Part I — Discourses
SSC 1-7. These talks are part of a series that Sri Chinmoy delivered in the spring of 1981 at 14 universities in California and on the East Coast. The series covered all of the Ivy League universities, many of the Seven Sister colleges, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University.Perfection2
What is perfection? Perfection is satisfaction.Where is perfection? Perfection is inside a soulful heart.
Where is a soulful heart? A soulful heart is inside the seeker’s teeming gratitude-flames.
The seeker’s blossoming faith longs for spontaneous perfection. The seeker’s mounting aspiration longs for constant perfection. The seeker’s self-giving dedication longs for complete perfection.
As the vision of perfection is implicit within, even so the manifestation of perfection needs must be explicit without.
Perfection without self-mastery is simply impossible. Self-mastery without self-knowledge is unmistakably impossible. Self-knowledge without God-Compassion is helplessly impossible. God-Compassion without aspiration-cry is invariably impossible. Aspiration-cry without will-power is eternally impossible.
What is will-power? Will-power is the beauty of fulness in oneness. Fulness is success-smile. Oneness is progress-dance. Success-smile is unimaginably powerful. Progress-dance is unfathomably peaceful. A powerful life tells the seeker what he can eventually become in his outer life: God the Power. A peaceful life tells the seeker what he eternally is in his inner life: God the Peace.
Perfection is satisfaction. But the proud and complacent satisfaction of our desire-life can easily and foolishly invite darkening and tormenting dissatisfaction. Our ignorant body-existence is satisfied with an insignificant iota of satisfaction. Our wise soul-existence is satisfied only when it has achieved complete and absolute satisfaction. The desire-life has, at best, a fleeting satisfaction. The aspiration-life is not only a heightening satisfaction, but also an enduring satisfaction. Satisfaction ultimately is the highest Delight: Delight eternal, Delight infinite and Delight immortal.
The seeker needs perfection in his prayer. The seeker needs perfection in his meditation. The seeker’s perfect prayer is: “Father, let Thy Will be done.” The seeker’s perfect meditation is: “God for God’s sake, always.”
If the body sincerely tries, if the vital dynamically strives, if the mind desperately searches and if the heart soulfully cries, then perfection-satisfaction cannot remain a far cry. It certainly can be within easy reach for the truth-seeker and God-lover.
SSC 1. University of California at Berkeley, 6 March 1981↩
