AUM

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

Life and death

What men call life
I call ambition's fight
    Against the strife
Of blind Ignorance-Night.

    What men call death
I call the soul's repose
    In God's secret Breath
At the long journey's close.

Man and God

Man's Dream is God;
God's Fulfilment, man.
Man's solace is God;
God's hope is man.

Man is God crying;
God is man struggling.
Man's strength is his ignorance;
God's strength is His Grace.

India: Her Consciousness and Light

What is India's spiritual message to the world at large? Spirituality. What is spirituality? It is the natural way of truth that successfully communes with the Beyond here on earth.

What is India's absolutely distinctive possession? Her soul. She lives in the soul, she lives from the soul and lives for the soul.

Where can the world find the real nature of India? In the ever-wakeful domain of the Spirit.

What has made the history of India unique? The most surprisingly unusual continuity of the line of her spiritual seekers and Masters.

What does Indian spirituality teach? It teaches the world to conquer the evil of the lower nature and also to go beyond the good of the higher nature.

Has Mother India any desire? If so, what is it? It is to transcend the human way once and for all, in the ever dynamic way of God, in the way of radical self-transmutation.

Religion, however mighty it may be, is not and cannot be the message of India. Her message is self-realisation.

The perfect truth of India's religion is in her outer and inner realisation of the One that is, of the One that is in the process of becoming.

O world, on you march towards the deepest recesses of your heart! To your amazement, you will find Mother India to be anything but God-fearing. What then is she? She is God-loving! The God-loving soul in God's all-dreaming and all-manifesting Truth.

The soul of India feels that to be satisfied with intellectual speculation is to remain satisfied with half of the food that is actually needed for health. It is Realisation that gives one a full meal. And to have the Realisation, meditation and concentration are of paramount importance.

Indian philosophy, in its sublimest sense, is nothing short of the practical realisation of the Truth.

There is just a hyphen between the Vision of the Vedic seers and the soul of India. Also between India's spirituality and the final spiritual liberation of the world.

Truth and true knowledge

A theory must be tested. A fact must be honoured. A truth must be lived.

What is joy today may be sorrow tomorrow. But what is Truth today cannot be Falsehood tomorrow.

There are truths that cannot be expressed in words. Likewise there are truths that should not be expressed untimely in words.

There has been a very long enduring tug-of-war between two parties. One party consists of Truth, Freedom and Immortality. The other party consists of Falsehood, Bondage and Death. Until now the world has seen God weeping through the eyes of the first party.

To a dauntless soul, life is indeed an enjoyable serpentine winding of the road leading to Truth.

Sacrifice and Freedom-in-Will can and should peacefully move together to reach the palace of Truth.

Teach or preach the Ultimate Truth on its own level. If you reduce it to the footing of a particular listener to make it accessible to his understanding, the power and strength of that Truth will be lost.

Ignorance, however abysmal, always has within it some seeds of truth, however twisted and incomplete. Knowledge, however exalted, until it founds itself in the Gnostic Consciousness, always contains some element of ignorance.

Go deep within and to your great surprise, you will find ignorance, a kind of knowledge, of course, but infinitely far from all-fulfilling. Go deep within and to your utter astonishment, you will find knowledge, a kind of ignorance, of course, but holding within itself the seeds of True Wisdom.

Ignorance says, "You and I, I and you." Knowledge says: "You within me, I within you."

To be sure, the state of ignorance is a conscious, groping aspect of Knowledge in the Divine.

To be conscious means to be aware of the unrealities that go to make one's nature limited and imperfect.

Unconsciousness, the mentor, allows us to be mere blind instruments.

Consciousness, the mentor, teaches us how to be pure, knowing agents.

From the birth of man, Ignorance has been trying to throw wisdom into the shade. But Wisdom never retaliates. On the contrary, wisdom gives ignorance its due value.

Just as education has not made much headway among certain backward groups, even so the cultivation of Self-Knowledge has not made much headway among ill-lit humanity.

Self-revelation is the victorious smile of spontaneous progress.

The vanity of worldly wisdom cannot be removed by ripe old age. It can be removed only by our self-illumination.

In the intensity of love, we can extend our Knowledge and follow the footsteps of God.

Everything has death pre-destined for it save the all-commanding dignity of Truth.

Every falsehood eventually dies in Truth, but Truth once revealed never dies.

If you want bliss, then seek Truth for Truth's sake alone.

Truth is your Goal. If necessary, get to it even through Hell.

Truth expressed, beauty and love fulfilled.

The quintessence of Hinduism¹

I offer my deep sense of gratitude to our most revered Rabbi Ronald Millstein for extending to me the cordial invitation to speak on Hinduism. It is indeed a great privilege and pleasure to address this distinguished audience. I am extremely glad to learn from the Rabbi that this is a Liberal Synagogue. To me, the word "liberal" has a special significance. It signifies a truth as luminous and powerful as the sun, as vast as the universe. It is in our liberal understanding of all religious faiths that we can hope to achieve tolerance. Tolerance helps us to a large degree to put an end to the age-old prejudices born out of ignorance.

And now my heart desires to share with you a few significant thoughts on Hinduism. Let me first tell you a short story.

A great sage of ancient India, named Bhrigu, wanted to test the three principal gods, the great Trinity of Hinduism: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. He wished to determine who was the greatest. He approached Brahma, but showed him no respect. Brahma was very displeased with him. With the same disrespect, Bhrigu went to Siva, who became furiously angry. When he went to Vishnu, he found the deity asleep. So Bhrigu put his foot on Vishnu's chest to wake him up. The god was greatly alarmed at being so rudely awakened, but he immediately began to massage Bhrigu's foot affectionately, saying "Are you hurt? I am so sorry!" Bhrigu knew that Vishnu was the greatest of the three gods.

The tolerance shown by the god in this story was not weakness, but the heart's generosity. Further, it is a feeling of oneness. When, in our sleep, our elbow strikes some other part of our body, we do not become angry with the elbow, but massage it. Similarly Hinduism strives to feel that humanity is one great body.

Hinduism is a river that flows dynamically and untiringly. Hinduism is a tree that grows consciously and divinely. Variety is Hinduism. Unique is the Mother aspect of Hinduism. She is blessed with children who cherish various conceptions of God. One of her children says: "Mother, there is no personal God." "I see, my child," she answers. The second child says: "Mother, if there is a God, then He can only be Personal." "I see, my child." The third child says: "Mother, God is both Personal and Impersonal." "That is so, my child." The fourth child says: "Mother, my brothers are fools. There is no God. There is no such thing." "I see, my child." And now she says to them: "Be happy, my children, be happy. Stick to your own beliefs and learn through them. Grow through them and always be faithful to your ideals." Indeed, this is the Mother-Heart of Hinduism.

Hinduism clings to the inner law of life which is the common heritage of mankind. So long as one is a truth seeker, it does not matter if one is a theist, an atheist or an agnostic. Each human soul has a veritable place in the Hindu ideal of spirituality. Significant are Gandhi's words: "Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth. It is the religion of truth. Truth is God. Denial of God we have known. Denial of truth we have not known."

Its past

It is absurd to hold that the India of the hoary past played exclusively the role of world-renunciation. Our ancients did accept life in full faith. They clearly believed in life itself as a great power.

Our Vedic parents expressed their will to live a long, radiant life when they sang:

"Tach chakshur devahitam . . ."

"May we, for a hundred autumns, see that lustrous Eye,
God ordained, arise before us.
May we live a hundred autumns;
May we hear for a hundred autumns;
May we speak well for a hundred autumns;
May we hold our heads high for a hundred autumns;
Yea, even beyond a hundred autumns."

In full earnest, they tried to fathom and understand the mystery of life. They accepted the earth with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and frustrations. Moreover, they wanted to live as the master and lord of life. They were therefore dauntless and uncompromising in their opposition to evil. They desired their souls to be possessed absolutely by the Supreme and, at the same time, they aspired to serve Him in the world.

Our Vedic forebears discovered two lives: the ordinary life and the higher life. They gave due importance to physical, vital and mental activities, but with a view to entering into a higher, spiritual life, a life of more illumined knowledge, light and truth. Once established in that higher life, the soul would receive absolute support from the members of its family: the body, vital, and mind for its full manifestation and expression. Thus became inevitable the ideal of a special knowledge leading to the liberation of the aspiring human soul. Our ancestors were realists who felt that the spontaneous joy of life would feed the body to strengthen the soul. They knew the secret of growth: Freedom. They cried out:

"Uru nastanve tan . . ."

"Give freedom for our bodies,
Give freedom for our dwelling,
Give freedom for our life."

This was a freedom to help untie the knot of ignorance. They were positive in their acceptance of life; positive, too, in their aspiration for Immortality.

Its present

It is easy to insist that the India of the past was sublime while the India of today is anything but that. They are mistaken who think that ancient Hinduism is the only part of Indian life worth study. The present, too, has much to contribute to the world at large. Her soul's light, paying no heed to outer recognition, plays an important role in awakening the heart of the world and finally is destined to inspire humanity with the message of truth, forgiveness and universal kindness.

Hinduism is a dynamic aspiration, divinely surcharged. In the course of its eternal journey, self-giving has been its very breath of life.

Hinduism is complex but it has always kept and forever will keep a distinct note — the note of spirituality. A true Hindu will keep his ideals burning, no matter how shattering the ephemeral changes are, no matter how powerful the destructive forces. Dr. Radhakrishnan, the philosopher-king, throws abundant light on the subject:

The present-day world is in the throes of unity. Hinduism teaches that India's unity is the oneness-of-spiritual-vision, and an integral fulfilment. Humanity is becoming convinced of the truth that the material, intellectual and spiritual life can run abreast to achieve the final Victory of God here on earth.

Classes

Classes by Chinmoy Kumar Ghose on philosophy, spiritual discipline and yoga are being held in New York City each Friday evening at 8:00 p.m.

The series began on Good Friday, 8 April 1966 with the topics of the classes as follows:

8 April — Man and God

15 April — Within Us is Our Goal

22 April — Our Peace is Within

29 April — Who is Fit for Yoga?

6 May — The Strength of Surrender

13 May — Meditation: Individual and Collective

20 May — Has Your Soul a Special Mission?

27 May — How Far Are We From Realisation?

Admission is free and all seekers are welcome. Please phone 633-8720 for information regarding location of classes.

AUM — A monthly journal of spiritual philosophy and yoga²

"AUM" is a sacred Sanskrit mystic syllable which prefaces all Hindu prayers.

The first issue of the journal AUM (Vol.1, No.1)
deals with its full spiritual significance.

© Chinmoy Kumar Ghose 1966

AUM is a monthly journal devoted exclusively to the spiritual writings of Chinmoy Kumar Ghose. It will deal with the spiritual life and its problems from the point of view of Indian philosophy and yoga.

AUM is intended to help aspirants of the West in their search for a true inner life by acquainting them with the realisations of a seeker of the Supreme.