Part I

The disciples' inspiration-power

One day a spiritual Master was with a group of his disciples. The Master meditated for a while and then he started talking about various things with his spiritual children. After a few minutes he said to one of his disciples, "Ramesh, good boy, did you go to visit our Centre during your business trip?"

"No, Master, I spoke to the leader and some others and everybody agreed that I shouldn't go unless you told me to go."

"What happened? Why did they not want you to go?"

"Well, because Jyotish had gone there on Monday."

"So, they can't digest more light? The leader has just written to me that he is inspired again. He will be very spiritual, very devoted. For a few months he was very unspiritual, but now he has written such a soulful letter. So the more disciples who go there to visit, the better it will be for him. How is it that he does not want you to go? This is so bad. On the one hand he is trying to be good, to be spiritual and to dedicate himself more, and on the other hand this is his attitude. What was his reason?"

"Well, he felt that I couldn't do very much in the day I would be there and that Jyotish had done as much as was necessary during his visit there."

"But does he not feel that the very presence of a mature disciple is an inspiration? What a stupid fellow he is! He doesn't hear any good news, juicy stories or anything. Jyotish has told whatever Jyotish knows, according to his own inspiration and aspiration. But if another individual comes, it will add to his inspiration. You would have got another opportunity to tell him some news. Good disciples will always try to get as much inspiration as possible from others. To get a visitor from one of our main Centres is really something. It adds to their aspiration. So many things they will hear about our activities. Just because someone else has already been there, does it mean that others will have nothing to say? He is really something!

"I am under the impression that people from other Centres would have behaved differently if someone had wanted to visit them. Every day they would have said, 'Come, come!' Some Centres are like that. Today you have gone and then they hear that tomorrow someone else will come and, the day after, someone else again. They will gladly welcome everyone. They will feel that it is a great joy. So that fellow is mistaking our philosophy. I don't understand him."

Ramesh's wife said, "He might have been shy to ask Ramesh to come. Perhaps he felt that he would be causing Ramesh some trouble."

Ramesh said, "Jyotish's brother mentioned that it probably wouldn't be necessary for me to go."

"So, Asim discouraged you? Oh, Asim, have you nothing else to do? This is my request from now on. Of course, if other Centres don't want you, then how can you go as an unwanted guest? But I really want you to visit these little Centres and inspire them."

Ramesh said, "He would have been happy to have me, Master, but he didn't see any real reason for me to go and I guess I didn't either."

The Master said, "The real reason is to give added inspiration to those people who do not live near me. That is the most important thing."

"He did mention that I would give him inspiration, but as to what I could actually do concretely in such a short time, he didn't think it would be very much. He said that all I could really do was to give him inspiration."

The Master said, "What is most important? Inspiration is most important. When you have inspiration, for days and nights you can work. When you don't have inspiration, I have to go and touch your feet and beg of you, 'Ramesh, please do this.' You know the difference between inspiration and lack of inspiration. When I am inspired, I write so many poems."

"Inspiration is so important, especially for the disciples who do not live in this vicinity. They should feel that it is a great opportunity, a great honour, to have a visitor. It will give them great joy and a real sense of accomplishment. Now if Ramesh goes to visit this Centre and the following day his wife phones up and asks, 'Can I come?' what will they say?' Oh, Ramesh has said everything that we want to know. We don't need any more from you. Next year we shall see.' Tell me, is this what is going to happen? Always give the utmost importance to inspiration. Inspiration is the most important thing."

Newness and transcendence

Every day must come to you as a new hope, a new promise, a new aspiration, a new energy, a new thrill and a new delight. Tomorrow will dawn and you have already seen thousands of days. If you think that tomorrow will be another day like those which you have already seen, then you will make no progress. You have to feel that tomorrow will be something absolutely new that you are going to create in your life.

You can remember one particular day when you got the greatest joy, or the day that you accepted our path wholeheartedly. Remember the day I accepted you and you accepted me. Remember that day and then try to go one step forward tomorrow. Tomorrow you can have more delight than you had, say, three years ago. Then, the day after tomorrow, remember that joy and try to go one more step ahead. From joy you can always have greater joy, greatest joy, You can transcend yourself only by discovering and maintaining your joy. If you discover your previous joy and maintain it, then you will have the energy to go one more step. To discover, you need capacity; to maintain, you need capacity; and again, to go ahead, you need capacity.

If you do not have the first capacity, then you cannot have the second capacity. And without the second capacity, you cannot have the third capacity. Suppose you are lying down and then you get up. Getting up is your first capacity. If you know that you are no longer sleeping, that you have stood up and are looking around, then you have taken the first step. Then, when you get up, you have to start walking; this is your second. Then, as your third capacity, you have to run fast, faster, fastest. So if today you think of the joy you had when you first entered the spiritual life sincerely, that is your first step. And tomorrow, if you get more joy, you should take it as your second step. Then on the third day, you will get more aspiration and make a more serious promise to yourself and to the Supreme. That is your third step. But if you don't think of the day you accepted the spiritual life, when you gave up your desire-life and entered into aspiration-life, then you are not taking your first step. And if you do not take the first step, then the desire-life will compel you to lie down and sleep with ignorance again.

You get up early in the morning. That is your first step. Then you wash your face; that is your second step. Then, when you start eating, that is the third step. In the spiritual life, the first step is to get up from ignorance. The second step is to look around and start walking. The third step is to run the fastest.

Every day you have to energise yourself to such an extent that you will feel new hope and new aspiration. If on a particular day there is no hope, then on that day you are dead. If on a particular day there is no promise, then you are worse than dead. If you want to live on earth, then you must have hope. Hope is not a mental hallucination; far from it. Hope is a vast field. And if there is promise, then you can feel that you have sown the seed, the promise-seed. But if you don't have a field, then how are you going to sow the seed? So, you have to know that your hope is the field and your promise is the seed. Your promise is fulfilled only through constant aspiration. Aspiration was there inside hope, aspiration is now inside promise and, one day, when the promise-seed germinates, you will get the fruits of your aspiration. That is realisation: conscious, constant, inseparable oneness with the Supreme.

So it is only with newness, newness at every moment in life, that you can succeed and transcend yourself. If you always have the hope of newness in thought and in action, then only you can transcend. What you have is good, but it is not enough. You need something more. But this does not mean that you will act like a greedy man who has one dollar and wants ten dollars. You should only feel that you can't manifest the Supreme unless you become infinite like Him. You need more, but not for your own personal fulfilment or aggrandisement. Without infinite Peace and infinite Light, how are you going to manifest the infinite Supreme? Therefore, you have to treasure hope and promise at every moment. It is with hope and promise that you can think of Infinity, and it is only with Infinity that you can fulfil the message of Infinity.

Part II — Two divine wings: inspiration and aspiration

Question: Can inspiration be controlled?

Sri Chinmoy: Inspiration is like a flight of birds. When birds fly overhead, why should they land where you are? Why should they come to you? Since I am a spiritual Master, I can say, "Stop here," and they will stop. You don't have this kind of capacity to command inspiration. But when inspiration comes to you, you get satisfaction because it has listened to you and it is serving its purpose. If I call to a child who is running, she won't necessarily come to me. But if her mother or father calls the child, then she will come to them immediately. Here is the difference.

Question: Could you speak on the relationship between inspiration and creation?

Sri Chinmoy: Inspiration and creation always go together. No inspiration, no creation. I am blessing inspiration with my left hand and creation with my right hand. Without inspiration, nobody, nobody can achieve anything, not even God. He was inspired; that is why He created His creation. He was one; He wanted to become many. But how? On the strength of His inspiration. Inspiration entered into Him; that is why from one He became many. So here also the creation I am blessing with the right hand and inspiration with the left hand. Inspiration and creation are inseparable. One complements the other. One enters into the other. That is to say, inspiration enters into creation in the inner world and creation enters into the outer world while carrying inspiration inside the heart. Inspiration and creation always go together, for they are inseparable in the Heart of the Supreme.

Question: Does the Guru play the role of inspiration or aspiration in the disciple?

Sri Chinmoy: A real Guru always inspires and also aspires in and through the disciple. His task is to inspire outwardly and aspire inwardly, in and through the disciple. I aspire when I meditate on you in the morning in a secret way, an occult way. But when I am in front of you in the physical form, I inspire you. If you see that I am in a very high, exalted mood, then it inspires you. At the start of your aspiration, you feel that I am inspiring you. Aspiration is already there, but my inner being is illumining your outer being or outer consciousness. Then my aspiration adds true inner growth, inner light. Again, when I am not in the physical form in front of you, then you are bound to feel that while you are aspiring, I am aspiring in and through you. It is like a private teacher who is teaching the student privately what he has to learn. But in this case the student feels that his teacher is his eternal Father, unlike the school teacher.

So, when you are in front of me, mostly it is inspiration that you get from me. Of course, when I am meditating, your aspiration increases. But when I am not with you physically, you have the opportunity to feel that I am aspiring inside you to elevate your consciousness, to take you to the ultimate Goal. This is how a spiritual Master aspires and inspires.

Question: What is aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is the inner courage. And what is the inner courage? The inner courage is called implicit faith in one's divine Pilot.

Question: Could you speak more about aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is man's inner cry for the Highest. It is the mounting flame within us that climbs up high, higher, highest. In the outer world we use one thing to reach our goal and that is desire. In the inner world we use something else: aspiration. Now the difference between desire and aspiration is this: desire tells us that we have to get one thing today and tomorrow two things. The day after tomorrow again we have to increase the number to two, three, four or more. But aspiration will not say that. Aspiration will say, "Enter into the infinite Vast and this Vast will give you boundless Peace, Light and Delight."

Aspiration is the mounting flame within us. If there is no aspiration, then one can never, never realise God. Aspiration has the key to unlock the door of God. Aspiration in concentration, meditation and contemplation is of paramount importance. No aspiration, no realisation. Now this aspiration has to come from the inmost recesses of our hearts. Very often we have mental curiosity and we take it for aspiration. This is absolutely wrong. Aspiration is a burning cry within us. A child is crying for milk. No matter where he is, the mother comes running because the child is crying for milk or something else. The mother comes and feeds the child. In the spiritual life also, when an individual seeker cries ardently, soulfully and devotedly, God comes and stands in front of him.

If you ask whether there is anything that is most important in our spiritual life, then I wish to say, "Yes, there is, and that is aspiration." Today's aspiration is bound to bring down God tomorrow or in the near future. It is in aspiration that God manifests Himself through us. The human aspiration and the divine Compassion go together. Divine Compassion is the flame of human aspiration. There is no end to our aspiration. There is no end to our realisation, no end. The goal is ever transcending its own limits. Today's goal will be tomorrow's starting point. There is no end to our goal; therefore there is no end to our ultimate realisation. There is no end to our aspiration. We aspire for the Highest, for the Infinite, for the Eternal. The Infinite cannot be measured. As we enter into Infinity, the finite and the Infinite become inseparably one. Our Vedic seers voiced forth:

Aum
Purnam adah purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate
Purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate

Infinity is that. Infinity is this.
From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence.
From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away,
Infinity remains the same.

That is the message we can get from our aspiration. Again, aspiration takes us immediately into the realm of Delight. From Delight we came into existence, from the transcendental Self. Again, in Delight we grow. Our inner being grows in Delight. The outer being may not be aware of it. The outer being goes through suffering, but the soul, the inner being, grows in Delight. At the end of our journey, we enter into the same perpetual Delight. This was the realisation of the Vedic seers, the seers of the hoary past. And also this is the realisation of all true spiritual Masters. Aspiration is that which offers us Infinity in the form of boundless Peace and boundless Delight.

Question: Is there aspiration in each part of us: soul, heart, mind, vital and physical?

Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is in each part of the being. The central aspiration comes from the soul. The body, the vital, the mind, the heart and the soul all have aspiration. When all the members aspire together, then only we can run the fastest. Otherwise, the heart wants to pray in the morning when the body is fast asleep. Then, when the body is ready to meditate, the heart is not aspiring. The mind is thinking of its school studies and the heart is thinking of somebody else; it is cherishing jealousy. The vital is cherishing insecurity. Then what are we going to do? But if all the members of the being aspire together, then the mind won't allow doubt to enter, the heart says, "I am pure," the vital is secure and the body says, "I am now ready, I am alert." At that time there can be no obstacle.

Question: How can aspiration transform our body, vital and mind?

Sri Chinmoy: The physical likes to remain idle. The very nature of the physical is to remain inactive. The physical says, "I will sit here and everybody has to touch my feet. Everybody has to bring my food here." In every way the physical is like that. The ordinary vital, instead of being dynamic, becomes aggressive. It feels, "If somebody comes near me, then I want to show off how powerful I am. I will strike the person and show my strength." This is the vital's aggression. And what does the mind do? It immediately suspects. It suspects that somebody is insincere, that just ahead of us there is a rogue. If somebody comes, then immediately the mind will suspect that person, no matter how sincere he is. The very function of the mind is to suspect or belittle other people. It feels, "Only I can exist on earth. I am the greatest. I am the highest." This is how the mind will make us feel.

Now, what will we do? If we accept the spiritual life, then we will say that the body has to be active. Let the body run. Even if it is not running exactly towards the goal, even if it is going beside the goal, let there be some movement. If the body is taking a wrong direction, then somebody will immediately tell the body, "You have made a wrong turn. Come back and start again, run on the right path." So the body has to be energetic. Right now, the body is sleeping twenty-four hours a day. The physical body may not sleep, but what we call the body-consciousness is sleeping. When we don't meditate on God, spiritually we are fast asleep. He who does not aspire at all is absolutely dead according to the strict spiritual discipline. So the body is fast asleep. This body has to undertake some movement, it has to stand up, walk and run. While standing on its feet if it is not doing well, then our inner being will tell us that we are not doing the right thing.

What is the vital doing? The vital has become aggressive: it wants to destroy the world, absolutely destroy it. But if this vital becomes the dynamic vital instead of the aggressive vital, then it will try to energise and inspire the physical consciousness of others who are lethargic. It will say, "No, don't waste your precious time! Get up! Now do something good for yourself or for humanity." This is what the vital will say, the real dynamic vital.

Then the mind, the suspecting mind, the aggressive mind, the doubting mind, if it becomes the divine mind which is illumined by the soul's light, this illumined mind will say, "Let us be vast, let us be infinite. Let us think of everything in infinite measure. Let us think of ourselves as the vast sky or the vast ocean. We cannot be bound by anything. We won't suspect anybody, we won't belittle anybody. On the contrary, we shall expand our own consciousness and help others to expand their consciousness." This is the clear mind, the pure mind, the illumined mind.

So if we practise the spiritual life, then we will get this kind of active body, dynamic vital and illumined mind. If we do not take to the spiritual life, then we have to be satisfied with the body which does not aspire, which is fast asleep; with the vital which is all the time aggressive and wants to destroy the world; and with the mind which wants to suspect, criticise, doubt and strangle others with bad thoughts. This is our fate when we do not aspire.

Question: How can we have a free access to the higher worlds?

Sri Chinmoy: In order to have a free access to the higher worlds, you have to cry inwardly. Your mind has to be focused twenty-four hours a day on the Supreme. You should cherish the feeling that the Supreme is all for you and He is all for everyone. Always feel that you can keep Him as your very own. Don't try to take anybody else; only catch the person who is eager to be caught, and that is the Supreme.

Question: How can we increase our need for God?

Sri Chinmoy: How can you increase your need for God? It is very easy. Start by imagining your personal needs. There are millions of things that you need from earth. Just try to minimise them. The more you can minimise your personal needs, the sooner you will feel the increase of your need for God. If you have ten desires, then reduce the number to nine or eight. Then immediately you will see that your need for God has increased. Then, some time later, bring it to seven desires. Then immediately you will see that just because you have decreased your desires, your love for God and your need for God are increasing.

Again, one thing we have to know. Sometimes we make ourselves feel that we don't need the world but the world needs us. We don't need anything from the world but the world needs us. That kind of feeling is also equally bad. As we need many things from earth, we try to fulfil the needs of earth; but we find that it is simply impossible. Today we have one need, tomorrow we have another need. There will be an endless series of needs. Our expectation from the world is endless. That is also equally bad in the spiritual life.

The world does not need us and we don't need the world as such. We need the Divine, the Supreme in the world. We do need the Supreme in the world. You need the Supreme in your father, in your mother, in your relatives and in humanity. But if you feel that you need human beings as such, then it is simply absurd. You are not going to get anything that you need from humanity.

So, to come back to your question, your need for God will increase immediately when your need to fulfil your desires decreases. Just count daily, early in the morning, how many desires you have. If you can count eight desires today, then the moment you have counted eight desires, start minimising them. Say to yourself, "Perhaps I can easily go on without that desire." Then, a few hours later, try to make yourself feel, "I can go on without fulfilling this desire, either. This desire is not very powerful in my life. I can live without it." Like that you go on, go on. Make yourself feel, convince yourself, that this desire is unimportant, unnecessary, only you have been staying with it or allowing it to stay with you. Like that, each time you can discard a desire, you will see that your love-power and your need for God will increase.

Question: What is the relationship between individual aspiration and collective aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Individual aspiration has to grow along with collective aspiration. Individually if one feels the need of realising God, then only he will enter into the collective world of aspiration. Without entering into the collective world, he will have no existence of his own. His true existence lies in offering himself to the rest of the world.

In the field of aspiration, in the field of realisation, individuality and collectivity must go together. To those who have become very, very close to my heart on the strength of their aspiration, devotion and dedication, I wish to say that each one should feel the necessity of spreading the message of the Supreme. I give you full authority to spread the message of the Supreme. If somebody asks you, "Who has told you to give this message?" just say, "My Master, my Guru has asked me to give the message." I give you full authority to spread the message of the Supreme. Each person here has the capacity to spread the message of the Supreme. This mission is your own mission. Each person has the capacity to awaken and inspire the seekers who have not yet found the Source or who do not have any temple in which to pray and meditate on the Source.

Question: Does meditating in a group improve our aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Meditation is, I must say, a new lesson almost every day. In meditation the spiritual Master is conscious of the fact that he has entered deep within each soul and that the souls have all felt something. It is collective aspiration that brings down the Light. I try always to go to the Highest and bring down the Highest and enter into the deepest Light, but there are some who actually go with me into the Highest and the Deepest. When they go with me, it is a great help. When I stand in front of others, at times they try to pull me down; but fortunately I am stronger and I pull them with all my power. I lift them up. Then, when they surrender, they go up. These people go on my shoulders like dead bodies, but I take the responsibility for them. There are only a few like that. Most of them can be pulled up; easily they can go up with me.

It is absolutely true that the disciples contribute much to our collective aspiration. When you are aspiring most intensely and somebody else is aspiring most intensely, this intense aspiration always helps in bringing down to earth the great spiritual Masters. I think that both the Bible and our Indian spiritual scriptures say that if twelve people pray intensely in a circle, then the spiritual Masters will walk among them. It is the result of their collective aspiration. One is aspiring with his inmost light, another with his power, another with his peace, another again with light. Then all the united aspiration goes up to bring down the presence of the spiritual Masters. So collective aspiration is very effective.

Question: How can we increase our aspiration and strengthen our meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us take the burning inner flame as our hunger. One day we are pinched with hunger. Another day we are not hungry at all, but we do eat. Early in the morning when it is breakfast time, even if we do not have real hunger, we go and eat. It is a daily routine or habit that we have formed which is necessary for our health. We should take food every day, whether we are really hungry or not. If we eat every day, then automatically we are nourished and our muscles are strengthened. Our whole body is nourished. Similarly, one day if the inner flame is not burning very brightly, let us say, still we have to meditate. Otherwise in the inner world we shall become weak. We don't get most delicious food every day; it is not possible. Even the world's best cook cannot make most delicious food every day. But still we have to eat. In the spiritual life also we cannot expect the highest type of meditation every day.

Again, the highest type of meditation depends on the seeker's own spiritual attainment and achievement. But there comes a time when one is on the verge of spiritual realisation or one has realised God. At that time meditation is a matter of his own will. Now, in my case, if I want to do the highest meditation, then at any hour, even right after I have eaten, I can enter into my highest consciousness. But that is not possible for the beginning seekers. So their duty is to meditate each and every day, whether they are hungry or not, for their spiritual nourishment.

Question: What is the relationship between aspiration and acceptance? There seems to be an aspiration which expends all its effort in the direction of rising, but it seems that there is also a time to accept and be still and let the influence of the higher forces come in.

Sri Chinmoy: They go together. If we aspire sincerely, then the higher forces are all the time descending. At that time the divine forces can enter into us properly. If we don't aspire, then the doors are all closed. Let us say that the divine Grace wants to descend into us, but we have kept all our doors closed. Now naturally the Grace cannot descend, since our heart-door we have kept closed. Then the time comes when we want the divine Grace to enter but we have just opened one mental window. Just a tiny window we have kept open and the door is still quite firmly bolted from the inside. It is so hard to open. But when we sincerely aspire, at that time we keep our heart's door wide open, our mind's door wide open, our vital's door wide open. All the doors we keep wide open. Aspiration is going up and the doors are all open, so the divine Grace is descending into us.

So, acceptance means that we allow the divine Grace to descend fully into us without being hampered. That is the best way. When we sincerely aspire, we open up the heart, vital, mind and every other part of the being. At that time, we tell God or the higher forces, "Now I want to become an open book. I don't want to remain a concealed book, a sealed book. I want my life to be an open book. You can read it. There I have written everything wrong. Whatever I have written is absolutely wrong. Now you enter into my existence and correct it, rectify it. Please make a new book of your own, a new life of mine." So when aspiration goes up, real acceptance comes.

Question: How can I renew my aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: You can renew your aspiration by realising only one fact. That fact is that you are no longer the boss of your body, vital, mind, heart and soul. There is somebody else who is the boss and that is your Guru. The Supreme is your Guru. Previously you were the boss. That is why you ordered your vital to do this, your body to do this, your mind to do this. Now you have to feel that the Supreme in me is the boss. Now you have to constantly refer every important matter to the higher authority.

When you feel that you have to solve your problems, then you can never renew your aspiration. If you feel that it is your problem, if you feel that it is you who are suffering and you who can alone solve the problem, then you are creating more problems. But when you feel that all your problems can be solved only by me, then you are safe. A higher authority means a more illumined person. Previously you thought that you had more illumination than your physical body, so that is why you ruled your body. Now you have to feel that you do not have that capacity. When a higher reality rules you, then automatically you can aspire, because you want to grow into the higher reality. So you have only to be the servitor and not the boss. If we see that there is nobody more illumined before us or around us, then we don't aspire. We have to see that there is someone who is an inch higher than us and that our actions depend on his will. In that way we can increase and not just renew our aspiration. Renewal is not the right word. If our aspiration has been eclipsed, our inner sun can easily come out of the clouds provided it gets the sanction of a higher authority.

Question: Since everything will happen at God's Hour, why bother to aspire?

Sri Chinmoy: Here you are making a mistake. At God's Hour everything will come, true. At God's Hour everybody will realise God. Cats, monkeys, dogs, elephants — all will realise God at God's Hour. But if we follow this philosophy, then human beings are in no way better than monkeys. If we wait for that kind of God's Hour, then God-realisation will take a million years. But if we have conscious aspiration to expedite our spiritual progress, then God's Compassion comes down and illumines us.

Everybody will eventually realise God, that is true. Tom, Dick and Harry will one day realise God. We believe it; this is our human faith in God, which is wonderful. This is the certainty that faith will give us. We know that we will realise God one day. But if we want to realise God today or tomorrow or the next day, then aspiration comes into the picture. For aspiration, a spiritual Master is required.

Mere faith in something is not enough. I have a disciple who is a good driver. I have faith in his driving; it is so wonderful that I have faith in his driving. But just by having faith in him, do you think that I will be able to learn to drive? Millions of times I have sat beside him, but I will not be able to learn how to drive just by sitting beside him, even if I have faith that he is a wonderful driver.

So our human faith in God's Promise is also like that. One day we will realise God, but that day is no day at all if we don't aspire. God knows when that day will dawn, in the bosom of Eternity. If we aspire, if we sincerely want to learn how to drive, then we will find someone to show us how to drive. Similarly, in our inner life, the spiritual Master can show us how to approach God. Aspiration is required in our spiritual life in order to get the best results in the quickest way.

Question: How can we maintain continuous aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: You can maintain continuous aspiration only by feeling that there is someone who needs you infinitely more than you need yourself. If somebody is in need of you, then naturally you will try to help that person out. That person is the Supreme Himself. When you feel that He needs you, then your sympathetic heart goes towards Him.

Question: In our Centre a number of people are unhealthy. Is it because they are not aspiring?

Sri Chinmoy: If you don't aspire, then you may or may not have physical health. But if one wants to be spiritually healthy, then one must aspire. If you aspire, then you won't worry; you will be happy. Your happiness will be reflected in your outer life and your outer life will have considerable strength.

Question: Can you suggest some techniques for increasing one's heart-power?

Sri Chinmoy: Cry, cry. Think of a child. A child knows how to cry. Because he feels the need of a toy, he cries. In our case also, if we need God, our Divine Toy, then we must cry. A child is not satisfied until he has his toy. In our inner life also, we must cry. We are here on earth for thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years, but if we do not get something at once, then we feel that we should not take our aspiration seriously. We have to know that the thing that we want is all-important; then only we will value it. Our human difficulty is that we do not take anything seriously. We hope for name and fame, but if we see that we must climb up a tall tree in order to get what we want, then we lose interest. So, in the spiritual life also we want God, but before we realise God, we have to do a few things. If we feel inwardly the value of God-realisation in our life, then the so-called hardship that we go through is nothing. If we value the goal, then we are bound to walk along the path. What actually happens is that the road is long and arduous but, if we constantly keep the goal in our view and walk along the road, then we will reach our destination. If we really value the goal and cry for the goal, then there will always be some way for us to reach the goal.

Question: Lately I've been conscious of a number of obstructions in my outer life.

Sri Chinmoy: At that time cry, cry like a child. The other day at the United Nations I gave this meditation: "In the outer life, he who cries is a lost child." Somebody is crying. That means he is lost or something is wrong with him. "In the inner life, he who does not cry is a lost child." In the outer life, he who cries is a lost child; but in the inner life he who does not cry is a lost child. So when the problems of the outer being stand as an obstruction, cry inwardly. That cry is not for name or fame. That cry is for inner illumination. When the outer being is an obstacle, it means that the sun, the inner sun, is eclipsed by fear, doubt, anxiety, worry or some other negative force. Right now the sun is overcast, but it is bound to become visible again. The inner sun is covered by what? By ignorance, doubt, anxiety and worry. But consciously if you pray or meditate to bring the inner sun, your own illumined sun, to the fore, it will get strength and it will come forward. Now you have to know whether you want it or not. If you want the inner sun to come to the fore, then it will come forward. When the sun comes, at that time doubt disappears, fear disappears, everything undivine disappears.

So either you have to bring forward the inner sun or you have to be satisfied with fear and doubt. How can you bring to the fore the inner sun? When you pray to the Supreme and meditate on the Supreme, always pray that the illumined part inside you, the illumined being or the inner sun, will come to the fore. Then you will see that there can be no obstacle. You are unable to walk along the street if the street is very dark or full of obstacles. But if the road is all illumined, then you can walk, you can run, you can go as fast as you want to. In the inner life also, if you think positively, if you think of Peace, Light and Bliss, then naturally your inner sun will come to your rescue. But if you don't pray and meditate, then all obscure, undivine, impure forces will always come and bother you.

The very tendency of ordinary human life is to unconsciously cherish the undivine forces. But consciously if you can treasure your aspiration, your love for God, your love for Truth and Reality, then these undivine forces cannot attack you. They will feel that they are not wanted. In this world everybody gets disgusted if he is not wanted. If the wrong forces see all the divine forces inside you, then they will say, "Oh, she does not care for us. Why should we go on showing her our constant compassion if it is ignored?" Ignorance also has its pride. First ignorance wants to grab you, torture you, keep you under its jurisdiction and say that you belong to ignorance. But then you show ignorance that you are becoming friends with light. Then ignorance will use all its power to keep you away from light, but it finds that you don't care for its power. Secretly you have made friends with light. You have been staying with ignorance but you do not care for ignorance. Secretly, secretly you have been all the time appreciating your new friend, light. So ignorance says, "Why should I keep this person who is my enemy? He is all the time making friends with light. Secretly he is going to the light, secretly on his own he is hiding and praying to God for Light." Then ignorance will be disgusted with you. Ignorance will say, "It is beneath my dignity to keep her. If she stays with me, then she has to fight for me. Otherwise it is like a soldier who is asked by the commander to kill the enemy, but instead of killing the enemy, which is light, he kills the commander instead." So the commander, ignorance, becomes afraid and says, "No, no, I don't need you. I can't tell you what to do any more. Go away." It is always like that. People get disgusted when they work very hard for someone and then that person does not listen to them. They say, "All right, go your own way." So ignorance also has its own obscure, impure way of operating. Although you will see that it is leading you towards destruction, ignorance tells you, "I have done so much for you and you are so ungrateful." How clever ignorance can be!

Part III — Inner progress and satisfaction-life

Question: How can I be assured of making good progress if my past was not at all aspiring?

Sri Chinmoy: Suppose for seventeen years you smoked, drank and took drugs, but today you are no longer doing these things. You saw what was bad and cut it off, like the part of a fruit that is rotten. Now the obscurity and impurity are going away from your consciousness and again you are becoming luminous. Today you are crying for perfection. Previously you were all imperfection; now you are fifty per cent perfect and your perfection is increasing. Now you are getting solid experiences; you are growing into light. So why do you have to worry about your obscure and impure past? Only think of the future. I always say, "The past is dust." Do not look backward. Only live in the immediacy of today and grow into the golden future.

Question: How can we make the fastest progress?

Sri Chinmoy: Try to keep a direct contact with my inner being. In that way you can make the fastest progress. Try to have a telephone connection so that your inner being can respond to my inner being. While you are meditating early in the morning and looking at my picture, please try to converse inwardly with me. Try to enter into my heart or into my third eye. Every day empty yourself into me. If you have fear, if you have doubt or anxiety or worries, just throw it all into me. Think of me as an ocean into which you can throw your garbage. Just throw anything that comes into your mind. Then your mind will be filled with the divine Light by the Supreme in me. At that time you will make the fastest progress.

Question: How should couples aspire in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, we have to know if they are following the same path. If they are following the same path, then it is extremely easy. As the couples live in the same building, in the same apartment, similarly they are living in the same house, let us say the same spiritual house. One house is their spiritual house and one is their earthly, human house. When you come to a spiritual Centre, it is your spiritual house. You have a spiritual family, as you have a human family. Your friends, your relatives and the members of your family comprise your human family. When you follow a spiritual path, the members of that Centre or community become your spiritual family.

Now, how can couples aspire if they don't follow the same path? It becomes difficult. You will say that your path is by far the best and your husband will say, "No, it is impossible. My path is best!" There will always be a tug-of-war. You will claim that yours is by far the best and he will claim that his is by far the best, which is absurd. But there comes a time when you make progress. At that time you feel that if he is following another path, that means that he is more satisfied with his path than with your path. And if you follow a path, you have to know that your path is better for you than your husband's path. Now when you make considerable progress in your spiritual life, divine wisdom dawns. At that time you do not enter into competition. If he says that his path is far better, by far the best and no path can be compared with his path, inwardly you may laugh; but outwardly you will have compassion for him. Inwardly also you will have compassion. You will say, "Yes, it is better. It is best for you, but not for me. For me, my path is the best." So when we make considerable progress in the spiritual life, we say, "Yes, you are right. Your path is by far the best for you and my path is by far the best for me."

So let us not quarrel about the path. Only let us think of progress: how fast I can reach my destination with my own aspiration and how fast he can reach his goal with his aspiration. Again, there is no competition, only you have a goal of your own. Actually there is only one goal, but you have selected a particular path, a road. You have to reach your destination, the sooner the better. Why? You know that when you reach the goal it is called God-realisation. But even then the game is not over. Then comes God-revelation, which is more difficult. After God-revelation comes God-manifestation, which is most difficult. So in one goal there are three tasks. First, with utmost aspiration, inner cry, regularity and punctuality, you reach the goal. It is a lifelong task. And then you feel that your task is not over. God will say, "I am glad that you have passed the examination. You have completed your course in one field. But again, there is something more: God-revelation. Then comes God-manifestation." So we cannot waste time. Here we are not competing with anybody else, but we have to feel that we are trying to transcend our own limitation. While following our own path, our own capacity we are transcending, transcending. We are increasing and transcending. If it is ignorance, we are transcending it; if it is knowledge, we are increasing it.

Husband and wife can easily follow the same path. It is like four hands, four eyes, four legs: everything is double. The husband should feel that the wife is dearest to him just because God has made her the dearest to him, and the wife also should feel the same. God should be in between, not as a third person but as the bridge, the connecting link. Always the husband is coming to the wife through God the Bridge and the wife is coming to the husband through God the Bridge. This way God connects them. The golden link is God. He connects both husband and wife. If they follow the same path, then it becomes infinitely easier. But if they do not follow the same path, then my request is not to argue. Neither the husband nor the wife should emphasise his or her own path as the best path. Only say, "Mine is best for me; yours is best for you. Let us not fight. Only let us try to transcend our limitations, let us try to purify our existence, let us try to please God in His own Way." If the husband by following one path wants to please God in God's Way, then he is doing absolutely the right thing. Similarly, if the wife is following her own path and she feels the necessity of pleasing God, which is absolutely necessary in every path, then she is also doing the right thing.

In my path, in everybody's path, God comes first. That doesn't mean that we have to discard the husband or the wife. It is a matter of choice. Between husband and God, God has to come first. Between wife and God, God has to come first. That doesn't mean that God is asking you to get rid of your husband or to get rid of your wife, far from it. But if necessity demands that you make a choice, if your husband or your wife is not allowing you to fulfil your inner cry, at that time you have to know who comes first: God. In this incarnation you have got someone as a partner for your life. But who knows what connection you had? Perhaps you had practically no connection with that person in a previous incarnation. Who knows what will happen to him or to you in your future incarnations? But with God, your connection is eternal. He brought you into the world. After seventy or eighty years you will leave this body. Then again, after some time you will come back. At that time, who knows who will be your lifelong partner? But the eternal Partner is God. So we have to establish our oneness with Him, since we know it is He who is our eternal husband, eternal wife.

Again, temporarily, on the way, if God wants to unite two souls as husband and wife, well and good. But if there is any conflict, if the wife is standing in the way of the husband's spiritual progress or vice versa, then what will God say? Will He say, "You stay together. I shall wait for you for Eternity"? No. He will say that whoever is ready should run to Him. God is our eternal Father, my Father, your Father, everybody's Father. Now if one child is ready, if one child is more than prepared to run and the other child wants to sleep, will God say, "No, since both of you are brothers, you should sleep as long as the other one"? No. He will say, "You are up; now go to school, inner school. You are sleeping, so you continue to sleep. When the time comes, you will get up." He will not ask the one who is more advanced or more illumined to wait for the other one. For him, God is ready to wait. If one is not awakened, God is there to wait. But God will not ask the other one to wait for him. God will say, "You are awakened. You run towards Me. It is I who am awakened inside you. You come towards Me and reach Me, your Goal. The other person is My responsibility." God will say that it is His problem to take care of the other person, not ours.

Question: Guru, I've often wondered how we can be certain in our next incarnation to remember to do whatever it is that you asked us to do before we came?

Sri Chinmoy: Now the thing is, dearest daughter, where is the future? Is there any such thing as future? I use the term "here and now", or "the immediacy of today". The future we think of as something ahead of us. But in the spiritual life the future is not ahead of us; the future is inside us. The past, present and future of a spiritual person are inside him. A seeker like you embodies present, past and future. It is all there inside you.

A tree has three branches, let us say. The past is the lowest branch, the present is the middle branch and the future is the top-most branch. Even when you observe from the foot of the tree, easily when you look up you can see the first branch, the second branch and the third branch. Now it is up to you to climb up to the first one or to the second one or to the third one. So think of your future in that way. This is your life-tree. In your life-tree, the past is already there, the present is already there, the future is already there. Now you have climbed beyond one branch, the past. You are sitting on the present branch but you are not satisfied with the present one because you feel that still there is a higher one. Just because you were not pleased with the previous one, the past, you thought that still there was one higher, so why should you sit on the lowest one? So you said, "Let me climb up to the higher one." Then you came up.

Now you are on the present one. Now you feel that still there is one higher than this one, so you climb up. But it is the same life-tree that has three branches: past, present, future. If you remain as the life-tree constantly evolving and offering flowers and fruits to Mother Earth as a token of your love or as a spiritual gift to Mother Earth, then eternally you will remain in her consciousness, in her heart.

So please feel that you are the life-tree, the cosmic life-tree with three branches: past, present and future. It is up to you to decide where to remain. You can remain on the first branch, the lowest branch, all the time thinking of your childhood, your friends, your neighbours and what happened to you at the age of six or ten. That you can do. Again, you can think of your immediate necessity, which is God realisation. What will you do right after realisation? You will reveal God more powerfully, more soulfully, more effectively. This will be your aim. So think at every moment of the life-tree, the cosmic tree. You have three goals. The first goal already you have passed. Now you have reached the second goal. But you feel that still there is a higher goal than the goal that you have already achieved and attained. So if you cry, if you cry desperately for the third goal, then you will reach it.

Each time you reach a goal, even while you are in the process of reaching the goal, you manifest. Movement itself is manifestation. While you are moving, at that time you are manifesting. While you are moving in the present, you are manifesting. And while you are moving in the future, you will be again manifesting.

How will you know what to do in your next incarnation? You will always know because it is not like earth-knowledge. Earth-knowledge you forget, but inner knowledge you don't forget. Inner knowledge can be recovered after five years, ten years or much longer. I had my realisation in my previous incarnation. For all spiritual Masters, if they had realisation in their previous incarnation, it takes a few years to get it back. For me it took twenty years to revise the realisation-book, but I didn't forget totally.

Here on earth there are many things that we can totally forget. We have forgotten what we ate even the day before yesterday. We don't remember whether we ate Italian eggplant or Indian food. We can search our memory, but we have forgotten because here it is the physical mind that is operating. But if the soul is operating in and through us, then if at the age of four a significant incident took place, or even a most insignificant incident, we will be able to recollect it because everything is recorded.

I wish to say that the future is not something ahead of us; it is something inside us. The past, the present and the future are like the first rung, the second rung and the third rung of a ladder. Two rungs we have climbed up. Now, to reach the third one is only a matter of time. We can feel that the life-tree which we are climbing is our very existence. The cosmic life-tree is nothing other than our own life. God's eternal Life is our life, our eternal Reality. When we believe that, we become that Reality itself.

Question: What is the best way to meditate so that we can be spiritually strong? And if we become spiritually weak, how can we regain our strength?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, there are two ways in which you can keep from losing what I give you. One way is to believe in what you get. You value your material wealth, your money-power. If you have one hundred dollars in your wallet, then you value that money and you are always on the alert so that nobody will snatch it away from you. Now spirituality, spiritual wealth, is infinitely more valuable. Suppose you have received a very high experience in your spiritual life. I gave you a most soulful, most sincere and most powerful smile that gave you abundant joy. Now that inner wealth you will try to treasure. How can you treasure it? By valuing it. You have to value your inner experience as you value your material power, only you have to value it infinitely more. If you value something, then you will never lose it. On rare occasions if you are unguarded, then a robber can take your money. Otherwise, most of the time you do not lose what you have. Then the time comes when you can properly use your money.

There is another way to retain your spiritual wealth, to keep it forever. That is by assimilating it. Once when you get something from me, the real in you will value it. If you get a soulful inner experience, take that experience as a beautiful flower. Then on each petal of this flower you can write the word "gratitude". If you see the word "gratitude" around the entire flower and on each of the petals you also see your gratitude, then this is the strength, the boundless strength, the magnetic power to pull what I wish to give you and to keep the experience lodged inside your heart. When you value something, then automatically your gratitude-flower comes forward. If you start eating gratitude-food daily, then you will never lose anything that I give you.

Again, if you do lose something, do not think that you can get it back tomorrow or at some other indefinite time, whenever you please. Do not leave it for the future. If you feel that you have lost something which you have received, then immediately sit down and concentrate on it, meditate on it, contemplate on it until you get it back. It has to be like the Buddha's determination: "Until the time I get illumination, I am not going to move." The Buddha's illumination was infinitely more important than an ordinary seeker's achievement, but the light that you receive when you regain your experience is most important for you. If you lose something, then you must say, "I am going to get it back. And once I get it back I will not lose it again. No matter if it takes an hour or two hours or three or four, I will remain here until I get it back." I assure you that if you are sincere, then new experience, new divine wealth or spiritual wealth will never be denied you.

Suppose you have got a very solid experience from me. This solid experience can come in different forms. It can come as clarity, purity, security, peace, delight, light or satisfaction. If you have lost security or purity or your sense of perfection, what will you do? In your case, I assure you, the maximum it will take is twenty minutes to get it back. Twenty minutes of your one-pointed concentration, meditation and contemplation will be enough to get it back. During this twenty minutes, you have to feel that you as your individual self do not exist. Only oneness with your Guru exists. You can't say, "This does not exist, that does not exist, nobody exists." You have to feel that you yourself do not exist. If you feel that you don't exist, it doesn't mean that no one else exists. At that time you have to feel that you have what I have and that you are what I am. Then, in twenty minutes I will be able to give you back what you lost. If you have lost anything, any divine quality or any divine experience, whether it is security, divinity, purity, perfection, light, delight or satisfaction, then give me twenty minutes and I will get it back for you. You may get it back in one minute or two minutes or so, but a maximum of twenty minutes it may take to get it back, provided you have concentration, meditation, contemplation only on your Guru. You have to feel that your Guru has what you have lost and your Guru is what you have lost.

Suppose you have lost security. Then immediately feel that your Guru has it. If I have security for you, then I am that security as well. If you have lost purity, then you have to say, "Guru has purity and Guru is purity." If you have lost some perfection, then you say, "Guru has that perfection and Guru is that perfection." Look at my picture and repeat, "Guru has and Guru is." The thing that you have lost, I have; and I am also that very thing. So you will see that in twenty minutes I will return to you what you have lost.

It also depends on the individual. Some of you will take two days, some will take even two months. But in your case, I am telling you that in twenty minutes you will get back everything that you lost. It may happen also that you will not only get back what you have lost, but you may get even more. But that is not your main concern now. The main thing is to get back what you have lost and to build it up again. Let that very quality be the foundation-stone of your aspiration. If you conquer your loss, then you will definitely get back the quality from me.