Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.
Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.
Sri Chinmoy gives his first esraj concert, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy gives nineteen spiritual talks as part of 100 lectures in 20 days.
Off The Path, 6:45 a.m., Disobedience Is The Order Of The Day, 6:55 a.m., and The Red Stoplight, 8:15 a.m., at Jamaica High School Track, Jamaica, NY, USA
Yesterday Was The Time, 12:30 p.m., To Be Divinely Great, 12:35 p.m., If You Want To Be Great, 12:40 p.m., and Gratitude, 12:45 p.m., at the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Jamaica, NY, USA
In The Human World, 7:00 p.m., Our Beloved Supreme, 7:05 p.m., God’s Compassion Flows, God’s Justice Grows, 7:10 p.m., To Live In The Desire-World, 7:15 p.m., I Was A Student Of Prayer, 7:20 p.m., I Wanted To Tell God, 7:25 p.m., I Lived Only Twice, 7:30 p.m., I Shall Sing Today, 7:35 p.m., and The Purpose Of Human Life, 7:40 p.m., in transit to the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Norwalk, CT, USA
What More Can I Give You?, 8:00 p.m., Divine Pilgrimage, 8:00 p.m., and Lord Of My Life, Friend Of My Heart, 8:20 p.m., at the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Norwalk, CT, USA
These talks (nos. 59-77) are later published in Everest-Aspiration, Part 3 and Part 4.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (78) and delivers a lecture at Helsinki University in Helsinki, Finland.
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed about his weightlifting by Marty Gallagher, editor and publisher of Strength Review Magazine, accompanied by Hugh Cassidy, former world powerlifting champion. The interview takes place before Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Concert at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (120) at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, USA.
Sri Chinmoy completes 70,000 Soul-Bird drawings in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy meditates and offers a concert performance at the annual puja in the Geeta Temple, Elmhurst, NY, USA. He is also presented with the Purushottam Mas Peace Award.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Art Gallery in London, UK.
Questions by Marty Gallagher, editor and publisher of Strength Review Magazine, accompanied by Hugh Cassidy, former world powerlifting champion. The interview takes place at the Washington Monument, Washington, DC, before Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Concert.
Marty Gallagher: What essentially is your philosophy with regard to making progress?
Sri Chinmoy: Ours is a positive way of thinking. We feel that every day we have to go into our heart-garden and get inspiration. There we try to see a beautiful rose — not yesterday's rose, but today's rose. The petals on yesterday's rose are dry and withered. But today's blossoming rose will be fresh. Then tomorrow we will go again and try to see a new rose.
The past is gone. Yesterday it was fresh; today it is not fresh. Today we have to see something new and fresh. This is how we can get inspiration. We cannot go on with yesterday's inspiration. Yesterday's inspiration was needed for yesterday, but today's inspiration we need for today. We have to always look forward and enjoy the beauty, fragrance and purity of today's flower.
Often, when people first hear about my weightlifting achievements, they try to exercise their power of imagination. They say, "Perhaps he can do it." But then, when they allow the doubting mind to come forward, their imagination-bird's wings are clipped and its flight is over. Then they start doubting me and criticising me.
As an individual, I am nothing and I can do nothing. For everything that I have achieved, I give one hundred per cent credit to God's Grace. I do not have the physique of a bodybuilder. In my youth I was a sprinter and a jumper, but I never cared for weightlifting. Only three or four times a year I used to practise lifting twenty pounds. And here in America, when I started lifting dumbbells off the ground, I found it extremely difficult to lift over forty pounds because it was not at all in my line.
But I entered into this new field with tremendous determination and every week I was progressing — going up from 40 to 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 pounds. After 100 pounds, I was unable to progress any further because it is difficult for me to bend. Then a student of mine from Australia made a support rack for me so that I could start with the weight at shoulder height. He said, "Since you cannot bend, perhaps you will be able to continue if you do it this way." So I tried and he was right. From 100 I went to 200,300,400, 700 — up to 7,000 pounds. We have photos; we have videos. And many people do believe it.
Hugh Cassidy: And yet none of them have tried it.
Marty Gallagher: That's incredible!
Sri Chinmoy: No, they do not try. With regard to my calf raise, one very prominent powerlifter had absolutely no doubts about my 2,000-pound calf raise. He said he believed it because so much of weightlifting depends not on physical power but on mental power. I call it Grace. I am saying again and again that it is not my physical power; it is my prayer-power that enables me to lift up such heavy weights. But you can call it mental power or anything you want to call it.
I have lifted an elephant, a truck, a helicopter, a plane, a sailboat and all kinds of things. People have seen with their own eyes that the weight has gone up. Some people are saying that because of the laws of physics, it is not the full weight that I am lifting. I am not claiming to lift the full weight. Let us say it is 75% or even 50% of the weight. A 3,000-pound elephant is standing in front of you. You try to lift it up. Even if the actual weight on my shoulders is 50%, that is 1,500 pounds. Let others try to lift up 1,500 pounds.
Many weightlifters and bodybuilders have seen my standing calf raise machine with 1,400 pounds on it. They could easily have asked to try it. I would have had no objection. If it is such an easy thing, then let them try. But nobody has asked me.
About a month ago I was in Germany. There I met Jusup Wilkosz who was recently Mr. Universe. He invited me to come to his gym. I have never seen such a beautiful and well-equipped gym. And it was so clean! He had a calf raise machine there. I asked him how many pounds he could lift on it. He said, "I can only do 500 or 600 maximum. My students cannot do even 400." Then he asked me to try it. I had just finished a full breakfast and I did not have any warm-up. But I had been practising with much heavier weights on my own machine, and I knew I would not injure myself. So I just stood in front of him and lifted 860 pounds, which was all the weight he had available for that machine. Then he said to me, "This is not physical power. This is your spirit. Your spirit is doing this." It is absolutely true. I call it God's Grace, but he calls it spirit.
He was very nice. He examined my spine and massaged my knee and gave me lots of advice on what to do for my knee pain. And he has no doubts about my weightlifting. He accepts my 7,000-pound one-arm lift and my 2,000-pound calf raise.
Marty Gallagher: Some weightlifters are critical because they are too ego-filled.
Sri Chinmoy: My whole purpose is to be of service to mankind and this I can do only through inspiration. I get inspiration from my prayer, and this inspiration I try to offer to my friends and dear ones. This is my whole purpose in life. I have written thousands of poems. In hundreds of places I have given musical performances. I have also composed thousands of songs. It is all for inspiration.
Some people may want to enter into competition and defeat others. But right from my childhood, I have been only competing with myself. If I can compete with myself and improve myself, I will become a better person. And if I become a good person, Mother Earth will be so happy, since she will be blessed with one less undivine person. I want to increase my capacities, I want to go beyond and beyond, so that others will be inspired to do the same. This is the message and the inspiration that I am trying to offer.
As soon as we compete with others, we forget our oneness. When we compete, we try to win by hook or by crook and our undivine qualities come forward — jealousy, pride and all kinds of negative things. Then we get unhappy experiences.
Hugh Cassidy: I think it would be great if some champions would lay their egos aside and take on this attitude — the feeling that they don't have to compete with others or challenge others, but just find out what they themselves can do.
Marty Gallagher: In the weight world, the problem today is the way young lifters make progress. When they can no longer go beyond the capacities of the body, they take drugs. And that is a dead end; it's an evil. We know that the way to overcome this drug problem is through the mind, through spirituality. But to get that message out to the young lifters is so difficult. That is why we were so pleased when word of your lifts first came out.
Sri Chinmoy: I am extremely grateful to you. This very thing I call inspiration. There is one gym in San Francisco where they keep two or three of my weightlifting pictures on the wall. Young weightlifters concentrate on my picture and make progress. For days or weeks perhaps they cannot lift something; but after looking at my picture they are able to lift it. Because they believe that I can do it, they feel that they also have the capacity to do it.
This is the kind of inspiration that I wanted to offer through my weightlifting. Competing with others does not serve any purpose. People who want to increase their capacity can seek inspiration from others.
Hugh Cassidy: When you do that, you have to believe in the other person.
Sri Chinmoy: Believers will always believe and disbelievers will never believe, no matter what you do. They will say it is magic or deception. How can you ever prove anything to them? There are many, many things you cannot prove. Right now I cannot prove God to you, but I do know that God exists. My faith in God is infinitely stronger and more fruitful than any proof I can offer you. For me, God is a living Reality. Although I cannot show God to you, that does not mean that the Reality of His Existence is less. I know He exists because I feel Him, I see Him, I talk to Him.
If I have eaten a most delicious mango this morning and I am unable to prove it to you, who cares? You may think I am fooling you, but I will simply say, "You remain satisfied by calling me a liar, and I will remain satisfied that I was lucky enough to eat the mango."
In this world we are all running after satisfaction. Some people get satisfaction by doubting me and speaking ill of me, and I get satisfaction because God's Grace was able to accomplish something in and through me. So each of us is satisfied. Why do we all have to have the same kind of satisfaction? I like water; you like milk. As long as you get milk and I get water, it is fine. But you cannot say that water is very bad and I have no right to tell you that milk is very bad. When I say that my drink is nectar and your drink is all poison, then the problem starts.
My whole approach is through love. Just before I lifted the elephant, I went to the elephant and said, "You are my friend, you are my heart's friend, you are my soul's friend, you are my life's friend." Somebody else might come and try to frighten the elephant, but that is not my way.
Before I lift very heavy weights in my house, I go and touch each plate before I lift it. I can show you on the video. I touch each plate and try to establish my friendship with it, for even an inanimate object has pride. If you are my friend, then you will have no objection if I lift you up. As your friend, I can beg you to do something and you will feel obliged to do it. But if I am your rival, you are under no obligation. If I act like a commander and say "Stand up!", why do you have to listen to me? You will say, "Who are you to tell me to do something?" Then it will be like fighting with an enemy — challenging the weight or being challenged by the weight. The weight will say, "You cannot lift me," and I will say, "I can lift you." At that time, the weight will be like a rival and, as soon as I hold it, there will be a competition between me and the weight. I will say, "I am going to lift you up," and the weight will say, "Who are you to lift me up?"
That is not my approach at all. Instead I become one with the weight itself. My whole approach is one of friendship and oneness. I am trying to be of service on the strength of oneness. So whether it is an inanimate object or an animal or a human being, my whole purpose is to establish oneness, oneness, oneness.
Oneness starts with the members of your family. Then gradually, gradually, you establish your oneness with your neighbours, associates, countrymen and, finally, with the whole world.
Marty Gallagher: You have offered us such good advice. We are going to apply it!
Sri Chinmoy: We take the body as a temple, and the soul inside the body as a shrine. Without the shrine, the temple has no value, Again, without the temple, where can we keep the shrine? If we leave it in the street, people will destroy it. So this body, which is supposed to be the temple, has to be kept clean and pure. But how can the body have purity when the mind is so impure? If my mind enters into rivalry, jealousy and competition, then it is only separating me from you. But if my mind tells me that you are my friend, then we will establish our oneness.
If the mind is a problem, some people say that we have to discard the mind completely. If the vital is a problem, if the vital is aggressive and destructive, they say we should cast aside the vital. If the body is a problem, if the body is lethargic, they say we should renounce the body. This is the way of separation.
But we can also take a positive approach. Instead of rejecting the mind, if we can make the mind clear and pure, and teach it to think positively, then our mind will be a great help to us. If we can ask our vital to become constructive and dynamic, then it can do many good things for us. And if we can ask our body to work for God, sleeplessly and breathlessly, then it will be a tremendous help to us.
This is our way of approaching the inner and the outer life. Others may offer a completely different approach. There are many different roads that lead to the Goal. We cannot say that others are wrong and they cannot say that we are wrong.
Marty Gallagher: Earlier you were saying how you went and touched the plates and became friendly, as it were, with the plates. What other things do you do before you lift? What do you think or not think?
Sri Chinmoy: Before I lift, I do not think at all because, in general, thinking weakens us. When we are lifting heavy weights, we need the power of concentration. It is like this: let us say I am inside my room and I hear people knocking at the door. I have no idea whether they are my friends or my enemies. So what do I do? I say to myself, "Whatever I have to do inside my room, let me do first. If these people are my real friends, they will wait for me. If they are my enemies, their pride will come forward and they will say, 'It is beneath our dignity to waste our precious time here'. Then they will go away. But my good friends will be sympathetic and say, 'Perhaps he is doing something very important and that is why he is not opening the door'. So they will wait for me indefinitely."
When I am lifting heavy weights, at that time I do not allow any thoughts, whether good or bad, to enter into me. I only pray for God's Grace and then surrender to His Will. I fold my hands and say, "I would like to become a faithful and devoted instrument of Yours." Human power is so limited; it cannot lift more than a few pounds by itself. It is the divine Power in me, which I have brought to the fore through my prayer-life, that has enabled me to go from 40 pounds to 7,000 pounds.
We have to believe in a higher Power. If we do not believe in a higher Power, then we cannot go beyond our capacity. It is like being in a tug-of-war. When one individual is fighting against another individual, it can be very difficult since each may have the same strength. But if more people come to their rescue and begin pulling with the other contestants, then each team will have greater capacity.
Similarly, when I pray and meditate, I feel that somebody else is helping me, whereas an ordinary man feels he can only rely on himself. When he is under the weight, he thinks that he is lifting it all by himself. He has practised for so many years and developed his strength and he feels that everything depends on this physical strength. But in my case, I feel that I am only an instrument. There is some other power that is coming to help me. That power I call God's Grace.
Marty Gallagher: We work a lot with young lifters. What advice would you give to them?
Sri Chinmoy: The young lifters and bodybuilders must find an invisible friend who will help them. They must feel that there is Somebody who is eager to help them. They cannot see Him with their eyes, but they can feel Him inside their heart. Many things we cannot see but we can feel.
Let us say that yesterday some young students lifted 200 pounds. They must feel that they have got this capacity from God. If they cannot give credit to God, they should at least give credit to an invisible friend. Or let them say there is a higher force.
They know their own body because they have worked with it for a long time to develop their muscles. But do they also know what their mind can do? When they have a negative thought, they become so weak! Again, when they have a positive thought, how strong they become! While they are lifting, if they think of their rivals, they are bound to fail. At that very moment, they should not think at all. But if they have to think, they should think of their coach who is helping and encouraging and inspiring them.
The best thing, however, is not to think of anybody, but to become one with the weight itself. If the weight and I have become friends, then we do not need anybody else. But if I cannot take the weight as my friend, at least let me think of my coach — that he is so kind to me and is always trying to help me. And if I cannot think of my coach, then at least let me think of the joy I get from lifting and not of somebody else who perhaps is stronger than I am.
There are so many ways we can improve if our mind is trained to think in a positive or divine way. We have so many friends within us and around us. We have to accept the world as our friend, and not as our enemy.
Marty Gallagher: How do you know the moment to actually grab the bar and lift?
Sri Chinmoy: There are various ways I can know. I do not lift the bar until I feel that my thought process has completely stopped and I have become another plate. When I am touching the plates one by one before I lift, I am establishing my friendship and oneness with them. I identify myself so completely with them that I feel I have become the weight itself. If I have become the weight — if I am the body and the weight is my hand — then I can easily raise it.
Marty Gallagher: So many of our lifters lift with aggression and that is why they need huge bodies to lift the weights; whereas, if they were harnessing their real capacities, think of the weights they could lift with these huge bodies!
Hugh Cassidy: Yes, isn't it ironic that most of the lifters in the world are the ones who challenge the weight? They're not the ones who become friends with the weight.
Sri Chinmoy: That is their mistake. A challenge is like a special kind of anger. If I am angry with you, my nerves are weakened. Each time we challenge someone, we inwardly weaken ourselves. But if we establish our oneness with someone, then we get that person's strength.
That is what we are doing with our prayer-life and meditation-life. When we pray and meditate, we are getting God's Strength. It is not that we are stealing it; only we are establishing a free access to it. If you and I have become friends, then immediately you will give me what you have and what you are and I will also give you what I have and what I am. So both our capacities are increased. If I challenge you, I will come with nine dollars and you will show that you have eleven dollars. But if we show our oneness rather than our rivalry, then my nine dollars and your eleven dollars become twenty dollars.
Marty Gallagher: How often do you recommend that a person meditate? Should he meditate before he lifts and for how long?
Sri Chinmoy: Absolute beginners should not meditate at all; they should concentrate. For an absolute beginner, meditation is a difficult process. There are three rungs in the spiritual ladder. The first rung is concentration, the second rung is meditation and the third rung is contemplation.
In my case, I can do all three because I have been practising for many years. But a beginner has to first learn concentration. When he concentrates, his concentration must be on the tiniest part of the weight that he is trying to lift. Suppose I am trying to lift 200 pounds. On one side of the bar is 100 pounds and on the other side is 100 pounds. When I am concentrating, I will focus my attention on my wrist or on my hand, and try to feel the whole weight there. I will not think of the plates on either side. Everything has to be felt at the spot where I am concentrating. While I am concentrating, I have to feel that the weight is smaller than the smallest — no matter how big it is.
But when I am meditating, at that time I will have to see the whole picture — the plates, the bar, everything. Then, when I am contemplating, I have to establish my total oneness with everything — with the plates, with the bar, with the entire apparatus.
Hugh Cassidy: What about breathing?
Sri Chinmoy: As you know, when you want to lift up a heavy weight, it is easier to do so when you are breathing in. It is always good to take deep breaths, not shallow breaths. When I lift very heavy weights, I take three very deep breaths before lifting. The best thing is to feel the breath or the life-energy in your spiritual heart and in your forehead. While you are concentrating, you can feel the same life-energy inside your wrist or inside your palm. It is life-energy that enables us to lift. So when I breathe in, I always feel that my life-energy is inside my forehead and, when I concentrate, I feel it is inside my wrist.
Marty Gallagher: Are you talking about the spiritual third eye?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, the third eye. Always feel that your power is coming from there. Our will-power is not in our arms or in our shoulders. The will-power that is governing the whole body originates in the third eye — between the eyebrows and a little above.
Weightlifting students who have not been practising meditation should learn how to concentrate. For them that will be easiest. Then they should learn to meditate. In the beginning, if they do not concentrate, they will not be able to bring to the fore their own inner strength. Strength is always there inside us, but the way to bring it to the fore is through concentration and meditation.
Marty Gallagher: How does meditation differ from concentration?
Sri Chinmoy: When we concentrate, we focus on something smaller than the smallest. When we meditate, we meditate on something larger than the largest.
We concentrate on a tiny drop, but we meditate on the vast ocean or the sky. Meditation is vastness, absolute vastness. And contemplation is something far beyond both of these. Contemplation is oneness.
I am extremely, extremely grateful to both of you. I feel that if we can work together positively, there will be countless people who will believe us and who will be able to derive inspiration and benefit. I know that there are some people in the weightlifting world who feel threatened by my approach to weightlifting.
Marty Gallagher: There are people who build careers on the negative and there are always other people who will get malicious pleasure from reading their comments.
Sri Chinmoy: Some people will say that the moon is so beautiful, it gives us light, inspiration and joy. Again, there will be others who will say that there are so many spots on the moon, or that it is not as bright as the sun. Still others will say that even the sun is losing its energy and after a few centuries there will be no sun. Some people will always look at the dark side, but we want to look at the bright side. If we take the positive side, then we make progress. We feel that people who constantly criticise the world and see the negative side of things are unconsciously destroying themselves.
We are trying to become better citizens of the world, and for that we have to go beyond our present capacities. Whatever capacities we have are not enough. We have to become better in every way. By criticising someone, in which way are we becoming better? My right hand can lift up a heavier weight than my left hand. But will I criticise my left hand? Will I say, "Look, why do I have to keep you? You cannot lift as much as my right hand, so the best thing is to chop you off!" Am I such a fool? Because I have established my oneness with both my right hand and my left hand, in no way will I feel that my left hand is inferior. The left hand and the right hand have to go together, like the older brother and the younger brother in a family. If the older brother can lift 200 pounds and the younger brother can lift 20 pounds, the older brother will not feel that the younger one is inferior. If he has sincere love for the younger one and sympathy with him, he is so happy at the younger brother's achievement. Also, he knows that his little brother will be able to make progress and one day he, too, will lift up 200 pounds. And the little brother on his part will feel so happy that his own brother is able to lift 200 pounds.
So this is how we establish our oneness. The older brother could have said, "It is beneath my dignity to identify myself with my younger brother and count his 20 pounds with my 200 pounds." But if he is a good person, he will not do that. He will say, "My little brother has done 20, so now we have 220 pounds in our joint account."
Marty Gallagher: Even a child can see farther if he is sitting on his father's shoulders.
Sri Chinmoy: You are absolutely right. In the long run, it is the haters of mankind who will be the losers, not the lovers of mankind. It is the lovers of humanity who will do something worthwhile for the world and for themselves. Only by positive thinking, by bringing the positive qualities of human beings to the fore, will this world be able to make progress.
Marty Gallagher: You have given us much to think on. Would you be so kind as to give me an autograph for my young children? They asked me for it. As I was walking out the door, my young son came up and said, "Could you please get Sri Chinmoy's autograph for me?"
Sri Chinmoy: I shall gladly do it. I am so grateful to you for coming to see me. You have been extremely, extremely kind to me, and my gratitude is the only thing I can offer to both of you.
Published in Aspiration-body, illumination-soul, part 3
Be brave, my heart, be brave!
Your God — not in the cave.
Your God is in the mart.
Therefore, world-acceptance start.
Published in My Complete God-Surrender
Duly and daily my heart loves God.
Duly and daily my life needs God.
Duly and daily my soul reveals God.
Duly and daily my surrender becomes God.
Published in My Complete God-Surrender
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Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 9:13 a.m. before practising for a 760-lb. dumbbell bench press lift.
Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 15
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Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 9:30 a.m. before practising for 480-lb. seated double-dumbbell lift.
Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 15
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
in Room 550 of the United Nations in New York
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.
Published in Union-Vision
by Sri Chinmoy
6:45 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track,
Jamaica, New York
You are off the path. What does it mean? Does it mean that from now on you will be helpless, hopeless and useless? No, far from it. From now on only one thing will happen and that is the fulfilment of your oneness with your vital and your vital life. Your vital has chalked out a path for you and you want to walk along that path. Previously, you were walking along the path of the soul. There the soul was your leader-friend. Now your vital will be your leader-friend.
When you walked on your soul’s path, you made many promises to God, inner promises. These promises, from now on, you will be under no obligation to fulfil. God, too, made a solemn promise to you, and His promise that He would grant you conscious liberation from the meshes of ignorance, and absolute oneness with Him, is also withdrawn. You can say temporarily, you can say indefinitely; it depends on how long your friendship with your vital leader-friend lasts.
Now you have left the path of the soul and you have entered into the path of the vital. If you criticise the path of the soul, if you feel that there is nothing worthwhile to be found on the path of the soul, and that it was a terrible mistake on your part to enter into that path, then naturally you will stay indefinitely on the vital path.
Now you have decided that the path of the vital is the true path, the path where you will succeed, where you will meet with satisfaction. If this is what you feel, then not only are you mistaken, but the real in you, the soul in you, will not put up with such an absurd statement. Your soul will indefinitely withdraw. But if you feel that the path of the soul was hard, arduous and difficult for you, and if you have chosen this other path because it is a lesser path, an easier path, then your soul will forgive you and wait for you with absolute patience. The soul feels that your helplessness and hopelessness is not a thing to be encouraged or justified; far from it. But the compassion of the soul will rain on your weakness, and the soul will grant you another chance in two years or five years or ten years. But if you find fault with the soul’s discrimination, if you criticise the soul’s attempt to execute God’s Will in and through you, then the soul will withdraw from you for quite a few years or for this entire incarnation. It may happen that this withdrawal may even last for quite a few incarnations — if you believe in reincarnation, of course.
When you go off the path, it is parting time between you and your soul. When you become one with your vital-friend, your soul will withdraw. When you leave the path, you are saying goodbye. You tell the soul, “Someday in the distant future our ways shall cross.” The soul soulfully says, “I hope so.”
6:55 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track,
Jamaica, New York
Disobedience is the order of the day. No matter what I do, no matter how many times I write about disobedience, no matter how many times I speak about disobedience, it seems that disobedience from the disciples will never end. Even yesterday I spoke about disobedience, about what happened when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Then later, when we were on the bus, I asked you people to sing. There was not even one enthusiastic singer. I blame the leader of your group one hundred per cent. If the leader does not have the necessary obedience and enthusiasm, then it is a really painful shock. I won’t blame anybody else if you go to sleep or do not show interest. But from the leader if there is no enthusiastic movement or approach to the rest of the members, then I feel very sad. And from the members also there should have been two or three to come and inspire the leader to sing. Now, I am the supreme leader. When I say, “Do something,” if the disciples don’t agree, or go to sleep, then I will take care of them in my own way. But the leader that I appoint also has to be responsible.
On the one hand I am taking you people here, there, elsewhere. You don’t get time to practise and I am sorry. But again, I feel that these things are absolutely necessary to spread my light. Yesterday quite a few people came to our concert. They were extremely receptive. In the bus you had plenty of time to practise, but whatever pleases you, you do. What pleases me, you had no time to do. For one hour or so you entered into the entertainment-world. That is what you did.
When I take your time away and you cannot practise, I compensate. But when I ask you to sing, at that time you are tired, unwilling, exhausted. You may think that this is nothing; Guru will not take it seriously. But I will take it seriously even if I ask you to budge an inch and do not give any rhyme or reason. If you do not do it, then it is recorded on the tablet of my heart. You don’t think that I am asking you to do something important; I am not asking you to jump off the Empire State Building to show the world that you are obedient. To do something striking in order to show your obedience is easy. But real obedience has to take place at every moment, in every action. If I request that you move an inch, please feel that this request is of paramount importance. It is as if I have asked you for everything. The mind will say, “This is easier than the easiest. Therefore, if I don’t do it, no harm.” But if you do not do something extremely easy, will you do something very difficult?
From now on I want you people to take any request from me as a divine command. I have had enough sad experiences. Even when I ask you to do something in a light vein, you have to do it. From now on, no matter who the disciple is, if I make a mere request, do it. Otherwise, your disobedience in the inner world will be digging your own grave. From now on, please take my request as a divine command, coming consciously from the Absolute Supreme. Otherwise, I will be very sad and disturbed. For yesterday’s disobedience I blame your leader one hundred per cent. I won’t blame others, because the leader is my representative in a specific field. I don’t know what I shall do with you people in the future if I see disobedience reigning supreme in your lives. So please, please, do not disobey me.
You do not know who I am. Unfortunately or fortunately, I know who I am. If I know who I am to you, to God, to the entire world, I have to behave to you in that way. If you are prepared to sing with me and dance with me, then when I say, “Sit down,” you have to do it. This kind of obedience you need.
This applies to all of you. I show you tremendous love, affection, concern, everything. Even your stupid mind will sometimes believe it. The other day I gave a talk on how I will use my Justice-Height, and not my Compassion-Light. I ask you in this life to do or not to do only one or two things. When I ask you two, three, four times not to do something, afterwards I will become very strict. I will give you a last warning, and if you still disobey me, then I will ask you to leave the Centre. It is very, very painful for me to ask people who have been with us for many years to leave. But only for one reason do I ask people to leave the Centre, and that is disobedience. I will accept or tolerate almost anything that you do except disobedience, because disobedience is just like standing against me. There are two armies fighting. When you openly disobey me, you go to the enemy’s side and fight against the Supreme, against the Supreme’s Will.
Please, please, I beg of you, never disobey me, especially when it is a matter of your emotional life and vital life, which is your immediate destruction. If you disobey me in any aspect of life, at that time I forgive you, but when it is emotional life, I ask you not to do it, especially on the outer plane. On the inner plane you may say that you didn’t get the message. But on the outer plane once I tell you, then you can’t deny it later on.
So to all of you I am saying: please, please do not disobey me. If you disobey me, you are revolting against the Will of the Supreme in me. If you stay outside the Centre, you can enjoy yourself and do whatever you like. But when there is a rebellion inside our sweet little family, I will not be able to put up with it. I have asked two disciples to leave the Centre. My heart breaks, but I abide by the Will of the Supreme. I have no other means to deal with those people. Tomorrow may be your turn if you disobey me. I have to be very strict with you people on the basis of my own oneness with the Supreme. Then there is no father, no mother, no brother, no sister, no son. If I ask you to do something and you don’t do it, then the same kind of fate will befall you tomorrow.
One aspect of mine is singing and dancing with you people. I am your constant friend, your eternal friend. Again, I may have to ask you to leave the Centre, to leave our sweet little family, so that you will not have any conflict between your spiritual life and your outer life. If I have given a warning to any of you here, please take it as the last warning. Then, if you go on disobeying, you know what will be your fate. So be careful, be careful, be careful. If you do the right thing, you are absolutely a jewel inside my gratitude-heart. But if you disobey me, your disobedience will take you people far, far, far away from me. Then you will be totally lost — totally! — and my presence will be sadly missing from your lives.
8:15 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track,
Jamaica, New York
The red stoplight discourages me when I am in a hurry. The same red light soothes my life when I am not in a hurry.
I want to enjoy the life-breath of time. The red stoplight tells me that life is not always a smooth passage. It warns me for my own good. In no way does it try to prevent me from manifesting my life-saving speed and my life-saving reality.
The red stoplight is my true friend in disguise. In the spiritual world, the red light is my conscience. My conscience never prevents me from doing the right thing; it only wants me not to do undivine things. It is always eager to warn me against doing the wrong thing, and to inspire me to do the right thing.
When I don’t obey the red stoplight, I enter into alarming danger, into the very jaws of death. Similarly, when I don’t listen to the soft, sweet, smiling dictates of my conscience, I may run into dire catastrophe in my life of aspiration. My conscience does not discourage me or prevent me from doing the right thing, but it asks me to remain cautious so that the hungry tiger of the animal-human world does not destroy me.
Because of my conscience, I am a human being. If I abide by the soulful dictates of my conscience, I shall see only the face of satisfaction in my life. This satisfaction is the very beginning of my blossoming belief. When I am satisfied, I blossom forth. When I blossom forth, I feel that I am not only an instrument but the instrument of my Beloved Supreme.
I forever love you and adore you, red stoplight! You are truly the saviour of my outer life. O my conscience, I love and adore you because you are truly the saviour of my inner life. Because of you, I do not dine with ignorance-night; I am safely driving towards Eternity’s Light, Infinity’s Beauty and Immortality’s Love.
12:30 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
Yesterday was the time for me to sympathise with the suffering humanity. Today is the time for me to express my genuine concern for the bewildered humanity. Tomorrow will be the time for me to offer my loving service to the desiring humanity. But now, now is the time for me to express my oneness-heart with the hungry humanity.
Sympathy, concern, service, oneness-heart: these are the real members of my inmost family, and these members of my inmost family I wish to share with the rest of the world, with God’s creation, with God the creation.
12:35 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
To be divinely great is to serve. To be supremely good is to love. To be eternally perfect is to cry within sleeplessly. To be satisfied in God’s own Way is to become consciously and constantly a heart of gratitude-flood.
The human in me desires greatness. The divine in me longs for goodness. The aspiring and ascending God within me yearns for perfection. The loving and manifesting God in me cries for satisfaction.
I wish to become a most intimate and lifelong friend of greatness, goodness, perfection and satisfaction, for it is through them that my Beloved Supreme will smile His eternal Smile and dance His immortal Dance in and for me. May our friendship not only please the human and divine within us, but also please and fulfil our Beloved Supreme deep within us.
12:40 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
If you want to be great, then keep yourself busy learning everything — everything in everything and everything of everything.
If you want to be good, then keep yourself busy unlearning the things you have learnt in the desire-world, and keep yourself busy learning everything in the aspiration-world.
If you want to be only in the realisation-world, and not in the desire-world or in the aspiration-world, then you do not have to learn anything and you do not have to unlearn anything. You have only to become what you want to become. How can you become what you want to become? You can easily become what you want to become only when you feel that you can never make yourself what you want to become. No human power can do it. Only by the Grace that comes from Above can you do what you want to do and become what you want to become.
How do you get this Grace? You get this Grace if at every moment you shed loving tears of gratitude to the Supreme for what He has done for you out of His infinite Bounty and, again, for what, out of His infinite Bounty, He has not done for you. Many things God has given you out of His infinite Bounty, so that you can be happy, the divine in you can be happy. Again, many things He has not given you for your good. So, because of what He has given you and what He has not given you, you must create a sense of continuous gratitude. Inside that gratitude you are bound to see Him, feel Him and become one with Him in His Divinity’s integral Life.
12:45 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
We are grateful to God, for He is with us here and now. We are grateful to God, for He has created within us a genuine hunger for Him. We are grateful to God, for He has given us a long express train of hope. We are grateful to God, for He has repeatedly told us that He will keep His promise. What is His promise? His promise is that He will not be satisfied unless and until each creation of His satisfies Him in His own Way.
How can we please God in His own Way? First of all, we are now aware of God’s Way of operating. Also, we may feel that something will please God, but how can we know if we are correct in our feelings, or whether it is all mental hallucination? There is a way to know whether we are pleasing God in God’s own Way. We have to dive deep within and destroy or transform the thought-world and replace it with will-power, adamantine will-power. If we are afraid of God’s Will-Power, which is all-powerful, then our life will always remain in untold fear.
We are on earth, here and now, only to please God in God’s own Way. It is a difficult task indeed, but we get joy only when we cross hurdles. If we do not cross hurdles, then there will be no lasting reality and there will be no lasting satisfaction. If we do not do everything here and now, then there will be no satisfaction whatsoever, for today’s goal is only the beginning of tomorrow’s new journey. This new journey and the journey’s goal will come and greet us, for the achievements of the soul and the journey’s goal are inseparable.
When we cry with gratitude, it is the journey’s soul that acts in and through us, which is a splendid achievement. And when we smile with gratitude, it is the journey’s goal that has become one with aspiration’s starting point and with aspiration’s ever-transcending horizon.
7:00 p.m
In transit from Jamaica, New York
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
In the human world there are three things that last forever. At least, so do I think. These are: fear, one’s sense of unworthiness and a doubting and suspicious mind.
In the divine world there are three things that will undoubtedly forever last. These are: faith, courage and love. If a disciple has these three things, then he does not need anything else.
Fear, anxiety and doubt: these are immortal, but in a negative, destructive way, whereas faith, courage and love represent or embody Immortality in a positive way. The human in us will one day transcend itself and accept the divine in us with all its faith, courage and love.
7:05 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
Our Beloved Supreme is always ready to lead us, but it is we who have to cultivate the desire to follow Him. Our Beloved Supreme is always eager, more than eager, to make us feel that He loves us constantly, but it is we who have to cultivate the willingness to believe Him.
Our Beloved Supreme is always ready to help us fight against ignorance-night, but it is we who have to feel the real necessity to be in wisdom-light and not in ignorance-night. If we want wisdom-light, then only shall we accept His Service.
Our Beloved Supreme is always ready and more than eager to cry for us to attain the highest Reality-Height, but He expects in return just a little soulful smile from us. If we do not offer Him a little soulful smile, then He will not be able to create a receptivity-vessel within us. If we do not have a receptacle within us, then when He cries for us, we will not be able to see Him crying or feel His cry. So what we need is a receptivity-vessel when He cries. This receptivity-vessel is nothing short of an echo-reality, for His cry has to echo and re-echo in the inmost recesses of our hearts. This is what our Beloved Supreme longs for from us, so that He can cry and cry from His own ever-transcending Heights only for our salvation, liberation, realisation and perfection — for us, only for us.
7:10 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
God’s Compassion tells me that I can do nothing without Him. God’s Justice tells me that He has given me the necessary capacity to become what I sincerely, soulfully want to become. Not only will God’s Justice give me what I divinely want to have, but also it will give me the capacity to become as perfect as God Himself.
The hero in us cries for God’s Justice. The beggar in us cries for God’s Compassion. The hero in us knows perfectly well that when God exercises His Justice, the hero will be able to run faster than the fastest and will eventually become wiser than the wisest. On him God will shower His better-than-the-best Concern-Height and Love-Delight. Again, in order to make us great, good and divine, God the Compassion is constantly showering His Compassion on us.
The beggar in us is also laziness incarnate. He begs, but only for a short while; then he gives up totally. He does not have the necessary capacity to stick to his principles and be ready to pay the price. The beggar in us only wants Compassion unconditionally from God. God can give His unconditional Concern and Love to the beggar in us, but once we get it, then there is every possibility that the beggar in us will not appreciate it because it was given unconditionally. When God does something unconditionally and man does not do anything to deserve it, then man does not value it. Therefore, God always expects us to do something — to try, to cry — in order to value His Gifts. God can give us whatever we want, whatever we need, but it is we who will not be satisfied. It is we who will not be pleased with ourselves unless we have offered our mite to God’s Cosmic Plan.
God fervently wishes that the beggar in us will one day give up begging and start choosing like a divine hero, a supreme hero, who knows what he wants and, in order to get it, offers up his body, vital, mind, heart and soul as a flaming sacrifice. We must not remain always veritable beggars. It is high time for us, it is our bounden duty, to grow into divine heroes and live the life of supreme heroism. What is the supreme heroism? The supreme heroism is to give ourselves ceaselessly and unconditionally so that God can fulfil Himself in and through us in His own Way. When He fulfils Himself in His own Way, it means that He is liberating, fulfilling and immortalising His expanded and extended Cosmic Reality.
7:15 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
To live in the desire-world is to live on tiptoe. How long can one live on tiptoe where anxiety, worry, tension, fear and doubt reign supreme? In the desire-world, the poison of the individual and the poison of the world, in secrecy supreme, kill each other. The world is killed by the individual’s poison and the world kills the individual with its poison. This poison comes into existence from jealousy, doubt and suspicion.
The only way one can stop living on tiptoe is to feel that one is God’s creation. The creation can never be neglected by the Creator. As ordinary human beings we do not destroy even a little painting that we have done. So how can God the Creator, whose creation is nothing but an exact image of His own Reality-Existence, destroy the world? Each individual has to feel that it is the need of the Supreme to create him, it is the need of the Supreme to sustain him, it is the need of the Supreme to fulfil him in a divine way.
To live on tiptoe is to forget one’s Source, who is also the Source of Light and Delight. To live on tiptoe is to consciously make friends with the negative, destructive world, the temptation-world, where worry, anxiety, fear and doubt run riot.
Instead of living on tiptoe, you can live in the very heart of the Lord’s divine Pride, provided you feel that it is your own duty, your sole duty, to cast aside your personal necessity and become one with your Beloved Supreme’s divine Necessity. Your own necessity is desire-bound, and when it is fulfilled, inside it destruction looms large. So if you want to find your true satisfaction, then find it at the right place: inside God’s Compassion-Height. That is the only place to discover your satisfaction-right.
You are following the path of spirituality. Your heart is all aspiration. In the life of aspiration you are preparing for a life of total surrender. You will not only surrender your aspiration-life and dedication-life, but also your desire-life, your ignorance-life, with equal joy, equal love, equal confidence, equal certainty. Only then will there be no necessity on your part to hide from God or to try to hide your thoughts from Him. You and your integral existence must always reside in the Supreme. This is the only way for you to become totally perfect and inseparably one with Eternity’s Vision-Light and Infinity’s Manifestation-Delight.
7:20 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
I was a student of prayer, but I can’t say that I enjoyed my studies. When I was a student of prayer, anxiety and worry killed me. At times even fear and doubt killed me.
Then I became a student of meditation. When I was a student of meditation, at times I had confidence in my meditation, and at times I totally lacked confidence. Therefore, I did not succeed in a striking manner. Because meditation is all peace-expansion, light-expansion, love-expansion and oneness-expansion, I could have progressed fast, very fast. But I did not.
When I became a student of self-giving, I discovered immediately that my self-giving was growing into something infinitely more than I had ever dreamed of, something that I never would have had the capacity to acquire. What was it? A fruitful life of God-becoming vision-light and God-manifesting manifestation-delight.
I want to remain only a student of self-giving. The other two I do not want, I do not need separately. I do not need them as a separate existence in my self-giving. My self-giving includes meditation, prayer, everything. Therefore, what I need always is a self-giving cry and a self-giving smile.
7:25 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
I wanted to tell God that I sincerely love Him. It was on the tip of my tongue. Alas, Satan came. As soon as I saw Satan, I totally forgot to tell God what I had intended to say.
I wanted to tell God that I need Him constantly. It was on the tip of my tongue. Alas, alas, Satan came at that very moment and ruined my inspiration. The very presence of Satan ruined all my joy, and I totally forgot to tell God what I had intended to say.
I wanted to tell God that I shall become unconditionally His most devoted instrument. It was all planned. It was on the tip of my tongue. Alas, Satan came and gave me an unwarranted frown. His frown took away all my inspiration, all my joy. All at once I felt miserable, and I enjoyed my misery to such an extent that I totally forgot to tell my Beloved Supreme what I had intended to say.
I wanted to tell my ignorance-friend that I would no longer speak to him. I had it all planned. It was on the tip of my tongue. Ah, who came to strengthen my promise? My Beloved Supreme.
I wanted to tell ignorance that from now on mine is the way of light, mine is the goal of delight, and that I must leave ignorance for good. It was on the tip of my tongue. Ah, who came to strengthen my promise? My eternally old, everlastingly old and, at the same time, ever-amazingly new friend, my Beloved Supreme.
7:30 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
I lived only twice: once in the kingdom of strangling and devouring animals and once in the kingdom of doubting and suspecting human beings.
I am living now only twice: once in the world of hesitation and once in the world of unawareness.
I shall be living only twice: once in the smile of my gratitude-heart and once in the heart of God’s Satisfaction-Light.
To grow and experience more and more, to become most spiritually mature, I shall live only twice: once inside the aspiration-plant and once inside the realisation-tree and realisation-fruit.
From now on, I shall make it a special point to live in my aspiration-world. There I shall see that my beloved Lord is crying and ascending to open up a new world of light, a new world of promise.
7:35 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
I shall sing today. I shall sing the song of God’s Beauty within me, in my inner world. I shall sing the song of God’s Duty without me, in my outer world.
I shall sing today not the song which I knew so well, the song of frustration, but I shall sing a new song, the song of illumination.
I shall sing today only of the awakening, only of the manifesting divinity of my Beloved Supreme; I will never, never sing the song of self-unfoldment.
I shall sing today the song of perfection in the aspiring finite life.
I shall sing today the song of the Supreme, my Supreme Pilot, inside the cry of the finite.
I shall sing today, for this is the only way I can not only expedite my life’s journey but also bring my goal slowly, steadily and unerringly closer to my reality-existence.
I shall sing today the song that I just learnt from my Beloved Supreme, and this song is the song of continuous self-offering. What is self-offering? Self-offering is the discovery of one’s God-embracing reality.
7:40 p.m.
In transit from Jamaica, New York,
to Sri Chinmoy Centre, Connecticut
The purpose of the animal life is the quest for individuality and separativity. The purpose of human life is the quest for unity, and not a sense of separativity. The purpose of divine life is the quest for perfection — perfection in the inner world, perfection in the outer world, perfection in God’s entire creation. The purpose of the Supreme’s Life is the quest for satisfaction, the satisfaction that nourishes the body-reality of His creation and the soul-reality of His ever-transcending Vision.
Animal life is always hurtful. Human life is always doubtful. Divine life is always soulful. The Supreme’s Life is always fruitful.
The animal life tells me that by fighting I will get everything. The human life tells me that by becoming clever I can get everything. The divine life tells me that by giving everything I shall become everything that I want to become and, something more, that I shall please God in His own Way. The Supreme’s Life tells me that by oneness-spreading I shall not only become everything, but I shall be able to offer my all-becoming gift as a boon to the aspiring mankind.
8:00 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Norwalk, Connecticut
“My Lord Supreme, what more can I give You? I have given You my desire-day. I have given You my frustration-night. My Lord Supreme, what more can I give You? I have given You my anxiety-chain. I have given You my insecurity-train. What more can I give You, my Lord Supreme?
“My Lord Supreme, I have given You what I have learnt from my earthbound mind. I have given You what I have done, together with my hungry and aggressive vital. My Lord Supreme, what more can I give You? I have given You my hope-sky. I have given You my promise-sun. My Lord Supreme, what more can I give You, what more?”
“My child, I do not deny that you have given Me all these things that you have mentioned. But you have not given Me the thing that I need constantly from you so that I can be totally pleased and fulfilled, and that thing is your soul’s satisfaction-breath. This is the only thing that I need from you. The rest of the things that you have given Me have brought Me joy, and I will do the needful with them. I shall transform them and make them into divine instruments of Mine. But the thing that I need constantly from you, the thing that I need most, you have not given Me so far. Therefore, I am reminding you to give Me your heart’s oneness-cry, your soul’s satisfaction-breath.”
“O my sweet Father, O my dear Friend, O my only Boatman who is carrying me along Eternity’s river towards Infinity’s shore! They say that I am old, for I am over forty. They say that I am cold, that I have become a finished product, that I have long ago lost my childlike life, my nature’s cry and smile. Is it all true?”
“No, no, no, My child. This is far, far from the truth. You are not old; you are bold. You are not cold; you are warm. You are not old, for in you and through you I have created a new world of self-revelation and self-manifestation to see and enjoy Me in the divine, Supreme way. This way is through art. You are not old. After you crossed the barrier of forty I made you a divinely, supremely chosen instrument of Mine and entered into you to reveal and manifest Myself in the world of painting and the world of music. Two giant worlds I have created in and through you for My own Satisfaction.
“You are not cold, you are warm. Because of your warmth, because of your oneness-warmth, humanity’s ascending cry and divinity’s descending smile have accepted you as My instrument, My most pleasing and fulfilling instrument.
“No matter how old you are according to the earthly calendar, you are not old; you can never be old, and all those who have become inseparably one with you also can never be old. Your oneness-friends, like you, will never be old in My Vision-Light, for you are all in My Golden Boat. My own Aspiration-Cry in and through you all is being manifested at My own choice Hour. My Aspiration-Cry is glowing and growing and offering haven to countless seekers of Truth and lovers of Light and Delight.
“You are not old, and all those over forty who are with you, in you and for you are like your four-year-old children, for they have the same warmth, the same eagerness to be in My Boat. Their eagerness and warmth they have offered to Me to be in My Boat. Therefore, they can never, never be old. They have given Me a free access to dream in and through them, and I am dreaming in and through them. When I dream in and through anybody, that person can never be old, for My Dream is manifesting as an illumining, fulfilling reality that is eternally new, eternally illumining, eternally fulfilling.
“A life of dream, divine dream, is always a life of blossoming, becoming and transcending. All of you in the Golden Boat who are over forty, I am dreaming in and through you. Each one has a special dream. This Dream of Mine in each seeker-lover is My Life-Breath of new creation, new perfection, new satisfaction.”
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 3
8:10 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Norwalk, Connecticut
Pilgrimage, my Divine pilgrimage.
My Beloved Lord, My Beloved Friend, My Beloved All. You have given me my simplicity. You have given me my sincerity. You have given me my serenity. You have given me my purity.
Simplicity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my body-consciousness. Sincerity You have given me so that I can march along the road of my vital-dynamism. Serenity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my mental vision. Purity You have given me so that I can start my pilgrimage along the road of my heart’s delight.
My Lord Supreme, You have also told me that my simplicity, sincerity, serenity and purity will reach their acme of perfection only when my heart’s gratitude flowers petal by petal, blossoming to perfect perfection. And for that what I need is constant self-giving — conscious, soulful and unconditional self-giving. In order to have conscious, constant and unconditional self-giving, what I need is a real approach to You — not as a beggar but as a lover; not as a beggar-destitute but as a lover-friend. If I approach You as a beggar, You will give me what I need or what I want. But my receptivity-vessel is so small that even if You give me what I need, it will not be much, it will be far from my full satisfaction. And if You give me what I want, it may not be the right thing. You will give me, but what You give me will ultimately be a source of true frustration and never a source of satisfaction.
My Lord Supreme, even if You give me an iota of what You want to give me, that very iota will not only please the real in me, the soul, but immortalise the human in me. The human in me is my human hope, my earthly hope. Hope before it bears fruit is nothing short of illusion and delusion — mental hallucination, to say the least. But even this very hope You will be able to immortalise. Once my hope is immortalised, I shall see my hope in the form of Your own Reality’s Vision, transcendental Vision, and Your own Vision’s Reality, universal Reality.
8:20 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Norwalk, Connecticut
O sweet beloved Lord of my life, O great and good Friend of my heart, I know, I know that to love You is to be found doing something for You. Since I am not to be found doing something for You, that means I do not truly love You.
O beloved Lord Supreme, I know, I know to serve You is to be found doing something for You. Alas, alas, since I am not found doing something for you, that means that I am not serving You.
O sweet Lord, I know, I know to think of You, to meditate on You, is to be found doing something for You. Alas, alas, since I am not found doing something for You, that means I do not think of You, I do not meditate on You.
O sweet Lord, to tell my inner world that I need You is to be found doing something for You, to tell the outer world that it needs You desperately, as I need You, is to be found doing something for You as God the creation. But alas, since I am found neither in the inner world doing something for You, nor in the outer world doing something for You, that means I do not need You; I am bound only to please myself in my own way.
But my soul’s solemn promise was to please You and fulfil You in Your Way. To please You and fulfil You in Your own Way is not always to remain in the world of theory but to become practicality itself — the practicality of the reality that You want and need. It is in my practicality that You can manifest what You have for me, for humanity, and what You are to me and to humanity. What You have is Your inner creation-Light for me and for the entire humanity; and what You are is a conscious, constant and inseparable oneness-cry in the inner world and oneness-smile in the outer world for me and for humanity.
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 4