Picture

Soul-vision ascends; heart-power descends.
— photo by Sarama

Prayer-plants

1

My Lord Supreme, when You hide from me You are beautiful. When You appear before me You are beautiful, blessingful and fruitful. When I try to hide from You I think that I am going to accomplish something very great. When I do not hide from You, when I come to You with what I have and what I am, I see clearly and feel unmistakably that I have accomplished everything gloriously.

2

My Lord Supreme, yesterday I obeyed You. My obedience was my meaningful preparation. Today I am obeying You. My obedience is my soulful realisation. Tomorrow I shall obey You. My obedience shall be my fruitful perfection.

3

My Lord Supreme, when I look at the world from Your point of view, I see it as a perfection-plant of slow, steady and convincing growth. But when I look at the world from my point of view, I know that the perfection-plant is long dead, and it can be found in the land of nowhere.

4

My Lord Supreme, You tell us that we are very good. The devil tells us that we are very bad. Now it is up to us whom to believe. You do not force us to believe You, whereas the devil does not want to leave us even when we reject him vehemently and totally.

5

My Lord Supreme, do make me Your mirror so that You can see Yourself, admire Yourself and enjoy Your transcendental Beauty’s Perfection and Your universal Duty’s Satisfaction.

6

My Lord Supreme, You are great when You do everything all by Yourself. You are greater when You do everything through me. You are greatest when You accomplish everything just by giving a chance to anybody You want to.

7

My Lord Supreme, my surrender to You has weakened my doubtful mind, has strengthened my faithful heart, has softened my angry vital and has fed my hungry body.

Questions and answers on the physical body

On 13 March 1977 Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions at an indoor exercise room which he and his disciples have equipped for ping-pong, weight-training and light exercise.

Question: The Supreme gave me an abundance of height. I wonder if He wants me to have an abundance of weight also.

Sri Chinmoy: The Supreme does not want you to have more weight. Your height is excellent, and your present weight is excellent. Now speed is the thing that you need: speed in the physical, speed in the vital, speed in the mind and speed in the heart. Height you have got, and weight you have got. Now what you need is an increase in speed.

Question: How can we keep the body pure while we are asleep?

Sri Chinmoy: Before you go to sleep, concentrate on your navel chakra for purity, and feel that this purity is revolving around the navel area. When you feel it revolving, speed up the revolutions. When it turns very fast, it scatters light all around, and impurity is illumined. Do this every night before you go to sleep.

Question: If you want to sleep as little as possible, what can you do to keep your energy level high?

Sri Chinmoy: It is not advisable for you to sleep as little as possible right now. You have to see your body’s necessity. If the body demands seven hours, do not try to torture the body by sleeping for four hours. But if you need seven hours of sleep, and you sleep eight or ten hours, it will be a real injustice to your body. If you oversleep, it is a deplorable mistake. Again, if you do not sleep the amount you require, you will ruin your health. If you sleep the proper amount, only then will you be able to maintain your life-energy at a dynamic level.

Question: How can meditation help us to lose weight?

Sri Chinmoy: You can meditate every day to lose weight. As soon as you start meditating, you have to think of yourself as a feather. You can keep a feather in front of you and feel that you are that feather. Use your imagination-power. Imagination is reality in another world. If your concentrative will-power is focused on that feather, and if you can become one with the feather-consciousness, no matter what you eat, you will be able to lose weight. Your goal is not to become as light as a feather — far from it! The feather is only symbolic. The feather symbolises lightness. If you can keep inside your mind a fixed idea that you are light, automatically the mind will put pressure on the physical. Imagination is a very strong power. Your imagination will be able to help you.

Question: What is the best exercise for improving general health?

Sri Chinmoy: Running and skipping rope. If you cannot run because of the weather, the next best exercise is skipping rope. But running is by far the best, slow running.

Question: When we are in this gym, what is the best way to aspire?

Sri Chinmoy: When you are playing any game, don’t think so much of winning or losing. Only try to play your best. Feel that you are playing for improvement, not to win by hook or by crook. Keep the Supreme all the time in your mind. When you are playing your best, if the Supreme wants your opponent to win, he will win, and if the Supreme wants him to lose, he will lose. Somebody has to be the winner and somebody has to be the loser. Let God decide. That is called the spiritual way.

Question: Does the spiritual life actually change the physical form?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, the spiritual life does change the physical form if, while practising spirituality, you care for the physical. There are many spiritual Masters who practise spirituality and also care for the physical. I am one of those. Even while I was in India I took regular physical exercise as well as meditating. But there are many Masters who don’t care for the physical.

Spiritual life does have the capacity to change the physical, but if we do not consciously use the spiritual life to help the body, naturally the body will respond only to a limited extent. It depends on the seeker — whether he wants his spiritual life to enter into his body-consciousness, or he wants to have two separate existences. I feel that the two should go together. But again, if the body becomes the strongest but is not aspiring, that is useless. The body and soul have to go simultaneously on the spiritual journey.

Question: Always when I become very interested in the physical and playing sports, I injure myself to the point where I have to stop completely. Why does this happen?

Sri Chinmoy: What actually happens in your case is that when you enter into the physical world — playing tennis or other things — you do not give value to the physical as such. You remain in the mind. A portion of your existence you throw into the game, and another portion you keep totally in the mind-world. It is like cutting yourself in half. You are keeping your body on the first floor, but your consciousness is always on the upper floor, in the mind. If you can direct more of your mental energy into the physical when you play, this will not happen.

You want to play, you want to win, but actually the concentration of the mind, the real concentration, is not in the physical itself. You know that you are playing tennis, but the concentration that the body needs from the mind is not there. There is a gap. The body without concentration from the mind is helpless. So when you play, don’t think of your mental work. Your mind may not be aware that it is thinking of the wrong thing, but one thing is not to be aware of the wrong thing, and another thing is to concentrate consciously on the right thing. Inside you and all around you there are many Beings. Because there is a big gap between the mind’s concentration and the physical activity, these beings can attack the physical. They need not actually be wrong forces, but they may create unfortunate experiences in life.

Question: If one is in generally good health, what would cause pain and aches in the body?

Sri Chinmoy: It is one thing to have good health, and another thing to deliberately maintain good health. Unless you are consciously keeping good health, at any moment you may be attacked by some forces. It is like having a large amount of money without knowing about it. If you are not conscious of it, you may easily lose it. If you are not conscious that you have a flower, you are likely to lose it. Anything that you have must have some place in your awareness. You may have good physical health, but perhaps in two months’ time you have not thought of your body once, not to speak of trying to increase the strength of your legs or arms, or to get some extra capacity. Unless you touch something every day, it does not shine. Often I have told people to touch the furniture in their home every day. As soon as you touch something, it gets new life. If you are aware of something, immediately it shines. It gives us a new luminosity. If you have good health, if you touch it every day, it gets new life. By giving attention to something, you give new life to it.

Question: What is the best exercise to strengthen the legs when they get tired from standing all day?

Sri Chinmoy: If your legs get tired from standing all day, there are two exercises that are very good to strengthen them. One exercise develops the knee muscles. You sit on the floor with one leg straight, and the other leg bent with the knee up, both hands on your hips. Then you switch, bending the straight leg and straightening the bent leg. Then keep switching.

The other exercise is to do a deep knee bend on one leg, with the other leg out in front of you, then to stand up again, still keeping one leg in front of you. First you do it on your flat foot, then on your toe. If you can do it three or four times, your legs will have tremendous strength from top to bottom.

Question: Does an athlete who has spiritual purity have greater capacity than an athlete who does not care for the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: Suppose there are two athletes who, on the physical plane, have the same standard. Now, if one of them is impure, what will happen? If you really have the same standard, definitely you will be able to defeat him. As soon as you touch the shot, you will be able to control your vital thoughts, mental thoughts and physical thoughts. But when he holds it, he will look around to see if others are looking at him. It need not be girls, just any audience. When he is thinking of the audience, some of his strength goes away. As soon as he identifies himself with the audience, what he gets is their worries, anxieties and tension. But when you are throwing, as soon as you hold the shot, there are only you and the Supreme. You are not allowing your vital to come forward. You don’t open the physical door. You don’t open the mind door. Purity is your bodyguard. It does not allow any wrong force to come. You have no idea who is good, who is bad, who is your enemy. But your purity-guard is very strict. It will not allow anything wrong to enter into your mind. So if you have the same capacity as someone else, the one who is the purer of the two is bound to win, because he will not allow himself to be attacked by outside forces at the time of competition.

Question: How much importance should we give to the physical exercise in comparison with our regular work?

Sri Chinmoy: You are working very hard at your business, but you are thinking that that is the only work you have to do. You are giving one hundred per cent of your attention to your business, and not even one per cent to your body. But you have to feel that the body is also something necessary. So when you are here taking exercise or playing games, you have to think that this is the only thing in your life. Otherwise, while you are here you will still be thinking of your business. Your mind will not be here. Each time you play a game here, feel that this is the most important thing — not to do selfless service or to meditate. If you give importance to this, you will get extra energy from it for your work.

Question: Sometimes you can be exhausted, but if you force yourself to take exercise, you feel much better. How does this happen?

Sri Chinmoy: With running, we call it a second wind. After covering one or two miles, if the runner continues, he finds it easier to breathe. When you are exhausted, sometimes you are not actually physically tired. You are mentally tired or emotionally tired. You are not tired, but the mind convinces you that you are tired. But imagination can challenge the mind and win. When you run or do anything, try to exercise your imagination-power.

We weaken ourselves by imagining that we are weak. Again, we can strengthen ourselves by imagining that we are strong. Our imagination has compelled us to think: we cannot do this, we cannot say this. We often use imagination in a wrong direction. Instead of letting imagination take us forward toward our goal, we use it to take us backward.

Question: What is the best way to keep ourselves at a high energy level, to stay energetic throughout the day?

Sri Chinmoy: Try to get a few lines from my books — especially from the poetry books — that give you joy. Then, when you feel tired, if outwardly you cannot sing because others will be disturbed, inwardly sing those lines. Even outwardly you can sing. Each time you sing, you get new life; you get either delight or the power aspect from my writings. Inwardly set tune to those lines that inspire you, and then repeat them dynamically. If you sing Jatri or any powerful song of mine, this will also help. Now we have our famous song, Bhikka magi. Just sing that song powerfully two times, and you will get energy. If sweetness is lacking, then sing Phule phule.

Question: Did the Supreme have a divine Form before He created the human consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. He was both with form and formless before he created the universe. But first He was formless, then He became something with form. Then He created humanity. First He was formless; then He adopted form for His own sake. When He became the Form, a tiny portion of Him entered into each individual. He is infinite, but an atom of Him, let us say, entered into humanity in each human being. That tiny portion is the connecting link between the finite and the Infinite.

Each of us has a connection with the Form of the Supreme. But only when we have become consciously and totally one with the Form of the Supreme, can we go to the formless One. We cannot go to the formless Supreme without passing through the Supreme that has form. It is impossible to go to the Supreme as disembodied Consciousness. The Supreme with form has to be seen, felt and realised first, before we think of the Supreme without form.

Question: I get frequent headaches, and quite often have pain in the back of the neck and in the back.

Sri Chinmoy: When you concentrate or meditate, what actually happens is that you put pressure on your third eye. You put pressure, but you are not aware of it. That eye is not at your command. On the contrary, the third eye commands all the psychic centres in your body. So when you meditate, try not to put any pressure on the third eye. God’s Hour has to be respected. The third eye has to be opened spontaneously in the Supreme’s own way.

Sometimes when you are talking to someone, from a distance I see so much tension in your forehead, and your neck, back, everything, becomes stiff. The entire problem starts from the third eye. When you are doing something or saying something, do not keep the forehead tense.

Then, early in the morning if you can do a certain Indian exercise, it helps a lot. You breathe in water very gently through your nostrils and bring it out through your mouth. Then the tension goes away from the forehead. Alternate nostril breathing also helps. You can learn these two exercises from a Hatha Yoga teacher.

Poems

Aspiration

When we aspire
We reveal to Heaven
Who we are.

We are the chosen children
Of God
For His Revelation-Light
And
Perfection-Delight
On earth.

Freedom

The outer freedom tells us
What we can do:
We can destroy the world.

The inner freedom tells us
What we can become
And
What we eternally are.
What we can become:
God’s perfect instruments.
What we eternally are:
His Vision-Boat
And
Reality-Shore.

Patience

Patience is to expand
The boundaries of time.
Patience is to grow
In God’s Heart,
In God’s own way.

Service

On earth
Service means
The Smile of God.

In Heaven
Service means
The reality-descending Light.

Dynamism

Soul’s dynamism Is for God’s Manifestation-Light.
Vital aggression Is for the destruction of Earth-light,
Earth-height and Earth-might.

Purity

Purity is to breathe in
The energy divine from Above.

Purity is to assimilate
God-Light in self-giving.

Purity is to perfect
Human nature in God’s own way.

Purity is to unify
One’s finite consciousness
With the ever-expanding Consciousness-Light
Of the Absolute Supreme.

Surrender

Surrender your ignorance-night.
God the Compassion will love you.

Surrender your wisdom-light.
God the Immortal Height will claim you
As His very own.

My divine pilgrimage

My divine pilgrimage²

My Beloved Lord, my Beloved Friend, my Beloved All, You have given me my simplicity, You have given me my sincerity, You have given me my serenity, You have given me my purity.

Simplicity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my body-consciousness. Sincerity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my vital-dynamism. Serenity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my mental vision. Purity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my heart’s delight.

My Lord Supreme, You have also told me that my simplicity, sincerity, serenity and purity will reach their acme of perfection only when my heart’s gratitude-flowers petal by petal blossom into perfect Perfection. And for that what I need is constant self-giving — conscious, soulful and unconditional self-giving. In order to have conscious, constant and unconditional self-giving, I need to approach You not as a beggar-destitute, but as a lover-friend. If I approach You as a beggar, You will give me what I need or what I want. But my receptivity-vessel will be so small that even if You give me what I need, it will not be much, it will be far from my full satisfaction. And if You give me what I want, it may not be the right thing. You may give me, but what You give me will ultimately be a source of true frustration, and never a source of satisfaction.

My Lord Supreme, even if You give me an iota of what You want to give me, that very iota will not only please the real in me, the soul, but immortalise the human in me. The human in me is my human hope, my earthly hope. Hope before it bears fruit is nothing short of illusion and delusion — mental hallucination, to say the least. But even this very hope You will be able to immortalise. Once my hope is immortalised, I shall see my hope in the form of Your own Reality’s transcendental Vision and Your own Vision’s universal Reality.

The Core of India's Light

//[Continued from previous issue]//

100.

Bīja

The seed

Yesterday I was the seed of inspiration. Today I am the plant of aspiration. Tomorrow I shall not only be the tree of realisation, but also the fruit of man-satisfaction in God.

101.

Bhikshu

Monk

The life of a monk desires world-rejection. World-rejection is nothing short of the rejection of God’s own Body. Rejection cannot solve the world-problems. It is the heroic acceptance of God that can and will someday transform each problem into a veritable opportunity for God-manifestation on earth.

102.

Bhubah

The higher world

The higher world longs for the manifestation of God-Illumination. The lower world cries for the descent of God-Compassion.

103.

Bhūḥ

On the earth plane

On the earth plane uncertainty reigns supreme. The manifestation of truth is uncertain. Everything is uncertain on the earth plane, save and except God’s Compassion.

104.

Bhūmā

The Infinite

The Delight of the Infinite the finite can never achieve. But it can easily receive, provided it becomes the song of constant selflessness.

105.

Bhuvana

The world

Who can change the world? Not he who just talks. Not he who just does. Not he who says and does. Not he who does and says. But he who eternally is.

[To be continued in next issue]

I wish to be fair

I wish to be fair

A Sanskrit scholar used to teach in a college. One day the principal of the college said to him, “I have a piece of good news for you: you have been promoted.”

The scholar said, “How can it be? I don’t deserve promotion!”

“But we need a teacher for the higher course,” said the principal.

The Sanskrit scholar said, “Oh, I can easily solve that problem. My own teacher is now out of employment. It is he who deserves this post. He knows Sanskrit far better than I do. Let me go and tell him that you have a post for him. He will be able to teach very well. I assure you that you will be satisfied with him.”

The principal said, “Oh, no, we can’t take your teacher for the higher class when we do not know him at all. He can take your class, and you will go to teach the higher class.”

The scholar said, “That is absurd. I can’t allow that. My teacher knows much more than I do!”

The principal said, “You have served this college for several years, so we know your capacity. Without knowing your teacher’s capacity, how can we give him that post?”

The scholar said, “You have faith in me, and I know my teacher’s capacity. I have faith in my teacher.”

The principal said, “Sorry, either you accept the offer or you stay where you are.”

“You are trying to tempt me, but I am not tempted by you,” said the scholar. “Just because you have tried to tempt me, you deserve punishment. Either you accept my teacher for the higher class, or I am leaving this school.”

The following day the scholar did not come to the college. The principal was utterly amazed at this professor’s love for his teacher. He was helpless on the one hand, but proud on the other hand that he had seen such a self-giving man, and that such a self-giving man was teaching in his college. So the principal informed the scholar to bring his teacher.

When they were both standing before him, the principal said, “I have never seen and perhaps will never see a man like you.”

“No, you will see many, many who will far surpass me,” said the scholar. “But I wish to tell you that in life when I am fair to someone, then God will be fair to me — only then and not even one second before. So I always wish to be fair.”

Then the principal gave the higher post to the scholar’s teacher, and the scholar resumed teaching his own class.

To-morrow's dawn

//[Continued from previous issue]//

137.

You love God. Indeed, this is your first triumph.

You need God. Indeed, this is your second triumph.

You have surrendered your little “i” to God. Indeed, this is your third and last triumph. There is no other triumph left. God loves you and I adore you.

138.

Your affluence will disappear when you die. Your influence may disappear before you die. Your ignorance will never disappear unless you accept God for God’s sake.

139.

Now that you know how to laugh at ignorance, you are more than ready for the monumental task of conquering ignorance.

140.

Do you know how you have won? By virtue of your tremendous personal charm you have won all the human beings. By virtue of your incredible energy you have won all the divine deities.

141.

God loves you. Indeed, this is your supreme discovery. You love God. Indeed, this is your absolute invention.

142.

Because of his sure mind, Aristotle was accepted as the absolute authority in every field of thought. Because of your pure heart, you will soon be accepted as the supreme authority in every field of oneness-delight.

143.

An idealist wants to become great. A realist wants to become good. What I want to become, is a great smile and a good cry.

144.

God’s Compassion and man’s realisation are always indistinguishable.

145.

An unexplored person must needs remain unknown.

146.

I do want you to think. But I want you to take time to think. I do want you to dream. But I want you to take time to dream. I do want you to aspire. But I do not want you to take time to aspire.

147.

People cry to have an access to the mystery-world. But, alas, they do not know that countless mysteries swirl around them on all sides. Why? Because they have kept their heart’s door shut and have left their mind’s door wide open.

148.

Science is spirituality revealed unconsciously. Spirituality is science concealed lovingly.

149.

Science and spirituality complement each other. Science is for the manifestation of spirituality. Spirituality is for the realisation of science.

150.

A man of science says, “Nature is not totally spent.” A man of spirituality says, “God is never spent.”

Songs

Man is dear to man

Man is dear to man
Because of his failure-cry.
God is dear to God
because of failure-
Success-
Oneness-
Experience-sky.

Nami juga avatar

/Nami juga avatar/
/Deva bigraha karunar/
/Asim udar/
/Jayatu apar/
/Dhangser pathe chaleche pritthi durbar/
/Mahakalanal/
/Bhishan garal/
/Hingsa irsha abichar/
/Nami juga avatar/
/Chinmoy bapu jyotir adhar/
/Sarva siddhi oishi riddhi/
/Dharani jachiche charane tomar/
/Nami juga avatar/


I bow to You, O Avatar of the era,
O emblem of infinite Compassion-Height.
Constantly I sing your Victory-Song.
This mad world is running toward destruction.
Around me is the poison of jealousy, cruelty and injustice.
I bow to You, O Avatar of the era,
Your Consciousness-body,
Which is the receptacle of boundless Light
Filled with heavenly Light and Power.
O Avatar of the era,
My world invokes You alone.