Picture

God’s Dream-Boat sails

— photo by Bhashwar

Silence¹

Silence is the greatness of the human mind. Silence is the goodness of the divine heart. Silence is the selflessness of the perfect soul.

Silence loves God’s inner Beauty. Silence reveals God’s inner Duty. God’s inner Beauty awakens the human seeker in us. God’s inner Duty fulfils the divine lover in us.

Silence is the God-song. This song is an ever-transcending experience. Silence is the God-music. This music is an ever-illuming realisation.

There are two realities: sound-reality and silence-reality. Sound-reality is self-reliance. Silence-reality is God-reliance. Sound-reality is self-declaration and self-admiration. Silence-reality is God-adoration. Sound-reality is the declaration of our human autocracy and supremacy. Silence-reality is our constant self-transformation in God’s Compassion-Heart.

A man of silence has a free access to God’s personal properties. These properties are Eternity, Infinity and Immortality. In the soul of Eternity, man the seeker learns from God. In the heart of Infinity, man the seeker speaks to God. In the life of Immortality, man the seeker becomes another God.

I watch, I pray²

I watch before I pray. I watch if there are undivine thoughts trying to assail my mind. Needless to say, I do not surrender to these undivine thoughts.

I watch before I pray. I watch if there are divine thoughts trying to inspire my heart. Needless to say, I welcome these thoughts with my open mind, open heart and open arms.

I pray, and then I watch. I watch and see if the jealous world is trying to rob me of the peace, light and bliss that I have acquired from my prayer. Needless to say, my conscious awareness prevents the jealous world from robbing me.

I pray, and then I watch. I watch to see if there are sincere seekers who would like to have the peace, light and bliss that I have acquired from my prayer. Needless to say, to them I immediately offer my peace, light and bliss devotedly, soulfully and unreservedly.

God watches me pray. Through my prayer He expects me to change for the better: to have a better consciousness, better aspiration and a better realisation.

God watches me pray. Through my prayer He expects me to become a more soulful instrument of His, Him to serve unconditionally in His own Way.

God watches me pray. Through my prayer He wants me to become an unconditional seeker, an unconditional server and an unconditional lover.

Before God created this world, He watched and measured the ascendency of His Silence-Height. Now that God has created the world, He watches and measures the excellence of His Sound-Might.

I pray, I watch, I accept and, finally, I embrace the Feet of my Beloved Supreme with my heart’s purity. God meditates, accepts and, finally, embraces my heart with His constant Self-giving Reality and Self-giving Divinity.

Faith, love, devotion and surrender³

My Lord, my simple faith follows You. My Lord, my sincere love follows You. My Lord, my intense devotion follows You. My Lord, my unconditional surrender follows You.

My faith knows who You are. My love knows who You are. My devotion knows all about our closeness. My surrender knows all about our oneness. I know, my Lord, that when I do my best You do the rest for me compassionately, unreservedly and unconditionally.

Why was I created? I was created to love You. Why was I created? I was created to need You. Why was I created? I was created to manifest You here on earth. Why was I created? I was created to be a perfect instrument of Yours, to please You in Your own way.

I have a secret, a supreme secret. I am at my journey’s start, and the goal is still a far cry. Indeed, this is my inner conviction.

My Beloved Lord Supreme also has a secret, and this sweet secret He shares with me. He tells me that I am not at my journey’s start but that I am at my journey’s close; I am at my destination. But this destination of mine, unlike other destinations, is ever-transcending, ever-illumining and ever-fulfilling. At the destination the journey actually does not come to a close, for each destination is the starting point for a new journey. Therefore, I am always walking, marching and running along Eternity’s Road in the process of a new, illumining and fulfilling journey.

My life⁴

My Lord Supreme, my committed life thinks of You. My perfected life meditates on You. My surrendered life loves You. My oneness-life fulfils You.

My thought-world tells me that there is definitely a goal. My meditation-world tells me that this goal is not a far cry. My love-world tells me that You are my Eternity’s Beloved Supreme. My fulfilment-world tells me that we need each other; I need You for my realisation-seed and You need me for Your manifestation-fruit.

My Lord Supreme, this is my simple discovery: I am not what my mind says, but what my heart does; not what my heart does, but what my life eventually becomes; not what my life eventually becomes, but what my soul eternally is. My soul is Your Eternity’s soulful Cry and Your Infinity’s fruitful Smile.

A special beauty⁵

There is a special beauty in the seeker who soulfully cries. There is a special beauty in the seeker who unreservedly smiles.

There is a special beauty in the seeker who unconditionally gives. There is a special beauty in the seeker who gratefully receives.

There is a special beauty in the seeker who knows that his previous purity lasts precisely because it is helped by his divine love. There is a special beauty in the seeker who knows that his divine love lasts precisely because it is constantly helped by his intense devotion. There is a special beauty in the seeker who knows that his intense devotion lasts because of his surrendered oneness with his Inner Pilot.

Beauty human, beauty divine and Beauty supreme. The human beauty appears at lightning speed and also disappears at lightning speed. Slowly, steadily and unerringly the divine beauty appears, and it does not disappear. Eternally the supreme Beauty abides in the core of the self-giving seeker. It neither appears nor disappears; it eternally is in the core of the self-giving seeker.

Do I believe in miracles?⁶

Do I believe in miracles? Yes, I do. Do I want to see miracles performed in my own life? Yes, I do. Every day I wish to get up at six o’clock in the morning and pray to God and meditate on God. If I can do this, it will be the first miracle in my life.

The second miracle I want to see in my life is this: for ten fleeting seconds every day I shall offer my gratitude-heart to my Beloved Supreme. The third miracle I want is to be able to pray without any expectation. I shall pray for peace, love and light from my Beloved Supreme, but if He does not fulfil my prayer, I shall not mind. I shall continue to pray so that I can become a good instrument, for I feel that by practising prayer I can become a good instrument of my Beloved Supreme.

There is still another miracle which I want to see performed in my own life. When I meditate, it is my most sincere wish not to allow any thought whatsoever to enter into my mind. I wish to make my mind calm, quiet and tranquil during my meditation. During my meditation, in silence I shall sing the song of victory, and this song I shall dedicate to my Inner Pilot. During my meditation I shall observe only one thing: is my surrender to the Will of the Supreme increasing or decreasing? I shall try to increase my surrender at every moment during my meditation. I shall meditate for vastness in my outer nature and perfection in my inner nature. I shall try to meditate for at least half an hour without intermission, soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally. At the end of my meditation I shall again offer my gratitude-heart to my Beloved Supreme for ten fleeting seconds, for out of His infinite Bounty He has enabled me to perform the first miracle: to get up early in the morning and put an end to my lethargy and ignorance-sleep.

During the day I shall try my best to chant, deep in the inmost recesses of my heart, a small but soulful, meaningful and fruitful message: “God for God’s sake.” Spirituality is for the sake of spirituality. Realisation is for the sake of realisation. Oneness is for the sake of oneness. Spirituality means God for God’s sake. The inner cry means God for God’s sake. Perfection in nature means God for God’s sake. When the seeker soulfully cries out, “God for God’s sake,” Infinity, Eternity and Immortality become not vague terms but absolute realities which blossom slowly, steadily and unerringly in his heart.

From now on, I shall love my Lord for my Lord’s sake; Him I shall please in His own way. In silence I shall utter, “God for God’s sake.” If I can do all this, then I shall be a performer of a number of miracles in my own life.

Prayer harvest

//[Continued from previous issues]//

1.

My Lord Supreme,

There was a time when I gave You everything as a duty. But now I give You everything out of love. I place my progress-smile at Your Feet.

2.

My Lord Supreme,

Yesterday I failed. But today I shall not. Why? Because today I am not only with You but also for You, only for You.

3.

My Lord Supreme,

You are Your Compassion. May I become Your expression? Do give me a chance.

4.

My Lord Supreme,

Each day is another step closer either to frustration-gate or to satisfaction-home.

5.

My Lord Supreme,

Your encouragement I love. Your punishment I treasure.

6.

My Lord Supreme,

Your Compassion awakens the human in me. Your justice inspires the divine in me.

7.

My Lord Supreme,

There is no difference between my flowering-smile and Your Compassion-Touch.

8.

My Lord Supreme,

I am giving You my sorrow’s strength. Do give me Your Joy’s Length.

9.

My Lord Supreme,

Physically I died to see Your Face. Spiritually I am crying to sit at Your Feet.

10.

My Lord Supreme,

Alas! My face of pride I see everywhere. Alas! Alas! My heart of humility I see nowhere.

11.

My Lord Supreme,

May my life become a life of willingness. May my heart be always a heart of selflessness.

12.

My Lord Supreme,

My aspiration-dedication life knows all about You. My surrender-gratitude-life knows only You.

13.

My Lord Supreme,

The outer world is a doubter’s mind. The inner world is a lover’s heart. Am I not correct?

14.

My Lord Supreme,

Success-day I like. Progress-sun I love.

15.

My Lord Supreme,

I am helping my poor mind to make a new beginning. Will You not grant me Your inspiration-encouragement?

Anniversary of Transcendence-Perfection⁷

Transcendence-Perfection. Perfection is transcendence. Transcendence is perfection. Today is an immortal day. Those who believe in their immortality will definitely feel something in these poems.

Now, how do we transcend ourselves, or how do we perfect ourselves? There are a few ways, namely: we learn and unlearn, we accept and reject, we command and surrender.

We learn and unlearn. We learn devotedly anything that our aspiring heart teaches us. We unlearn consciously everything that our doubting mind has taught us over the years.

We accept and reject. We accept soulfully, devotedly and gratefully the things that we have received from our Inner Pilot, our Beloved Supreme. We ruthlessly reject the things that ignorance-sea has already given us and the things that ignorance-sea wants to give us.

We command and surrender. We command our ignorance-life to abide by our soulful will, for we feel that since we have practised spirituality over the years, we have access, to some extent, to our inner guide, our soul. We command ignorance to leave us alone because we are of the soul and for the soul, which is all wisdom. We surrender to the highest in us, and this highest we gradually realise as we go on unveiling our hidden realities. We surrender what we have and what we are to the Supreme Pilot. What we have is our eagerness to become His perfect instruments in His own way. What we are at this moment is nothing short of a veritable beggar, a helpless child in the dense forest. Our utter helplessness we surrender to our Beloved Pilot, and also our most sincere eagerness to become totally His — to be guided, moulded, shaped, illumined, perfected, transformed and immortalised by Him.

We learn and unlearn; we accept and reject; we command and surrender. If we can do all these things, then we can easily transcend ourselves, and our self-transcendence is another name for our faultless perfection.

He is really something!

He is really something!
He always like to compete
With himself and
Transcend himself.
God smiles with joy
Because he competes
With himself.
God cries with joy
Because he does really
Transcend himself.

Leave all behind you

Leave all behind you.
There is nothing,
Absolutely nothing
For you to carry.
God wants to see you —
You, only you.
He is tired of seeing
Everybody else
And
Everything else.

Purity

Purity: a thought-light
That shakes mankind,
Transforms mankind,
Glorifies mankind
And
Fulfils God in God’s own way.

The only joy in the world

The only joy
In the outer world
Is to begin.

The only joy
In the inner world
Is to continue.

The only joy
In God’s world
Is never to stop,
But to unconditionally love God
And serve His creation.

Really bad, really good

Nothing will surprise me.
Everything is possible here on earth.
But what is really bad
And what is really good?
To escape from reality-life
Is really bad.
To fight against ignorance
And to establish wisdom-light
Is really good.

Smile, America!

Smile, America, my America, Smile!
Why do you weep, why do you cry?
The world’s volley of criticism
Need not curse the real in you
And
It cannot curse the real in you.
Smile, America!
Run and jump!
Fly!
Achieve and become!
Smile, America, smile!

Smile, humanity, smile!

Smile, humanity, smile!
God not only loves you
Constantly
But also needs you
Unreservedly.
Smile, humanity, smile!

Lord, I thank you

Lord, I thank You
For Your Smile.
I thank You
For my heart’s cry.
I thank You
For all that
You have done for me
And all that You have not done for me.

Lord, I thank You
Because You have given me
A sure heart,
A brave vital,
A pure mind
And a strong body.

Lord, finally, I love You
Because You have made me
Your Blessing-Love incarnate.

Aspire!

Aspire!
If not, everything will follow
The ancient dust.

Aspire!
If not, earth will not claim you;
Heaven will disown you.

Aspire!
God the Reality in you
Desperately needs you.
God is longing
For His complete, perfect Manifestation
In the heart of earth’s imperfection-ignorance.

More than enough time

Do not count the time that you have lost,
But count the time
That is at your immediate disposal.
The time that is before you
Is more than enough
To enter into Infinity’s Heart
And Eternity’s Perfection-Delight.

Questions and answers

Question: Does God create at the animal level?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, He does. God Himself is in the process of ever-transcending perfection. It is He Himself who becomes the animal, and it is He who will become the man. God wants to experience Himself through various forms of manifestation. A potter, when he makes a pot, changes the shape constantly — moulding, smoothing, perfecting the contour of the vessel until it reaches a standard that satisfies him. So God, too, is perfecting Himself through the animal kingdom as well as through humanity, because He Himself is the Spirit which has descended into all matter. This is His divine Game.

Question: I cannot understand how anything created by God can be imperfect. How can He create a soul that is not perfect at the beginning and then say, "All right, you go ahead in your own way; develop as best you can."

Sri Chinmoy: But God does not throw the soul heartlessly into the manifestation. The soul is not alone. God Himself is always inside the soul. We say that we are all a part of God; we have come from God. But where is our realisation? Where is our perfection? We are in the process of consciously attaining this realisation and perfection. Each individual represents God — that we know. But each individual has not consciously realised Him.

The Absolute God, who is the Supreme Self, is perfect. The Highest, the One without a second, the God who has created the multiplicity, is always perfect. But the one who has entered into the earth plane for evolution has accepted imperfection because he has taken on the earthly consciousness, which is full of limitations and imperfections.

We cannot separate God from our existence or from our imperfections. Do you think that God is not there in all the imperfections that we see in this world? God is everywhere. God is in the thief as well as in the honest person. He is there, having an experience, but He is manifested in different degrees. God can be in everything. He is in the highest, and He is also in the lowest.

But we do not want to have the God who is in the lowest. We want to have the God who is in the highest. God is in filthy water as well as in pure, clean water. If I want to remain healthy, I shall have to drink the pure water. God is not manifested in sufficient degree in the filthy water to allow me to benefit from drinking it. In fact, I would become sick or even die if I did. So the God in the dirty water does me no good in my life of aspiration.

Similarly, if I want to be perfect and serve the Divine, I have to become divine. How many times in our daily existence does each human being become the victim of ugly thoughts, undivine thoughts? But during the same day he also gets divine, fulfilling and sublime thoughts. In the uncomely thoughts God is not manifested as He is in the divine thoughts. But He does not separate His existence from one moment to another and stay only in the good thoughts. He is there in our undivine consciousness as well as in our aspiring consciousness. It is we who have to decide which aspect of God we want.

The Supreme, the Spirit, has entered into matter, which is ignorant, sleeping. But gradually the Spirit awakens from its own self-imposed sleep within matter. It pushes matter forward, encouraging it to evolve. It says, “Open your eyes; you have to grow into the Infinite.” With our human consciousness, with our wisdom, with our conscious aspiration, we have to grow towards the best, the highest, the most fulfilling.

Our usual conception of God is that He is up above and cannot come down. I may say that I and my Father are one, but if I am an ordinary man, I believe that my Father is up in Heaven and I am down on earth. But no, my Father is here, too. Even if I am in Hell, then He is also in Hell. My Father cannot remain in Heaven while I am in Hell. When I say that my Father and I are one, it means that if I am in the most abysmal depths, He is there, too. He is where I am, if we are really one. And even if I am not conscious of our oneness, God is always with me and in me. If I am in prison, my Father will be there also. He cannot stay aloof from me, for we are inseparably one.

So to come back to your question, God is not saying to the soul, “Go ahead and develop as best you can.” He Himself is always with us and in us. In fact, it is He who is secretly our highest Self.

Question: I feel that I am a child of God and I also feel, unfortunately, that I am a child of belief, tradition and all sorts of things. Is it possible to be free from all past beliefs and be absolutely one with God?

Sri Chinmoy: We tend to believe everything that we hear from our parents, from our friends, from the world around us. Let us think of having ‘faith’, which is a stronger word than ‘belief’. Faith deals with our strong inner convictions. George Bernard Shaw once said that we have not lost our faith in God, but we have transferred our faith to the doctors. This is often true. Very often people have more faith in doctors than in God; most of us have more faith in human beings than in God.

But you want to empty yourself of all the old beliefs, superstitions or unnecessary traditions that you have accumulated from your childhood. Yes, a child of God, a true child of God, can have total oneness with God consciously. You can be one with God without acting on the strength of the old beliefs which you cherished or are still cherishing.

Your mind can be totally emptied of old ideas, traditions and beliefs which you cherished or are still cherishing. These beliefs can be replaced by your soul’s spontaneous and constant assurance, and by your growing inner Light.

In human belief there is a mixture of doubt: fifty percent may be belief, fifty percent will be doubt; or one percent may be belief, and as much as ninety-nine percent may be doubt. But when you live in the soul and grow in the soul, you are illumined by the soul’s light, which embodies all inevitability and certainty. Not only will you get assurance from the soul, but also the soul’s inevitability, which is absolutely one with God’s dynamic Reality and God’s dynamic Vision.

Through sincere aspiration you can get rid of the mental beliefs or worldly beliefs that you have kept in your heart and mind. You can now have the soul’s spontaneous light, which expresses itself as inevitability or immediate assurance. This comes only from the soul and through the soul. And this oneness and instantaneous expression, which is full of light, can be established in your mind and heart. The so-called worldly beliefs you can discard as you discard old clothes. It is possible and it is inevitable; in fact, it is necessary for God-realisation. Otherwise, your old beliefs will come in the form of society’s dictates or in the form of traditional morality to hamper your spiritual progress.

We have to go beyond beliefs, all beliefs. We have to be in direct constant oneness with God, with the highest Reality. Reality is expressed through the soul, and if we can live in the soul constantly, we can express that highest Reality. At that time belief has no place in our lives.

Question: In what way can we show a person who does not believe in God that God exists?

Sri Chinmoy: The only way you can show the existence of God to that kind of person is by your own personal inner peace, inner light and inner joy. The Supreme, of course, has infinite aspects which could be shown. He manifests Himself in infinite ways. You do not have to show the Supreme in a human form, even if you were able to do this. Since the Supreme is infinite Joy, Peace, Light, Bliss and Power, you can manifest Him by embodying these qualities. Your very appearance, your very presence, when you stand in front of that person, can make him feel the existence of God inside you.

When you are in the presence of a spiritual person, what do you feel? You feel peace, you feel light. His very presence makes you feel that there is something divine in him. What is that divine feeling? It is actually the Supreme in the form of the aspirant’s divine qualities. So the best way to demonstrate the existence of God is to manifest God in your own life, in your own consciousness.

We cannot convince others by using words, by endless talking and arguing. Every intellectual argument in favour of the existence of God can be met by a counter-argument. You will discover this if you study Western philosophy. There is no end to the statements and rebuttals about the existence or non-existence of God. These fruitless arguments have been going on for centuries. Whole philosophical systems have been built up around these intellectual theories. But even if your own mind is illumined with your soul’s light, that is not enough to convince someone who does not agree with you. The mind of the other person also has to be, to some extent, in touch with his own soul’s truth. Then only will he be able to receive the inner truth of what you say about the Supreme. Needless to say, this is very unusual and it rarely happens.

The best way to convince someone of the existence of God is to try to manifest His divinity in your own life. If the other person is at all sincere or receptive, he will see that you have something that he lacks. He will also feel that your qualities of light and peace are coming from another source. He knows that you are leading a spiritual life. He knows that you believe in God. He will see and feel that you have got inner peace, poise, light and joy. If he is sincere, this is all the proof he needs. His inner perception of a better, higher consciousness in you is the only thing that will convince him. It will convince him more than a thousand words.

Question: Does a person have to obtain a temporary suspension of his karma so that he can obtain worthy aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Spiritually it does not happen in that way. Suppose an individual has done something wrong. What will happen is that the cosmic forces, the cosmic law we can say, will offer him the results of it. It may happen that something wrong has been done, but for five or six months — or even more — the result is suspended. The karma is due, but for a few months or a few years the cosmic forces are observing the person and waiting for the appropriate opportunity. Now during that time if they see that he is trying to turn over a new leaf, if he is praying and meditating and leading a better life, then this karma may be reduced or even annihilated. It is not actually that the result is being suspended. No, the forces are operating. The forces that are going to punish him, or we can say, offer him the result of his action, are operating. But if the divine forces come to the fore in that particular person, they can fight against these forces of karma. The karmic forces have already started to act, and the result is coming. But in the meantime the Divine Compassion may begin to operate in and through that particular person. He may feel, “All right, I have done something wrong, but now I am doing something right to make up for it. I have the capacity to do something wrong. But I also have the capacity to do something right. Let me do it and earn God’s Forgiveness.” Then God’s Forgiveness will fight against his karmic punishment.

If a spiritual Master is involved in the life of a particular seeker, then what can the Master do? If he sees that somebody is about to be punished for his wrong actions, if the spiritual Master wants to, and if it is the Will of God, he can take the punishment on himself. He will not suffer as much as the seeker would have suffered. If he wants, he can immediately throw the pain or suffering into the Universal Consciousness. For my most dear disciples I also do this kind of thing.

Question: I would like to know why so many obstacles arise in our way when we enter the spiritual path?

Sri Chinmoy: Here you have to know what the true and conscious acceptance of the spiritual life entails. Before you accepted the spiritual life you had all these problems, either in the subconscious part of yourself or in your outer daily life, but just because you were unconscious, you did not realise it. Before you accepted the spiritual life you were fast asleep in the world of inconscience, so you were not fully aware of the difficulties you had.

When you are fast asleep at night, somebody may be talking in your room, but just because you are asleep, you don’t know about it. Similarly, you think that you had no difficulties before, but that is just because you were in another world. Once you enter into the world of reality, which is the world of spiritual aspiration, you will become aware of these problems, which you simply were not aware of in your unconscious life.

But this is a great opportunity for you to make progress. In the spiritual life you immediately know who your enemies are, who is standing in your way. Immediately you get the opportunity to face them, to fight them, to transform them. In the ordinary world, when you were leading an ordinary life, you had all these difficulties, but just because you were unconscious, you did not know it. You were not aware of the existence or the importance of those difficulties. Now that you are conscious, you are seeing all the difficulties — not necessarily as outer enemies, but as your own imperfections. The more you run toward the Light, the more you will see the slightest darkness within yourself, and feel it pulling you away from the Light. When you are consciously trying to be perfect, just a slight imperfection will disappoint you. If you came here at one minute past three and you told me that you would come at three o’clock, immediately it will bother you. “Oh, I told my Master that I would be there at three o’clock. How is it that I am late by one minute?” The nearer you are to the Light, the greater will be the importance you give to Light, and also the more clearly you will see what is darkness and what is light.

This is the greatest opportunity. Now you are seeing your difficulties face-to-face. When the enemy is hiding in the dark you don’t see him. If you don’t see the enemy, how are you going to fight him? How are you going to chase him away or capture him and transform him? But in broad daylight you can clearly see your obstacles. Then you must have aspiration. This aspiration brings down the highest Light, the highest Power for you. In you it acts, through you it acts and for you it acts just because you are aspiring. If you are not aspiring, this divine Grace, divine Power, will not descend into you. All these obstacles will remain in your life for many, many, many incarnations.

In this incarnation, however, you have accepted the spiritual life consciously, devotedly and soulfully. Now you can make wonderful progress. You have received the greatest opportunity to overcome all difficulties, and you should be happy that you are now aware of the obstacles and can fight them out and transform them. It is your aspiration that will solve all your problems. You have that aspiration. When you did not have aspiration that was the real problem. Now the problems that you are seeing can easily be conquered on the strength of your sincere aspiration.

Question: How can a man achieve will power — I mean the strength to go forward on the spiritual path?

Sri Chinmoy: There are quite a few things one has to do. You are using the term ‘will power’ in the spiritual sense, so I am telling you from the spiritual point of view how you can develop spiritual will power and how you can increase it. First of all, you must mix only with spiritual people. It is true that everyone is God’s child; we are all God’s children. But God is not asking you to mix with everyone. He is asking you only to mix with those whom you feel are spiritually aspiring. By sitting beside an ordinary person, you may get pleasure. But by sitting beside someone who is spiritually aspiring, you will get divine joy, because you will feel immediately that his inspiration is increasing the divine strength inside you. Will power is in all divine qualities. In joy there is tremendous will power. So you will be able to increase your will power by mixing with people who are spiritual.

Here is another way. You know that you eat twice or three times a day. You have to feel that the act of eating is energising your body, but it is not energising your soul; it is not fulfilling your soul’s mission on earth. For that you have to spend a few minutes — at least five or ten minutes two or three times a day — in meditation.

Then you have to constantly ask yourself one thing. Do you want God or do you want ignorance? The two are standing right in front of you at every moment, and you must make a choice. You know and everybody knows that one cannot serve two masters. So when these two masters stand in front of you, you have to decide immediately which one you want. If you choose God, you must come to Him and enter into Him. And each time you find that you have come out of a divine consciousness, you have to enter into it again. If you can re-enter into God’s Consciousness faithfully every time you come out of it, then after hundreds of times you will discover finally that you do not come out of it and enter into ignorance anymore. A day will come when your conscious choice of God will be permanent, and you will be totally merged in God forever.

As you begin your spiritual journey with both positive and negative, with God and with ignorance, always try to feel that you are God’s son. Early in the morning you can soulfully repeat, “I am God’s child, I am God’s child, I am God’s child.” Immediately you will see that whatever is dark, impure and ugly in you will go away. Later in the day, when ignorance comes to tempt you, you will feel, “I am God’s child. How can I do this? I cannot enter into ignorance.” By repeating, “I am God’s child,” you will get abundant inner strength and will power.

These are some ways to increase your inner strength. You can practise all of them, but to start with, mix with spiritual people. Again, you should be careful. If you are following my path, you should mix with my disciples. This is not because I am mean or I am jealous of others.

But you cannot be in two boats at once. If you have one foot in one boat and the other foot in another boat, you will only fall into the sea of ignorance-confusion. It is for your own good that I ask you to associate only with the disciples of your own Master. A real Master cannot be jealous of any other path or any other Master. We shall all ultimately reach the same Goal. But as I said before, one cannot serve two masters. Two spiritual Masters can never be properly served by one individual at one time. If you want to serve the Supreme in me, come only to this place and do not go to any other spiritual place. If today you are here, and tomorrow at some other group, you will never have any success. You will not get anything lasting, either from me or from the other Master. You will only become confused. By being regular in any path you develop inner will, will power. Regularity is a great advantage, a great opportunity in developing will power.

Question: How can we tell which is our ego's will and which is the soul's will?

Sri Chinmoy: When it is our ego’s will, we try to achieve something by hook or by crook. That is to say, we don’t hesitate to employ foul means. We want to do something and then, if we see that we have not succeeded, immediately we try to get it or achieve it by any means at all. That is our ego’s will. If we don’t achieve our goal even then, we curse the person from whom we expected the thing or else we curse the thing which we wanted to achieve and could not achieve.

But when it is the soul’s will, we will see that this will is coming directly from the heart. This divine will has infinitely more intense power than the ego’s will, but it uses its power only because God is inspiring the soul to achieve something divine. This is what makes the soul’s will divine. God’s power is behind it. When we bring the soul’s will to the fore, the first thing we feel is a kind of inner conviction. We feel clearly what we want to be or what we want to achieve. From deep within we will receive the inner conviction that our Inner Pilot wants a certain thing from us. The ego’s will, on the other hand, is not like that. We are not convinced inwardly, but we convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing, even when we are adopting foul means, doing something by hook or by crook.

When it is your soul’s will, you are automatically convinced. Why? Because conviction comes from deep within you along with the inspiration. In the ego’s will you are convincing yourself through your mind, through your vital, through your physical with a self-imposed justification. But when it is your soul’s will, you will feel a kind of inner confidence. This inner confidence is accompanied by an inner joy, sometimes an inner ecstasy. In the case of the ego, this does not happen. In the case of the ego, while you are exercising your ego’s will, there will often be some fear in it. “Perhaps I will lose the battle. Perhaps my pride will be smashed. Perhaps I will be outdone by the other party.” A constant battle is going on. Although you may feel that you are stronger, superior, more powerful, more dynamic, you have no security, no confidence. You are afraid that you will be defeated or will not have the capacity to achieve your desire.

But the soul’s will does not care for success or achievement. The soul’s will cares for progress and experience. If God wants the soul to win, to succeed, or to achieve, then He gives indomitable will to the soul. When the soul’s will power is expressed, it is like a huge wave in the sea. Immediately it inundates the entire consciousness. Once the soul’s will is expressed, you are bound to feel that your inner consciousness is inundated with divine energy, inner joy, inner delight, inner power and inner confidence. Everything negative is swept away by the surge of the soul’s force. But when you use the ego’s will, you feel that you are personally building a palace. You have enormous pride, but also fear inside you that, even while you are building it the palace may crack, the building may collapse. With that kind of fear, finally it really does collapse, because power and light cannot exist in fear. With fear comes doubt. When fear and doubt go together, we see frustration and destruction looming large. But the soul’s will is inundated with inner confidence, inner assurance and inner oneness with the Highest. In this inner confidence is true divinity.

Question: In one of your poems you say, "Hope lost, gloom grows dark poison-blight: destruction flows." What can an aspirant do if he is losing hope?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, I wish to tell you why a person loses hope. One loses hope because he makes himself feel that there is a certain period, a given time, in which to achieve something. He decides, for example, that in two days he is going to achieve some specific thing.

Frequently, in our hopes we have inwardly, unconsciously fixed some particular time for the accomplishment of something. Outwardly we may say that in the near future we hope to get something or to do something. But it is not entirely true. For if we go deep within ourselves, we see that our minds have already projected a particular day by which to achieve it. When the date arrives, our outer mind may not know that this was the last date given or recorded in our inner mind’s calendar, but on that day we will feel that our whole world has collapsed, because we did not achieve or receive the hoped-for result. And when we don’t see the result on the day that we wanted it, we are miserable. We feel that hope is the instrument that will bring the result. On the day, therefore, that we lose hope, we lose the strength of hope even though our physical mind was not even aware of the expectations that were created by the subconscious mind.

What can we do to regain hope? First, we have to know that hope is not something weak. Very often our conception of hope is something very delicate — a sweet, smooth, soothing feeling which is a kind of balm to our outer minds. But this is not an adequate definition of hope. We have to know that hope is something very solid. It is something strong. It has seen the Truth, only it is unable to bring the Truth into the world. Hope is not something that is crying for the world beyond or crying for a truth which does not exist. No, hope has seen the Truth, but it cannot and does not yet possess it.

If we know what hope is, we will not lose it. If we know that hope is something that has already seen the Truth which we are ultimately going to achieve, then we will get strength from this knowledge. The time has not come; hope has not yet been able to bring the Truth to the fore in our lives. The time which has been planned by God has not yet come, but it will come.

How can we avoid losing hope? We must try to cast aside all expectations from our desiring mind. It is the desiring mind that feeds our outer hope. If we can be above the desiring mind, and remain all the time in the spontaneity of our heart, we will have a constant feeling of possessing the divine Truth.

Our inner heart is always full and complete, requiring nothing. It is our outer mind which feels that it needs something, wants something. Then hope comes into play. When we need something, hope begins to play its part, but when we need nothing, hope does not enter into the picture for it is not at all necessary.

I would like to point out that ordinary human hope can rarely be fulfilled, because inside it there is no determination, there is no sincerity and there is no conscious willingness to accept the highest Truth. If, with our human hope, we want to achieve the Highest, the Ultimate, we will see that when the Highest is descending and descending, approaching our own physical being, human hope will be terrified and will try to escape the very moment it sees the enormity of the Reality that it was aspiring to possess.

Now let us look at the fulfilment of ordinary human hope. Hope expects something — say five dollars. When fulfilment comes, it comes as five dollars. Immediately this human hope is overjoyed, and it loses its inner poise. When spiritual receptivity is lacking, we always lose our inner balance and poise. But if we had started with divine hope, then Truth has already been seen in its highest aspect, and it needs only to be embodied. Our hope is only to bring that Truth into manifestation. Then when hope’s fulfilment comes, we do not lose our inner balance, because we knew what was bound to happen.

Now, your question was, “What can you do when you lose hope?” When you lose hope, you have to tell yourself that the Reality is bound to come to you precisely because you are in the world of aspiration. You are aspiring most sincerely, most devotedly. You know that you are doing the right thing. If the truth or the fulfilment that your hope has seen has not yet been able to come into manifestation, you need not worry. It is only when you lose your aspiration that you can feel that you are lost.

When I said, “Hope lost, … destruction grows,” it is because the ordinary man will not aspire in any way when he loses hope. It is hope that keeps him alive on earth. Hope plays a great part in the ordinary human life on earth. For example, some people say that they are doing disinterested work, and so on. Only aspirants and truly spiritual people really do this. Ninety-nine percent of human beings, in working, are only feeding their own hopes and desires. That is why they are living, working, existing. Otherwise they would not budge an inch.

For a spiritual person this does not apply. Where is destruction for a spiritual person? For him there is no destruction. He acts only to fulfil God’s Will. God’s Will can be fulfilled in two ways; in the form of success or in the form of failure. But God Himself is above both success and failure. So if you want to become identified totally and inseparably with God’s Will, then think neither of success nor of failure. Think only of pleasing the Supreme. According to our human eyes the fulfilment of hope is success. But the fulfilment of God’s Will goes far beyond so-called failure or success.

If you remain with your burning aspiration, you are constantly identified with God’s Will. And when you are one with God’s Will, earthly hope has no value. It will be impossible for earthly hope to knock at your door of aspiration, because your divine hope is already self-sufficient. It is already one with God’s Will. In God’s Will there is everything, the Vision and the Reality. If the Reality is earthly success, well and good. If it is earthly failure, also well and good. It is the fulfilment of God’s Will which is of paramount importance, not success or failure. Divine fulfilment is always beyond outer results. We understand the results and we derive the utmost benefit from the results only when we are one with God’s Will unreservedly. When we are identified with His Will unreservedly, we will undoubtedly feel that we are fulfilled.

So what can you do when you lose hope? Only feel the necessity of burning the flame of your aspiration more brightly and more intensely. Then you get the highest inspiration. Hope you don’t need. An ordinary person needs it because an unaspiring person, when he loses hope, will not make any move forward. For him life becomes a stagnant pool. Self-destruction starts when there is no forward movement. But if you have sincere aspiration, you do not have to worry; you will get everything.

Question: Sometimes we think that we have surrendered to God, but later we find out that part of our ego has not surrendered at all. It has been hiding and afterwards comes out. How can we attain complete surrender? How can we make all this ego surrender as a whole?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us view surrender as a muscle. By taking exercise we develop our muscles. If we exercise every day, our muscles become strong, stronger, strongest. Day by day they are strengthened. This happens through regular physical discipline, physical exercise. Similarly surrender, which is a spiritual quality, grows by regular exercise. Surrender is the very breath of our true existence. We can develop this surrender day by day. In one day we cannot make complete surrender to God. It is impossible. Nobody on earth has done such a thing. It is not your fault; it is not my fault; it is nobody’s fault. But in order to achieve absolute surrender we have to exercise this spiritual quality constantly.

First we have to know where our greatest enemy lies. Our greatest enemy is the ego. At the time we want to surrender, ego gets up and stands defiantly in front of us. We have to know where it actually hides. The ego hides most of the time in our vital. It hides more in our vital than in our mind, more in our mind than in our heart. In the mind and the heart there is some ego, but in the soul there is no ego at all. The soul is egoless. The moment we leave the domain of the soul, the moment we come into the heart, with its affections, likes and dislikes, we find ego. Then, when we come to the mind, we see that the ego looms large — the mental ego. When we come to the vital, again there is tremendous ego. And when we enter into the physical, it is all ego.

So let us start our journey not from the body, not from the vital, not from the mind, not from the heart, but from the soul. Let us try, in our conscious meditation, to live in the soul. Daily, we will try our utmost to live in the soul. Let us take our body as a bundle, our vital as a bundle, our mind as a bundle, and our heart as a bundle. One, two, three, four bundles let us throw into the soul, which is an infinite Ocean of Light, Peace and Bliss. The moment we throw the body, vital, mind and heart into the soul, we will have all joy, all delight, all perfection.

When we are in the soul, we see immediately that it is a portion of the Infinite and is being constantly pulled by the Infinite. The Infinite, like a great magnet, is pulling, pulling, pulling the soul, and the soul is most happy to be pulled. Most cheerfully, gladly, devotedly the soul is drawn to the Infinite. In the process of this magnetism, the soul surrenders of its own will and begins its divine manifestation. We are spreading the wings of the soul when we live in the Infinite. This is the way to make our surrender complete. Only by throwing the body, vital, mind and heart into the soul, can we live in the soul. The more we can stay in the soul, the easier, the more complete becomes our surrender.

If we live in the mind, surrender is impossible. If we live in the vital, it is unthinkable. But if we live in the soul, gradually the light of the soul penetrates these unlit parts of our existence: the body, the vital, the mind and the heart. When the soul’s light fully permeates all the parts of our inner and outer existence, our surrender becomes complete.

Question: Spiritually speaking, what is meant by God-Realisation?

Sri Chinmoy: God-Realisation means a realisation of one’s own self. When you realise your highest Self, you will know that you are nothing other than God. According to our Indian philosophy, “As many men, so many gods.” What does this mean? You may think that it means that there are innumerable gods who take care of human beings, and that the gods are infinitely superior to men and have to look after them like children. But it does not mean that. The ancient Hindus, when they said, “As many men, so many gods,” meant that each man is God. But each man is not consciously aware of this. When he becomes divinely aware of what he is and what he stands for, he knows automatically, spontaneously, that he is nothing other than God, for God and he are absolutely one, both in the inner life and in the outer life.

So long as one remains in ignorance, he will feel that God is someone who has infinite Power, whereas he himself is the feeblest person on earth. But the moment he realises God and identifies himself with God, he will see that God-Realisation means one’s identification with one’s absolute highest Self. When one can identify with one’s highest Self and remain in that consciousness forever, when one can reveal it and manifest it at one’s own command that is God-Realisation. God-Realisation is the realisation of one’s own Self. When you know what you are, then you will see that you are nothing other than God.

Jasmine-heart

Dynamism

Dynamism dynamically enlarges the divine Vision in us.

Dynamism unreservedly pleases the Supreme Pilot in us.

Dynamism unmistakably tells man that he can easily become the architect of his destiny if he sincerely wants to.

Dynamism is a divinely inspiring gift to mankind from above.

Hope powerfully loves dynamism.

Dynamism expedites the journey’s start and shortens the journey’s goal.

Dynamism is man’s striking victory for the Supreme.

Sympathy

Sympathy is man’s soulful self-expansion.

Sympathy is God’s perfect satisfaction in man.

Sympathy does not walk along the narrow road of the human mind. Sympathy walks only along the broad road of the divine heart.

Sympathy is a love-flower and a oneness-fruit.

Sympathy is at once man’s light-house and man’s treasure-island.

Sympathy is the revelation of God-Heart in man.

Humility

Humility sits at God’s all-illumining Feet.

Humility stands straight on man’s haughty head.

Humility is the result of secret prayers and sacred meditations.

Humility is the conscious offering of the seeker’s wisdom-light.

You are humble. That means you are a choice instrument of God’s Love.

Humility is God’s God-expansion in man.

The humility of the heart and the luminosity of the soul are inseparable.

Simplicity

Simplicity is greatness in goodness.

A simple life has to face very few problems.

Because you are simple you can embody God’s powerful Hope in you.

Simplicity is a very glorious discovery.

Simplicity is the fruitful birth of peace.

Simplicity is God’s beauty-friend.

Simplicity soulfully reaches the vast reaches of the world.

Fear

Fear beckons danger.

Fear is self-enslavement.

Fear is the eternal loser.

Fear is helplessly founded upon stupidity.

Fear secretly travels with the mind and openly travels with the body.

Because you fear, God the Satisfaction does not hear you and God the Perfection does not near you.

If fear knows how to grow quickly, then love knows how to glow soulfully, convincingly and perfectly.

Peace

Peace is at once the quality and the quantity of God’s supreme Light.

Peace is the unparalleled oneness-satisfaction.

A peaceful man is a fruitful God.

Our prayer gives us a peaceful life. Our meditation gives us a beautiful heart.

War foolishly braves. Peace instantly saves.

Oneness is the reality of peace on the canvas of time.

Peace is man’s home-builder and God’s gate-opener.

The core of India's light

//[Continued from previous issues]//

Idam

This

This world may frighten and discourage the God-seeker, but it can never, never remotely frighten or discourage a true God-lover, for he sees God the Creation and God the Creator as one indivisible Reality.

This world is beautiful if we see the Creator in it. This world is fruitful if we add to it our own aspiration-cry and dedication-smile.

Isa

By the Lord Supreme

By the Lord Supreme’s Justice-Light we conquer our outer ignorance-life, we arrive at the Feet of His Compassion-Height.

Istasdevata

The personal aspect of the presiding deity

The personal aspect of the presiding deity governs the human in us compassionately and awakens the divine in us selflessly.

Jagadguru

The World-Teacher

If we love the World-Teacher who is Compassion, then the World-Teacher who is Perfection brings to us the World-Teacher who is His own Eternity’s Satisfaction.

Japa

Repetition of an incantation

In order to get the best result while repeating an incantation we have to feel an illumining flame deep within us which is growing into countless flames, and finally into a full-blazing sun.

Jagrata

Awake

If you are awake, then your life will see the real Beauty of God’s outer Life and feel the real Delight of God’s inner Life. The outer Life is God the eternal Preparation. The inner Life is God the eternal Satisfaction.

Jnana

Knowledge

Human knowledge is book-knowledge. Divine knowledge is soul-knowledge. And what is soul-knowledge? That we are of the One’s Beauty and for the One’s Duty.

Karma

Action

A desire-life is bad action in the body, vital and mind. An aspiration-life is the good action of the heart for the mind, vital and body.

Kshatra

Soil

When we sleeplessly cry only for God’s Love, our heart’s soil becomes immediately fertile and receptive.

Kusha

Sacred grass

The seeker has to be as sacred and humble as grass in order to consciously and constantly make the fastest progress.

[To be continued]

Songs

Anute renute

/Anute renute sakala tanute/
/Biraje amar pran/
/Ami madhumoy/
/Abhoy ajoy/
/Shudhu kari madhu pan/

In atom and in pollen
And in human frames
My life abides.
All beauty am I,
Immutable am I.
I drink my ambrosia all alone.

Namiche aj ananda

/Namiche aj ananda plaban/
/Mridul paban prane kare ananda bahan/
/Bhangiche mor sakal bandhan/
/Khuliche sab dar/
/Mile geche byetha bhar/
/Jato andhakar/

Today, the flood of delight
Inundates me, my all.
All my bondage-shackles
Are smashed and broken.
No more heart-pangs,
No more darkness-life.