spiritual Master, even during the seeker’s waking hours and in his day-to-day life activities. If the seeker needs to drink a glass of water, God will tell him, “Go and drink a glass of water.” And if he has to shut the windows, God will tell him. God will take the form of a very, very luminous being and will guide him in this way.The other approach is to have some idea of what we want when we are praying and meditating. Let us say I want to be good. This is quite legitimate. If I become good, that means there will be one less rascal on earth, and God’s creation will be better. So I am praying to God to give me something which will help Him in expanding His own Light on earth. In order to be of some service to mankind and to please God in God’s own Way, we have to become good. But only when we realise God can we be of real help to Him. Unless we are realised, unless we are free from the meshes of ignorance, what can we give to humanity? Unless we have some Peace, Light and Bliss, how can we help either God or mankind? There are many false teachers on earth who are not of any real help to mankind. They are like mushrooms growing all over the world. Now what are they doing? They are only exploiting and deceiving humanity. They can deceive themselves, they can deceive humanity, but they cannot deceive God.
The great spiritual Master Sri Ramakrishna used to pray, “O Mother Divine, make me the greatest of the Yogis.” Ordinary people will say, “What kind of Master prays to be the greatest?” But this was not competition on Sri Ramakrishna’s part. He just knew that if he could become divinely great, then he could be of real service to mankind. So there is nothing wrong in praying for realisation and liberation. If you do not have any motive, if you do not feel any inner hunger for God or for Peace, Light and Bliss, then God will say, “Sleep, My child, sleep, as millions and billions of other people on earth are sleeping.”Aspiration, the inner cry, should come from the physical, the vital, the mind, the heart and the soul. Of course, the soul has been aspiring all the time, but the physical, vital, mental and psychic beings have to become consciously aware of this. When we consciously aspire in all parts of our being, we will be able to accelerate the achievement of liberation.
How do we aspire? Through proper concentration, proper meditation and proper contemplation. Aspiration covers both meditation and prayer. In the West, there were many saints who did not care for meditation; they realised God through prayer. He who is praying feels he has an inner cry to realise God, and he who is meditating also feels the need of bringing God’s Consciousness right into his being. The difference between prayer and meditation is this: when I pray, I talk and God listens; and when I meditate, God talks and I listen. When I pray, God has to listen. But when I meditate, when I make my mind calm and quiet, I hear what God has always been saying to me. So both ways are correct.
Conscious aspiration is the first thing we need. Aspiration is all that we have and all that we are. Then consciously we have to offer our aspiration to the Supreme so that we can become one with Him.Our earthly journey starts with desire, and in the ordinary life we cannot live without it. But if we feel that we are not ready for the spiritual life just because we have teeming desires, then I wish to say we will never be ready for the spiritual life. We have to start our spiritual journey here and now, even while we are walking along the path of desire.
Let us take desire as an object and try to feel the Breath of God inside it. Slowly and unmistakably the Breath of God will come to the fore and transform our desire into aspiration. Then, if we apply this process to aspiration as well, we will come to feel that our aspiration and our earthly existence can never be separated.
There are two kinds of men on earth who do not have desire: those who have liberated souls and those who have dull, inert, lifeless souls. Liberated souls have freed themselves from bondage, limitations and imperfections. They have become free from ignorance and have become one with their souls in transcendental illumination. Again, some human beings want nothing from life. They just wallow in the pleasures of idleness and lethargy; they have no aspiration for anything. So they will never, never have illumination.
The great spiritual hero, Swami Vivekananda, was once asked by a young man how he might realise God. Vivekananda said, “From now on start telling lies.” The young man said, “You want me to tell lies? How then can I realise God? It is against spiritual principles.” But Vivekananda said, “I know better than you. I know what your standard is. You won’t budge an inch; you are useless, you are practically dead to the ordinary life, not to speak of the spiritual life. If you start telling lies, people will pinch you and strike you, and then you will exert your own personality. First you have to develop your own individuality and personality. Then a day will come when you will have to surrender your individuality and personality to the divine Wisdom, the infinite Light and Bliss. But you have to start your journey first.”
There is another story about a man who came to Swami Vivekananda and asked him about God-realisation. Vivekananda said, “Go and play football. You will be able to realise God sooner if you play football than if you study the Bhagavad Gita.” Strength is required in order to realise God. This strength need not be the strength of a wrestler or boxer, but the amount of strength required for normal day-to-day life is absolutely necessary.
There are some unbalanced persons who feel that they will realise God by walking along the street like a vagabond or by torturing their body and remaining weak. Their physical weakness they take as a harbinger of God-realisation. The great Lord Buddha tried the path of self-mortification, but he came to the conclusion that the middle path without extremes is the best. We have to be normal; we have to be sound in our day-to-day life. Aspiration is not one thing and our physical body something else. No! Our heart’s aspiration and our physical body go together; the physical aspiration and the psychic aspiration can and must run together.God-realisation, Immortality, Infinity, Eternity: these are all big words right now. If you speak about these words, you will only be building castles in the air. They are a reality in their own plane, but that reality you cannot bring into your day-to-day life right now. So let the reality remain in its proper place. If you go on thinking of the Goal all the time with your imagination, the Goal will not be the way you are imagining it, and you are bound to be disappointed. Also, if you think of the Goal all the time, then you will not pay proper attention to your present aspiration and you will unconsciously delay your progress. God-realisation is your Goal, but you have just entered into the spiritual path. You are walking along the right path, and this is good. Right now your main concern should be aspiration, inner progress, simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility.
God-realisation is a difficult goal, but it is not impossible. After meditating for several years, some people feel that God-realisation is impossible in this incarnation and say that they do not want it. It is like the story of sour grapes. Many people leave the spiritual path for this reason after following it for quite a few years. They find fault with God and with the Master's teachings, and become stark atheists. But this is very bad. Before you entered into the spiritual life, when you were wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, at that time God forgave you because He knew that you were not aware of anything else. God said, "My child does not know anything better than ignorance". But after you have entered into the inner life, if you go back again to the ordinary life thinking that God-realisation either does not exist or is totally beyond your capacity, then the inner retribution for your ignorant and undivine actions is infinitely worse than it would have been if you had never left ignorance at all.
Right now the Goal is a far cry, but you must not be discouraged. Step by step, slowly and steadily, you will reach the Goal. From kindergarten you go to primary school, then to high school and then to the university. So do not be restless or impatient. Only God knows when the choice Hour will strike for you. It is your business to aspire, and it is God's business to pour down His infinite Compassion. When you play your role, God will play His role and make you realise Him at His choice Hour. So let us walk along the path of reality. On the strength of our inner aspiration, the Goal itself will come towards us.Since you are my disciple, I wish to tell you that you see more imperfection, more limitation, more teeming night inside yourself than I can even imagine. To me you are absolutely natural and normal; you are God's child, and you have every opportunity and capacity to realise, manifest and fulfil the Divine here on earth. Illumination is something which you had, but which you now have forgotten; it is not something totally new.
One who really cares for illumination has to feel that he is growing from light to more light to abundant light. If a seeker always feels that he is deep in the sea of ignorance, then I wish to say that he will never, never come out of ignorance, for there is no end to the ignorance-sea. But if one feels that he is growing from an iota of light into the all-pervading, highest Light, then illumination immediately seems easier and more spontaneous.Some people get realisation after only four or five years of meditation, whereas others who have been meditating for thirty, forty or fifty years are nowhere near realisation. But you have to know that in the case of the person who realises God after having meditated for only four or five years, this is not his first incarnation as a seeker. He started his journey long, long before you may even have thought of God. Now he is completing his journey to God-realisation, while you perhaps have just started yours. Again, we have to know that even though we have meditated for many incarnations in the past and for a few years in this incarnation, it does not actually mean that we deserve God. It was God’s Grace that operated in our previous incarnations and it is God’s Grace that is helping us realise Him in this incarnation as well.
From your constant, lifelong meditation, you can expect realisation, but only at God’s choice Hour. You may want it immediately, but God may know that if you realise Him right now, you will be more harmful than helpful to mankind. So God has His own Hour for your realisation, and when that Hour nears, you will be aware of it.Right now I am serving, serving, serving. I am serving my disciples and trying to manifest the Supreme on earth. Right now you, my disciples, have a little faith in me; that is why you are trying to manifest the Supreme. But practically nobody is serving Him consciously. If you had really been serving the Supreme, by this time you could have offered abundant Light to the world at large. You are serving in a way, but not spontaneously, wholeheartedly and lovingly.
When you realise God, at that time you will really know me. Now you do not know me. Among my disciples, not even a single one knows me. You say, “Sometimes Guru goes into a very high consciousness,” but you do not actually know where my consciousness is. What I am you will realise only the day you realise God, not one second before. Right now when I talk of Infinity or Eternity, it is all meaningless to you. Some of you, with great difficulty, try to digest what I say, but you find it difficult to assimilate. But when you realise God, at that time you will understand me.Great spiritual Masters from time immemorial have brought down the Sat and Chit aspects. But Ananda is much more difficult to bring down. Some could not bring it at all. Some brought it, but it lasted for only a few seconds or a few minutes and then went back up again. Peace is accessible; we can bring down Peace. Light and Power can easily be brought down. But the Delight which immortalises our inner and outer consciousness has not yet been established on earth. It comes and then goes away because it sees so much imperfection in the earth-atmosphere that it cannot remain.
Even spiritually advanced people are often confused. They feel an inner ecstasy which comes from the vital world, and they think this is the real Delight. But it is not so. Real Delight comes from the highest world to the soul, and from the soul it saturates the whole being.
This Ananda is absorbed differently from physical delight, or what we call pleasure or enjoyment. The supramental Delight is totally different from the world of pleasure and enjoyment. Once you get even an iota of it, you feel your entire inner being dancing for joy like a child with utmost purity, and your outer being feels true Immortality in its outer existence. If you get this Delight even for a second, you will remember it all your life.
All around us is the cosmic Game, the cosmic Play. The universe is full of joy, inner joy and outer joy. When realisation takes place, we have to feel the necessity of manifesting this constant Delight in our heart. This Delight glows, but does not actually burn. It has tremendous intensity, but it is all softness and absolutely sweet-flowing Nectar. One day I brought it down into my gross physical, so that when I was smiling, at that time I was scattering the highest Delight to each of you. But I must say that it has all disappeared. There is nobody among the disciples who has kept any of it.[Sri Chinmoy then asked his disciples to try to invoke Ananda]
Please place your right hand on your heart. Try to feel the most beautiful child on earth and in Heaven inside your heart. This is the soul. The men will naturally see the child as masculine, and the women will see the child as feminine. The soul is neither masculine nor feminine, but when it takes human incarnation, it takes a form. Try to see the child as only seven days old. In terms of spiritual evolution, some of you do not have even that seven-day-old child, forgive me to say. Although the souls started their journey millions of years ago, there are one or two individuals here who have had only one or two human incarnations. Naturally their souls’ evolution is perhaps only a few hours old or a few minutes old in purely spiritual terms. Now, please think of the seven-day-old child. Then in absolute silence, please say Ananda seven times.God-realisation is like a tree. One can run and touch the tree of realisation and say, “I have realised.” But this realisation is only touching the foot of the tree. One is very happy in touching the foot of the tree, for he has seen that the fruit is there, the leaves and branches are there; he can touch them, hold them, feel them, and he knows that he has reached his goal. But another person will say, “No, I am not satisfied. I want to climb up a little and sit on a branch. Then I will feel that I have reached my goal.” He goes one step higher, so naturally his realisation is superior. Again, there will be someone who will climb up to the topmost branch and eat the delicious fruit there. His realisation is higher still, because he has not only seen and touched the Highest, but has actually climbed up to the Highest. But he has no intention of coming down, because he feels that the moment he comes down he will again be an ordinary person and will be caught in the meshes of the ignorant world. He feels that once he climbs down, he will not be able to climb back up again.
But there is another type of realised soul who will not only climb up to the Highest for realisation, but will bring down the fruits of the tree for the world. He will come back for manifestation. He says, “I am not satisfied with sitting at the top of the tree. This is not my goal. What I have received I want to share with humanity.” He has the capacity to climb up and climb down at his sweet will. When he climbs down, he brings down Compassion, Peace, Light and Bliss from above. And when he climbs up, he takes humanity with him. He places a few human beings on his shoulders and then climbs back up. He will keep those souls up there and come down again to take a few more up on his shoulders. His capacity is infinitely greater than that of the person who just comes and touches the tree. His realisation is the fullest.
In India, there have been quite a few spiritual Masters who were partially realised. They touched the foot of the tree, but did not climb up to the topmost branch. They are considered very great by the aspirants, but when you compare their standard with that of Sri Krishna or the Christ or the Buddha, you have to say that those who only touched the tree achieved only a partial realisation.
If a Hindu touches a drop of water from the Ganges, he will feel a sense of purity. But if somebody has the capacity to swim across the Ganges, naturally he will be more convinced that his entire body is purified. When it is a matter of realisation, also, one can be satisfied with a drop of nectar or one can say, “No, I need the boundless ocean.” Again, one can say, “This boundless nectar is not only for me; it is for everybody. I want to share it with others.” The realisation of the individual who actually has the capacity to share his highest realisation with others is undoubtedly superior to that of the other two.
Sri Ramakrishna used to speak about the jivakoti and the ishvarakoti. The jivakoti is one who has realised God but does not want to enter into the field of manifestation again. A person who has a raft, a tiny boat, can cross the sea of ignorance himself, but he cannot take others. But the ishvarakoti, who has a big ship, can accommodate hundreds and thousands of human souls and carry them across the sea of ignorance, He comes into the world again and again to liberate mankind./
In savikalpa samadhi, for a short period of time you lose all human consciousness. In this state the conception of time and space is altogether different. With the human time you cannot judge; with the human way of looking at space you cannot judge. In that samadhi, for an hour or two hours you are completely in another world. You see there that almost everything is done. Here in this world there are many desires still unfulfilled in yourself and in others. Millions of desires are not fulfilled, and millions of things remain to be done. But when you are in savikalpa samadhi, you see that practically everything is done; you have nothing to do. You are only an instrument. If you are used, well and good; otherwise, things are all done. But from savikalpa samadhi everybody has to return to ordinary consciousness.Even in savikalpa samadhi there are grades. Just as there are brilliant students and poor students in the same class in school, so also in savikalpa samadhi some aspirants reach the highest grade, while less aspiring seekers reach a lower or a middle rung of the ladder, where everything is not so clear and vivid as on the highest level.
In savikalpa samadhi there are thoughts and ideas coming from various angles, but they do not affect you. While you are meditating, you remain unperturbed, and your inner being functions in a dynamic and confident manner. But when you are a little higher, when you have become one with the soul in nirvikalpa samadhi, there will be no ideas or thoughts at all. Here nature’s dance stops. There is no nature, only infinite Peace and Bliss. The Knower and the Known have become one. Everything is tranquil. Here you enjoy a supremely divine, all-pervading, self-amorous ecstasy. You become the object of enjoyment, you become the enjoyer and you become the enjoyment itself.
Nirvikalpa samadhi is the highest samadhi that most spiritual Masters attain, and then only if they have achieved realisation. It lasts for a few hours or a few days, and then one has to come down. When one comes down, what happens? Very often one forgets his own name. One forgets his own age. He cannot speak properly. But through continued practice, gradually one becomes able to come down from nirvikalpa samadhi and immediately function in a normal way.
There were spiritual Masters in the hoary past who attained nirvikalpa samadhi and did not come down. They maintained their highest samadhi and found it impossible to enter into the world atmosphere and work like human beings. One cannot operate in the world while in that state of consciousness; it is simply impossible.
Generally, when one enters into nirvikalpa samadhi, one does not want to come back into the world again. If one stays there for eighteen or twenty-one days, there is every possibility that he will leave the body. But there is a divine dispensation. If the Supreme wants a particular soul to work here on earth, even after twenty-one or twenty-two days, the Supreme takes the individual into another channel of dynamic, divine consciousness and has him return to the earth-plane to act.
Sahaja samadhi is by far the highest type of samadhi. In this samadhi one is in the highest consciousness, but at the same time he is working in the gross physical world. One maintains the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi while simultaneously entering into earthly activities. One has become the soul and at the same time is utilising the body as a perfect instrument. In sahaja samadhi one walks like an ordinary human being. One eats. One does the usual things that an ordinary human being does. But in the inmost recesses of his heart he is surcharged with divine illumination. When one has this sahaja samadhi, one becomes the Lord and Master of Reality. One can go at his sweet will to the Highest and then come down to the earth consciousness to manifest.
After achieving the highest type of realisation, on very rare occasions one is blessed with sahaja samadhi. Very few spiritual Masters have achieved this state — only one or two. For sahaja samadhi, the Supreme’s infinite Grace is required, or one has to be very powerful and lucky. Sahaja samadhi comes only when one has established inseparable oneness with the Supreme, or when one wants to show, on rare occasions, that he is the Supreme. He who has achieved sahaja samadhi and remains in this samadhi, consciously and perfectly manifests God at every second, and is thus the greatest pride of the transcendental Supreme.I am trying my best to tell you about this from a very high consciousness, but still my mind is subtly expressing it. In nirvikalpa samadhi we have no mind. We see the Creator, the Creation and the Observer as one Person. There the object of adoration and the person who is adoring become totally one; the Lover and the Beloved become totally one. We go beyond everything, and at the same time we see that everything is real. Here in the ordinary world I will say you are unreal and you will say I am unreal because of our different opinions. But in nirvikalpa samadhi we go beyond all differences; there the mind does not function at all.
When we enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, the first thing we feel is that our heart is larger than the universe itself. Now we see the world around us, and the universe seems infinitely larger than we are. But this is because the world and the universe are now perceived by the limited mind. When we are in nirvikalpa samadhi, we see the universe like a tiny dot inside our vast heart.
In nirvikalpa samadhi there is infinite Bliss. There is nothing in comparison to the quantity, not to speak of the quality, of that Bliss. Bliss is a vague word to most of us. We hear that there is something called Bliss, and some people say they have experienced it, but most of us have no firsthand knowledge of it. When we enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, however, we not only feel Bliss, but we grow into that Bliss.
The third thing we feel in nirvikalpa samadhi is Power. All the power that all the occultists have put together is nothing compared with the Power we have in nirvikalpa samadhi. But the power that we can take from samadhi to utilise on earth is infinitesimal compared with the entirety. It is like what we require to blink our eye. All this I am expressing through the mind; it is not exact. But I cannot express with words more of the truth that I have realised.
I wish to say only that to enter into any level of samadhi is infinitely easier than to transform the human consciousness into the divine consciousness. That I have been trying to do, you have been trying to do, the Supreme has been trying to do. All of us here are trying for only one thing, and that is the transformation of human nature — physical, vital, mental and psychic. When that is done, perfect Perfection will dawn both here on earth and there in Heaven.
How can this transformation take place? Through aspiration. The world has to aspire, creation has to aspire, and only then can the spiritual Masters bring down Heaven onto earth. Heaven, as we say, is a state of consciousness. In samadhi, all is Heaven, all is Bliss, Light, Peace. But when we come down into the world again, all is suffering, darkness, fear, worry. How can we make a conscious connection between this world of ours and the highest state of samadhi? Through constant aspiration. There is no other medicine but constant aspiration, not for a day or two, but for a whole lifetime. To realise God takes many, many incarnations. But when you have a fully realised spiritual Master, it becomes much easier. It may take you one incarnation, or two, or three or four. Otherwise, for a normal human being it takes many, many hundreds of incarnations, even to attain the higher experiences or so-called minor realisations. But a realised Master knows the souls and stays in the souls. Since he can do this, it is easy for him to deal with each aspirant according to his soul’s necessity, for his soul’s development and fulfilment.Entering samadhi is like knowing the alphabet, but realisation is like having a Ph.D. There is no comparison between samadhi and realisation. Samadhi is a state of consciousness in which one can stay for a few hours or a few days. After twenty-one days usually the body does not function. But once one has achieved realisation, it lasts forever. And in realisation, one’s whole consciousness has become inseparably and eternally one with God.
There are three stages of samadhi: savikalpa samadhi, nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja samadhi. Savikalpa samadhi is an exalted and glowing state of consciousness, whereas realisation is a conscious, natural and manifesting state of consciousness. When realisation dawns, the seeker enjoys freedom from the human personality and human individuality. He is like a tiny drop of water which enters into the ocean. Once it enters, it becomes the ocean. At that time, we do not see the personality or the individuality of the one drop. When one realises the highest Truth, the finite in him enters into the Infinite and realises and achieves the Infinite as its very own. Once realisation has taken place, a Master can easily enter into savikalpa samadhi. Nirvikalpa samadhi, too, is not difficult for a God-realised soul to attain. Only sahaja samadhi, which is the highest type of samadhi, is a problem, even for the very highest God-realised souls.The name of the plane from which the Masters come back is the Supermind. This is where the actual creation starts. Higher than this is the level of Sat-Chit-Ananda: Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. The spiritual Masters who want divine manifestation here on earth are trying to manifest first the Supermind, which is the golden Consciousness from which the creation descended. When that is manifested, the spiritual Masters who are here to bring down the highest Consciousness will then bring down Sat-Chit-Ananda. These three qualities can never be separated. They have to come together here on earth. The Supreme wants the whole divine manifestation to take place here on earth, not in Heaven or anywhere else.
In our Indian scriptures it is said that man is greater than the cosmic gods because the cosmic gods are satisfied with the Bliss of Heaven, whereas man is not satisfied until he actually achieves liberation. If the cosmic gods want to make progress, if they want liberation or manifestation, even they have to take human form and come to earth. Manifestation cannot take place anywhere else. In India there are thousands of gods, and we appreciate, we admire, we adore them because right now they are superior to us. When we suffer from a headache, if we soulfully invoke a god, then he will come and take it away. But the cosmic gods can do nothing further than that. When man realises God, at that time these cosmic gods are of no help to him. At that time man is superior, because he is attaining constant and conscious union with the absolute Supreme.Many people believe that a true seeker must meditate at least eight hours a day. I did it. Even though I attained realisation in my past incarnation, when I was thirteen years old in this incarnation I was meditating for eight, nine, ten, thirteen hours a day. But I had the capacity. I don’t advise my disciples to do this, because I know the capacity of my children. They would have a mental breakdown. It would be simply impossible for them. It would not be true meditation. It is not that I am saying that they are insincere. No! They are most sincere. But capacity is like a muscle. One has to develop it gradually. You start with fifteen minutes and then go on to half an hour. Those who are now meditating for half an hour will soon be able to meditate for an hour or an hour and a half.
Gradually, gradually, your inner capacity will grow. At the proper time, your inner being will tell you or I will tell you when you can meditate for eight hours. But right now, do not even try. It will simply create a disaster in your life.
After one has achieved realisation, it is not necessary for him to meditate the way an aspirant or a seeker meditates. When one has attained realisation, which is oneness with the Supreme, his meditation is continually going on — in this world, in that world, in all the worlds. When one has realised God, he does not meditate to achieve something or to go beyond something. He meditates to bring down peace, light and bliss into humanity or to awaken the consciousness of his disciples.A God-realised soul is he who wants to please God in God’s own Way. Since God wants me to be of service to aspiring human beings, then that is what gives me greatest joy, and not staying in my highest consciousness, which I could easily do. Very often I show that consciousness to my disciples and students during our meditations. They have seen it often. But if I stay in that consciousness all the time, who will derive any benefit from me? I will be acting like a selfish fellow. I have the wealth, but if I keep it all for myself, then what good is it to the poverty-stricken world? If I use it for others who are desperately in need of it, only then will God be pleased with me. These people need God, and God also needs them. I am the intermediary. I go to God with folded hands because He has something to offer. I take what He has and with folded hands I offer it to mankind. Mankind also has something to offer. Its offering is ignorance. I just exchange God’s offering, Light, for man’s offering, ignorance.
> The real work, if there be any, of a Guru is to show the world that his deeds are in perfect harmony with his teachings. > — Sri Chinmoy
But the souls who do not take part in God’s manifestation are also doing something very great. They may not take an active part in the world, they may not go from one place to another to teach or open spiritual centres and accept disciples, but in their meditation they try to offer illumination inwardly by offering their conscious good will to mankind. How many people offer their good will to mankind? Ordinary human beings quarrel, fight and consciously or unconsciously do many undivine things against God’s Will. But in the case of these realised souls, they do not enter into any kind of conflict with God’s Will; their will has become one with God’s Will.
We cannot say that he who works outwardly for mankind is greater than he who helps inwardly. What is of paramount importance is to listen to God’s Will. We cannot say that one who is crying for mankind and trying to help is greater than one who withdraws. He alone is great who listens to God’s Will. If God tells one illumined soul, “I do not need you to move around from place to place. You just give your Light inwardly,” then that person is great by offering his Light inwardly. And if God tells another soul, “I want you to go into the world and offer humanity the Light you have,” then that Master is great by helping humanity. Everything depends on what God wants from a particular soul.Again, there are some spiritual Masters who do care for the illumination of the earth-consciousness. They see that they are eating most delicious food or drinking nectar in the inner world, while their brothers are deprived of it. This kind of Master identifies with humanity and feels it is his business to awaken the consciousness of his fellow human beings, his slumbering brothers. If there are people on earth who are covered by ignorance and are wasting their time in idleness when they really need nourishment, this Master feels sorry. He feels sorry that these people still want to remain in ignorance when they could easily go beyond the boundaries of ignorance. Since a spiritual Master has himself experienced all kinds of suffering, he does not consider his fellow human beings objects of pity. He identifies himself totally with them. He has realised God, but he feels that unless and until everybody is realised, he himself is imperfect and incomplete. When it is a matter of personal need, the Master does not need anything more from God, but he becomes part and parcel of humanity out of his Compassion.
He says, “I shall play the role of a father.” In a family we see that the father works very, very hard and amasses some wealth, and then his children do not have to work so hard. He gives all kinds of material help to his children, and they get the benefit of his labour. When a real spiritual Master comes into the world, he has worked very, very hard to realise the Truth, and he possesses boundless Peace, Light and Bliss in his inner life. He offers this wealth to his spiritual children, because they claim him as their very own and he claims them. Those who have established total oneness with the Master and who try to fulfil the Master according to their capacity, those who become extremely close to their Master, receive what the Master has and is. Their realisation is entirely up to the Master. It is like the case of the father who has millions of dollars. The son has pleased the father, so the father gives the son his wealth.
Again, the father will always see whether the son is capable of receiving the money and utilising it in a proper way. If the father sees that the son is going to utilise the money properly, naturally he gives the son money. But if the father sees that the son will squander ten dollars rather than use it for a divine purpose, then naturally he will not lavish his money on this worthless son. In the spiritual world it is also like that. If one is really sincere, if one feels that he can exist without everything, but not without God, then it is possible for him to realise God in one incarnation with the help of a spiritual Master, because he will properly utilise what the Master gives him.Here on earth, if one human being has something to offer and the other person does not take it, then the first person gets furious. He says “You fool! It is for your own good that I am giving it.” He will scold the other person and be very displeased if his offering is not accepted. In the case of a spiritual Master, it is different. He will come with his wealth, but if humanity does not accept it, he will not curse humanity. Even if humanity insults him and speaks ill of him, he will not lodge a complaint against humanity to God. With his boundless patience he will say, “All right, today you are sleeping. Perhaps tomorrow you will get up and see what I have to offer. I will wait for you.” If you are fast asleep and someone pinches you and shouts, “Get up! Get up!” he is not doing you a favour. You will be annoyed. But the spiritual Master will not bother you; he will not ask you to get up. He will stay beside your bed and wait until you get up, and the moment you get up he will ask you to look at the sun.
If he is a real spiritual Master, he will not lose anything if earth rejects what he has, because he is well established in his inner life, in his inner consciousness. Again, if humanity accepts what he offers, he does not lose anything, either. The more he gives, the more he gets from the Source. Just as in the ordinary life the more knowledge we offer to others, the more we get, in the spiritual life also it is the same. A spiritual Master will never run short of Peace, Light and Bliss, because he is connected with the infinite Source of all.
Ordinary aspirants or the so-called Masters have limited capacity. If they give away something, they cannot replace it. But when one is in touch with unlimited capacity in the inner world, his source is like an ocean. One cannot empty the infinite inner ocean. The real Master wants to give everything to his devoted disciples, but their power of receptivity is limited. So he tries to widen their vessels and make them as big as possible so that the disciples can receive the Peace, Light and Bliss that he brings for them. But he cannot force an aspirant to receive more than he has the capacity to hold. If he does, then the vessel will give way. So a Master can only pour and pour and pour his infinite Light into his disciples, but once the limit of their receptivity is reached, it will all be wasted on them.Humanity needs spiritual Masters for awakening and illumination, but in the outer life people do not feel any urgency. The world is not ready, and perhaps it will never be ready as a whole. When the Masters come, they find unwilling, unaspiring human beings. For spiritual Masters to realise God, it takes quite a few incarnations. Realisation is such an arduous task to perform. But it is much more difficult to manifest God on earth. That is why many spiritual Masters do not come down for manifestation.
Although God is inside each human being, unfortunately the animal still predominates in man. When the Masters are dealing with humanity, they see it is all animality. Look at the example of Sri Ramakrishna. He took so many negative and undivine forces from his disciples; he suffered so much from their poison. Otherwise, for such a pure man to be afflicted with malignant cancer would have been impossible.
To realise God is difficult. And after realisation, to live in the ignorant world and stay with humanity is more difficult. But to remain in the consciousness of the Highest while working in the lowest, and to bring down the highest Light into the lowest and make the lowest receive and accept it, is most difficult. Again, when we say something is difficult or most difficult, we are only belittling ourselves. After all, what are spiritual Masters? They are God’s chosen children. God’s chosen children are identified with God all the time through Eternity. God can never be separated from His children, His creation. So nothing is difficult if we see it from the highest absolute point of view: neither to realise God nor to serve God in humanity, nor to take responsibility for bringing humanity to Divinity or Divinity to humanity. Everything is easy, easier, easiest, if there is something called God-touch. If God’s Will touches some action, then it is very easy.With some Masters, there is a limit to the number of disciples they want. With others, there is no end to their aspiration to serve. They remain an open channel and tell the Supreme that they will try their best to fulfil Him and manifest Him until the end of their lives. And not only that, but after leaving the body also, they promise to try to continue His work through their disciples. So it depends on the individual Master and how much spiritual responsibility he wants to accept.
Regarding the number of disciples a Master may have, this depends on what kind of people he accepts. If he is very selective and wants only souls that are fully dedicated, intensely aspiring and absolutely destined for the spiritual life, then he will accept only a handful. Sri Ramakrishna, for example, wanted only a limited number of disciples. He was very particular about his disciples. But some Yogis say, “Anyone who wants to learn anything about the spiritual life is welcome to my community.” Again, some spiritual Masters say, “Let everyone progress according to his own standard.” So they accept thousands of disciples.
True spiritual Masters will only accept disciples who are meant for them. If I know that somebody will make faster progress through some other Master, then occultly and spiritually I will make that person feel in a few months’ time that he is not meant for me. What matters is not the number of disciples a Master has, but whether he takes them to the Goal. If I am realised and somebody else is realised, we are like two brothers with one common Father. Our goal is to take our younger brothers and sisters, humanity, to the Father. The game will be complete only when all people are taken to God. If two Masters are real brothers from the same Father, then how can one Master be unhappy or displeased if somebody goes to the Supreme through the other Master? In the spiritual life we always go together. It is not who has done it, but whether the thing is done. Who has done it is only name and form, which will be obliterated in history. What matters is that evolution has taken place on earth.Nobody is indispensable, true. But, at the same time, each person is indispensable so long as he is absolutely sincere in his aspiration and in his service to the Mission of the Supreme. Out of pride and vanity, nobody can feel that he is necessary; but everybody is necessary when he is a sincere, dedicated chosen instrument of God. The Master needs disciples because they are like his hands, his limbs, the expansion of his own consciousness. And when he gets the command from the Highest, then he has to try to find those who are going to be part and parcel of his consciousness to help him fulfil the command.
Traditionally, spiritual Masters used to say, “If you have something, others are bound to come. The pond does not go to the thirsty person; the thirsty person comes to the pond.” This is absolutely true if a mature person is thirsty. But if you feel that the thirsty person is just an infant, then it is all different. The baby will cry in his room, and the mother will have to come running to feed him. The mother does not say to the baby, “You have to come to me, since you want something from me.” No, the mother puts everything aside and comes to the baby. In the spiritual world also, some Masters feel the need to go out into the world, for the outer world is just a baby in consciousness. These Masters feel that there are many children who are crying for spiritual life, spiritual wisdom, spiritual perfection, but who do not know where or how to find it. So the Masters go from place to place and offer their Light with the idea of serving the divinity in humanity. I happen to be one of those. I move around because I feel that there are sincere children who need the Light that the Supreme has given me to offer to mankind. That is why I go to Japan, to Europe, and all over the United States — because I feel that the outer world is my child.
When the world is crying, if we have the capacity, we have to feed it. If I have the capacity to give you something and I also have the capacity to go and stand right in front of you, why do I have to call you to me? If I have the capacity both to place myself before you and to give you the light that you want, then I must do so. If I do not have the capacity, then I have to keep silent.
If a person who calls himself a realised soul feels the necessity and has the capacity, then let him go out into the world to prove God’s existence. If he has the capacity but does not feel the necessity, then let him stay where he is. If he neither feels the necessity nor has the capacity to show God to the world, then let him not try to prove his aspiration and demonstrate his emotion. Why? Because God does not want him to do this. He is not fulfilling God in God’s way, but making a parade of himself before humanity and broadcasting himself before God. Before the world’s eye, he is undesirable; before God’s Eye, he is unpardonable.
The outer world is very limited in comparison to the inner world. The length and breadth of the outer world is no more than a few thousand miles, but the inner world is without limit. A spiritual person feels, on the strength of his own realisation, that all worlds are his, because his Master, the Supreme, is all-pervading. Now, if the Supreme is all-pervading, then why is it beneath the dignity of His son to go from one place to another?
There are various ways to feed the world. Writing is one way; giving talks is another. If one has many capacities, why should he not use all of them? Some spiritual Masters do not have these outer capacities. Sri Ramakrishna, for example, did not write. But that did not prevent him from realising the Highest. At the same time, those who have the capacity to write and give talks are not deprived of their God-realisation.
God plays in various ways. If God gives a spiritual Master the capacity to write, to give talks, to mix with people, to travel from place to place, then that is God’s business. It is God’s Will that the Master is carrying out. And if God does not give the Master the capacity to write and speak, we cannot blame that spiritual Master or say he is inferior. We have to know what God wants from us. If God wants me to write, He will give me the capacity. If God does not want you to write, He will not give you the capacity. In neither case can we find fault. But unfortunately, our traditional India has been very, very narrow-minded in this matter.There is another kind of manifestation, which we find more on the physical plane: it is the manifestation of divinity on earth. This manifestation takes place when a spiritual Master deliberately tries to awaken spiritually hungry individuals. There are many people on earth who are spiritually hungry, but they do not have a Master or spiritual path. So the Master tries to inspire them and kindle the flame of conscious aspiration in them and put them on a spiritual path.
When a spiritual Master, with the help of his dearest disciples, tries to manifest divinity on earth, sometimes people misunderstand him. They think he wants to convert everyone. But the Master’s motive is not that of a missionary. Christian missionaries went to India and all over the world, saying, “There is only one saviour, the Christ.” But if the Christ is the only saviour, then where does the Buddha stand? Where does Sri Krishna stand? Where are Sri Ramakrishna and all the other great Masters? Each genuine spiritual Master is a saviour, needless to say; but to say that he is the only saviour, or that his path is the only path, is foolishness. If I say that my path is the only path, that if you do not accept me you will go to hell, then there is no more stupid person on earth than I. In our path, we do not convert anybody; we inspire. Many of you here are not my disciples and are not going to be my disciples. But I am most glad that you have come and most grateful to you for your presence here. I have the capacity, through God’s Grace, to inspire you. You may take my inspiration and then go to whatever path you need or want. I have played my part by inspiring you.
A realised Master never, never tries to convert; he only offers his realisation in the form of inspiration to aspiring souls. That is why the Master has to act like a normal human being. If he does not act like a human being, if he does not eat and take rest and talk in a human way, then people will say, “Oh, you have gone far beyond us. It is simply impossible for us to be like you.” But the spiritual Master says, “No, I do everything you do. If I can eat the same food, if I can mix with you the way you mix with others and, at the same time, not lose my highest consciousness, then how is it that you also cannot enter into the Highest?” This is how the Master inspires his disciples.
But inspiration is not enough. After inspiration comes aspiration. There is a great difference, a vast difference, between inspiration and aspiration. Aspiration is very, very high. The spiritual Master becomes one with his disciples, whose aspiration he has already helped, and together they go to inspire the spiritually hungry world. In this way realisation is transformed into manifestation.
When there is realisation, inside the realisation you will see manifestation. Manifestation is the outer form of realisation, and one who is really spiritual will immediately feel the manifestation in the realisation itself. For ordinary people, for humanity, it takes time. If I have realised something and manifested it in the outer world, the heart of humanity feels it, but the physical mind may take a little time to perceive and understand the manifestation. In the field of manifestation, the Master is dealing with ignorant, unaspiring people or emotionally bound people who will not see the Master’s full Light. But a great aspirant sees the realisation and cannot separate the realisation from the manifestation.Only by entering into the truth and transforming it will we achieve a larger and wider truth. If we think that everything to be said with regard to spirituality has already been spoken by our forefathers, we are mistaken. Truth is never complete because we are living in an ever-transcending universe. What the teachers of the past have said is eternally true; what we are saying is also eternally true. But each truth has its own grade, and all the time we are evolving and progressing.
Your father might have imagined or thought of something on the physical plane which was at the time quite striking. Now you have grown up, and you are thinking of something higher and deeper because science has evolved to a new plane. That does not mean that you are defying the achievements of your father. No, you are going beyond him, beyond his capacity, beyond his understanding.
In the spiritual life we do not negate; we just go higher and higher to reach the topmost height. Still the highest Truth, the topmost realisation, or what we call the absolute manifestation, has not taken place. Spiritual manifestation has not been completed, and perhaps it will never be completed.But you have to know that there is a little difference between their aspiration and yours. It is like the difference between you and a tree. A tree does no harm to anyone; it is pure and innocent. But you will realise God long before the tree does. When it is a matter of inner cry, of aspiration, an ordinary person cannot compare himself with the great spiritual Masters. Once they started meditating, they could go on for hours and become lost in their meditation.
Many Indian spiritual Masters take arsenic, and sometimes when they take large quantities people think they are going to commit suicide. But it does not harm them. Some of the tantric Yogis lead such a life of vital pleasure that anyone would think they would fall immediately. But their meditation surpasses their vital life. When they are on the verge of realisation, all the time their consciousness is in a very high world and they do not remain in the physical at all, so they realise God in spite of their vital life. Similarly, some occultists meditate for nine or ten hours daily, and the rest of the time they lead a very bad life. But the intensity of their aspiration brings them realisation anyway.An Avatar is a direct descendant of God; a real, solid portion of the Divine which constantly operates in the Highest and also in the lowest. An Avatar has the capacity of a huge sea, while a Yogi has the capacity of a river or a pool. When Yogis want to raise the consciousness of humanity, they will sometimes be affected by the ignorance of the earth. But an Avatar will remain in the Highest and the lowest together, and even in his lowest, his ability to function is not affected. An Avatar has infinitely more capacity than a Yogi in bringing about the total transformation of humanity.
Again, even an Avatar of the highest order may not or cannot function always from the highest level of consciousness because of the world’s ignorance, darkness and imperfection. The earth’s consciousness is not aspiring, and most human beings do not want his Light. Look at the Christ. Who cared for him? Very few! Look at Sri Krishna. Who accepted him? Very few!
According to Indian philosophy and spiritual teachings, an Avatar is a direct descendant of the Supreme who can commune with Him directly at will. Most of the Yogis cannot do that; it will take them two or three hours to enter into their highest consciousness in order to commune with God. Communion with God in the twinkling of an eye they do not have. Only the Avatar’s communion with God is of this type.
An Avatar is a human being; he talks, eats, breathes and does everything else like a human being. But when he enters into his highest, if ever you can have even a glimpse of his consciousness, your whole life will be an object of complete surrender at his feet. Even if he kicks you, throws you aside, you will remain like a faithful dog, because in him you have got a matchless treasure which nobody else on earth will be able to give you. One has to have a very, very high standard of spiritual consciousness in order to get even the faintest glimpse of an Avatar’s height. His consciousness can never be expressed or explained.
To have an Avatar as one’s Guru is to have the greatest blessing that man can ever have. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “If God is a cow, then the udder, which gives the milk, is the Avatar.” A great aspirant will say that God in the form of an Avatar is more compassionate than God Himself. The aspirant says, “If I do something wrong, in God’s case there is judgement, there is the law of Karma. But with the Guru, it is different. He has only deep affection for his dearest disciples. So when the actual punishment comes to me, the Guru will take the punishment.” If the seeker prays to God and cries to God most sincerely and powerfully, then God may forgive him instead of punishing him. But if one has an Avatar as his Guru, and if he has the closest connection with the Avatar, then this Guru actually takes the punishment on the disciple’s behalf.
Also, when there is one Avatar on earth, he embodies the consciousness of all other Avatars that came before him. Sri Ramakrishna said, “He who is Rama, he who is Krishna, in one form is Ramakrishna.” In the West, unfortunately, you recognise only the Christ as an Avatar. Either you accept him or you reject him. If you accept him, then there can be no other for you. But in this you are making a mistake. The Christ, the Buddha, Sri Krishna and others all came from the same room. If you take the Christ as the divine, infinite Consciousness, then you cannot separate Sri Krishna, the Buddha or Sri Ramakrishna from the Christ. The Supreme entered into the form which you call the Christ; He entered into the form which you call Sri Krishna; He entered into the form which you call Sri Ramakrishna.We cannot call Napoleon a Vibhuti, but what Napoleon accomplished in the material world, Vivekananda accomplished in the spiritual world. The most powerful, dynamic power acted in human form in Vivekananda. Vivekananda’s real mission was to spread the message of his Master, Sri Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna achieved, but he did not manifest much. He did not care for worldly achievement or the so-called manifold development. The present-day world needs the mind. The mind need not even be intellectual; it may be just an ordinary mind that can understand basic things. But Sri Ramakrishna did not care even for this ordinary mind. So Vivekananda collected the fruits of the tree that was Ramakrishna and offered them to the world. He came to the West at the age of thirty and brought abundant light to the West.
At the time of Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, Vivekananda still doubted his Master’s spiritual height. He said inwardly, “If you tell me that you are a great Avatar, I will believe. So Ramakrishna read his mind and said, “Naren, you still doubt me? He who is Rama, he who is Krishna, in one form in this body is Ramakrishna.” Rama was an Avatar, Krishna was an Avatar, and Vivekananda’s Master embodied them both.
Vivekananda was not an Avatar; he cannot be put on the same footing with Sri Ramakrishna. I have great love and admiration for Vivekananda. My connection with him in the inner world is very close. Unfortunately, here in the West I encounter some spiritual people and swamis who belittle Vivekananda and his achievement, and dare to say he was not realised. But all I can say is that those who belittle Vivekananda are not worthy of washing his feet. God-realisation he certainly had; he was very advanced.
The height of an Avatar cannot be judged by an ordinary person. It is like a dwarf trying to scale the height of a giant; it is ridiculous. But let us not think of a spiritual Master’s height. Let us only think of his presence in our heart. When we can feel his presence in the depth of our-heart, he can be our help, our guide, our inspiration, our aspiration, our journey and our Goal.Then he discovered there is something called nirvana, where all desires are extinguished, where all earthly propensities are extinguished, where all limitations are extinguished. There you go beyond the domain of the physical, and all is inner existence. So he said, “Now I am very, very tired. Let me enter into that blissful state and take rest.” He decided to let other divine soldiers come into the world to fight for the full manifestation. Now, if one soldier fights bravely for many years and then takes rest, and if another soldier coming after him decides to keep on fighting until he can manifest the Highest, naturally we feel that this second person is playing his role with more strength, more energy, more stamina. If one wants to manifest after realisation, naturally he is leading humanity one step ahead, because manifestation God also needs.
But to say that the one person did not play his role or wanted to escape is wrong. As an individual, the Buddha did play his role. Realisation the Buddha had. Revelation he had. He also started manifesting, but ultimately he did not want to play a conscious part in the field of manifestation. He did not want to participate in the cosmic Play any more. Some of the Buddha’s followers misunderstood his philosophy and twisted it to their own sweet satisfaction. As an individual, the Buddha never advocated escape or negating the world. What he advocated was prayer and meditation to enter into the everlasting blissful state of consciousness. You can say he opened up another path, or you can call it a house. Those who enter into that particular path or house do not come back into the world after God-realisation, whereas those who enter into some other house do come back to the world.
It is not that if you enter into nirvana you are caught there. No, if you enter into nirvana, usually you do not come back because you do not want to. But there are some Masters who go beyond the state of nirvana and do return to the world. They do not stay in the house. The dynamic urge of the Supreme compels these Masters to come back into the world again even after they have lived one life as a God-realised soul, to work for His manifestation.“No mind, no form, I only exist;
Now ceased all will and thought.The final end of Nature’s dance,
I am it whom I have sought.I barter nothing with time and deeds;
My cosmic play is done.”— from The Absolute
by Sri ChinmoyWhen one’s cosmic play is done, he enters into nirvana. If one is a tired soul and wants to go permanently beyond the conflict, beyond the capacities of the cosmic forces, then nirvana is to be welcomed. Nirvana is the cessation of all earthly activities, the extinction of desires, suffering, bondage, limitation and death. In this state one goes beyond the conception of time and space. This world, earth, is the playground for the dance of the cosmic forces. But when one enters into nirvana, the cosmic forces yield to the ultimate highest Truth, and the Knower, the Known and the Knowledge or Wisdom are like three angels blended into one. At that time one becomes both the Knower and the Known.
If one does not have the experience of nirvana, he usually cannot know what illusion is. According to some spiritual teachers, the world is maya, an illusion. When one enters into nirvana, he realises what illusion is. Nirvana is the static oneness with God. There, everything comes to an end in the static Bliss. This Bliss is unimaginable, unfathomable, indescribable. Beyond nirvana is the state of absolute oneness. This oneness is the dynamic oneness with God.
Nirvana is a very, very, very high state. However, it is not the highest state for the divine worker. If one wants to serve God here on earth, then he has to come back into the world again and again to serve the Supreme in humanity. If one wants to manifest the Supreme in the field of creation, then he has to work in the absolute dynamism of the Supreme, and not take rest in nirvana. This does not mean that the divine worker cannot have the experience of nirvana. The experience of nirvana is at the command of all God-realised souls. But permanent nirvana is for those who want to be satisfied with the static aspect of the supreme Brahman. If one wants to embody both the static and dynamic aspects of the Supreme, then I wish to say that one should go beyond nirvana and enter into the field of manifestation.From:Sri Chinmoy,The summits of God-Life: Samadhi and Siddhi, Agni Press, 1974
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