Invocation

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.

Anrufung¹

Grosser Gott, Vater Gott, Vater Gott, Allmächtiger!
Ich beuge mich zu Dir.
Mein Leben ist Dein gold'ner Pflug,
Mein Wegesziel — Dein Seelentraum.

Grosser Gott, Vater Gott, Vater Gott, Allmächtiger!
Ich beuge mich zu Dir.

Mein Gott, ich bin Deiner Gnade Glanz,
Mein Welt — Deiner Füsse Licht,
Mein Hauch — der Flug Deiner Vision.
Du bist das All, Wahrheit und Leben.

Grosser Gott, Vater Gott, Vater Gott, Allmächtiger,
Ich beuge mich zu Dir.

What does your soul need?²

What does your soul need? Your soul needs absolute fulfilment. It wants to achieve this absolute fulfilment not in Heaven, but here on earth. If you think it impossible, then you may continue to sleep for a few centuries. There is no harm in it. But you must realise that you are anything but fit for a divine life, the life that fulfils you unreservedly. But if you feel it possible, then the soul whispers in your ear, “Arise, awake!” And if you feel it not only possible, but practicable, then the soul smilingly tells you, “Walk, march, run.” Finally, if you feel that the Absolute Fulfilment or the Divine Life is not only possible and practicable, but also inevitable, then alone Immortality will beckon you. Yours is the Goal, yours is the Kingdom of Truth and Delight.

You are absolutely right when, on the strength of your present knowledge, you tell me that there is no soul. Had there been a soul, how is it that during your whole lifetime you have never had a glimpse of it? I humbly tell you that your experience is no proof against the existence of your soul. Can we see the microbe with our naked eye? No, never. Until we have a microscope, the existence of a microbe is pure imagination. But the microscope compels us to revise our proud opinion. In no time it shatters our firm conviction, illumines our unlit ignorance. Similarly, until we have an illumined consciousness or the power of spiritual vision, the existence of the soul may seem to be a giant mental hallucination.

You may wonder if the soul is a portion of your heart. No, it is not. A portion of your mind? Ridiculous. A portion of your sense organs? Absurd. An unseen portion of your physical body? Impossible. What is it then? What is your soul, after all?

It is the self-effulgent messenger of God within you.
It knows no birth, no decay, no death.
It is Eternal.
It is Immortal.

Now where does the soul stay? Indeed, this is a question which is at once worth asking and worth answering. You have not one, not two, but three distinct bodies. The soul stays in these three bodies of yours: Sthula (the physical), Sukshma (the subtle), Karana (the causal). The soul is the master of these three bodies. Like the soul, you can also be the master of these three bodies when you breathe in, consciously and constantly, the Breath of the Supreme, as does your soul. Every one of us here knows that our physical body is composed of gross elements. Our subtle body is a counterpart of the physical body, made of subtle, non-physical elements. The third is the causal body. In size it is the least significant. But in its experience and capacity, it is the most significant portion of the unmanifested cosmic Energy. The physical and subtle bodies are simply the revealed and manifested modes of the causal body. This causal body embodies the characteristics and tendencies of the human being in its seed-state. As the seed is causally related to a tree, so is this body causally related to the life and manifestation of the individual in the creation.

Your soul is unique. You may not believe this, but it is so. Your soul is unique. God wants to manifest and fulfil Himself within you in an unprecedented way. God has a particular divine Mission to fulfil only through your soul. And to fulfil this particular Mission of His, He will utilise your soul and no other soul as His chosen instrument.

Now do you want your life to be of service to God so that you can fulfil His Mission? If so, then here and now give the soul back its throne. You have driven the soul away and placed the ego on its throne. Do cordially welcome the soul and signal it to its Divine Pedestal which it so well deserves. Unite yourself with your soul. Fear leaves you. Ignorance leaves you. Finally, death leaves you. Eternity welcomes you. Infinity welcomes you. Finally, Immortality welcomes you.

Death³

I have two rooms: a living room and a bedroom. In my living room I work and talk to people. Here people have to see me living and I have to show them that I am living. I call this room Life. In the other room, where I sleep, I need not work or talk to anybody, for there I go to rest, either for a long or a short period of time. Life, in the ordinary sense of the term, need not be displayed there. So I call that room Death. Needless to say, that room too is mine.

You are afraid of death because you feel that death is not yours, whereas life is. You think that life is home, certainty, whereas death is elsewhere, abroad, uncertainty. This is not true. Both life and death are in you.

In our inner or spiritual life, we call those souls "dead" who are not aspiring or making any progress. Now what is required of the one who wants to aspire and make progress? Consciousness. One has to be conscious, fully conscious, of the mind, the vital and the physical and turn them inward in order to feel and see and grow in the ever-energising and ever-transforming Delight of the Soul.

Death is inevitable because our present body is imperfect. It refuses to grow divinely and unendingly. It does not open to the Life Eternal. But we shall not suffer from this limitation through Eternity. The body will be more conscious, the body itself will aspire to bring down more and more Light, Bliss, Peace and Power into its inner and outer existence and eventually it will grow into perfection. At that time, death can never be inevitable. In fact, we shall not even see the face of death.

At present the body dies. The soul goes into rest. The soul is always wise. It does not forget to carry with it the essence of the experiences that it acquired while it was in the land of the living. The soul silently and steadily returns to its own region. While taking its rest, it assimilates the essence of its past. When the assimilation is over, it starts to prepare itself for a new journey. When the preparation is over, it begins to determine the new birth, the new environment, the new circumstances, the new personality and the new mission. When this set of decisions has been made, the soul goes to the Supreme for an interview. There, with the Divine Approval of the Supreme, the soul descends into the physical world.

We have been thinking of death. Let us now think of birth, for birth and death are inseparable. Birth precedes death; death succeeds birth. What we need to connect both birth and death is Life. Strangely enough, this Life existed before our birth, it exists between our birth and death and will exist after death, stretching its far-flung arms into Eternity, Infinity and Immortality.

An advanced seeker sees and feels that at every moment he is having a new birth and a new death. And his soul is moving from one momentary experience to another. When the body, the vital and the mind live in the soul and experience, nay, become the ever-lasting experience of the Supreme, then alone God's Eternal Life will permeate our human existence. Divinity will grow in the aspiring soil of humanity. Humanity will discover its Divinity. Divinity will discover the truth that humanity transformed is the common goal of both man and God.

Sri Chinmoy was interviewed on Radio Station WHOA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 10 December 1967. From 9:30 to 10:30 A.M.

Interviewers: Mr. Jim Knight and Mr. George Riddell

Introduction to Radio Interview

Mr. Jim Knight: Ladies and Gentlemen: Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, the Spiritual Director of the Aum Centres of Puerto Rico and New York, has come to Puerto Rico for the fifth time. A man with profound insight, with abundant spiritual wisdom, with a glowing heart to serve the Supreme and humanity, Sri Chinmoy was born thirty-six years ago in Bengal, India. He spent his childhood and youth in a spiritual institution in South India where he practised the spiritual discipline and prepared himself for his divine mission. He was prompted by the Divine within him to come to the West and share his spiritual realisation with the sincere seekers of the Supreme.

So in 1964 he came to the United States. He has lectured on Indian philosophy and Yoga to many groups both large and small: schools, churches, synagogues and other interested groups. In 1965 he began the publication of his spiritual writings in a small monthly journal entitled AUM, which dealt with the Indian spiritual discipline and the higher Light and Wisdom of Yoga.

In July, 1965 he came to Puerto Rico on a lecture tour and it was here that the first Aum Centre was established. The following year the Aum Centre of New York City was established. Since then Sri Chinmoy has been helping the disciples of both Centres, besides helping groups in different cities such as Washington, D. C., Miami, Florida and Jamaica, West Indies. He comes to visit his Centre in Puerto Rico every few months and we have the pleasure of having him here this morning. He will be glad to answer any questions and we are going to do that in just a few moments. First of all, let's give you the address. The Aum Centre here in San Juan is located at Miramar Avenue, Stop 11, Santurce.

Now this morning we have Sri Chinmoy here in the studio. He will give us an example of a prayer chant in Sanskrit to start the program.

[Sri Chinmoy sings a Shloka from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]

Ladies and gentlemen, you have been listening to Sri Chinmoy Ghose chanting a prayer, which, to those of us in the western world, was quite foreign. We are going to get into that and find out what that was about and we have very many questions to ask Sri Chinmoy this morning.

With us in our studio we have Miss Dorothy Eisaman, Mr. and Mrs. Jose L. Casanova, Miss Carmen Suro, Mr. Ramon Torres Pena, Mr. Ed Belville and acting with me this morning in the process of asking the questions, is Mr. George Riddell.

Mr. George Riddell: One of the first questions that comes to us: there is evidently a very sacred note in that chant and I was wondering if you might interpret it for us in English, to know what it was about.

Sri Chinmoy: Thank you. This chant is one of the most famous chants in India. From time immemorial, this chant has been sung, chanted by the seekers of Truth. The seers, the sages of the Upanishads sang this chant. The significance, the meaning of this prayer is:

Lead me from the untruth to the Truth,
Lead me from darkness to Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.

The firmament of India still resounds with this soul-stirring chant of the Vedic and the Upanishadic seers of India.

Mr. George Riddell: Typical themes like that seem to run through all religious hymns and chants and now that you mention "Vedic", I wonder if Yoga itself is a part of another religion of India or is it a religion in itself?

Sri Chinmoy: Yoga is no religion. Yoga transcends all varieties of religion. It is something infinitely deeper than the so-called “religions”. Yoga is the Living Breath that makes us feel that God is within us, of us and for us. Yoga is the direct communion with God. It is our union with God that Yoga teaches us. And at the same time, it is the language of our inner and spiritual life. Right now, I am speaking in English in order to convey my feelings, thoughts and ideas. Similarly, if I want to speak to God, commune with God, then the language that is required is called Yoga.

Mr. George Riddell: Do you meditate or do you pray? In Yoga, how do you communicate with God?

Sri Chinmoy: In Yoga we pray, we concentrate and we meditate. When we pray, we get an inner feeling, that is to say, with our hearts we feel that we are crying for something. When we concentrate, we focus all our intense attention on something, it may be an object or it may be a person. And when we meditate, we enter into the deeper regions, deeper planes of consciousness.

By prayer, we enter into the Kingdom of God, by concentration we can also enter into the Kingdom of God and also, of course, by meditation. These three ways, prayer, concentration and meditation, are the most effective ways to commune with God.

Mr. George Riddell: Some of the other members here may have some questions that they wish to ask and I think we should start with the ladies first. Miss Carmen Suro may have a question.

Question: Yes, I would like to ask the Master what is the difference between Experience and Realisation in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: The difference between Experience and Realisation in the spiritual life is this: a realised person can say, "I and my Father are one; I and God are one"; whereas an aspirant having many spiritual experiences, or even one, can say and feel that he is slowly but inevitably growing into the realisation of God.

Experience shows and tells us what we will eventually become, the possessor of God-Consciousness. But in realisation, we come to know what we truly are: absolute oneness with God forever and through Eternity. This is the difference between Experience and Realisation.

Mr. Jim Knight: One question has interested me. Everybody in all religions tries to relate himself to God and I wonder, Sri Chinmoy, if you could give us a short explanation of what Yoga says of God. What is God and what is the relationship between God and man?

Sri Chinmoy: God and man … this is the eternal question and the eternal answer. God is the living Breath and that living Breath is in man. Man has a goal and the name of that goal is God. In God is man's satisfaction, achievement and fulfilment. Through man is God's Satisfaction, Achievement and Fulfilment. Man needs God to realise his true Self. God needs man to manifest Himself on earth.

Mr. Jim Knight: Are you saying that God and man are one and the same?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. God and man are one and the same. God is man yet to be fulfilled in His Infinity and man is God but he has yet to realise it.

I have to grow and God has to flow. I grow as a human being into His highest Consciousness and God flows into me and through me with His Infinite Compassion.

Mr. George Riddell: Now, according to Yoga, when your physical being ceases to exist or when you do what we call "die", what happens to your spiritual self?

Sri Chinmoy: When we die, our physical body, the physical sheath enters into the physical world and is disintegrated by burial or cremation. The vital sheath enters into the vital world. The mind enters into the mental world. Then slowly the soul goes back to its own region. There, usually, it stays for a few years… it depends on the individual soul… according to its necessity and according to its preparation. Now after taking rest for some time, the soul feels that the time is ripe for it to enter into the world once again to fulfil its divine mission. God-realisation takes a good many incarnations.

Before the soul enters into creation, it tries to observe the environment, the situation and the family from above; which family it is going to accept. Then the soul goes to the Supreme for approval. Sometimes it gets this approval; sometimes the soul comes into creation merely with the knowledge of the Supreme. Again it starts its journey, it tries to unveil the inner Divinity and at the same time, it tries to manifest the Divine in the field of creation. So this is how the process of reincarnation continues.

We believe in reincarnation. We know that we have millions of desires to be fulfilled. At the age of four I had many desires; at the ages of ten, twenty, thirty, forty, sixty, these desires are not yet fulfilled. Neither we nor God will be satisfied unless we are fulfilled. First we get our fulfilment in satisfying our desires in the ordinary human life. Then we have our fulfilment in achieving our higher aspiration. Right now, we want money, name, fame and all this. Later we try to achieve Light, Peace and Bliss with our spiritual aspiration. In one incarnation, in one short span of life, we cannot do all that. We need many incarnations. That is why, according to our Indian philosophy, reincarnation is a positive fact and a positive truth.

Mr. George Riddell: Speaking of reincarnation, this brings to mind the idea of the wheel of Karma. Now on the wheel of Karma, a person or a soul is reincarnated in human form. Or can he be reincarnated in other forms?

Sri Chinmoy: Let me say as a preface to my answer that the soul is in this table, the soul is in the chair, the soul is in the plant, the soul is in everything. The soul, of course, is in human beings. It is all a matter of the degree of manifestation. The Christ had a soul, I have a soul, we all have a soul. In the case of the Christ, He had the Supreme’s all-pervading Consciousness. In the ordinary person's case, his degree of manifestation is not anywhere near that. Similarly, the soul that is in this table, this chair, is nowhere near our soul in degree of manifestation.

But, in answer to your question, once the soul has come into human incarnation, once it has accepted human life, it does not, as a rule, accept animal life. Once upon a time, we were all in the animal kingdom, but as a general rule, the soul does not enter into animal incarnation from the human state. But very rarely it happens that people are still in the animal consciousness although they have a human body. They are in the animal kingdom with their passions and lust, lowest vital desires. In such cases the Supreme allows the particular human being, the human soul, to enter into a particular animal to enjoy itself, to work out and throw away all these lowest vital movements. There the soul remains, say for six or eight months or a year. But it does not mean that the soul has to remain perpetually in the animal kingdom. No. And only in very rare cases does the soul go into the animal world. We have got a human body and from here we grow — from man we grow into the superman.

Question: Master, am I correct in saying that we who are believers in God must grow in Grace daily?

Sri Chinmoy: You are absolutely correct in saying that the believers of God must grow in God's Grace daily. A true believer of God feels that his very existence on earth, his inner and outer achievements and fulfilments are entirely due to God's Grace; also he is truly fortunate to see that his so-called personal efforts too, are an act of God's Grace. At every moment he feels that without God's Grace he is nothing and with God's Grace, he is everything.

Mr. George Riddell: Listen, that last one is definitely in line with much of Christian preaching and I find that what you say is very similar to the pronouncements of the Christian churches. I am not familiar with the Moslem or the Hebrew religion, but it seems to go through all religion and probably through the Hindu religion in India and various other religions throughout the East.

Now, this Grace, I was wondering if, according to Yoga, will this Grace be flowing from God all the time, or would this Grace flow directly to a particular man from God, or does it flow through other mediums between God and man? When a man feels that he is Grace, does he know that he gets it directly from God or does he get it through these other mediums. I think I have made myself clear.

Sri Chinmoy: If the aspirant is of a very high calibre, he can get this Grace directly from God. Otherwise, the beginner needs a helper, a teacher or a guide in order to bring down God's Grace into him. The Grace is all the time descending, showering, but the beginner is not conscious of this fact that there is a constant shower of God's Grace. And ordinary human beings are totally ignorant of the fact that there is such a thing as Grace. They think, "As you sow, so you reap." This is true to some extent, but there is also God's Grace which can expedite our life's journey and at the same time negate, nullify our wrong actions. So to come back to the question, it depends on the individual, where he stands. But again, we have to know that God's Grace is something which we badly need in our day-to-day life, in our outer life as well as in our inner life. God's Grace is our real meal, the energising, fulfilling meal. The Bible has taught us that man does not live by bread alone and we, the seekers of Truth, add to it that man can live and does live by God's Grace alone.