Question: Is there anything we can do to help you with your knee pain?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly! You can speak to the Old Man [laughter]. If your Great-Great-Great Grandfather wants to listen to your prayer, will I have any objection?

It is so complicated! This pain is not only physical. It has to do with the entire world. People will say, “Oh, he is bragging! He has got bad karma from his past incarnation and in this incarnation he is paying the penalty.”

Some spiritual Masters said that just below the spine is the last chakra or centre, but other spiritual Masters with their occult vision have seen that there are centres in the knees, the ankles, the toes — everywhere. This is so true. So far, the earth-consciousness has received light as far down as the base of the spine. When spiritual Masters try to bring light to the earth-consciousness below that level, how they suffer! How Sri Aurobindo suffered! It started even with Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna was omniscient and omnipotent. What was wrong with his foot, his heel? That was his weak point, and that was where the archer’s arrow entered.

If you had seen Ramana Maharshi walking in the evening of his life, you would have seen how pitifully he was walking! There are many spiritual Masters who suffered like that. Lord Buddha lived about 80 years. After the age of 73, the way Lord Buddha walked! Lord Buddha embodied the infinite Light, yet how pitifully he used to walk in the evening of his life — not for one year, but for quite a few years.

Many, many spiritual Masters have suffered in this way, either in the knee or inside the throat or somewhere else. Once you take human form, you have to pay the penalty. Some say that Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was his supreme sacrifice. But Mother Mary’s sweet inner message is, “No, my son’s human life itself was his greatest sacrifice. The fact that he took human incarnation — that was his greatest sacrifice.”

When spiritual Masters come to raise the consciousness of humanity, their very existence on earth is a supreme sacrifice. When death comes, it is all finished. In a few seconds or a few hours they are gone. But their entire life is a sacrifice. My 67 years on earth is no joke! The Saviour Christ’s 33 years is no joke! A spiritual Master’s earthly existence is the supreme sacrifice. Many will say about the Master’s death, “He sacrificed his life for the earth-consciousness.” That is true in one sense. But while living on earth, he drank poison to save his spiritual children, his big family. Death is one form of sacrifice. If you drink a large quantity of poison all at once, you die. But if you take slow poison every day, every week, every month, do you not suffer more? This can apply to anyone. It does not have to be a spiritual Master. If you are a great man or a good man, then earthly existence itself is a supreme sacrifice.

Again, where is sacrifice? If there is oneness, then there is no sacrifice. The mother does something for the child because of her oneness with the child. The child does something for the mother because of his oneness. If you separate yourself from others, then definitely there is sacrifice. If you separate Heaven from earth, then definitely when a mighty soul comes down from Heaven, it is Heaven’s sacrifice, and when that person leaves the body, it is a sacrifice of Mother Earth. But if there is oneness between Mother Earth and Father Heaven, then there is no sacrifice. At this moment Mother needs my service. I come. Next moment, Father needs my service. I go. That is all.