Inauguration of the Green Centre

On Friday, 4 February 1977, Sri Chinmoy inaugurated a new Centre in the New York area. Following is a transcription of his words of inspiration and encouragement to the group of about 25 seekers who wished to become members of the new Green Centre.

Inauguration of the Green Centre

I wish to thank and at the same time bless Fred from the very depth of my heart. He has brought you into our spiritual family, into our vision and mission. For that I offer him my heart’s most soulful gratitude. I shall call him Fred only for a very few days more. He will shortly get his spiritual name, his soul’s name. Then we shall have to call him by that new name. [Fred subsequently received the name Atmananda.] On behalf of the Supreme I am offering him my gratitude, and on behalf of all the seekers whom he has brought I am offering gratitude to him. You are all sincere seekers. He has already brought over eighty like you, and very soon he will be able to offer one hundred divine seekers to the Supreme. This dedicated and exemplary service of his deserves our special appreciation and special gratitude.

I was extremely delighted to learn that the other day some of you were meditating in front of my picture and you saw green light around the picture. At that time you did not know that we were going to call your group the Green Centre. Your minds did not know, but your souls definitely knew. That is why you saw the green light.

Now I wish to say a few words about the colour green. Green, from the spiritual point of view, signifies newness. It is newness in life, in action, in speech, in everything that we do or grow into that eventually will lead us to the Absolute, to inseparable oneness with the Absolute Supreme. Newness at every moment must dawn in our devoted head and our aspiring heart. Newness is the only way to make continuous progress. It is by virtue of newness that we grow into the ever-transcending satisfaction and perfection. Newness welcomes, invites, challenges and, at the same time, promises the seeker in us that at every moment we can make considerable progress. We can achieve satisfaction and perfection on the strength of our conscious oneness with newness.

Perhaps you have not yet heard that our philosophy is the philosophy of constant, continuous and soulful progress. Progress means a forward, upward and inward movement. Our philosophy declares: ‘The past is dust.’ The past has not given us what we actually want — that is to say, God-realisation, conscious and inseparable oneness with our Beloved Supreme. We can expect to get it from today or from the tomorrow that is growing into the immediacy of today. The past has not offered us what we are longing for. Yes, the quintessence of the past we shall keep. If we have done something divine, soulful, loving or self-giving, then the quintessence of that past we shall try to embody. But the millions of mistakes we have made, the many undivine things we have done, we have to totally obliterate from our minds. The past is dust. It is the golden future which is growing and glowing in the heart of today. This golden future we shall welcome.

Green is newness. This newness will carry us to the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond. A child’s philosophy is the philosophy of newness. It is the child who grows, progresses, achieves and fulfils. A child is he who remains in the heart and who acts in and through the heart. We are all God’s children. From His universal and transcendental Vision we have all come into existence. We are His divine and chosen children.

Green signifies a childlike heart that continuously makes progress. Progress is our satisfaction, and inside satisfaction will always be our perfection of nature, perfection of life, perfection of realisation. So from now on, all of you kindly feel the importance of what you are. When you ask yourself what you are, immediately try to feel that you are newness. Tomorrow’s golden dawn is your name. Your soul-reality, your very existence is the newness which is the golden dawn.

All of you will kindly come to the meetings every week. Your regularity and punctuality are of paramount importance. Most of you are students. You know the difference between good students and bad students. If you are good students, which I am sure you are, then you become all joy to your teacher. 1 happen to be your spiritual teacher, but I am not like an ordinary teacher. I am like your private tutor. A teacher examines you and if you do well, you pass; if you do not do well, then you fail. But a private tutor gives you special help so that you will pass the examination. So I am your private tutor to teach you, to help you so that you can transform the ignorance-sea into the sea of wisdom-light. Our mutual cooperation and confidence will bring about your fastest progress, and it will definitely give infinite joy to the Real in you. The Supreme is my Guru and your Guru. The Supreme is the eternal Teacher.

With a soulful hope I am inaugurating our Green Centre today. It is my fervent wish and prayer to the Absolute Supreme that our sincere self-giving efforts, our inner cry and our soulful life on earth will be crowned with divine success and progress. This divine success and supreme progress we shall place soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally at the Feet of our Beloved Supreme.