Part 1: Dalhousie University

Question: How should I love God and how can I love Him more?

Sri Chinmoy: If you know why you want to love God more, then it will be extremely easy for you to love Him in the right way. You want to love God for satisfaction. When you love God for your own satisfaction, you will definitely get some satisfaction, but it will be only a small amount. But if you want to love God for His satisfaction, then you yourself will get the highest satisfaction. Your satisfaction will be complete because you will try to please God in His own way.

How can you love God more? By feeling that He loves you infinitely more than you love yourself. This is absolutely true. If you can feel even once a day that God loves you infinitely more than you love yourself, then automatically you will love God more. How many times do you hate yourself? Every time you expect something from yourself and you don’t get it, you hate yourself; if you do something wrong, you just curse yourself. But God within you, the Inner Pilot within you, never, never hates you and never curses you. He loves you all the time in His divine, supreme way. He who loves you constantly in spite of your repeated mistakes deserves to be loved by you all the time. You find it difficult to love yourself all the time, but God does not find it difficult. He loves you constantly. If you realise this, it will be very easy for you to love God more than you do now.

Question: How can I achieve humility?

Sri Chinmoy: In our human life when we have something, immediately pride, vanity and many other undivine forces enter into us. We extol ourselves to the skies. But let us think of the example of a tree. When the tree is in full bloom, when it is laden with ripe fruits, when it really has something to offer the world, the tree bows down. If we can become one with the consciousness of a tree, we will feel that the more we have to offer, the more humility we will have.

Whenever we aspire we get an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss. When we practise concentration and meditation regularly and devotedly we get abundant Peace, Light and Bliss. When we get these qualities in abundant measure, automatically we feel that it is our bounden duty to become inseparably one with the rest of the world. The higher we go, the more we feel our universal oneness. At that time, real humility dawns. The deeper we go the sooner we see the root. Once we become part and parcel of the root, we cannot be proud. We see that it is from the root that the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the flowers and the fruits have come into existence, yet the root mingles humbly with the earth and clay. If you want to develop more humility, I wish to tell you to dive deep within or climb up high, higher, highest, on the strength of your inner cry. Your inner cry will lift you up into the freedom of the Vast and make you inseparably one with the rest of the world. When you reach the Highest, automatically your divine oneness makes you humble.

There is also a practical way to achieve humility in the outer life. If you are a good singer and you are bloated with pride at your achievement, what you have to do is think of the world’s best singer. Immediately your own achievement will pale into insignificance because this other singer is undoubtedly far better than you. Pride comes when you feel that you are in some way superior to other people or that you have something which they do not have at all. But if you will compare your capacity or your achievement with that of someone who has it in far greater measure, then your pride will have to fade. When pride diminishes and disappears, humility increases and looms large.

Question: How important is a Guru?

Sri Chinmoy: This entirely depends on how soon the seeker wants to reach God. A Guru is a necessity if time is a great factor. If you want to reach your destination as soon as possible, then a spiritual teacher is very important. There are a few very learned men who have not gone to school but who have achieved great wisdom nevertheless. But most of us do go to school. Why? Because we know that the help of a teacher will expedite our journey. If we just go out and buy some books and study by ourselves, we will very often be confused and uncertain. We will read something and not get the proper meaning. Or, if we do get the real meaning, we will doubt whether our understanding is true. This is why we go to a teacher for help. Once we get our degree, the teacher’s role is over. He cannot take our knowledge away from us at that time. It is our permanent achievement.

If we want to make the fastest progress in the spiritual life, a spiritual teacher is necessary. Otherwise, we will be uncertain about the direction we are going in and we will have no one to guide us with divine advice. If we doubt our inner experiences, who is going to illumine us and reassure us at that time? We will be doomed to live with our constant self-doubt and inner uncertainty.

If we consider time a great factor, then if we can do something today, we shall not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be a further goal to reach. Today our goal is God-realisation. Tomorrow our goal will be God-revelation. And the day after tomorrow our goal will be God-manifestation. Since we have three goals, the sooner we can arrive at our first goal, the sooner we can start running toward our second and our third goals.

Part 2: University Of New Brunswick Fredericton

Question: How can I be more thankful to God?

Sri Chinmoy: Just by thinking of gratitude, we cannot become grateful. Our gratitude is like a magnet that pulls God’s Compassion down to us. But before our gratitude begins to operate, first God has to pull us toward Him. Once God has started to pull us up, then our gratitude begins to grow and we can pull Him down into us.

There is a special way for a seeker to offer thanks or gratitude to God. It is through cheerfulness, constant cheerfulness. A seeker cannot allow depression to enter into his life of aspiration at any time. He always has to be happy in order to be truly grateful. But if his happiness comes from wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, that is not the right kind of happiness. Real happiness is something within us which constantly makes us feel that we are expanding our consciousness and wholeheartedly embracing the entire world.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. In Ireland people commemorate this saint with sports, dancing, singing, drinking and being as happy as they can. Ordinary human happiness is found in this kind of fun and enjoyment. But the seeker within us will have a different type of happiness. On St. Patrick’s Day green is worn. Spiritually, green signifies new hope and new satisfaction. For the seeker, happiness is a feeling of new hope, new life, new dawn, new promise, new achievement. These feelings the seeker has to nourish and treasure within himself. If the seeker in us cherishes these divine qualities, automatically our thankfulness to God will grow; our gratitude-flower will blossom and we will be able to offer it at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

In spiritual happiness, in the happiness that comes from self-giving and aspiration, gratitude looms large. When we have inner happiness, we don’t have to search for gratitude here and there. In our devoted cheerfulness, in our soulful cheerfulness, we are bound to discover constantly-increasing gratitude to the Supreme.

Question: What is the difference between prayer and meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: When I pray to God most sincerely, immediately my inmost cry reaches high, higher, highest. And who listens? God. When I pray, I am the talker and God is the listener. But when I meditate, I open my heart, widen my consciousness and allow God to enter into me. At that time God talks and I listen.

If you pray most soulfully, you will feel that a current is flowing from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. Praying to God is like reaching upward, or climbing up to the topmost bough of a tall tree. While you are climbing, God is observing you. While you are praying to God, you can feel that God is listening to you.

When you meditate, if you keep your mind calm and quiet, you will hear a voice from deep within. In the beginning that voice will be very faint. But when your meditation becomes profound, the voice becomes clear and distinct. At that time, God is talking to you.

When you pray with utmost aspiration and devotion, your intense inner cry is your way of speaking to God. You start your conversation with God through prayer. Then God gives you the capacity to make your mind calm, quiet, tranquil and vacant so that during your most soulful meditation you can hear His Voice.

Unfortunately, in the West prayer is not given the same importance that it was once given. We Indian Masters in a sense are the culprits. We always speak of meditation, meditation, meditation, so the Westerners who follow Indian teachers have begun to ignore prayer. But both prayer and meditation are significant ways of communing with God. If you pray most soulfully and devotedly, your prayer can take you to the highest pinnacle, the Lord Supreme.

Question: When we pray, should we pray for inner tranquility, or what?

Sri Chinmoy: When one sincerely prays to God one can pray for tranquility or some other divine quality. For the beginner-seeker, it is always advisable to pray to God to make him genuine, sincere, devoted, soulful and so forth. But his prayers must not be repeated mechanically. They have to come from the inmost recesses of his heart. He has to feel each time he prays that he is climbing up a rung on the ladder of his inner evolution. But the highest type of prayer is to pray to become a surrendered instrument of God. When one becomes a divine instrument, he feels that he does nothing; it is God who does everything in and through him.

When a beginner-seeker prays, we can say that his prayer has a kind of innocent motive. He prays to God for a certain boon because he feels that if he does not have this quality or thing, then he will not be a receptive channel and he will not be able to realise or manifest God. But when he becomes a little more advanced, the seeker becomes unconditional. He always prays for God to make him what He would like to make him. He does not ask God even to make him a surrendered or perfect instrument. He prays to God only to fulfil Himself in His own way. If God wants him to remain imperfect, he won’t mind. He only wants God to be pleased in His own way. If the seeker’s prayer is to please God in His own way, then God will naturally make him perfect at His choice Hour and in His own way. God is bound to make him perfect eventually, because God will not manifest Himself in and through an imperfect instrument.

Question: When I think of the goal of God-realisation, it still seems to be light-years away. I know I will never attain it in this short life.

Sri Chinmoy: In one incarnation we cannot achieve everything. Even our ordinary earthly desires, which are comparatively easy to fulfil on earth, are often left unfulfilled at our death. When we follow the path of desire we see that at the fulfilment of one desire, another desire immediately looms large. Even before one desire is fulfilled, another desire comes to the fore. There is no end to this chain of desires, nor is there any satisfaction at all. But when we follow the path of aspiration, when we get an iota of peace, light and bliss we do get some satisfaction. At the same time, we are inspired to cry for more of these divine qualities.

God means absolute satisfaction; God means total fulfilment. God wants to fulfil Himself in and through us. Being divine, He wants to offer us His infinite Peace and Light. But this infinite Peace and Light cannot be achieved in one incarnation. It is impossible for us to attain our divine Goal in one incarnation.

If we pray to God and meditate on God in this incarnation, then we definitely achieve something in our inner life. This achievement is stored up by our soul. Then, when we start our spiritual journey in our next incarnation, we will have a good head start because our soul will be stronger. We come and go on this earth and nothing is lost. None of our inner efforts will be wasted. We will come down into the world again to continue our journey toward the Highest.

Question: How can a seeker give himself to God?

Sri Chinmoy: A seeker can give himself to God by being constantly aware of his inner reality. If the seeker thinks of God and remembers that he has come from that Source, then he will be able to give himself back to that Source. Since we are conscious of the fact that he has given us what He has, let us give Him something in return: gratitude. When we feel that we have received something, it is the tendency of our human nature, unless we are absolutely ungrateful, to try to establish a reciprocal feeling. You give something to me and I give something to you. Let us begin to count our blessings. When we are consciously aware of the myriad blessings that He has given us, then it will be quite easy for us to give Him whatever we have and are.

Question: What is the best technique for a beginner to use in meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: A beginner should feel that he has a few friends and a few enemies. Unless and until you have become one with God’s Consciousness, you must feel that you have some undivine forces in you which do not want to allow you to make progress. When you stand at your heart’s door, you are bound to hear some people knocking there. If you open the door, you will see that there are quite a few people outside — both friends and enemies. Your enemies are fear, doubt, anxiety and many others, while your friends are faith, courage, love, inner determination and so on. Since it is your door, you will allow only your friends to come in. Then you will bolt the door from the inside and start conversing with your friends.

Each time you listen to a friend of yours when he speaks to you, immediately the capacity of your friend increases. When your love-friend speaks and you listen, immediately your love for God increases. When your courage-friend speaks and you listen, immediately your own inner courage comes to the fore. When your surrender-friend speaks and you listen, you will see that surrender becomes quite easy.

Previously you thought that surrender meant self-extinction, but when this friend of yours tells you what surrender is, immediately you will be eager to throw yourself into the sea of surrender. Previously you were afraid of losing your individuality, but when your surrender-friend explains to you what divine surrender is, you will be eager to make that surrender. In divine surrender you do not lose anything. On the contrary, you become the vast infinite.

When you allow these friends to enter into you and tell you what their qualities actually represent on earth, undoubtedly you will make the fastest progress. But if you allow fear, doubt, anxiety and jealousy to enter, they will come into your room most gladly, only to destroy all the beautiful things that you have there. They are eagerly waiting for you to allow them in.

When doubt assails you, it will try to make you feel that it is good to doubt. It will say, “Doubt as much as you can. Only then can you discover the reality.” Doubt will send its best friend, the reasoning mind, to live with you. The reasoning mind will come and tell you that it can offer you the greatest satisfaction and fulfilment. But you have to know that in the spiritual life the reasoning mind is useless and doubt is worse than useless. You should not doubt or reason; just give yourself wholeheartedly and unreservedly to the divine Father. A beginner should always act like a child in his approach to his divine Father. He should run toward the Supreme with no hesitation and give Him everything that he has. When he becomes advanced, the undivine forces will realise that they are knocking at the wrong door when they come to him.

A beginner’s progress entirely depends on the friendships he makes in the inner world. The easiest and the most effective way for a beginner to make the fastest progress is to choose only divine friends. Each time he allows a divine force to enter into him and operate in him, he gains that divine quality in his inner being. Gradually, as all the divine qualities enter into him, he blossoms like a flower, petal by petal.

Part 3: Laval University

Question: How can I differentiate between a real inner feeling of God and a thought that comes from my subconscious mind?

Sri Chinmoy: We can easily differentiate between our inner feeling of God and thoughts from our subconscious mind if we practise prayer and meditation. Especially when we meditate, we will know what is actually happening within us and whether or not we are receiving messages from God. If we remain in the heart and meditate on God, we won’t have to search for reality; reality will loom large within us. We will see and feel how close God is to us.

Our true feelings of God will immediately convince us that God is everywhere, that He is like a flood of Light within us. But when we are in the subconscious mind, we will find light only in an infinitesimal measure, like a spark. We will not feel certainty or reality there. God does exist in the subconscious mind, but His Light is veiled by dense clouds of darkness.

God is in everything, in dirty water as well as in pure water, in unspiritual people as well as in spiritual people. But divinity is manifested in an infinitesimal measure in the dirty water; therefore, we will drink the pure water instead. If a person has been praying and meditating sincerely for fifteen, twenty, or forty years, God will be more prominent in him than in someone who has never meditated; therefore, we will go to him for inspiration and spiritual advice. Through our own conscious and constant prayer, we make God a living reality for us. Everyone has God within him, but for those who pray and meditate, God is a conscious and constant reality, whereas for others God is just a vague idea.

Question: Is there a method I should follow to find the inner Light?

Sri Chinmoy: The method is aspiration. If we dig into the earth, when we reach a certain depth we find water. In the spiritual life when we aspire, we are digging within. When we go deep enough, we finally come face to face with the inner sun. If we are in a room where all the doors are locked and the windows are closed and covered, then we do not see the sun. But when we leave the room and go outside, we do see the sun. Similarly, when we come out of the body-consciousness, the consciousness of ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’, then we see the inner sun.

Question: Do several hours of breathing exercises help our meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: Some breathing exercises are of real help to meditation. But we should not exercise for an hour or two before we meditate. If we do, by the time we start our meditation, we will be totally exhausted and have no energy left or we will be unnecessarily agitated. If we do breathing exercises for five or ten minutes first, it will be of great help to our meditation. If we want to do more than that, then we should do the rest at some other time,

Question: Does God have a special name?

Sri Chinmoy: You may call God by one name and I may call God by another name, but your God and my God are not really different. You may say that this is God and I may say that that is God, but when we attain the highest realisation we will both see God as the ultimate Truth. Therefore, let us call God the ultimate Truth,

Question: One time the Christ said, "I and my Father are one," and another time the Christ said, "Our Father who is in Heaven." How can we resolve this apparent contradiction?

Sri Chinmoy: If the father of the family has a car, the child has every right to say, “It is our car,” or even, “It is my car,” because he has established his oneness with his father. When he says this, his father will not contradict him. The father will not say, “What do you mean? It is my car. I bought it with my money.” The father will be very happy that the child feels real oneness with him and claims all that he has as his own.

At times the Christ felt that God was his divine Father and at times he identified himself completely with that Father. When he was in the consciousness of absolute Oneness with God, he had every reason to say, “I and my Father are one.” When the river flows into the sea, it becomes the sea itself. The Christ was both the Father and the son. That he was the son of God, we can never deny. Again, when he became one, absolutely one with God, he became nothing other than God Himself.

Not only the Christ, but each and every one of us will one day be able to proclaim, “I and my Father are one.” Man is God yet to be realised totally and God is man yet to be manifested fully. We are all God, but we have yet to realise our highest Divinity.

Question: You say that man is God, but I don't feel that about myself.

Sri Chinmoy: This is a truth which must be experienced. If you go deep within, you will see that you are of God and for God. We are all playing God’s divine Game. When we realise the Highest, we will see that we are conscious parts of God. You yourself will one day realise that God and you are one and inseparable.

Part 4: Sir George Williams University

Question: How is it possible for one human being to really love another human being?

Sri Chinmoy: It is quite easy for one human being to love another human being if he sees the Divine in the other person. It is always advisable to go to the root, which is God. If we want to love someone, the best thing is for us to love the One who is all Love. If we know how to love Him in Himself then it becomes extremely easy for us to love Him in a human being.

Let us take the human being as the mind-room and God as the heart-room. The heart-room has love, real love, whereas the mind-room has very limited love and light right now. The mind-room is human love and the heart-room is divine love, let us say. If we enter into the mind-room, which is dark, and from there go to the illumined room, then the dark room will always remain as it was. But if we go from the heart-room, which is flooded with light, into the mind-room, then the mind-room can be illumined by the light from the heart-room. We have to go first into the room that has light and then bring that light into the room which is not illumined.

If first we love God, who is the heart-room, then it is possible for us to really love and illumine human beings. If we go to God first and get Love from Him, with that Love we will easily be able to love a human being. Ordinary human love will eventually lead to frustration, whereas divine love will lead to satisfaction and illumination.

Question: Are the human in us, the divine in us and the Supreme in us one thing, or are they three things?

Sri Chinmoy: They are like three rungs in a ladder. In the process of our evolution, let us say the human is the first rung, the divine is the second rung and the Supreme is the third rung.

Question: How is it possible to reach the divine and the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: We have to cry inwardly. Here in the ordinary world, if a child cries for a piece of candy, his parents will give it to him. Similarly, if we cry inwardly and soulfully for Peace, Light and Bliss, then the one who has it, God, will give it to us. When a human child cries for something, his human parents are in a position to supply him with it. In the case of a seeker, God is the Parent. He is divine and immortal and He has everything in infinite measure. When we cry for something with a real inner need, if our cry is sincere and genuine, naturally He will give it to us.

Question: How can we remember to keep crying throughout the day, even when we are busy and active?

Sri Chinmoy: When you work in your office and get your salary, you put this money inside your pocket. Then you utilise it whenever necessity demands. Early in the morning when you pray and meditate, please feel that you are earning a salary, which is Peace, Light and Bliss. This Peace, Light and Bliss you keep inside your pocket, which is your heart. Then, when you enter into the hustle and bustle of life, when you go to the office or mix with your friends who are not at all spiritual, when the undivine atmosphere is trying to pull you down, then you can enter into your heart and find abundant Peace, Light and Bliss there.

It is not enough just to cry during meditation; when our meditation is over, our life must be an expression of that inner cry. If during meditation we love the world but hate it as soon as our meditation is over, then that is not good meditation. Our meditation must follow us when we enter into the hustle and bustle of life and inspire us to offer our capacity. Our outer life should be an expression of our inner life. In our meditation we realise and in our dedication we manifest. When we meditate, we try to realise the Truth, and when we dedicate ourselves and work in the world, we try to manifest the realisation which we achieved during our meditation.

Question: If someone attacks you and tries to steal something from you, should you resist?

Sri Chinmoy: I shall not attack anyone, but if somebody attacks me, I will try to protect myself. On my own I will not strike anybody, but if somebody wants to strike me, first I will try to avoid that person; but if that is impossible, then I will defend myself. He is doing the wrong thing by striking me. Why should I allow him to throw his ignorance at me by striking me? On the contrary, I will try my utmost to prevent him from increasing his own ignorance. If he wants to strike me, which is wrong, I will try to prevent him from doing this wrong thing. If I allow him to strike me out of my false love, I am only adding to his ignorance.

Question: And in the same way, if you saw someone striking another person, would you try to stop that person?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly, provided I knew that the one being struck was innocent. Innocent people should always be protected. We have to know the difference between sincerity and stupidity. Spiritual people should not be stupid; they should only be sincere. If they have not attacked someone, then it is their bounden duty to keep themselves free from attack. And if someone else is being attacked they should try to help if they can.

Question: Is it possible to follow the spiritual path and to have a family also?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly! The real spiritual life does not exclude humanity. To follow a spiritual path does not mean you have to go into the Himalayan caves to meditate. Inside each human being, inside each member of our family, you shall try to discover God. When an aspirant follows a spiritual path, he should feel that each human being is an instrument of God. We are all instruments of God, but those who are practising meditation and spiritual disciplines, those who have accepted the spiritual life, are becoming conscious instruments of God. If you become a conscious instrument of God and you see that your own husband and wife or children are unconscious, what do you do? You do not exclude them from your life; you try to bring to the fore the conscious part, the divine part in them so that they also can become conscious instruments of God.

In the real spiritual life you do not exclude the family. On the contrary, you try to awaken the members of the family who are fast asleep. Unless and until they are also awakened and running toward the same Goal, you will not be fully satisfied. Suppose you have a most delicious meal in front of you and you are in a position to eat, but the members of your family are not in a position to eat. Your sympathetic heart will not be satisfied unless and until they are in a position to share with you. In the spiritual life always we want to share with others our divine experiences, our divine achievements, so we always try to show others the way. But how do we do this? We do it by prayer. We pray to the Inner Pilot who has awakened us to also awaken the members of our family. But if it is not His Will to awaken them at this moment, then we must run along the inner path without them.

Question: When I witness social injustice, what is the best way to respond to it?

Sri Chinmoy: When you see social injustice the best thing is to go deep within and ask the Inner Pilot if and how you should deal with the problem. You have to dive deep within and get the inner message about how to deal with that particular case. Otherwise, on the spur of the moment, your emotional vital or your intellectual mind may come to the fore and give you the wrong message. The really right thing you will know only when you have a free access to your soul. If your soul offers you the message, then you can take immediate action.

Question: Do you think that meditation is the only way to reach God?

Sri Chinmoy: Meditation is not the only way. Two things are of paramount importance: prayer and meditation. Both come from aspiration and it is up to the individual to choose. If prayer comes to him quickly or prayer is more convincing than meditation for him, then he can reach God through his sincere prayer. But if somebody feels that meditation is more helpful, then he can reach God through his soulful meditation. Prayer and meditation — there is no other method! Either prayer or meditation or both are necessary to reach God.

Universite De Sherbrooke

Question: What is the spiritual conception of responsibility and how does it differ from the human conception?

Sri Chinmoy: Unfortunately, our human conception of responsibility is founded upon an incorrect belief. Every person feels that he has far too much responsibility. We feel bound, limited, tied hand and foot to other people. But when we go deep within we come to realise that God is responsible for you, for me, for everybody. Every day He is fulfilling all His responsibilities in infinite ways, yet God is not bound by anything. Responsibility is not something that binds. The more we are conscious of our responsibilities as divine opportunities, the more we can expand our consciousness. If we live in the human consciousness, responsibility is bondage: But in the spiritual life responsibility is the expansion of our wisdom-light.

Question: Is necessity different from attachment?

Sri Chinmoy: Necessity is one thing and attachment is another. Food is a necessity in our life right now. If we don’t eat, we will die. If we want to become a voracious eater, we can; but whatever we eat beyond what we need is attachment and not necessity.

When we pray and meditate, we come to realise what is really essential in our life. Those things alone we strive to have. Non-essentials and things that are detrimental to us we try to avoid. By drinking too much or by eating too much we cannot approach reality. If our emotional life or vital life or aspects of our physical life are detrimental to our health, we will try to conquer them. Things that are necessary or helpful in our daily life we shall always accept wholeheartedly. But in the ordinary life there are many things which we do not really need. They are all accessories. We find it difficult to give them up because of our long association with ignorance. We feel that these things do help us; we have come to feel that we need them. But this is not true. There are many things that we are attached to that can easily be rejected from our day-to-day life provided we care for a higher, deeper and more fulfilling life.

Question: Is there some technique to arrive at the divine consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: In order to attain a divine consciousness, we try to discipline our life. Our life needs constant discipline. Our life-energy must flow toward the Source. If we want to reach a divine consciousness, we must pray or meditate regularly; we must try to consecrate our life to our Inner Pilot. If we consciously consecrate our day-to-day life to God, then automatically we will arrive at the divine consciousness.

Right now the consciousness that we are utilising is the earth-bound consciousness: the consciousness of ‘I,’ ‘my’ and ‘mine’. This is how we start our journey. For a baby, his parents are the whole world. Then he grows up a little and learns about his neighbourhood and that becomes his whole world. Gradually he learns about his city, his country and so on. Eventually, if he becomes a man of learning and tries to acquire an international outlook, he feels that the whole world is his home. In the spiritual life also, we start with limited consciousness. When the limited consciousness expands, it gradually grows into divine consciousness.

If we want to arrive at the divine consciousness, or if we want to have access to the divine consciousness, which is constantly expanding, then we have to discipline our everyday life, and we have to dedicate our life to a higher cause: to the Divine within us. Then automatically we will discover the divine consciousness, which is already hidden within us.

Question: Are the mind and the body two separate entities or are they one?

Sri Chinmoy: Very often we see that the mind wants to do one thing and the body, or physical consciousness, wants to do something else. The mind is inside the body; but right now it wants to watch a movie, whereas the body is tired and wants to sleep. The mind is inside the body, but the body has its own consciousness, which wants to assert itself, and the mind has its own consciousness. The mind and the body can walk together. If the body wants to listen to the dictates of the mind, it can listen. Again, the body can revolt. Very often the body listens to the mind, but sometimes it does not. So we can say that they are one when they agree to go together and they are two when they disagree.

Question: Do you think that Western society is really ready to be involved in spirituality?

Sri Chinmoy: Western society is more than ready. The West is running fast, very fast, toward the goal. It is ready because it feels the necessity of the highest Truth. I am an Indian; I have come from the mystical East. But here in the West I have seen many, many seekers who can easily be placed on the same footing with Eastern seekers of the highest magnitude. There are many seekers in the West who are extremely sincere and dedicated, who have intense aspiration to arrive at the highest Goal. Those who feel the necessity of a higher life are more than ready. Those who don’t feel the necessity — whether they are Easterners or Westerners — are not ready for any spiritual path.

Question: When we attain a divine consciousness, is it better to say that the divine consciousness attains us or that we attain it?

Sri Chinmoy: When we attain the divine consciousness, it attains us and we also attain it. There is a meeting place where the two come together. Reality is all-pervading. Suppose right now we are on the first floor; this is our reality. God, who embodies the universal Consciousness, is on the third floor. So God comes down to the second floor with His Compassion and we go up to the second floor with our intense cry to attain oneness with His Consciousness. God embodies the highest divine Consciousness and He also embodies our inner cry. So God, who is within us in the form of our inner cry, carries us to the second floor; and God, who is outside us in the form of the infinite divine Consciousness, comes down to the second floor. God climbs up with us and God climbs down with the divine Consciousness. When both the seeker and God arrive at a particular place, the seeker enters into the divine Consciousness and the divine Consciousness enters into the seeker. With our personal effort and God’s Grace we go up and with His Compassion and Love God comes down.

Universite De Montreal

Question: How does one obtain purity?

Sri Chinmoy: It is through our constant inner cry that we achieve purity and increase purity. When our inner cry climbs up, we gradually illumine our whole being, and when illumination takes place, all purity enters into us. There are a few spiritual exercises that help the seeker in acquiring purity. But the purity that lasts forever, the purity of the highest order, we get only from our inner cry for the highest Supreme.

Question: What is the relationship between sex and purity?

Sri Chinmoy: The life of the lower vital has to be purified and illumined. But if we try to curb the demands of the lower vital all at once, this effort will be detrimental to our physical health. We have to transcend them slowly, steadily and unerringly. The higher spiritual life transcends the lower vital life. From the lower vital life, what we get is pleasure, whereas from the spiritual life, what we get is joy and delight. Pleasure and delight are two different things. Once we start getting divine ecstasy from our meditation, we will not feel the need for vital enjoyment. Slowly and steadily the seeker goes high, higher, highest. He transcends the needs of the physical when he feels that the life of the soul is fulfilling, illumining and immortalising.

Question: If we are all progressing to higher incarnations, why are there still animals on earth?

Sri Chinmoy: The animal kingdom will not die out just because so many animals have evolved to a higher form of life. Similarly, when we all become divine beings in the course of spiritual evolution, human life will still go on; animal, plant and mineral life will still exist. Evolution starts right from the mineral world. As animals evolve into human beings, plants are evolving into animals and minerals are evolving into plants. In this way God’s creation is self-sustaining.

Question: Do we need many lifetimes to obtain real illumination.

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly! In this world it will take you twenty-two years only to get your Master’s degree, which is only finite earthly wisdom. In the spiritual life we are crying for something infinite — infinite Peace, infinite Light, infinite Knowledge, infinite Wisdom, infinite Bliss. Naturally, these attainments will take a much longer time. But if one gets a genuine spiritual Master, he can expedite his progress. If a student has to swim across the sea of ignorance all alone, it will take him a very, very long time. But if there is a Master with a boat, the student enters into the boat and then travels much faster to the other shore.

Question: Does a Master have to be in the physical body in order to help an aspirant?

Sri Chinmoy: Not necessarily. The most important thing is the strength of the inner connection between the Master and the disciple. Only if one has a boat can he make his journey swiftly and safely.

Question: What is Karma Yoga?

Sri Chinmoy: Karma Yoga is the Yoga of dedicated service. In the ordinary life, we have a motive when we work. There is always something we want to achieve. But if our only aim is to please God in His own way through our dedicated selfless service, if we do not care for anything else — not for name or fame or outer success — then this is real Karma Yoga. In Karma Yoga we progress toward union with God through our selfless actions.

Question: We forget our past lives when we reincarnate and then we have to do the same things all over again. Why is this?

Sri Chinmoy: The physical mind forgets, but the soul remembers. Anything that is worth having or worth remembering, the soul keeps. If we accept the spiritual life, it becomes easier for us to remember our past experiences. But even realised spiritual Masters remain ignorant for the first ten or eleven years after they reincarnate. But then, through prayer and meditation, they become conscious again of their past inner achievements and illumination.

Queens University

Question: How can one remain calm in the physical mind when one has so many things to do in so little time?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, if you are not peaceful, do you think that the things you have to accomplish will be accomplished sooner? No! When you are restless and agitated, when you are full of anxiety and worries, you just add to your problems and difficulties. Suppose you have a destination which you want to reach as soon as possible. If you carry inside you undivine elements like fear, doubt, anxiety, insecurity and so forth, that means you are carrying an extra weight and diminishing your capacity. So how will you reach your goal at the earliest possible hour? Your appointed hour will be delayed. A runner knows that if he carries extra weight, his opponents will defeat him. Now that you have accepted the spiritual life, you have to feel the necessity of emptying your mind all the time. When doubt, fear, insecurity or any other negative forces enter into your mind, just empty them out, cast them aside so that you can run the fastest. With inner faith, love, devotion and surrender you will run the fastest.

The first and foremost thing for a seeker is to have peace of mind. When you have established peace of mind, then you will see that the Hour of God will be accelerated and the things that you are trying to achieve and manifest on earth will be easily accomplished. The proper approach is to make the mind calm, quiet and tranquil always. When the mind is calm and tranquil, then you can run the fastest without carrying a heavy load.

While we are on earth we have to know that it is through constant aspiration that we can build a bridge between the finite and the Infinite. Then we shall carry the finite with us into the infinite and become one with the Infinite. Worries and anxieties will never help us. On the contrary, they will delay us. But if we have peace of mind, then we can run the fastest toward the goal and when the divine Hour strikes, we will be able to achieve what God wants us to achieve.

Question: Is time really eternal?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul knows that there is an eternal Time, and the soul is constantly growing, growing in the eternal Time. Unfortunately, when we remain in the physical mind or in the physical consciousness, it is simply impossible for us to think of something immortal or eternal. We limit ourselves to the earth-bound time. Earthbound time is broken up into fragments: one minute, two minutes, three minutes. But when we pray and meditate, we do not break up time in this way. Instead, at a glance we see the infinite and eternal Time, which is a smooth, unbroken flow; and we enter into eternal Time.

Question: Is it true that a seeker will return to earth in a new body to continue the fight against ignorance that he carried on in his past incarnation?

Sri Chinmoy: The seeker knows that he is a divine warrior fighting in the battlefield of life against ignorance darkness and bondage. Here on earth he may live for sixty, seventy or eighty years, and whatever he achieves will remain intact inside his inner being. But a warrior eventually needs rest; so at the end of his earthly journey, his soul goes back to the soul’s world to take rest for a few years. Then the same soul comes into the world once again with a new body, a new mind, a new heart. What for? To enter into the battle against ignorance once more and try to manifest the Supreme here on earth.

Question: Sometimes I feel a sense of insecurity in my heart. Could you please tell me how I can overcome this feeling?

Sri Chinmoy: If you want to hold God or if you try to grasp Him, then you are bound to be insecure. You have to know your proper relationship with God. You are God’s child; let us say, His chosen child. Suppose you and God are together at a particular place and right in front of you is a deep hole. If you are holding your Father’s hand, when temptation arises you may release your hold and try to grab that temptation. At that time, you will fall into the hole. But if you allow your eternal Father to hold you, then even if temptation assails you, He will hold you so tightly that you will not be able to fall into the abyss of ignorance.

Insecurity comes only because your heart knows that your grasp on God is weak, and when temptation comes you will release Him and fall. But if you feel that God is holding you, then you will not feel insecure because you know that God has infinite strength to hold you fast inside His Heart. Once God captures you, you can’t go away at all; and that is what you want. Since you have become spiritual, your goal is to be utilised by God according to His Will; you don’t want to utilise God at your sweet will. So you have to remain calm and quiet and let God capture and use you in His own way. God is utilising you; He is utilising you with His Illumination. If you want to use God for your own purpose, then temptation will come to you and ask you to utilise it. And when you try to utilise temptation, you will just be devoured by temptation.

From now on during your prayer and meditation, please try to offer yourself to God as His instrument, and do not try to get God as your instrument. When you make God your instrument, you will not know how to play correctly; today you will play God the instrument and tomorrow you will play ignorance the instrument. But if you are the instrument, then God will play perfectly in His own divine way. If you can make yourself a truly surrendered instrument, then there can be no insecurity in your heart.

Question: Why does God need man more than anything else on the physical plane to manifest Himself?

Sri Chinmoy: It is because man is more evolved than anything else on earth. When there is a good student, the teacher finds it easier to offer his wisdom to that student. In God’s classroom, the bad students will also one day become good. But meanwhile, the student who is advanced understands the wisdom and utilises more of the teacher’s light or knowledge than the backward student. God has created stones, animals, trees and everything else as well. But you can see that your development far exceeds that of a tree or an animal. The tree is also created by God, but your evolution is far more advanced. Whoever is more advanced will naturally have to take more responsibility in God’s manifestation.

In a family, the eldest member knows much more about the father than the youngest member knows. The father discusses family problems and the world-situation with the eldest son, not with his little children. But these children, the young ones, will also one day grow up and become mature. At that time, the father will discuss serious things with them, too.

Question: Does the planet Earth have a special role in the universe?

Sri Chinmoy: If you want to realise God, if you want to manifest God, this earth is the only place it can be done. God-realisation and God-manifestation take place only on earth through human evolution. A God-realised man is the most highly evolved being in God’s creation. On other planets evolution does not take place.

Question: How does the oldest son explain his position or relationship with the Father to the youngest son?

Sri Chinmoy: He will tell the youngest son that he is not the Father, but he is on intimate terms with the Father. I always tell my disciples that the real Master, the real Guru, is God Himself, not any human being. But the spiritual Master is like the eldest member of the family. He knows all about the Father and he knows where the Father is. He tells the little ones that he can take them to the Father. Once he shows them where the Father is, then his business is over. Once the younger ones see the Father and see Him operating, then the rest of their progress is something between them and the Father.

Question: How does the older one dispel his feelings of superiority over the younger ones?

Sri Chinmoy: If he is sincere, the older one Will be very humble because he knows how great his Father is in comparison to him. A spiritual Master is like a mother. The mother has more wisdom than the child, but she does not feel superior. She merely feels it is her bounden duty to offer her light to her son. The inner bond, the bond of oneness, is so strong that the mother never feels superior. Similarly, if the older brother is spiritual, if he is sincerely devoted to God, he will feel that it is his duty to teach others what someone else has taught him.

The feeling of superiority comes only when we are not spiritual. Then ego comes to the fore. But if we are spiritual, the first thing we try to do is surrender our individuality and become universal. When we become universal, the question of ego or superiority does not arise at all. I know something; so I am sharing it with you. If I have a fruit, I will get the greatest joy if I can share it with the members of my family. If I eat it all by myself, I will only be acting like a greedy fellow and I will not get the deepest satisfaction.

Question: How can we manifest our spiritual aspiration in our relationships with other people?

Sri Chinmoy: We can manifest our spiritual aspiration in our daily conduct provided we try to see the divine in other people all the time. We know that all human beings have defects. But by just thinking of their weaknesses and shortcomings, we do not help them in any way. At the same time, when we look at the dark side of a human being, we immediately create some spots on the tablet of our own heart. When we are aspiring we should try to see only the good things, the divine things in our friends, relatives and neighbours. We should try to look at others and deal with others as we would like them to deal with us. This is the Golden Rule. But if we pay attention to the defects and shortcomings of others, then today we will see a few defects, tomorrow teeming defects and the day after tomorrow infinite defects in their nature. What benefit will anybody get from this? This is the wrong approach. The right approach is to see divinity in others. Today if we see an iota of divinity in an individual, tomorrow we will be able to see a little more and the day after tomorrow much more. Light, then more light, then abundant light, then infinite Light we want to see in ourselves and in others.

But we can do this only if we sincerely aspire and make ourselves feel that we are all players in God’s cosmic Game. We are all equally important. Today we are awakened and tomorrow others will also be awakened. If we are seekers and if we see somebody who is not aspiring, we will say, “No, his hour has not struck today; but his hour may strike tomorrow.” Knowing the fact that he will be awakened tomorrow, let us give him our love, our light and our feeling of oneness. If we can establish the feeling of oneness, then our problem is solved.

Question: What are the ways of God-realisation?

Sri Chinmoy: There are only two ways: prayer and meditation. In meditation there are three stages: concentration, meditation and contemplation. Aspiration houses both prayer and meditation. If you have aspiration, that is the most important thing you need. This aspiration can be manifested in two different ways — either through your most soulful prayer or through concentration, meditation and contemplation. If you follow either path, you can reach your goal.

Question: What is the difference between the Christian way of realising God and the Indian way?

Sri Chinmoy: In the true spiritual life the Christian way and the Indian way are the same. All ways to God-realisation are basically the same. If we have a pure heart and cry to feel the presence of God, that is the way. When we establish a pure heart, everything comes to us. How do we make ourselves pure? Through prayer or meditation — either by invoking Peace, Light and Bliss from above or by entering into the world of purity, beauty and luminosity. A pure heart can constantly feel the presence of God. Just because we do not have a pure heart, we do not feel the presence of God all the time. Once we feel the presence of God constantly, all our problems will be solved.

Part 5: University Of Ottawa

Question: How can one discover one's mantra?

Sri Chinmoy: If one has a spiritual Master, then he should get the mantra from his Master directly. If he does not have a Master, then he has to go deep within in order to discover the best mantra for him. But in the meantime he can chant AUM. AUM is the mother of all mantras. Its divine power is very great.

Question: If we do not enter the spiritual life when the opportunity comes, are we forever barred from the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: God has created for us His divine fulfilment. He wants satisfaction, divine satisfaction, from us; He wants manifestation and perfection in us and through us. If God’s Hour strikes for us and we do not play our role, then we will have to complete our task at some other time. It is part of God’s Vision that each and every soul will complete its allotted task, either today or tomorrow. If we miss our opportunity, God will say, “All right, you have missed this opportunity, but I will give you another opportunity.” Again and again He will give us opportunities. But if we constantly ignore them or misuse them, eventually He will use His supreme Authority and compel us to complete our allotted task.

Question: How can I measure my spiritual progress?

Sri Chinmoy: You know how many desires you had before you launched into the spiritual life. And you can also count how many desires you now have. Previously perhaps you had twenty desires at a time, but now there are days when you don’t have even one desire. This is significant. When your desires diminish, you have to know that you are making real progress and running toward your goal.

Question: What is wrong with desire?

Sri Chinmoy: Desire is wrong because it limits and binds us. Through desire we never accomplish anything except binding others, and binding ourselves. When we desire, frustration and destruction loom large in our life.

Question: Do you have to go through the seven planes of consciousness in order to arrive at ultimate Freedom?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes! The human soul has to go through the seven planes of consciousness in order to arrive at the ultimate Freedom. The soul is like a bird that has to fly up from one branch to another until it reaches the highest branch. The human soul has to fly up through the seven planes of consciousness and then it has to descend again to distribute the fruits from these seven branches. First it ascends for realisation then it has to descend for manifestation.

Question: What is moksha?

Sri Chinmoy: Moksha is liberation from ignorance and bondage. When a person attains liberation, his inner being is flooded with divine Peace. Outwardly he may throw himself into multifarious activities, but his inner being is constantly surcharged with the highest Silence, Peace and Bliss. He becomes like the vast ocean. On the surface you will see waves and agitation, but deep within it is all peace.

Question: Does the soul have a mind?

Sri Chinmoy: Right now we feel that the mind is our highest part. Occasionally the mind may ask us to do something and the body may revolt. The mind may ask us to go and watch a movie, but the body may say, “No, no! I am very tired. I want to take rest.” However, most of the time the body and the vital do listen to the mind. But the mind has tremendous limitations. It constantly makes mistakes. This moment the mind judges somebody and says that he is very good. The next moment the mind says that this same person is very bad. The third moment the mind will ask, “Was I right in judging this man at all?” The mind never comes to a final conclusion. It is always restless and vacillating, When it arrives at a truth it feels that perhaps this is not the truth, so it looks for some other truth.

The soul does not have a mind; nor does the soul need a mind. The soul is the direct representative of God and is in direct touch with Him. The soul is all Light. Its messages are carried through Light. Once we get the soul’s inner message, we can rest assured that this message has come from the Source. But when the mind gives us any message, on the way from the realm of Truth to the realm of mind, the message is totally ruined. Even when the message is true, the physical mind may not understand it or may distort it.

When we speak of the mind, it is the physical mind that we are referring to. This mind is compelled to work in the physical and for the physical right now. But there is also the illumined mind, which we develop through aspiration. There is a great difference between the physical mind and the illumined mind, overmind and supermind. Most people do not have these higher types of mind.

The physical mind is an insufficient, inadequate instrument for the divine manifestation. The soul, which is a divine instrument, does not need a mind. But the soul can and will transform and utilise the mind. It will transform the doubtful, suspicious mind into the illumined mind just as it transforms the aggressive vital into the dynamic vital and the lethargic body into the active body. Being the best member of the family, it will transform the other members and make them as perfect as it is.

Question: What is the relationship between light and peace?

Sri Chinmoy: Light, peace, delight, love, power, are all brothers and sisters in the Supreme’s family. Light does not allow us to do anything wrong because light knows that we all come from the same source. If we have light, then we will not quarrel and fight on the physical plane. Automatically we will have peace. We will have some inner satisfaction. If we are satisfied deep within ourselves, then we will not try to show our authority or impose our personality or individuality on others. We will not have to spread our personality-wings because our inner satisfaction is based on our universal oneness with everything and everyone else. Peace and light complement one another. When we have light, we see that inside light peace automatically grows. And when we have peace, we are bound to find light inside it.

Question: How can a seeker learn the mission of his soul?

Sri Chinmoy: If the seeker has a spiritual Master, the Master can easily tell him in the course of his spiritual studies what his soul came into the world to achieve or to manifest. If the seeker does not have a spiritual Master, then his aspiration must give him the answer. As his inner flame climbs up, it illumines the seeker’s ignorance. When ignorance is illumined, the seeker will be able to see, feel and know the mission of his soul. If he is without a Master, it will take a longer time for him to reach this inner knowledge, because he has to swim across the sea of ignorance all by himself. But if he has a Master, then the Master will offer him a boat, and once he is inside the boat, he is safe. The Master, like a pilot, will take him to the goal. Once the seeker knows what the Will of God is for him, immediately he can start working to achieve that thing.

Question: Can you please say something about sound and silence?

Sri Chinmoy: When you meditate deep within, you can hear the soundless sound. Now I am chanting ‘AUM’. Because I am using my outer voice, you can hear it. But there is a way of chanting in silence. When we chant in this way, the sound reverberates in the inmost recesses of our heart. This sound is infinitely more powerful than the sound that I create with my voice. It is beyond your imagination. Your human ears will not hear this inner sound, but your inner ear will hear it.

To produce the outer sound, I have to use some physical force. But the inner sound, the Anahata Nada, does not need any help from anything or from anybody to be produced. It is self-creating. Silence itself holds that sound. Silence is God’s Dream and sound is God’s Reality. The Dream and the Reality always go together.

Editor's preface to the first edition

Early in 1974 Sri Chinmoy delivered a series of lectures at universities in Eastern Canada. The talks delivered were published under the title My Maple Leaves. The questions asked by Sri Chinmoy’s audiences after the lectures and the Master’s illumining answers are now being published in Volumes I and II of Canada Aspires, Canada Receives, Canada Achieves.

Notes

Halifax, Nova Scotia March 16, 1974

New Brunswick March 17, 1974

Quebec City, Quebec March 19, 1974

Montreal, Quebec March 20, 1974

Sherbrooke, Quebec March 21, 1974

Montreal, Quebec March 21, 1974

Kingston, Ontario March 22, 1974

Ottawa, Ontario March 24, 1974