Question: How can I learn to devote myself to you?
Sri Chinmoy: There are two ways: one way is to be devoted to one's own spiritual life; another way is to be devoted to the Supreme in me. When somebody says, "I wish to be devoted to you," I always say that that person has to be devoted to the Supreme in me, as I am devoted to the Supreme in him.There is only one Guru, one Master, and that is the Supreme. In order to be totally devoted, you have to love the Supreme in me infinitely more than you love anything or anybody else on earth. It is not me that you love, but the Supreme in me. This Supreme in me has to come first in everything. At that time, there is no mother, no father, no brother, no sister, no wife, no husband. If you feel that there is anybody who is dearer to you than me in your life, then it will be a mistake. The husband, wife, brother or sister are all necessary, but this friendship or oneness lasts for twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years and then it disappears. In your next incarnation perhaps your dearest friend or dearest person on earth will have nothing to do with you. These relationships are all temporary. You are walking together, then you part. But you have to remember that there is an eternal Friend, an eternal Father and Mother, and that is the Supreme in the Master.
You have to feel that he who connects you with the Supreme Beloved, who is everything, should be most important in your life. There are many, many people on earth who are not connected with God. Here I am not taking any credit. No! Only I wish to say that there is somebody who is working for you, working on your behalf, and that is your Master. Outwardly I may not speak to you for more than three months, but inwardly, you have to feel that I think of you more than you think of yourself. My constant thinking is for your perfection, for your liberation. When I accept you as a disciple, I do not come as a superior or an autocrat; I come as an eternal friend who wants to show you the Light of the Supreme. Once I show you the Light, then my part is over. If you can feel that the Supreme in me is infinitely more capable of doing things for you or giving you things than anybody else on earth, then you can easily become devoted.
Right now you are trying to please yourself all the time, because you feel that you love yourself most. That's why you eat, play and go to work. You do everything to please yourself first. There is no difference between you and your life activities. Both are like thick friends, most intimate friends. But you have to feel that I am somebody who is even more intimate to you than your life activities. Only then will you discover devotion.
Let us say that your body, vital and mind are on one side and on the other side are your activities. You have to feel that there is a connecting link between you and your actions, and that is I. I am trying to inspire you to do something good, divine or immortal, to be a chosen instrument of the Supreme in your life of aspiration and realisation and in your life of activities and manifestation. I become the bridge between your height and your manifestation.
From now on, always try to think of me before you do anything or say anything. Early in the morning, before any thought comes into your mind, just try to visualise me or look at my picture. After you have seen my picture for a few seconds or a minute, try to feel that your breath is entering into my heart. That means your living existence, your entire existence on earth, will be under my loving care. The heart means loving concern, compassion and protection. When you breathe out, feel that your breath is entering into me. And when you breathe in, feel that your breath is coming directly from the inmost recesses of my heart. The breath of purity and divinity — realised divinity or manifested divinity — you take from me; and the life of imperfection, impurity, uncertainty, obscurity that comes from your own existence, you throw into me. In that way, automatically, spontaneously, you can be extremely dedicated and devoted to the Supreme in me.
Please do not expect anything from me in your own way. Expect only things that the Divine within me, the Supreme within me, wants to give you. Very often people cannot totally devote themselves to the Supreme in me because they have their own expectation. But it is better not to expect anything because God knows what is best. The mother knows what is best for the child; she knows how to feed the child and how to give it joy. The one who is taking care of you is always conscious, always careful, always thinking of you. In that case, it is unnecessary to expect anything.
When you have no expectation, it is because you have the inner conviction that He, the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, who is all kindness and affection, will naturally give you His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss if you are totally open to Him. Your attitude should be one of total receptivity and self-offering. Where does the capacity of receptivity and self-offering come from? It comes directly from the Supreme. You cannot give even one fleeting second of self-offering from within to somebody else if you are not inspired by God.
We can make the fastest progress when there is no expectation, for at that time there will be no anger, no frustration, no depression. It is just like a child who is playing cheerfully in the garden. He knows that when the time comes, his mother or father will come and take him home. Here our home is the Supreme's Abode. The Supreme comes when we are cheerfully singing, dancing and playing inwardly — that is to say, inwardly praying and meditating. Our inner prayer will always be heard, will always be accepted by the Supreme; and then He will carry us to our eternal Home.
But there is something called divine expectation. Human expectation you know. It is all mixed up with vital pleasure or various things that emerge from the vital and the mind. In human expectation, we act but we do not know the result of our act. Sometimes we get success and sometimes we get failure. But if we expect success, then it may become a reality today or twenty years from now or not at all. But in God's case it is not like that. God clearly knows the ultimate result. There can be no failure in God's case. In God's case, even what we call failure is a tremendous success, because it comes as a fulfilling experience. So in divine expectation reality is well-established. Reality and divine expectation cannot be separated. Of course, the manifestation of reality in the physical may take time. Patience is necessary.
But if we live in God's Time and God's Patience, which is all Light, then expectation and reality will go together. In this way we still have expectation, but we have changed our attitude. We are not expecting the thing in our own way, but we are expecting something which will come from the Supreme in His own way.
