Questons And Answers
April 16, 1975...
April 16, 1975
Question: How can one have more faith or stronger faith?
Sri Chinmoy: You can develop more faith, abundant faith and boundless faith by mixing with someone who already has this faith. It is like mixing with a person who has more knowledge than you have; it brings to the fore your own knowledge. Similarly, when one has more faith than you have, your faith-flame will be kindled. If you feel that somebody has more faith in God than you have, then it is advisable to mix with him. Even if you do not get the opportunity to talk to him all the time, his very presence in silence will increase the faith within you. It is always advisable for you as a seeker to mix with someone who has more talent, more capacity, more aspiration than you have. Unconsciously, not consciously, your heart will be able to draw, like a magnet, aspiration, peace and other divine qualities from the one who has more than you have.
Question: First Of All, I Thank You....
Question: First of all, I thank you. I have been very much struck by your beautiful poems, your stories, your great creative gift to do so much and your paintings. Do you have something to say about that great capacity to produce beautiful things through imagination that relates to spiritual knowledge?
Sri Chinmoy: In the spiritual life, when we go deep within, what we call “imagination” is not imagination. It is something else. It is actually the precursor of inspiration. And what we call “inspiration” is not inspiration as such. It is something else. When you go deep within, you see it is aspiration hiding in inspiration. And “aspiration” is not aspiration, but something else. It is something higher, something deeper. In aspiration itself is realisation.
So when I do something, paint or write, I feel that my Inner Pilot is having an experience in and through me and that experience is aspiration. But the same Pilot, the Inner Pilot, would like to have another experience in and through you. At that time He might want the experience of realisation or inspiration. The seeker has to remember that he is not the doer, he is the instrument. The Inner Pilot is the doer. I know and I tell my students that I am not the doer and they are not the doers. The doer is somebody else. The doer is the Inner Pilot. Since He is the doer, we have to offer our inmost gratitude to Him, because it is He who is utilising us.
Today He is utilising me. Tomorrow, if I misbehave, if I do not listen to His inner command, inner dictates, immediately He will cast me aside and will give somebody else a chance to be His instrument. There are about 250 seekers here. On earth there are millions of human beings. But how many people are consciously praying to God or meditating on God? In comparison to the world population, very few people are praying and meditating. So you see, people who are praying and meditating are already chosen and selected for a special purpose. God could have chosen somebody else, selected somebody else. But just because He has given us the opportunity to become His instruments, we feel it is our bounden duty to be of constant gratitude to Him. So when I do something as an instrument of His, before I begin, I offer Him my gratitude, soulful gratitude. And while He is having the experience, while He is acting in and through me, when I see that it is He that is doing everything through me, I am all gratitude to Him. At the end, when I see the result that He produces, I offer Him gratitude again. So if you ask me what I do, I will say from the beginning to the end I try to become a gratitude-heart placed at the Feet of the Lord Supreme. This is the only experience that I can share with you.
Question: How Is It That You Refer...
Question: How is it that you refer to God as “He"?
Sri Chinmoy: God has form and again God is formless. God is both with attributes and without attributes. God is masculine and again, God is feminine. According to Indian philosophy, God is neither masculine nor feminine but neuter. This neuter God we call “Brahma.” God has countless forms and faces. But we are like children. A child likes to call his father “daddy.” He has no need to call his father any other name. Yet the father’s friends call him by another name, and his relatives also call him by a different name. Those at the office may call him by yet another name. Nonetheless he is the same man.
Similarly, each aspirant has his own name by which he calls God. It is a matter of personal preference and in my case, it is not that by referring to God as “He” I am denying that God is also the Divine Mother. Far from it. God is the Mother. God is the Father. God is Light. God is Peace. God is Infinite Energy. When I refer to God as “He”, I am not taking anything away from God. Like the child calling the father, God will come with all that He is, no matter if I call Him Father, Mother or Brahma. God will not mind. He simply comes to answer His child’s call and that is all.
Question: How Can One Find A Balance...
Question: How can one find a balance of desires so as not to deny them and push them away, but neither to be overpowered and ruled by them?
Sri Chinmoy: When we accept the spiritual life, can the fulfilment of our teeming earthly desires satisfy us in any way? No! On the contrary, each time we fulfil one desire, we fall prey to more desires. But even the fulfilment of the desire itself does not give us necessary satisfaction. On the contrary, it increases our greed, our dissatisfaction in what we see, what we feel and what we are growing into.
So vital desires, for a seeker, have to be transformed into the life of aspiration. They have to be illumined. If you feel that once this desire is fulfilled, you will not enter into the world of desire anymore, that you will immediately enter into the world of aspiration, you are mistaken, it is not possible. The life of desire is a tempting life. We cannot say that once twenty desires are fulfilled we shall enter into the spiritual life. No! At that time the twenty-first desire will come to claim us. Once we enter the spiritual life we have to feel that each desire has to be offered to the Lord for its transformation, for its illumination. At this point it is necessary to recognise whether we are dealing with a desire or with a command. I have come to be of service to you. There are some people here who cannot, or do not wish to identify themselves with me. They will find fault with me. But if somebody is identified with my life of aspiration and dedication, he will feel that I have come to share with him my experiences, to be of service to the divinity in him. When one enters into the spiritual life, if one is really conscious, one will know whether it is a desire he is fulfilling or God’s command. Otherwise he may call it a desire when it is not a desire at all. It may be something else. And again, he may be fooled. He may have some real desires which have nothing to do with God’s commands or God’s inner dictates. Then he creates a problem. He feels that his actions are saving humanity, serving humanity, when they may be totally undivine.
So to come back to your question, in the spiritual life the life of desire has to be transformed and illumined. If you say spirituality and desire-life can go side by side, you are mistaken. Day and night do not go I together. We have to choose one of the two. If we care for light, then we have to give all importance to light. But giving all importance to light doesn’t mean that we shall cast aside our life of desire. We shall have to transform it, illumine it, so that it can be of help to our aspiration-life. Our life of desire is our weakness. It does not have strength enough to make us feel who we really are. But our life of aspiration makes us feel that we are God’s chosen children. So we have to strengthen ourselves by bringing illumination into our life from our life of aspiration. This is the only way we can really get satisfaction out of life.
Question: What Challenge Is Offered To The...
Question: What challenge is offered to the seeker by the world of suffering and the suffering of other people?
Sri Chinmoy: A seeker eventually learns that what he once called suffering is not actually suffering; it is only an experience. There are some experiences in life which are helpful to him in growing into his own ultimate divinity. He is making a mistake if he takes suffering as something which is standing in his way, if he wonders why he has to go through all kinds of suffering. He should feel that it is an experience. He should feel that the inner being is having an experience in and through him either for his outer life’s purification or for some inner purification. He should show the world around him that this is something necessary in his life, that through untold suffering, eventually light will dawn.
Suffering is not the ultimate message. Happiness and delight are the ultimate message. “From delight we came into existence, in delight we grow, and at the end of our journey’s close, into delight we shall retire.” Delight is our source. Here in the world arena we are given limited freedom. When we misuse this freedom, we create more bondage for ourselves. Instead we can use our limited freedom in a divine way. For example, we have come here to be spiritual, to pray to God, to discuss things about God. We could have gone to a bar or some undivine place or just watched television and killed time. But instead we used our limited freedom to come here, to increase the divinity within us.
When we misuse our time, the after-effects of that incident often turn into suffering. But again, if we go deep within, we will see that it is not suffering as such; it is something else. It is an experience. If we are conscious of it, we become part and parcel of the experience that the Inner Pilot is having. Otherwise we may feel that suffering is something that is thrust upon us which we don’t need. For a seeker of the Ultimate Truth, suffering is an experience. At times it is a necessary experience, at times it is not. It depends on what we have done or what experience we have unconsciously invited or invoked. The experience we see in our outer life is an unconscious or conscious expression of our inner purification.
April 23, 1975...
April 23, 1975
Question: When you speak of human life and divine life it sounds like they are two separate worlds. I find myself here in this world. Why must there be another world?
Sri Chinmoy: There are already two worlds in us: the world of desire and the world of aspiration. Each day we enter into these two worlds. When we enter into the life of possession, we enter into the world of desire. When we enter into the life of transformation, we enter into the world of aspiration.
These two worlds—the world of human desire and the world of divine aspiration—are inside us, not around us. When we enter into the world of desire, we try to bind. But before we can bind anything, we discover that that thing has already bound us. When we enter into the world of aspiration, we try to liberate. Before liberating or while liberating the world, we discover that we ourselves are also being liberated.
Question: Can The Soul Of A Seeker...
Question: Can the soul of a seeker contact its spiritual Master if the Master lives in a different city or country?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, the soul can contact the Master if the soul is a little developed. But sometimes the physical mind does not believe or does not receive the soul’s message. The physical mind doubts the very existence of the soul; it suspects everything, sometimes even its own reality. This physical mind unfortunately does not have a free access to the soul, so it does not know what the soul is doing. But if the soul wants to convince the physical mind, it can elevate even the physical mind with divine light. Once this light is brought down into the physical mind in abundant measure, the mind will convince the entire being that the soul has contacted the Master.
Question: Can You Explain The Worth Of...
Question: Can you explain the worth of trying to communicate one’s inner experiences with others?
Sri Chinmoy: Some Masters advise their disciples to share their experiences only with them. Most of the time it is not advisable to communicate or offer one’s inner experience to others. Suppose you have had a very high, sublime experience. Even if you tell this experience to your most intimate friend, his jealousy may try to devour the wealth, the living reality of your experience. Sometimes it happens that when you share your inner experiences with a beginner, the beginner will try to have the same experience by hook or by crook. In the spiritual life this can never be done. Spiritual progress is a slow, steady and gradual process. Just because you have tasted a mango and you tell me about it, I may also try to climb up the mango tree. But if I do not know how to climb, when I try, I will fall down and hurt myself. Also, if you tell your inner experiences to others, human pride may enter into you.
One should share one’s inner experiences only with the permission of the Master. If one does not have a Master, then one must dive deep within and listen to the dictates of the soul. If the soul or the Master asks an individual seeker to share his experiences with the rest of the world, then there will be no problem whatsoever. In that case it may happen that if the person tells about his experiences, his friends will be inspired to enter into the world of aspiration. But it is always advisable to ask the Master or to go deep within in order to know whether to share one’s experiences with others. Otherwise, it may create unforeseen, deplorable results either in the seeker himself or in the one with whom he is trying to share his experiences.
Question: Is Liberation Possible Without The Help...
Question: Is liberation possible without the help of a living Master?
Sri Chinmoy: It is quite possible for the seeker to achieve liberation without the help of a living Master. But it is advisable to have a Master if one values speed. If you can do something today with the help of someone else, why do you want to take three or four days in order to do it by yourself? We go to school and study with a teacher. Why? When we have a teacher, we are directed and guided in what we study. All the books that we study are available in the bookstore, but when the teacher says something is correct, then immediately we believe it. So the teacher expedites our study.
There is nothing wrong in taking help from someone. A spiritual Master is also God’s son. If my elder brother knows something, I have every right to ask my elder brother to teach me. Once I learn it, that knowledge becomes my own possession. At that time I am free to share with others the knowledge that I have acquired with his help. When it is a question of God-realisation, if someone says, “No, I don’t want to take any outer help, I will entirely depend on God and myself,” then that person has to know that his realisation will take thousands of years. But there is nothing wrong in this approach. He who realised God for the first time did not have a human teacher. God taught him directly. So, if the seeker is extremely sincere and if he wants to depend on direct inner guidance from God, he can. But he should know that his progress will be slow, very slow, and uncertain.
Question: How Do We Separate The Voice...
Question: How do we separate the voice of the soul from the intellect and emotion?
Sri Chinmoy: We can easily separate the voice of the soul from the emotional life and intellectual life. When we do something, the result comes in the form of either success or failure. When we follow the dictates of the voice of the soul, if the result of our actions is success, we do not proclaim ourselves to the skies and forget the world of reality. We do not lose our balance. And if the result comes in the form of failure, we do not become miserable and depressed. Whether we succeed or fail, with equal joy, cheerfulness and perfect equanimity we place the result at the Feet of the Lord Supreme.
But when we do something that has been prompted by our intellectual convictions or emotional feelings, we act in a different way, depending on whether the result of our actions is success or failure. When we act in accordance with the dictates of the intellect or emotions, we expect something in our own way. If the result does not meet with our expectations, we are frustrated and disappointed, and in our disappointment what looms large is destruction. But if it is the dictates of the soul that we execute, then we will always feel poise, peace and tranquility in the result. We will see and feel that the result of our actions is nothing but an experience that will elevate our consciousness, deepen our consciousness, widen, illumine and perfect our consciousness.
When we listen to the dictates of the soul, we know that we are not the doer; the doer is God. We are the instrument, and God the Doer is having an experience in and through us in His own inimitable way. We just offer our experience to the Inner Pilot and place it at His Feet. If we don’t have the sense of separativity, then we can feel that He is the one who has had the experience in and through us and that He is the experience itself.
April 30, 1975...
April 30, 1975
Question: How can we disassociate ourselves from the desires of the flesh?
Sri Chinmoy: Let us imagine right in front of us two rooms. One room is the room of desire and the other room is the room of aspiration. When we enter into the room of desire, immediately we are caught by the life of pleasure, by the life of bondage, by the finite around us. Here we try to bind and possess everything as our very own. But before we bind something, we see that we are already bound by it. Before we possess something as our own, we see that we are already possessed by that thing. We see that others are ruling our lives, others are lording it over us. But when we enter into the other room, the room of aspiration, immediately we feel that there is something far beyond the physical. In that room we feel that the body is not all, but God is all. In order to realise that God is all, we have to make friends with our soul. If we remain or live inside the room of aspiration, we see our eternal friend, the soul. And the soul teaches us how to drink in divine nectar and how we can always remain far away from the sea of ignorance.
It is up to us to remain in the room of aspiration. In this room there is constant inner progress. Here we sing the song of self-transcendence. If we want to disassociate ourselves from our desire-life, the best thing is to associate constantly, consciously and soulfully with our aspiration-life. If we associate with our aspiration-life, automatically the desire-life will begin to leave us. We will remain with the friend we have chosen as our very own, and this is our aspiration-friend.
Question: How Can We Build Our Intuitive...
Question: How can we build our intuitive power?
Sri Chinmoy: We can build our intuitive power speedily if we know what intuitive power actually is. Intuitive power is our soul’s light.
The body is like a house. You have a house with quite a few rooms. Each room has some vibration of yours. You may not spend most of your time in the kitchen, but just because you go to the kitchen to eat, it has your vibration. Each room you spend time in has some vibration of yours, but there is one particular room where you spend most of your time, and this room is bound to have your vibration to the greatest extent.
It is the same thing with the soul. The soul is inside the body; that is why you are still alive. If the soul-bird flies away, you will die. The consciousness, the light of the soul, permeates your whole body. The light that the soul emanates is found from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. But there is a specific place where the soul lives and is always available, and that is inside the inmost recesses of your heart. When you pray and meditate, if you try to enter into the heart or bring the heart to the fore, you can easily develop your intuitive power.
Or you can try to feel in your outer existence that you are nothing but the heart. In everything you claim as your own, in all your limbs, feel only the reality of the heart. If you think of your ears, feel that these two ears are nothing but a reflection of the heart itself. If you look at your finger, think that it is an expression of your heart. The heart means love and oneness. When you think of oneness, when you feel that oneness of your body with your spiritual heart, you become the universal reality. When you become the universal reality. when you claim this reality as your very own, you will see that the universal reality needs something to reveal itself, to manifest itself, to fulfil itself, and that is intuitive power. If you can focus your attention on the heart soulfully and devotedly, then you will develop slowly, steadily, confidently and unerringly the intuitive power.
Question: How Can We Purify Our Minds?...
Question: How can we purify our minds?
Sri Chinmoy: We can purify the mind either by emptying the mind or by invoking light from above or from within. We can think of the mind as a vessel. The vessel is full of dirty, filthy water, let us say. If we empty it, then only do we get the opportunity to fill it up again with pure water. Or we can think of the mind as a dark room, a room that has not seen light for many, many years. If we take the mind as a dark room, we see that we need someone who can bring light into this room. That person is the soul. So we have to make friends with the soul. We have to invoke this most intimate friend who has the capacity to help us and the willingness to illumine anything that is dark within us. We have to consciously feel that we need the soul just as we need the body. If our need is sincere and genuine, then the soul will come forward and illumine the darkness that we have in our minds.
Question: Do You Advise One To Leave...
Question: Do you advise one to leave society in order to make spiritual progress?
Sri Chinmoy: No, I will never advise anybody to leave society. You want to leave society because you are afraid society will pull you down. But if you go deep within, you will see that it is not society that pulls you down; it is your own mind. It is the unruly mind, the undivine mind, that pulls you down. You may be afraid of society and want to enter into the Himalayan caves, but I wish to say that there also your mind will dog you. If your mind is illumined, if your mind is transformed and purified, then you can live anywhere you want to. If you want to escape from society, you will never be able to see the face of reality. It is not the spiritual hero, it is the culprit in you who wants to escape. If you have not done anything wrong, why do you have to escape?
You may feel that your inner life, your efforts to renounce your own undivine thoughts, undivine qualities, will suffer if you mix with society. You may feel that since the members of society are full of the same undivine qualities you are suffering from, if you mix with them it will be very difficult to get rid of these undivine qualities. If you feel this, then you should remain a little aloof for your inner cure. You are sick and somebody else is sick. If both of you stay together all the time, neither one will be cured. It is for your good and his good that, for some time, you remain a little apart. Once you are totally cured, you can come and cure your friend who is suffering. But to leave your friend altogether, to never again look at his face because you feel that if you mix with him you will also become a victim to suffering— this is a mistake.
We shall not shun society completely. We shall let the inner being be the judge as to how much we can mix with the members of society. In our spiritual life we have to know whether we are a huge banyan tree or only a tiny plant. If we are a tiny plant, we have to be very careful, because at any moment we can be uprooted and destroyed. But if we have become a huge tree, then we don’t have to be afraid of anything.
Question: Could You Kindly Explain What Samadhi...
Question: Could you kindly explain what samadhi is and whether there is a state of consciousness higher than this?
Sri Chinmoy: There are three types of samadhi: Savikalpa samadhi, Nirvikalpa samadhi and Sahaja samadhi. In Savikalpa samadhi there can be thoughts inside the trance, but the trance will not be disturbed or perturbed. The thoughts are like children playing in a room when the father is deeply absorbed in his studies. The children are playing, but they do not disturb him. So in Savikalpa samadhi there can be a turbulence of thoughts and ideas, but the divine trance that the seeker is enjoying will not be affected.
In Nirvikalpa samadhi there is no thought, no idea, nothing whatsoever. All is tranquility, or you can say tranquillity's flood. Here nature’s dance comes to an end. The restless activity of human nature cannot play its role. There is no thought, no idea, no form, only the transcendental Silence and boundless Peace, Light and Delight. In this expanse of infinite Peace, Light and Delight, there exist only the seeker and his Beloved Supreme, who have become one.
Then comes a samadhi known as Sahaja samadhi. In this samadhi, after having attained the highest realm of consciousness, one can remain on earth and enter into multifarious activities while maintaining his highest realisation. It is as if one is sitting quietly inside a jet plane which is flying at a speed of seven-hundred miles per hour, but one does not notice any motion at all. In Sahaja samadhi one maintains the highest transcendental consciousness within and, at the same time, throws himself into the world’s activities in order to transform humanity and free humanity from ignorance. This samadhi is for those who have reached the Highest and whom the Highest Absolute Supreme wants to manifest Himself in and through.
