A Higher and Better Life
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, in Scarborough, Tobago
My dear friends, my dear seeker-friends, let us all try to live a higher and better life. A higher and better life is a life of inspiration, a life of aspiration, a life of dedication and a life of realisation.
Inspiration makes our lives surprisingly great. Aspiration makes our lives astonishingly good. Dedication makes our lives unquestionably divine. Realisation makes our lives supremely perfect.
A great man deserves appreciation. A good man deserves admiration. A divine man deserves adoration. A realised man deserves love.
Let us appreciate our own good qualities: simplicity and sincerity. Let us admire our own good qualities: humility and purity. Let us adore our own good qualities: our love of truth and our respect for justice-light. Let us love our own good qualities: our oneness with man in God for God-manifestation, our oneness with God in man for God-satisfaction.
Let us try, let us try. We shall without fail succeed.
Published in AUM – Vol. 7, No.1, January 1981
I Love Shopping
Stories by Sri Chinmoy
about his shopping experiences
Vijali’s immediate luck
In Bukittinggi, I was bargaining to buy a synthesizer. The man in the store was coming down only 2,500 rupiah, so I did not want to get it.
I told Savyasachi to take Vijali there to bargain with them some more. She has immediate luck.
The synthesizer has one setting that sounds like a violin and another that sounds like a harpsichord. With my Yamaha, I have to push several buttons in order to make these sounds.
The silent Brahma
In some stores the people are nice; they are ready to bargain. In other stores, whatever price they say is all they will take — finished!
In one store I was bargaining and bargaining. The man in the store would write down one price, but I did not understand his writing, so I would write down another price. It never ended. Finally I bought two items and left.
Then I decided to go back and buy a third item — a T-shirt for Raghu. I said to myself, “I am not going to bargain this time. Whatever price the man asks for, I will give.”
The man said, “5,000 rupiah.”
I became the silent Brahma and said, “All right.”
The man couldn’t believe his ears. When I gave him 5,000, he returned 2,000 to me. That was a nice experience.
Special greeting
Every day when I am on my way to the shopping area in Bukittinggi, some little boys see me. They greet me by saying, “Good morning, Air India!”
A great performance
When I went into a flute store in Bukittinggi, Dhanu and a few other disciples also came in the store, and they were listening while I was trying out different flutes. Dhanu was supplying me with flutes, and I was trying to see which ones were good.
The owner was also selecting flutes for me. He wanted to show me how they sounded, so he was playing as loudly as possible. Meanwhile, I was trying to play in my civilised way. So the owner and I were giving a great performance! Finally I selected two flutes. The man used two Hindi words, so I started talking to him in Hindi. But he could not speak Hindi; he knew only two words and used them because I was an Indian.
The man asked for 10,000 rupiah for the two flutes, and I offered 5,000. The man said 7,000 and I was a little bit disappointed. Then Dhanu took out 5,000 from his wallet. I could see that the man was ready to accept 5,000, but he was not taking it. Finally, he agreed and took the money. I thought the transaction was over, so I took out 10,000 rupiah to pay Dhanu back. When the man saw my 10,000 rupiah, he thought it was for him. Then he didn’t want to sell the flutes for 5,000 and started asking for 10,000 again. What kind of problems I created!
Finally, I said that I wouldn’t pay more than 5,000, and Dhanu asked for his money back. Then the man accepted our price.
Published in I Love Shopping, part 4