AUM

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

Delight

Delight is the source of existence. Delight is the meaning of existence. Delight is the language of infinity, eternity and immortality.

Delight was our inner past. Delight is our inner present. Delight shall be our inner future. No matter if our outer mind understands not, or cares not to understand this self-revealing truth.

Delight is not satisfaction of the mind, the vital and the body. It is something deeper, higher and purer. Delight needs no outer help for its existence. It is self-existent, self-revealing and self-fulfilling.

Delight is the divine bridge between Peace and Power, between Light and Truth, between God's unmanifested Dream and His manifested Reality.

The aggressive, dynamic and apparently conquering vital excitement is not Delight. Delight is surcharged with a creative consciousness which is at once energising, fulfilling and fulfilled.

High, higher and highest is the plane of Delight. With our illumined consciousness, we rise into that plane and become self-enraptured. We are now one with the Supreme, having crossed the corridors of sublime silence and trance.

In Delight alone can an aspirant be true to his inmost self. In Delight alone can he feel and understand what God is like. Men speak of God twenty-four hours a day, but not even for a fleeting second do they feel Him, not to speak of understanding Him. If the outer life of an individual can swim in the sea of his soul's Delight, then only will he feel God's Presence, and understand Him in His cosmic Vision and absolute Reality.

God and I are One when I reach Him through Delight in the plane of Delight. God is the whole, and I am a portion of His when I reach Him through my soul's Delight. God is the Boatman and I am the Boat when I reach God through Delight here on earth.

Surrender

Surrender knows that there is a guiding Hand and feels that this guiding Hand is ever present. This Hand may strike or bless the aspirant. The surrendered aspirant has discovered the truth that whatever comes from the Supreme is always fruitful of Good and Light.

In life, everything may fail us, but not surrender. Surrender has a free access to God's omnipotence. Hence the path of surrender is the perfect perfection of protection.

Surrender has the strength to meet the Absolute and stay and play with Him eternally. God may at times play hide-and-seek with man’s divine qualities, but never with His devotee's genuine surrender.

Inner surrender transforms life into an infinite progress. It gives life the soulful assurance that life lives in God and God alone.

Surrender is the soul of the devotee's body. Surrender is the unparalleled fulfilment of the devotee's life. Surrender takes him to the Source. When he is in the Source, he becomes the Highest and reveals the Deepest.

Self-consciousness hates surrender. Surrender illumines self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is self-will. Self-will is self-love. Surrender is God-Will. God-Will is God-Love.

Surrender is the wisdom that sees and becomes the Truth. Surrender wishes nothing other than God. Surrender gets pure God. Nothing is as practical as surrender, for it knows the supreme secret that to offer itself integrally to God is to possess God absolutely. Surrender is the purest devotion that sees through the eye of intuition. Surrender is freedom, perpetual freedom, for it always stays with God, in God and for God.

The eye of surrender does not see the face of the Devil. It always sees the Face of God's Compassion, Protection and Divinity. The life of surrender divinely rings true. It is always filled with abiding inspiration, revealing aspiration and transcending realisation.

Surrender clings to God with all the might of the soul. Surrender clings to God with all the love of the heart. Surrender clings to God with all the will of the mind. Surrender clings to God with all the dynamic energy of the vital. Surrender clings to God with all the snow-white emotions of the body.

The universality of religion¹

The Universalist Church of New York is for all the religions of the world. It is a growing family with one home. This home is the embodiment of Heart. Heart is the embodiment of Truth. Fulfilment is there where Truth is.

Why do we need religion? We need religion because we want to go beyond the finite in order to commune with the Infinite. It is not only possible but inevitable, for in us there is a conscious being which envisions God's Reality in totality.

Religion is a spontaneous experience and never a theoretical knowledge. This experience is immensely practical and we can use it consciously at every moment of our earthly existence.

Religion has never been thrust upon man. It has sprung from the very need of his inner being. When this inner being comes to the fore and looks around, it feels God's all-permeating immanence and when it looks up, it feels God's all-transcending Transcendence as its own divine heritage.

Religion has two lives: outer and inner. It offers its outer life to the universal love and service. It offers its inner life to meditation and God-realisation.

Religion in the physical is an unconscious cry for God, in the vital a blind struggle to possess God, in the mind a constant fight to capture God, in the heart a selfless surrender to sit in the Lap of God, and in the soul a consciousness-boat that longs to ply between the shores of the ever-transcending Infinity and the ever-blooming Immortality.

Immorality wants to blight religion. God says to religion: "Fear not, my child, I am giving you the indomitable strength of morality." Egoism wants to suffocate religion. God says to religion: "Fear not, my child, I am placing you in the ever-widening vastness of universality." Death wants to devour religion. God says to religion: “Fear not, my child, I am making you the embodiment of immortality.”

Science and religion. They say that science and religion are always at daggers drawn. It is not true. Science plays its role dynamically in explaining the immanent God. Religion plays its role divinely in interpreting the transcendent God. Science deals with the physical world, while religion deals with the inner and spiritual world. Mind is the teacher and nature is the professor of science. Heart is the teacher and soul is the professor of religion.

Philosophy and religion. Philosophy and religion are two intimate friends. Philosophy reaches its acme of perfection when it is inspired by the faith, vision, experience and realisation of a soulful religion. With the help of alert and sound philosophy, religion frees itself from the snares of superstitions, vagaries and fantasies.

Morality and spirituality in religion. Morality in religion is a steady journey towards an ideal life. This journey at times appears to be a never-ending one. Nevertheless, it embodies an approximation to the ideal visualised. Spirituality in religion is fully aware of its inherent, implicit infinity. It transports an aspiring individual into the living abode of God. The infinity that spirituality reveals in religion is actualised and materialised with a spontaneous inner urge. The religious aspirant's hope flies into certainty, struggle enters into conquest, will-power is beckoned by absolute fulfilment.

Individuality and universality. Universality does not and cannot mean an utter extinction of the mounting individual flame in the human heart. On the contrary, when an individual transcends himself in the continuous process of universalisation, then he will have the full assurance to abide in the deeper, vaster and higher realm of Light, Peace and Power, and then alone will he eventually grow into his own true self, his self eternal. No doubt, at the very beginning, he will apprehend a deplorable conflict between individuality and universality. But this apprehension of his does not last for good, for the self-same conflict is the harbinger of a most convincing concord, a pure amalgam of unique transcendence.

Religious faith. Religion without faith is a body without life in it. Religious faith is a transforming experience and not a mere idea. Faith has the magic key of self-discovery. Self-discovery is, in fact, the discovery of Reality. Faith makes religion an active participant of the divine love, harmony and peace. Finally it transports religion into the all-delight of the Beyond.

Sin in religion. It is true that the conception of sin looms large in religion. What is sin? It is nothing but an experience of imperfection. This imperfection exists simply because creation is still in the making. Perfection must needs dawn on creation. It is a matter of time. Creation is action, a constant movement, forward, upward and inward. Evolution is the immortal song which is perpetually sung by creation. Today's sin is imperfection personified. Tomorrow's virtue is perfection embodied. Two things comprise God's entire creation: the finite and the Infinite. When I, the finite, go up, it is my self-realisation. When God, the Infinite, comes down, it is His Self-manifestation. When I enter into Him, his Highest, He presents me with His Unity. When He enters into me, my lowest, I offer to Him the multiplicity with which He Himself entrusted me when my soul descended on earth, Him to reveal, Him to fulfil.

All religions are in essence one, inseparable. Each religion is an unfailing path leading to the eternal Truth. "United we stand, divided we fall." This oft-quoted maxim can adequately be applied in today's talk. The united strength of all religions knows the supreme secret that no individual religion is to be looked down upon. If the united strength is wanting, then no religion can stand up, head erect. Religion is one. The teeming religions are its significant applications. Religion does not change, but religions must undergo vicissitudes, so far as the outer forms, customs, habits, rituals, circumstances and environments are concerned.

I am majestically proud to be here at the Universalist Church, for it is here at this opportune time that my heart voices forth the truth the Religion which is universal is the core of all religions, and the realisation of this universal Religion is not the monopoly of any particular group. Any individual, irrespective of caste, creed or nationality, can have the realisation of this universal Religion if he has dynamic imagination, creative inspiration and fulfilling aspiration to assimilate the spirit of all religions.

I am a Hindu. I am proud of my Hinduism. My Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, has taught me: Aham Brahma, I am the Brahman, the One without a second. You are a Christian. You are proud of your Christianity. Your divine religion has taught you: I and my Father are One. Now, if I am a Hindu in the purest sense of the term, I must be a Christian to the marrow, for deep within me, what I see, feel and become is the universal Truth. Likewise, deep within you, what you see, feel and become is the universal Truth. What is Truth? Truth is our divine Father. A child does not mind when his physical father is addressed as brother by one, uncle by the second, nephew by the third, and friend by the fourth. He is equally happy in each individual approach to his father. Similarly, when religions approach the Truth, our divine Father, each in its own way, we must be supremely happy, for each religion wants the Truth and the Truth alone.

Silence forgives, silence awakens, silence illumines

A young man of twenty-eight opened a stationery shop to make better use of his idle hours. Monetary gain was, for him, secondary. He was a great aspirant and had a famous spiritual master as his Guru.

One day, while in his shop chanting his favourite verses from the Upanishads, a stocky man of about forty-five walked in. His complexion was unusually ugly and although his name was Hanuman, the Monkey-Chief, his face resembled that of a tiger. He was the conductor of the local opera company and everyone hated him for his rude manners. He shouted aggressively at the owner of the shop, "Stop singing! Stop singing! You so-called pious man!"

The aspirant became silent.

"When are you going to return my money?" continued the intruder. "How many times have I asked you to give me my money back? Isn't it a pity that I have to remind you so many times for my money!"

The young man remained silent.

"I hear that every year you go out on a pilgrimage. You visit temples and spiritual places to acquire virtue. How do you reconcile your outer life with your so-called spiritual life? Your outer life is so full of deception!"

The shopkeeper said nothing.

"It is a pity that God tolerates a scoundrel like you," continued the tirade. "In His name you do so many evil things — deception being the least of them! We who have admittedly very little to do with God care much about maintaining a moral life, a life of integrity. But you who are constantly uttering the name of God, you who are intoxicated with words like "divinity", "love", "mercy" are far more apt to deceive people — not just once, but day in, day out!"

The young man remained silent.

The attack mounted, the customer's voice becoming louder, and more pugnacious. "It is beneath my dignity, in fact, even to speak to you. I knew your father who was also a man of unscrupulous character. No wonder — like father, like son!"

It happened that the youngest brother of the shopkeeper, an athlete of twelve years, was at the back of the store, busily pumping air into his football. Until now, this boy had tolerated the insults of the customer, but upon hearing his deceased father's name besmirched, he flew into a rage and came running to the front of the store. He was about to lunge at the customer and punch him in the nose, but the forgiving eyes of his elder brother, looking at the man with deep compassion, abruptly stopped the boy.

The customer, in a tone that was now quick and trembling, demanded again, "Why don't you give me my money back … I just want to have my money back and that is all. My time is as precious as yours."

The boy, puzzled, spoke out on behalf of his elder brother. "What money? When did you give it? How much? And to whom did you give it?"

With a defensive smile, the customer said, "Young man, I shall answer all your questions, one by one. How much money? Two hundred rupees. When was it given? Two years ago. To whom was it given? There was a momentary pause as the customer struck his own chest with his fist. "To this rascal," he cried, indicating himself.

The next instant he flung himself at the feet of the shopkeeper. "Forgive me! Forgive me!" he cried, his eyes flooding with tears. “I have never seen, and perhaps will never see a man like you who is forgiveness incarnate. It is I who am the culprit. I have been trying in every way to trick you, to arouse anger in you, to make your blood boil, but I must confess that I have failed.”

"I have also failed," he continued, "to keep my promise to you, my promise of two years ago, when you loaned me money; I said I would return it in two months' time. Never have you reminded me of that loan, never!" The customer continued his bitter remorse: I have had many experiences in taking loans, but all my creditors became Shylocks. It is here for the first time that I have seen the magnanimity of forgiveness.

"You have forgiven my ignorance. You have awakened my soul. You have illumined my life."

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.

III. Indians cannot tell a lie

I was going to the apartment of my sister-disciple Kailas-ben, whose affection can only be felt and never described. I went to the 14th Street Subway Station and bought a token. I dropped it into the slot, but the turnstile did not move. Completely confused, I was about to go to the station master to buy another token, but he had already seen my difficulty. He came over to me.

"Did you put a token in?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Where do you come from?"

"India," was my answer.

"India!" he exclaimed. "Indians cannot tell a lie. Had you been a youth from another country, I would not let you through. Those boys don't have a pennyworth of sincerity. But you Indians have yet to learn how to tell a lie." Thereupon he allowed me to go through the turnstile.

On entering the train, I shed tears and thanked the Divine in him, for he had seen the India of the hoary past and has yet to learn about the India of today.

IV. Two revolvers

On the evening of 15 August 1964, a brother-disciple, Joseph Heil, invited me to meditate at his house on the occasion of Sri Aurobindo's birthday. Another disciple, Dr. Masha Karry, a skin specialist, was also present. She was all affection to us. We had a deep meditation and a long, serious talk, which lasted until 2:30 in the morning. As I was still unfamiliar with New York, Dr. Karry accompanied me to the 59th Street Subway Station and, leaving me at street level, she departed.

As soon as I descended the staircase, I saw two white-skinned men ferociously aiming revolvers at the station master, who was forced to give them all the cash, bills and tokens. These he had to dump into a large, cloth bag at their terrifying command. Then the holdup men left the scene. The whole thing had taken only a few seconds. I was utterly stunned and shaken. The name of God seemed to come out of my mouth of its own accord at least a thousand times, starting from the moment I saw the revolvers.

An old lady of about seventy, a Negro of the same age, and I were the only eye-witnesses. The woman burst into tears and sobbed frantically, but the Negro had nerves of steel. The station master, outraged and furious, immediately phoned the police and requested us to give evidence as witnesses. I told him I was fully prepared.

The Negro said to the station master, "Why are you putting us into difficulty? We are not going to face such problems at this hour!"

"Go your way, then," retorted the station master.

Then the Negro asked me if I was an Indian and, when I replied in the affirmative, he simply pulled me through the door which led to the lower part of the station where the trains ran, for the tokens had all been grabbed in the holdup and we couldn't go through the turnstiles. The old woman, in spite of her sympathy for the station master, followed us. The old man forced me into a train and began rebuking me: "You Indians are so innocent. To help the station master at this hour is to invite trouble. The police will harass you and take you to the police station. These things happen because they do not keep police at the subway stations. Be wise and do not be innocent. Wisdom is more important than mere sincerity."

While I did not entirely agree with his philosophy, I was deeply moved by his sincere concern for my protection.

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest

Sweet is my Lord.
    Him I have realised as the Eternal Truth.

Sweeter is my Lord.
    Him I have realised as the only Doer.

Sweetest is my Lord.
    Him I have realised as the Enjoyer Supreme.

Editor's introduction

"AUM" is a sacred Sanskrit mystic syllable

which prefaces all Hindu prayers.

© Chinmoy Kumar Ghose 1967