United Nations Meditation Group

"We believe and we hold that each man has the potentiality of reaching the Ultimate Truth. We also believe that man cannot and will not remain imperfect forever. Each man is an instrument of God. When the hour strikes, each individual soul listens to the inner dictates of God. When man listens to God, his imperfections are turned into perfections, his ignorance into knowledge, his searching mind into revealing light and his uncertain reality into all-fulfilling Divinity.

Part I — Talks

Joy¹

Joy within is always a rarity.

Joy without is almost an impossibility.

Joy in oneness with God is a constant certainty and an eternal reality.

Joy within is always a rarity. Most of us are living in the world of desire. We have no time to go deep within. There are people who feel that they do not have even one minute, one single minute out of twenty-four hours, to go deep within. Then, there are those who have the time to go deep within for a minute during the day. But when they go within for a minute during the twenty four hours, they may not get joy. Inside us is a vast field and we have to cultivate it like a farmer. We have to plough the inner field and, after we have ploughed, we have to sow the seed — the seed of our aspiration, the seed of our concern for the inner life. Then, after a few months or after a year or so, we may get a real glimpse of inner joy. Inner joy is always something rare. We think no matter how we meditate we get immediate joy. But this is not true. What we may get at times is only a kind of vital pleasure. Real joy we get only from our silent and profound meditation. In the outer life also, when we talk and mix with people, or exchange ideas with others, we may get a kind of satisfaction. But this is not real joy. It is only vital pleasure. Joy is something very deep, illumining and fulfilling.

When I say joy is always a rarity in the inner life, it means first of all that we are not crying for this inner joy. Once a day we don’t have the time to go deep within even for a minute. And even if we do go deep within for a minute or two, we have to know that one has to meditate for hours, for months, for years in order to get real inner joy. If one tastes this inner joy even once, one is immediately transported into Heaven for a while. When one has real inner joy, one sees that Heaven is all around him. He is in Heaven or he has become Heaven itself. This is inner joy.

In Sanskrit we use the term amrita, which means ‘nectar’. The gods drink this nectar and that is why they are immortal. When we go deep within, we also drink this divine nectar. When we drink this nectar just for a fleeting second, we feel that our consciousness is immortalised. But it is a very rare thing. Seekers don’t get this amrita unless they are on the verge of realisation. Swamis, even yogis who are not absolutely realised or not of the highest calibre, may drink this nectar only once in their lifetime. Others say, “Oh, when you go deep within, you get tremendous joy.” But real joy, amrita, is something else. This joy is pure. On those very rare occasions when we get real inner joy even for a fleeting second, it immediately expands our consciousness and makes us feel that we are really divine, that expansion is our birthright, liberation is our birthright.

In the outer world, what gives us joy is the fulfilment of desire. This moment I have a desire to have one house. Then, when God grants my desire, immediately I become a victim to the desire to have two houses. And when God grants this, the next moment I become a victim to still more desires. In the outer life we want only to grab — from one car to two cars, from one dollar to two dollars. All the time we are trying to increase our possessions. Each time a desire is fulfilled in the outer life, we become victims to a greater and more destructive desire, because in desire itself there is no end. A fulfilled desire gives us pleasure for a second, but the next moment another desire comes with tenfold power and puts us into the frying pan again. In the life of desire we are never satisfied.

The very nature of desire is to possess. If desire sees a flower, it will try to possess it. If desire sees something beautiful, immediately it wants to grab it, and the ultimate result is that the beautiful thing is destroyed. Even when we see some spiritual person with light, we try to possess that spiritual person with our desire. We don’t want that spiritual person to act in the divine way with his inner light, with his inner joy, with his inner compassion. No, we want to possess him and try to regulate his outer life and inner life.

The difference between man and God is this: man is possessed by his little possessions and God is released by His infinite possessions.

When we remain in the outer world, we are taking conscious or unconscious part in the game of desire. Each moment we are opening ourselves to desire. Desire, the thief, is entering into our heart to steal away our faith in God, our love for God, our concern for God, our dedication to God, our surrender to God. When our own will is one with desire, it eventually ends in destruction. But when our will becomes one with our aspiration — which is desire purified and transformed, desire which has gone through a fire-pure change — at that time we can sit at the Feet of God. When we sit at the Feet of God and become one with God, our own will is one with God’s Will. What is God’s Will? God’s Will is His Concern for humanity, His Love for humanity, His inner Cry for the perfection of humanity. When we establish our oneness with God’s Will, we enter into a constant flow of joy. There we see that God the creator, God the creation and God the reality are all one.

When we have established our oneness with God’s Will we get joy, but humanity as a whole is still separated from God’s Will. Every person wants something different. God has created millions and millions of people, and each one has a new idea, a new aim, a new ideal. When all the ideas and ideals become one and are still given the opportunity to flourish, to fulfil themselves in multiple form, then, too, we will get joy. The highest joy comes from oneness with God. When humanity as a whole enters into this oneness of God, we will feel that the multiplicity of God is also getting the same joy as the unity of God. We do not lose our joy if we also realise our oneness with God’s creation. The joy of multiplicity and the joy of unity we must have. When we become one with humanity and go to God together, then we get the joy of multiplicity. And when we go directly to God alone, then we get the joy of unity. Again, from unity, if we want to come to God’s infinite multiplicity, we also get true joy. Either by taking everyone to God with us or by going to God alone and then bringing God to the rest of humanity, we get this boundless inner and outer joy.

Right now the outer life and the inner life are like the North Pole and the South Pole. They will never meet together. The inner life has more light than the outer life, but this light is not enough to satisfy us. Right now the inner life is not strong enough to transform the outer life, which is like a stubborn child or even like a mad elephant. In spite of knowing that the inner life has more light, the outer life does not surrender to it. The outer life does not want to abide by the dictates of the inner life; it does not even want to co-operate with the inner life. The inner life has almost unlimited light and joy and the outer life has practically none. But a day will come when we can get joy from the outer life. When the inner life and the outer life have become one and are ready to be consciously dedicated at the Feet of God, at that time we will find joy within, joy without.

The outer life and the inner life have to become one. They have to feel the necessity of their oneness with God. The younger brother is the outer life and the elder brother is the inner life, because inside the inner life is the soul. If the inner life listens to the dictates of the soul and the outer life listens to the dictates of the inner life, then the inner life and the outer life will go together. At that time we will have abiding joy, everlasting joy, here on earth and there in Heaven — here in our outer life, which will be totally transformed, and there in our inner life, which will be constantly aspiring to be one with the infinite and ever-transcending Joy of God.

Confidence²

We are all God’s chosen children. God has perfect faith in us. Let us try to have an iota of divine confidence in ourselves.

If we want to have confidence, we have to be true to ourselves. If we want to hear from God that we are good, great and divine, then we must always be true to ourselves.

Temptation, depression, frustration and destruction go together. Man’s confidence and God’s acceptance go together. Man’s confidence is man’s joy and God’s divine Pride.

Confidence is growth. It is the flowering of our human aspiration and divine liberation. Aspiration is what man has and offers to God. Liberation is what God eternally is, and He offers Himself to mankind. He scatters liberation all around us.

Confidence is the illumining conscience deep within us and our fulfilling inheritance.

God says to man, “My son, I have all confidence in you because you are of Me.” Man says to God, “Father, I have full confidence in myself because You are for me.”

God says to man, “My son, I have all confidence in you because you want the Truth and the Truth alone.” Man says to God, “Father, I have full confidence in myself because I know that You are not only the Truth but You are also my Truth.”

God says to man, “My son, I have all confidence in you because of our present divine conversation.” Man says to God, “Father, Father, Father, I have full confidence in myself because of Your present and eternal Compassion for me.

A living shrine³

I see a few new seekers today. I wish to tell all the new seekers that your presence definitely adds to our aspiration.

We are the most fortunate people on earth, for God has chosen us to be His instruments to serve Him in mankind. Please try to feel that the United Nations is not a mere building, but a place of worship, a place where all human beings can worship and pray to God. This place is a living shrine for the Supreme.

If we do not do what we are expected to do now, if we do not offer our soulful meditation and soulful dedication now, in days to come we shall feel sorry. But if we do the right thing now, in the near or distant future the Supreme will entrust us with higher tasks. Each time we do something for Him, He is pleased with us and He gives us the responsibility to do something higher and more fulfilling in His cosmic Game.

God is pleased with us if we try every day, every hour of our inner and outer existence at the United Nations to be soulful and self-giving. If we are soulful and self-giving, then our Goal can never remain a far cry. On the contrary, instead of seeing ourselves running alone towards the Goal, we shall see that our Goal is also running towards us.

Run always very fast. In the month of March let us try to run the fastest towards our destined Goal.

Invitation to meditate⁴

Dear seekers, every Friday we meditate in one of the conference rooms here, and offer our aspiration to the soul of the United Nations. I wish to invite the United Nations members who are present today to come and meditate with us. This meditation is not only for the United Nations but for the world at large. This meditation is for the God-lover and the man-lover. If we really love God, and if we really love mankind and consciously believe that we are responsible for mankind, then we feel that our aspiration and dedication to the soul of the United Nations and our Inner Pilot is of paramount importance.

Please feel that it is your own aspiration that will expedite the vision for the United Nations. And when the vision is transformed into reality, the Inner Pilot will know our contribution whether or not the world ever recognises it. Our contribution, which is our aspiration, cannot be measured by money-power or any kind of world-power. It can be measured only by God’s Love-Power, His Concern-Power, His Confidence-Power.

Can meditation enhance leadership?⁵

Can meditation enhance leadership? The answer is in the affirmative. Meditation can and does enhance leadership. But we have to know what we mean by meditation. If meditation means a secluded life, if meditation means only an individual triumph over oneself, this type of meditation can never enhance leadership. If meditation means that I exist only for myself, if it means that my own self-mastery is my only goal and that I alone am important on earth, then leadership cannot be enhanced, for there is no necessity of leadership. If meditation means a secluded life, a life of individuality, then the necessity for leadership does not and cannot arise at all. If I alone exist on earth, who am I to lead? I am all in all. Only when there are two persons is leadership necessary or important. Either I take the lead or somebody else takes the lead.

But if meditation means an expansion of our consciousness, if meditation means that we are of all and for all — that we are of our inner divinity and for aspiring humanity — then our qualities of leadership are bound to increase. If we take leadership as something qualitative, then we have to feel that the light of meditation will make the quality go from bright to brighter and from brighter to brightest. If we take leadership as something quantitative, then we can say that the light of meditation will enable us to transform much into more and more into most.

When we encounter leadership, immediately the physical in us surrenders because it is perfectly aware of its teeming limitations. It knows how weak and frail it is, how insignificant its capacity is. But the vital in us immediately sees leadership as a kind of challenge either from the inner world or from the outer world. After accepting the challenge, the vital wants to conquer and dominate the world around it. The vital immediately wants to dominate others and kick the world around like a football for its own pleasure. This kind of leadership our vital enjoys.

Mental leadership is somewhat different. In mental leadership we notice that the world around us is all imperfection and we feel that only our own mental world is perfect. You as an individual feel that you are perfect, but that the world around you is imperfect. He feels that he is perfect, while the rest of the world is all imperfection. Since he feels that he is perfect and everybody else is imperfect, he accepts his self-styled leadership to perfect us. God has not entrusted him with leadership. As long as he sees only imperfection around him and feels that his being alone is flooded with perfection and light, then he is not the right instrument to lead others.

There is another type of leadership. We call it psychic leadership, the leadership of the heart. This leadership is totally different from the vital and mental leadership. Psychic leadership is founded upon the heart’s inner awareness and oneness with reality as a whole. Whoever leads in the heart is a real leader. This is not the leadership of a self-styled leader. This leadership is the recognition of one’s inseparable oneness with the rest of humanity. The one is for the many and the many are for the one. When we think of ourselves as the one, we feel that the many are our branches, leaves, fruits and flowers. When we think of ourselves as the many, immediately we, as the branches, leaves, fruits and flowers, feel that we are the trunk. Here oneness, real oneness, makes us feel that all are equally responsible for embodying the highest Truth, revealing the highest Truth and manifesting the highest Truth.

Meditation is a dynamic active power; it is movement. Movement itself is progress. Movement itself is the growth and expansion of our reality. Whenever we meditate, no matter what plane of consciousness we are on, at that time we are moving towards some destination which we are bound to reach. While progressing towards the destination, this movement increases its potentiality, its capacity, its reality, its vision, its identity with its Source. And once it reaches the Source, all its capacities increase in boundless measure.

In the outer world, a leader is he who has more capacity than some other individual or two other individuals or many other individuals. If his capacity far surpasses theirs, then he becomes the leader. But in the spiritual life it is not like that. In the spiritual life, real leadership depends on one’s awareness of reality and one’s conscious and constant acceptance of this reality as one’s very own. If one can accept the reality around him as his very own despite all its imperfection, limitation and bondage, then he is the real leader — and not he who has a little more capacity than another individual or the rest of the group. He who claims his brothers and sisters as his very own, he who accepts the challenge of ignorance and who stands in front of ignorance-night determined to conquer it and transform it into the flood of Light — he is the real leader. In the spiritual life, leadership means our conscious wish to be a chosen instrument of the Supreme. The moment we become His chosen instrument, we feel that we have become real leaders. A divine instrument is he who has the capacity to lead and guide humanity.

According to Indian scripture, when a devotee worships the cosmic gods and goddesses, the capacity of the gods and goddesses increases. You may ask how this can be. The cosmic gods and goddesses already have tremendous Peace, Light and Bliss. Just from the worship of a devotee, how can these qualities increase? It is like saying that if you stand in front of the ocean and worship the ocean, immediately the length and breadth of the ocean will increase. Your physical mind will immediately laugh at the idea, but the Indian scriptures were not an inch away from the truth.

What actually increases in the cosmic gods and goddesses when they are worshipped is their conscious awareness of humanity’s need for them. When the gods feel that they are consciously needed by humanity as a whole, then they feel that they have a task to perform on earth. They think, “The children of earth need us. Let us help them, let us guide them, let us mould them, let us shape them into divine beings.” When the cosmic gods and goddesses feel earth’s need, immediately they shower their choicest blessings on earth. The satisfaction that dawns in them because of earth’s need is the increase of their capacity. Previously earth did not need them, humanity did not need them; so their capacities were kept dormant. But when they are pleased and satisfied with humanity, they deliberately bring forward and increase all their capacities.

We are spiritual people; we need Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure. That is why we invoke the presence of the cosmic gods. But there are people who want the divine help in order to achieve something which will not be a creative force but a destructive force. Indian mythology offers us hundreds of stories about seekers who meditate for years and years and, at the end of their journey’s close, when their chosen deity is satisfied and agrees to grant them a boon, they ask for something destructive. One very well-known story is about a devotee of Lord Shiva who meditated for years and years to satisfy Lord Shiva. Then the boon he asked for was this: that any person whose head he touched would immediately be burned to ashes. When Shiva granted him this boon, he wanted to test it on Shiva’s head. But Shiva ran away and took shelter with Vishnu, and Vishnu’s clever wisdom saved Shiva, Vishnu said to the aspirant, “You are a fool. Why have you to chase Shiva in order to know whether the boon is genuine. You could easily place your hand on your own head and see its efficacy.” The foolish aspirant did this and was destroyed.

What do we learn from this story? When we want something undivine or destructive, God may give it to us; but there is a divine force which is infinitely more powerful than our undivine force, and this will come to God’s aid. If the ignorance in us wants something and cries for it, the boon may be granted; but if God does not fulfil our ignorance-prayer, it is a real blessing. And when He does fulfil our ignorance-prayer in order to give us an experience, then we have to know that this experience is necessary so that later we will cry for real Truth and Light. After giving us the necessary experience of ignorance, God will try to pull us towards His Height. At that time He does not actually destroy the capacity of our prayer; He only shows us that the capacity of our prayer should be directed towards some reality which is divine and immortal.

In India, when thieves enter into the temple to commit a theft, first they pray to Mother Kali that they will not be caught red-handed. Mother Kali may listen to them a few times, but after a while they are caught. When they pray, Mother Kali says, “All right, you want a life of ignorance; I will fulfil your ignorance.” But there comes a time when her higher wisdom, which is compassion, starts to operate. She wants these desire-bound souls to be liberated from ignorance, so she exposes them to earthly justice.

If we want to achieve leadership through the fulfilment of ignorance, God grants us that boon. But when we have the inner cry, God immediately removes from us the leadership which is based on ignorance, and He kindles the flame of aspiration in us so that we can become endowed with divine leadership and be the torch-bearers of His Light and Truth.

On the physical plane we have a human body. When the physical in us listens to the inner voice or has a free access to the inner being, even the physical can become a real leader. One striking instance I can tell you. All of you know about India’s great political leader, the father of the Indian renaissance, Mahatma Gandhi. His physical frame was very frail and weak, but his physical frame embodied inner light in abundant measure. His mental capacity was not on the same level with that of Nehru and others, but his soul’s light guided India’s fate and the leaders who were mental giants sat at his feet. Why? Just because he saw a higher light, a higher truth, which he wanted to express through his philosophy of ahimsa, or non-violence. Ahimsa does not mean that one will not strike someone or fight with someone. Gandhi’s non-violence was the vision of universal and transcendental Light in humanity. This is the vision that he had and embodied and wanted to reveal. That is why he became India’s unparalleled and supreme leader. A real leader is he who has inner light in boundless measure; it is he who represents the soul inside the physical, outside the physical and everywhere. He who wants to convey the message of the soul is the real leader.

It is said that a poet is born, not made. There is much truth in this. But I have seen that by the grace of spiritual Masters, or by the grace of inner awakening, many people have become poets. I am using the word in its largest sense — as an artist in any plane of consciousness or in any form of art. If one has not brought with him at birth a particular capacity, that does not mean that he will not be able to acquire or develop that capacity in this lifetime. One can! If one has not come into the world with a quality of leadership, it does not mean that that person will never have leadership in this incarnation. No! If one accepts the spiritual life, it means one is beginning a new life. If one has an inner guide, a spiritual Master, he enters into a new life and is awakened to the highest Truth. A new life means a new hope, a new promise, a new prophesy, a new dream which is about to be blossomed into reality. This new life is bound to offer the seeker what he wants, whether it be leadership or anything else.

So an individual can become a divine instrument even though he did not bring down on his own the capacity to be a divine instrument. To become a chosen instrument of God is to become a divine leader, a supreme leader. This can be done by mutual acceptance. If light accepts darkness as its very own, and if night accepts light as its very own — that is to say, if the higher part in us is accepted by the lower part and vice versa — only then can the light act in and through the darkness which needs guidance and constant assurance. If he who needs and he who has can consciously become one, then one sees through the other. The lowest needs the highest for its realisation. The highest needs the lowest for its manifestation.

Divine leadership either one has or one is going to have. It is not the sole monopoly of any individual. It is granted to all. But each individual has to be aware that this capacity and reality abide in him. He has to exercise his inner capacity; he has to feel the need of this reality. Then automatically, spontaneously, divine leadership comes forward and increases in boundless measure. This leadership must come to the fore. How does it come to the fore? When one consciously and constantly feels that he is of one Source and he is for all mankind. This moment he is the Creator; the next moment he is the creation. When he thinks of himself as the Creator, he is one. When he thinks of himself as the creation, he is many. He has to see and become the Dream; he has to see and become the Reality; and finally he has to see the Dream and the Reality in his being as one, each complementing the other. Dream we need to fly in the sky of the ever-transcending Beyond. Reality we need to manifest the transcendental Height and to give value to the universality in and around us. The song of the Transcendental we sing through our Dream. The song of the Universal we sing through our Reality. Both Transcendental and Universal, both Dream and Reality, make us whole, complete and perfect.

The past, the present and the future⁶

The past is important. The future is more important. The present is most important. The present is infinitely more important than the past and the future put together.

The past is a promise, an unfulfilled promise. The future is a hope, an uncertain hope. The present is necessity’s reality and reality’s necessity. The present is the eternal Now. The “eternal” is God the Name. The “Now” is God the Form. When God the Form enters into God the Name, God the Form becomes the transcendental Vision. When God the Name enters into God the Form, God the Name becomes the universal Reality.

Transcendence and universality, Vision and Reality, are inseparable and invaluable. When we want to become members of the world of Vision-Dream, transcendence is invaluable. When we want to become members of the world of Reality-manifestation, immanence is invaluable. Transcendence is the seed. Immanence is the fruit. A seed is no seed if it does not reveal the fruit. A fruit is no fruit if it does not embody the seed. So the seed and the fruit are at once inseparable and invaluable. In Heaven we are all seeds of God’s Dream. On earth we are all fruits of God’s Reality.

The United Nations and world union⁷

The United Nations is the seed. World union is the fruit. Both are equally important; both are of supreme importance. God-Vision embodies the seed. God-Reality reveals the fruit.

The United Nations is the morning. World union is the day. When the heart of the morning is flooded with inner light, divine light, the Light of God, then it is not only possible but almost certain that the entire day will be flooded with light. On very, very rare occasions we see otherwise. But most of the time morning shows the day. The United Nations tells us where truth is. World union tells us what truth is. Where is truth? Truth is in self-giving. What is truth? Truth is man’s transformation of his earth-bound nature.

The United Nations is a group of pilgrims on a journey. As the pilgrims walk along the path of light towards the same destination, they feel mutual appreciation. From appreciation they go one step ahead to love. From appreciation comes love and from love comes oneness. Oneness is the perfection of man in God and the satisfaction of God in man. He who is a true member of the United Nations treasures a shared life in a shared world.

A divided mind and a separated heart cannot quench the inner thirst either of the United Nations or of the world. We must cultivate a new type of reality, a new type of truth. This truth is creative, illumining and fulfilling. This truth must awaken the dormant physical in us, marshal the unruly vital in us, illumine the doubtful and suspicious mind in us and strengthen and immortalise the insecure heart in us. This truth is world union.

Each individual must dive deep within and discover his pent-up reservoir of dynamic energy. This energy has to be released so that the human mind can enter into the universal Mind, so that the human heart can enter into the eternal Heart and so that the human life can enter into the Life immortal.

Both the United Nations and the world have a special type of faith. This faith is evolutionary. It evolves from within to without, it evolves from unity to multiplicity and it evolves from multiplicity into the transcendental Reality.

The United Nations and world union have an evolutionary faith and a revolutionary life. This revolutionary life wants to challenge the untold poverty and teeming ignorance of the world. The golden day is bound to dawn when this world of ours will be totally freed from poverty. But the outer poverty can be transformed only when the inner poverty is removed. Inner poverty is our lack of faith in our divine reality, our lack of faith in our capacity to realise the ultimate Truth. Unless and until we have put an end to our inner poverty, the problem of the outer poverty cannot be solved.

Inner poverty is disharmony and restlessness; inner plenitude is peace, harmony and love. For the lover of the United Nations and world union, the watchword must needs always be peace. Peace is found in self-giving and in our recognition of others’ good and divine qualities. The more we see the divine qualities in others, the sooner we will establish world peace.

Each nation has the strength and will-power of the Absolute. Each nation has the golden opportunity in the inner world to offer to the outer world a living hope and a living promise. This hope and this promise are not a mental hallucination or a false aggrandisement of ego. They are an inner reality that the nation can easily bring to the fore. In the inner world all the nations are equally important, for in the inner world each nation has a free access to world peace, world light, world harmony and world perfection. But in the outer life the nations that consciously aspire and cry for light are in a position to help the less advanced nations that are walking behind.

In the evolutionary process of human life, the first rung of the ladder is the United Nations, the second rung is world union and the third rung is man’s total and perfect Perfection. But if we do not place our foot on the first rung and then on the second, it will be simply impossible for us to climb up to the Highest.

Each nation is a promise of God for God Himself. What we call world union today has to be surpassed tomorrow by something else, and that something else is world perfection. Union as such is not enough; the perfection of union is what we actually want. We may stay in a family even if we quarrel, fight and kill one another. But only if we can establish the sweetest feeling of oneness, does our union reach the acme of perfection.

Simplicity, sincerity and purity⁸

I wish to give a very short talk on simplicity, sincerity and purity. All we need is simplicity. A child is simple; therefore everybody loves the child. All we need is sincerity. A child is sincere; therefore everybody loves the child. All we need is purity. A child is pure; therefore everybody loves the child.

Simplicity, sincerity and purity. On the one hand, these three things we are able to use at any moment in our day-to-day life. On the other hand, they are the most difficult things that we have to achieve. It takes only a few seconds to spell “simplicity”, “sincerity” and “purity”. Again, these are not mere words. These are not mere ideas or conceptions. They represent three illumining and fulfilling worlds: a world of simplicity, a world of sincerity and a world of purity.

Each individual on earth is running towards his destination. If the runner is simple, he will wear only the basic garments that are necessary. He will not wear something very heavy or expensive to draw the attention of the spectators. If the runner is sincere, then he will run in his own lane. He will not enter into the lanes of others and thus disturb them and create confusion in them. If the runner is pure, then in silence he will conquer the spectators’ hearts. So by being simple, sincere and pure he will run the fastest. Not only will he run the fastest, but while he is running there will come a time when he will feel that the goal itself has been within his easy reach right from the beginning.

Each time an individual becomes simple, he feels an extra amount of peace and joy inside his restless mind. Each time an individual is sincere, he feels that he has gained a considerable portion of the world, of the length and breadth of the world. And each time an individual is pure, he feels that the whole world is not only in him but also for him.

Each human being — no matter how old he is, how mature he is, how developed he is, how intelligent he is — if he wants to have an iota of peace, abiding peace, then he must needs have simplicity, sincerity and purity. These are the three things that are most essential in each individual life and in the collective life.

There are people who are of the opinion that simplicity is almost tantamount to stupidity. A child is simple, yet inside the child’s simplicity some people are apt to see stupidity. But I wish to say that simplicity and stupidity are like North Pole and South Pole. One can be as simple as a child and, at the same time, one can have boundless knowledge, light and wisdom. The great philosopher Socrates is a striking example. He was at once simplicity and wisdom. And, in his case, we can see something more. He was not only a man of simplicity, but also a man of inner sincerity and inner purity.

It happened once that a friend of his invited a palmist to read Socrates’ palm. While examining Socrates’ hand the palmist said, “I have never seen such a bad man! He is full of such undivine qualities. This man has impurity flowing through him like anything.”

Socrates’ friend became furious and said, “It can never be!” But Socrates replied, “Wait, my friend. I am sure the palmist has something more to say.” The palmist said, “Yes, I have something more to say. All these undivine things that I am seeing are under his perfect control. The evil forces that I noticed have not manifested and will not be able to manifest in and through him. Socrates has the wisdom-power to keep them under perfect control like an animal that is tamed by the master.”

Each human being wants satisfaction. Satisfaction in life can come only by acquiring some knowledge, more knowledge, abundant knowledge, infinite knowledge. In order to achieve infinite knowledge, we have to become students. Socrates, a great philosopher, a man of boundless wisdom, said, “I would like to become an eternal student.” A child is a student. A child’s life is the life of a student. A child feels at every moment that he has something new to learn and to become. A child grows; he opens his heart’s door to the world-knowledge. And each time he learns something he feels there is something more he has to learn. A new sun has to dawn in his life.

All those who are working at the United Nations or working for the United Nations are serving the United Nations individually and collectively according to their capacities. But if we want to increase this capacity, either in the physical world, the vital world, the mental world or the psychic world, then we all have to feel that we are students, that we are children.

The United Nations is at once the body and the soul of God’s unique Vision. Those of us who serve the body and the soul of God’s Vision will be blessed divinely, supremely, unreservedly and infinitely — but only when we feel the necessity of seeing in ourselves a child’s heart, feeling in ourselves a child’s life. The dreamer in us is a child. He dreams of God’s infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. And today’s dream-life of his will tomorrow grow into reality-experience and reality-satisfaction.

The more we feel the necessity of simplicity, sincerity and purity, the more we become perfect instruments — not only of the nations that we represent, but also of the Almighty, whom we represent here on earth. Let us become simple. Let us become sincere. Let us become pure. If we can become simple, sincere and pure, then not only will the dreams that we treasure for our own countries soon be fulfilled, but also all the dreams that the Almighty has for His own Manifestation will be manifested in and through us. Not only our dreams for our own countries, but also the dreams for Manifestation that God has, in and through us will be manifested. At that time we shall grow into His Reality-Satisfaction and Reality-Perfection.

Simplicity, sincerity, purity: right now they are our most faithful, devoted instruments which will help us reach the ultimate Goal. There will come a day when we see that the Goal of the transcendental Heights is smiling in and through these three faithful and devoted friends of ours. And in this transcendental Smile we will see and feel that we are not mere mortals subjected to ignorance-life, but rather we are part and parcel of Infinity’s Light, Eternity’s Love andImmortality’s all-embracing, all-illumining and all-fulfilling Oneness.

The chosen instrument of God⁹

U Thant was a chosen instrument of God. U Thant was a chosen instrument of man.

God gave him His Compassion-sky to offer to man. Man gave him his suffering-sea to offer to God.

U Thant started his earthly sojourn as a Rangoon, Burma Buddha-son. The Absolute Supreme gradually made him into a universal Wisdom-son and a universal Blessing-gift.

To us, peace is something that belongs in a dream-land. Since it belongs to dream-land we talk about it. To U Thant, peace is something that belongs to the reality-world. Therefore he lived in the reality-world of peace and was a solid and treasured member of the reality-peace-world.

To us, oneness is something that we seem to want but do not actually feel the need for. To U Thant, oneness was something of constant need, something indispensable. His heart cried for this oneness and the Lord Supreme, the Author of all good, fulfilled his heart’s burning desire.

The United Nations gave U Thant the opportunity to speak to the world-body as a supreme leader of mankind. In return, U Thant gave to the United Nations the message of the world-mind-illumination, of the world-heart-perfection and of the world-life-satisfaction.

U Thant was the supreme choice of the United Nations, and God was pleased. But God wanted U Thant to please Him more. Therefore, he made U Thant a pioneer voice of light from the higher worlds.

Simplicity, purity and integrity he was. He was a child’s simplicity. He was a saint’s purity. He was a God-lover’s integrity.

He struggled calmly. He suffered ceaselessly. He hoped sleeplessly. Again, he knew how to dream of success. He knew how to become the river of progress.

We feel that man is bad, imperfect and undivine. His conviction was that man is good, perfect and divine, for that is what each individual in the inner world eternally is.

U Thant’s life of humility was the result of his heart’s nobility. His heart of nobility was the result of his soul’s unparalleled divinity.

Sincerity spoke through him, integrity breathed in him, spirituality walked with him. He knew the world-problem: ignorance. He knew the world-answer: meditation, and this he practised in silence.

God practised His silence-meditation in and through U Thant. God practised His sound-dedication in and through U Thant.

U Thant was at once God-Humility and man-dignity. He was at once man-frustration and God-Illumination. He was at once the soulful son of God and the faithful slave of man.

Self-demonstration he ruthlessly shunned. Self-perfection he practised. God-Perfection he sought to embrace and treasure. Before him the United Nations was great, divinely great. With him, after him, the United Nations has become supremely good.

In the inner world he was God’s Promise, God’s Promise to the outer world. In the outer world he was man’s confidence, man’s confidence in becoming a dedicated instrument of the inner world.

Earth gave him the responsibility. Heaven knew it and saw it. Heaven gave him the authority but, unfortunately, earth did not know it or did not care to know it. His heart of brotherhood was misunderstood. His life of sacrifice was not valued. But his vision of oneness-goal will eternally be pursued by aspiring humanity.

An Asian seed he was. A world-fruit he has become and forever and forever he shall remain.

The New Year, 1975¹⁰

Today we are holding a special meeting to commemorate the arrival of the new year. Each new year is an important chapter in our book of life. We know that if a book has seven chapters, all seven chapters will not be of the same importance. Similarly, although every year has great importance, one year may be more important than another year.

The New Year’s Message

The year 1975 will be the year of the seeker’s outer success and inner progress. With his outer success, he will love and serve the Supreme Pilot. With his inner progress, he will manifest and fulfil the Supreme Pilot.

This year is a most significant year, for it will affect both the inner life and the outer life at the same time. There have been years when we have noticed outer success without inner progress. Again, there have been quite a few years when we have experienced inner progress but no outer success. The success we are referring to is not the success of an unaspiring human being, not the success of an earthbound man who wants to achieve success by hook or by crook. Our success is not of that type. Ours is the outer success that is the manifestation of our inner progress.

Inner progress and outer success we shall observe simultaneously this year in our life of aspiration and dedication. Aspiration symbolises our inner progress and dedication symbolises our outer success. We need inner progress for the full realisation of the aspiring immortality within us. We need outer success for the full manifestation of the Divinity within us.

When we think of our outer success, we have to know that success means offering to the Lord Supreme what we have: love, concern and the feeling of universal oneness. When we think of our inner progress, we have to realise that inner progress means our constant, conscious, glowing and undying gratitude to the Absolute Supreme.

By offering to the Transcendental Supreme what we have, we shall achieve divine outer success. By offering to the Transcendental Supreme what we eternally are, we shall achieve ever-increasing, ever-transcending inner progress.

Here we are all sincere seekers. We are sincere according to our capacity and receptivity, but undoubtedly we are sincere. A sincere seeker makes an inner commitment to his inner Pilot. His commitment is that he shall not be satisfied unless and until he has grown into the very image of the Supreme.

We travel along the road of sincerity and humility in order to run fastest towards our goal. When we run fastest, at that time our very existence shall be an offering of unconditional surrender and all-surrendering gratitude to our inner Pilot, the Supreme.

Most of the seekers here belong to the United Nations Meditation Group. Each member must feel that it is a great honour to be part and parcel of this Meditation Group, for it is through the Meditation Group that we enter into the heart and soul of the United Nations. Inside the heart and soul of the United Nations we feel the real hunger and real thirst of bleeding, crying, desiring and aspiring humanity. Since we are all members of the Meditation Group, it is our bounden duty to be of totally dedicated, devoted inner service to the loftiest ideals of the United Nations. Each member of this Meditation Group is trying to be a real instrument of Truth, Light, Love and Peace. Each member of the United Nations Meditation Group is aspiring to serve humanity’s divine cause and longing for the fulfilment of humanity’s divine cause.

The League of Nations was a tiny plant, but now it has grown into a huge tree, the United Nations. The time will come when the whole world will take rest at the foot of this tree — this tree of patience, this tree of compassion, this tree of love, this tree of universal oneness. And one day we shall have to climb up the tree, pluck its most energising fruits and offer them to hungry humanity.

To each member of the United Nations Meditation Group, I offer my blessingful gratitude and pride. Especially to Sumedha do I offer my most sincere blessingful gratitude for her constant loving service to the supreme cause that we have undertaken here. Now I wish to invite the members of the Meditation Group to come up and meditate for a few minutes.

Now I wish to invite the members of the Meditation Group to come up and meditate for a few minutes.

Human will-power and divine will-power¹¹

We are all seekers, and what we all need is divine will-power. What do we mean by will or will-power? Human will is an experience of the body in the material plane, in the human consciousness. Divine will is an experience of the soul in the body, vital, mind and heart.

In the hoary past, human beings used will in order to remain simple. They thought and felt that God was all simplicity; therefore, they too wanted to be simple. But in the modern day world, human beings think and feel that God is not at all simple. They think that He is complicated and difficult to understand; therefore, the modern day world looks for truth in a very complex and sophisticated manner. In the hoary past, humans wanted to realise what they eternally are. Now we try to become what we can ultimately claim as our very own.

Will is an experience. This experience we utilise to cultivate and manifest the truth in us. When we utilise the soul’s will, we feel that God the Truth and God the Light are infinite and immortal. But when we utilise the will of the physical consciousness, the earth-consciousness, we feel that God is only a little better, only an inch higher, only a little more perfect than we are.

When we use the human will, we make a comparison between God’s Height, Capacity and Reality and our own height, capacity and reality. But when we use the divine will, at that time we make no comparison. We know God is infinite, God is eternal, God is immortal. We also know that what God is, we inherently are. God is manifesting Himself — what He eternally is. We are trying to realise ourselves — what we eternally are. Right after our realisation, we shall also act like God; we shall also sing the song of manifestation.

The world is progressing towards a specific goal. But the seeker in us is progressing towards the highest transcendental Goal. In the course of its progress, the world has succeeded in reaching the moon, it can travel down to the bottom of the ocean. But the world does not have the capacity to cover the distance between its eyes and its nose. Our eyes are closed shut, or, even if they are open, they are unable to see the truth. The nose is the life-breath; it brings in cosmic energy, cosmic light and power. But the present-day world denies the existence of light or feels that light is far beyond its reach or that, even if it has the capacity to reach and become light, even then it will not gain satisfaction by doing so. The world feels that what it has so far received and achieved has not given it ultimate satisfaction and perfection, so why should it believe that there is something else that can give it ultimate perfection? But here the present-day world is making a deplorable mistake.

Will-power makes us see and feel what we are in God’s Eye. In God’s Eye we are more than perfect. Every conception of perfection is different. Once we attain to our ideal of perfection, we feel that we have played the game; our role is over. But in God’s Eye, perfection is something constantly transcending itself, something constantly singing the song of Eternity’s transcendence. God’s idea of perfection constantly sings the song of self-transcendence.

Human will gave the world its prosperity and glory. The divine will shall give us what we eternally have and what we eternally are. What we eternally have is God’s Concern, and what we eternally are is God’s Perfection and God’s Manifestation.

Education¹²

Dear seekers, I wish to give a very short talk on education, and then I shall welcome a few spiritual questions.

From the spiritual point of view, what is education? Education is a sacred opportunity to learn and unlearn. What do we learn? We learn God-knowledge. What do we unlearn? We unlearn the teachings of ignorance-night. What is God-knowledge? God-knowledge is self-giving. And what is ignorance-night? Ignorance-night is self-binding.

Education is also a sacred opportunity to achieve. What do we achieve? At the end of our journey’s close, we achieve God-perfection. And what is God-perfection? God-perfection is “I am; I eternally am; I universally am.”

Education is continuous self-transcendence. This self-transcendence is not a visionary idea. It is not a chimerical mist. It is not a song for tomorrow’s dawn. No! Self-transcendence is a divine reality, an all-fulfilling reality in the immediacy of today.

Education human and education divine. Human education is either an unconscious or a conscious desire to gain supremacy and autocracy. Divine education is our devoted willingness to love and serve the Divine in the human, the infinite in the finite and the Heaven-free Reality in the earth-bound reality.

Human education, even when it reaches the ultimate rung of the ladder, quite often can be partial, hurtful, aggressive, unlit, obscure, impure and undivine in the truest sense of these terms.

Divine education is spontaneous, soulful and fruitful. It is an inner urge to perfect one’s outer life and bring to the fore the forgotten essence of Eternity, Infinity and Immortality within us.

Human education, at its very best, is greatness. But this greatness quite often fails to mix with goodness. Therefore, we can safely and unmistakably say that human greatness is blind to goodness. But divine education is goodness within, goodness without.

Again, we have to know that there is human goodness and divine goodness. Human goodness is charity-flower and philanthropy-fruit, which satisfies the human in us. Divine goodness is devotion-flower and surrender-fruit, which satisfies the divine in us and pleases the Inner Pilot, the Ultimate Absolute within us.

Human education always means money-power and time-power. Divine education is devoted willingness, which far transcends money-power and time-power. Divine education is something that establishes or will establish its inseparable oneness with something beyond time and space, far beyond the domain of material power, earthly possessions and earthly achievements.

As you all know, today the United Nations is observing Woman’s Day. This is a most significant and most auspicious day not only for the United Nations but also for the entire world, for all of aspiring humanity. Sri Ramakrishna, the great Indian spiritual Master of Himalayan height, taught us to see each woman as the mother, the direct representative of the divine Mother.

Today our subject matter is education. It is our mother who gives us our education first and foremost. It is from her that we get not only our first lesson, but also the last transcendental lesson. When we see the light of day she tells us, “Children, look around. The earth is beautiful.” As years advance upon us, our mother tells us, “Children, go deep within, dive deep within. There is something which is infinitely more beautiful than the earth.” Her final teaching is this: “Children, the beauty of earth and the beauty of Heaven have only one source, and that source is God, our Eternity’s beloved Supreme, who is All-Beauty.”

From earth we get one kind of education; from Heaven we get another kind of education. We need education both from earth and from Heaven. Thousands of years ago the Vedic Seers offered us a lofty message. Their message was to accept both knowledge and ignorance as one and then finally to transcend both ignorance and knowledge.

Through earth-knowledge we make scientific discoveries and become the masters of our earth-life. Through Heaven-wisdom we learn universal love and the feeling of inseparable oneness; we become the lords of our inner existence.

Since it is Woman’s Day, I wish to offer a soulful song which heralds the victory of the Divine Mother, the Mother Supreme. Tomari hok jai — Mother, may Thy victory be proclaimed …

Tribute to Mohammed¹³

The world is celebrating the birthday of Mohammed, the great prophet. On behalf of the United Nations Meditation Group I wish to offer our soulful salutations to this great prophet.

Mohammed was the founder of the world religion, Islam. When he first saw the light of day, he saw the face of poverty too. Poverty dogged him and tortured him practically from the start to the finish of his earth-journey.

He prayed on Mount Hira. Illumination dawned. The angel Gabriel appeared and declared him the prophet of God. In Mohammed and with Mohammed a new and true religion-flower began to blossom. The prophet offered two courses, lower and higher. The lower course ran like this:

Mohammed’s higher course ran like this: Yes, like other mighty prophets, Mohammed too had a world-illumining message:

The Koran, the great voice of his good soul, was fed sumptuously and energised considerably by the lighthouse of the Old Testament. To our sorrow, the Cross and the Crescent are not good friends. Blind rivalry reigns supreme. But to our joy, one is serving the Father and illumining mankind according to its height of compassion-salvation. The other is serving Allah and illumining mankind according to its height of dedication-satisfaction.

Mohammed, O world prophet, to you we offer our soul’s obeisance.

An inner duty and an outer duty¹⁴

I shall be extremely glad and grateful if all the members of the Meditation Group attend the functions that quite often take place here. If you are not actively participating, please do not feel sorry; you will be given ample opportunity to participate. Your very presence is of tremendous importance. Please feel that each of you is of paramount importance. In God’s Eye, you are His chosen instrument. Whenever there is any function at the United Nations, I request you most sincerely to be there unless you have something very urgent or important to do. Your presence will give the aspiring soul of the United Nations tremendous joy. It is a great opportunity that all of us here have to serve not only the body and the soul of the United Nations, but also the living breath of humanity and God’s constant, glowing, dream-fulfilling Reality.

Each member of the United Nations Meditation Group has an inner duty and an outer duty. Your inner duty is to pray and meditate and your outer duty is to serve and dedicate. All of you are working at the United Nations, serving the United Nations and the world according to your capacity. But “capacity” is a very complicated word. Although we know how to spell it, although we know the dictionary meaning of it, we do not know the actual secret or true wealth of our capacity; we do not know how much we can do for the world. Our capacity goes far beyond the flight of our imagination-bird. We have been given the opportunity to serve this world-body and world-soul. For the last five years we have tried, but we could have tried more. We could have tried in a more soulful way. What we have done is nothing in comparison to what we could have done. Political history right now does not value us, and it may not value us even in the future. But there is something called spiritual history. And I wish to say that spiritual history will bear witness to what we are doing. In spiritual history, our love of light, our love of truth, our love of brotherhood, our feeling of loving oneness, will be inscribed in letters of gold. It is not for world-recognition, but to help bring about a better world and a more fulfilling life that each of us has to do something. We have to give ourselves consciously, constantly, unreservedly and unconditionally. Let us not miss this opportunity. If we miss this opportunity, we shall miss much, for we shall have to live in a poor and blind world, as we have been living up to now. But if we consciously dedicate ourselves to the supreme cause with our aspiration, prayer, meditation and devoted service, then in us and through us will grow a better world, a more illumining world and a more fulfilling world.

Silence¹⁵

Silence, silence. Silence is our aspiration-plant. Silence is our realisation-tree.

Silence, silence. Silence transcends our mind-seed. Silence transcends our thought-fruit.

Silence, silence. On earth, silence speaks most eloquently. In Heaven, silence acts most powerfully. In God, silence lives most fruitfully. Silence is the illumination of our earth-bound greatness. Silence is the illumination of our heaven-free goodness.

Silence, silence. Silence is the world-teacher yet unappreciated. Silence is the world-student yet unrecognised.

Silence, silence. Silence is at once the beauty of the universal creation and the duty of the transcendental Creator.

Silence, silence. Silence is man’s ascendence in God, for God. Silence is God’s transcendence in man, for man.

Part II — Spiritual words

UV 17-39. Room 550. On 4 April 1975, during a meeting of the United Nations Meditation Group, Sri Chinmoy invited those present to give him spiritual words, on which he then elaborated. The resulting 22 poems have been published in the book //Beauty-Drops.//

Spiritual words

Sri Chinmoy: I wish to invite each seeker to give me a spiritual word, and I shall say a few words on that particular word or concept. I shall be extremely happy and grateful if you would offer me one spiritual word. Please meditate for a minute and then we shall start.

18. Sincerity

A human being
Does not know
What sincerity is.

A divine being
Does not know
Anything else save
And
Except sincerity.

19. Intensity

Concentration
Is
Intensity-power.

Meditation
Is
Immensity-power.

Contemplation
Is
Earth’s,
Heaven’s
And
God’s
Utility-power.

20. Love

Human love
Tells the world
What it can do for the world,
Although
It does not do it.

Divine love
Tells the world
That it is crying to be accepted
As a real friend
By the world of suffering,
The world of misunderstanding
And
The world of constant miseries,
Frustrations, trials and tribulations.
Love divine
Is begging this world of ours
Only to be accepted
So that it may then serve the world.

21. Transcendence

The human in us
Ascends for success,
Greater success
And
Greatest success.

The divine in us
Transcends for self-giving,
More self-giving,
And
Most self-giving.

22. Will-power

Will-power
Is the light of the soul.
This light of the soul
Does not expose
The darkness of millennia
Which we embody.
On the contrary,
This light of the soul
Illumines the ignorance-night
That has captured us
And wants to strangle us.
This light frees us,
This light liberates us
From ignorance-night
And
Then illumines the ignorance-night
That had enveloped us.

23. Oneness

Oneness with the physical world
Teaches us
How to divide,
How to separate,
How to limit
And
How to bind;
It teaches us
How to destroy the thing
That we feel is real in us,
Which is love.

Oneness with the spiritual world
And spiritual life
Shows us
How to give,
How to serve,
How to grow into
And
How to become a divine being,
The Being Supreme
Who embodies the Love of the
World Beyond.

24. Vastness

Vastness
Is
The expansion of purity
In the human being.
Vastness
Is
The song of oneness
In the life of the seeker.
It is
The life of oneness
With the world of love
In the life of a genuine seeker.

25. Light

Where is light?
Is it in the mind?
Yes, it is.
When will it come to the fore?
Nobody knows.
Only God knows.

Where is light?
Is it inside the heart?
Yes, it is.
When will it come to the fore?
Now, right now.
Not only does God know it,
But we all know it.

26. Purity

Purity
In the mind
Can save the world.
Purity
In the vital
Can build the world for God’s use.
Purity
In the body
Can alone create a
Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Purity
In the heart
Is God-Perfection
In a human being.

27. Courage

With physical courage
We take pride
In breaking the world
In our own way.
With the courage of the spirit
We offer the world to God.
We place the world, our world,
At the Feet of God
So that He may guide and mould
The world, our world,
In His own Way.

28. Harmony

If you want to see
The world with your human eyes,
You can never see harmony.
If you want to see
The world with the eyes of the world,
You can never see harmony.
But
If you want to see the world with God’s Eye,
Then you will see
That this world
Is nothing but cosmic harmony.
How do you see through God’s Eye?
You see only through constant self-giving
To the Source within you.

29. Delight

My yesterday’s experience was:
Receiving is all delight.
My today’s experience is:
Giving is all delight.
My tomorrow’s experience will be:
God-becoming in God’s own Way
Is all delight.

30. Compassion

Compassion
Is God’s Perfection
In man
And
Man’s total, ultimate transformation
In God.

31. Heart

A seeker’s heart
Cares neither for success
Nor for failure.
A seeker’s heart
Longs for the seeker’s
Constant acceptance of God
And
God’s constant
Unconditional experience
In and through the seeker’s life.

32. Charity

Charity needs a beggar,
But who wants to play
The role of a beggar?
Nobody.

Oneness-necessity needs reality
And
Reality needs oneness-necessity.

Not charity,
But oneness-necessity
Is reality’s divinity.
Oneness-necessity
Is what God wants from us.

33. Humility

Humility is not only
The swiftest speed to God-destination,
But something more.
Humility brings God-destination
Nearer to our starting point.

34. Victory

The hour of victory strikes within me
In my aspiring heart
Only when I offer the reality-second
To the hour of victory.
The reality-second
Which is flooded with aspiration-light
Has to be offered
To the hour of victory for its arrival.

35. Affection

Sweet
Is affection-plant.
Sweeter
Is love-tree.
Sweetest
Is oneness-fruit.

36. Speed

My aspiration-speed
Will carry me to God.
My dedication-speed
Will carry me to God.
My surrender-speed
Will not only bring God to me,
But it will make God work in and through me
In a God-illumined way.

37. Divine Beloved

The human beloved
Is a one-day wonder,
And then it becomes boring
And is all gone.
It is an experience
Of frustration-night.
The divine Beloved
Is He who grows in me,
Who makes me feel that
I am eternally of Him
And
I am eternally for Him.

38. Discrimination

Discrimination is
A power of illumination.
In the mental world,
Discrimination is the height achieved
By the aspiring divine in us.

39. Perfection

Human appreciation
Of perfection
Is a short-lived proclamation.
Divine appreciation
Of perfection
Is a continuous proclamation
Of perfection
And
A continuous transcendence
Of perfection.

Part III — Talks

Philosophy, religion and yoga¹⁷

I wish to offer my heart’s deepest gratitude to the professor of Eastern philosophy who has so kindly given me the opportunity to be of service to the students and seekers of his school. Nothing gives me greater joy, nothing has greater value in my life than to be of dedicated service to those who love the truth and who need the truth.

I wish to give a very, very short talk on philosophy, religion and Yoga.

Your professor has told me that you are studying Eastern philosophy. Here I think it will be appropriate on my part to invoke the presence of the Lord Buddha, to bring down peace, light and bliss in abundant measure. The main reason is that your teacher is, I understand, a follower of the Lord Buddha. So, with your most kind permission, I would like to recite the most soulful and fruitful chant for the followers of the Lord Buddha. [Sri Chinmoy chants:]

Buddham sharanam gacchami
Dhammam sharanam gacchami
Sangham sharanam gacchami

I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Order for refuge.

Philosophy sees the truth. Religion feels the Truth. Yoga becomes the Truth. God-Perfection is the Truth.

Philosophy is in the searching mind. Religion is in the loving heart. Yoga is in the aspiring entire being.

A real philosophy teacher teaches the outer world. A real religion teacher loves the inner world. A real Yoga teacher discovers his inseparable oneness with both the inner world and the outer world.

The inner world achieves.
The outer world reveals.
The inner world achieves God-Height.
The outer world reveals God-Depth.
God-Height is soulfully beautiful.
God-Depth is beautifully soulful.

When a seeker becomes soulfully beautiful, he embodies the cry of continuous self-transcendence. When a seeker becomes beautifully soulful, he reveals constantly the smile of self-transformation and self-perfection.

The human philosophy ignores the animal in us and belittles the human in us. The divine philosophy accepts the challenges of life, braves the buffets of life and finally, offers life a conscious awareness of the purpose of life.

Human religion is the song of the unfulfilling and unfulfilled many and the marked and isolated many. Divine religion is the dance of the liberating and liberated, fulfilling and fulfilled One in the aspiring many and of the many in the immortalising and immortal One.

The human Yoga needs God because God is great, absolutely great and because He is powerful, eternally powerful. The divine Yoga needs God because God is good, in the sound life of the finite and in the silence-life of the Infinite.

The outer power, the inner power¹⁸

Each human being on earth embodies the outer power and the inner power. He is aware of his outer power when he looks without, around himself. He is conscious of his inner power when he dives deep within.

Each human being is the outer power and the inner power. When he calls himself the head and the body-consciousness, nothing more and nothing else, then he is the outer power. When he calls himself the soul, the soul-light, then he is the inner power.

The body-consciousness has light of its own. The soul-consciousness has light of its own. The body-consciousness, because of its limitations, does not see far. For the body-consciousness the future always remains a far cry. The soul-consciousness, because of its unlimited capacity, at one and the same time sees, grows into and becomes the achievements of the past, the realisations of the present and the vision-dreams of the future.

The outer power blinds the human in us. The outer power is devoured by the animal in us. The inner power clears and expands our vision; it shows our vision the way to reach the highest transcendental Goal.

The outer power is competition: conscious and constant competition. The inner power is conscious conception: conception of its own worth, its own reality and divinity. Divinity proceeds and succeeds, succeeds and proceeds. Reality eternally is. Again, in its silence-life, reality is at once the transcendental Height and the immanence-Light.

The outer power is supremacy. The inner power is accuracy: accuracy stating the fact of what it has and what it is. What it has is the source and what it is, is the manifestation of the source.

The outer power sings with imagination, dances with temptation, dies in frustration. The inner power is concentration, meditation and contemplation. Concentration accepts the challenges of life. Meditation purifies and illumines the challenges of life. Contemplation transforms the challenges of life into golden opportunities in life for the inner being, the Inner Pilot in us.

The outer power wants to strike and then immediately wants to escape. The inner power wants not only to embrace the world but also to convince the world that the world’s existence and its own existence are eternally inseparable.

The outer power says to the inner power, “Look what I have. I have the capacity to destroy God’s entire creation.” The inner power says to the outer power, “Look what I have. I have the power to illumine God’s entire creation.”

The outer power is at times afraid of its own creation: the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb. The inner power is constantly feeding its creation with love-light, concern-light and perfection-light.

The outer power feels that there is a height which has to be transcended and that if this goal is achieved, then satisfaction will dawn. The inner power feels that height and depth, the foot of the mountain and the top of the mountain, are all at one place. It sees that they are singing the song of one reality, that they are all inside the cosmic Heart in perfect union, enjoying inseparable oneness.

The outer power wants only to ascend. It is afraid of descending. The inner power wants to ascend and descend. It knows perfectly well that when it is descending, it is carrying down to earth the descending God; and when it is ascending, it is carrying up to Heaven the ascending God.

The outer power is the dance of sound. The inner power is the song of silence. The life of sound is the creation of the human in us. The life of silence is the creation of the divine in us. The human in us wants to prove its existence. It feels that unless and until it can prove its existence, the world will have no respect for us, the world will not care for us. The divine in us does not want to prove its existence for world-acceptance, world-appreciation and world-admiration. The divine in us feels that its existence is God’s universal existence. God is experiencing His own ascending, descending and transcending Light in the divine in us.

The outer power is the human power. The inner power is the divine power. The outer power says, “I can do. I need no help, no assistance.” The inner power says, “I can do nothing and I am nothing. At the same time, I can do everything because there is someone in me, the Inner Pilot, who will do everything for me.” Furthermore, it says that the Inner Pilot has already done everything for us and that we only have to be aware of this.

When we live in the desire-world, the outer power lords it over us. The desire-world is the world of possession and frustration. When we live in the aspiration-world, the inner power illumines us and fulfils us.

The desire-world is the world without. The aspiration-world is the world within. Realisation has a free access to the inner world. And what is realisation? Realisation is the acceptance of reality as it is, reality at its present stage of evolution and reality at its ultimate height. Realisation tells us that the animal in us is for transformation, the human in us is for perfection, the divine in us is for manifestation.

Aspiration¹⁹

What is aspiration? Aspiration is speed.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is the fastest speed.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is Eternity’s fastest speed.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is Eternity’s fastest speed-communion between man and God.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is silence-vision. It is God the Supreme Beloved’s Silence-Vision.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is sound-mission. It is God the Supreme Lover’s Sound-Mission.

What is aspiration? Aspiration is the crying man’s duty. Aspiration is the smiling God’s Beauty.

Aspiration is God’s constant declaration of man’s capacity. Aspiration is man’s conscious necessity of God’s real Reality within and without him.

Aspiration is not and cannot be the destination. Aspiration is the eternal journey. It is man’s eternal journey to self-transcendence in the soul-light of perfection.

Aspiration is God’s eternal journey of supreme manifestation in the satisfaction-heart of His transcendental Height, universal Length and unfathomable Depth.

With aspiration God started His journey. With aspiration He asks His children, His creation, to continue the journey.

Patience²⁰

Patience is our unrecognised capacity; patience is our unrecognised achievement. Capacity succeeds; achievement proceeds.

Physical power, vital power and mental power are no match for patience-power. When physical power is misused against someone, the patience-power of that person will eventually triumph. In the outer life and the inner life, the victim will eventually succeed.

Human power is nothing short of animal power, destructive power, if we do not aspire, if we do not long for truth, light and beauty. Patience is our soul’s light. This light is always unconditional.

Here on the physical plane we notice patience in the mother and in the father. The mother’s compassion-light is patience; the mother’s concern-light is patience. The father’s wisdom-power is patience in his son. The father’s wisdom-power, his all-seeing wisdom for his son, is patience.

God created this world. In His creation vast He considers only one person as His friend: Patience. God and His Patience are inseparable.

God’s creation is not complete; perfection is still a far cry. God with His infinite Patience-Light aspires in and through each creation of His. God feels that His Patience-Light is a divine, magic power that can undo the past and transform it into the golden future.

There is nothing on earth that can undo the past but patience. If we have patience we can easily undo the past. The past is a morning mist, a meaningless experience in comparison to our future realisation. The past brought us the message of suffering, sorrow, weakness, limitation, bondage and death. Again, the soul’s light, which is patience, will eventually conquer delusion, illusion, temptation, limitation, everything undivine. God’s Patience-Light will conquer everything in and through us.

Man needs patience in order to discover what he truly is and God needs patience in order to make man feel not only that he is God’s son, God’s dearest creation, but that he is exactly the same as God. Man has to realise what he eternally is: God Himself. Man is now God veiled; with patience-light man will unveil his inner divinity. Man is God yet to be consciously and constantly realised and God is man yet to be manifested totally, completely and unmistakably here on earth.

Deliberately and consciously man claims something as his own which is not actually his: ignorance. But there is only one thing that man can claim as his own: God, nothing less and nothing else. Unless and until man comes to realise this, he will never know who he is. Man is divinity’s reality. This is the only thing that he has to discover: his real reality which is dormant within him.

When he is in the desire-life, each man should realise that in him there is God-seed. That God-seed is going to germinate eventually into a plant, and from a plant it will grow into a banyan tree. Again, when the same person enters into the spiritual life, he has to feel that the fruit, the eternal fruit, is already there just for him to eat. In the desire-world he has to discover God the seed so that he can grow and grow in aspiration. In the aspiration-world he has to discover God the fruit so that he can recognise what he eternally is.

Patience is our revealing and revealed faith in God, the Supreme Pilot, and our revealed and revealing faith in our own existence. Patience is our faith in our own discovery that we are not only of God but also for God.

The human cry that climbs up from the inmost recesses of our heart makes friends with patience in order to see the smiling face of Heaven and the Eternal Pilot. Again, the Eternal Pilot makes friends with patience so that one day He can see here in humanity’s cry the perfect liberation, everlasting salvation, complete illumination and total transformation of humanity.

As you see yourself²¹

Every day, early in the morning, stand in front of the mirror. If you dare to stand in front of the mirror, then you can easily stand in front of the whole world. Now, when you stand in front of the mirror, if you see an undivine face looking back at you, then rest assured that the whole world is undivine. But if you are getting joy from your face, if it is pure and divine, then rest assured that the world is also pure and divine. According to the way you see yourself, the rest of the world will present itself to you. If you see aspiration in your face, I assure you this aspiration you are bound to notice in the whole world. If you see aggressive forces, a devouring tiger inside you, then when you leave the house a big tiger will come and devour you. We are exact prototypes of the world. We are like a microcosm and the world is the macrocosm. A saint always sees everyone in the world — even the worst possible thief — as a saint. Similarly, a thief will see even the most divine saint as a thief. We judge others according to our own standard, according to our own realisation. A thief will think a saint is a thief and a saint will think a thief is a saint. Those who have not realised God will always suspect and doubt those who have. Everyone has to judge others according to his own standard of realisation.

Action²²

Let us not think before we act, for each thought is a heavy burden, a heavy pressure on our shoulders. This burden and pressure weakens our life-energy considerably.

Let us silence the mind before we act. If we silence the mind, if we know the art of silencing the mind, then we can not only accomplish our tasks faster than otherwise, but we can do hundreds of things at the same time in a fleeting minute.

Let us not talk before we act, for talk does nothing but bind us to action. And I really want to add, we have to be free within and without so that with each action we can breathe in the fresh air of perfecting, perfected and perfect action.

Let us pray before we act. Each prayer is our soulful devotion, and this devotion is our self-illumining life in action.

Let us not decide before we act. Each decision will be challenged and will be devoured by hesitation. Let us act spontaneously, for each spontaneous action is the expression of our expanding consciousness, the result of our heart’s preconceived ideals, the result of our life’s preconceived light and the result of our soul’s preconceived goal. Action is perfect when it is of God-inspiration and for God-manifestation.

Each desire-action makes us feel how weak, how ignorant, how hopeless, how helpless and how useless we are. Each aspiration-action makes us feel how strong, how powerful, how soulful, how meaningful and how fruitful we are. Again, action for action’s sake is not and cannot be the right thing. Action has to be for God’s sake.

Before the birth of action, inspiration is our guide. During the course of action, aspiration is our guide. At the end of action, our surrendering height and surrendered depth is our satisfaction and God’s satisfaction.

Imagination tells action, “Run forward, dive deep within, fly above.” Aspiration tells action, “God-Height has not to remain and cannot remain always a far cry. God-Height is our birthright; it is within us. We have only to discover it. And when we discover it, we feel that God-Height does not only belong to us but we belong to it.”

Perfection-satisfaction tells us that each individual is not only a direct representative of God on earth, but God Himself in the process of making and shaping His own Vision-Reality yet unfulfilled and His own Reality-Vision yet to be fully manifested.

Each action is God’s Song here on earth for God-manifestation and there in Heaven for God-satisfaction. Each action on earth is God’s Dance for humanity’s eternal progress and eternal self-transcendence. Each action in Heaven is God’s satisfaction in divinity’s self-awakening and self-illumination for a new universe; each action in Heaven is a new creation and the constant fulfilment of an ever-growing, ever-glowing, ever-satisfying and ever-satisfied God.

Human art, divine art, supreme art²³

First see it and then do it: this is human art. First feel it and then do it: this is divine art.

First see it and then draw it: this is human art. First feel it and then draw it: this is divine art. First live in the inner world with your capacity-light and then live for the outer world’s necessity-life: this is supreme art.

Calculation of earth’s beauty is human art. Liberation of earth’s beauty is divine art. Perfection of earth’s beauty is supreme art.

Human art declares, “Nothing succeeds like success.” Divine art affirms, “Nothing proceeds like progress.” Supreme art whispers, “Nothing satisfies like service, divine service, soulful service.”

The lofty height of human art is the inspiration-moon. The sublime depth of divine art is the aspiration-sun. The illumining goal of supreme art is Eternity’s perfection-day.

Beauty’s possession is human art, the art of earth. Beauty’s distribution is Heaven’s art. Beauty’s satisfaction is supreme art.

Earth’s possession of beauty is earth’s art. Heaven’s compassion for beauty is Heaven’s art. God’s Perfection in beauty is supreme art.

Human art looks around while running towards the goal. Divine art looks ahead while running fast, faster, fastest towards the goal. Supreme art does not run, does not fly, does not dive; supreme art becomes what the Inner Pilot, the Supreme Artist, wants it to become.

Human art is the reality that we have, the reality that needs its expression, the reality that needs world-acceptance, world-appreciation, world-admiration, world-adoration. Divine art is the divinity that we see in the inner world and the outer world — in the world of our earthly experiences, earthly realisations, earthly sacrifices and earthly achievements. Supreme art is the divine reality that is constantly transcending its own height for God’s ever-new creation, ever-new revelation, ever-new manifestation and ever-new perfection.

Human art is the leaf-experience of our life-tree. Divine art is the flower-realisation of our life-tree. Supreme art is the fruit-perfection of our life-tree.

A leaf inspires us: therefore, we run towards our destination. A flower purifies us; therefore, our speed becomes tremendous and we run fast, faster, fastest. A fruit energises us; therefore, we become chosen instruments to fight against teeming darkness and ignorance, to conquer the undivine forces within us and finally, to establish in ourselves the real, the divine, the eternal silence-life and eternal perfection-beauty.

Each creation of God has the real in it. This real reality is the soul. Now, the soul of a bench or a chair need not and cannot be as developed, as illumining, as fulfilling as the soul of an advanced seeker or a realised Master. So if we want to draw a bench or a chair, we may draw it well; but our inspiration is bound to fail us after a few minutes when we try to draw a chair, a bench or a table. But if we draw something or someone that has contributed considerably to the world of aspiration and light, then naturally our inspiration will last a long, long time. In this case, inspiration is the precursor of aspiration, aspiration is the precursor of revelation and revelation is the precursor of manifestation, which is none other than God-perfection: complete, absolute perfection.

The human artist is great, undoubtedly great. The divine artist is good, unmistakably good. The supreme artist is he who cares neither for greatness nor for goodness, who longs for only one thing: God-satisfaction, the satisfaction of God the Supreme Artist in and through him. He doesn’t need greatness, he doesn’t need goodness; he only longs for God-satisfaction in his life.

Editor's preface to the first edition

Since the spring of 1970, Sri Chinmoy has been conducting meditations for United Nations delegates and staff and delivering frequent lectures, including those in the Dag Hammarskjold Lecture Series. This book is a compilation of many of the lectures Sri Chinmoy delivered at the United Nations between 1970 and 1975. Earlier collections of his U.N. Lectures, The Garland of Nation-Souls, The Tears of Nation-Hearts and Reality-Dream were published in 1972, 1974 and 1976 respectively.