Invocation¹

Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme!
    I bow to Thee, I bow.
    My life Thy golden plough;
My journey's Goal Thy soulful Dream.
Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme!
    I bow to Thee, I bow.

Supreme, I am Thy glowing Grace.
    My world Thy Feet of Light,
    My breath Thy Vision's kite.
Thou art one Truth, one Life, one Face.
Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme!
    I bow to Thee, I bow.

TV interview

AUM 248-255. On 20 July 1967, from 7:00 to 7:30 P.M., Sri Chinmoy appeared on television for the first time. He was interviewed on the Government Station, W.I.P.R. (Channel 6) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The interviewer was Senor Hector Campos Parsi, a well-known musician and composer who has a weekly TV program in which he interviews persons prominent in the arts and sciences. Senor Parsi is also a man of deep philosophical insight and he has a particular interest in spiritual figures whom he invites to appear on his program whenever possible.

Master Chinmoy, I have just introduced you in Spanish and explained some of your works that I have read in Spanish.

Interviewer: What is your mission now in Puerto Rico and how long will you stay here?

Sri Chinmoy: My mission here in Puerto Rico is to help the sincere seekers in their inner life and help them realise their spiritual perfection. I shall be staying here until 6 August and then I shall leave for New York where I have another Centre. We have two Centres, one here in Puerto Rico, the other in New York.

Interviewer: Master Chinmoy, is this the first time that you have been in Puerto Rico?

Sri Chinmoy: This is my fourth visit. I was here exactly a year ago, last year in July. That was my first visit. Then I came here twice after that. So this is my fourth visit.

Interviewer: How many people do you have working at the Aum Centre in Puerto Rico?

Sri Chinmoy: We have here now fifty members, fifty sincere seekers, I must say. And there are many who are connected with the Centre but are unable to come to the meetings owing to family problems and so on.

Interviewer: Are they all well acquainted with philosophy? Are they students of different stages or are they all of the same level?

Sri Chinmoy: They attend the classes, they come to me to receive help and guidance in their self-realisation, but they are not of the same standard. Some of them are very well versed in both eastern and western philosophy, while others are not. All of them come to me and meditate with me and ask me spiritual questions to solve their inner and outer problems. The students range from absolute beginners to the most advanced aspirants.

Interviewer: Well, it is a very broad problem in order to attain to Realisation, is it not?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, it is a lifelong problem. To be accurate, a lifelong process. It depends on the individual. It may even take a few incarnations to achieve Realisation.

Interviewer: Master, I understand that in order reach the height you have now attained, it took you a very long time. I would like you very much to tell me how you felt the inner call, how you started preparing yourself for the spiritual life.

Sri Chinmoy: When I was very young, about a year and a half old, my parents took me to a spiritual place in Pondicherry, South India … in Madras State. I was taken to that spiritual Ashram three times more in my early childhood. And when I was twelve years old, I became a permanent member, a spiritual seeker in that Ashram. I stayed there for twenty years, from the age of twelve to the age of thirty-two, practising the spiritual discipline and living the inner life.

Then the Divine within me, the Supreme, commanded me to come to the West. He said, “I want you to be my instrument. I want you to help my sincere, spiritual children in the West. This is your Mission. Go to the West. My spiritual children there are thirsting for the spiritual life. I am in you, with you and for you.”

Interviewer: Master Chinmoy, but ... do you not think that the East is more prepared, more inclined to understand the spiritual life and practise it than the West?

Sri Chinmoy: According to my own understanding of the Truth, the West has also abundant possibility to realise God. As the East has ample opportunity, so also has the West. True, formerly the East was more inclined to the inner life and the spiritual life. But now those days are gone. Even in the West there are many sincere seekers who can stand on the same level as the most advanced aspirants in the East. God-Realisation is not the sole monopoly of the East. God is Omnipresent. The West also has infinite divine qualities. For example, the West has dynamism and the West is extremely fortunate in giving importance to time. Time is a great factor in the spiritual life. The West knows the value of time, whereas in the East, in the name of Eternal Time, we have become very lazy. We wallow in the pleasure of idleness.

Interviewer: I just wondered, Master Chinmoy, if by creating the high materialistic form of life we have now, whether we have put too many barriers between ourselves and the Divine.

Sri Chinmoy: This is, to some extent, true, but at the same time, in the West, you have been aspiring for material perfection, which will help you hold the Divine most solidly. The Western soil is spiritually fertile. The West can easily and effectively express the Divine through the most advanced material development in the physical world. The East does not have that material development. The sense of material development is absolutely necessary for the East.

Here in the West, your material development need not stand as a barrier. On the contrary, it can be of great advantage. You have both dynamism and material development. Like the East, if the West is ready to accept and feel the Truth that the Divine is not only in Heaven but here on earth, and if the West cultivates, develops and adds eastern Silence to its matchless Dynamism and material development, then God's all-transforming smile will dawn on the West.

Interviewer: Master Chinmoy, in Puerto Rico do you find great spiritual possibility?

Sri Chinmoy: I must say in all sincerity that there is a great possibility for the spiritual life here in Puerto Rico and many people are practising it. Unfortunately some of them are doing this unconsciously. They are eating something but they do not know what they are actually eating. The Puerto Rican soil is spiritually fertile. The seeker in Puerto Rico is extremely genuine. Hence the spiritual fulfilment in Puerto Rico is inevitable.

Interviewer: And will it be your task and the task of the Aum Centre to make them realise their spiritual Goal?

Sri Chinmoy: That is my sole aim. They are ready, they are fit and they are able to enter into the inner life. Some of them are actually moving fast across the path of the spiritual life. To my sorrow, there are some who are not aware of their inner aspiration. So I wish to make them conscious of what they are truly doing.

Interviewer: Master Chinmoy, I am curious about the meaning of these three letters which you pronounce "AUM."

Sri Chinmoy: AUM is a Sanskrit syllable, or you can say, a complete word. We have, in India, the Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva — the Creator, Preserver and Transformer. A represents Brahma the Creator, U represents Vishnu the Preserver and M represents Siva the Transformer. And this AUM is the breath of the Supreme. The Indian sages, seers and yogins of yore chanted this AUM and they got their souls' illumination and liberation. Even now, most of the seekers in India chant AUM most devotedly. They will have their Realisation by chanting AUM, the Power Infinite.

Interviewer: In case our televiewers would like to communicate with you, where will you be staying?

Sri Chinmoy: Right now, I am staying at our Aum Centre. It is located at 659 Miramar Avenue. We are holding classes and meditations every night. The President of the Centre is Miss Carmen Suro. Our telephone number is 724-7286.

Interviewer: Thank you very much. Master Chinmoy, for your kindness to us and we hope that you will be visiting Puerto Rico very often. You are helping so many people. Thank you very much.

Devotion³

Devotion is the complete submission of the individual Will to the Will Divine. Devotion is adoration. Adoration is the spontaneous delight that springs from the heart. Who can be the object of our adoration? God. How can we adore Him? Through our self-surrender.

Man loves. He expects love in return. A devotee loves. But he loves human beings for the sake of his sweet Lord who abides in all. His love breathes in humility, spontaneous joy and selfless service.

Devotion is the feminine aspect of love. It is sweet, energising and complete. Sri Aurobindo says, “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned something from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.”

A devotee sees a circle which is God. He enters into it with his soul's cry. He then silently comes and stands at the centre of the circle and grows into a tree of ecstasy.

A child does not care to know what his mother is. He just wants his mother's constant presence of love before him. Similar is the devotee's feeling for his Lord. Many come forward to help him in his life's journey. But he cares not for their help. God's Grace is his sole help and refuge. The tortures of Hell are too weak to torment him while he is there with his Lord. His life in hell is a life of perfect bliss. His sufferings and tribulations in Heaven know no bounds if he is there without his Lord beside him.

Unlike others, a devotee sincerely feels that he has nothing else in his possession save his desire for God. His desire is his jewel. God's Grace is His jewel. In offering his jewel to God, the devotee binds God. In giving His jewel to His devotee, God liberates and fulfils him.

Devotion is a soul-stirring emotion. It dynamically permeates the entire consciousness of the devotee. Devotion is action. This action is always inspired by devotee's inner being.

Devotion brings in renunciation. True renunciation is never a life of isolation. Renunciation is an utter distaste for the animal life of the flesh. It is also a total absence of the ego. A life of true renunciation is a life that lives in the world but not from it.

Devotion is dedication. Dedication gives a devotee his self-fulfilment. Self-fulfilment is God's Infinitude.

Revelation

No more my heart shall sob or grieve.
My days and nights dissolve in God's own Light.
Above the toil of life my soul
Is a Bird of Fire winging the Infinite.

I have known the One and His secret Play;
And passed beyond the sea of Ignorance-dream.
In tune with Him, I sport and sing,
I own the golden Eye of the Supreme.

Drunk deep of Immortality,
I am the root and boughs of a teeming vast.
My Form I have known and realised,
The Supreme and I are one — all we outlast.

Spirituality: what does it really mean?⁴

Spirituality is man's love for God and God's concern for man. Spirituality is man's flower of worship for God and God's flower of Grace for man. In spirituality man's consciousness grows and God's Compassion flows. Through spirituality man is awakened and God is revealed.

Today I am supposed to speak on Indian Spirituality. Being an Indian, I am emotionally enchanted. Being a lover of humanity, I am psychically struck. Being a seeker of the Supreme, I am spiritually cautioned.

Needless to say that there is no such thing as Indian spirituality. Spirituality is for all the corners of the globe. But if you wish to know from an Indian how he looks upon spirituality, then let me avail myself of this momentous task.

An Indian thinks of God because he thinks that God thinks of him infinitely. An Indian loves God because he feels that God loves him infinitely more. He also knows and feels that God thinks of him and loves him even if he does not think of or love God.

Remember, the storms of fear do not compel him to think of God or love God. It is his inner urge that awakens him to think of God. It is his inner light that illumines him to love God. An Indian knows that human ignorance not only recedes but disappears. Human doubts cannot limit man's spiritual horizons. Misery cannot be the ordained lot of man. Despair cannot devour man's spiritual energies. An Indian is unceasingly bold in his dynamic experience to proclaim that man can not only see, feel and realise God, but eventually become God. An Indian knows the supreme secret that self-discovery or God-discovery, self-realisation or God-realisation can take place here on earth. He also tells the world that in human transformation shines God's perfect perfection.

Let us once again enter into the universal, omnipresent spirituality. Man needs peace. Man wants power. Man cries for joy. Man hungers for love, the love that energises and fulfils him. Man dreams of Paradise, within and without. Spirituality says: “O man, cultivate me. I am eternally and infinitely fertile. Delay not. The hour is come. Yours is the achievement that God is yours. Yours is the fulfilment that you are God's. Behold, you have two lives: the inner and the outer. The inner to realise, the outer to manifest. Let the inner push, let the outer pull. Yonder is the beckoning GOAL!”

Questions and answers on the soul

AUM 259-264. These questions were put to Sri Chinmoy by Indrani (Mrs. Barbara Callen).

Question: When one sees through the light of the soul, does he see through hundreds of lifetimes?

Sri Chinmoy: When one sees through the light of the soul, one can see the future possibilities of one's present incarnation and at the most, one or two future incarnations, not hundreds of lifetimes. This statement applies to past incarnations as well. These glimpses need not be in any chronological order. However, in the cases of great spiritual masters like Krishna and Buddha, this principle is not applicable, for the remotest past and the farthest future, in exact chronological order, is at their command.

Question: When we see through the light of the soul, is it always with the feeling of joy?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. It is always with a feeling of inner joy and this joy may often be expressed by the shedding of tears. This shedding of tears is the outer expression of the soul's delight and has nothing to do with human sorrow, grief or frustration. It is like a mother shedding tears when she sees her son returning home from abroad. Her tears are the expression of her inner joy.

Question: When the soul chooses a new body, does it have a blueprint laid out as to its mission, or does the soul's mission evolve during one's lifetime, depending on circumstances and environment?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul always comes down to earth with a certain mission. However, the earthly environment can help or hinder this mission. It also happens that the soul, at times willingly, makes an adjustment to its surroundings. Then it gradually tries to fulfil its mission with the full recognition and co-operation of the environment.

Question: Does the soul have many missions, or just one, in a lifetime?

Sri Chinmoy: There is only one mission, but there are many aims. One soul may wish to become a poet, an artist or an engineer in a lifetime. Each soul may aim at various creativities, but these are aims. They are not to be confused with the soul's mission. The soul's mission is always first and foremost: God-Realisation; then comes the manifestation of God-Realisation on earth. However, one's aim may help him in his God-Realisation or it may delay him, depending on the individual's approach to Truth.

For example, if one is a writer, it is well and good. If he goes on writing without aspiration for God-Realisation through his writings, he may one day become a very great writer, but he has not necessarily progressed in his self-discovery. On the other hand, if one writes to express the Divine in his writings, if one's outer expression is the result of one's inner aspiration and if one has taken to writing as a self-dedicated service to the Supreme in humanity, then certainly the aspirant in the writer is leading him to the realisation of God. To come back to your question, from the standpoint of absolute Truth, there is only one mission and that is nothing but Self-Realisation.

Question: Does the vital have a mission separate from the soul's or is it related to the soul's mission?

Sri Chinmoy: The vital and the body do not have a separate mission. But when they collaborate with the soul's mission, it becomes theirs too. The vital hungers for name and fame, which are only aims. When the vital identifies itself with the soul and willingly accepts the soul's mission then the soul's mission undoubtedly becomes the mission of the vital.

Question: How does one know if he is attending to his soul's mission or simply satisfying his vanity?

Sri Chinmoy: One can distinguish between the two only when one works without being motivated by desire and without being affected by the results of his actions. When one is in that state of consciousness, one can easily know whether one is attending to one's soul's mission or just satisfying one's vanity. Work done in self-dedication leads the aspirant toward the fulfilment of his soul's mission. Work done for self-gratification drives man toward the pleasures that end in self-annihilation.

Nehru — Kennedy

Nehru's entrance into the world: 14 November 1889
Kennedy's departure from the world: 22 November 1963

Slowly, steadily, unerringly
Nehru fought.
He won the fight.
Youthfully, speedily, dynamically
Kennedy ran.
He won the race.

Kennedy-Nehru.
Nehru-Kennedy.
Two are the hearts
That ached to fling wide
The windows of slumbering faith
In the house of humanity.

God's Fragrance of Peace,
God's Bliss of Freedom
In measureless measure
They knew how to inhale,
They knew.

Never were they parched
In the deserts of false hopes.
Desires they had for the world.
God slaked their thirst
In His own mystic way.

Nehru-Kennedy.
Kennedy-Nehru.
They are one, indivisible.
They are one, invincible.
They are one, a tornado
Of God's stupendous smile
Toppling the towers of sorrow,
Fear and defeat.

"Blossoms of the Heart"

What is my God doing?

What is my God doing in Heaven? He is dreaming.
What is my God doing on Earth? He is struggling.
In His Dream He is His Goal.
In His Struggle He is His Soul.

What is Heaven doing? Heaven is descending with God's Feet of Beauty.
What is Earth doing? Earth is ascending with God's Eye of Purity.

What is my God doing to please Heaven? He is dancing.
What is my God doing to please Earth? He is crying.

What else is my God doing? He is carrying me to the Head of His Heaven to show me the embodiment of His highest Height which He is going to share with me unconditionally.
He is carrying me into the Heart of His Earth to show me the embodiment of His deepest Depth which He is going to share with me unconditionally.

2.

Tributes to Sri Chinmoy by his followers and disciples in the West will be out at the end of December