Heaven-Vision and Earth-Reality
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
in Marvin Hall at George Washington University, Washington, DC
Heaven-Vision and earth-reality. Heaven-Vision is great; it is appreciated, admired and adored by earth-reality. Earth-reality is good; it is liked, loved and embraced by Heaven-Vision. Heaven-Vision is God’s Duty: eternal expansion. Earth-reality is God’s Beauty: infinite manifestation. Heaven-Vision tells the seeker that there is only one thing that the seeker needs and that is illumination: liberation from the meshes of ignorance. Earth-reality tells the seeker that he needs only one thing and that is transformation: total transformation of his human nature.
When the cry of the finite grows and glows into the smile of the infinite, we call it liberation. When the darkness of the body is transformed into the light of the soul, we call it transformation. Liberation is of the entire being. Transformation is mainly of the physical nature, the earthbound nature. Illumination is the connecting link between liberation and transformation.
When one is liberated, one feels and knows that there is another world to take rest in; and when one is transformed, one feels that it is here, here on earth, that he has to manifest the Absolute Supreme. When one is liberated, one feels that he has worked very hard and now it is high time for him to take rest in some other plane of consciousness. When one is transformed, when one’s outer being is transformed by light, one feels that he has got the golden opportunity to be a perfect instrument of God here on earth.
The light descends from the soul into the heart. Liberation usually starts with the heart. Then the flame of liberation enters into the vital, which may be aggressive, emotional or animal. And finally the flame of liberation enters into the gross physical. The light descends from the soul into the heart, from the heart into the mind, from the mind into the vital and from the vital into the physical. This is how liberation takes place. But transformation starts right in the physical, and for the physical, when the light descends from above.
In the unaspiring human being, Heaven-Vision cannot abide even for a fleeting second. Earth-reality also finds it almost impossible to reside inside the unaspiring human being. But just because human beings remain on earth, with boundless compassion and boundless patience earth-reality does abide inside unaspiring human beings. But inside aspiring human beings Heaven-Vision discovers the only way to reveal God. And inside aspiring human beings earth-reality finds its goal, its only goal: the manifestation of God here on earth.
At the beginning of his spiritual journey, the seeker says to Heaven-Vision, “All that I am is from You. All that I have is from You: it is Your Light, Your Delight, Your Silence, Your Sound.” At the end of the journey’s close, the seeker says to earth-reality, “All that I am and all that I have is for you: infinite patience, infinite compassion, infinite forgiveness.”
Heaven-Vision tells the seeker that if he knows how to believe, then it can make him a perfect instrument of the Absolute Supreme. Earth-reality tells the seeker that if he can listen to the dictates of his Inner Pilot, then earth-reality can make him a perfect instrument of the Absolute Supreme. The sincere seeker knows how to believe and he will believe. He knows how to listen and he will listen to the dictates of his inmost being, the soul, the direct representative of the Supreme.
Heaven-Vision is a flower that, petal by petal, grows inside each seeker. Earth-reality is a fruit that comes into existence at the end of climbing aspiration in the inner world and soulful dedication and loving self-giving in the outer world. Each seeker deep inside him has Heaven-Vision and earth-reality. The Heaven-Vision in the seeker starts the journey. If the seeker starts with earth-reality, he will be making a Himalayan blunder. Heaven-Vision is the Consciousness-tree. The seeker has to climb up the tree and only then can he share the reality-fruit with the world at large.
When we close the door of the doubting, questioning, suspicious mind and open the door of the loving, sympathising oneness-heart, Heaven-Vision enters into us. When we use our indomitable will to see the face of truth and to grow into the very name of truth, earth-reality claims us as its very own. When we cry in the purest recesses of our heart, Heaven-Vision answers. When we smile at ignorance-sea that is inundating the human world, earth-reality embraces us.
Heaven is vision, earth is reality. Again, earth is vision, Heaven is reality. Heaven is the seed, earth is the fruit. When we look at Heaven-Vision in seed form, we see that Heaven-Vision is the pioneer. Again, when we look at the fruit which will offer its seeds, we know that earth-reality is the pioneer. Today the seed is the vision and the fruit is the reality. Tomorrow the same fruit will be the unveiling of vision and the seed will be the illumined and fulfilled reality.
Published in Spiritual Power, Occult Power and Will Power
Questions after the lecture
Question: Does suffering increase one's inner hunger?
Sri Chinmoy: When the inner hunger is increased through suffering, I tell you, this hunger does not last. This hunger will be satisfied after a short time and then again you will enter into ignorance-life and immediately be assailed by more suffering. Real hunger constantly increases through inner joy, inner satisfaction. At that time you are constantly transcending yourself.
When one suffers, at that time God becomes real for him. There are many atheists; for them there is no God. But when their children fall sick and it is critical, immediately they invoke God or Light or some Power. Somebody is passing beyond the Curtain of Eternity, so they feel it is time to invoke some higher Power, some higher Light, something which they don’t have that comes from somewhere else. They invoke something and that something is God. They are stark atheists; they don’t believe in God at all. But at that time God comes into the picture just because they are suffering. But the moment their suffering ends, temptation-life or ignorance-life catches them and they forget God.
So if we have to go to God through suffering, then eventually temptation will come and take us away. If we feel we have to go to God by cutting off our arms or limbs, if we feel that when we suffer, at that time God will listen to us, we are making a deplorable mistake. The positive way to go to God is through love, through joy. Constantly we are loving him; that is why we are getting joy. Just because we are in joy we love Him. If we want to increase our inner cry, then we have to love God more and we have to be inwardly and outwardly cheerful. It is through constant cheerfulness that our love of God increases. By remaining always in a state of melancholy we will not make progress. We are only trying to draw sympathy from the world and become an object of pity. But that is not the way. The right way is always to have spontaneous joy. From Delight we came into the world, in Delight we grow and, at the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire. This is our philosophy.
Joy and cheerfulness is not a life of pleasure. No! It is the conscious awareness of our inner divinity. When we are happy, when we are really happy, we are making real progress. Through suffering one may make progress, but before he makes progress he curses God. “He is happy, she is happy, everybody is happy. How is it that I am suffering?” So before we actually cry for light, quite often we misunderstand God, we criticise God and find fault with Him. But when we are happy, at that time we don’t criticise God. On the contrary, we show our gratitude. He has made us happy, whereas there are many who are still unhappy because they are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. When we become a happy heart, we move forward, we dive deep within, we fly. At that time we make considerable progress. Progress is in movement, and this movement comes only when we have joy and we become joy.
Question: Isn't spirituality a way of escaping from our problems or difficulties?
Sri Chinmoy: We do not give up because the world is full of difficulties; we do not commit suicide because the world is full of difficulties. What we have to do is pay more attention to the spiritual life. Our path is the path of acceptance. We shall accept the outer life in a normal way, but we shall also do something which most people do not do, and that is pay full attention to the inner life as well. Real spirituality will demand acceptance of life as it is. Obstacles we don’t deny, but the obstacles have to be surmounted. We are not saying to ignore them or run away from them. Far from it. But the advice I am giving is that if we can achieve light from above, then only can we conquer these outer obstacles. We are not avoiding them, we are not afraid of them. We are not trying to escape from the hard reality. But if we know that there is a medicine which can cure the maladies of centuries, then if we are wise we will take that medicine. That medicine is inner light.
Question: If one wishes to become a good person, is that a form of aspiration?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. But if we want to be a really good person, our goodness must come not from a sense of morality, but from a sense of divinity. We have to know whether we are looking at good from the moral aspect or from the spiritual aspect. Morally, everyone can know what is good and what is bad. But spiritually, what is good and what is bad only God and our soul know.
The moment you become a better human being, you have to offer your good qualities — your sincerity and your love — to mankind. These good qualities come from God. The inspiration and aspiration to love mankind come not from outside but from inside. If you want to give, you have to receive from someone who has already achieved that thing, and that is God inside you. If you do not first receive, how are you going to give?
You can be a better human being if you think of the Source, the One who makes you good, better, best — the One who is already better than you. You _can_ be a good human being and you can help people, but only if the necessity comes from within.
When we become realised, we become one with everyone according to his own standard. When I deal with a child, I am at one with the child’s standard. If I don’t become one with the child’s standard, he won’t talk to me. Then when I deal with the parents, I am one with their standard. Although I am one with them, I am also a little ahead, one step ahead. By being just a little ahead, I can give more encouragement. But if I am very far ahead of them and if I maintain my own high standard, they will become discouraged and feel that they will never be able to keep up with me. This is why I stay just a little ahead.
Question: Is Peace God?
Sri Chinmoy: God and Peace are synonymous. It is like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. If one wants God, that means he is really crying for Peace. If one is crying for illumination, how can he separate God from God’s Peace?
Question: Can you speak of the personality of God?
Sri Chinmoy: No, we cannot bind God with personality and individuality. He transcends both individuality and personality. God deals with the Universal and Transcendental Consciousness. An individual embodies personality and shows his personality in his earthly activities. But in God’s case it is all universality. He is not bound by anything; therefore we cannot ascribe personality to Him. He far transcends both personality and impersonality precisely because He is both Transcendental and Universal all at once.
Question: Could you speak about Jesus Christ?
Sri Chinmoy: Who am I to pronounce judgement on the Christ? He is a Saviour in the purest sense of the term, not only of the West but of the whole world. He is one of the Saviours like Sri Krishna, Lord Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna and others. They came into the world and they are still in the world. Our human eyes do not see them but our life of aspiration sees and feels them. They are the World Saviours who are trying to illumine the earth-consciousness.
Question: What is the first step in pursuing peace of mind?
Sri Chinmoy:_ In pursuing peace of mind, the first step is to sincerely feel that no individual is indispensable. If you feel that you are not indispensable to others and that others are not indispensable in your life, then you can easily have peace of mind. We lack peace of mind precisely because we feel that others need something from us or we need something from others. When the feeling that we or others are indispensable goes away, we get peace of mind.
An individual may have a few good qualities, but that doesn’t mean that he or she is indispensable. The same good qualities others may have. The more we give importance to ourselves or others, the more we weaken our own capacity. Only God is indispensable. We have to give all importance to the Source, to the Divine within us, to the Supreme within us. We have to feel that we are able to help or serve others, and they are able to help or serve us, precisely because the Supreme has given us certain qualities. These qualities have a true possessor, and the possessor is the Supreme. If we can consciously and continuously make ourselves feel that He alone is indispensable, then we can have peace of mind. This is the most effective way to bring about peace of mind.
Question: Is there any difference between the awareness of infinity and infinite awareness?
Sri Chinmoy: Awareness of Infinity a seeker develops only when he is on the verge of realisation. But Infinity, as such, has its own awareness, its own universal awareness or transcendental awareness. Infinity has its own awareness, which the seeker gradually becomes one with in his inmost consciousness.
Question: I often get into arguments with people. They say I shouldn't meditate and I say they should aspire more.
Sri Chinmoy: When we aspire, we feel the necessity of Truth alone, Light alone, Divinity alone. We try to become God’s perfect instrument so that we can share His Light with the rest of mankind. So our main concern is to become perfect and for that we have to grow into something divine. If we really want to become good, divine and perfect, then we have to pay all attention to our own life first. We have to pray and meditate. We are not criticising society, we are not condemning others; only we are doing the thing that is of paramount importance in our own life. We won’t say that others are doing everything wrong, whereas we are doing the right thing. No. We will only say that our Hour has struck. Our Hour has struck, so we pray, we meditate. The Hour for others will strike today or tomorrow.
So instead of belittling others or finding fault with them, please feel that what you are doing is absolutely the best thing for you, according to your own understanding and receptivity, and what they are doing right now is right for them, at the present stage of their evolution. If you do your work and they do their work, and if you do not find fault with them and they do not find fault with you, then all of you can run the fastest. In that way, there will be no confusion, there will be no contradiction, there will be no problem at all.
Question: Is there a difference between concentration and meditation?
Sri Chinmoy:_ When we concentrate, we focus all our energy, all our attention on one subject or object. We do not allow even an iota of thought to enter into our mind, because each thought is like a dark spot on the tablet of our heart. We usually try to concentrate on something very small: tiny, tinier, tiniest. But when we meditate, we meditate on something very vast. At that time we are deeply absorbed in the vastness of the reality. When we concentrate, we try to get the minute reality so that we can become part and parcel of that reality. Then, from there we grow into the vast. But when we meditate, right from the beginning we try to deal with the vastness itself.
Concentration paves the way for meditation by making the mind calm and quiet. Concentration won’t allow any thought, even an iota of thought, to enter into the mind. It is like a guard standing at the door who will not allow anybody to enter. This is concentration. But when we meditate, the mind is already calm and quiet. At that time, we can observe which thoughts are friends and which are enemies. If it is a good thought, a divine thought, a glowing, illumining and fulfilling thought, then we will allow it to enter, because this kind of thought is our real friend. But if fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, jealousy and all these ideas come, we don’t allow them in.
Concentration demands swiftness in the mind. The mind will run very fast to enter into the object or subject so that it can become part and parcel of its reality. At the same time, concentration demands alertness. The mind will not allow anything to enter into it. Concentration has to be practised before one practises meditation. It is like the first rung of a ladder. We have to step on the first rung in order to step on the second.
Published in Spiritual Power, Occult Power and Will Power
