The seeker-writer

There once was a seeker who had some sincerity in him. He was a writer and had written many books. Of his most important books, the first one was about animals, the second one was about man, the third one was about himself and the fourth one was about God. Animals, man, himself and God — these were his four most significant books.

He said to himself, “Now that I have written these books, let me go and read aloud the books I have written to the most powerful among the animals, to the highest among men, to the best inside of me, and to God.”

So he went into the forest and climbed up a tall tree. He settled himself and started reading out the portion that he had written on the lion. “Lion, you are the king of the animals. You are the most powerful and at the same time the most beautiful. You are always majestic. You do not kill other animals except when you are hungry.” His book went on to appreciate the many fine qualities of the lion and he felt great admiration.

Suddenly, to his horror, a lion started roaring nearby. He exclaimed, “Look at this ungrateful animal. I appreciated him highly. And instead of being pleased and grateful, he wants to kill me.” The seeker-writer was totally disgusted with so ungrateful an animal and he waited in silence for the lion to go away. After one full hour, the lion left. When he was quite sure the lion had left him, he climbed down and went away, murmuring, “Absolutely ungrateful animal!”

When he had recovered a little, he said, “Among men, who is the highest? The King.” So he went to the King’s palace and said, “O King, I have something to read to you. I have written extensively about human beings. I know that you are the highest, you are the greatest among men. And now I would like to read out what I have written about you.”

The King nodded in agreement and the writer began to read from his book. “You are the most powerful king and have conquered all other kings. We are greatly proud of you. To see you is to see the Face of God. Because you are the highest among men. You represent God on earth.” Reading this he flattered the King.

When the King had heard all that was written he said, briefly, “Thank you.”

The writer became angry and indignant. He said to himself, “I have written so many things about him in such high appreciation, admiration and adoration and he just says, ‘Thank you.’ What an ungrateful King!” But he did not dare to say it out loud. Only to himself he said, “Look at this ungrateful man.”

When he reached his home he said, “Inside me my soul is my best possession. So now let me speak to my soul.” He started reading out in front of his soul, “O Soul, you are the purest, you are the best in me. You are the most beautiful. Without you I would not exist. You are indispensable. We always need you and not the body.”

The soul gave a broad smile.

Once again the writer was angry. “For fifteen minutes I have appreciated you, admired you, saying that you are by far the best member in my family and you just give me a smile.” He grew angrier yet and said, “The soul is simply useless. It does not know at all how to accept appreciation and offer gratitude.”

Then the writer-seeker went to God. Standing in front of Him he said, “O God, You are so kind. Look at Your vast Creation. You are all Compassion. Because You exist on earth we are all on earth. Everywhere Your Compassion reigns supreme.”

God said, very simply, “It is all right.”

“Oh God! For such a long time I have appreciated You and You just say that it is all right? What an ungrateful God You are. You should have blessed me and said something nice about me. I have appreciated You, I have admired You, I have adored You, I have worshipped You, but alas, here is another ungrateful person on earth.”

Puzzled and disgusted, the writer said to himself, “Since all the superiors are so ungrateful, let me go to the simpler ones who are a little inferior. Now I shall show the superiors something about appreciation by going to the inferiors.”

Once again he went into the forest. To himself he said, “Now, next to the lion is the tiger.” He climbed up a high tree and when he was settled he started speaking highly of the tiger: “O Tiger, you have such great strength. I feel you are too modest. You can easily defeat the lion. When I look at you I get tremendous joy, because your very face shows solid strength. The lion has no strength compared to you. The lion only knows how to roar.” He belittled the lion.

The tiger heard and was very happy. He was being given such appreciation and the lion was getting only criticism. So the tiger started roaming around, feeling proud and happy and as he moved here and there he noticed a ring. He did not know that it was a golden ring. He was merely curious. He put it into his mouth, only to discover that it was something not edible. The tiger dropped the ring on the ground and moved off into the forest. As it happened, he dropped it at the foot of the tree in which the writer was sitting.

When the tiger had left, the writer came down quite safely and saw the gold ring. It was a beautiful and most expensive ring. Delighted, he exclaimed, “Look at the appreciation of this animal. The tiger has listened to my appreciation. What has he given me? He has given me this beautiful gold ring. I can sell it and get hundreds of rupees. Now at last I have found one grateful person.”

Then he went to the Minister at the King’s palace. Next in importance to the King is the Minister. The writer started praising the Minister highly. He said, “You know, soon you will become the King, but already you are really the greatest person on earth. There are so many things you have done for the King, but the King himself takes all the glory. You have worked so hard, but just because the King is superior, he takes all the glory. Actually it is you who deserve it.” The writer lavished such appreciation and admiration upon the Minister.

The Minister was greatly flattered. He looked carefully around to see if the King was there and when he saw that the King was not there, he gave the writer 1,000 rupees. The writer was thrilled that he had gotten 1,000 rupees from the Minister and said to himself delightedly, “See, the superiors are so ungrateful, whereas the ones who are just a little inferior are so grateful.”

After he reached home he said, “Now, next to my soul is my heart.” So he started speaking to his heart. “O my Heart, You are so nice; you are so kind. You always feel for others. We talk so much about the soul. But where is the soul? We can feel you. Doctors can see you and feel you. When we breathe in we can feel palpitation and it is all inside you. You are so kind, affectionate and compassionate. Without you we can’t exist. When you fail, when you stop functioning, we cannot live. So you are the only indispensable one in my life.”

To his consternation, the heart started crying.

Astonished, the writer asked, “Why are you crying?”

The heart said, “I am crying because you are a fool. I am not indispensable; it is only the soul that is always indispensable. You have to give the soul its proper value. You must know that the soul is infinitely more beautiful than I am. The soul has a divine spark, a divine light; it has everything divine much more than I. Only the soul can deserve lofty appreciation and admiration. I only feel sorry for your stupidity. You are appreciating the wrong person. It is the soul that deserves this kind of appreciation and admiration and not I — never.”

The writer said, “Look how nice the heart is. I am appreciating it so fully and it does not accept my appreciation; it gives all the credit to the soul, the soul that was so nasty.” He said that the heart was so nice. He deeply appreciated the heart’s nobility and generosity.

Now he went to one of the minor gods. God had disappointed him; God had simply said, “It is all right.” So he went to one of the cosmic gods and stood in front of him and said, “Oh, who cares for God? We go to Him, we appreciate and adore Him, we praise Him and He just says, ‘It is all right.’ Now I say it’s all wrong. O minor god, you are the most beautiful and in a few years you can transcend God. Your beauty surpasses His. Now it seems to me that God has become old and He does not talk sensibly. If I appreciate someone so fully for such a long time, would he say, ‘It is all right’? But you are different, you are a cosmic god. Soon you are going to replace God and you will be able to rule the present creation much better than God. God is not doing anything well. See, He does not even have an iota of common sense. He does not know how to appreciate even an ordinary human being.” He started adoring the cosmic god, extolling him to the skies. While saying this, he placed a flower at the feet of the cosmic god. He said, “I didn’t place a flower at the Feet of God. You rightly deserve my appreciation, admiration and adoration. So to you I offer the flower.”

The cosmic god said, "You fool! Do I deserve this kind of thing? He is the Lord. He is the Supreme.” The cosmic god took the flower and placed it at the Feet of God and bowed down to the omnipotent God, the Supreme.

The writer was deeply impressed and said to himself, “Look at the cosmic god’s nobility. I offered him all my appreciation, admiration and adoration. He could easily have kept it for himself. He could easily have said, ‘I am glad that you have realised me, my capacity.’ But no, look at his nobility, look at his sensibility. He offered all my appreciation, admiration and adoration for him at the Feet of God, the Supreme. People think that he is inferior to God, but look at his heart’s magnanimity. To me, he is the one who is really superior. Now I have come to realise that all the inferiors are far superior to the so-called superiors. In each case it was proved. The tiger showed gratitude, the Minister showed appreciation with money, the heart showed its sincerity and nobility and the cosmic god who deserved all my adoration offered it to the Supreme God. This proves that those who are great are not really great and those who are not great are really great.

The seeker-writer went home very pleased with his discovery. He fell asleep. All of a sudden he saw a most beautiful human being in front of him. He said, “What do you want from me?"

The being looked like a saint. The being said, “I have come only to see you.”

The seeker said, “Today I have been terribly disappointed. All the time I used to cherish the idea that superior would be superior in every way. But now I am seeing that the inferior is actually superior to the superior.”

The saint said, "Now, tell me, how does the superior become inferior and the inferior become superior?” So the writer told the whole story.

Then the saint said, "Unfortunately you are mistaken. You are simply a fool.”

“I am a fool? What do you mean I am a fool? Tell me why you think I am a fool.”

The saint said, “When the lion was roaring, it was not because he wanted to devour you. You energised the lion with your admiration. The lion was roaring with tremendous joy and inspiration. You energised the lion to such an extent that he was roaring in deep appreciation and he wanted to show his courage and strength and kill all other animals. The lion felt that with your appreciation you made him even stronger. That is why the lion was showing you, through his thunderous roaring, his own appreciation. He was also telling the other animals; ‘Look, here I am well appreciated even by the human beings.’ So it was gratitude he was offering to you and you misunderstood him.”

The saint continued. “Now the King said to you, ‘Thank you’. First of all, the King gave you permission to come and see him. You are only an ordinary man. You wrote a few things about the King highly appreciating him. But you must understand that the King does not care for this kind of appreciation. Every day he gets lots of appreciation and admiration from men who are far more important than you. The King allowed you to come to his palace, he listened to you and he most kindly said, ‘Thank you’. He is such a great man and you must remember he has many, many things to do. Kings don’t usually even say ‘thank you’. They just nod their heads. They have no time. Yet your most generous King has given his very precious time and also said, ‘Thank you.’ What more can you expect from a great King? So the King did show more than justice by saying ‘Thank you’ to an ordinary person like you. To get a ‘thank you’ appreciation, from the King is really something.”

"Now, about the soul,” the saint resumed. “When you spoke highly of the soul, the soul smiled at you most beautifully and divinely. To get a smile from the soul is not an ordinary thing. After all, the soul represents God on earth. Next to God on earth is the soul. This soul of yours gave you a generous smile. What does it mean? It means that the soul offered its own divinity to you through a smile. So you saw and got your soul’s divinity in the form of a smile and you say that the soul didn’t appreciate you. You are such a fool.”

The saint paused and went on, “Now about God. You went and appreciated, admired and adored God and said all nice things about Him. God said to you, ‘It is all right.’ When God tells you ‘It is all right’, that means that what you have said is absolutely perfect. Look, we human beings say everything wrong, we write everything wrong, we do everything wrong. For God to say that it is all right, that means that what you wrote about God is exactly correct and fully significant and He appreciated that you have done the right thing. To hear from God that your words are all right means that he has fully sanctioned what you say, fully approved of all your writings. He has sanctioned all your writings. That means that what you have written is absolutely correct. You fool, God has appreciated you much more than you actually deserved to be appreciated. If God says to me that something I say or do is all right, I would be so proud, so utterly delighted. We are all ignorant people. For us to do anything right and to hear from God that it is all right, is the height of our glory. What more do we need? What more can we deserve?”

He continued, “The superior is always superior and will remain so. But we are not able to understand the superior. When we do not understand we go to the inferior and try to create a problem between the superior and the inferior. But if we are sincere, if we are earnest, then we will come to see that the superior is always superior. But the superior will offer his appreciation a different way from the inferior. When we mix with the inferiors, just because we ourselves are equal to the inferiors we understand their appreciation perfectly well. But when we actually mix with the real superiors we do not understand their way of appreciation.”

Between Nothingness and Eternity

Barren of events,
Rich in pretensions
My earthly life.

Obscurity
My real name.

Wholly unto myself
I exist.

I wrap no soul
In my embrace.

No mentor worthy
Of my calibre
Have I.

I am all alone
Between failure
And frustration.

I am the red thread
Between Nothingness
And Eternity.

The Upanishads — The revelation of India's Light

Each Upanishad is the unfoldment of the Supreme Knowledge which, once spiritually attained, is never lost. The entire universe of action, according to the Upanishads, with its ephemeral means and ends, lives in the meshes of ignorance. It is the knowledge of the supreme Self that can destroy the human ignorance of millennia and inundate the earth consciousness with the light and delight of the ever-transcending and ever-manifesting Beyond.

As we have the heart, the mind, the vital, the body and the soul, so also the Upanishads have a heart, a mind, a vital, a body and a soul. The heart of the Upanishads is self-realisation, the mind of the Upanishads is self-revelation, the vital of the Upanishads is self-manifestation, the body of the Upanishads is self-transformation and the soul of the Upanishads is self-perfection.

What is of paramount importance right now is self-realisation. For self-realisation we need only four things. First we need the scriptures, then a spiritual guide, the yogic disciplines and finally, the Grace of God. The scriptures tell the seeker, “Awake, arise, it is high time for you to get up. Sleep no more.” The spiritual Master tells the seeker, “My child, run! run the fastest. I am inspiring you. I have already kindled the flame of aspiration within you. Now you can run the fastest.” Yogic disciplines tell the seeker, “Look, I have already made the road clear for you. You are practising spiritual life and I am giving you the results of your practices. The road is clear. Now you can come out of ignorance-sleep and run the fastest on a road that is empty of danger.” Then something more is required and that is God’s Grace. One may run the fastest, but one may not reach the Goal even if there is no obstacle on the way, because human beings very often get tired. Before they reach the Goal they feel that they are totally exhausted. At that time what is required is God’s Grace. Without God’s Grace one cannot complete the journey. God’s Grace tells the seeker, “Lo, the Goal is won.” But to be sure, God’s Grace starts right from the beginning. When we study the scriptures, God’s Grace has already dawned on us. Had there been no Grace from God, we could have not launched into the spiritual path in the first place. And had there been no Grace from God, we could not have found our spiritual Master. It is out of His infinite Bounty that God brings a seeker to the Master. Then the seeker and the Master must play their respective roles. The Master will bring down God’s Compassion, but the seeker has to practise spiritual disciplines. His task is to aspire and the Master’s task is to bring down Compassion.

In the inner world, one thing that everybody must have is aspiration. Here on earth, the tree offers us an example of this aspiration. It remains on earth, but its aim is to reach the Highest. We are afraid of staying on earth. We feel that if we stay on earth we cannot reach the Highest, we cannot look upward, our aim cannot be the Highest. But the tree shows us how absurd this is. Its root is under the ground, but its topmost branch is aspiring towards the Highest. In the Upanishads we come across a tree called the Ashwathva tree. Unlike earthly trees, this tree has the roots above and the branches below. It has two types of branches. One type enters into the meshes of ignorance and then starts struggling, fighting and trying to come out again into the effulgence of light. The other type of branch always tries to remain in the light. Its movement is upward; its aspiration is upward.

Here on earth each human being has the same capacity. A human being sees ignorance within and without, but he has the capacity to remain beyond the boundaries of ignorance. How? Through aspiration. Why? Because he needs constant satisfaction and it is aspiration alone that can give us this constant satisfaction. Why do we aspire? We aspire for delight, Ananda. Delight is self-creation and self-experience. Delight in the Highest, absolute Highest, is known as Ananda Purusha. There the Delight is Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. There is another type of Delight which is called Ananda Atma, when from infinite Delight, Delight takes shape and form. In the earth-bound consciousness, Delight is called Ananda Atma.

When Delight gradually descends into the obscure, impure, unlit, imperfect nature of man to transform human nature, it finds constant resistance. Then we see that Delight loses its power because of teeming ignorance, and pleasure, short-lived pleasure, looms large. In the highest, in the triple consciousness — Satchidananda — Existence, Consciousness and Delight go together. But when they want to manifest themselves, they have to do it only through Delight. When Delight descends, the first rung that it steps on is called Supermind. This Supermind is not something a little superior to the mind. No. It is infinitely higher than the mind. It is not “mind” at all, although the word mind is used. It is the Consciousness that has already transcended the limitations of the finite. There creation starts. But form begins one rung below. This rung is called the Overmind. Here form starts, multiplicity starts in an individual form. The next rung is the intuitive mind. With the intuitive mind we see multiplicity in a creative form. With intuition we see all at a glance. We can see many things at a time; we see collective form. From the intuitive mind, Delight enters into the mind proper. This mind sees each object separately. But although it sees everything separately, it does not try to doubt the existence of each object. Next, Delight enters into the physical mind — that is, the mind that is governed by the physical. This mind sees each object separately plus it doubts the existence of each object. Real doubt starts here in the physical mind. Below the physical mind is the vital. In the vital we see the dynamic force or the aggressive force. The force that we see in the inner, or subtle, vital is the dynamic and the force that we see in the outer vital is the aggressive. From the vital, delight enters into the physical. There are two types of physical: the physical proper and the subtle physical. In the subtle physical, Delight is still descending and we may still be conscious of it. But in the subtle physical we cannot possess or utilise the truth; we can only see it, like a beggar looking at a multimillionaire. Finally, when we come to the gross physical there is no Delight at all. Delight descends, but we do not see even an iota of it in the gross physical. What can we do then? We can enter into the soul on the strength of our aspiration and the soul will consciously take us to the highest plane, to Satchidananda — Existence, Consciousness and Bliss plane. At that time, our journey can become conscious. We have entered into the triple consciousness and we can begin descending consciously into the Supermind, the Overmind, the intuitive mind, the mind proper, the physical mind, the vital and the physical. When we are successful in the physical, that is to say, when we can bring down Delight from the highest plane and the physical can absorb and utilise this Delight, the life of pleasure ends. At that time we come to realise the difference between the life of pleasure and the life of Delight. The life of pleasure is followed by frustration and destruction. The life of Delight is a continuous growth, continuous fulfilment, continuous achievement and continuous God-Manifestation in God’s own way.

The Mundakopanishad has offered us something most significant. There are two birds. One bird is seated on the top of the tree, the other on a branch below. The bird seated on the branch eats both sweet and bitter fruit. Sweet fruit give the bird the feeling that life is pleasure, bitter fruits give the bird the feeling that life is misery. The other bird seated on the top of the tree eats neither the sweet fruit nor the bitter fruit. It just sits calm and serene. Its life is flooded with peace, light and delight. The bird that eats the sweet fruit and the bitter fruit on the tree of life is disappointed and disgusted: disappointment because pleasure is impermanent, ephemeral and fleeting; disgusted because frustration ends in destruction. Unmistakably disappointed and utterly disgusted, this bird flies up and loses itself in the freedom-light and perfection-delight of the bird on the top of the life-tree. The bird on the top of the tree is the Cosmic and Transcendental Self and the bird below is the individual self. These two beautiful birds are known as Suparna.

In some of the Upanishads we see a continuous rivalry between the Gods and the demons. The self-resplendent ones are the Gods, the self-indulgent ones are the demons. The Gods and the demons are descendants of Prajapati, the Creator. When the Gods win the victory, the light of the soul reigns supreme. When the demons win the victory, the night of the body reigns supreme. Originally the Gods and the demons were the organs of Prajapati. The organs that were energised by the divine Will, illumined by the divine Light and inspired by the divine Action became Gods. The organs that were instigated by the lower thoughts and were eager to live in the sense-world and enjoy pleasure-life and were aiming at lesser and destructive goals, became demons. Needless to say, it is infinitely easier to reach lesser goals than it is to reach the Goal Supreme. This is precisely why the demons greatly outnumbered the Gods. But we, the seekers of the infinite Light and Truth, need the quality of the Gods and not the quantity of the demons.

Once, the Gods made a fervent request to the organ of speech, the nose, the eyes, the ears, the mind and the vital force to chant hymns for them. Each sang successively. The demons immediately realised that the Gods would, without fail, gain supremacy over them through these chanters, so they secretly and successfully contaminated them with the blatant evil of strong attachment to sense objects and the life of pleasure. They immediately succeeded with the organ of speech, the nose, the eyes, the ears and the mind. But to the vital force they lost badly. The vital force broke them into pieces and threw them in all directions. The vital force won the victory for the Gods. Their existence was inundated with divinity’s eternal Light. They became their true selves. The chicanery of the jealous demons was exposed and their pride was smashed.

This vital force is called Ayasya angirasa. It means the essence of the limbs. The vital force was victorious. It was also kind, sympathetic and generous. It carried the organ of speech beyond the domain of death. Having transcended the region of death, the organ of speech has become fire and this fire shines far beyond death.

The vital force carried the nose beyond death. The nose became the air. Having transcended the boundaries of death, the air blows beyond death.

The vital force carried the eyes beyond death. The eyes then became the sun. Having transcended the region of death, the sun perpetually shines.

The vital force carried the ears beyond death. They then became the directions. These directions, having transcended death, remained far beyond its domain.

The vital force carried the mind beyond death. The mind then became the moon. The moon, having transcended death, shines beyond its domain.

Asatoma sad gamaya,
Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya.

“Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness unto Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.”

The Brihadaranyaka — great forest — offers to humanity an unparalleled prayer. The unreal is the frown of death, the Real is the song of Immortality. Darkness is the colossal pride of death, Light is the life of illumining and perfecting power of Immortality. Death is the message of nothingness. Immortality is the message of humanity’s liberated oneness with divinity’s Transcendental Height.

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality¹

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality.
Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality.
Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality.

Western dynamism lives in its searching mind and manifesting vital. Eastern spirituality lives in its crying heart and illumining soul.

Spirituality is the inner urge of an Eastern seeker to see God face to face and realise God in His totality. Dynamism is the vital urge of a hero Westerner to reveal God and manifest God here on earth.

Dynamism serves God. Spirituality loves God.

The body’s dynamism is regularity. The vital’s dynamism is punctuality. The mind’s dynamism is clarity. The heart’s dynamism is purity. The soul’s dynamism is certainty.

The body’s spirituality is simplicity. The vital’s spirituality is sincerity. The mind’s spirituality is humility. The heart’s spirituality is spontaneity. The soul’s spirituality is Reality.

AUM

A dynamic man is quick on his feet to reach his destined Goal, the Goal of the Beyond. A spiritual man is quick with his answers and pleases God, the Inner Pilot, in His own Way.

Dynamism is life’s capacity. Spirituality is the soul’s necessity. The aura of outer success surrounds a dynamic man. The aura of inner progress surrounds a spiritual man.

A dynamic man is a Karma Yogi. He devotes himself to the path of action, disinterested action — implicit devotion and surrendering service to God. A spiritual man is a Jnana Yogi. He tries to live in the knowledge of God, with his awakened and illumined mind and heart.

Dynamism invites God. Spirituality receives God. Yoga achieves God.

Western dynamism wants to shoulder the responsibility of the entire world. Eastern spirituality tries and cries to know what God’s Will is, what God wants.

Western dynamism needs the aspiration of Eastern spirituality, in order to please God in the inner world. Eastern spirituality needs the inspiration of Western dynamism, in order to please God in the outer world.

Western dynamism has to learn the secret of Eastern spirituality: Love is God, God the Supreme Lover. Eastern spirituality has to learn the secret of Western dynamism: God is the Supreme Warrior, the Supreme Victor, over teeming ignorance and darkening death.

God needs Western dynamism to offer His Omnipotence-Light to the world at large. God needs Eastern spirituality to offer His ocean of Love and Peace to the World at large.

Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality are two wings of God, the Eternal Bird, that will carry the message of earth’s aspiration to the highest abode of the Supreme and will bring down the message of infinite Compassion from the highest abode of the Supreme to the aching, crying consciousness of Mother Earth.

When Western dynamism and Eastern spirituality become inseparably one, God will be known as a fulfilled Man and man will be known as a perfect God.

Never to meet again

Never to meet again.
My yesterday's face,
My backward race,
Never to meet again.

Never to meet again.
Swift fear the thief,
Wild doubt the chief,
Never to meet again.

Never to meet again.
The clasp of Death,
And Satan's breath,
Never to meet again.

Never to meet again.
Chinmoy the failure,
Ignorance pure.
Never to meet again.

Meditations

1.

A real aspirant is he, who in the sunset of
his life meditates on absolute surrender to God's
Will and not on God's Peace and Bliss.

2.

To serve God, I need one thing: Joy.
To help mankind, I need one thing: Patience.
To love God, I need one thing: Purity’ breath.
To love mankind, I need one thing: Humility’s soul.

3.

In yoga breathes Self-realisation. Self-realisation
embodies self-perfection. Self-perfection is followed
by the absolute manifestation of God.

4.

The master desire of your life is to show the
world what you can do for it. The master aspiration
of your life is to tell the world that you want to be
nothing but the ever-dedicated servant of God’s
Love and Light.

5.

Perfection, when aspiration is realisation and
realisation is manifestation.