Sri Chinmoy Answers
questions during an informal gathering on the porch of his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York
Question: Guru, recently I was running in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and I saw the Hare Krishnas' Jaganath parade. They were pulling the Jaganath cart. What struck me was that I didn't get a feeling of spirituality from the parade and the people in it. It made me wonder, are our parades successful from the spiritual point of view?
Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes we are in difficulty when we want to achieve anything here on the physical plane. Whether we create art or compose music or perform songs, it is most difficult for us. When it is a matter of outer achievement, sometimes the performance or the result is very poor, very deplorable. But as far as the spirit goes, I am satisfied. The spirit that is behind our achievements is quite good. Almost everyone has a sincere, cheerful consciousness. That in itself is a very great achievement. People who are marching or doing something else in the parade are under no obligation to do so; they are not forced to participate. They are not doing it reluctantly; they are doing it very cheerfully. Not for New York, not for the United States, not even for mankind, but for Heaven they are doing it. It is all recorded in Heaven. Heaven sees how difficult it is to get anything done on earth.
Our parade starts with tremendous purity and dignity with these two girls carrying the banner. Then the Centre flag comes. The music is also very dignified. So the parade first starts with spiritual purity and dignity and then everything else comes. The dignity and purity may lessen to some extent, but I see a kind of uniformity from the beginning to the end. True, there are some silly groups, absolutely silly groups. If you make a comparison between the best group and the worst group, there is such a difference! But even these silly groups fit in to some extent. And from the beginning to the end there is always a kind of childlike innocence. That is what I want. Otherwise, if the marching is too rigid or done all measured in a military way, then there will be no joy in it. That kind of marching is only for the military; we don’t want that.
What you are saying about the parade on Krishna’s birthday — it is the same in India, or sometimes it is worse. When I was a little boy, I used to walk in that procession. Right from the beginning, the stupid caste system starts causing problems. There are two or three long ropes to pull the chariots. They are like the ropes we use in tug-of-war. The Brahmins won’t allow the Kshatriyas to be near them and so forth. Gradually the Sudras are pushed to the back; God knows where they will be. Each group says: “How do you dare to stand with me? You go stand with your rank.” Fights start many times.
Sometimes the people who are mistreated get mad and go against the others. They bring another rope and attach it to the chariot. Then from behind the chariot they start pulling in the opposite direction. The owners and organisers get furious, because they have organised the procession and the chariot was built with their money. In spite of that, those people keep pulling in the other direction.
In that parade you have to draw the chariot from one place to another special place. When you reach the destination, the owners of the chariot will throw some sweets, just the way I sometimes throw extra candy or fruit after each disciple has received prasad from me individually. Then there will be real problems. Here our disciples don’t fight; they just try to catch the prasad with a family feeling, in a sweet, exuberant, very charming way. But in India I have seen many times actual, real fighting. The things that they get are so negligible, but to get them, the way they fight is too much, too much! They break each other’s heads, arms and limbs, just to get things they can buy for two cents. Is it their devotion that is carrying them? So, Krishna is observing and appreciating their achievements!
Sometimes it happens that when it is time to draw the chariot from one place to the other, some people won’t pull. They start dancing around the rope, and the people who are trying to pull the chariot forward can’t move because of the dancing. It is not two or three or four people who start dancing, but two hundred, three hundred, four hundred or even six hundred people. How are you going to control that?
So from the beginning to the end, everything goes wrong. The problem starts with the caste system and then leads to a terrible fight. You can’t remain safe no matter how innocent you are, because constant fighting is going on. Our family did not join the procession for the sake of fun. It was my mother’s wish, so that Sri Krishna would bless us. In a religious family, the members feel that it is compulsory to help draw the chariot. Otherwise, they believe that Krishna will not be pleased. So you go join in order to get Krishna’s blessing, but instead you get all the blessings from those hooligans.
Question: When you hold a meditation such as the recent one at Woodstock, where many, many people come, but a lot of them aren't very attentive, are you still able to offer something to them?
Sri Chinmoy: Many people will definitely receive something from me. Even if I sit and meditate in a particular hall for only five minutes, if that place is receptive, it receives much from me. Even if it is not receptive, just because of my presence it gets something. It is one thing to receive willingly, eagerly and consciously, and another thing to receive reluctantly or even unconsciously. In some cases, the place receives willingly and consciously; in some cases, unconsciously and unwillingly. The places that take from me consciously and willingly will naturally get much more benefit. But although the place as such receives, the individuals inside may receive very little or not at all. At our Wednesday night meditations at Columbia, and wherever we have what you call special meetings, the audience is bound to receive. My very presence awakens them or compels them to receive something. Those people in the audience may not be my disciples, but they will get inspiration, and when they go home, some of them will want to start going to church or to some spiritual place or to some other spiritual Master. So everything that I am doing has some special purpose. The result may not be noticeable all at once, but it will definitely be noticeable in the near or distant future, whether or not the audience is receptive.
What happens from time to time is that the force that I leave behind in a place will radiate out for one or two or ten or twenty miles. Then, either on that day or two months later or two years later, somebody walking along the street may receive something, although he will not know why all of a sudden his consciousness has gone very high. In the morning he may have fought with his wife and children, or he may have done something wrong. But as he is walking along the street all of a sudden he is thinking of something very high and sublime. He feels that he is breathing fresh air; his mind is very clear, and feelings of joy and love are coming to him. He will think that everything has descended from above. But no, it is only that six months or one year ago I left a good force near that place and it is still radiating. That man happens to be there, so he is getting the blessings and joy. This has happened many times.
Question: Can you please speak about the importance of our running the New York City Marathon?
Sri Chinmoy: This year, even if only a hundred disciples join the marathon, and even if they are the worst performers, the very fact that I am there and my children are participating will be of real benefit to the other runners. The four thousand or five thousand runners there will get something from me. Although my consciousness will be primarily for my children, and I will be paying more attention to them than to the others, the very fact that I am there and involved means that the other runners are bound to get something inwardly which they never would have got otherwise. Of course, they may get only a dollar’s worth of benefit, whereas you as a disciple may get one thousand dollars’ worth of benefit; but still they will definitely get something.
Question: Is there any difference in the consciousness that is portrayed in a colour photograph as opposed to a black and white photograph of the same thing?
Sri Chinmoy: There are at least three or four different considerations here. Everything that exists is complex, either in the beginning or at the end. In human life, for example, when we were children we were very simple. But when we grew up, all kinds of complicated things entered into our lives and our lives became complex.
Now, when we see a black and white picture of a person, we immediately enter into simplicity. The source can be very complex, but we start with simplicity. The initial appearance seems very simple; then afterwards, we see that there are many more things involved. But when we see a colour picture, complexity appears right from the beginning. Then, when we enter into it, we may see that the source is very simple. The picture has all kinds of different colours and so forth, but gradually, as we go farther or deeper into the picture, it becomes all simplicity. Then it is not so difficult for us to identify with the picture. So, when a photograph is black and white, from simplicity we enter into complexity, whereas when a picture is in colour, from complexity we enter into simplicity. This is one consideration.
Another thing is that when a photograph is black and white, an occultist can more easily see the person’s soul, life-energy, aspiration and dedication than in a coloured picture. This is because the colour itself subtly tinges or dyes the vital qualities or mental qualities or psychic qualities. Psychic qualities are a little bit difficult to tinge, but the colour will immediately tinge the vital and mental qualities either in a positive or in a negative way. The colour enters into the mind or vital, or the vital and mind absorb the colour. When I look at a picture, sometimes immediately I see that the colour has entered into the vital, or that the mind has been tinged in a better way. So it is like a mixture. You will add something, and it may turn out to be a better representation or a worse one. But in a black and white picture, this does not happen. Immediately the whole image comes before us as it is: this is this, that is that. Here it is all simple, so there is no problem.
When a good occultist looks at a black and white photograph of a person to observe the aura, he will see the aura encircling the entire picture. In a black and white picture the aura can expand — large, larger, largest. It may even extend to the chest. If it is a picture of the person’s entire body, the subtle aura can encircle the whole figure. But if it is a colour picture, the aura will not even come to the heart. It is only around the face, or sometimes it does not even cover the full face. It only goes to the nose. If the occultist uses occult power to expand the aura, he can expand it. But it does not expand naturally.
A black and white picture is just like a child. A child is flexible; he can bend, stretch, run and jump. Similarly, in a black and white photograph, the aura, like a child, can become bigger or smaller. But a coloured picture is fixed, like a man who has reached maturity over the years. There the aura is stationary. You may think that because a child likes different colours, a coloured picture is more childlike. But no, that is not the case.
Question: Which is better: the black and white or the coloured transcendental?
Sri Chinmoy: No comparison! The black and white is far better than the coloured. The black and white has a better consciousness. It is not that the coloured one is lower than the black and white; no. Better here means easier to approach.
Even when I wear just white, not only does it look beautiful and majestic, but immediately I see a kind of compassion flowing from me, although white is the colour of divinity, the colour of the Divine Mother, the colour of purity. Whoever is around me is bound to feel that loving compassion when I am wearing white, even though white is not the colour of compassion.
Question: Guru, have you ever gone backward or forward in time? In science fiction they have time machines where you can go backwards and forwards. Instead of speaking to Krishna in the inner worlds, let us say, have you ever actually gone back to the time of the Mahabharata and seen him there? Could you actually walk around in a scene that happened hundreds of years ago?
Sri Chinmoy: Why not? That is the easiest thing. Now I am here chatting with you people on the physical plane. You are seeing my gross physical body. But there is something called the subtle physical, which I can easily take to many other places. If somebody wants to see me in a meditative consciousness, he does not have to see my soul or see me enter into a higher consciousness in this body. It is enough to see my subtle physical body, which is carried by the dynamic vital or the highest vital.
You are talking about four or five thousand years ago. It is so easy for me to go back there, because I was one of the supreme heroes of the Mahabharata. I can go back there or to any other place, because it is the soul that took a form then, and that soul is still the same. For the soul to take that form again is like putting on an old coat. Now this body is wearing a T-shirt. At that time I did not use a T-shirt; I used a long robe. If I want, I can easily discard my T-shirt and put on a long robe. Like that, the soul can go everywhere, no matter what outer garment it is wearing.
Question: Could you do it even if you had not physically been there at that time?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. I can become one with a particular place or situation at any time. I don’t have to have been there the first time. There are so many caves in the Himalayas which I have not visited personally, because I stayed in only one or two caves. But occultly and spiritually I have visited all the caves. So many sincere sadhus were blessed by me three or four incarnations ago, although physically I remained only in my two or three tiny unbearable caves. So many sadhus in those days got my blessings — two hundred or three hundred years ago.
This is very easy. But there is something else that is really difficult for most spiritual Masters to do, although I do it very easily. If I want to, I have the capacity to go and touch the God who existed long before time. Mentally you may ask when God was born. I came into the world on the 27th of August, 1931, so my existence and a particular date go together. This is logical, quite logical. This body was born at seven o’clock, let us say. If you ask, “What happened at seven o’clock?” I will say that this body was born. But in God’s case it is not like that. God created Himself. God’s Self-Creation, you will say, must have taken place at a particular time. But this is not the case. This creation did not have time as a factor. It is complicated. When God created Himself, He had nothing to do with time as such. Your mind will try to give a time, but God separated Himself from time. Time is a reality that exists only for the body-reality. God’s Body means the Creation, God’s own Creation. Another reality is God’s Spirit. When God started the Creation, when He took form, only then did He start using time: one hour, two hours and so on. But before that, when He was not in Creation, time did not touch Him, because time had not yet been born. God Himself existed as Spirit, but He was not in time. Time was born only when the Creation began. In Creation God bound Himself to time, or time bound Him. But before that, He was above and beyond time. Before the Creation He was another Reality, and that Reality is not bound or limited by time at all.
New York is one state and Vermont is another state. You can drive to the end of New York State, and then New York stops. In the same way, in the inner world you will see that time has a limit, like a geographical area. If you go beyond a certain point, time stops. So when we speak of going beyond time and space, it is not just like a poetical expression we are using. No, time has an actual limit. There is earth-bound time and Heaven-free time. In earth-bound time you are caught and bound tightly. Heaven-free time also has its own limit. In Heaven-free time you can go far and very fast. You have the freedom to go, to run from here to there. But you can’t say that you have gone the farthest, that you can’t go any farther. Earth-bound time stops at one place; in earth-bound time you can only go so far. In Heaven-free time you have the capacity to go much farther, but even there there are limits. My occult Vision or somebody else’s occult Vision can go much farther than Heaven-free time. Vision can go much farther than time.
In Heaven-free time you are always transcending yourself, but that is not the ultimate at all. Whatever point you have reached is just the beginning. Wherever it is, you can always go a little farther. But with Vision the spiritual Masters have the capacity to go beyond not only the earth-bound time but also the Heaven-free time, and touch the God who existed before time itself ever came into being, although mentally this is not conceivable.
Question: Can you stand outside of time and see time go all around?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. What God Himself is, remains beyond the Creation. The Creation is a hill, let us say. If God wants to remain at a distance from the hill, He easily can. When you create something, that is part of your own reality. When you are drawing a picture, your whole consciousness — your hand, eyes, nose, everything — is seeing and experiencing the picture. But then you can just withdraw from it and see it as your creation. While doing it, you and your creation are inseparable. But afterwards, you can stand at a distance and look at it.
Question: I have heard that if a disciple is close to the Master, he can achieve God-realisation in twelve years. Is this true?
Sri Chinmoy: God-realisation depends on the disciple. Believe it or not, Christ’s apostle Peter is still in human incarnations. Two thousand years ago Christ appeared, and still Peter has not realised God. God knows how many incarnations he has had since then. Then there was a great spiritual Master named the Buddha. His dearest disciple, Ananda, has appeared in my life. Ananda is with me; in this incarnation he goes by the name of Dulal. So, Ananda has realised God or not? Two thousand five hundred years ago Ananda was with the Buddha. How many incarnations have gone by? Like that, there are many spiritual Masters whose really close disciples are not yet realised.
Again, there was one spiritual Master who had a disciple who pleased him to such an extent that in thirty-nine days the disciple got realisation. Not thirty-nine years but thirty-nine days! I have “forgotten” the Master’s name and I have “forgotten” the disciple’s name; that is the trouble. Otherwise, I could tell you.
Question: Are you speaking of this incarnation of yours?
Sri Chinmoy: Oh no! This incarnation is only the vision of God-realisation and the headache of God-manifestation. It is true that when I came to the ashram in 1944, in thirty-nine days I knew who I was. But it was not that somebody had given me God-realisation. No, I had already realised God in previous incarnations.
When I realised God for the first time, it was at the time of my Gorakshanath incarnation. Since then I have taken a few more incarnations. My Master was so pleased with me that in thirty-nine days he gave me God-realisation. Even then it did not end, but in the books it does not tell this. In only a matter or seven or seven and a half years I went beyond him. And when I went beyond him he was so moved and so proud.
If any disciple of mine surpasses me, I will be the proudest person. It is not because that person will be able to take more of my headaches, but because it is like that with one’s children. It is a great joy for a loving parent to see his child surpass him. If you truly like someone or love someone — I mean sincerely, not in a jealousy-bound or insecurity-bound way — then if that person does something really well, even better than you, at that time you will be the happiest person. When the very close, intimate disciples defeat me in something, such as running or bicycling, I tell you, I get much more joy than they themselves get, because in them is my success. My consciousness, my will-power, my concern have been successful in another body. This kind of success is so difficult to achieve. But because that person has been so receptive to me, that person has achieved something and surpassed me. So I am the happiest person.
To come back to your question, in the ashram I knew my previous incarnations and I also knew when I had received God-realisation. I am not bragging, but since you are my children I wish to tell you that I have taken the least number of incarnations in all of history to get realisation or, you can say, to receive the Supreme Grace. This is the permanent realisation. An impermanent realisation I got in the time of the Mahabharata. I had the vision of the Krishna-Consciousness or God-consciousness that is infinitely inferior to the realisation of the Supreme Consciousness, but it did not last. I had it; then it disappeared. But after many centuries it became permanent. That is the thing: you can get the highest experience once, but if you can’t maintain it, then you are lost again.
In Sri Aurobindo’s case, the Krishna-Consciousness used to come and disappear in the beginning. After he started aspiring seriously, it took twenty-eight years before he finally declared that the Krishna-Consciousness had descended into him permanently. Before that, it used to come and go. Other spiritual Masters have had similar experiences.
Permanent realisation takes a very, very long time. Again, one may not care if it is not permanent. After being with Krishna in the Mahabharata time, I took rest for many centuries. Later, for full manifestation, I took incarnation in Russia. Where is spirituality there? And in several incarnations I entered into politics. I was in the French revolution. Then in Russia I was very nicely put to the guillotine. Shame, shame! The guillotine experience was very “nice.” Now you are horrified, but it really happened. I was in the battlefield in many places. That is why the heroic spirit still exists in me. I was always a fighter, right from the beginning.
Once upon a time I was absolutely the greatest Mogul emperor. Even now, while reading history books, when I see some pictures drawn one or two hundred years ago, the consciousness is exactly the same. Can you imagine? There is so much there inside the consciousness. It is not just a fancy, as everybody likes to identify himself with a hero. In history when you read that somebody was very great, immediately you say, “Oh, I was that person.” All the girls think that they were Joan of Arc, and all the boys think they were Alexander the Great or Socrates. But in my case it is not like that. When I was in Chittagong, I thought it was my sweet imagination. But when I came to Pondicherry, I saw it was absolutely true that I was a Mogul emperor.
So, once realisation becomes permanent and solid on the highest and deepest level, in what we call the Universal Consciousness or Transcendental Consciousness, then it can’t disappear anymore. At that time even when I cut jokes it remains. At that time there is no difference between my joking consciousness and my highest consciousness. When I am in my highest consciousness, it can be all joking. Sometimes in the church you see me in my absolutely most sublime, topmost, highest consciousness, but what am I doing at that time? I can be cutting jokes in the inner world with Krishna or Buddha or somebody else, and they are also cutting jokes. Pure joking is going on — absolutely silly jokes. On the earth-plane I am giving you people far, far beyond your capacity, necessity and receptivity, but then in another plane I am doing another thing. You can see and feel that I am giving you in infinite measure the things that you need, more than you deserve. But in another world, which you don’t see, there I am joking.
And when I am joking with you people outwardly, something very serious, very sublime, may be taking place in the inner world. Many, many things — millions and billions of things — remain unrevealed and unmanifested. That is true of all the spiritual Masters. In my case I may have done a little more or much more than some of the others. But I tell you, most of the great spiritual Masters have done many things which are not recorded. Either they did not get the time to reveal these things, or they did not get the right people to whom they could reveal these things. Only in a small group, where everyone is one hundred percent for the Master, does the Master open his heart. If one person is not fully receptive or does not have one hundred percent faith, then the Master inwardly gets all kinds of needles and pebbles. That is why I can’t tell intimate or most secret things in front of all the disciples. It is simply impossible. As soon as you open your mouth, before you say something properly, an attack comes. If persons who are listening don’t believe me, then inwardly they attack me with their doubt-arrows. Who wants to fight with them?
If you see a great difference between my highest consciousness and my joking or barking consciousness, then you are making a mistake. My consciousness is like a bridge. The highest is not separate from the lowest, and the lowest is not separate from the highest. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. If you cannot appreciate the highest because it is too sublime, then think of what you call the lowest, which is not the lowest but only the other side of the coin. If you get joy from my barking, then think of it and immediately get the greatest joy. But if you prefer my most sublime consciousness, then think of that and get joy. Whichever pleases you, immediately think of that aspect of me. But do not say that this one is infinitely lower and that one is infinitely higher. For some it is not easy to appreciate the highest aspect, because for that you have to reach a certain height. But to see my scolding or barking consciousness, you don’t have to reach any height; you just have to do something wrong.
Four or five years ago when I was meditating in the meditation room, my transcendental picture was on the wall. I don’t remember whether it was my coloured transcendental or my black and white transcendental. For the first time the consciousness in that picture fell down and touched my feet while I was meditating and said, “Why, why, why do you look at me?” Pictures were not taken on that day. Afterwards, also, many, many hundreds of times my consciousness has gone much higher than the consciousness in my transcendental picture, but those times were unfortunately not recorded. The photographers don’t take pictures at the right time; that is the trouble. I have to tell them first.
Somebody in the ashram who considers himself my worst enemy saw my transcendental picture and said, “Oh, after seeing this picture, I am ready to touch his feet.” Look at the power of this picture! Even my worst enemy can’t quarrel, can’t fight, can’t criticise. Only he is ready to touch my feet. Again, as a photograph, nobody appreciated the transcendental picture at first. But now hundreds and thousands of copies are made of it.
Question: Guru, when you give us grades for our meditation, what scale do you use? Do you grade us against what our present capacity is, or what our ultimate Perfection is? What does 100% mean?
Sri Chinmoy: It is your present capacity, not the ultimate. If I give you grades in comparison to the ultimate Goal, you will get 0, because your standard is so low. The Goal is not, say, 20 miles away and you are now at one mile. If that were true, then you would get some grade. But the Goal is so far, so far. It is a million miles away, and you are now at one mile. But according to your present capacity I grade you. Otherwise, it would be impossible to give you any grades.
Question: That means that when you give us over 100% for something we do, we have transcended our present capacity?
Sri Chinmoy: Right. It is not that you are absolutely the world’s best singer, for instance, or that the cosmic gods are singing in and through you.
Question: Occultly does the number just all of a sudden appear to you? When you give grades you are so clear about it.
Sri Chinmoy: In my vision it is written down. Immediately it appears, like on a computer. The figure also changes immediately. Sometimes, before you start singing, the mark is already recorded. It is not that I am prejudiced, but in the inner world my inner beings have already measured the performance. Many times, many times during this celebration, the marks were already recorded before the song was sung. My inner beings have measured; they have heard your capacity. My inner beings know of that particular song. How beautifully or how badly you will sing it is already recorded. So my inner beings have observed it and brought it. The mark appears here, right on the forehead, and I just watch. Sometimes the mark changes many times before the song is sung. That’s why after I write it down I may change the mark, because it has changed here. The marks come very quickly.
Question: Guru, do your inner beings have their own favourite disciples? Do certain inner beings like certain people more than others?
Sri Chinmoy: Very good question. If I like someone, my inner beings will like that person to the same extent. That is to say, if I like a particular disciple very much, they will try also to like that person very much, but according to their capacity, not according to my capacity. If I love someone the utmost, with all my heart and soul, my inner beings also will immediately love that person the utmost. But their capacity is like a child’s. If the father loves a particular friend, his most intimate friend, and he shows the utmost affection to his intimate friend, the child will also love his father’s friend. But the father knows so many things about his friend — the good things he has done or what a kind person he is, and so forth. The father knows everything about his friend, but the child knows nothing. Only because his father loves that person so much, the child also loves him. He does not know why they developed their friendship or what one has done for the other. But gradually the child grows up. Over the years he sees what kind of conversations his father is having with his friend, and what his father’s friend is bringing, and the child’s love increases.
In the inner world the souls of the disciples play with my inner beings. When their souls come, I play or my inner beings play with them. Like children mixing together the souls and the inner beings do play. But because they are divine inner beings, they always watch who are the people for whom I care more. When they see that I am paying attention to someone, they immediately give up everything and come to pay attention to that individual or those individuals.
But unlike human beings, they have no preference of their own. If I say this is the best disciple or these are my excellent disciples, immediately my inner beings will agree with me. They will not say, “No, I don’t care for him.” With ordinary human beings, if Madhuri says, “This is my best friend,” Vidhu will immediately say, “You may consider her your best friend, but I like somebody else.” But my inner beings won’t do that. If I say that this is the best, my inner beings will immediately agree. They may go and play with some of the souls who are not my best disciples, but once it is clear to them, they will never come and argue with me. They will never say that you may consider this your best disciple or these your excellent disciples, but we think those others are much better. Many times my inner beings and the souls play all kinds of cute games. Many times the souls that really like my inner beings don’t want to go back to their bodies. In so many ways they delay.
Question: That’s why we can’t get up in the morning.
Sri Chinmoy: Because your souls are away playing with my inner beings, that’s why you can’t get up in the morning? Far from it! You have so many layers of ignorance, like a very heavy coat you have put on the soul, so the soul can’t breathe. The soul has to struggle in order to wake you up, because layer after layer of ignorance you have put on during sleep. The little soul is covered by a coat, a blanket, a carpet and everything, so it finds it difficult to breathe. So if it finds it difficult even to breathe, then how will it have the strength to get you up? As soon as you remove the blanket you will be able to get up.
Question: Is that why it is harder to get up after you have been asleep for a longer time? Sometimes when I sleep shorter it is easier to get up.
Sri Chinmoy: The difficulty is that when you sleep for a long time you make unnecessary friendship with your lethargy-enemy. When you have less sleep, at that time you don’t lose anything. From a medical point of view sleep is necessary. For the body’s sake it is necessary, absolutely necessary, and if the body fails, then how are you going to pray and meditate? But each time you are fast asleep for an hour or more, unless one is realised, it is like being underneath water.
Each time we sleep for 6, 7, 8 hours, we make friends with our failure from a spiritual point of view. For the body’s sake it is necessary to sleep. Otherwise, how will you meditate? But if the body does not need sleep and you sleep, then it is a terrible, terrible mistake. The physical body does not want, does not need 6, 7, 8 hours’ sleep at a time. Two to three and a half hours at a time is enough for the seekers, for those who pray and meditate.
Question: Are there certain times in the day when you should not sleep?
Sri Chinmoy: Indian tradition says that if you sleep during the day, a snake will bite you. But I am of the opinion that people should take rest for 15 minutes or half an hour during the day so that the physical body can absorb the capacities of the sun. Even if it is raining, the light that illumines the earth planet during the day can be absorbed. So 15 minutes to half an hour during the day is good. But again, to sleep 2, 3 or 4 hours during the day is too much, too much.
Question: If we slept for 2 or 3 and a half hours at night and got up for a half hour and read your books or meditated and prayed and then went back to sleep, would that be better?
Sri Chinmoy: Unfortunately, it may happen that only after three hours you enter into a deeper part of sleep. For the first three hours you have not slept properly at all, and then you are entering into a very nourishing and refreshing type of sleep, but mechanically you have set the alarm for three hours and you are getting up when you are just about to get the sleep that in five minutes will strengthen your nerves. At that moment if you get up, it is not good. You have to train the body in such a way that as soon as you go to bed, in five minutes or ten minutes you will fall asleep, before the mind starts thinking of incidents and events. Just think one sweet thought of me — that I gave you a smile one day, or something else. That smile you remember and swim in the sea of that smile as you go to sleep.
The disciples whom I see every day should not remember today’s bark, but yesterday’s smile. Anything that gives you joy from me, that very thing you remember. If you can remember that joy for five minutes as you go to sleep, from that joy peace will enter into you. Joy gives you peace. That is the easiest way. Even if you went to bed after quarrelling and fighting, or if unfortunate things have taken place at your job or with your friends, think of my smile, or of how I appreciated you once. You should write these things down so that if they don’t come to your mind when you are upset, you can just look and refresh your memory. These sweet memories have so much power that they will immediately swallow all the bitter feelings you have that will prevent you from getting proper sleep.
Question: Nowadays you don't answer questions after you give lectures at universities. Is there a particular reason for that?
Sri Chinmoy: Very often it has been happening that someone asks a question and, at the same time, he very nicely gives the answer himself. He doesn’t actually have any question, but he just wants to demonstrate his knowledge to the audience. At the end of his lengthy explanation he will say, “Do you agree with that?” and that is his question. The answer he has given himself, and he only wants me to say, “Yes, I agree.” Or someone wants to show that he can ask a very spiritual question, a very significant question. He wants to prove to others that he has so much depth to ask a very difficult question. The stupid fellow has read the question and even got the answer from a book. Now he does not want to get a new answer. He just wants to be able to tell people that the Guru has answered his question. And he is so happy that he can ask me such a difficult or significant question. It has happened many, many times. It is not to get something new that these people ask questions, it is only to show people how much they know, or how spiritual they are. So in this way people are only taking up time and exploiting my compassion. They are not gaining anything from it. This is the main reason why I do not usually answer questions after my talks anymore.
Published in AUM – Vol. 5, No. 7,8, July-August 1978
