AUM

Man is Infinity's Heart.
Man is Eternity's Breath.
Man is Immortality's Life.

Questions and answers on the soul — part 3 (concluded)

Question: When someone is described as having a young soul, or an old soul, what does this mean?

Sri Chinmoy: From the spiritual point of view, when one has higher and deeper experiences, acquired from previous incarnations, one is called an old soul. The one who is wanting in such experiences is called a young soul. As you can see, it is not the number of incarnations that determine the ‘status’ of the soul, but what one has learned and achieved in those lives.

Question: Do things move faster with a young soul because there is less overlay of previous incarnations?

Sri Chinmoy: Things do move faster with a young soul provided he is a sincere and dedicated aspirant and listens to his spiritual guide unreservedly; provided also that he has not been burdened with too many worldly experiences.

Here again we have to be aware of one thing: it is not the number of incarnations that impede the soul's rapid journey towards its Ultimate Goal, but the old unlit human habits and propensities which present themselves as great obstacles, since they do not open so easily to the Light for purification and transformation.

Question: What is the difference between 'strength of soul' and 'strength of character'?

Sri Chinmoy: Strength of character is the pride of morality and humanity. Strength of soul is the pride of spirituality, eternity and infinity.

Having said this, I do not want to leave you with the impression that morality has no value in the inner and spiritual life. On the contrary, a solid morality is preparatory to a deep spirituality. Further, the role of morality is of paramount importance in true spirituality.

The strength of the soul is the inner power or certitude that comes from the Divine within you. You have seen your soul, you have felt God's Will within you, and you have been given the strength to manifest His Will here on earth.

Question: Could the soul that inhabits a human body have inhabited an animal body or a plant in previous times?

Sri Chinmoy: I am sure you are well acquainted with the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin, in the modern world, discovered the process of evolution. He discovered the evolution of species, that is, the change from a lower level to a higher one. But long before Darwin, a thousand years before the advent of the Christ, the great Indian sage, Kapila, had discovered the theory of spiritual evolution in his unique philosophy. The Eternal, Unchangeable and Imperishable at every moment evolves. "Nothing came from nothing." The Indian sage discovered this truth and offered it to the world at large.

The total process of evolution on earth includes the soul as well as the physical form. In the march of evolution, each soul has to undergo the plant life and the animal life in order to launch into the human life.

Question: Do souls differ in their characteristics?

Sri Chinmoy: There is actually no basic difference amongst souls except in the degree of their manifestation. All souls possess the same possibilities, whether they are housed in the lowest or the highest form of life.

We have to remember, however, that the Supreme manifests Himself in infinite ways through the different souls. They express His varying aspects of divinity. For example, one soul may manifest Light, another Power, a third Beauty, and so on.

It is by manifesting the hidden powers through the process of re-incarnation that some souls have become great spiritual Masters. And all souls shall eventually follow them.

Question: What is the connection of the soul to past and future karma?

Sri Chinmoy: Actually karma cannot be deeply understood apart from the soul. It is for the sake of the soul's growth that karma exists. You know, I am sure, what the word "karma" means. It is a Sanskrit word, derived from the root "kri" to do. Whatever we do, say or think is karma. The universe is governed by a law which we call the law of karma. You have read much about the law of karma, so I need not explain it here, except to say that all one's deeds and thoughts leave their impression upon one's causal body and bring about certain results.

At the same time, the soul is far beyond the snare of cause and effect. It is the hyphen between all that precedes and all that succeeds. It is enriched by all the experiences which the personality derives through the laws of karma.

Question: Where does the soul rest when it first leaves the body? Does it carry over its bodily or earthly limitations?

Sri Chinmoy: When the soul leaves the body, it first stays in the vital world for a short period. Some souls suffer there, while others do not. It is like visiting a strange, new country. Some are fortunate enough to mix freely with the people of the new country and understand its culture in almost no time, while others are not so fortunate.

No, it does not carry over any earthly limitations to the higher worlds. The soul, the psychic being, while leaving the body and going back to its own region, gathers together the quintessence of its earthly experiences. It stays for some time in its own region and then it comes back into this world with a new determination and new possibilities to realise and fulfil the Divine here on earth.

Devotion

Devotion
    Is the cry
    That compels God
To seize the aspirant
With the very madness of Love.

A piece of candy,
    Lo, the child is won.
An iota of devotion,
God, the true and real God
Is captured.

Sweeter than honey,
    Purer than flowers.
    Deeper than love,
The flame-waves of devotion-light.

Attachment and detachment

Attachment is my teacher:
"God lives in a cave."
I learn.

Detachment is my teacher:
"God lives in a Palace."
I learn.

Attachment demands my body's breath,
The life of the howling finite.

Detachment offers my soul's Promise,
The Light of the beckoning Beyond.

What is God's plan?¹

This question is often raised and discussed. Strangely enough, the very idea of God's plan attracts the attention, not only of those who believe in God, but also of those who deny God.

Has God a plan? No, never. To have a plan means drawing up an estimate of the work to be done in the future. It is the temptation of the results that often inspires us to throw ourselves into activities. We want to grow into the success of the future. Hence, plans do help us to some extent. But God needs no plan. To Him, the vision of the Future is not a thing to be fulfilled, but a thing that already abides, nay, looms large in the giant breast of the present.

The world has ever been charmed by movement, here, there and everywhere. The waning of enthusiastic movement is the downfall of human life. Each movement has to undergo ups and downs before it reaches its goal. Movement is the outer expression of an inner urge. This inner urge is the representative of God's Will in a human body to play with the Beyond, to awaken the Infinite in the finite.

God has no plan. Neither does He need one. He is not a mental being who cannot think of the future without a plan. What God is … is Delight. What God wants us to have … is Delight. We can have it only by turning all that we have and all that we are towards the Supreme Reality.

You must think of God's existence first, and then, if you must, you may think of God's plan. Does God exist? Where is the proof? Your very heart is the proof. Constantly your heart demands or begs of you to see God everywhere and in everything. With the aspiration of your heart, God's existence can be felt. With the aspiration of your heart you can see that God's Heaven, which is Silence, and God's earth, which is Power, are not only interdependent, but also complementary smiles of God's eternal Reality.

Some people say that the world has come into existence from a plan made by God. They feel that the world is full of suffering and imperfection; further, that had they been given a chance, they could have changed the face of the world. To them, I say, "Who prevents you? It is you who have to cultivate the soil in order to grow a bumper crop of perfection and satisfaction."

Much have we learned from suffering and imperfection. What we need is Delight and Perfection. We cannot have these two divine qualities by finding fault with a plan that we have thrust upon God. We can have Delight and Perfection only by living in God's Consciousness. There is no other way.

Man's interpretation of suffering and imperfection is based on his preconceived mental ideas and notions. God's interpretation is founded on the direct Vision in its absolute and ultimate Reality. Man's interpretation needs justification. But God's interpretation does not need any justification, for He is at once the Truth embodied and the Truth revealed.

Similarly, a spiritual man looks at God from a different angle than does an ordinary man. He sees and feels that God has and is everything, manifest and unmanifest. His God is in the eternal process of ever-progressing perfection. An ordinary man, however, sees and feels that God or Truth has yet to achieve something to transform the world.

God is a child, an eternal divine Child. How can a child have a plan? Impossible. Just as a human child plays with his dolls, dressing, stroking, fondling them, so God, the divine Child, does the same with His dolls, the human instruments. But God, being the Divine child, whatever He does, He does consciously, significantly and divinely.

Man's unconscious, semi-conscious, conscious and spiritually conscious plans and God's self-revealing manifestations are inseparable. The Supreme Secret is that man's plans are always united with the breath of the Supreme. Man has to know this. Nothing further is there to know. Man must feel this. Nothing deeper is there to feel. Man has to realise this. Nothing higher is there to realise.

Questions and answers

These questions were put to Sri Chinmoy after his usual Sunday afternoon talks on Yoga, held at the Aum Centre.

Question: I would like to ask something. What is the difference between the Voice of the Silence and the Voice of Yoga? Or is there a difference?³

Sri Chinmoy: There is a difference. The Yoga encompasses everything. In Yoga you will get Silence, you will get Peace, Light and Power. You will get everything.

The Voice of the Silence, on the other hand, will give you a particular truth. You enter into your inner being, into the inner realm where the Silence actually exists. There, in the realm of the Silence, if you need a particular message, you will get it. The Voice of the Silence will give you a particular piece of knowledge, a particular truth.

But the Yoga is the whole, entire field and the Voice of Yoga is for all the seekers and especially for those who have seriously entered into the spiritual life. The Voice of the Silence is meant for a particular seeker at a particular time. During your meditation, for example, you can go deep within and you will hear the Voice of the Silence. But the Voice of Yoga you can have all the time. During your outer as well as your inner movements, you can hear the Voice of Yoga.

You have entered into the path of the spiritual life … Yoga … so you will get spiritual vibrations, thoughts, ideas and messages. All these divine things will be coming to you from the Voice of Yoga.

Question: How may we strengthen our inner faith in God when we are beset with discouragements in our daily life?⁴

Sri Chinmoy: Please try to feel from now on that there is Somebody around you who does not want anything from you, but simply wants to see joy in you and around you. There is Somebody who does not want anything else from you except joy, inner joy and outer joy. He wants you always to swim in the sea of joy and delight. If you remain in joy, I don't mean outer joy, that is, going here and there, mixing with people, buying material things … but if you can have real joy, if you can feel the source of it, then you will automatically have faith in God.

When we are worried, or are afraid of something, we immediately try to create a kind of self-imposed faith in God. This is not true faith. In danger, we say, "God, save me, save me!" But we say this only to avert danger. This is an escape. This kind of faith does not last.

Spontaneous faith can come when we have inner joy, inner fulfilment. Everything is inside the person … his joy and his fulfilment. Who is the possessor of this inner fulfilment? It is God. We are just His devoted instruments. So when we feel spontaneous inner joy as part and parcel of our life, we can then have faith in God, the Infinite Possessor of Joy. From now on, please try to feel your own inner joy. In regard to your outer frustrations, please do not try to unite them with your inner joy. Please separate your inner joy from the outer happenings. Then alone will you be able to strengthen your faith in God.

Question: When I try to meditate, I get a feeling of oceans and waters before my mind's eye. This creates fear in me, and I cannot meditate very well. How can I meditate without getting this feeling of oceans and waters?⁵

Sri Chinmoy: You will be able to meditate even when the ocean appears before you. Please try to see the ocean as something of your own, something in your inner being. Instead of seeing the ocean with its surges, waves and waters, please think of it as your own largest consciousness, and throw yourself into that largest and deepest consciousness. The ocean is not something standing in front of you as an enemy. Water is, in our spiritual language, consciousness. When you see this consciousness, you should feel happy and fortunate. There are so many seekers who try to imagine the ocean, so that they can make their consciousness as vast as the ocean. Unfortunately, your attitude towards the ocean has been wrong.

From now on, you yourself must try to throw your own consciousness into the waters of the ocean. You will be able to meditate most powerfully and most successfully. You will be able to contact, deep within you, that which is nearest and dearest to your soul.

Again, remember that you are extremely lucky to see the ocean in front of you. Do not focus your attention on the surface of the ocean, but please go, silently and consciously, deep into the ocean, where you will find your True Reality which is all Tranquillity.

Faith

Faith is the eye that sees the future manifestation of the Divine on earth.

Faith lives in the domain of the soul. This domain is a far cry from that of the intellect.

Faith is no wishful imagination. It is the soul's pre-vision.

Faith spontaneously feels God, senses that God's protection and His guidance are indivisible. Belief thinks "Maybe. I am not quite sure."

Faith says, "All obstacles, inner or outer, can be surmounted." Belief says, "Not so easy."

The real strength of faith can be neither measured nor experienced.

Faith and Will are the two invaluable eyes of an aspirant.

Doubt sleeps with our human nature. Faith lives with its self-offering.

Mere mental knowledge is a real stranger to faith which is itself the knowledge of the soul.

Faith and perfect equanimity are not only inseparable, but indispensable to each other.

Faith can kill fear in season and out of season, and not vice-versa.

Courage is the arrow. Faith is the bow.

The worst enemy of ignorance and failure is faith.

To say that the outer intellect is stone blind is not an error. To say that faith has one thousand eyes is to state the immaculate truth.

To be a successful believer, one has only to be a child. To be a successful disbeliever, one has only to listen to his own pre-conceived ideas.

It is not your mental belief but your faith that is the ever-loyal support to your surrender in the process of your self-fulfilment.

My subway experiences

In this series of six anecdotes, Sri Chinmoy tells of his amusing (and sometimes frightening) experiences in the New York City subways during the years 1964-65.

I. Absent-minded hero

I bought a token and slipped it into the slot at one turnstile. However, in my unmindfulness, I was attempting to pass through an adjacent turnstile. Needless to say, my turnstile refused to move, but I failed to grasp the situation.

Suddenly a young guy slapped me in a comradely way on the back, and saying, "Thank you!" crossed through the turnstile in which my token had been deposited. Thus he escaped without paying for himself and I was forced to buy another token. Unmindfulness exacted its retribution.

On another occasion almost the very same thing happened. Again I put my token in one box and tried to pass through an adjacent turnstile. But this time an elderly man saw my difficulty. He put his own token in my box, enabling me to cross, while he used my token to pass through his turnstile. Unmindfulness called forth sympathy and genuine help.

II. Mad train versus God's Will

It was a local uptown train of the IRT line at 12:30 midnight. Our train was meant to halt in normal fashion at every stop, but at 42nd Street, Times Square, we began what was to be our mad journey. The train flew on like a monster released from its controls and refused to stop. I was supposed to get off at 79th Street, but the train had its own plan. Each station was passed by at top speed, unheeded. Our train defeated even the Express, which stops at the main junctions. Ours refused to slow down, let alone stop, but continued on like a mad elephant.

The young boys and girls in the coach were in the seventh heaven of delight. But the older ones were frantic. They were being taken miles out of their way and there was no certainty that they would get trams in the reverse direction without great difficulty. Moreover, because of the wild speed, they felt an accident to be imminent. What if our train should meet its predecessor parked at a station?

Strangely enough, an old Bengali woman happened, to be in our coach. I later found out that she came from Potia, Chittagong, East Bengal, only four miles from my birthplace. We were both in a runaway train in New York only 13,000 miles from our native place. Imagine my surprise when I heard her cry out in our distinctive Chittagong dialect, "O Lord, O Lord, we are finished!"

I went to her and by way of joke, I answered in the same vernacular, "God will not be satisfied with your life alone, but He wants ours as well." When she heard her own dialect, tears of astonished delight came into her eyes and she could not help embracing me with motherly affection. I tried to soothe and reassure her but her cries and tears did not cease. Nor did the panic stricken cries of several other women in the coach.

At 130th Street the mad driver stopped his wild journey only to be arrested by two policemen. Word had been sent by inter-subway telephone from one station to another about the erring train. The police had been informed and had tried unsuccessfully to stop the driver at various places along the line. Curiously enough, the driver was not drunk. It seemed that an unseen force made him the instrument of that fateful journey in which he wanted to be free from all bondages and fly unhampered and dauntless into the bosom of the Night.

On this trip, our invitation to death was compelled by a single individual, but God's Grace willed otherwise and cancelled the rendezvous.

As and so

As the prayer, so the Grace,
As the weeping heart, so the bending Face.

As the sacrifice, so the Price.

As the birth of knowledge-rain,
So the death of ignorance-chain.

Notes

Editor's notes

On 22 May 1967, Sri Chinmoy gave an invited talk to the School of Self-Defense, 280 Closter Dock Road. Closter, New Jersey. This school, under the direction of Mr. Michael Depasquale, a Police officer, teaches Jiu Jitsu, Karate, and other forms of self-defense.

The members of the school, men, women and children, were interested to learn, not only about Hatha Yoga (the ancient Hindu system of physical postures and breathing exercises) but also about the Indian spiritual disciplines and the various forms of Yoga, apart from. Hatha Yoga.

On 24 May 1967, the Guru addressed the Universalist Church of New York City, at the invitation of its director, the Reverend Leonard Helie, on the subject of "The Universality of Religion".

The Aum Centre wishes to express its deepest thanks to Mrs. Fay vom Saal and Mrs. Arnold for their most generous services in arranging for the talk and preparing the Indian refreshments.