The spiritual journey: oneness in diversity

Part I — Who is the Guru?

Question: Sri Chinmoy, what is your definition of the Guru?

We need a human Guru precisely because we want to go faster. A Guru is a private tutor. He is not like a school teacher who will pass or fail the student in the examination. The Guru privately and inwardly teaches the disciples to stand in front of ignorance and face it and conquer it. A spiritual Master is like the eldest member in the family, and the seekers are like his younger spiritual brothers and sisters. Spiritual Masters tell or show their younger brothers and sisters where their Father is. The Father is bound to be the Absolute Guru. All the spiritual Masters are trying to help their younger brothers and sisters and show these aspiring souls where the real Guru is. The real Guru is not in the vast blue skies. He is inside the very depth of our hearts.

Now, you may ask, if He is inside our hearts, then why is it necessary for us to take help from somebody else? I wish to say that this invaluable treasure is inside our hearts, but we have misplaced it, so we need help. A friend of ours who is the spiritual teacher comes to us and searches for our treasure. When he finds it, he tells us, “Look, here is your treasure and here is the key. Now if you want me to show you how to open the box, that also I will do for you.” And then when we see the treasure inside the box, immediately we come to realise that the treasure belongs entirely to us and does not belong to our helper. Now that we have seen the treasure, now that we have discovered it with the help of the friend, guide or teacher, we feel that it is necessary to have so that we can do more things in life.

To see the treasure is one thing, to grow into it is another and finally to manifest it is something else. There are three different things that we take one by one. First we try to realise God with the help of a teacher, then we try to reveal God in our activities and finally we try to manifest God.

Question: Why does one need a Guru?

Question: Does a Guru represent God to his students?

Question: What is the relationship between you and your disciples?

Question: Do the people who come to you follow your life?

Question: What is the difference between the terms "Guru," "Swami" and "Sri"?

Part II — The Guru's example

The Guru's example

There are some teachers who cannot teach you even right from the beginning; they are not real teachers. They do not have the capacity, but they try to keep you as long as they can just to exploit you. There are some sincere teachers who can teach you for a couple of years, and there are some teachers who can teach right up to the highest height. It is you who have to know whether the teacher is sincere or insincere, and then your inner being will tell you whether you are making satisfactory progress or not. The moment you feel that you are not making any progress whatsoever, in spite of your sincerity and deepest eagerness to make progress in the spiritual life, then you should know that the path you are on is not meant for you.

The Guru has to be a perfect example of what he teaches. His outer being has to be the perfect example of what he is saying. Otherwise, he is not a Guru. Books have been written about everything. If you read or think about God-realisation or think of God a thousand times or pray to God, that is not enough to realise God. But the Guru can show you the way to realise God just by a mere touch. The responsibility of a Guru is tremendous. If the Guru is not a perfect example of his teachings, then he is not a true Guru. He is what in the medical world they call a “quack.”

Question: I am confused because there is no single mind among those who have studied at the source of this philosophy of living. I have not found any two teachers who are alike, and I have met many. So it is very disturbing.

Question: How does one know whether he is ready for the spiritual path or not?

Question: Should we follow a specific spiritual path?

Question: But God is beyond everything. He is beyond a path, He is beyond concept.

Question: Does each individual have a specific path or are all paths relatively similar?

Sometimes it happens that the seeker is ready and the Master is moving around right in front of his nose, but the seeker does not know it. The other day at Fairfield University somebody told me that she has been looking for a Master for nineteen or twenty years and I was so surprised. I was positive that her Master was alive. If she had really been searching sincerely and crying for her Master, then her Master would have appeared before her.

So, here I wish to say that if the aspirant is really sincerely crying for a path, then his path will present itself before him. If he really cries for a spiritual Master, either the Master will come to him or he will be able to go to the Master.

Unfortunately, in the West I very often come across people who say that they have been searching for a path and a Master but they haven’t found either. At this point I wish to say that their cry is not sincere, and they are not honest in their inner search. No sincere effort ends in vain. If someone makes a sincere effort, then I wish to say that his inner life and outer life are bound to be crowned with success.

So to come back to your question, each individual seeker must necessarily have a path of his own. That doesn’t mean that there will not be other seekers in his path. As we say, “Birds of a feather flock together,” so there will be others who will want to follow the same path. Souls that have a common feeling of oneness do move in groups just like human beings who have relatives, near ones and dear ones. Their souls move together, aspire together and occultly troop through the world at large together. These are the souls that we call group souls, souls that have inner affinities.

Question: Sometimes I don't know if I should choose the spiritual life or the old life.

Your friend will say, “All right, if he doesn’t want to stay with me, let me not impose on him. What else can I do?” But your enemy will say, “It is beneath my dignity to let him be. I have to grab him and make him my slave.” Your friend will not grab you; only he will try to add to your strength. But your enemy will take you and use you for his own purpose.

Part III — Receptivity and the Master's Height

Receptivity and the Master's Height

It has happened many times that I fail, because my force is like an atom bomb to the disciples. But if I can give them only a limited amount of power, then they receive it. I always say, “Take according to your capacity. I am like the ocean. If you want to take a small quantity or if you want to take a large quantity, then just take it.” But what happens is this: the moment they see that the quantity is so vast, they forget that they are allowed to take as much or as little as they want to. When they see the vastness, they are frightened to death. They feel that they came to drink just a few drops, but they have found the ocean and its vastness frightens them. Sometimes what do I do? I will show them a swimming pool or a pond. It is true that I have everything, but if I show them a pond or a river, then they are most receptive.

This has happened many, many times. Let me tell you a true story. I was in a shop in the Virgin Islands, buying a gift, when the owner of the shop came up to me and said, “Do you know the term satsang?’ It is an Indian word, so I said, “Of course, I know,” and I told him the meaning. Then he said, “Do you know of anybody who can initiate me? I am planning to go to India.”

So there in the shop, he was asking me the name of a Master who could initiate him. There in the shop his receptivity was so limited. So I tried to tell the poor fellow that he did not have to go to India. I told him that there are other Masters here. But I didn’t want to tell him that I am also a spiritual Master.

Then I said, “Are you really interested in the spiritual life?” He said, “I am desperately looking for a spiritual Master.” So I told him, “Please come to San Juan, Puerto Rico. There you can attend a meditation.” Then he was interested in knowing who was going to hold the meditation. How was I going to tell him? Finally, I told him that it was I. Then he looked at me with such curiosity. He said he wanted to read some of my books and he gave me his address. Then he said, “All right, I will try to come to Puerto Rico.” But I knew that he would not come.

His soul was crying, but his mind would not accept. At that time if I had been wearing Indian dress, he would have come up to me and touched my feet. Then I would have told him that I can also initiate, and he would have followed me here to Puerto Rico. That is why my sister, Lily, sent me Indian garments when I came here. I said I didn’t want them because I did not like to wear them. But she said, “Who cares for a policeman if he does not have a uniform? And a doctor should always have proper dress; otherwise, nobody will go to him. Once you become well-known, at that time you won’t have to wear Indian dress. But until then you will definitely have to.” I tell you, if I had been wearing Indian garments, at that time the man would have become my disciple.

But if some disciples had been there with me, they could have given a talk about me, and then naturally this man would have believed. Disciples can convince the new seekers. I bring the light, but that light sometimes frightens them. But if the disciples give them light, they can accept it. So that is why I beg the disciples who have been with us to mix with the newcomers. I am the elder brother, the disciples are the younger brothers, and the seekers are the youngest brothers.

God has so many children. Here I am the oldest and there will be some who are younger than you and some who are older than you. So you should take care of those people who are younger than you. Then, when they are older, I will take them.

Question: Is it true that one can sleep in his Master's boat and still reach the destination?

Question: I was initiated by a Jain Master in New York City who gave me my own mantra, but I've been finding it very difficult to adopt a specific technique for realising my inner self.

Part IV — Sri Chinmoy's Path

Sri Chinmoy's Path

I wish to tell you that I call my teachings a path, not a religion. I have seekers from all religions, faiths and denominations. At times I say my path is like a school. Students come here to learn and when they acquire wisdom, then they will teach others.

This path is the path of the heart. It is very simple and at the same time very fruitful. When I say it is the path of the heart, I am in no way trying to minimize or belittle the mind. I only wish to say that we are following the path of the heart because we have come to feel that this path is undoubtedly a short cut.

The mind doubts, the mind suspects others, and finally, to its wide surprise, the same mind doubts and suspects itself. Therefore it takes a very long time to walk along the path of the mind and reach the destination. But the path of the heart is the path of oneness, inseparable oneness. We see the reality, we accept the reality as such and then if the reality has to be changed and transformed, we try to transform it into divine perfection. The path of the heart is the path of acceptance. Here we do not negate or reject or renounce anything. We accept the world and want to be in the world in order to love God and serve God, to please and fulfil God in His own Way.

On our path we have a ladder called aspiration. It has three rungs: love, devotion and surrender. But this love is divine love and not human love. Human love binds and blinds, whereas divine love expands and illumines. Divine love is the love of the heart in the heart for the entire being. This love sings the song of expansion.

The second rung is devotion. In the ordinary human life what we know is nothing short of attachment. We are attached to someone and therefore we feel compelled to do things. It is our conscious or unconscious attachment that compels us to be of service to others. If our attachment goes away, we shall not spend even a fleeting second to please, serve or fulfil others. But devotion is something totally different. We are devoted to a supreme cause. We are devoted to our own highest Reality.

Now the last rung is surrender. This surrender is totally different from the surrender of a slave to his master. The slave is under compulsion to please his master and if he does not please him, his services will be dispensed with. He has to be always at the beck and call of his master. This is forced surrender, not surrender that spontaneously comes to the fore. But in the spiritual life the surrender that we offer is a constant source of energy and satisfaction. It comes from within. Nobody compels us or forces us to do anything.

We feel that we have two existences. One is illumined, the other is now unillumined. The finite in us surrenders its existence to the Infinite, the totally illumined in us. The finite in us is like a tiny drop that enters into the mighty ocean and loses its individuality and personality. It becomes the ocean itself. Here surrender makes us vast and infinite; conscious, constant and soulful. Devoted, unconditional surrender reveals one’s own highest reality. At the beginning of our journey’s start we try to discover our own highest Height. Then we offer our low, lower, lowest existence to that highest Height, and once our lowest existence enters into the highest Existence, it is transformed, illumined and perfected. The lowest becomes totally ready for the Highest to operate in and through it.

Again I wish to say that I am on earth only to be of service to the Supreme, my Inner Pilot, my Supreme Beloved. Out of His Infinite Bounty, He has given me the capacity to write, or I should say, He has written through me thousands of pages of poems, stories, articles, essays and plays. He has utilised me to give talks and hold public meetings to serve Him in another way. And out of His infinite Compassion, He is using me to serve the seekers of the absolute Truth through music and art. He has done thousands of paintings and written hundreds of songs in and through me. According to my inner receptivity, He has been able to manifest Himself. I do not dare to take any credit for I don’t deserve it. I know perfectly well that it is He who has done all these things in and through me out of His boundless flood of Compassion. I am a mere instrument. I am eternally grateful to Him at every second, for He has granted me the golden opportunity to be of service to Him.

I have quite a few students. My students and I have the same goal: to pray and meditate and to serve God and please God in His own Way. There are a few disciples’ parents here. It has happened in a few cases that when the children left their parents, the parents were deeply annoyed and they had many things to say against me. Once upon a time the parents criticised their children’s teacher mercilessly. But the same children now are in the good books of their parents. Now the parents have a few good words to say about me. Quite a few of my students had taken to drugs and had embraced the hippie life style. But now they have accepted life in a proper, divine, soulful way and they are the true pride of society.

I always tell my students to visit their parents and be of service to them. Out of millions and billions of souls, how is it that the children chose a particular family? It was out of special necessity. There was a special reason why they chose this particular family. I wish to say to the parents that I have not taken anybody’s children away. On the contrary, I am trying to make their children realise their proper roles in God’s creation. They will go deep within to please their parents, relatives and dear ones.

God is inside everyone, including the parents. The parents deserve most soulful gratitude from their children. For quite a few years they have brought up their children and tried to satisfy them. Unfortunately, the children were not completely satisfied, although the parents tried their best to offer them satisfaction. Then the children went to spiritual teachers who offered them more satisfaction.

So now just because the parents want pure satisfaction from their children, most of the parents have come out of the snare of ego. They feel that someone has really given happiness to their children. True parents are happy only when they can see that their children are happy. I have met with parents of disciples from several Centres. Last year I met with one disciple’s parents who once upon a time wanted to dig my grave. Now they come with flowers to thank me. I would like to say to the parents that I have not come to take any of your children away. I am only trying to do what your own soul wants. Your soul wants your children to be good, kind and devoted to truth, light, peace and bliss. This is your soul’s wish which I am carrying out according to my limited capacity.

I am extremely grateful to my students for they have given me ample opportunity to serve the Supreme, who is everybody’s real Guru. I am not the Guru, I will never claim to be the Guru. The real Guru is inside you. Guru is a Sanskrit word which means “he who illumines.” Who can illumine us save and except God? But there can be someone who can take his younger brothers and sisters to God so that God can give them illumination. The physical Guru is not going to illumine others; he cannot do anything without God. He is not the Saviour; the Saviour is inside us. The Saviour is within me and within you. It is in the inmost recesses of our hearts that the Saviour abides. Our Beloved Supreme is everybody’s Guru, everybody’s Master. I have told my disciples repeatedly that I am only an elder brother in the family and the Lord Supreme is their Father, my Father, everybody’s Father. Just because I know a little bit about inner light, spiritual light, the Supreme considers me to be an elder brother to humanity. The role of the elder brother is to take the younger brothers and sisters to the Father, their common Father. Then his role is over.

Question: What is the process involved in joining your Centre?

You can easily make your decision. Feel that you have a matchstick and just strike it immediately. You need not come here three or four times, because when you first see your own Master, you are bound to feel something. Little by little your aspiration grows, your realisation grows; but the acceptance of the Master comes immediately. If you look at your own Master, you feel immediately who the Master is. If he is not your Master, you can come to see him twenty times and still not be sure. So four times is more than enough for any aspirant to recognise if I am his spiritual Master.

How will you know that this is your path? You will know if you get a kind of joy, peace and love that you do not find elsewhere. If you get peace of mind, inner joy, inner love and a kind of satisfaction here and nowhere else, then this is your path. But if you find that these are the very things that you do not get here, then this path is absolutely wrong for you. I will never say, “Oh, you are a fool. I have everything. How is it that you don’t get it?” I may have certain things, but if you do not appreciate what I have, then you can go to another Guru. Then, from him you can get the things that you need. But I have no right to say, “My things are better, far better than the ones he has.” No. You are the customer. You accept or reject. Again, the shopkeeper also has the right to say sometimes, “I don’t want to sell.” But in this case, if the spiritual Master does not accept a student, it is not because the student is bad, but because he will do far better if he goes to another Master.

When a spiritual Master is face to face with the Supreme, the Supreme will ask him, “Have you brought your own children?” He will not ask the Master, “Have you brought the whole world?” Some spiritual Masters have millions and billions of disciples. But it may happen that the Supreme did not ask them to bring this many disciples. Each Master has been allotted some disciples by the Supreme. If I take somebody else’s students or disciples, I don’t think the Supreme will be pleased with me, because He has not made me the leader, the captain, for those particular persons. The Supreme wants somebody else to be the leader or captain for them. What the Supreme wants from a spiritual Master is of paramount importance. If He wants me to take one of these disciples, I will take him. But the Supreme will be really pleased with me if I take only the ones that He wants me to take. He has sent down quite a few sincere spiritual Masters. But if we start taking each other’s disciples, then there will be problems.

So you have every right to accept or reject me, and I also have the same right to accept or reject you. But if the acceptance is good and wholehearted, then you will offer all your aspiration to the Centre, and I will bring from the Supreme His Compassion, Love and Concern. You will receive according to your receptivity. You will give me what you have and I will give you what I have. This is how we accept. It is mutual.

Question: Do you tell seekers if they have been accepted as your disciples?

Suppose you are not meant for our path. The very fact that you have come here means that you are meant for some path, although it may not be my path. The moment an individual comes to any spiritual Master, it means that he is meant for a spiritual path. It may not be the path of the Master that he has seen. But there will be somebody whose path he is meant to follow.

Question: How long does it take you to know if someone is your disciple?

Question: If you know someone is meant for another path, how will you tell them?

Question: Does reading your writings help my aspiration?

Question: Is initiation necessary for real spirituality to develop?

He who chooses the Divine has already been chosen by the Divine. I accept many disciples long before their letters come asking for acceptance. Many I accept before they write their letters. The human in you will not know it. But immediately when I see a new disciple, I recognise that he has been brought by the Supreme in me. Out of the millions and billions of people on earth, many will come to me. But when I ask who wants to become my disciple, perhaps only two will come up. Their inner lives have already made their selection. When others see me they are frightened, because they feel they will have to give up many precious things — vital life, emotional life, and so on. People see me and acknowledge my spirituality, but they feel that they still have to experience the outer life for some time. They feel that if they fulfil the outer life first, then they will be more suitable for the spiritual life later on. But this is a mistake. As soon as you see your real Master you have to know that it means the time has come, your hour has struck.

Part V — The Spiritual Journey: Oneness In Diversity

Question: If you were comparing your religion to Islam, Christianity or Buddhism, which one is nearest to your belief?

Question: Do you believe in sin?

Question: When do you begin to teach children about spirituality?

Question: Guru, how would you relate your mission with Christ's mission?

This is your life; but in the case of a spiritual Master, once he has realised God, he knows consciously that he is a son of God, a chosen son of God. So, as the Christ claimed on the strength of his realisation that he was the son of God, you also have every right to say that you are a son of God. You also can claim this, but right now you have not established your conscious inner oneness with God. That is why you cannot feel the same as a great spiritual Master or the Christ.

Question: If someone is following his own religion, does that mean he is leading a spiritual life?

Let me tell you a story. One day a mother took her son to a doctor. The child was suffering from a stomach ache because of something he had eaten. When they arrived, the doctor was eating sugar and molasses. The mother said, “My child is suffering from a stomach ache, from some kind of internal pain. Please help him.”

The doctor said, “I will give you some medicine that will relieve his pain temporarily, but the real cure I won’t give you today. You must bring him tomorrow.” When the mother brought the child the next day, the doctor said, “Look, my child, don’t take sugar. Then the medicine I am giving you will cure you permanently.”

The mother said, “Why didn’t you tell him that yesterday?”

The doctor replied, “If I had told him yesterday, he would have had no faith in me. He would have said, ‘Look, he is eating the thing he is asking me not to eat.’ Today I am a good man; I am not eating sugar, so I can tell your child, ‘See, I am not taking sugar, so you should also stop.’ ”

So, if your Guru does something and then professes that you should not do it, why should you have faith in him? You will ask how your Guru can make that kind of demand from you. Everything is reciprocal. If I am nice and kind to you, you are bound to reciprocate. But if I deceive you consciously or unconsciously, then it is different. Consciously you may not know what I am doing at home. If I drink liquor, how will you be able to know? But inwardly your inner being will tell you whether I am drinking or meditating. I cannot deceive you if you are my true disciple because my inner connection with you is so close.

If I am doing something wrong, a true disciple will easily be able to catch me, even if he is in our Puerto Rico Centre and I am in New York. This shows how close the relationship is between a Guru and his disciple. So my personal feeling is always that whatever the Guru tells others to do he must also do in his own life. It is like this. A child always tries to imitate his parents. In his childhood, if he tells a lie, immediately he gets a slap from his parents. Then he says to himself that since his parents tell the truth all the time, since they are so nice and sincere, he also wants to do the same. Then he grows like a flower. But he may see that his parents are telling him to stop telling lies while they are telling lies in season and out of season. When the child is small he is somewhat afraid of his parents. He does not know what to say to them. But when he grows up he will say, “Look at what you yourselves are doing.”

Question: Does each spiritual Master have a different path, or are the differences between paths due simply to personality differences?

The Supreme may tell the Master, “When the time comes, accept this particular disciple.” The Supreme does not necessarily say this according to the seeker’s present way of approaching the Truth. The sincere seeker himself may not yet know which path to follow. Again, if it is the Will of the Supreme, the Master will definitely tell a seeker, “My path is not meant for you.” But he will usually not be able to direct the seeker to somebody else’s path, for he is not in a position to say anything.

Question: Which Western spiritual Masters can enter into all seven spheres?

Question: Are there any Gurus in India who are also householders?

Question: But I mean, right now do they live with their own wife and children, and at the same time, have their disciples?

The Guru’s real children are not the children of his flesh and blood, but his spiritual children. His disciples become his true children at that time. His ordinary children come from his flesh, but the disciples are the children of his soul. They are his spiritual children. He has given considerable time to his physical children; now he has to think of his spiritual children. So those who are interested in the spiritual life, the inner life, come to him, and he gives them spiritual guidance. At that time, of course, he does not lead a so-called human life, emotional life. He has to lead a strict moral and spiritual life.

Question: Is your attitude the same as that of the Christian missionaries who said that only their path leads to salvation?