East and West

The East says: "I have seen God's Face. Now I must see His Feet."
The West says: "I have seen God's Feet. Now I must see His Face."

The East says: "I have seen God's Transcendence."
The West says: "I have seen God's Immanence."

The East considers life to be a continuous growth from Matter to Spirituality. The West considers life to be a continuous growth from the simple material life to a complex and ever-expanding scientific development.

The indifferent East felt that it had nothing to hear from the West. The proud West thought that it had nothing to learn from the East.

According to the West, the East is idle. According to the East, the West is anything but divine.

No hyperbole, the East is terribly afraid of a dynamic life. Similarly the West is terribly afraid of lone self-poise.

The East is perhaps wanting in care, detail and exactitude. Likewise the West is wanting in breadth, vastness and universality. The East is wanting in an earthy, practical intelligence. The West is wanting in the matchless realisation of the Self.

The West feels that the mastery of the world is the true fulfilment of life. The East feels that the mastery of one's own inner movements is the true fulfilment of life.

Honesty and frankness are the birthright of the West. Humility and devotion are the birthright of the East. The combination of these four powers should be the ideal of a human being.

Sri Chinmoy, AUM — Vol. 1, No. 1, 27 August 1965, Boro Park Printers -- Brooklyn, N. Y., 1965