Question: In your poetry you sometimes use 'my Supreme' or 'God' or 'my Lord'. I know that personally I have a different feeling or response to each one. From your point of view, is there a different consciousness or feeling behind the names?

Sri Chinmoy: When I say ‘God’, I get one feeling. From ‘my Supreme’ I get another feeling. From ‘my Lord’ and ‘my Absolute Beloved Supreme’ I get still another feeling. A child can call his father by various names. When he uses the term ‘Daddy’, he gets one feeling. When he says ‘Dad’, another feeling comes. When he says ‘Father’, it is something different.

In my case, each time I use a particular name for God, I get a totally different feeling. Again, it may not be the same feeling from day to day. Today when I say, “My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme,” it may not give me the same feeling as yesterday. Not that it is higher or lower in terms of intimacy, but it may carry a different experience. Whichever name gives me the sweetest feeling I use. Again, when I want to invoke God’s Power aspect, I say ‘the Absolute’.

Some spiritual Masters differentiate between the Absolute and the Supreme. They say the Absolute does not take human incarnation; the Absolute does not deal with multifarious earthly and mundane activities. I do not agree with them. If I can be conscious of God’s Sweetness, then I can easily be conscious of His Might and Power. His Compassion aspect and Love aspect I love. But His Power aspect how can I deny? In my case, I do not differentiate between the Supreme and the Absolute. They are one and the same.

If you use the term ‘Beloved’, then you connect God’s Power aspect with His Sweetness, Affection and Fondness aspects. That is why in so many of my writings I use ‘my Lord Beloved Supreme’. It connects God’s Power with His Sweetness, Affection and Intimacy. Early in the morning, when I offer my cycling prayer, I deliberately say ‘my Absolute Lord Supreme’. This is how I try to invoke the Power aspect of God. Then for my weightlifting prayers, when I say ‘my Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme’, it is the prayer of my life-breath. Each seeker will use different names for God for his own purpose, but it is the same Person, the same Person.