Diary Entry
by Sri Chinmoy
while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India
28 May
"The Nivedita film will be shown tonight at the playground for the second time," Nolini-da said to me. "Tell Sisir that if he wants to, he can read out Sri Aurobindo's note on Nivedita before they start the movie."
Sisir-da was not feeling well so Amita read out Sri Aurobindo's note.
Published in A Service-Flame and a Service-Sun
The Mind Power versus the Heart Power
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 3 p.m. at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The mind power is the world information power. From the world information power we come to know what the world looks like. The world looks like a round orange. The only difference is that the world badly and sadly lacks the delicious taste of an orange. From the world information we come to know how the world is. The world is extremely sick; it needs immediate treatment.
The heart power is the world experience power. From the world experience power we discover what the world actually is. The world is a devoted instrument of God. From the world experience power we discover what the world stands for. The world stands for conscious God-realisation, continuous God-revelation and constant God-manifestation.
The mind power is perception power. With this power we perceive a thing, a reality, but we do not achieve the thing or the reality. The heart power is identification power. With this power we not only achieve, but also become. What do we achieve? We achieve God-Perfection at God’s Choice Hour. And what do we become? We become God-Satisfaction, also at His Choice Hour.
The mind power is the penetration power of inspiration. Inspiration gets satisfaction only when it reaches its cottage destination. The heart power is the realisation power of aspiration. Aspiration is satisfied only when it reaches and becomes its palace destination.
The mind power wants to reason deliberately and skilfully. But to its wide surprise it sees the end of its life-journey in frustration-night. In the reasoning mind there can be no satisfaction, no abiding satisfaction. He who wants to live in the world of the reasoning mind can never be satisfied. Satisfaction always remains a far cry. But the heart power is revealed devotedly and soulfully. He who is ready and eager to be reasonable soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally will march along Eternity’s road in the heart, in the light of Immortality’s being.
The mind power believes in the existence of reality only after it has seen the face of reality and not a second before. The heart power spontaneously believes in the existence of reality. It does not need any proof. Heart is spontaneity. Reality is at once the seed and the fruit of the heart’s spontaneity.
The mind power is afraid of the heart power. It is afraid of the heart power because it thinks that it will lose its individuality and personality the moment it enters into the vast sea of oneness of the heart. Unfortunately, the heart power is also afraid at times of the mind power. It feels that it will be totally destroyed in the volcano of the mind’s destructive sense of separativity. But this unfortunate fear of the heart’s does not last forever. The soul eventually gets the opportunity to convince the heart that its qualities — softness, sweetness, kindness, sympathy, sacrifice, feeling of divine oneness with the inner Supreme Pilot — can never be destroyed. When the aspiring heart accepts this loftiest message of the soul, the heart no longer fears the mind. On the contrary it invites the mind — not challenges, but invites and welcomes the mind — to receive the light that it has already received from the soul.
The mind power wears out long before it reaches its destination. If it misuses its power, then it loses its capacity very soon, sooner than at once. Even if it properly uses it, the mind power does not last forever. The mind power does not house inexhaustible reality.
The heart power, which is founded upon the oneness power, soul’s oneness power, is at once the expression and the revelation of the transcendental vision and the universal reality.
The mind power is a short-lived power, an occult and miraculous power. The heart power is a psychic power, an eternal power, a normal and natural power of God, which God has granted us out of His infinite Bounty. The life that is dominated by curiosity is fascinated by the occult, miraculous power. But it is the normal, natural psychic power that we embody deep within the inmost recesses of our hearts, that illumines the animal in us, liberates the human in us, and fulfils the divine in us.
The mind power tells God, “Lord, I am as great as You are, I am as good as You are, I am as perfect as You are.” The Lord smiles and says, “Son, you are as good as I am, you are as great as I am, you are as perfect as I am.” But when the mind says, “I am as great as You,” here we notice the play of ego, the play of challenge. The ego of the mind comes to the fore and wants to be on the same footing as God’s transcendental Divinity and Reality. But when God says, “Son, you are as great, as good and as perfect as I am,” here we notice the song of oneness, the silence that embodies reality. The silence that embodies the omnipresent Reality of God, God reveals through His cosmic Sound when He tells the mind that it is as great, as good and as perfect as He is. When I say I am as great as you are, at that time my ego comes to the fore. But when I say that you are as great as I am, at that time my illumining and my fulfilling oneness plays its divine and supreme role.
The heart power says to God, “Lord, I know You are infinite, You are eternal, You are immortal. I know how helpless and useless I am. I make no comparison. But Lord, please grant me only one boon: I wish to claim You eternally as my own, very own.” The Lord immediately says to the heart power, “Son, you are not helpless, you are not hopeless, you are not useless. You are what I am, you have what I have. What I am is Eternity’s Transcendence-Reality and what I have is Infinity’s immortal and constant manifestation. You and I, son, are not only equal, but One, inseparably One. When you see Me, when you see My Height and Depth, you will realise what you eternally are, what you have been since the time of creation, even before the manifest creation. And when I see you, when I manifest Myself in and through you, I feel and see My Expansion, My Perfection, My Satisfaction in and through you. You need Me to reach My Height; I need you to manifest My Depth. We are One, the obverse and reverse of the same coin. I complement you; you complement Me. Through you I sing the song of My manifestation. Through Me you sing the song of your realisation.”
Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 2
How to Solve World Problems
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 8 p.m. at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
What is a problem? A problem is a disheartening or discouraging incident in the life of an unaspiring human being. A problem is an unwanted, unwarranted, yet meaningful experience in the heart of an aspiring seeker, a seeker of the Transcendental Truth, a seeker of the ever-transcending Consciousness, a seeker of God's ever-fulfilling Dream on earth.
Each problem is a blind force. This force is of ignorance and for ignorance. And what is ignorance? Ignorance is something in us that wants to fulfil the unreal in us. What is the unreal in us? The unreal in us is our conscious or unconscious acceptance of separation from God-Reality, God-Divinity, God-Eternity, God-Infinity and God-Immortality. Each human being is a world of his own. Each human being has a world of his own. When he looks within, he is a world; when he looks without, he has a world. His world within is an illumining world, a fulfilling world, a God-loving world, a God-manifesting world. His world without is an unmanageable, uncontrollable, discouraging and disheartening world. This world constantly makes him feel that he is hopeless and useless. This world makes him feel that he is not meant to be God's chosen instrument, he is not meant to fulfil God and manifest God, he is not meant to be in the Golden Boat that sails to our God-Destination.
Each individual has to face world problems. Again, each individual is a world problem himself. When he opens his eyes, he has all the world problems to face. He has to cope with them. When he closes his eyes, he becomes really and truly a world problem to himself. When he opens his eyes, world ignorance tries to capture him and make him a victim to world destruction. When he closes his eyes, he does not want to participate in the Cosmic Game. He wants to remain aloof from God's Cosmic Drama. He wants to maintain his own unlit, obscure, impure individuality and personality. He becomes the problem of problems.
How to solve world problems? There are some people who are of the opinion that world problems can never be solved; therefore, a wise man is he who consciously and constantly ignores or avoids world problems. Again, there are people who think that by assessing world problems, or by judging world problems, there will come a time when the world problems will automatically be solved. Again, there are people who think that the world problems can never be surmounted, can never be solved; therefore, they feel that they should just enjoy what little they have. If they have pleasure at their disposal, they are ready to accept and embrace this fleeting pleasure. Since world problems cannot be solved, they say, a short-lived, fleeting pleasure-life is what they need.
But the seeker in a human being will never be satisfied unless and until the world problems are solved. The real seeker in us knows that there is a way to solve all the countless problems of the world, and that way is to accept the world problems as such and then try to bring perfection into the world problems. How do we accept the world problems? We must accept the world problems as our own problems, personal problems. And how do we perfect the world problems? We perfect the world problems by perfecting ourselves and by perfecting the things that we claim as our own.
World problems can be solved only when we consciously remind ourselves of our soul's promise to God before we entered into the world arena. This creation of God's we have to accept as our field of experience, as our field of experiment, as our field of God-revelation and God-manifestation. Each individual soul, before it assumes its earthly cloak, makes the solemn promise to God to see God in God's own Way, to fulfil God in God's own way. But the ignorance of the world veils the light of the soul and the promise of the soul; it veils even God's Assurance. This experience of the soul is an unfortunate incident in the soul's life, but it does not last forever. God's infinite Compassion from Above and man's inner urge meet together and the soul again comes to the fore, offers its light to the world of obscurity and fulfils the promise that it made to the Absolute Supreme.
How to solve world problems? We can solve world problems by our heart's prayer and by our life's meditation. Prayer is our conscious invocation of God's all-illumining Compassion from Above. Meditation is our conscious manifestation of God's illumination on earth. We pray in order to reach the Highest, the Transcendental Height. We meditate in order to bring down the Transcendental Height and manifest it here on earth. When we pray, we enter into the realm of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Existence is the first runner, Consciousness is the second runner and Bliss is the third runner in the divine relay race of the Cosmic Game. The first runner reaches Eternity's Height. The second runner reaches Infinity's Length. The third runner reaches Immortality's Life.
We solve world problems by invoking Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure, according to our power of receptivity. The Hand of God that feeds the seeker in us is Peace. The Eye of God that leads and guides the server in us is Light. The Heart of God that immortalises the divine lover in us is Bliss. Self-control brings about world peace. World peace conquers world problems. In self-control is God-confidence. God-confidence is man's ultimate satisfaction. In man's ultimate satisfaction God the man achieves perfection on earth and man the God achieves realisation in Heaven.
The power that dominates cannot solve world problems. The power that loves can solve world problems. The power that feels insufficient, inadequate in the absence of one member of the world-community, can solve world problems. The power that declares "united in the heart's world we stand; divided in the mind's world we fall," can easily solve world problems.
A life of silence is the fastest way to solve world problems. But this life of silence is not the silence of the senses. This life of silence is the vision of the supreme Reality which is constantly trying to come to the fore. It is only in the silence-life that the sound-life can meet with its own satisfaction. God's Sound-Life is His Life of Omnipotence. This omnipotent power man can consciously develop. And once he has developed this power he sees that this power he eternally is.
What is this omnipotent power? It is the power that unifies the One with the many and the many with the One. It is the power that finds its fulfilment in self-giving. Self-giving is done not in the sense of sacrifice but with the feeling of the whole as one real reality. The vastness of Infinity is one's own. Just because each individual plays a distinct role, he feels that only the sense of multiplicity can fulfil the reality in us. But when he prays and meditates, when he aspires, he comes to realise that multiplicity is alive, multiplicity exists, because unity is there as its source. This unity is in the soul, while multiplicity is in the body. When we climb up, we sing the song of unity. When we climb down, we dance the dance of multiplicity.
A life of problems is for him who does not aspire, who lives in the desire-world. There is no problem, there can be no problem for him who wants to swim in the sea of light. A problem is night, the night that binds, the night that blinds us. But a seeker is he who always wants to remain in the effulgence of light. This light does not expose ignorance-night; it illumines and transforms ignorance-night.
When the seeker remains in the soul and bathes in the soul, he feels there is no problem, there can be no problem. When the seeker remains in the body-consciousness, he sees teeming problems in his daily multifarious activities in countless forms. But just because he is a seeker of the infinite Light, Truth and Bliss, he knows that these problems are not going to last forever. On the contrary, he feels that each problem is a hurdle, a challenge, and in each challenge is a new world of hope, a new world of God-Vision, a new world of God-Reality.
He who does not aspire considers a problem a curse and he who aspires considers it a blessing in disguise. A seeker of the highest Truth accepts world problems as something that can be transformed, illumined and perfected. Each problem he transforms into an additional blessing. To him a problem is an experience and this experience is utilised in a divine way to fulfil a supreme cause. He takes each problem as a blessing which he can use as a stepping-stone to reach the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond. Just because he is a seeker, he is all compassion. He feels that the proper thing for him is not to discard ignorance-cloak, but to fix it, transform it and make it usable. He takes ignorance-night as part and parcel of his existence. He considers ignorance-night as lesser light, and the lesser light consciously grows into the greater light. Ignorance-night is the younger brother and wisdom-light is the elder brother. The elder brother carries the younger brother to the parent sun for immortal illumination and immortal perfection.
Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 2
United Nations
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at 11:00 a.m. in the University Great Conference Hall of the International University (in Moscow), Russia
Highly esteemed Rector of this International University, you have said so many kind things about me and you have lavished such praise upon me. I do hope that in this lifetime I may deserve even an iota of your most compassionate appreciation.
I bow to the soul of this august University. I bow to the soul of the United Nations. With the blessings of these two souls, I wish to say a few words about the United Nations.
Every day, countless world-progress-dreams are being born in the heart of the United Nations.
Not a division-independence, but an illumining and fulfilling interdependence is the sublime ideal of the United Nations.
Once a country joins the United Nations, there is no exit from the soul of the United Nations.
The soul of the United Nations at once inspires, energises and treasures all the countries alike, in the same breath.
Every day is a fresh world-service-perfection-satisfaction-attempt at the United Nations.
Every day the United Nations is bravely clearing stark world-ignorance-division-jungles.
From the world-illumining heart of the United Nations, we come to learn that certain unfortunate countries do not succeed in improving their quantities, qualities and capacities, not because of their unconscious foolishness, but precisely because of their conscious selfishness.
Each country can offer a unique experience-delight to all the members of the United Nations.
The outer sound-speeches at the United Nations at times may not produce satisfactory results, but the inner silence-speeches from the heart of the United Nations do illumine the minds and the lives of all the countries.
The United Nations is not a mere whisper of world-oneness-hope, but an ever-strengthening and ever-spreading promise for the transformation of humanity's mind.
The United Nations is an unmistakable adaptability-assurance.
The United Nations is a world-division-fire-extinguisher-aspiration.
Every day God cheerfully and proudly lengthens the tolerance-breath of the world-transformation-dreamer: the United Nations.
Every day the heart of the United Nations goes everywhere, lovingly and genuinely, to establish a war-free world. Alas, the adversary-forces ruthlessly bring the well-deserved UN expectation-fulfilment to a standstill.
Peace we desperately need. War we unscrupulously, nay, shamelessly declare. War-declaration is aggression-supremacy-assertion. War shall eternally remain empty of real joy, the joy that unites, elevates and fulfils humanity’s heart.
What does the soul of the United Nations precisely want? It wants to build war-free oneness-joy-bridges between all human hearts.
Alas, on earth,
To our deepest sadness,
The United Nations
Is ruthlessly ridiculed;
But high in Heaven,
The United Nations is most lovingly
And fondly cradled
By the cosmic gods and goddesses
And by the Absolute Lord Supreme.My truth-searching mind
Is speaking of the United Nations.My God-crying heart
Is speaking for the United Nations.God’s choice Hour has struck.
The United Nations —
The hidden Heart-Treasure of God —
Shall be found at the Golden Shore of the Beyond
For the world to appreciate, admire,
Adore and finally become
The Beauty and Fragrance of God’s
Supremely unparalleled Treasure
Here on earth.President Gorbachev, a supreme leader of the world whose mind is openness and whose heart is oneness, most eloquently tells the world what the United Nations stands for and what it can do for the establishment of a universal oneness-heart: “The United Nations blends together the interests of different states. It is the only organisation capable of merging into a single current their bilateral, regional and global efforts.”
Can there be any world-illumining message better and higher than this?
President Gorbachev to quote again: “What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.”
The vision-flooded proclamation of Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, runs thus: “The United Nations is the Supreme Law of the world ” How I wish this brave pronouncement of Trygve Lie would be manifested as an undisputed reality here on this earth-planet!
Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General, whose mind was all illumination, offered a most significant message for the betterment and enlightenment of this world: “Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear; to build a world of justice, we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free, in our own minds?”
The third Secretary-General, U Thant, who was at once pious and self-giving in silence and deeds, voiced forth this most prophetic utterance: “We have already begun to realise that in modern war there is no such thing as victor and vanquished: that there is only a loser, and that loser is mankind.”
Sleeplessly the soul of the United Nations is exercising its adamantine willpower to found a world completely empty of destruction-dream, a world flooded with the unprecedented beauty of harmony and the unparalleled fragrance of peace.
Let all the world-citizens pray to God in unison for all the lofty and loftier and loftiest dreams of the United Nations to blossom as world-transforming realities.
I am extremely fortunate to be blessed by the soul and the heart of the United Nations. Long thirty-four years ago, U Thant, the third Secretary-General, made a request to me to offer my prayerful service to the United Nations. Since then, every Tuesday and Friday I have been going to the United Nations to offer prayers and meditations. All the diplomats, delegates and staff are welcome to take part. We have a well-established Meditation Group at the UN Headquarters to love and serve the United Nations: the Body of the World and the Soul of the World.
[Sri Chinmoy invited his students who work at the United Nations to sing some of his songs dedicated to the Organisation. The words of these songs follow:]
UN; UN!
With you began
A fulness-cry in oneness-sky.
For you I see a flood-ecstasy.O Dream of God,
O dream of man,
Your soul smiles with perfection-plan.
O love of Truth, O truth of Love,
I see your flood of dance above.O Body of the World, O Soul of the World,
In you the nest of cosmic oneness-rest.
Yours is the nectar-role,
Our soul's desire to grow
In your duty’s vision-glow.
Published in I Prayerfully Bow to the Soul of Russia
Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s lecture on the United Natioms...