New year's message for 1977

The New Year will be the year of our astounding achievements.
Our inner achievement will be peace.
Our outer achievement will be progress.
Peace is realisation-seed.
Progress is satisfaction-fruit.

Following is a brief extract from a talk given by Sri Chinmoy on the general significance of the New Year.

The year of frustration has totally ended. We have gone through unbearable frustration, but this experience must leave us. We shall not make friends with wrong forces; we shall not cherish attachment, bondage and other undivine things in the year to come. This year let us make friends with the real in us. We have gone through the life of desire and the consequences have been frustration and destruction. This year let us not repeat the same story. A new experience must dawn in us, in our devoted lives.

The old year has ended; the New Year has started. The New Year means new hope, new promise, new light, new life. Let the New Year be the year of God-Satisfaction in us. Just cast aside the old year like a nightmare. For us, only the future exists. Tomorrow has already started in us. Please, please, please, for one year let us live without fear, without doubt, without wrong forces. If we succeed for one year, then we will have the strength to continue, for once you do something, you know you can do it again.

The New Year has started. Forget about all the unhappy experiences that you have given and received. Think only of how you can give joy to others and thus make yourself happy. I will also do my best to make you happy. But in my case, my happiness entirely depends on the Supreme’s Happiness. I have to make you happy in a deeper way, according to the Will of the Supreme. The best thing is to allow me to please you in the Supreme’s own way. That is the only way I am accustomed to. And you also can try to please me in the way of the Supreme. That can be done when you follow the dictates of your soul.

Justice-light¹

I consider it a divine privilege and a supreme honour to be lovingly associated with you all, my esteemed brothers whose minds are inundated with justice-light.

Justice-light is within us and without us. It is all-where. When we are in the animal consciousness, we haughtily declare: “Might is right.” When we are in the human consciousness, we wisely declare: “Might is might. Right is right. Might is for creation. Right is for preservation.” When we are in the divine consciousness, we soulfully declare: “Right is might. Right is self-giving. Might is God-becoming.”

Justice-light embodies the Truth secretly, reveals the Truth sacredly and manifests the Truth unreservedly. Now, what is Truth? Truth is the perfection-beauty of the Universal Soul and the satisfaction-duty of the Transcendental Goal.

Justice-light has a blind and wild adversary: injustice-darkness. Injustice-darkness embodies stark ignorance, reveals frightening ignorance and manifests strangling ignorance. Now, what is ignorance? Ignorance is a love-devouring, life-devouring and light-devouring hunger.

Our education tells us that justice-light is preparatory to our moral life. Our religion tells us that justice-light is preparatory to our divine life. Our spirituality tells us that justice-light is preparatory to our perfect life. From our education-teacher we come to learn that our mind needs illumination. From our religion-teacher we come to learn that our heart needs salvation. From our spirituality-teacher we come to learn that our entire earth-existence needs perfection. Our morality awakens the divine in us. Our divine life perfects the human in us. Our perfection will satisfy us, the real in us. And the real in us is our aspiration-cry.

It is a deplorable mistake to think that law and justice are one and the same reality. Law is force. Justice is concern. Law controls us. Justice unifies us. As punishment and law are inseparable, even so justice and oneness-perfection are inseparable. Law is the sovereignty of “I”-ness. Justice is the ecstasy of oneness. Self-styled law: “I came. I saw. I conquered.” Here a world-conqueror speaks through us. God-ordained justice: “We are of the One. We are for the many.” Here a God-lover speaks through us.

Justice-light is our conscious self-recovery from ignorance-illness. Justice-light is our conscious self-discovery in our aspiration-fulness. Justice-light is our conscious life-mastery over our imperfection-nothingness.

If an individual or a nation is wanting in justice-light, then America’s bird of oneness-heart spreads out its wings to carry justice-light to the length and breadth of the entire world. The outer world may declare: “America always sings Her world-supremacy song.” But the inner world declares: “America always wants to dance her inner conviction-dance before the Comity of Nations.” Something infinitely more significant: America’s oneness-heart divinely and justifiably feels obligated to share the illumining flowers and fulfilling fruits of her inner conviction with God’s entire creation.

I like America, I love America, precisely because America’s justice-light is divinely illumining. In two memorable cases America’s justice-light has proved to be supremely fulfilling. John Adams, a true lover of his country, defended the cause of an English captain and thus became a justice-light lover. He bravely surmounted the barriers of nationalism and safely climbed up the Himalayan peak of international glory. Indeed, his achievement was America’s proud achievement. The Watergate scandal is synonymous with the world-illumining divinity, for here once again justice-light reigned supreme.

Brave America, great America, good America becomes world-adoration and God-satisfaction.

Three hundred books written by Sri Chinmoy²

Following are the words spoken by Sri Chinmoy and Mayor Beame on the occasion, as well as a reprint of an article which appeared in a major New York City newspaper the following day.

Sri Chinmoy: “Dear Mr. Beame, dear Mayor, O brave, great, wise and good pilot of the New York City boat, with my heart’s boundless joy I am presenting you with my 300th book. Each book of mine is my heart’s aspiration for God and my life’s dedication to mankind. I am all gratitude to the soul of New York City, for it is here where I have been for the last twelve years, and here I have written these 300 books.

“To offer this book to you is to offer it to the soul of New York City, for your most exemplary dedication to the City of New York and the supreme satisfaction of the soul of New York are one and inseparable. In you I feel the supreme satisfaction of the soul of New York. Your dauntless spirit, your mind’s wisdom and your heart’s dedication are most exemplary. The capital of America is Washington, D.C., but the capital of the world is New York, and you are the head of New York. I am offering these books to you with my heart’s boundless gratitude, joy and pride.”

Mayor Beame: “Thank you, thank you very much. I am sure these books will be an inspiration to millions of others. I am very pleased. They are going to be turned over to the New York Public Library, where so many readers can read them and get the same inspiration. Dr. Mish is here to accept them for the Library.”

A few more words passed between Sri Chinmoy and Mayor Beame, and then the books were taken by Dr. Mish for inclusion in the Oriental Division of the New York Public Library.

Daily News, New York's Picture Newspaper(r)

Vol. 58. No. 151
New York, N.Y. 10017
Saturday, December 18, 1976

Guru Tells Abe: Don't Think, Meditate
By CLAIRE SPIEGEL

Two men who couldn’t have less in common — Mayor Beame and an Indian guru — crossed paths at City Hall yesterday.

Guru Sri Chinmoy was there to press his approach to problem solving — meditation and love of God — upon the mayor. He left for the mayor’s leisurely perusal a seven-foot stack of books representing his life’s writings.

In addition to writing 300 books in the last five years — the last of which rolled off the press yesterday — the guru has turned out 124,000 paintings. He did not leave them.

The clean-shaven guru, draped in a turquoise silk dhoti resembling pajamas and wearing moccasins, hailed the mayor, addressing him: “Oh, brave, great and wise pilot of the New York City boat.”

A Better Way?

He urged that the mayor, in grappling with the city’s problems, try a new tack — meditation instead of cogitation and agitation, which to date have not proved to be entirely effective, he pointed out.

Sri Chinmoy, who has lived in the city for 12 years, said that when he opened himself to God, he was able to complete 16,031 paintings in a 24-hour period. Disciples said the master’s work ranged from the pictures the size of postage stamp to blackboard dimensions. In another 24-hour stretch, Chinmoy said, he wrote 843 poems. He did not say how long, they were.

The books the guru donated to the city yesterday will be placed in the New York Public Library.

Sessions for Delegates

The guru conducts meditation sessions twice a week for United Nation delegates and staff. About 15 show up at each session.

Although the guru does not claim supernatural powers, he says in his writings that he does embody God. His disciples number about a thousand throughout the world and are required to abstain from meat, alcohol, smoking and premarital sex.

To support themselves, the disciples run several “divine enterprises,” which include a cluster of stores on Parsons Blvd. in Queens that sell stationery, health food, spices, flowers and ice.

At City Hall, Guru Sri Chinmoy leaves seven-foot stack of books for Mayor Beame to read at his leisure. That's a tall order, especially with city books to worry about

The core of India's light

//[Continued from previous issue]//

35.

Akhanda

Indivisible

The one Indivisible Reality is at once Eternity’s hunger on earth and Infinity’s feast in Heaven.

36.

Akrodha

Absence of anger

Your absence of anger proves that you see God-Reality all around you. This is an achievement which cannot be elucidated. It cannot even be properly felt. It can only be loved spontaneously.

37.

Akshara

Imperishable Reality

When I live on earth my imperishable Reality is hope. When I am in Heaven my imperishable Reality is promise.

38.

Akshaya

Everlasting

It seems that a constant battle is going on between man’s everlasting ignorance and God’s ever-illumining Compassion-Light.

39.

Alpa

Small

A small portion of man’s cheerfulness-heart is more than enough to bind God, the Enjoyer of divine Freedom.

[To be continued in next issue.]

To-morrow's dawn

//[Continued from previous issue]//

23.

Presently, aspiration.
Momentarily, realisation.
Eventually, satisfaction.

24.

Money-power and wisdom-light quite often enjoy avoiding each other.

25.

The source of my belief is my union-mind with the earth-reality. The source of my faith is my oneness-Heart with the Heaven-Vision.

26.

The authority of the mind and the responsibility of the heart can easily grow into inseparable friends.

27.

Life means opportunity. Opportunity means a fresh start. A fresh start means satisfaction-dawn.

28.

Resist not anything or anyone, but love God more.

29.

I have only two responsibilities: one is to make God everywhere; the other is to make me good, to love all.

30.

We all make mistakes. If our mistakes are true, then our promises to become perfect can easily be made true.

31.

Insecurity-ant destroys. Security-elephant rebuilds.

[To be continued in next issue.]

Three significant questions

The following questions were asked by Nemi on her birthday, 24 December 1976.

Question: How can I be sure that I won't have any regrets at the end of my life?

Sri Chinmoy: Regret is a very peculiar thing. Some people regret the very beginning of their life’s journey. They blame God and they curse themselves for taking human incarnation. Again, some people regret as soon as they have ended their desire-life, vital life, emotional life. Although they have now entered into the aspiration-life, they feel miserable that they enjoyed or had to go through desire-life and vital life. They feel that if they had not gone through desire-life, if right from the very start of their journey they had entered into aspiration-life, then by this time they would have realised God and achieved boundless peace, joy, light and bliss.

Some people, at the end of their journey, regret that they have not accomplished what they wanted to accomplish in life. If they are spiritual, they feel miserable that they have not accomplished what they were supposed to accomplish for God. If they are unspiritual, they feel miserable because even now, when they have one foot in the grave, their desires have not been fulfilled.

Sometimes we achieve something that we have really worked for, but we regret it because the time, the energy and the money-power that we have spent to achieve that particular thing could have been utilised for something infinitely higher and better. Regret can assail human beings at any moment. No matter what we achieve, regret can plague us. We feel that we could have got something else, far better and superior. Regret is constantly coming to us in the form of subtle temptation, but we unfortunately do not recognise that inside regret temptation is looming large.

All this I am saying from the subtle philosophical point of view. In your case, if you are consciously and devotedly doing everything that you are supposed to do — prayer, meditation, selfless service — and at the same time if you are not expecting anything either from the Supreme or from yourself, then you can have no regret. At every moment you have to convince yourself that you do not need yourself. You as a human being do not need anything from your life, and your life itself does not need anything from you — from your physical body, your earthly existence. But at the same time you have to know that there is someone who does need you, and that is the Supreme.

Now the question may arise: are you ready to fulfil the Supreme’s Need? If you feel that you have not fulfilled His Need, you cannot fulfil His Need, and you will not be able to fulfil His Need, then again you may regret. At this time you should feel that what you have done has been to continue your preparation, which you started at the age of eighteen. You have to feel that when you entered into our path, you began to do what God wanted you to do in God’s own way. From the day you entered into our path, the day you accepted me as your Master, you have to count your life as the life of Eternity. The day you accepted our path was the day your earth-bound life entered into Eternity’s road consciously, soulfully and devotedly. You are now walking along Eternity’s road on earth. Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years is nothing when we think of Eternity. You have to feel that this earthly life is traveling on that Eternity’s road and it has blended with Eternity.

Once you begin to walk along Eternity’s road, there is only one way to travel. You have to remember that it is not a two-way road; it is a one-way road. On a one-way road you cannot return. You may go very slowly; you may at times enjoy sleep, but the road itself will carry you, because the road is like a straight escalator. It is not an escalator that is going up or down; it is going always forward. Eternity’s road is like that. Once you are on that road, the road itself will take you to your goal. If you are conscious, then you know that you have a destination and you are going there. If you are unconscious, then you will go toward the destination, but you will not have the satisfaction, real satisfaction, of reaching your destination.

At the time of your departure from this world, which will take place after many, many years, do not think of how much you have achieved or how much you were supposed to achieve. Many spiritual Masters and many, many great figures have said, “So much to do, so little done.” From the poetic point of view and from the philosophical point of view this is correct. From the spiritual point of view it is only to some extent correct. At the end of your life’s journey you have to feel only that whatever the Supreme wanted to accomplish in and through you in this incarnation, He has accomplished; and whatever more He wants to accomplish in and through you, He will accomplish in your next incarnation. Once you know that the Supreme has brought you to His own Eternity’s road and that He has given you His escalator to take you to the goal, then there is no regret.

Do not take each second away from the hour. Do not take each hour away from the day. Try to connect each day with the sun, the life-giving creative force, but do not take the planet sun away from the universe or from God’s Infinity. Do not separate the limited from the unlimited. Your life here on earth, the short span of your human life, is limited. But do not separate it from the unlimited, from Eternity or Infinity. Take the drop as one with the ocean. Take the finite, the fleeting second, as a portion of Infinity and Eternity. If you accept your life in that way, then at the end of your life you will have no regrets. Regret is only in the limited consciousness. When we remain in the limited consciousness, we always feel that something else would have been better for us to achieve. But when we remain in the unlimited and eternal consciousness, there is no cause for regret, because if we have not accomplished something today, we know that tomorrow we will be able to accomplish it; therefore, we will have no regrets.

Question: Is your ultimate feeling about the disciples one of frustration or satisfaction?

Sri Chinmoy: My ultimate feeling is that from the human point of view most probably our mission will be a disaster unless the instruments that I already have totally change their attitude toward the spiritual life, or I get new instruments. If I do not get new instruments and if the instruments that I already have do not change radically, then my mission will be a failure. But as I have told you before, I will not accept defeat or failure. So if the instruments that I already have do not change — the close ones or dear ones, the good ones or bad ones — then new ones will come and replace them.

I have kept these instruments for a long time, a very long time. They are like water in a vessel. Now the water is not pure enough or clean enough to be drunk. I have to purify this water, or I have to throw out the old water and bring in pure, new water. I can also feel that the mirrors that I need to see through, which are my disciples, have become clouded and dusty. I cannot see my face in them anymore; therefore, either I have to clean them or I shall need new mirrors so that I can see an exact prototype of the Supreme within me, inside all the disciples. Either I have to get the inner assurance that I will be able to clean the mirrors and make them again clear enough so that I can see my highest Self reflected there, or I have to throw away the present mirrors and get new ones. It entirely depends on the disciples’ acceptance or rejection of me and on my acceptance or rejection of them.

There is a saying: morning shows the day. But that saying can easily be challenged and nullified. We know there have been many, many great human beings whose early lives were dark, obscure and meaningless, but eventually they became very great. Here also, some of the disciples could not make a brilliant start at the very beginning of their lives. They went very slowly. Their earthly lives were not at all satisfactory from the spiritual point of view. But once they joined our path they ran fast, faster, fastest. In their case you can say that morning does not show the day. In the beginning they went through all kinds of undivine, unaspiring experiences. Most of the disciples did not pray right from the dawn of their human existence the way some Indian seekers have done. But even if they did not aspire right from the age of four or seven or ten, even if they first entered into ordinary life, desiring life, emotional life, once they accepted our path they ran very, very, very fast.

Now, each spiritual Master has two sides: the human side and the divine side. Although he is totally one with the Absolute, he sometimes measures the earthly success and earthly progress of his children in an earthly way, because he has taken a physical body. When he is in the physical body, at that time he judges and he has to judge many things according to earth’s capacity, using earthly measurement. When he judges the disciples’ ignorance, lack of receptivity and other shortcomings in the form of doubt, disbelief, lethargy, insecurity and so many discouraging things, then he feels sad and miserable because He has come into the world to conquer these very things. He does not separate himself from his disciples; he feels that it is he who has failed, for he was the one who challenged the disciples’ ignorance. He hoped that the disciples would come to learn that they are not ignorance as such. Ignorance is something from outside that has entered into them and now they are trying to get rid of it.

When the Master accepts a disciple, it is understood that ignorance the thief has already entered into the disciple’s house. The owner of the house is the disciple and the Master is his friend. The friend and the owner of the house have agreed to search for the thief, catch him and throw him out of the house. But what has happened is that the owner does not sincerely try to search for the thief and throw him out of the house. Here the problem lies.

In spite of having the divine reality as his own, very own, the human in the Master becomes one with the earthly reality. The Master feels sad because he wanted to accomplish something for earth with the human capacity helping him at every moment. But then the Master’s divine wisdom comes to the fore, and his inseparable oneness, compassionate oneness with humanity’s incapacity. With his divine aspect, with his compassionate aspect, he becomes one with humanity’s incapacity. At that time he feels that all is not lost since Eternity is at his disposal and at the disposal of his disciples. His sadness disappears because oneness, compassionate oneness itself, gives him satisfaction. He has nothing to lose and nothing to gain. As long as he is sure of Eternity and his disciples are sure of Eternity, there is no dissatisfaction.

But again, the Master has come into the world for a short period of time, and his instruments are also on earth in this particular incarnation for a short time. If the Absolute Supreme wants both the Master and the disciples to work together and accomplish something at a given time, then the human in the Master suffers, the disciples suffer and also the compassionate aspect that compelled the Master to touch the earth plane suffers. The compassionate aspect of the Master has two roles: one is identified with Heaven, one is identified with earth. The one that is identified with earth-consciousness in the gross physical form feels sad because here everything is limited, bound, and things are not accomplished at the given time. But the aspect that is Heaven-free does not touch the earth-bound consciousness. It deals with human incapacity on a higher level — you can say in a theoretical way, not in a practical way. On a higher level, compassion becomes the observer and not the doer. When compassion becomes the observer, at that time there is no dissatisfaction. But when compassion becomes the doer, then it wants to achieve something for the Absolute with earthly human beings in a human way. If its goal is not achieved at a particular time during a short lifespan, then that compassion-aspect feels sad.

The Master knows that the physical has to become ready for the spiritual, but the spiritual is supposed to be eternally ready for God-manifestation. If we accept only the spiritual aspect of life as our own, then there is no time limit, so we are bound to be happy no matter what we achieve or do not achieve. But when the Master touches the physical here on earth, then he feels miserable because he has not accomplished what he should have accomplished.

Question: Most of us have a habitual way of operating no matter how many times you say you are displeased with us. Is it likely that we will change that habit after such a long time and make new progress?

Sri Chinmoy: I have scolded you people many, many times. After each scolding I have noticed a little progress, and sometimes appreciable progress, inside some disciples. Sometimes for a few hours you make progress, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a month or two. Then the progress disappears in most cases. If the disciples could maintain their progress for a few months and then transcend that progress, I would be extremely grateful to them and proud of them.

What actually happens is this. When they get a serious scolding, they feel that their spiritual life is at stake, so they have to make progress. But then, after a few days or a few weeks, again they become complacent. They feel that as long as they remain in the boat it is enough. They say, “Guru always barks, but he never bites,” which is absolutely true. I bark but I don’t bite. But good disciples will say “Why should we allow him to bark? Why should we make him play the role of a dog? He is representing God for us. G-o-d is God; d-o-g is dog. If we see God before us, we follow Him. But in the case of a dog, the dog follows us. If we really want Guru to be our God-representative on earth, then naturally it is we who have to follow him and not the other way around. He must not play the role of a dog and follow behind us and bark and bark. Our attitude has to be totally changed. What we should do all the time is think of the Master as the representative of God, especially for us. It is we who are supposed to follow him. Whatever he does or whatever he tells us to do, we have to take it as the right thing for us.”

There are various reasons why you do not make progress and why, even when you do make progress, you cannot maintain that progress. First of all, you expect everything from your Master but you are not prepared to give anything in return. Sometimes you want to give only according to your willingness, not according to your capacity. Willingness and capacity are two totally different things. You have the capacity to give your body, vital, mind, heart and soul completely, but your willingness is only to give the heart, not the mind or the vital or the physical reality. You do have the capacity to give yourself unreservedly and unconditionally. When I use the term unconditionally, I sincerely mean it and I know that you can do it. Unconditionally you can give your physical existence, vital reality, mind, heart, and psychic reality. You can give everything. This is your capacity. But your willingness is only to give a portion, an iota of your heart’s love or heart’s concern, to me.

Now the question is, whether or not the disciples will change. I wish to tell you that they do change for a few seconds or a few hours or a few days or weeks, but it does not last. Why does it not last? As I said, the first reason is constant demand, constant demand. “Guru has to do this for me, since I am in his boat.” “He smiled at that person. Why is he not smiling at me?” “He spent so much time with this person. Why did he not spend time with me?"

You have to know who is the boss here. The boss is not a human boss who has to deal with everybody in the same way. If everybody has to be dealt with in the same way, then there will be terrible disaster immediately. If you put a lion, a cat, a goat, a dog, a cow and all the other animals together, what happens? They will just kill one another. My smile and my outer attention are like two kinds of food. Different disciples need different types of nourishment from me, just as different animals need different kinds of food. If an animal is supposed to eat meat and I give that animal grass, will that animal be able to survive? And if an animal eats only grass and I give it meat, then will it survive? You have to feel that the food that I give you at a particular point in your spiritual life is the only food that will be nourishing for you. If I give you the food that is meant for somebody else, then it will be a terrible mistake on my part.

A little child will eat something very easy to digest, while an adult can eat something that is harder to digest. In my spiritual family everybody seems to think that he can eat the food of the eldest member of the family or the one who is more mature. Spiritual maturity is not measured by age; it is a different matter. If somebody has done something good in the inner world or the outer world, then the Master may smile at that person. But the next person may not have done anything good. On the contrary, he may have done something very, very wrong. But that person often expects the same kind of smile from the Master.

What is constantly taking away spirituality from the disciples is that they are constantly comparing what others are getting and what they are getting. They should try to feel that what they are getting is by far the best for them and what others are getting is by far the best for them. If they think that only what others are getting is meaningful and fruitful, and what they are getting is all rubbish, then they will be able to make no progress. What they have got, what they are getting, what they will get, is absolutely the best thing for them.

The eagerness, the joy, the enthusiasm that each individual had when he or she joined the path must be kept alive every day. Inside eagerness is newness. You are eager to get something, to receive something, but how do you get it? You get it only when you value newness in life. When that eagerness goes away, the sense of newness does not come. In the case of most of the disciples, eagerness has gone away. When you joined our path you saw something new: every day something new in our path, new in your life, new in your activities. That newness is still coming into your life every day in a different form when you achieve more peace, more light, more joy, more harmony, more oneness with the Will of the Supreme which is operating in and through me. But if you lose eagerness, then you have to feel that you are dead, because the sense of newness is not coming to you. And if there is no newness, then what are you going to achieve, what are you going to do for God, for the Supreme?

Every day think of the day when you first made a total commitment to our path. How eager you were, how happy you were! Then try to go one step ahead. Remember that the goal is not stationary, but constantly dynamic. It is flowing, growing and glowing. So remember the first day of your total commitment and then feel that now every day you are trying for a higher goal, for a brighter goal, for a more illumining goal, for a more fulfilling goal. If you have that kind of attitude toward your life, toward the path, then I assure you that every day you are in the process of change and transformation. If newness has gone away, then there will be only sadness, frustration and depression. You will think, “Oh, what have I done? Now I am stuck. I can’t go to this side and I can’t go to that side. I am getting nothing from spiritual life, from this path, but there is no guarantee that I will get something if I go to some other path, so the best thing is to stay here. Human life does not care for change. Once our human life is fixed, this is our karma, this is our fate.” No, this kind of attitude you cannot have.

Always we have to see that our human life is flowing, climbing, growing and glowing. Movement is constant. If we know that there is a constant flow, then our life will be like a river. We will have constant eagerness to run, to change, to move and flow and reach the sea, the infinite sea. Every day, dear ones, if you have eagerness to transcend the goal which you have already reached by accepting the path, then you will definitely make progress. Every day, every second, only ask yourself if you are going to please me by doing this, by saying this or by becoming this. Before you do anything, ask this question. Keep a question mark in your life. “Shall I say this? Shall I do this? Shall I?” Immediately the answer will be “yes” or “no.” Then act according to the answer.

Something more I wish to say. Some of you think that as long as you do not consciously enjoy ignorance, accept ignorance or embrace ignorance, then you are safe. But I wish to tell you that the life of temptation is like the camel eating the thorns of a cactus. The camel enjoys and enjoys it, although his mouth bleeds. Again, ignorance is like fire. You may touch fire and burn yourself. But in an unguarded moment your apartment can catch fire and burn you totally, even though you yourself have not consciously or deliberately touched fire. You think that as long as you do not touch fire, which is temptation-life, you are safe. But I wish to say, no, you may not touch fire, but temptation-life has its own reality. Temptation-life can come and touch you. The result is the same.

If you identify yourself with your right hand, you may think that as long as you do not take your right hand to touch your left hand — which, let us say, is temptation-life — you are safe. But you have to know that your left hand also has the capacity to come and touch your right hand. You feel that you have conquered temptation, so you will not be caught by temptation. But temptation-life has its own reality. You may feel that you are not interested in temptation-life, but temptation-life will not forget you. If you allow it, it will come and touch you. Then you are destroyed.

Some of you always have this kind of feeling: “I won’t be caught by this desire; I won’t be caught by this temptation; I can’t be — no, no. I have meditated for so many years, how can I be caught?” But I wish to say, yes, you can be caught. First of all, your assessment of yourself may not be correct. It may be totally false. But still your superior air of pride says, “No, I can’t be like that; I can’t be caught; I won’t be destroyed.” That is your feeling. But if somebody comes and catches you, what are you going to do? You will not touch fire, but fire can touch you. You will not enter into desire-life, but desire-life can enter into you. You will not go out of your house; therefore, you think that you will not see the face of your enemy. But how do you know that your enemy will not come into your house uninvited? If you do not keep your doors and windows carefully guarded, your enemy, who may come in the form of a friend, will enter into your apartment, into you, and then ruin you. You have to be very careful at every moment. But instead, you even enter into temptation-life or desire-life, feeling that you will not be caught, that you will not allow yourself to be caught. But you do not know that temptation-life, which is a powerful force, can come and catch you.

The best thing is that you will not go out and mix with your enemy, temptation, and also you will not allow your enemy to enter into you. Remain totally separated from temptation. All of you have the feeling, “Since I won’t embrace ignorance, I will not be captured by ignorance, by the lower forces or the vital life.” But these forces will come and attack you. So always feel that you are not going to do anything wrong and also you will not allow others to do anything wrong in your life. Otherwise, you will be totally ruined, because when the wrong forces of others consciously, deliberately attack you, you will just allow them to come in. You may think that this has to be something reciprocal: if you do not attack, if you do not enter into that person’s life, then how will that person attack you? But that person can do anything. What he does is not up to you. You may say, “If I don’t look at someone’s face, why should that person look at my face?” But you know it is not like that. That person can look at your face even if you do not want to look at him. You may not do anything undivine, but others can consciously or unconsciously do undivine things toward your life.

These are the reasons why you cannot make progress; these are the things that prevent you from making satisfactory progress. You have to know what others can do against you with their wrong forces. You think that you are not responsible and you may not be responsible. But somebody can make your life miserable; somebody can ruin your aspiration. So always remain on the alert. Feel that at any moment you may be attacked on any plane — on the physical, vital or mental plane. Be always alert, alert, alert, and then only go forward, go forward.

Always you have to feel the necessity of asking a question before you do anything: Will Guru be pleased with me if I do this, if I say this? Will Guru approve of it? Will Guru like the idea? Always ask these questions. If the answer is “no,” identify yourself with the answer and do not do the thing. If it is “yes,” identify yourself with the answer and do it. Then how will it be possible for you not to make any progress? The moment you get the answer, just execute it. Then you will definitely make progress.

Another difficulty is that the disciples, after accepting the path and making some progress, are cherishing a complacent feeling. Consciously or unconsciously they feel that they are superior, not only to others in the outside world, but also to their brother and sister disciples. I tell you, with this superior feeling you are destroying yourselves. You are following a spiritual path and others are not following any path, so that is why you feel that you are superior. But superiority and inferiority lie only in your mind. How much oneness have you established with your Master? That is your only success, your only progress. You want to establish your oneness with the leaves or the flowers or the fruits of the tree of life without touching the root and the trunk, which is the Master. The leaves are also the Master, but if you do not first claim the Master who is the root and the trunk, then you are making a serious mistake; you are totally lost. You have to start from the source, which is the root of the tree.

So, dear ones, I am telling you once and for all that if you think that you are better or more advanced than others just because you do not have this difficulty or that difficulty, or this shortcoming or that shortcoming, then you are totally mistaken. You will have no shortcoming at all only when you become consciously and constantly one with the Will of the Supreme at every moment, and do the right thing according to the message that you get from within. Otherwise, your attitude or feeling will almost invariably cause you to make a deplorable mistake. And if you make a serious mistake once, then for six months your inner progress can stop. Of if you have made a serious, deplorable mistake, then six months’ progress which you have already made can be destroyed or nullified. Again, if you do one thing right to please the Supreme in me, then rest assured that you have made six months’ progress in one fleeing second. In one second you can make astonishing, astounding progress, which can last for six months. And again, in one second if you do something seriously wrong, then the Master loses all his faith in you. Once he loses faith, then your progress is totally destroyed. So always make the Master feel that he can have implicit faith in you, in your action, in your capacity, in your sincerity, in your devotedness.

You have to remember all the time that there are two worlds: the inner world and the outer world. For you, the inner world does not exist, and just because it does not exist for you, you think that that world does not exist for me, either. But this is absolutely untrue. You are not aware of the inner world. That is why you feel that whatever happens in your mind is between you and your mind. How am I going to hear it or keep track of it? But I wish to say that anything that happens in your mind, your soul knows; and my best friend is your soul. Your soul will immediately tell me what your mind is doing. Never think that your soul’s best friend is your mind and therefore, your soul will hide whatever is happening in the mind, if it is something undivine.

Your soul is my best friend. Your soul will immediately tell me what your mind is doing, what your vital is doing, what your physical consciousness is doing. Again, your soul is not treacherous — far from it. Your soul and the realised part in me have undertaken the same responsibility: to make you perfect. When the other members of the family — like the vital, mind and physical — are doing something wrong, at that time they become lame, blind, dumb. Then your soul feels like telling me, the doctor, that I have to come and cure you. So to all of you I am saying that you cannot deceive me because you have a soul, and your soul and my existence are inseparably one.

Some of you think that I cannot read minds. But that capacity God granted me at the age of twelve. I use it hundreds and thousands of times, but I do not tell outwardly that I am doing it. If I tell outwardly, then I will lose all the disciples. I have told you before that at the age of nineteen or twenty I had a young friend who was suffering from vital problems. He had a girlfriend and he had many problems with his vital life. But my love for him was all compassion. One day we were eating together and he asked me by way of joke, “Can you read minds?” I said, “All right. Let us see whether I can read your mind or not. You just write down whatever is in your mind. Then I will tell you what you have written. Right now if I tell you what is in your mind, you will deny it. So the best thing is for you to write it down.” He wrote it down and then I told him word for word what he had written. He said, “How did you do it?” I said, “It is already written on your forehead.”

I lost that particular friend by telling him what was in his mind. He had been my friend for five or six years, but then he said, “O my God! That means all the evil thoughts that are in my mind, you know. Today you know and tomorrow perhaps you will tell the whole world.” I said, “Have I nothing else to do?” But he said, “How can I trust you? Since you know it, you won’t keep anything hidden. Today you know it; tomorrow you will tell.” So he left. Even now, I have never exposed him. I am telling you about the incident, but I have never said the name of the person. But I lost that friend for good.

Sometimes when my disciples come to me for prasad or I see you on other occasions, you try to hide the evil thoughts that are in your minds. Again, sometimes you feel that it is not necessary to try to hide them because I do not know what is inside your mind. But both times you are fooled. When you think that you are successful in hiding them, you are mistaken. And when you think that I do not see them, you are also mistaken. You will be wise only when you immediately throw your evil thoughts into me as soon as they come, and desperately tell me inwardly, “Take them, take them, take them! I am dying, I am dying! I have got a spiritual heart attack. Please save me, save me!” At that time I will become one with your heart attack and I will say, “He is suffering. Let me take it.” But if you want to hide, if you do not want to take the doctor’s medicine, then it is not the doctor’s fault if you die. When you try to hide your undivine thoughts, you are making a serious mistake, and when you think that I do not see them, you are again making a mistake.

I have the capacity to read minds, and every second I can do it. But I do not use this capacity to expose you people. Spiritual Masters have to use it, but I use it not to know how bad you are, but to save you. When you come into a room that is illumined, automatically the illumined consciousness of the room sees you. Similarly, when you come to me, my light all around me sees you, not to expose you, but to illumine you. Unless it sees what is wrong, how can it illumine? So you do not have to be embarrassed or afraid. Your sincerity will save you.

Many, many times I get personal letters about lower vital problems, absolutely lowest vital problems and all that. But do I get angry? On the contrary, I see there frankness and sincerity, and I try desperately to save the person. But if you feel that since lower forces are bothering you, you should be ashamed, then you are making a serious mistake. You should be ashamed of your conduct only when you do not throw your suffering into me. Only when you hide it should you be ashamed. Only when you feel that I do not know what is going on should you feel ashamed. But no matter on which plane you are attacked, on the physical plane, the vital plane or the mental plane, if you immediately throw the wrong forces into me, then you are safe.

Dear ones, I have told you so many reasons why you people do not make progress or, when you do make progress, why you cannot maintain it. So at every moment make yourself feel that you have only one name: sincerity — sincerity in the physical, sincerity in the vital, sincerity in the mind, sincerity in the heart. And immediately feel that sincerity will offer everything to me. If it is good, if it is a beautiful flower, then give it to me. Again, if it is ink or some dirty, filthy thing, then give it to me. When a child gets a beautiful flower, he runs and gives it to his mother or father, to his dearest one. And again, when his body is besmeared with mud and dirt, he goes to his dearest mother or father. When he is the possessor of something good, he goes; when he is the possessor of something bad, he goes. He does not keep either the good thing or the bad thing for himself. He gives that very thing to his dearest one and the dearest one does the needful. If it is bad, he transforms it into good. If it is good, he transforms it into something infinitely better. Your lives also should be like that. When a wrong movement comes, give it to me to transform it. If something good enters into you, then give it to me so that I can make it infinitely better, more illumining and more fulfilling.

Now your heart has to accept what I have said. Then, after your heart has accepted it, the next thing is for your mind to have faith in your heart’s acceptance. Then the vital and the physical have to accept what the mind has accepted from the heart. If you can do this, you will become my perfect instrument, and you will realise that I am your perfect Master. Otherwise, you will be imperfect and I will be imperfect. With two imperfect souls, God can achieve next to nothing.