1.

When I smile,
God is my manifesting experience.

2.

Each second of my earthly existence is God's fulfilling experience in and through me.

3.

My inner experience is God's continuous manifestation of His own perfection in and through me.

4.

On earth my experience is helplessness, utter helplessness. In Heaven my experience is satisfaction, constant satisfaction. In God my experience is perfection, total perfection.

5.

When I smile, God runs toward me and offers me His Immortality's Crown. When I cry, God runs toward me and gives me His Eternity's Dream-boat.

6.

My manifested experience is God's ever-growing perfection, ever-glowing satisfaction and ever-fulfilling transformation. My manifested experience is earth-transformation, Heaven-illumination and life-perfection.

7.

The soul is the
reality that seeks only God.

8.

I am the soul, I am the body.

I am the soul when I claim God as my own.

I am the body when I claim myself as my own.

9.

The soul in me is for God's constant use.

The body in me is for God's constant use.

My very life is for God's constant use.

I have these experiences only when I consciously and constantly claim God as my Eternity's own.

10.

I meditate because I must.
I love because I am God's.

11.

My life is the fruit of my meditation.

12.

I know how to love just because I am God's alone.

13.

My meditation invites God, the supreme Guest.

My love serves and feeds God, the eternal Beloved.

14.

In the morning I meditate to empty myself.

In the afternoon I meditate to fill myself.

In the evening I meditate to offer myself.

15.

My meditation tells me that I can eventually become God.

My love tells me that I am the Eternal God.

16.

When I meditate, I realise my transcendental Self.

When I love, I become Eternity's Beloved Supreme.

17.

A spiritual Master
is he who prays to God
to smile constantly.

18.

To my spiritual Master I shall give gratitude.

For my spiritual Master I shall become gratitude.

19.

My prayer is my heart's capacity.

My meditation is my soul's capacity.

20.

My prayer tells me how great my Supreme is.

My Supreme tells me how indispensable my prayer is.

21.

A spiritual Master is he who knows who God is, who he himself is and who his disciples are.

Who is God? The eternal Dancer.

Who is the spiritual Master? The eternal Fighter.

And who are his spiritual disciples? The eternal Criers.

22.

God will love
you more if you smile.

23.

The more I soulfully smile, the sooner God will triumphantly proclaim me to His creation as His very own.

24.

I smiled. Therefore I was able to bind God.

I cried. Therefore God was able to bind me.

25.

If you smile, God will give you what He has: Eternity's Light.

If you cry, God will give you what He is: Infinity's Delight.

26.

I have in
God my supreme Reality.

27.

My supreme Reality is the life of the Unknowable.

28.

My God tells me who I am and where I am.

Who am I? God's universal Realisation.

Where am I? In His Eternity's Dream-boat.

29.

My supreme Reality I have offered to God, and that supreme Reality of mine is my ever-increasing gratitude to the life of my Eternity's Pilot Supreme.

30.

In man, I am Eternity's imperfection.

In God, I am Infinity's perfect Perfection.

31.

My supreme Reality is God's ever-growing and ever-glowing illumination in and through me.

32.

I have in God what I am looking for: Perfection-sea.

33.

Compassion
is the Voice of God.

34.

Compassion is the descending God.

35.

Compassion I need at every moment of my life to become what I am not: Devotion's light.

36.

The Voice of God is man's only choice to free himself from the sea of ignorance.

37.

Compassion is humanity's perfect choice, Divinity's earth-transforming, God-revealing Voice and God's love-fulfilling, life-manifesting Perfection.

38.

What we call compassion in human life is nothing short of unconscious and treacherous attachment.

What we call compassion in divine life is precious perfection-treasure for humanity's heart.

39.

If you have compassion, then feel that what you have is God's most precious wealth that He has offered you for His use.

40.

Let us smile
to see if God has
two big eyes.

41.

My morning smile binds God.

My afternoon smile claims God.

My evening smile manifests God.

42.

God has two eyes: inner and outer.

With His inner Eye, He forgives us.

With His outer Eye, He liberates and perfects us.

43.

Let us smile because God has already done everything for us.

Let us cry because we still have many things to do for humanity's awakening.

44.

God has two big eyes.

With one of His eyes, He tells me what I was: His Dream-boat.

With His other eye, He tells me what I shall become: His Reality-shore.

45.

Let us smile to see who God is.

Let us cry to know where God is.

Who is God? My Beloved Supreme.

Where is God? In my acceptance-might and surrender-light.

46.

To love God
I need one thing: Purity's Breath.

47.

Purity is God's matchless
Necessity in the heart of humanity.

48.

At the end of my journey's close, my human breath and I shall become perfect strangers, and my divine breath and I shall be everlasting comrades.

49.

I need one thing: inner beauty, the beauty that makes me an exact prototype of my higher Self.

50.

Purity is my hidden divinity.

51.

In my heart I need only one thing: confidence.

In my soul I need only one thing: promise.

In my life I need only one thing: surrender.

52.

Our outer smile
is the giver of God as Love.

53.

With our outer smile we touch the Feet of God.

With our inner cry we become the Crown of God.

54.

When I am the giver, God the Purifier claims me.

When I am the receiver, I claim God the Saviour.

55.

Who is the giver? Who is the receiver?

The giver is he who knows what universal oneness is.

The receiver is he who comes to learn what perfect Perfection is.

56.

The giver in me and the receiver in me are inseparable.

The giver gives and becomes what he wants to become.

The receiver receives and becomes what his own imagination fails even to imagine.

57.

My silence
is the highest pride of God.

58.

Silence is God's highest Dream-Reality.

59.

My mounting cry is God's pride.

My glowing smile is God's pride.

60.

Silence I need to become perfect.

Silence I need to become God.

61.

In my sound-life I become.

In my silence-life I am, I eternally am.

62.

God is proud of me, not because I have given Him everything I have and I am, but because I claim Him as my own, my Eternity's own.

63.

Yesterday I was the body of silence: aspiration.

Today I am the soul of silence: realisation.

Tomorrow I shall become the goal of silence: perfection.

64.

My silence is the Bird of Infinity, the Light in the firmament of my Divinity's Immortality.

65.

With the voice of sound, I eventually become.

With the eye of silence, I eternally am.

66.

Law is not love,
but love is law.

67.

Love is my only reality.

68.

Man's law frightens; God's Law enlightens.

69.

A man-made law attempts to perfect our lives.

A God-made law is the outer expression of our inner perfection.

70.

Dive deep within. You will notice that there is no such thing as Divine Law. All that exists is the Divine Compassion crying for humanity's transformation.

71.

Human law and imperfection study in the same school.

Divine Law and perfect Perfection study in the same school.

72.

Humanity's law does not inspire me to become good.

Divinity's Law not only inspires me to become good, but aspires within me to make me become better and best.

73.

Humanity's love makes me feel how insecure I am.

Divinity's Love makes me feel how meaningful, fruitful and indispensable I am.

74.

Human love is the bosom friend of ignorance-law.

Divine Love is the perfect teacher of Divinity-law.

75.

Duty is the palace of Light.

76.

Not from darkness shall we proceed towards Light, but from Light shall we proceed to more Light, to abundant Light, to infinite Light.

77.

What is consciousness?
Consciousness is the common life-breath of man and God.

78.

The difference between consciousness and conscience is this: consciousness embodies the Eternal, the Transcendental, the Universal, while conscience is the embodiment of man's highest morality and the greatest achievement of his mental, vital and physical life.

79.

Doubt is more
to be disliked than death.

80.

The difference between doubt and death is this: when doubt enters into our mind, we die in the spiritual world; but when death enters into us, we consciously or unconsciously, aspiringly or unaspiringly, become ready for another world, the world of inner existence.

81.

She alone is
my sister who is faith.

82.

A man of faith is God's supreme warrior, not only in the battlefield of life, but also in God's constant and continuously fulfilling promise to the earth-consciousness.

83.

To think of God I need no mind.
Lo, I am thinking without the mind.

84.

My mind has taught me how weak and helpless I am. My heart has taught me how close I am to God and how significant I am to God's transcendental Vision and universal Reality.

85.

The soul lives
perfectly the life of truth.

86.

To live in the soul, what I need is an inner cry, a soaring inner cry. To become the soul-light, what I need is a constant, glowing gratitude-flame for the supreme Eternal Pilot in myself.

87.

God needs me.

88.

I need God to make myself feel how great I am. God needs me to make me feel how good I am.

89.

To run with God I need no legs.
Lo, I am running without legs.

90.

To run the fastest in the spiritual life, I must feel that I am a deer that runs always the fastest and reaches the ultimate destination, which is satisfaction: supreme satisfaction and absolute satisfaction in the Heart of the Absolute.

91.

Cry within, dive within!

92.

When I cry within, I see God's Face. When I dive within, I not only feel God's Heart but become God's Heart.

93.

Each second is
either a gain or a loss.

94.

My desiring life and my aspiring life: My desiring life was a loss, an irreparable loss, not only to the eternal Dreamer in me but also to the divine Lover in me. My aspiring life has been a gain, not only my matchless gain but also the matchless gain of my Inner Pilot, the Absolute Supreme.

95.

To serve God, I wish my life
to be a life of selfless donation.

96.

I serve God, not because He is infinitely greater than I, but because He is my Eternity's beloved Friend, my Beloved Supreme and my Eternity's All.

97.

To help humanity,
I want life to be a life
of ceaseless adoration.

98.

The ego in me helps humanity. The soul in me serves humanity. The God in me is fed by humanity when I realise that everybody around me is none other than God Himself.

99.

I possess God;
God treasures me.

100.

The finite tries to possess the Infinite because the finite does not claim the Infinite as its very own. The Infinite treasures the finite because it feels the finite is an added joy, delight and achievement in the core of the Infinite.

101.

To love somebody
is to see the Supreme in him.

102.

Self-giving is the sunlit path that leads me to my transcendental Destination where the Supreme is eagerly waiting for me, for the human in me and for the divine in me. The human in me is my cry; the divine in me is my smile.

103.

Man's liberation
will own tomorrow's sun-world.

104.

A sunlit world I shall own when consciously, devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally I offer my ignorance-sea to my Eternity's Lord, my Absolute Supreme.

105.

Nothing is as pure
as the heart's aspiration.

106.

There is no other way to know what God does, what God has and what God is than through my life of aspiration. My life of aspiration gives me all the Supreme's secrets. It tells me what God secretly does. It tells me what God secretly has. And it tells me what God secretly is. Only my life of aspiration has all the secrets of God at its disposal.

107.

Light is the real food to eat.

108.

There are two ways to eat divine food. One way is to eat with our eyes. The other way is to eat with our heart. When we eat the divine food with our eyes, we become strong, stronger, strongest. When we eat the divine food with our heart, we become God's Choice, God's Voice and finally, God's ultimate Dream and universal Reality.

109.

A warrior in the inner world
shines in his meditation.

110.

When I meditate, I capture God. When God meditates, He enraptures me.

111.

Oneness quietly invents Delight.

112.

Delight is the Source. But how do we reach our Source? There is only one way, and that is through self-giving: self-giving at every moment to the Supreme, the Inner Pilot in us.

113.

The heart's faith sails.

114.

My Dream-boat starts sailing when my Inner Pilot looks at me and smiles. My Reality-shore I touch when my Inner Pilot cries for me, for me alone.

115.

Action feeds God.

116.

My morning's selfless action is the precursor of my God-realisation.

My afternoon's selfless action is the precursor of my God-revelation.

My evening's selfless action is the precursor of my God-manifestation.

117.

To have joy is to have vision.

118.

To have inner joy is to know where God is, who God is and how I can become God's perfect instrument.

119.

Fear can be ended by action alone.

120.

The one in me who fears me is the only thief in my life. The one in me who embodies and gives me the message of indomitable strength is my Eternity's Comrade and Immortality's Life.

121.

Surrender will outlive the negative life.

122.

The physical in me surrenders to God, the vital in me surrenders to God, the mind in me surrenders to God. But the psychic in me, the heart in me, does not have to surrender to God, for it has already surrendered to God. The soul in me does not have to surrender to God because it has already surrendered not only to God, but also to its own Reality. And what is its own Reality? Its Reality is the constant, fulfilling choice of God's eternal Voice.

123.

Life is total fulness.

124.

Human life is hope. Divine life is not only God's Promise, but man's indispensable, unavoidable, ever-illumining and ever-transcending Reality.

125.

My purity
tells me that
my God cherishes me.

126.

Purity is not only the youngest sister of divinity, but also the fondest child of spirituality.

127.

Patience constitutes
my bank of fortitude.

128.

What I call patience, that very thing God calls His own transcendental Wisdom-light operating in and through me.

129.

Love the world with the feeling
that the world is God.
You will revive the Truth.

130.

The unaspiring human in me is satisfied as long as it knows that God has the Truth. It does not need the Truth for itself. The divine in me will be satisfied only when it sees the Truth, feels the Truth, grows into the Truth and becomes the Truth.

131.

When I meditate,
I discover that I care for God.

132.

God cares for me whether I meditate or not, but I become aware of my care for God only when I meditate. When I meditate on God, I become fortunate enough to discover the truth that I do care for God. But God meditates on me whether I care for Him or not.

133.

Doubt can be ended by love alone.

134.

My worst enemy is doubt. My best friend is love. If I live in the physical mind, my worst enemy will always try to devour me. If I live in the aspiring heart, my best friend will always try not only to illumine me but also to immortalise me, so that I can be of perfect service to my Inner Pilot, the Supreme.

135.

The Love of the Supreme is my life.

136.

I have two lives: earth-life and Heaven-life. My earth-life tells me what I cannot become: God. My Heaven-life tells me what I eternally am: God the eternal Seeker and God the eternal Saviour.

137.

Time is the soul of the universe.

138.

When I live in the body-consciousness, I must give due value to fleeting time. When I live in the soul-consciousness, I must give due value to Eternal Time. Fleeting time makes me aware of what I am missing and what I will be gaining. Eternal Time makes me aware of what I have to give to God's creation, His universal Life. It also makes me aware that God the transcendental Vision and God the universal Reality are bound together for me by the bridge of my self-giving. My connecting link is founded on my self-giving.

139.

Devotion and doubt
are incompatible.

140.

Sweet is obedience. Sweeter is love. Sweetest is devotion. When I cry, I become sweet. When I try, I become sweeter. When I surrender, I become sweetest in the cosmic Vision of the Supreme.

141.

Beauty is a Kingdom of Heaven.

142.

God-beauty is the first discovery of the unaspiring world. God-beauty is not only a discovery, but a daily experience, a dream-fulfilling God-reality.

143.

Divided responsibility is insecurity.

144.

How do I conquer my insecurity? I conquer my insecurity only by meditating on Light, by playing with Light, by claiming Light as my own, very own. This Light is the Light of the soul, and not the light of my human eyes.

145.

A new second is a new opportunity.

146.

Earthly opportunity never knocks at our door twice, but Heavenly opportunity knocks at our heart's door not only daily but constantly. And it always carries with it the same consciousness, same light, same power, same compassion, same willingness to transform our earth-bound consciousness into Heaven-free Reality.

147.

Optimism
is the secret of self-reliance.

148.

God-reliance in self-reliance is the proper way to see the Face of God and become the Heart of God. This is the only way. Again, self-reliance without God-reliance in it is the wrong way.

149.

I thought of God.
God smiled.

150.

The difference between thought and willpower is this: thought encourages me and instigates me to dig up my past, whereas willpower inspires me and energises me to grow into the immediacy of the Eternal Now.

151.

To have faith
is to have fulfilment.

152.

To have divine faith is to see God in His own Way, to feel God in His own Way and to realise God in His own Supreme Way.

153.

Punctuality
is the wisdom of the heart.

154.

Regularity can lead me up to the Door of God, but punctuality can and will not only take me into the Room of God, but help me sit directly at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.

155.

Truth's contemporary is God.

156.

Truth and God are eternally one. Although Truth and God are eternally one, we feel the necessity of the supreme Truth only when our heart is awakened. But we feel the necessity of God no matter what kind of life we lead — animal life or human life or divine life. Even in the animal life, we need God for destruction. In the human life, we need God to show the power of our dominion. In the divine life, we need God to offer the light of our universal oneness. Although Truth and God are eternally one, we try to utilise God constantly no matter which plane of consciousness we are in. But Truth we invoke only when our heart is awakened to Light.

157.

Self-pity
is a real stranger to self-perfection.

158.

Right now the soul is a stranger to me, and the body is my friend. But when I realise the Truth, the soul becomes a real friend of mine like the body. At that time, the body does not become a stranger. The body becomes my capacity's willing slave. The body desires to please me in my own way. Before my realisation, the body is a friend, but a fairweather friend. When it satisfies its own need, it tries to help me; but when I actually need help from the body, the body does not help me. But when I realise the soul as my best friend, my only friend, then the body tries to help me in my own way.

159.

The right path
is simplicity plus purity.

160.

A simple life knows what God is. A pure life knows what God is. A surrendered life knows how to become what God wants it to be.

161.

To see the Truth
is to become the Light.

162.

When we see the Truth through the eye of Light, we see the Truth in its eternal height and in its universal length and breadth. When we see the Light through the eye of Truth, we are transported to our original height, the realm of Silence, and we are carried into the world of sound to sing the song of God's perpetual journey in and through us.

163.

My freedom
is the perfection of God.

164.

Perfection and satisfaction are two inseparable souls. When we reach perfection, the satisfaction-sky dawns. When we reach the satisfaction-sky, the Perfection-sun rises.

165.

Nothing is as pure
as the heart's aspiration.

166.

What I call aspiration, God calls His ever-increasing realisation. What I call realisation, God calls His ever-mounting aspiration. My aspiration is God's ever-transcending realisation. My realisation is God's ever-fulfilling aspiration. With my aspiration, I touch God's Feet. With God's realisation, He makes me His Crown. 'I' means the seeker, the universal seeker in me, in all of us.

167.

The master desire
of your life is to show the world
what you can do for it.

168.

I am grateful to the world because it has given me the opportunity to serve the Supreme. I am grateful to the world because it has given me the opportunity to invoke my Supreme and offer Him to the world at large. I am grateful to the world because it has given me the opportunity to make it feel that God is the only Life, the only Reality, which is humanity's eternal choice and which will eventually become humanity's divinised, perfected and immortalised voice for the Supreme. I am grateful to the world, not because the world has given me what it has — aspiration — but because the world has accepted me as I am. Nothing more, nothing less than what I am, the world expects from me.

Editor's introduction to the first edition

Sri Chinmoy has written hundreds of aphorisms and meditations. Some of them were recently placed inside fortune cookies, which the Master handed out to his disciples. On two occasions, Sri Chinmoy asked his disciples to read out the meditation in their cookie, and then proceeded to elaborate on each one. This book is a record of those two meetings -– the 1 September 1974 meeting of the New York Centre (aphorisms 1 to 74) and the 14 September 1974 meeting of the Manhattan Centre (aphorisms 75 to 168).