Love and Serve
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Love and serve; serve and love. We love God. We serve God. When we love God, we see. When we serve God, we feel. What do we see? We see God’s Face. What do we feel? We feel God’s Heart. God’s Face inspires us. God’s Heart illumines us. Inspiration has many, many friends. Of all its friends, aspiration is by far the best. Illumination has many, many friends. Of all its friends, perfection is by far the best. A seeker of the absolute Truth loves God and serves God not because God is all-powerful but because God is all goodness.
Aspiration is our heart’s inner cry. Illumination is our life’s outer smile. The inner cry climbs high, higher, highest. It tries to become devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally one with the ever-transcending reality. Life’s smile spreads all around. It tries to manifest divinity, Eternity, Infinity and Immortality.
There are two worlds: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. Before we enter into the world of aspiration we all remain in the world of desire. Desire cries for greatness. Aspiration cries for goodness. When we live in the desire-world, greatness is of paramount importance to us. When we live in the aspiration-world, goodness is of paramount importance to us.
In the aspiration-world there are three things that one has to discover: divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender. Not human love, not human devotion, not human surrender. Today’s human love is tomorrow’s frustration and the day after tomorrow’s destruction. Divine love is today’s illumination, tomorrow’s perfection, and the day after tomorrow’s satisfaction complete and perfect. Human devotion is nothing short of unconscious, unrecognised attachment. Divine devotion is conscious, spontaneous and continuous dedication to one’s own higher existence, to one’s higher reality, to a lofty purpose. Human surrender is the surrender of a slave, a forced surrender. Divine surrender is totally different. In divine surrender the finite recognises and accepts the Infinite; the drop enters into the ocean and becomes the ocean itself. In divine surrender the unlit, the obscure and the impure part of us enters into the illumined and illumining portion of our existence. Our ignorance-world enters into our wisdom-world, the little “i” merges into the infinite “I”, which is the Universal Consciousness, the Transcendental Consciousness.
Desire-world is greatness-world. Aspiration-world is goodness-world. Julius Caesar declared: “Veni, vidi, vici,” “I came, I saw, I conquered.” This is the height of the greatness-world. But the height of the goodness-world will be something totally different. It will come from the inmost recesses of the seeker’s oneness-heart: “I came into the world, I loved the world, I became one with the world.” This is the acceptance of life, not the rejection of life. A true seeker is he who accepts life, transforms life and perfects life so that human life can become a conscious instrument of God here on earth.
True spirituality is the acceptance of earth-life, not the negation of it. True spirituality advocates both God-acceptance and life-acceptance. True spirituality tries to manifest God in and through the life of each individual seeker. A true seeker knows that God-realisation cannot be achieved overnight. It is not like making instant tea or coffee. True spirituality is a slow and steady process. At every moment the seeker makes inner progress and outer progress. Slow and steady wins the inner race. Earth-life is constant thirst, constant hunger. This hunger is the soul’s eternal hunger to become inseparably one with the Highest so that there can be constant God-manifestation on earth. In true spirituality a seeker finds at every moment a sense of satisfaction, and this satisfaction alone can immortalise him.
A seeker of the absolute Truth loves God and offers to God what he has and what he is. What he has is ignorance. What he is is gratitude-heart. When he offers his gratitude-heart, he becomes a chosen instrument of the Supreme. A chosen instrument at times pleases God in his own way, at other times he pleases God in God’s own way. Eventually there comes a time when he is transformed into an unconditionally surrendered instrument. An unconditionally surrendered instrument of God pleases God at every moment in God’s own way.
When we love God, when we serve God, we have to feel at every moment the purity of our heart and the clarity of our mind. A heart of purity and a mind of clarity each seeker must possess in order to accelerate his inner progress and success. In the beginning the seeker needs success. This success inspires him; therefore, he makes friends with success. But the same seeker, when he is advanced, feels the necessity of progress only, for success is a short-lived experience, whereas progress is continually carrying us into the everlasting and ever-transcending Beyond. A true seeker is he who continually wants to grow, glow and flow in the heart of the Absolute Supreme. His progress is continuous progress. He loves God because he knows that without God he does not exist. He serves God because he feels that God does not exist without him.
In the beginning of a seeker’s life, the message of greatness at times looms large. But when he is on the verge of realisation, he sees goodness within and goodness without. On the strength of his goodness, he feels a true satisfaction, an abiding satisfaction. Greatness demands two standards of living: a higher and a lower. He who is great consciously or unconsciously wants to remain an inch higher than the rest of the world. But he who is good wants to remain consciously, soulfully and devotedly one with all human beings, to love and serve the Supreme in them. In this feeling of oneness perfection dawns, and in perfection what looms large is Eternity’s Satisfaction.
Published in AUM – Vol. 3, No. 2
Questions after the lecture
answered by Sri Chinmoy at the University of Victoria
Question: Why is God so subtle?
Sri Chinmoy: God is not so subtle. The only thing is that right now we are lacking in vision; we are blind. Even if the sun is shining brightly, even if we are in a brightly lit room, when vision is lacking, we don't see the light. Again, when we have vision, we see everything.
Just because our oneness-heart — our heart which is totally, inseparably one with God — has not been able to convince our mind that God is ours and that He is for us, we are not aware of His Presence. The moment our heart convinces our mind that God is for us, at that time God does not remain subtle. It is the mind that makes us feel that God is subtle, invisible and beyond our reach. Just because we are using the mind to see God, to fathom God, to know God, God and God-realisation remain a far cry. If we use the heart, the heart that identifies with and becomes inseparably one with the eternal Truth, Light and Bliss, then we discover that we are not only of God but also for God. Once we are able to remain inside the aspiring heart and become inseparably one with it, God does not remain invisible, subtle or unreachable. At that time, He does not remain an unreachable goal. He is all Reality — right in front of our noses. We discover that what we eternally are is nothing short of God Himself in the process of perfect self-discovery and self-manifestation here on earth.
Question: Throughout illusion, throughout enlightenment, throughout attachment and non-attachment why do we always say that God is good?
Sri Chinmoy: It is because we are evolving. In the process of evolution, what is good according to the light of a child need not seem good when the child is grown up. The individual has to remember that once he felt there was something which he needed badly, and God gave it to him. It was good according to his standard or his level of evolution at that time. But he eventually found out that that very thing did not give abiding satisfaction. He needed something more lasting, more illumining, more fulfilling.
When we are in the desire-world, God fulfils one or two desires of ours. At that time, we say that God was good to us because He fulfilled our desires. Eventually, we come to realise that just by satisfying our desires, we are not achieving anything significant. What was good according to our receptivity or light yesterday need not be good today. Yesterday God was good because He fulfilled our desires. Today God is good, not because He is fulfilling our desires, but because He has given us the inner cry to fulfil our aspiration.
Finally, he will come to feel that God is good because God Himself is playing in and through him; God Himself is having an experience in and through him. Before, he didn't have that kind of realisation. Before, he used to feel that he did something and God gave him the result. But when he made inner progress, he came to realise that he did nothing; it was God Himself who acted in and through him. God was the doer, God was the action and God was the result. The seeker himself had merely become an instrument.
Question: There is a lot of sickness and sadness in the world. What is the best way to seek spiritual healing?
Sri Chinmoy: The best way to seek spiritual healing is to offer gratitude every day for a fleeting second to the Supreme Healer. When we offer gratitude to Him for what we have or for what we are right now, then our heart of aspiration and dedication expands. That means that our receptivity increases. When receptivity increases, God's Light, which is all healing, can enter into us in abundant measure. It is in the heart of gratitude that God's Light can permanently abide.
Illness is all around. How can we cure it? We can cure it only through our gratitude-heart. We have to offer our gratitude to the Absolute Supreme that He has given us the sincere inner cry to cure humanity's suffering. There are many who do not care to cure illness either within themselves or within the world. There are many millions and billions of people on earth, but how many are crying to cure the sufferings and ills of mankind? Very few. But just because we are seekers, we are crying and trying to cure the age-old illnesses and sufferings of mankind. Now, who has given us this good will, this aspiration, this inner cry? God Himself. So it is our bounden duty to offer Him our gratitude. There are many around us — our friends, relatives, neighbours, acquaintances — who do not pray to God or meditate on God. But we do. And who has given us this capacity? God Himself. So, if at every moment we can offer our gratitude to God, then the receptivity of our heart increases. And inside our receptivity is all strength, all light, all power to cure the sufferings of mankind.
Question: How can one bring forth gratitude through oneself?
Sri Chinmoy: It is through the constant inner cry. We cry outwardly when we desperately need name, fame, outer capacity, prosperity and so forth. But when we cry inwardly, we have to feel that we are crying only to please and fulfil God in His own Way. The outer cry is for our own fulfilment, in our own way. The inner cry is for God-fulfilment in God's own Way. If there is a constant inner cry, that means we are trying to please God, satisfy God and fulfil God in God's own Way. If we can cry inwardly, in silence, then our gratitude increases, because inside the inner cry is the abode of gratitude, and inside the abode of gratitude is God.
Question: If I meditate upon the sensation “I am”, will this bring realisation?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly it can. But you have to know when you say "I am" whether you are meditating on the universal "I" or the individual "I", which represents a limited human being. If it is a human individual that you are meditating upon, then that will never lead you to God-realisation. But if you are meditating or concentrating on the universal "I", which you represent and which you inwardly are, then it will definitely help you in your God-realisation.
You have to be conscious of what you are doing when you say "I am." When the Christ said, "I and my Father are one," at that time it was his universal oneness, his transcendental oneness with the Eternal Father, that he was expressing. Ordinary human beings will not be able to do that. An ordinary human being knows perfectly well how much ignorance he has and he is. This moment he may say, "God and I are one." The next moment, when his desires are not fulfilled, he will immediately say, "How can we be one if He does not satisfy me? What kind of friendship has He established with me or have I established with Him?" At that time, so-called oneness disappears.
Question: What level of communication have you found most rewarding regarding the world situation?
Sri Chinmoy: My work at the United Nations provides the most fruitful possibilities for world-wide communication. I invoke the soul of the United Nations, and when I clearly see the soul right in front of me, I communicate with the soul. Now, each worker, no matter in which capacity he or she is serving the United Nations, has an inner connection with the soul of the United Nations. So after I invoke the presence of the soul of the United Nations, I try to bring to the fore the aspiration of the seekers who are around me. Then my role is over. The soul of the United Nations will supply the seekers with boundless Peace, Light and Bliss, and each one will receive, according to his or her capacity, of course. When I meditate on the seekers at the United Nations and elsewhere, I try to bring to the fore their eagerness to receive. Then I bring forward their soul, which has the capacity to give. The soul has and the seeker needs. When I can bring both the giver and the receiver together, I feel that I have done my job.
Question: Why is it that in all the world there are only a few spiritual seekers? And why is it that only perhaps a few of those will ever see God?
Sri Chinmoy: Everybody will see God sooner or later. Everybody has to. God will never be satisfied unless and until each individual has realised Him. That is His Will. But it is a long, arduous process. Today somebody becomes perfect, tomorrow somebody else becomes perfect, and the day after, a third person becomes perfect. God's Cosmic Game has to be consciously played by everyone. And in this Cosmic Game everybody has to become perfect. Unless and until everybody becomes perfect, God's Game will never be completed. Just because it is difficult, we can't say that we shall not be able to complete the Game.
A kindergarten student will naturally find it impossible to get a Master's degree immediately. It may take him twenty, twenty-two, twenty-four years, but one day he will also get a Master's degree. Here we are all seekers. Even those who are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, if they have a sincere belief in God, are seekers in their own way. Not only those who are praying to God and meditating on God but also those who have faith in God are seekers. If someone has faith that God can do something for him, although He may not be doing it right now, that person is an unconscious seeker. The very fact that someone has belief in God is a sign of that person's God-acceptance. In the course of time, those aspirants will become like us. They will feel that mere belief won't do, that they have to consciously try to manifest their belief, which right now is vision, and transform it into reality. When they have that kind of inner feeling, at that time they become conscious seekers.
When we become conscious seekers, devoted seekers, unconditional seekers, we accelerate our spiritual progress. Then God-realisation does not remain a far cry. But we have to start. Something seems difficult when we have not consciously started. Once we consciously start something, we have to know that that thing will not always remain difficult. If we start something unconsciously today, tomorrow we will not know that we actually started and, after a while, we may totally forget about the thing. But if today we pray to God soulfully and consciously, and if tomorrow we again do it consciously and soulfully, and if we continue in this way, then nothing will remain difficult.
Question: How do we know what God wants us to manifest, and how can we obtain those qualities or things?
Sri Chinmoy: We don't have to know. Only we have to pray to God every day: "O Beloved Supreme, do manifest Yourself in and through me. I do not know and do not need to know what You want from me. My fervent wish, my fervent aspiration, is only that You will manifest Yourself in and through me, that You will make me an unconditionally surrendered God-lover and instrument of Yours."
We do not have to know anything. We only have to cry sincerely to God to manifest Himself in and through us. If we become an unconditional instrument, what will God do? He will fulfil Himself in and through us in His own Way. So let us express our wish to manifest God not by asking, "God, tell me what You want me to do. Then I will be able to please You," but by saying, "God, do what You want to do in and through me."
It is true that if you have Peace or Light, then you can manifest God. But instead of praying for these divine qualities, it is better to pray to God to give you what He feels you need most for your inner evolution and His fulfilment. It is good to feel, "God, if You don't want me to be Your perfect instrument, no harm. Somebody else can be, if that is Your Will. If You want to make even my worst possible enemy Your best instrument, do make him. I only want You to be fulfilled in Your own Way." If you can sincerely offer that kind of prayer to God, then your problems are solved.
Question: During meditation and prayer, some people concentrate on certain objects on the shrine, like photographs or some other things. Is it wise for them to cling to these objects, or is it wiser for them to meditate on something that has no form, that they cannot see?
Sri Chinmoy: When they meditate on something, they are not worshipping that particular thing as God. Only that thing is inspiring them. I look at this candle and I see the flame; but I am not taking the flame as God. I am taking the flame as a source of inspiration. This flame inspires me and increases my aspiration to dive deep within. When I can dive deep within, then one day I will realise God and see Him face to face. So, if something helps me to dive deep within, then I will accept that help.
Question: Eventually, when we realise God, will all these things drop off?
Sri Chinmoy: They will all drop off. Then no outer form will remain. We will become one with the Formless. But in the beginning, it is necessary to approach God through form. In the beginning, a child reads aloud. If he does not read aloud, he feels that he is not reading at all. He has to convince his parents, he has to convince himself, that he is reading the words. But when the child grows up, he reads in silence. By then, he and his parents know that he can really read, so the outer form can drop away. These outer forms are of paramount importance during the seeker's preliminary stages. Then they will go, because they are no longer necessary.
I may keep a flower before me when I meditate. The flower is not God, although inside the flower is God. But the flower inspires me. It offers me purity. I may burn incense. Incense itself is not God for me, but incense gives me a sense of purity and helps me in my spiritual progress. Anything that inspires me I shall use in order to increase my inspiration and my aspiration, whether it is a picture of someone, or a candle or a flower. For when my inspiration and aspiration increase, I feel that I have taken one step ahead towards God-realisation; I feel that I am nearing my goal. But a candle itself or the picture itself is not the object of my adoration.
Published in The Giver and the Receiver
