God, Truth and Love
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Southwestern University
in Cebu City, the Philippines
Because I love mankind, God loves me. Because I love God, Truth loves me. Because I love Truth, I really and truly love myself.
Why should God love me? I just said that God loves me because I love mankind. There is another reason, too. God loves me because I love His entire Creation. I know and feel that God can never be separated from His Creation. Creator and Creation are one, inseparable. When we appreciate the Creation, the Creator is pleased and satisfied. When we ourselves create something, produce something, build something, people notice our achievement and appreciate it deeply. We are pleased because it is we who have done it. Similarly, the universe is God's Creation. When we love the universe, we simultaneously love God the Creator and God the Creation; and both the Creator and the Creation will be pleased with us.
Because I love God, Truth loves me. Truth has no existence without God. God is the very breath of Truth. Truth and God are one, indivisible. On the one hand, Truth is another name for God. On the other hand, Truth cannot exist without God, whereas God can at each moment transcend Truth — earthly truth and heavenly truth, earthbound truth and heavenward truth. Even His own Transcendental Truth God can transcend at His own sweet Will. Although we can safely say that God and Truth are one, God alone has the power to transcend all truths, even the Truth itself. That is why Truth without God is helpless. But when we love God, Truth loves us because Truth is immediately fed by our aspiring soul. Inside God is the existence of Truth. In our very appreciation of God, Truth is fed and nourished. And Truth rightly feels that its unique message to the world can be spread only when we truly love its Possessor, God.
Because I love Truth, I love myself. A human being is the expression of Truth. He is not the expression of ignorance, falsehood, darkness and death. No, he is the embodiment, realisation and expression of truth — the lesser truth, the higher Truth and the Highest Truth. Each moment the divine Truth is transcending its boundaries in us. We see it, feel it and realise it when we live the inner life, the life of the soul. Because I love the Truth, I really and truly love myself. My existence and Truth are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin, which is the inner being or soul, the representative of the Supreme here on earth.
I love myself. What do I love about myself? Not my body. If I love my body for the sake of my body, tomorrow I shall be frustrated because there are millions and billions of human beings on earth who are more beautiful than I am. Naturally I will feel miserable. If I love my physical mind for the sake of my mind, tomorrow I shall see millions and billions of mental giants right in front of me, and my mental capacity will fade into insignificance. If I love my vital dynamism for the sake of my vital dynamism, then I shall see that there are millions and billions of people who are simply inundated with striking dynamism. Similarly, if I love anything else of my own, for its own sake, I am bound to be frustrated. I shall defeat my very divine purpose. But if I love myself just because God is expressing Himself through this body, vital, mind and heart, then I see that I am unique and peerless in the whole history of the universe, because no other Chinmoy is going to be created by God with the same capacities, same understanding, same experiences. Each individual can love himself just because he is a direct channel of the Divine. God wants to express Himself in each individual in a unique way. When we become consciously and fully one with God, we not only fulfil Him but we also fulfil ourselves. When I say that I really and truly love myself because I love Truth, it means that I consciously feel that Truth is constantly breathing in me, with me and for me.
My very breath on earth is the living reality of Truth. I love and adore myself at every moment — not because of my sound body, dynamic vital, refined mind and pure heart, but because God is inside me, God is utilising me, God is fulfilling Himself in me and through me. This is the sole reason why my body, vital, mind and heart are loved by me and must be loved by me. Each individual has to be surcharged with this supreme Truth. He should consciously feel that his life on earth is the outer manifestation of the Supreme's inner Breath.
Supreme, I am Thy Glowing Grace.
I am Thy Golden Plow.
I am Thy Vision's Kite.
Published in Eastern light for the Western mind
Poems, in transit in India
Sri Chinmoy writes twenty poems (416-435) on the trip from Madras to Bombay.
To make yourself happy,
Be what you have:
Aspiration-flame.To make God happy,
Be what you are:
Dedication-lamp.To make both yourself and God happy,
Become what you have to become:
Illumination-sun.
You tell me that
Your physical beauty is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!You tell me that
Your vital impurity is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!You tell me that
Your mental insecurity is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!You tell me that
Your psychic uncertainty is poison.
I tell you, give it up.
You don’t need it!
Who is happy?
Not the puny princess.Who is happy?
Not the weak prince.Who is happy?
Not the jealous queen.Who is happy?
Not the insecure king.
The twentieth century
Is flooded
With self-styled Master-rogues.The twentieth century
Is flooded
With monster disciple-fools
Lord, I am crying
Because You are sleeping.Lord, I am sleeping
Because You are not caring.Lord, I am not caring
Because You are ignoring.Lord, I am ignoring
Because You are not smiling.
An interesting question:
Where is God?An inspiring question:
What is God doing?An illumining question:
Who is God?A fulfilling question:
Who else’s love do I need,
If not God’s alone?
Before the race,
The marathon was temptation
Which I cleverly called
My aspiration.After the race,
The marathon is frustration
Which I trickily call
My dedication.
Your heart-room is unlit.
Therefore
Your mind’s capacities
Are deplorably unfit.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude!
To teach me how to love God
You have come to me
From my aspiration-heart’s amplitude.Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude!
To teach me how to love God
You have come to me
From my illumination-soul’s infinitude.
Don’t try to make God
Into your image.
He will please you,
But your ignorance-choice
Will make you suffer
Far beyond your imagination’s flight
During your darkness-enjoying journey.
On my priority-list
Two slaves will play
Most significant roles:
My surrender-life will be
God’s unconditional slave;
My desire life will be
Earth’s transformed slave.
Just a quick reminder to meditate.
Meditate soulfully;
You will conquer ignorance-night
Easily.Just a quick reminder to meditate.
Meditate unconditionally;
You will gain the Lord Supreme
Everlastingly.
Everyone knows your great secret:
You have the longest stride
In your aspiration-life.
Your stride embodies
Love selfless,
Devotion spotless,
Surrender sleepless.
Man and machine.
Man asks for quantity.
Machine has it.Man wants to build.
Machine says, “It is all done.”Man asks for help in every sphere of life.
Machine says, “What have I been doing
Save and except that very thing?”
Man blames fate.
Fate blames the stars.
The stars blame
The desire-ambition-man.
Man blames the invisible God.
Hope never retreats.
Faith never delays.
Love never sleeps.
Devotion never doubts.
Surrender never fails.
My Eternity’s Lord Supreme,
Three tearful prayers:
Reinspire my heart-cry,
Rebuild my hope-tower,
Replenish my gratitude-cup.
Stop shouting!
The Creator is coming.Stop shouting!
The creation is crying.Stop shouting!
I am preparing —
Preparing myself for God’s
Complete Satisfaction.
434. The secret of divine education
The secret of divine education:
Do not look back.
Your forgotten, hungry wolf-life
Will immediately devour you.The secret of divine education:
Be sleeplessly on the alert.
Your ego-life can easily
Keep growing without nourishment.
Ambition is hard work
In the desire-world.Ambition is quick elevation
In the aspiration-world.Ambition is slow but certain perdition
In the realisation-world.
Published in Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 5