Part One — My yogi-friends

I.

The other day I interviewed three God-realised souls: X, Y and Z.

I said to X, "Please tell me what happened when you met God for the first time."

"When I met God for the first time, He immediately fell in love with me. But I doubted. I hesitated to bask in the infinite effulgence of His Light. I suspected. I suspected my inner vision."

I said to Y, "Please tell me what happened when you met God for the first time."

"Because of my long forgotten Self, God shed endless tears of joy when I met Him for the first time. I kissed and kissed His Feet of endless Compassion."

I said to Z, "Please tell me what happened when you met God for the first time."

"When I met God for the first time, with His Eyes He immediately fed my hunger of millennia. I fed Him with my heart's endless cry."

Now the three God-realised souls said to me, "You have interviewed us. Now you have to tell us what happened when you met God for the first time."

I was more than ready and eager to tell My yogi-friends about my first meeting with God. But God immediately commanded my silence and demanded my surrender.

After some time, God on my behalf said to my yogi-friends, "When he and I met for the first time, we stabbed each other. Yes, we stabbed each other."

"Stabbed with what?"

"With love, love, and love. Is it not true?"

"God, what am I going to do with You? You are telling a lie. I stabbed You with my brooding ignorance. You stabbed me with Your ever-compassionate and all-liberating Love."

God said, "No sir, you have totally forgotten about our first meeting. What am I going to do with your feeble memory?"

"You are my Lord of immediate Forgiveness. You are my Lord of eternal Concern. You are my Lord of constant Compassion."

II.

Six months ago I had a wonderful conversation with three Yogi-Friends of mine. I was curious to know what they thought of their disciples. I wanted to know if they were satisfied with their disciples.

My yogi-friend A said, "Well, I think that in this life I have made only one serious, nay, irreparable mistake in accepting disciples. I really do not know whether I am their master or they are my masters. I am mightily lucky that God has told me that this is my last incarnation."

My yogi-friend B said, "Well, I do not and can not blame God for having such unfortunate disciples. It is I who wanted to have hundreds of disciples. Now each disciple of mine is a real headache, a serious problem and a heavy burden. I thank God that this is absolutely my last incarnation. No more shall I make friends with Mother Earth."

My yogi-friend C said, "Well, in no way can I blame my disciples. I have not been able to please them. How can I expect them to please me? I wish to come back into the world once again with more peace, more bliss, more light and more power so that I can please them, that is to say, illumine their stark bondage and abysmal ignorance. In this life I must say that I am a most deplorable failure."

Now my yogi-friends asked me what I thought of my own disciples.

I was more than eager to tell my friends what I felt about my disciples, but my Supreme in no time sealed my mouth.

Five minutes later on my behalf He said, "He does not have a single disciple. They are all My disciples. Since they are all My disciples, he has nothing to say about My disciples. Let Me tell you about My disciples.

In the morning they cry for their realisation.
In the afternoon they cry for humanity's liberation.
In the evening they cry for My full Manifestation on earth."

"My Lord, may I have the honour of telling You something on behalf of Your disciples?"

"Yes, you may. But do not contradict Me, do not embarrass Me, My Son."

"On behalf of Your disciples, to You, My Lord, I offer gratitude, constant gratitude and eternal gratitude."

III.

Yesterday I had a splendid talk with five Yogi-Friends of mine. I asked them if God was ever displeased with them after they had won their realisation.

My yogi-friend A said, "Oh yes, God has been displeased with me quite a few times. He wants me to discard all my disciples. He wants me to have only that person as my disciple who is all love, devotion, and all surrender to me."

My yogi-friend B said, "God has been displeased with me many times. He says that I am incredibly indulgent to my disciples. He wants me to act like a commander."

My yogi-friend C said, "Twice God has been extremely displeased with me: once when I said that my disciples are worse than useless, and once when I said I want to leave the earth."

My yogi-friend D said, "God has not only been displeased with me on many occasions, but also has scolded me mercilessly a good many times. He says that I am a real fool. In my Boat there are many insincere passengers. The Boat is heavily loaded. According to God, there is every possibility of the Boat capsizing because of the thunder-doubts, dragon-worries and shower-fears of the insincere passengers. He also says that the very few sincere seekers who are in the Boat unfortunately will have the same fate as the useless passengers have. He wants me to tell the unaspiring passengers to leave my Boat immediately."

My yogi-friend E said, "I badly displease God when I cry to Him to nullify and to forgive the consequences of my disciples' misdeeds. I also considerably displease Him when I embrace the punishment caused by the disciples' misdeeds. Otherwise, God has been fairly pleased with me."

Now my yogi-friends asked me whether God has ever been displeased with me or not. Before I ventured to open my mouth, God opened His Mouth on my behalf.

"I utilise all My time in thinking of him. I have no time left to be displeased with him."

"My Lord, may I say something?"

"Certainly. But be sure to see eye to eye with Me."

"Of course. My Lord of eternal Compassion, Your time is supremely precious. My Lord, You are doing the right thing. Out of Your infinite Bounty, You are not wasting Your time by showing Your Face of displeasure to me, the eternal culprit."

"I see you have not listened to My express request. This time, I must punish you."

"Oh Lord of my life, Oh Lord of my soul, Oh Lord of my goal, Your strong punishment I always deserve. Your true punishment I always pray for. To me, nothing is sweeter, nothing is dearer, nothing is more intimate, nothing is more illumining and fulfilling than Your kindest punishment."

"My Son, I wish I could be as earthly clever and Heavenly wise as you are."

“My Lord, do not worry, I shall grant You that boon. Just allow me to touch Your ever-forgiving Feet."

"Touch My Feet. You can pinch My Feet. You can bite My Feet. You can kiss My Feet."

"My Lord, I am not going to pinch Your Feet. I am not going to bite Your Feet. I am not going to kiss Your Feet. I am going to devour Your Feet of ceaseless Compassion."

"All right. You have devoured My Feet. What about your boon to Me? When are you going to make Me as clever and as wise as you are?"

"My Lord, right now."

Having placed my Lord's Feet on the life-breath of my soul, I said, "Amen."

Part Two — My Avatar-Friends

I.

Two months ago, I visited two Avatar-Friends of mine in Heaven. Both of them were exceedingly delighted to see me, because for a long time I had not been in touch with them, owing to my heavy pressure of work on earth.

They said to me, "What have you brought for us from earth?"

I said to them, "What do you want from earth? I shall give you anything you want of earth."

They said, "Give us earth's gratitude. Give us, at least, earth's aspiration."

I said, "Give me your Heaven's forgiveness, I shall give you my earth's gratitude. Give me your Heaven's concern, I shall give you my earth's aspiration."

They said, "Earth does not deserve Heaven's forgiveness and concern."

I said, "In that case, Heaven does not deserve earth's gratitude and aspiration."

All of a sudden, the Supreme came in. He said, "Here is My assessment of earth and Heaven:

Earth is good. Heaven is great.
I need earth. But Heaven needs Me."

I said to the Supreme, "Father and Mother of mine, why do You always take my side? What do others think of You? Do they not think that You are partial to me?"

"The more they think that I am partial to you, My Son, the more I get the opportunity to enjoy your unconditionally surrendered breath."

"Father, it is not I who have surrendered to Your Transcendental Light, but it is Your Light that has surrendered to my ignorance-sea."

"It is all the same. I have you and you have Me. What more do We need?"

"Father, my life is Your Consolation. My life is Your Compassion."

"No, My Son, your life is My Concern. Your life is My Manifestation."

II.

Last night I went to pay a short visit to an Avatar-Friend of mine in Heaven. He was overjoyed to see me and greeted me most soulfully.

We smiled and smiled and smiled. Smiling over, I asked him how he was.

He said, "I am extremely happy here, for at long last I am enjoying the perfect Bliss of Heaven. Again, I am extremely sorry that almost all of my disciples on earth have gone to the dogs. They have no aspiration. They are wedded to all kinds of temptations.

"How do you yourself feel on earth? How are your disciples doing?"

"I feel fine. The Supreme once and for all told me that I have no disciples. All those who consider themselves to be my disciples are His disciples. So I am free. I have no problems whatsoever. Only I am a bit tired."

"I wish to add something to your fatigue. You are depressed and disheartened."

"Perhaps."

"Brother, dearest brother, earth will never be ready for us."

"You are right. Since earth is not going to be ready for us, I am trying to feel the life-breath of earth at its own level. Furthermore, I am trying to make myself ready for earth."

"Stop, stop! Come back soon. End your play on earth and come here and enjoy the perfect Bliss of Heaven. We need your presence badly. What does God say about your leaving the earth for Heaven?"

"He says… …"

"What does He say?"

"He says… …"

"What does He say?"

"He says… …"

"Tell me, for God's sake, what He says about your leaving the earth for Heaven."

"He says that you and I love each other deeply."

"Wait, I shall ask God tomorrow about you."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"I need you. Heaven needs you. We all need you here. Come back soon and this time for good."

I smiled. My dear Avatar-Friend cried. There was a real battle between his cry and my smile.

Editor's introduction

Sri Chinmoy's writings come from the Infinite Consciousness of the Supreme. These writings are addressed to sincere seekers everywhere who are on the spiritual path back to their Source: The One Supreme. He writes, "God shed endless tears of joy when I met Him for the first time."

Sri Chinmoy has travelled the long Journey, through the seven higher worlds, to the uppermost floor of God's Mansion. The Supreme has sent him to us to guide, protect and point the way to our Destined Goal. It is the way of the heart, the way of Love Divine. He writes, "God on my behalf said to my yogi-friends, 'When He and I met for the first time, we stabbed each other with love.'" How different our world would be if we threw away our knives and other weapons of destruction and took up the banners of dedicated love and selfless service.

These divine conversations, between Sri Chinmoy and his Yogi and Avatar-Friends, are for the most part mantric in character. By sincerely repeating sacred words over and over again, a spiritual seeker can make very fast progress on the path to God-Realisation.

The Supreme speaks to Sri Chinmoy in clear and certain terms. Fully and unconditionally surrendered, Sri Chinmoy obeys God's Commands. This brought him to the West, from his native Bengal, India in 1964 at the age of thirty-two. Within a few short years, he has helped, with his purity and spiritual magnetism, hundreds of sincere seekers crying for spiritual light. Many are now his dedicated and devoted disciples. Nevertheless, he has repeatedly told us that he is not the Guru, that there is only one Guru, and that is the Supreme and the Supreme alone.

As Sri Chinmoy is one with God, the Supreme speaks through him and says, "Let Me tell you about My disciples. In the morning they cry for their realisation. In the afternoon they cry for humanity's liberation. In the evening they cry for My full Manifestation on earth."

Sri Chinmoy’s path is the path of unconditional love, devotion and surrender. It is the path of purity, sincerity and gratitude. It is the path of the heart. It is the path of service that demands transformation and offers God-realisation.

This path is not an escape from reality; on the contrary, it is Reality itself. It is for the strong as well as for the pure in heart.

Sri Chinmoy's light brings the spiritual seeker into the Divine presence. Closer than the closest is the aspirant's relationship with God. We can hear God speak through Sri Chinmoy's lips, "My Son, your life is My Concern. Your life is My Manifestation."

Earth may not be ready for Sri Chinmoy, but he has unconditionally made himself ready for earth. He descends far below the limited consciousness of his disciples and raises them to the pinnacles of their potentialities. An Avatar-Friend of his fervently pleaded with him, "End your play on earth and come here and enjoy the perfect Bliss of Heaven. We need your presence badly." But to this Sri Chinmoy in a divinely amusing yet supremely consoling manner answers, "You and I love each other deeply."

Sri Chinmoy's dedicated Mission is to serve humanity and remain with us here on earth, while he also finds time to speak with his Yogi-Friends and Avatar-Friends there in Heaven. Indeed the Supreme has blessed and flooded his breath with an all-pervading consciousness.

— Dulal