Perfection

A child grows. At first he cannot even crawl. Then there comes a time when he can crawl. At that time, he feels that he has achieved perfection. When he starts walking, he again feels that he has achieved perfection. Finally he runs fast, faster, fastest, and once more this is his perfection. Real perfection is not a static goal. No, real perfection is progress, continuous progress. In the spiritual life, the day that we start meditating, even if it is only for a fleeting second, that day is the beginning of our progress. Each time we come one step out of ignorance and a new vision dawns, it is perfection. Anything that lifts up our consciousness is our perfection. Perfection is continuous progress — inner and higher progress.

Right now we are earth-bound. But we don't want to remain bound; we want to become free. We want to be in the Infinite, with the Infinite and for the Infinite. Little by little, or all of a sudden, we shall enter into Infinity itself. When we enter into Infinity, we will see that Infinity has no end. In Infinity we will feel that the Supreme Himself is constantly transcending His own Reality; the Supreme Himself is continuously progressing. If we say that God is everything, that God is infinite, this is just a mental idea. We are confining ourselves to a limited conception of God. But if we say that He is always transcending Himself, then we don't bind Him. If He is going beyond, beyond, then how can we bind Him?

Perfection is continuous progress — progress in the inner life and in the outer life. When we compose music, we feel that our creation is perfection. But if we meditate, then we can add something to our creation or go far beyond it. The problem is that the human mind, the human life, always finds it difficult to continue. It doesn't have enough perseverance to go beyond, beyond, beyond. When it has achieved something that it knows the world will appreciate, it wants to stop. It looks around and sees that nobody is near it, and it feels that it has done enough. It gets a kind of outer satisfaction, and is satisfied.

But if we are looking for real, divine satisfaction, inner satisfaction, then we do not want to stop. There is always the inner urge to go beyond our achievement. On the day that I did 16,031 paintings, to be absolutely frank with you, I could have continued indefinitely, because the Supreme was acting in and through me. Only I didn't want to take up the challenge. When the Supreme is the Doer, there is no end to our perfection.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Simplicity, sincerity, purity and divinity, Agni Press, 1987
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