Part I — A childlike heart

Question: How can I best acquire the qualities of the heart?

Sri Chinmoy: If you can feel that you are five years old or seven years old, then you will remain pure, sincere and dedicated. But if you think that you are twenty-three or twenty-eight, then you will have to struggle with your mind. Just feel that you are five years old and you are playing in a garden. Let others think that you are a silly person; no harm.

So our path is the path of acceptance. The child accepts everything that he sees around him. He tries to accept everything and grasp everything. If you can sincerely feel that you are a child, if you can have a childlike heart, then you are going to make the fastest progress. But this feeling has to be spontaneous.

Question: How can I cultivate this feeling?

Sri Chinmoy: The best way to cultivate this feeling is to mix with others who have a childlike heart. Birds of a feather flock together. A thief will make friends with other thieves and a saint will make friends with spiritual people. If you want to mix with children, but they see that you are all impurity or insincerity, then why will they mix with you? You have to dive deep within and get in touch with the inner garden; then you become another child. If you have become a child, other children will have no objection to mixing with you. They will feel that there is no yawning gulf between your existence and God's Existence.

Question: What is concern?

Sri Chinmoy: Concern is a most complicated word. Sometimes we say that we have concern about someone, but it may not be real concern. It is concern when you are offering something for the sake of love, for the sake of God, when you are showing oneness with mankind. If God is the bridge between two individuals, then God must unite the two of you. Then it is real concern. If God unites an individual to the world at large then there is concern. But if God is out of the picture when you want to do something for somebody, then it is all attachment, because one is trying to possess the other.

Question: To have a childlike quality, do you have to have a great deal of faith and trust?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, indeed. That is absolutely necessary. A child knows that the mother will not intentionally do anything to harm him. The child believes that even unconsciously the mother will not do anything wrong. For her to harm him consciously is out of the question. The child will never think that the mother will do something wrong consciously, far from it. On the contrary, the child has implicit faith in the mother. He feels that if someone gives poison, the mother herself will drink the poison and save her child. This same faith is needed by a mature person, someone with a developed mind.

After a child becomes thirteen, the mind starts functioning. Whether it is the intellectual mind or the ordinary mind, the mind has its own way of doubting, suspecting and doing all kinds of undivine things. So the best thing is to think that you are four years old, even if you are very mature, very developed in the spiritual life. If you think that you are a child, then you make the fastest progress. How can you have receptivity? A child has receptivity, immediate receptivity, because he does not rely on his own capacity. He relies on his mother's capacity. Again, he is eager to give his little capacity. His little capacity is his faith. A child's capacity is his faith that his father can lift up a heavy weight. His faith is that his father can do it and also that his father will do it for him. The very faith that he has in his father will save him. His faith in his father is his faith in himself.

Question: How can we best love or help other people?

Sri Chinmoy: We can best love and help others provided we feel that we are all one. When one part of my body suffers, on the strength of oneness another part comes to the fore and tries to help the one that needs help. If we can love God the root, then we can love God the seed, God the root, God the tree, God the flower and God the leaves. If a seeker feels that he and others are one, then only God is guiding him and guiding others.

Question: How can we be sure that the work that we are doing is selfless, dedicated service?

Sri Chinmoy: We can easily know whether or not the work we do is a selfless, dedicated service just by entering into the heart while we are working. If the heart is expanding, if the heart is being illumined, if the heart is running like a deer towards the Goal, then it is certainly dedicated service.

Question: How does oneness help us?

Sri Chinmoy: When you remain in the highest consciousness, totally identified with me, then on the strength of your identification and your oneness with me, you have all the capacities. But when the connection is cut off and oneness is not complete, at that time you belong to yourself. You maintain your own individuality and personality. Because of that limited individuality and personality, you cannot manifest the capacity within you.

At the highest level, there is no examination; reality in its entirety is there. But when you are even one rung below the highest, you feel that a kind of examination starts, because with limited capacities you are trying to accomplish the unlimited. That is why a kind of examination is going on. Again, when you are in the highest, at that time everything is unlimited. You claim the highest as your own, so there is no test. The Infinite remains with the Infinite. There is no incapacity as such in the highest. It is complete. In my highest, I am absolutely complete. When I am absolutely in the Highest itself, then Eternity, Infinity and Immortality are not vague terms; they are reality, absolute reality.

Question: I was at a concert and I felt some connection with the violinist.

Sri Chinmoy: In this case you established your own oneness with the Source in him. On the outer plane he was playing; on the inner plane the soul was playing in and through you. You were entering into that particular musician; he was entering into the Source. From there the music was being played. It happens quite a few times when a seeker in the audience enters into the Source. The seeker who is in the audience can easily establish his oneness with the Source if he feels that he is being utilised by the Source. One is active; the other one is silent. The one that is playing is active and you at that time are silent. You are not merely a silent listener, but a silent participant.

Question: How can I have security and humility at the same time?

Sri Chinmoy: In the ordinary life, unaspiring life, there is no such thing as security. Nobody can be secure in his own life or in the lives of others. No matter how powerful, how rich or how wise he is, he will not feel totally secure. Why? Precisely because he has not established, he cannot establish oneness with another individual. There cannot be total oneness, constant, eternal and inseparable oneness unless and until one has established oneness with the Supreme. Here on earth when we want to establish security in our own capacities and talents, we come to realise that it is impossible. Then we become a perfect slave to someone else in order to gain security. But we have to know that the Supreme has all security. If we go deep within, then we will be able to feel secure in our Source. When we pray to the Supreme or meditate on the Supreme, we do not have to pray for security, but for constant and conscious oneness.

Humility is not touching the dust of somebody's feet. Humility automatically comes. The higher you climb, the more humble you become. In the spiritual life, if a real spiritual Master has something to offer, he becomes humble like a tree bearing fruit. If someone has nothing to offer, then he becomes haughty and arrogant. But if the Master knows that he has something, then he offers that very existence to humanity.

Question: Is sincerity in the mind and vital the same for all seekers, or is it different for each individual?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the degree of advancement of the seeker. A child's sincerity, a young man's sincerity and an elderly person's sincerity in the physical, the vital and the mind need not be the same. If a child has done something wrong, then he will tell the whole story from beginning to end. If a grown-up or an adolescent has done something wrong, then he is more reticent. He may say only a few words about the thing that he has done. And a forty or fifty-year-old person will only say, "Oh, I made a mistake." That will be the length of his sincerity. So sincerity is expressed by three individuals in three different ways. The child, if he is sincere, will tell the whole story, how it started and how it ended. The adolescent will tell only a few lines and then stop. And a fifty or sixty-year-old person won't even name the incident. He will just say that he made a mistake.

When it is a matter of recognising insincerity, a child may not even know if at times he is a bad child. A grown-up person will know what sincerity is and what insincerity is, but he may not appreciate that he is telling the truth. Sometimes an elderly person will tell the same lie ten times in order to prove that he is sincere. If a person tells one lie, then he has to be prepared to tell ten more lies to save the first lie. Many people are prepared to tell ten more lies or repeatedly to tell the same lie. They collect the negative force and offer it to the first lie. Then they are convinced that they are telling the truth. Many times they know that they have told a lie, but they just go on. After they have said the same thing twenty times, then it does not remain a lie to them any more; it becomes absolutely gospel. They are so accustomed to saying it that it has become part and parcel of their life. To them insincerity has become sincerity, but others can trace it as insincerity.

Again, sometimes sincerity itself is challenged by human beings. You have seen something or done something; but if ten persons did not also see it, then you enter into the doubting human mind. Although you know that you have done a good thing or a bad thing, there comes a time when you doubt yourself and you feel that you could not have done it. You feel that somebody else has done it.

Question: What is purity?

Sri Chinmoy: What is purity? Purity is something that makes us feel that God can never be separated from our true existence. If one has purity, then one can feel God as his very own. And if one does not have purity, then one can never feel God as his own; he is only fooling himself. A man of impurity can never, never claim God, with utmost sincerity, as his very own.

So, if somebody has purity in abundant measure, then only will he be able to claim God as his very own and at the same time be convinced of his inner commitment.

Question: Guru, how can I have more purity?

Sri Chinmoy: Look at a flower early in the morning and smell its fragrance. Look at the flower and immediately feel how pure the flower is. Then look straight at the morning sun, the early rising sun. How beautiful it is! Do you see anything impure in it? No. Look at the moon. Do you see anything impure? Look at anything which gives you the feeling of purity. Look at a candle flame and you will see that it is all pure; it is burning away all your impurities. Anything that you feel is outwardly pure, keep that thing right in front of your mental vision. This is one way, the easiest way to convince the mind.

The other way involves breathing. When you meditate, try to breathe in as slowly as possible. Quietly and slowly breathe in and feel that with each breath you are bringing into your system peace, light and bliss. These qualities are nothing but purity itself. Then, when you breathe out, feel that you are breathing out all the ignorance and imperfection inside you. Through conscious breathing you can bring purity into your system; and each time you breathe out, throw out impurity.

You can practise both methods. Keep a flower, incense and anything else that symbolises purity in your outer mind in front of your outer vision. Then, when you can go deep within, you will not need a flower, candle or incense.

Question: How can we sustain our purity?

Sri Chinmoy: We can sustain purity if we can consciously feel that there is a rose inside our heart blossoming petal by petal. Always we have to see the living image of a flower, let us say a rose or a lotus. The moment we see a flower, consciously or unconsciously we breathe in the purity of that flower. If we feel that a rose is blossoming petal by petal from within, then naturally the fragrance and purity of the rose will permeate our whole inner and outer existence. Or, if we wish, we can try to see a candle flame within our heart. The candle flame is constantly climbing up high, higher, highest. While it is climbing, it is illumining our ignorant, obscure, impure and undivine existence. So in this way we can sustain our purity and have abiding satisfaction in our life.

Question: What is the relationship between aspiration and purity?

Sri Chinmoy: If you say that you have to become totally pure before you can aspire, then I say that that day will never dawn. If you have to become one hundred per cent pure and chaste, then you will have to wait for Eternity. It is true that one has to be purified to some extent; otherwise when the Divine Power enters into us then everything is spoiled. It creates more confusion than joy. There can be no creation, divine creation. But aspiration and purification must go together. If you aspire, then you will have purification in your own nature; and if you have purification in your own nature, then your aspiration will be more intense, it will reach the peak. So, nobody is perfect. Nobody can dare to say that after his nature's perfection he will start meditating. What is the use of meditation and concentration if he is already perfect? Chastity and purity come only from inner aspiration; they have to go side by side. One complements the other; one fulfils the other.

Part II — The significance of a smile

Question: What is the spiritual significance of a smile?

Sri Chinmoy: When a human mother smiles, it is from her heart. When the Divine Mother smiles, it is her promise to her spiritual child that the Goal of the Beyond is destined, that the Reality Transcendental is bound to dawn for the seeker. When the human father smiles at his son, he offers his earthly knowledge, wisdom and concern. When the spiritual Father smiles at his spiritual child, he offers him the assurance that at every second he is eternally of him and for him. In the seeker's aspiration and the Master's realisation, seeker and Master are one. When the Master brings the golden boat which will carry the seeker to the Golden Shore, he invites the seeker with the broadest smile, with his heart's smile. Then, when he carries the seeker from earth to the Golden Shore, he again offers the seeker his heart's most revealing and fulfilling smile.

Question: How does joy help us?

Sri Chinmoy: Every day, every hour, every minute, every second the seeker must know how to open the heart-door of the Supreme. He needs the key, and the name of this key is joy. When the seeker is happy, he not only has the key, but he is the key. The happier the seeker is, the easier it is for him to open up the heart-door of the Supreme. The key is most perfect when the seeker is the happiest of human beings.

Question: How can I get more satisfaction from detachment?

Sri Chinmoy: How do you acquire the power of detachment or the light of detachment? It is easy for the sincere seeker, and at the same time, very difficult for the insincere seekers. Even for sincere seekers, as long as they exist in the finite, with the finite and for the finite, there will always be attachment. But when they feel that they have come from the Infinite, they are in the Infinite and they are for the Infinite, then they don't have to cry for detachment. Detachment itself runs towards them, and they feel that they are nothing other than detachment itself.

You are attached to the body. What is the body? It is the limited consciousness, the finite consciousness. In the spiritual life, we use the term 'devoted.' We are attached to the finite, but we are devoted to the Infinite. Now I wish to say that if we are devoted to the Infinite, rather than attached to the finite, then we automatically get the power of detachment. When we live in the finite and want to satisfy the finite, then it is all attachment. But when we want to remain in the Infinite and serve the Infinite, then it becomes all detachment.

It is not that the finite becomes separate from the Infinite. No. The finite makes a conscious surrender to the Infinite. The obscure part of us has to surrender to the illumined part in us. Then the finite and the Infinite become one. It is like my feet and my head. They are on one body. If my feet are now dirty and filthy, and my brain tells me that my feet are dirty and filthy, then what do I do? I go and wash them. This is the brain's power. In the spiritual life also, the higher part can illumine the lower part. The Infinite has the capacity to illumine the finite. Now the finite has the message of attachment. But again, this finite can easily be transformed into the Infinite. The finite is a tiny drop. But when it enters into the vast ocean, it loses its own tiny individuality. The tiniest one gains its largest, most sublime individuality. So when we consciously and soulfully devote ourselves to something vast and infinite, then attachment is bound to be replaced by detachment.

Question: Is there a great difference between joy and Delight?

Sri Chinmoy: There is a great difference between joy and Delight. Let us say that joy is the opposite of pleasure. Indulgence in the physical and the vital is called pleasure. Pleasure is immediately followed by frustration, and frustration is followed by destruction. But joy is something that grows in us. Slowly and steadily it can grow. Again, joy also can fade away, but it will never come down to the level of frustration. To have joy is like drinking a glass of water. If you are thirsty, then you may finish all the water; then it will be gone. But if you put the cup right near the sink, you can fill it up again and again. In the same way, if necessity demands, joy will diminish. But it can also be replenished. But whether it diminishes or grows, if it is real joy, then it is not going to frustrate or destroy you.

Joy you can get in your mind, in your heart and even in your arms. After you have thrown the shot put a great distance, immediately your arm will make you feel that it has achieved everything and you will feel joy inside your arm. Sometimes, while walking very fast, if you get a kind of relaxed feeling in your knee, inside your knee you will feel joy. If you get a little strength inside your ankle, you will feel joy in your ankle. So any part of your being can have joy. Joy can be divided among the parts of your being. You can have joy in the mind, in the vital or in the body. You can have joy anywhere.

Joy does not usually descend to the lowest, because it is afraid of fighting with pleasure. Joy and pleasure have practically the same strength, so joy is afraid to fight because it is not always certain to win. One is a good boy, the other is a bad boy. But the bad boy sometimes defeats the good boy and makes him feel helpless, hopeless. But when the good boy gets strength, he tries to transform the bad boy and give him good advice as to what he is doing right and wrong. In this way joy tries to transform pleasure.

But delight is something else. When you have delight, you will feel tremendous ecstasy in your whole being, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. From Above, Delight-Nectar descends through the crown centre and drips into the Third Eye. You drink this Delight-Nectar and feel a sense of Immortality. As soon as one little drop of this Delight comes into the sahasrara chakra, the whole body gets a divine thrill. Not even one cell, one molecule, will be denied this intense ecstasy.

Joy cannot go beyond the boundaries of its own existence. But Delight comes from the soul's region, from the transcendental Silence-Height. As it descends, it gradually illumines everything, even the gross physical. From the highest it comes to the lowest. Delight has tremendous power, but it descends very slowly. When it enters from the highest plane, it goes first to the soul's arena, then to the psychic plane, the mental plane, the vital plane, and then finally to the physical plane. Delight always descends very, very cautiously, and very steadily and unerringly.

Question: Can I develop more inner poise through prayer?

Sri Chinmoy: Prayer can give you everything. If you don't have poise, your prayer is bound to give you poise. But I wish to say that everybody comes into the world with some inner poise. The soul has all the divine qualities in seed form. The soul is a portion of divinity, so naturally everything will be there. But poise can be in the physical in an absolutely negligible quantity. If you try, you can develop an ocean of poise from one drop. Even if you think that you don't have a drop of poise, no harm. The Supreme will give you abundant poise just because you are praying. Then, a time will come when your whole being will be flooded with inner poise. You are praying and praying and your inner being is storing up your poise, keeping it secret. Then one day you will see that you are all poise, boundless poise.

Question: What is delight?

Sri Chinmoy: Delight is God, the ever-transforming Reality. If you ask me, "Who is God?" my answer will be Delight. If you ask me, "Why is God?" my answer will be Delight. If you ask me, "How is God?" my answer will be Delight. There can be no question on earth that cannot be answered by using the one supreme word, "Delight". For any question you ask, only one answer is correct, and that answer is Delight.

Question: How can we have presence of mind in all situations?

Sri Chinmoy: If you as an individual human being want always to do the right thing at the right moment, it will be impossible. No human being is always able to do the right thing at the right moment. But if you ask the Supreme to act in and through you twenty-four hours a day, and if you can feel that anything that you do in those twenty-four hours belongs to the Supreme and not to you, then God will take the responsibility. Feel that you don't belong to yourself but only to the Supreme. If you can make yourself feel that you don't belong to yourself, you belong only to God, then it becomes His headache, not yours. If you feel that it is your responsibility to do the right thing at the right moment, then it will be your worry and your responsibility. But if you give your responsibility to the Highest Absolute Supreme, it becomes His responsibility; and as soon as it becomes His responsibility, then you become His instrument. Whoever has the responsibility is the doer. So when you have given the responsibility to the Supreme in you, then He becomes the Doer and it is up to Him to do the right thing and to say the right thing in and through you.

As long as you maintain your own individuality and responsibility, the Supreme will say, "All right, let her try. Let her try in her own way." So the best thing is to feel that you don't belong to yourself; you belong to somebody else and that is the Supreme. If you belong to the Supreme, then He is the Doer and naturally He will do the right thing in and through you.

Part III — Gratitude and the Will of the Supreme

Question: Could you speak on humility and gratitude?

Sri Chinmoy: In the spiritual life two qualities are absolutely of utmost importance. These two qualities are humility and gratitude.

Humility and gratitude. If we can add appropriate adjectives to these two words, then they will convey more height and more depth to the seeker in you, the seeker in all human beings. For humility I wish to add "sincere": sincere humility. For gratitude, I wish to add "soulful": soulful gratitude. Gratitude has to be full of the soul-consciousness; otherwise it is not gratitude. Then it becomes a tricky way of gaining something more from the person to whom we show our gratitude. But soulful gratitude is offered to someone for what we have received. Even if that person does not give us anything more in life, not even an iota of joy or love, we shall eternally remain grateful to him for what he has done. We shall always be grateful for the way his gift has added to our life of aspiration, or considerably transformed our life and carried us consciously to the highest Source. When we offer soulful gratitude, it is our eternal recognition of what we have received from someone on our eternal journey across Eternity to Infinity's shore of Beauty, Light and Delight.

The Christ and all spiritual Masters without exception have told us that humility is of constant necessity in order to make the fastest and surest progress in the spiritual life. It is necessary in order to see the Face of our Supreme Beloved, the Inner Pilot. Inner humility and gratitude are our highest achievements. When you feel humble, you feel that your body, vital and mind are responding to your soul's dictates. If you feel grateful, sincerely grateful, soulfully grateful, then you have achieved the highest achievement that the earth-consciousness can offer to the Heaven-consciousness.

Question: How can I have more gratitude in my day-to-day life?

Sri Chinmoy: Do only one thing: you have to compare where you as an individual are now with where you were eight years ago. Many good and bad things have happened to you in eight years, but on the whole you will see that eight years ago you were not even at the foot of the realisation-tree. You were millions of miles away from your realisation. Right now, you have not only stood at the foot of the tree, but you have climbed up to a considerable height. While climbing you may have had all kinds of misgivings, but still you are there. Some people who had fear while climbing have fallen down; again, others have now become afraid and cannot climb any higher. Fear, doubt and anxiety have also come to you. But you have to ask your inner being, "Am I at the same place where I was eight years ago?" The answer will be, "No. At that time I was not even anywhere near the tree." At this point, gratitude comes.

We have to see the positive aspect of what we have achieved and what we have grown into. I always say that the past is dust. The past has given us frustration, not illumination. But at the same time we have to know the difference between the past, which is dust, and the present, which is not dust. We have taken quite a few steps forward in the past few years. So if we have become something which we were not before, then there is every possibility that we will become something infinitely better in the future. That is why we offer our gratitude to the Supreme.

Question: How can I feel the necessity for gratitude?

Sri Chinmoy: You can feel the necessity for gratitude if you feel that gratitude is your living breath. Feel that if your gratitude-breath is extinguished, then you are dead. Each time you offer gratitude for a fleeting second, feel it is a living breath.

On earth there is nothing so important or significant as gratitude. In God's case, the most significant thing He has is Compassion. God is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, but His Compassion-Power makes us close to Him. If He did not have Compassion-Power, we would not care for Him. If we can show God an iota of gratitude, God feels that within us He can exist. Our gratitude is God's Existence, God's House, God's Abode. God has to live in the street unless He can live inside our gratitude-heart.

Question: How can we offer our gratitude and increase our gratitude to you and to the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: Gratitude is the most precious thing that a human being can have. If someone has a million dollars and if someone else has only an iota of gratitude, in the Eyes of the Supreme he who has an iota of gratitude to God is far superior. Gratitude is the purest thing that we can have. It is immortal in us. If we can offer to God whatever is immortal, soulful and significant, then that is most meaningful.

Someone can have outer wealth, but if he has spiritual wealth — simplicity, purity, humility — that is far better. Again, somebody can be pure, devoted and sincere, but if he does not have any gratitude to God, then his purity is not perfect. On the other hand, if somebody is of bad character but is grateful to God for not yet having been caught or punished, and if he offers gratitude to God and wants to change his life, then God is pleased.

Every morning you should offer gratitude to God for your existence. You should offer gratitude because God has kept you on earth to manifest Him. So gratitude is the most important thing in our life. Nothing is more important in God's Eyes than gratitude.

Question: If you realise the Supreme and have become one with the Supreme, is there gratitude at that time?

Sri Chinmoy: Even if you realise the Highest Consciousness, still gratitude will always remain. Gratitude is sweetness and delight. Delight we experience no matter on which plane of consciousness we are. Gratitude is earth's greatest delight and Heaven's greatest delight. When the cosmic gods get something from the Supreme, they offer delight and gratitude.

When you have delight and gratitude, at that time you reach the Highest. Just because you have reached the Highest you are happy. If you remain on the highest plane, then you become one with the Vision and one with the Reality. Vision gives capacity to Reality. If this moment Vision is giving something to Reality, although they are one, Reality will naturally feel grateful. When you are on the highest level, Vision and Reality are one. But if you want to play the cosmic Game and you separate the Vision from Reality, then when you have given, naturally the one to whom you give will express gratitude. But on the highest plane, he who gives and he who receives are one.

Gratitude is in both realisation and manifestation. If you remain in the highest realisation you will be grateful, and if you remain in manifestation you will be grateful. Gratitude has to be constant. Even on the highest plane you have to be grateful.

Question: Does aspiration depend on my will or on the Will of God?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the Will of God and also on your own dedication to the spiritual life. They go together. In the beginning you have to participate in the game. You have to get up early in the morning, at six o'clock or seven o'clock, and you have to meditate. But then there comes a time when you see that it is only His Will that is acting in and through you. In the beginning, you may feel that it is fifty per cent your will and fifty per cent God's Will working in and through you. But when you go deep within, you see that it is ninety-nine per cent God's Will. And later, you will realise that it is one hundred per cent God's Will. But in the beginning you have to act like a good student. You have to get up early and do your inner study. At that time you feel that aspiration depends on your will.

Question: Why can't you just awaken people and make them aspire?

Sri Chinmoy: When I look at you as an individual, from your heart I hear one message and from your tongue I hear another message. In the inner world somebody will touch my feet and say, "You are my only Reality. I have seen your transcendental Form. I was going to end my life, but you have saved me." But in the outer world if I speak to that same individual, he will be rude to me to such an extent that you cannot imagine.

One day I am the Saviour. Then three days later I am the worst person on earth, because I have prevented him from taking his life or I failed to fulfil his desires. But why does he feel that it is my capacity that has saved him or that has failed to satisfy his vital demands? It is the Supreme Himself who is giving the command. But the individual cannot believe that it is the Will of the Supreme, so he has to curse me and be rude to me.

When you are identified with the Will of the Supreme, at that time the most unbelievable things you can do if necessity demands. When the Master is identified with the supreme Will and is not fulfilling the human desires in a human way, at that time people say that he is the worst culprit. Spiritual Masters are always at the mercy of the disciples. The disciples want the Master to do something; but that very thing he is not authorised to do. If the disciples are in a high consciousness, then they will not ask for the fulfilment of their desires. If an iota of demand passes through their mind, they will feel miserable. But if they don't remain in that high consciousness, then they blame the Master for everything.

Question: How can we know if success or failure is the Will of the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: The Supreme will not keep in His Mind success or failure. He will keep only the experience in His Mind. When you do something and there is no success, then you will be very sad and disturbed. But you should feel from within that no matter which result you get, you will be equally happy. You have to feel that it is not the success or failure that you want; it is only the experience that you need in order to grow. Then the result will be in accordance with the divine Will. Otherwise you will only cry for success and if you get failure you will feel miserable. So when you do something, if you are inspired from within, then you will be satisfied with either success or failure. Whatever experience the divine force wants to give you, you will take it as an experience.

Question: What is the significance of silence?

Sri Chinmoy: Here we are observing divine silence and not human silence. In human silence we may keep our mouth shut, but our mind is constantly talking, scolding and insulting. The mind is doing everything. But if we can maintain divine silence, then from this divine silence we will immediately get Light from God. Then we can offer this Light to the persons who are creating problems for us.

Question: I would like to know the best and the most effective way to raise one's consciousness and to maintain that level.

Sri Chinmoy: I wish to say that it is through inner cry that you raise your consciousness, and in order to maintain your highest consciousness you have to establish considerable purity in the vital. First, with your inner cry, with your aspiration, you go up. Then how do you remain stationed there? It is through purity in the vital that you will be able to stay there for good.

Question: What is the most important thing for a seeker to enter into the Universal Consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: The most important thing for a seeker is to embody the Light-consciousness, Bliss-consciousness, Power-consciousness and Truth-consciousness, after having entered into the Universal Consciousness.

Question: What is consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: Consciousness is the connecting link between earth and Heaven. Consciousness connects the cry of the finite with the Smile of the Infinite. Consciousness is the connecting link between earth's aspiring reality and Heaven's smiling Reality. It is the bridge between the reality that is growing and the Reality that eternally is. When we are here on earth, we are growing. When we are in Heaven, we eternally are.

Question: What is the difference between consciousness and awareness?

Sri Chinmoy: In awareness, you can see around you; you are aware of another person, of the room, of how you are standing, of how you are sitting or of how you are talking. But consciousness is far deeper and broader. When there is consciousness, there need not be a subject and object. Consciousness merely exists. In it the individual merges and becomes one with the universal Reality. There is no separation of individuality, for the One is infused with all that exists. Consciousness is not a personal quality, but an all-embracing cosmic identity.

Question: Should we try to keep our working areas neat and tidy, or can we work well in clutter?

Sri Chinmoy: As a young man my first job was as an electrician. My boss had come to the conclusion that in this world God has created two types of people: those who will make a mess, and those who will clean up the mess. We have to care for perfection. You are saying we should keep our work area clean. I fully agree. If you clean before you start working, you may say that you are losing ten minutes time, but actually you will accomplish more. These things I can say hundreds of times, but people who do not have from within a sense of cleanliness will never be really clean. I have been praying for my disciples to take showers. Still six or seven don't. If cleanliness is not in the person, then how much can you inject?

Whose responsibility is it to keep the place clean: the boys' or the girls'? On the one hand, masculine pride prevents the boys from cleaning, and on the other hand, they are incapable. The boys feel that the girls have to do it. The girls feel that it is the boys' unpardonable incapacity. There are many things boys cannot do, but girls can do. I have to give a boy twenty-four hours to keep his room clean, but if I give a girl five minutes she will do it. What will take him twenty-four hours to do, she will do in five minutes. And his sense of cleanliness will differ from hers. He will say that his room is clean. But when you go there, you will be surprised.

So the standard of cleanliness is different. The boys' and the girls' standard of cleanliness is different. The boys' standard is no standard at all. A husband will think that everything is perfect, but as soon as his wife goes there, you will see a real sense of cleanliness. These are realities in life. In my own room, I make it absolutely a beer-garden. The girl disciples will clean it. Here I am representing the boys. Our standard is really unbearable. In this world there are people who really maintain a good standard of cleanliness. Even if I ask others to do the same cleaning, they will do it, but it will be far below the standard of the others. So those with high standards have to do cleaning.

About three weeks ago I went to our press, and there I saw such a mess. I could not stay more than five minutes. Then I pleaded with the girls, and they went and cleaned up the mess. When the press is untidy and dirty, we just invite accidents. When the press is not clean, already the undivine forces have entered, and then undivine forces create accidents for us. So cleanliness helps us considerably.

Question: Could you please speak about self-enquiry and self-deprecation?

Sri Chinmoy: There is a great difference between self-enquiry and self-deprecation. Self-enquiry is the precursor of self-discovery. Who am I? What am I here for? The great spiritual Master named Ramana Maharshi from South India used to ask these questions. Unless you want to know who you are, how are you going to know what you are here for?

First we start with enquiry; then it becomes discovery. But in self-deprecation, we limit ourselves in our own estimation. Let us not be bloated with pride, for that would be a mistake. But if constantly we find fault with ourselves and just curse ourselves every moment we get the opportunity, then again that is wrong. It is a way of expressing our false modesty. We know what we are. If we are sincere, then we are bound to know what kind of life we are leading and what we are offering to mankind. If we are sincere, then we can be more sincere. If we are aspiring, then we can aspire more. There is no end to our progress. But if we constantly find fault with ourselves, then we are making a mistake.

Self-enquiry leads to self-discovery. Self-deprecation leads to unconscious, if not conscious, destruction.

Question: When we feel our intuitive qualities being sharpened, are you doing it for us?

Sri Chinmoy: It is your own divinity that is coming to the fore. Of course, my oneness, my inseparable oneness is there with your divinity. I bring down grace from above, but your personal effort expedites the matter. So I want to give fifty per cent of the full credit to the sincere seeker inside you.

Question: Can you please explain psychic emotion?

Sri Chinmoy: The psychic being can exist only in human beings. The soul is in everything: inside this wall, in the table, everywhere you can see the presence of the soul. But the psychic being you cannot see here in a piece of wool or in an animal. Only when a human being comes into existence will you see the flash of the psychic being. This psychic being is the immortal child within us. It is the representative of our inner soul. It has infinite possibilities to lead us into the highest, into the purest, into Eternity. The psychic being abides inside our heart. It is all purity, all light and all delight.

First we get the glimpse of this psychic being, and gradually we enter into the domain of the psychic being. Then we play with the psychic being, talk, mix, and do all the things we can do with our human, earthly children. The moment we see the psychic being within us, we feel that we are truly children of God. When we see our oneness with the psychic being, we feel that the psychic being is ours. This makes us feel that we are not only the perfect children of God, but also that in us is the seed that will eventually grow into God. This means that everyone without exception will one day realise God and become God. This is the message that we get from the psychic being.

Question: What are simplicity, sincerity and humility?

Sri Chinmoy: To have simplicity is to run towards God without darkness, worries or impurity. Simplicity is running towards the goal. Sincerity means that the seeker wants only the goal and not the flowers and fruits that are along the road. Humility comes when he reaches the goal. He knows that it is not his capacity that has brought him to the goal. Simplicity is beauty; sincerity is duty; they produce humility. Humility is God-reality, God-oneness and God-perfection. Humility not only embodies the Vast, but it is also the Infinite, the Eternal. It is not something to become, but it is God the Reality.

Question: I would like very much to work on accepting God's outer Body, the world, and also on accepting my conflicts. How can I begin to do this?

Sri Chinmoy: How can you accept yourself and how can you accept the outer world? Now, before you answer this question, try to answer another question: "Why to accept?" Then your task becomes easier. How to accept? There are many ways, but all ways will be fruitless if you do not know why to accept humanity or yourself.

First you have to accept yourself; then you can think of accepting humanity. Why should you accept yourself? You should accept yourself because the Lord, who is all-Love, all-Mercy, all-Compassion, all-Protection and all-Power, has accepted you and is utilising you as His chosen instrument. He has accepted you; this is the main reason why you should accept yourself. The Infinite has accepted the finite and through the finite the Infinite wants to express Himself. What greater reason do you need to feel divinely proud? When you feel that the Infinite has accepted you to express Himself, then with the deepest joy and pride you are in a position to accept yourself.

Now, how to accept the outer world? If you see the world as something around you or outside you, then it can never be your world. This world can be your world only when you see it inside yourself, as part of yourself. Then you possess the world. If you see the world as something around you, then either the world possesses you or you feel that there is a vast gulf, a yawning gap between you and the world. But if you see the world inside you, then there is no gap. The world is yours, your possession.

What do you do with your possession? You utilise it. Either you utilise it in a wrong way or in a right way, but you have the capacity and the right to utilise the world inside you because it is your possession. If it is not your possession, then you cannot do that. So how to accept the world? First try to see and feel the world inside you. When you see the world inside you, then automatically you accept the world.

Then, do not expect anything while you are bringing the outer world inside you. Do not think that you will do something grand, something marvellous for the world and do not expect anything from the world. If you expect, then you are bound to be disappointed. Your expectation must lie in the Supreme. If you want to expect something, then you have to expect it from the Supreme in the world, but not directly from the world. If you ask a man to help you with something in some way, then he will be the cause of your frustration. But if you ask the Supreme in him and pray to the Supreme in him for a favour, then that particular person is going to help you.

If you want to know how you can accept the world, I wish to tell you, accept the Supreme in man and see in him more perfection than imperfection. Consciously try to see more truth in him than falsehood. See his positive side, his brighter part. Each individual represents the world. So when you are trying to bring the world inside you, do not take it as imperfection, bondage, limitation and death. No, take it as something which has infinite possibility to do something wonderful and unique for the Supreme and for yourself. In that way it becomes extremely easy for you to bring the outer world into yourself and make yourself feel that it is you who have to take care of the inner world, this world inside you. Only do not allow the world to remain around you or outside you.

How to accept? I tell you, you will be able to accept the world by changing your attitude towards the world. The world is doomed to disappointment, the world is going to the dogs, the world is past perfection; these ideas you have to throw out. The world carries the message of God; the world is bound to be the Kingdom of Heaven. This world is really God's chosen field. Here He will manifest and here He will fulfil Himself. With these ideas if we look at the world, then we will see that easily we will be able to accept the world.

Question: How do we know when we should forgive a person who has injured us, and when we should retaliate?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two types of people. One type is like a monkey or a scorpion. If we allow a monkey to approach us, it will bite and pinch us immediately. If we touch a scorpion, first it will sting our hand. If we touch it again, it will bite us again. So in this world we have to see if someone is constantly trying to destroy us. If ignorance is not decreasing we have to defend ourselves.

But when the Christ saw that his own people were constantly fighting, he said that there are some people of a good nature whom we should forgive because they sincerely try to do the right thing. If somebody of this type has done something wrong and we forgive him, then he will not do it again because he will know that he has done something wrong. If we tell him, "All right, you have done it. Now don't do it again," he will be ashamed and embarrassed. He will feel repentant that he has done something wrong. Since he has a good nature, he will not do it a second time.

But if somebody has the nature of a scorpion or a monkey, we can give him as many chances as we want, but he will not change his nature. So with him we have to be very strict. If somebody is by nature like a scorpion and we give him a chance, he will simply kill us.

Question: I would like you to describe for us the Smile of the Supreme.

Sri Chinmoy: When the Supreme is in unmanifested form, He is just a Face, but when He is manifested or when He wants to manifest Himself, He has to give out a smile. He is alive, He is functioning, He is dynamic, He is active. This we can know only when we see a smile dawn on His Face. When we speak of the Supreme, we have to know that He is both masculine and feminine. It is very difficult to comprehend this with our human mind. In His masculine Form He is static; He is beyond manifestation, although He does come into manifestation. But when He comes into manifestation, it is through His feminine Form. In our Indian terminology that feminine Form is called Prakriti, or the Nature-Force or the Mother aspect of the Supreme. When the Nature-Force operates in the physical world, we see activity in the Being of the Supreme. And when that activity takes place, we see spontaneous joy all over the Supreme's manifested Form. This joy expresses itself most effectively on the Face of the Supreme in a smile. So we can say that the Living-Force or the Creativity of the Supreme is His Smile. That smile is the very Breath of the Universal Consciousness, as well as the Breath of the Supreme Himself. If there is no smile, there is no breath; and if there is no breath, then the creation remains unmanifested. So in the very Smile of the Supreme the creation starts functioning.

Question: What is the difference between attachment and compassion?

Sri Chinmoy: In attachment we act conditionally; in compassion we act unreservedly, eternally and unconditionally. Attachment is our self-imposed activity; whereas compassion is our God-inspired, God-revealing, and God-manifesting activity.

Question: How much sleep is necessary for a seeker?

Sri Chinmoy: It entirely depends on how much will-power you have that can create receptivity in the body. If your will-power can create receptivity in the physical consciousness, then only one or two hours, or even less, is necessary. If you can't create receptivity, then it is always advisable to take rest. Otherwise, the consciousness does not function properly. If the consciousness does not function, then we are worse than animals. It not only does not function; what is worse, it becomes destructive. Destruction takes place in the form of negative feelings towards everything, towards your own existence. If you cherish negative feelings, that is real death.

Question: How do God's and man's laws compare?

Sri Chinmoy: God's Law is operated by His Compassion-Light and man's law is operated by his judgement-might. Judgement-might is human law, but Compassion-Light is God's Law. When I do something wrong, human law tries to punish me, but punishment is not the ultimate answer. In the case of God's Law, when I do something wrong, for example when I steal, the Compassion of the Supreme will touch the root and cause me to realise that stealing is wrong, and that I should work for what I need and get it in a proper manner. So, God's Compassion works in such a way as to help us change, while human law cannot change human nature. It is only Divine Law, which is illumining, that can change and transform human nature. Human law is an immediate response to what you have done — it is action and reaction. Divine Law will enter into and transform the root of the ignorance.

Question: God is manifesting through His entire creation. How can we understand God through just a part of His creation?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us take God as the vast ocean. You know that the ocean is composed of tiny drops. Millions and billions and trillions of drops make up the ocean. If we know how to identify ourselves both with the vast ocean and with the tiniest drop, then we can see God inside the finite and also in the Infinite. It is on the strength of our oneness with the tiniest drop in the ocean that we can see and feel God. If we can establish our oneness with the finite, then we can see what the Infinite looks like.

If we want to see God in His vast creation, as the creation itself, we can do it. But in the beginning it may be easier to separate Him from His creation and identify ourselves with only a small portion of the entire creation. Even in the small part of God's creation which is right now visible to us, we see infinite variety. What will we do with God's entire creation at this time? Our mind will not be able to grasp it at all. To our limited human minds even the finite earth-reality is infinite. If we can begin to understand this tiny corner of God's vast creation, we can say that we have made considerable inner progress.