1968
When We Reach The Pralaya, ...
When we reach the Pralaya, how can the souls who have not attained the highest and are not pure blend into the Divine Purity if they themselves are not pure?
Gauri (Mrs. Graciela Todd)
San Juan, Puerto Rico
January 4, 1968
Sri Chinmoy: Pralaya is the dissolution or the final destruction of the universe. Now where is the destruction? You feel, Gauri, that when the Pralaya takes place, there will be souls who will remain unrealised, who will not realise God, that everything will be destroyed. But where will the Pralaya be? It will take place in the earth’s atmosphere, not in God’s Consciousness. There is no destruction in the infinite Consciousness of the Supreme. In destruction we only see that a few trees are blown out or a hurricane has taken place, an earthquake has occurred and thousands of people have died. But this destruction is not the destruction of Consciousness. Although we say that the world is destroyed, it is not destroyed in God’s Consciousness. It is only destroyed, part of the world, in the physical, geographical sense, but not in the sense of God’s infinite and immortal Existence.
When a country is destroyed, you think that all human beings are likewise destroyed. No. Only the earth, the external manifestation is annihilated. But the beings go back to their Eternal Abode. That Eternal Abode is the Supreme’s Consciousness. There they have their own shelter. Then they can, at God’s own hour, be given the chance to come back to earth to fulfil God’s mission or their own self-realisation.
When they come back, do they come all pure?
Sri Chinmoy: No, they do not come at all pure because purification has to take place here. However, they will not be destroyed because the soul is immortal. Purification and realisation—everything—has to take place here. Here is the field of experience; here they have to be purified; here they have to realise themselves. When we are speaking of the dissolution of the manifested cosmos, Pralaya, we have to be aware that destruction does not take place in consciousness. It takes place only here in the manifested material world. A few million miles may be destroyed, but consciousness can never be destroyed. Human consciousness can never be destroyed unless it is the Supreme’s Will.
Many Good People, Spiritual People, ...
Many good people, spiritual people, are depressed by the things that are going on. How do you get these people to have hope without saying “Pollyana” to them?
Miss Marin
San Juan, Puerto Rico
January 7, 1968
Sri Chinmoy: You are speaking about “spiritual people,” but I wish to tell you that a spiritual person will never be depressed, because he knows what is going to happen in the future. You say that they are depressed and you want to carry the message of hope to them. I wish to tell you that if a person really wants to be happy or wants even to be hopeful, then he must not expect anything from the world. If he expects something, even from another person, he will be miserable. He has to expect only from God. Even from Him, today you will expect something and tomorrow you will try to get it from Him; if you don’t get it, you will feel frustrated. The person may think he is extremely sincere. It may be true; he may be sincere, but the time has not come for his expectations to be fulfilled by God. It is only when one is totally in tune with God that one can legitimately harbour any expectation. You can expect everything from God only when you are totally surrendered to Him. As for expecting anything from human beings, if you do, you will be frustrated and miserable. There will be no end to your disgust and frustration.
Now again, your expectation from the Supreme also has to be surrendered to patience. We expect something from Him and then we put a limit on our expectation in that we fix a time: tomorrow or the day after, God has to fulfil my desire. Here I am making a mistake. I do have a right to expect everything from God, but as to when my expectation will be fulfilled, it is not my business. My need will definitely be met by God, but the choice hour has to be fixed by God Himself. The hour and the moment must be surrendered to Him.
Now you asked about hope. Hope is one way of getting true wisdom in our life. There is another method. That method is to enter the consciousness that constantly wants to free us or transform our day-to-day life. We have a very limited physical consciousness, that is, the consciousness that is aware of the ordinary things and events in our outer material life. The moment, however, that we come out of the physical consciousness, we see that there is another consciousness which is the universal consciousness. If we can enter into that universal consciousness, we will see the entire world, the universe and the reason for the happenings of the world. We will see the creation of the world with its meaningful purpose. And if we enter into the region of the cosmic soul, the universal soul, we shall see the clear future in today’s reality. When we see that future, we also see that everything is perfectly alright. So, what these distressed people need is the Light of Patience, because ultimately, everything will be alright.
Talk At The Retailers’ Centre
IN HATO REY, PUERTO RICO,
JULY 15, 1968
Sri Chinmoy: Dear President and dear Vice-President: I am extremely glad to be present at your Centre. I offer to all of you present here my deep sense of gratitude. We were under the impression that there would be a large gathering here, but owing to circumstances, the actual situation is different. But let us try to observe the situation from the spiritual point of view. It reminds me of an incident that took place in India. A spiritual speaker came to our place to give a talk on spirituality. Unfortunately there were only two persons present to attend the meeting. So the spiritual teacher said, “Well, had there been no listeners at all, I would still, with my deepest joy, have said what I intend to say to the walls. The walls would have responded to my heart’s soulful words. The walls would have been my listeners.”
Let us not feel disappointed and let us carry on with today’s significant talk, on the topic, “I know what to do.” When I say that I know what to do, most of you will misunderstand me and this misunderstanding of yours will be quite natural. But at the very outset, I wish to defend myself. I wish to state my faith most humbly. I have just said that I know what to do. Now I wish to tell you the inmost secret of my statement. I know what to do precisely because God does it for me. You may, in no time, ask me why God works for me and not for you. No, God is not at all partial. I know that I do nothing, I know that I can do nothing. God is the Doer, God is the Action, God is the Fruit thereof. Unfortunately, there is a slight difference between you and me, between your approach to God and my approach to God. I am sure that all of you are well aware of the statement made by the Son of God. He said, “I and my Father are one.” I try to live this paramount truth. In the same vein, our Vedic seers of the hoary past said, “I am the Brahman. The Brahman is me. I am the One without a second.” I have also learned from Sri Krishna, one of the greatest spiritual Masters of India, nay of the entire world, in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song Transcendental, that a man is made by his faith. Whatever his faith is, so is he.
Now you are apt to cherish a surprising ideal. With your kind permission, I wish to cite your part-time ideals. You get pleasure, joy, in telling the world there is no God. You try to parade your views. You say, “Had there been a God, how could this world of ours be so full of suffering, pain and untold misery? ” Even now if you feel that there is someone called God, that there is a God, you say that this God is for others and not for you. God is for others. Now your sincere belief makes bold to say that God does not care for you. God thinks of the rest of the world, but He has no time to think of you or care for you. To be sure, this is the acme of stupidity. Something more. You feel that God is terribly angry with you because twenty years ago, you told a lie or you deceived someone in your business or in your profession. And that is why God is terribly angry with you. Now He wants to punish you ruthlessly all the time. Poor God, as if He had nothing else to do! Believe it or not, God the Almighty, God the All-Compassionate, God the Transcendental Reality has many things to do with you, your life. Not one thing, but countless things He wants to do with your life and for your life.
God sings the song of Immortality within you, He sees in you the embodiment of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. You are God’s unparalleled pride, you are God’s only dream, you are God’s only Reality. For you, God exists throughout Eternity. He shapes you, He moulds you, He guides you, He transforms you into His very image, into the everlasting Life of the Beyond.
Friends, sisters, brothers, you are now in the same Boat as I am. Together, united, let us sing, “I know what to do because God does it for me. In addition to that, I know what to say, what to pray for, what to aspire for.” With the blessing and benedictions of the Upanishadic seers, I wish to chant and sing the soul’s message, a message of the Indian seers that has been ringing in the firmament of India for many centuries:
Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness unto Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.
