Aspiration-cry

Aspiration is a cry within our heart. As a child cries, so also in the heart you will feel a cry. A child is within you, shedding tears. He is weeping because he wants to transcend himself. This is the mounting cry, the climbing cry inside our heart. When we are aware of this cry, we call it aspiration. And when our heart’s cry makes us feel that we are not what we should be and that we need something more, then we start meditation. When we aspire with our heart’s tears, we see that God is coming down to us, descending from above. It is just like two persons meeting: one is on the first floor and the other is on the third floor. So what do we do? We go up to the second floor and God comes down to the second floor. There we meet and fulfil each other.

The stairway to the second floor is created by our heart’s tears and cries. The heart is crying and yearning like a mounting flame burning upward. This flame of the heart wants to go up beyond the mind, so it is always rising. God comes down. He is descending with His Grace, like a river running downward. He is constantly flowing down. Ours is the flame which always burns upward; God’s Grace, like a stream, is coming down from the Source. To the second floor God descends and to the second floor I ascend. On my part, it is aspiration that has brought me to the meeting place; and on God’s part, it is His Grace. When aspiration and Grace meet together, we come to experience the divine fulfilment of union with God.

Awakening

Awakening is the beginning of the soul’s journey towards the ultimate Goal. At every moment the inner awakening has to be fed and nurtured by our constant aspiration. If aspiration is lacking, then our awakening will remain a mere mental concept and will not lead us far.

Now, we have also to be awakened to the truth that God-realisation is something natural, normal, practical and inevitable. When a seeker’s inner awakening makes him feel that God-realisation is not only natural and normal, but also inevitable, then the seeker can really possess his own awakening.

It is not the number of years that we have been following a spiritual path, but the intensity of our aspiration that counts. This aspiration of ours must be fed — not just continually, but continuously; not just daily, but every second of our life.

The world does not understand spiritual people; it badly misunderstands them. So do not listen to what the world says. Think only of what your spiritual Teacher says, what your soul says. Your Master and your soul always offer the same divine message. If you have true aspiration and genuine love for God, if you want to go far, farther, farthest, then embark on the inner path. Your soul’s inner awakening will compel your body, vital, mind and heart to follow you devotedly.

How to know God

We can know what God actually is only through aspiration, not through desire. By desiring day in and day out we will never be able to know what God is or what God looks like. By desiring, we are limiting ourselves. But God is limitless, boundless. Through our aspiration we transcend ourselves, we go beyond ourselves. When we go beyond ourselves, at that time we become what God is. So it is through aspiration that we know what God is and what He looks like.

There is no end to our desires. But there is only one aspiration and it goes up, up, up. It does not fluctuate like desire. The ultimate goal of aspiration is to go to the Beyond, the ever-transcending Beyond. And the ever-transcending Beyond is nothing other than God.

Inspiration-journey, aspiration-goal

Without inspiration we cannot do anything or achieve anything. If we want to write a beautiful poem, if we want to compose music, if we want to achieve anything whatsoever, inspiration is necessary. In the spiritual life, this inspiration we can get by reading sacred books written by real spiritual Masters. When inspiration has played its role, we have to enter into the world of aspiration. We have to try to live the wisdom of the books.

How can we get aspiration? We have to cry deep within ourselves with the feeling that we desperately need Light and Peace. Once we are consciously aspiring, if we have a friend who is a very advanced seeker, he may be able to give us some help.

But we have to learn the secrets of concentration, meditation and contemplation. If we are absolutely sincere in our life of aspiration, then we are bound to come in contact with a true spiritual Master who can really help us and guide us towards our realisation.

When a child cries, no matter where his mother is, the mother comes. She knows the child is hungry; he needs milk. In the spiritual life also, when we cry for Peace, Light and Bliss, immediately a spiritual Master will come. He will act like a mother. In India it is said, “When the chela is ready, the Master is bound to come.” So when we are ready, God is bound to come to us in the form of our Master, the one who is meant for us.

Inspiration from fellow-seekers

Inspiration and aspiration you are bound to get from a spiritual Master. But you can also get these divine qualities from the disciples of a Master. If you look at some of the disciples, or if you just stay near them without looking at them, you get a very good vibration. When you get a good vibration, you are automatically being inspired to go deep within. When you go home you will meditate for at least five minutes, or while walking along the street you will meditate. This is the result of the inspiration that you have received from them.

If you are standing in front of a swimming pool and you see that nobody is in the swimming pool, you just remain standing there. Because of your lethargy you won’t jump in. Or perhaps you will be afraid that the water is not warm enough. But if you see that some people are already swimming, then you will have no fear of the water and you will immediately jump in and swim. At that time you will feel that your whole existence is swimming and you will get fresh life, fresh energy. Similarly, when you are with the disciples of a spiritual Master, you will see that some of them are really swimming in the sea of aspiration. Your physical mind may not be aware of it, but your heart is making you feel that some people are really swimming. Now it is up to you to enter the sea of aspiration and swim with them.

Inspiration is the first step. But with inspiration you can only go so far. You need aspiration in order to reach your goal. You have entered into the sea of aspiration, but now you notice that some people are going to the other shore of the sea. What is carrying them? It is aspiration. Once you have inspiration, you will then get within you a burning cry, a burning eagerness to see what is on the other shore. You feel that your real Goal is to get to the Golden Shore. Aspiration alone will carry you to your destination. When you are swimming across the ocean, that is your aspiration; and when you reach the shore, that is your realisation.

Identification with the divine

One of India’s great spiritual Masters, Sri Ramakrishna, used to say that if one thinks, “I am a sinner, I have committed a sin,” then he will always be a sinner because he will always be earthbound. The positive approach is to say, “My Father is God; He has created me. I have to be consciously one with Him as He is one with me. I am one with the eternal Truth but I am not yet consciously aware of it.”

You have to reach your Goal with your aspiration, your inner cry, or with the assertion of your own inner will when you say, “I am God’s son.” Either you have to cry for the Goal or you have to feel that you already have the Goal within and you just have to become consciously one with it. There are two ways to reach the Goal. One way is to go to God like a beggar and cry, “Father, give me, give me, give me Your Wealth.” The other way is to feel that your Father is keeping everything inside you. He is keeping a box within you and inside the box is the treasure. The key is also within you. Now if you have a spiritual teacher as your guide, the teacher can show you where the key is, where the box is and how to open it. But if you don’t have a spiritual teacher as your guide and if you want to have an inner experience, a mystical experience, then you have to cry for this inner experience. This cry is the cry of aspiration; it is not like shedding tears when you do the wrong thing.

There is always some time between the planting of the seeds and the harvest. The planting of the seeds is nothing but aspiration and the harvest is nothing but realisation. Without aspiration, realisation can never dawn. Aspiration: what is it? It is both something that we already have and something that we are going to have. If we say that we have had aspiration for some time, then we are right because we live in the everlasting life. And if we say that we do not now have aspiration but we are going to have it, that means we are trying or crying to bring the inner urge of the heart to the fore. This also is correct. When we sit at the feet of Eternity, we realise that aspiration is bound to be followed by realisation. And when we make friends with eternal time, we come to realise that realisation was always there, hidden in our aspiration.

The cry for divine consciousness

We can enter into the divine consciousness through our inner cry. This cry is not for name and fame. This cry is for our total, unconditional, unreserved oneness with the Inner Pilot.

Some people are totally oblivious of the Inner Pilot. Again, some know of the existence of the Inner Pilot but they do not want to have any connection or communion with the Inner Pilot. But a sincere seeker feels the necessity of constant communion with the Inner Pilot. He is not satisfied by just knowing of God’s existence inside him. He wants to be in God’s consciousness and commune with Him twenty-four hours a day. Then only will he be satisfied.

If you want to achieve liberation and enter into the divine consciousness from the human consciousness, then gratitude also plays a most significant role. When one is receiving something from God, his whole heart becomes a flower of gratitude. Then if the soul wants to use the eyes in order to express its gratitude through tears, it can do so. But usually we feel the divine gratitude inside our heart. There it grows like a tiny plant which eventually becomes a huge banyan tree. Every seeker can say to God, “O God, You have already given me so much, far beyond my imagination. You have given me sound health, You have given me a sound brain, You have given me the capacity to distinguish right from wrong, darkness from light.” God has already given to each individual being the capacity to see, know and feel what is good and what is bad. But only a seeker feels the necessity of praying to God for something else. He says: “O God, You have given me the capacity to see the difference between right and wrong. Now please give me the capacity to do the right thing. Mere knowing is not enough; mere feeling is not enough. I have to act; I have to do the right thing on earth.”

Constantly you have to cry deep within yourself. Then you will see that your human consciousness is bathing in the sea of the divine consciousness. You have to feel the necessity of the divine consciousness inside you and around you. And you have to know that the human consciousness, which you represent right now, is not the goal. If you are totally dissatisfied with the human consciousness, then you have moved one step forward towards your goal. If you feel that the human life has disappointed and deserted you and that the divine life alone can fulfil you, then only the divine consciousness can enter into you. And when the divine consciousness enters into you, then you will feel that this divine consciousness will not negate your human consciousness. On the contrary, it will transform the human consciousness. It does not reject; it does not cast aside anything human. It purifies and illumines the human consciousness and transforms it into its own divine consciousness.

What do you want?

What do you want?
God's Infinity?
It is inside the smile
Of your eyes.

What do you want?
God's Eternity?
It is inside the cry
Of your heart.

What do you want?
God's Immortality?
It is inside the silence-beauty
Of your soul.

Desire and aspiration

Desire is that which binds us. It wants to possess and be possessed. When we desire, we cry for one hundred, two hundred, three hundred things. When we aspire, at that time we don’t want to possess and we don’t want to be possessed. Inside us there is something which is boundless, limitless, infinite. When we aspire, we want to enter into that very thing within us which is boundless. We want only to become part and parcel of Him who is infinite. So desire is something that is going to bind us, whereas aspiration is something that throws us consciously into the sea of Infinity.

Aspiration and desire are two different things. We cannot satisfy our desires. We can only change the object of our desires. Today I would like another car and tomorrow I would like another house. If I am frustrated, if I am not fulfilled in a particular desire, then tomorrow I will have some other desire. Desires are constantly being changed. One moment we think of our aspiration and the next moment we think of our desire. If we get an opportunity to fulfil ourselves through desire, we don’t hesitate. Again, when aspiration enters into us, we try to fulfil ourselves through aspiration. One time we take poison and the next time we take nectar. But we have to know that poison will destroy us, whereas nectar will fulfil us. Let us drink only the nectar of aspiration.

The source of aspiration

We feel that aspiration is something we create. To some extent it is true. But at the same time we should feel that aspiration is something that is coming from above and lifting our human consciousness to the highest plane. Then we have to let this aspiration enter into us. We have to capture the aspiration-bird and allow the bird to carry us. Most of you have faith in your Master, but you do not have faith in your own seeking, your own search, your own aspiration. I wish to tell you, please try to have implicit faith in your aspiration. Feel that like your aspiration, this faith is also coming from the Supreme. Feel that the faith you are offering to yourself and to your Master is directly coming from the Supreme. Then there will be no problem in your life. Right now you feel that you are doing something, you are creating something in your spiritual life. But you have to feel instead that something is entering into you. You are receiving it and then claiming it as your very own. The father has money and he gives the money to his son. The son does not tell the world, “My father has given me this money.” He says it is his own money. With this money he buys things from a shop. He does not have to tell the shopkeeper who has given him the money; he just uses it as his own. Similarly, when aspiration comes from the Supreme, when He gives it to you for your use, then you will use it. And the more you use, the more you get. The moment you use your aspiration, the more aspiration will be supplied to you from above.

Inertia

If we cannot continue to aspire with the same love, the same devotion, the same surrender, then we will come down to the first rung of the spiritual ladder. We won’t go below the first rung if we have climbed up far enough, but we may go down to our starting point. At the starting rung we had inspiration. Then with aspiration we climbed up four or five rungs of the ladder out of the fifteen rungs that we have to climb. But if we don’t continue to climb, then naturally, like the law of gravity, the force of ignorance will pull us down. We cannot remain in one plane of consciousness for more than a second; either we go up or we come down. Through aspiration we go up or through lack of aspiration we come down; we cannot remain in the air motionless.

Unworthiness

The feeling of unworthiness is a serious mistake. In the spiritual life you should feel that while you are crying for God, at the same time God is crying for you. You are crying because you want to go to God and He is crying because He has not yet been fully manifested within you. God is in the process of manifestation, but His full manifestation has not yet taken place on earth. The world has not yet arrived at perfection. God wants His full manifestation and perfection to take place in each individual. He is crying because He has not yet been totally fulfilled in and through you. He feels that here on earth His true perfection must take place. He does not cry because you are unworthy of His Love and His Grace. No! He cries because He has not been able to complete His fulfilling journey in you and through you.

Seek or find?

Some people want the fruits of aspiration without practising the true spiritual life. Unfortunately these individuals are not aware of the fact that if they do not first become seekers, then the question of receiving a divine experience does not even come into existence. If we want to find the truth without following the path of seeking, then I wish to say that the truth surely will not come to us. If we want to become a finder without first playing the role of a seeker, then we may get something, but we will not derive the utmost joy from it. We may find the truth, but unfortunately we won’t be able to appreciate it at all. And if we cannot appreciate the absolute Truth, then our own inner joy is bound to diminish. If we do not properly seek the reality, then even if the reality comes and stands right in front of us, we will not take it as our very own.

We have to take one step at a time. When a child cries for a lost toy, he is seeking. Then when he finds it, he gets real joy, inner joy. In the spiritual life we soulfully search and cry for our lost divinity, which will really fulfil us. When we cry in this way, immediately we give proper value to the object of our search. So, please try to constantly play the role of a seeker. In the process of seeking you unravel and reveal your divinity.

Again, if we are not true seekers, then what will happen during our search for something which we are not inwardly ready to find? Unfortunately there is every possibility of our adopting foul means to achieve our ends. Without proper aspiration we may try to exercise our mind beyond its capacity. We may try to exercise our dynamic vital beyond its capacity and in that way we may become aggressive. While searching for the truth without genuine aspiration we may say, “I want it. By hook or by crook I will get it.” Unfortunately the use of foul means is the misuse of the God-given capacity within us.

While we are seeking we should not be a victim to any kind of wrong thought. At that time we are praying, we are crying, we are meditating on something which is really sublime. We have to feel that we are dealing with the absolute Truth. The finite in us is trying to enter into the Infinite with utmost purity, humility and sincerity. While we are seeking, our consciousness is being elevated. It is being heightened. It is running, it is flying towards the Highest. And while we are flying towards the Highest, automatically we will find Light, more Light, abundant Light and infinite Light. In the very process of seeking, we shall see and feel Peace, Light, Bliss and all other divine qualities. The infinite Truth is bound to come to us when we are sincere seekers.

Now, I wish to say that in your case you are not making a very great mistake if, at times, you feel that you don’t want to aspire but you want to 'find'. The very fact that you are really sincere in seeking the Truth will bring down God’s Grace. His Knowledge and His Wisdom will dawn on you to make you feel that the first step is seeking. And while seeking the Truth, you will see that the Truth is automatically found, automatically revealed.

Give what you have

Do you want
Himalayan joy?
Then give to God
What you have:
Your heart's aspiration-cry.

Do you want
Pacific peace?
Then give to man
What you have:
Your life's dedication-smile.

Is aspiration the ultimate goal?

For one individual, aspiration is the goal according to his vision or capacity or receptivity. He is absolutely right according to his own awareness, his soul’s present development. But another person who has gone beyond this level of development will say, "No, aspiration is not the end." The first person is correct, but the second person has gone far, far beyond that goal.

When a child looks at a ladder, if he can reach the first rung, it is enough for him. That is his goal. But an expert climber, an adult, will see that this is only the first step. Similarly, when it is a matter of the inner life, the spiritual life, experience and realisation can better be explained by a seeker of the ultimate Truth than by a philosopher.

Many so-called philosophers in India do not have the authority to express the inner truth. They do not know what inner truth is. Very often philosophers enter into a sad controversy. Then they go to spiritual Masters who have not studied even one philosophical book or even one spiritual book. The philosophers explain their ideas in the most complicated philosophical jargon, but a spiritual Master can answer everything in one or two words. Then the philosophers go home in peace.

Six or seven years ago two eminent philosophers had a great debate over consciousness and infinity. For hours and hours they argued. Then they went to a very great spiritual teacher. She had read practically nothing but through her spiritual illumination, her inner illumination, she shed light on the problem of these two philosophers. She summed up everything in just a few words and then they went home.

If you enter into the deeper philosophy, you get inner vision. Philosophy means darshan and darshan also means vision. If you go still deeper, you come into the life of yoga. In yoga, you have not to see consciousness as something apart from you; you get consciousness as your very own.

Our vision of the goal entirely depends on our level of consciousness. According to the understanding and vision of some people, aspiration is the goal. But according to our understanding, the Goal is far beyond that.

Experience-fruits

Every seeker has to pay utmost attention to aspiration and not to experience. Experience comes from God. Aspiration comes from our inner existence. At every moment we have to feel the need for an inner urge to go forward, upward and inward. Experience is not enough to pull God to us and keep Him with us all the time. In the spiritual life we have to aspire. Then one day we will get inner experience on the strength of our aspiration. Intense aspiration is food for our inner being. Just as we do not eat delicious food every day, we do not have high experiences every day. But eventually the time comes when we can have these experiences whenever we meditate. When does that time come? When we are in a position to identify ourselves inseparably with the Cosmic Will. Right now we have a very limited will. But when we are in the Cosmic Will, the Universal Will, then at every moment Truth is glowing and blooming in us and around us.

So if we want constant experience, then we have to go deep within and become inseparably one with the Universal Will. This Universal Will can easily be possessed on the strength of our aspiration. When we offer our soul’s will to the Universal Will, the highest Truth will dawn within us. Daily we can offer our surrender to the Universal Will. Let us meditate daily and cry to the Highest with our gratitude, dedication and consecration. We should not cry for experience; we should cry only for God. When we offer our dedication to God, God can never be ungrateful. Let us take and take and take from God; on God’s part, He will always give and give and give. Right now, unfortunately, our receptivity is very limited. We receive very little of God’s omnipotent Grace and Bounty which He offers to us in abundant measure. So we have to try incessantly to increase our receptivity. Then every day we can have divine inner experiences.

Peace in God-hunger

If a man wants to have a divinised life, a life of inner and outer peace, then he has to have aspiration, constant aspiration. From constant aspiration he gets realisation. And when he gets realisation, he gets the promise of supreme divinisation and peace. As the inner mounting flame of aspiration gets the opportunity to reach up to the highest, the inner peace starts functioning most convincingly and powerfully. At that time the seeker can never be separated from peace. His entire existence, inner and outer, is flooded with peace. But in order to achieve this peace, one needs constant aspiration.

There are some seekers who are more advanced, while some are relatively unadvanced. There are some seekers who think of God twenty-four hours a day, while others have only a vague idea of God. But if we want to achieve infinite, eternal peace, then we have to make God a living reality in our day-to-day lives. We have to feel that God is of paramount importance. If we do not eat every day, we starve our body. Similarly, we have to feel that if we do not pray and meditate every day, then we are starving our spiritual body; we will become sick. If we do not pray and meditate in the inner life, we find it very difficult to discipline the outer life. Then naturally we will not be able to feel inner peace. It is only through aspiration that we can achieve abiding inner peace.

World aspiration

In my travels to Europe I have been to many places, and I have noticed aspiration in all the places I have visited. In some places naturally I have observed more aspiration than in other places. Each place has aspiration. But when it is a matter of manifestation on the outer plane, at one place the inner message is properly received and at another place it is nowhere to be found. There are other differences as well. For example, in one city I have seen tremendous determination even in the people who are not aspiring, not spiritually conscious. There is tremendous determination on the physical plane and on the vital plane. In another city, in spite of aspiration on the inner plane, there is tremendous outer chaos, uneasiness, uncertainty.

In some fortunate cities we can see that the people invoke light psychically, through the inner heart. There are other places that invoke spiritual light more through the mind than through the heart. They are invoking light, praying, meditating, but through the mind. Again, there are also places where the people invoke light through the aspiring and dynamic vital and the physical. But there are one or two places where there is tremendous turmoil and revolution on the outer plane. Aspiration is there, but on the outer plane there is tremendous confusion. So if you want to make a comparison, these are the kinds of differences. These differences we observe on the outer plane, but on the inner plane each country and each city is aspiring according to its capacity.

When it is a matter of aspiration, I definitely can say that the world is aspiring more and more. On the outer plane we see quarrelling, fighting and war, so we may think that the world is not progressing. But on the inner plane, since I last visited these places, I see that they now have more aspiration and more determination.

The pilgrim seekers

Man’s union with God has been in existence from time immemorial. But man has unconsciously, or rather, consciously severed this oneness by embracing ignorance instead of God. God has granted man limited freedom. Even this very limited freedom man has misused. That is why he is not now in conscious, perfect union with God. But through aspiration he can re-establish his conscious, constant, natural and spontaneous union with God.

Some time ago I read a book in which an eminent psychologist said that one’s goal should be aspiration. But the Eastern thinkers, philosophers and spiritual Masters say that aspiration can never be the Goal. Through aspiration we reach the Goal, but aspiration is only the first rung of the spiritual ladder. First comes aspiration, then experience, then minor realisation, then full realisation, then transformation and divinisation and then finally manifestation. We have to know that there is a vast difference between aspiration and manifestation, which is our ultimate goal.

At the beginning of our spiritual journey, our goal is aspiration. When we are in the field of aspiration, we will have the power of revelation. When the mounting flame within us rises up to the highest, at that time we will have the eye of vision, the third eye. It will make us see our ultimate inner Goal.

God-realisation is the first Goal of the aspiring seeker. The achievement of this lofty Goal is a matter of one’s spiritual development. If one has been aspiring and meditating in previous lifetimes, then there is no reason why he cannot attain realisation in this life on the strength of his present aspiration. Since we are all progressing towards realisation, in one incarnation or another our realisation is bound to take place. Again, the actual hour entirely depends on our spiritual development.

Realisation and manifestation have to go together. We have to aspire first within ourselves. But at the same time let us try to feel that the world is inside us, not outside us. The world is the projection of our own life. If we feel that we have acquired peace, then gradually, gradually we shall see that the people around us are being inspired and influenced by our peace. First let us try to create our own world according to our own satisfaction. When we have created or achieved something divine within us, immediately it will try to reveal itself. When we have more capacity, naturally many more people will be inspired and influenced by it. So let us please try to create our own world within ourselves, a world of peace, a world of love. Then, automatically, while we are aspiring for the Highest, these divine qualities will reveal and manifest themselves to the world at large.

Grace

Before realisation we think that our personal effort, our aspiration alone is responsible for our spiritual progress. At that time there is no such thing as Grace for us. But after realisation we come to see that there is no such thing as aspiration. Our progress is all due to divine Grace.

In the ordinary human life there is no end to our desire. Today we want one car, tomorrow two cars, the day after tomorrow three cars: our desire goes on and on. In the world of aspiration and realisation there is also no end. From an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss, we try to get a large quantity, then an abundant measure, then an infinite measure. But we have to know who has inspired us to leave the world of desire and enter into the world of aspiration.

Among the members of my family, my friends and all the people in the whole world, why is it that only I am aspiring? Who inspired me? Who compelled me to aspire? It was the divine Grace of the Supreme that inspired me. How is it that my brother is not praying and meditating but I am crying to realise God? It is because the highest power, the divine Grace is operating in and through me. Aspiration I have because God gave it to me. It is all His Grace.

The sun is shining. It is up to us to open all the windows and all the doors in order to receive the light. Naturally, if we open up the doors and windows, then the sun will come in. Similarly, the divine Grace is constantly showering down from above. Let us try always to receive it with our heart’s door wide open.

Faith and aspiration

There is a great difference between faith and aspiration. Faith is very common. We all have faith; faith begins in the physical world; every ordinary person has it. We have faith in our friends; we have faith in books; we have faith in a teacher — in his knowledge and in his ability to teach us correctly. We also have faith in God. But faith is passive, while aspiration is an active, dynamic force. We all have faith that we will eventually realise God, but faith alone will not bring us to our Goal. For that we must have aspiration. And for intense aspiration, we need a spiritual Master.

If I have a friend who is a good driver, then I have faith that he will take me to my destination. However, this faith will not enable me to drive as he does. But if I really aspire to learn to drive, then he will be able to teach me and someday I will also become a good driver. It is the same in the case of a spiritual Master. We may have faith in his realisation, but we must also aspire. We have to make the effort ourselves. Our aspiration must have a goal, the Goal of God-realisation. We must have a burning flame within. If we aspire, God’s Grace will descend upon us and carry us forward to our Goal.

How to cultivate aspiration

Please remember at every moment in your life that you have two things, only two things: desire and aspiration. You have tried to fulfil yourself through desire, but you have come to the conclusion that desire has failed you. That is why you want aspiration. Aspiration alone can give you realisation. Now, you have to feel what realisation is. Is it something only for you or is it for everyone? Is it only for your personal benefit or is it for everybody’s benefit? When you have the feeling that realisation is for everybody’s use, then you know that the results of your aspiration will be offered to humanity at large. When you feel that what you gain from your aspiration is for humanity at large, then your heart becomes wide and receptive. At that time you will be able to bring into your vessel abundant Love and Light from above and automatically your aspiration will increase.

Now there is another way to increase your aspiration in your day-to-day life. Please feel that in this world something or someone has to be your Dearest and that dearest person is God. Although you have the members of your family and your friends, you have to feel that only God is your Dearest. If everybody is taken away from your life, you will still be able to say that your Dearest has not been taken away from you. The moment your thoughts of God and your feeling for God are lacking, you have to feel that your Dearest is out of your life.

While you are pleasing God, if He asks you to please someone else, certainly you will do so. But at every moment make it a point to please God. When you are very sincere in your spiritual life, anything you do for God will give you constant joy. If you keep God as your best Friend, then your aspiration will increase.

The pride

In my animal life
   When I was at my zenith,
   I was the pride
   Of earth's destruction-power.

   In my human life
   When I am at my zenith,
   I am the pride
   Of Heaven's aspiration-power.

   In my divine life
   When I shall be at my zenith,
   I shall be the pride
   Of God's Perfection-Power.

Human ascent and divine descent

The divine manifestation and our human aspiration have to go together. They are like two eyes. If one eye is functioning and the other eye is not functioning well, then we are half-blind. We have to use both eyes, aspiration and manifestation. Both are equally important; like day and night, one has to be followed by the other. This moment we need aspiration, the next moment, manifestation. Again, real aspiration itself is manifestation and real manifestation is aspiration. They are one and inseparable.

We can unite aspiration and manifestation in two ways. While we are praying and meditating, we have to feel that we are manifesting; and while we are doing selfless service we have to feel that this is also real meditation. It is absolutely true.

Each year we can increase our aspiration and accomplish something very significant to offer at the Feet of the Supreme. Let us not repeat the mistakes that we have committed this year in the coming year. The good, divine things that we have done, let us try to repeat and multiply. There are innumerable good things we can do for the Supreme. These good things will automatically come to the fore if we are really sincere in our aspiration and in our cry for divine manifestation. Each month, each day, each minute is most significant. It is up to us to use our time either in a divine way or in an undivine way. If we don’t use our time wisely, if we just wait to see what is going to happen in our life, in others’ lives or in the rest of God’s creation, then merely watching with a curious eye is equivalent to doing something undivine. So the best thing for us is to do the divine thing all the time through aspiration and manifestation. While we are going up we are spreading our light. What else is manifestation if not this? And while we are doing dedicated service, immediately like a magnet something from above is pulling us up: that is our mounting aspiration. So in this way we see that manifestation and aspiration have to go together; they are inseparably one.

Aspiration

Dear seekers, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a talk on aspiration. In the spiritual life, there is nothing more important than aspiration. Aspiration is our inner cry for the highest Absolute. Aspiration is the eternal road. Aspiration is the eternal guide. Aspiration is the transcendental Goal.

A man of aspiration knows that what he has is human knowledge. Human knowledge is limited or unlimited ignorance. Aspiration is divine knowledge. Aspiration knows what binds us and what liberates us. What binds us is ignorance-night; what liberates us is wisdom-light.

Aspiration does not and cannot learn anything from or with the physical mind. Aspiration learns everything through the heart, through the heart’s perfection. Aspiration is not head-learning; aspiration is heart-becoming. Head-learning doubts. Doubt is slow poison in our spiritual system. It obliterates our purity, our serenity, our reality and our profundity. Heart-becoming is founded upon our faith, our self-giving and our feeling of universal oneness. Heart-becoming accepts. In acceptance looms large the message of total satisfaction, for through acceptance we eventually transform imperfection into perfect Perfection. First we see and accept a thing which is undivine. Then, on the strength of our inner light, we give it a new life. Finally we make it supremely divine.

Aspiration is the acceptance of life and the transcendence of death. Aspiration is the transformation and transcendence of the death-force. Through our aspiration we try to establish a free access to the immortal life so that here on earth we can establish the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom need not and cannot remain eternally imaginary. It must be established in our life of aspiration.

When we go deep within, we discover that aspiration is the very Breath of God, which we utilise for our own sake. Again, aspiration is the death of the ignorance of millennia. When ignorance comes to an end in a seeker, God claims that particular seeker as His chosen instrument and God manifests Himself here on earth through that seeker.

There are two worlds on earth: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. In the world of desire, frustration looms large and the animal life reigns supreme. In the world of aspiration, our satisfaction-flower blossoms petal by petal. In the world of aspiration, the seeker’s dream is transformed into supreme Reality. The seeker comes to realise that God is man yet unmanifested and that man is God yet unrealised. Man’s realisation and God’s manifestation take place when the seeker’s entire being becomes all receptivity to God’s ceaseless flow of Compassion and Light. On God’s behalf, aspiration prepares our inner being. And on our behalf, aspiration welcomes and receives God. Aspiration welcomes the divine in us and fulfils the human in us. Man and God need each other equally and sempiternally. Man needs God to realise his transcendental Reality. God needs man to manifest Himself totally, integrally and universally on earth.

Aspiration expedites man’s journey towards the transcendental Goal and accelerates God’s manifestation here on earth. The seeker can expedite God’s choice Hour, providing his aspiration-flame every day climbs up high, higher, highest. Today, on the strength of his aspiration-flame, he reaches the Highest. Tomorrow he comes down to reveal the highest transcendental Reality in the heart of aspiring humanity.

Aspiration houses the outer world and the inner world, the world of realisation and the world of manifestation, the world of ego and the universe of universal oneness.

With aspiration we begin our journey, and with aspiration we continue our journey. Since there is no end to our journey, and since God is infinite, eternal and immortal, our aspiration will constantly flow towards God’s Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. There is no end to our journey. Aspiration is the endless road that leads eternally towards the ever-transcending Beyond.

God honours me

When I aspire
God honours me.
He tells the world
That I am His fond child,
I am His choice instrument.

When I do not aspire
He also honours me.
He tells the world
That I am His future Choice,
I am His future Voice,
I shall embody His future Race,
I shall reveal His future Face.

Editor's preface to the first edition

Aspiration is the cry for a higher life, a more fulfilling life, a more divine life. In this volume of essays, the God-realised spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy offers illumining advice to aspirants for the ultimate Truth. These essays were composed between 1968 and 1974.