Question: What can I do to please the Supreme more?

Sri Chinmoy: Why do you have to think of pleasing the Supreme more? Just think of the Supreme all the time, or whenever you can. Only sincere cheerfulness will help you. The Supreme is really pleased with you, but if you want Him to be more pleased, then when I see you at the tennis ground or at Annam Brahma, just express most sincere happiness. When you see me on the physical plane at Annam Brahma or somewhere else, sincere happiness should come from the very depths of your heart.

When you see me on the physical plane, you get joy. When you see me on the inner plane, you have to get the same joy. You think of the Supreme so many times during the day. Each time you think of the Supreme in me, pray to the Supreme in me or meditate on the Supreme in me, if you can get the same kind of inner joy and inner thrill as when you see me in the physical, then definitely you will expedite your inner journey and please the Supreme more.

Where were you brought up?

Akuli: I was brought up in Indiana.

Sri Chinmoy: Many years ago, long before you were spiritually born, I was invited to give a talk at a Lion’s Club or Rotary Club. Three different men wanted to introduce me. God alone knows who was supposed to introduce me, but the man who said he knew all about me pushed the others aside. When he was introducing me, instead of saying that I was born in Bengal, India, he said that I was born in Bengal, Indiana. Then they threw him out and somebody else came to introduce me.

Akuli, since you are so fond of crows, how many of them are in Queens?

Akuli: I'm lucky if I see three a day, but maybe there are 3,000 in Queens.

Sri Chinmoy: Pulak, how many?

Pulak: Maybe about 30,000.

Sri Chinmoy: Govinda, how many?

Govinda: Twenty thousand.

Sri Chinmoy: Of you three, who can proudly justify his number? Who will dare to tell us that he or she is absolutely sure?

Akuli: You have said that it’s not how many mangoes there are in the grove, but how they taste. So it’s not how many crows there are, but how much joy we get from them.

Sri Chinmoy: Chidananda is already getting joy. Without seeing the crows, he is getting joy, so he is more advanced than you are. You get joy only after you see a crow, but Chidananda does not have to see even one in order to get joy, so he is more advanced.

Akuli, do you know the silly Indian joke about how many crows there are? Somebody will say one figure, and somebody else will say another figure. One will challenge the other and say, “I know how many there are, but you count. However, if you get more than I said, that means that some of their relatives have come. And if you count fewer than the number I have said, that means some of them have gone to their relatives.”

So if you say 3,000 and it is more, that means that some of the relatives of the crows in Queens have come. But if there are fewer than 3,000, that means that some crows from Queens have gone to the Bronx to visit their relatives.