Special Post-Concert Dinner
At a post-concert dinner for the performers at Annam Brahma, Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments.Sri Chinmoy: From my prayer-life and meditation-life, I ask God, “Where is Heaven? ”His immediate answer is, “Are you blind? Can you not see where Heaven is? Heaven is inside Ravi Shankar’s heart.”
I ask God another question, “God, where are You?” He says, “Are you deaf? Are you blind? Can you not see where I am? I am inside Ravi Shankar’s music.”
Then He says, “Something more: I am not only inside his music, but I am his music itself.”
From my prayer-life and meditation-life I got these answers. In all sincerity, I am offering my answers and my questions to you, my beloved brother, Ravi-da. I place them, my questions and answers, inside your heart of Divinity and Immortality. Divinity and Immortality were playing hide-and-seek inside your heart. A hide-and-seek game Divinity and Immortality were playing inside your heart.
When Anoushka looks at her father with her smiles, these smiles come from far beyond my imagination’s flight. I happen to be a poet, but I cannot reach the height of her smile when she looks at her father. Immediately we swim in the sea of ecstasy when she looks at her father with such joy and such pride. And it is reciprocal. When the father also looks at the daughter, it is the same.
I am extremely, extremely proud of you, Anoushka. For you, I shall regularly pray, for your tremendous success in your outer life and your tremendous progress in your inner life. Your inner life is your life of aspiration. Your outer life is the life of dedication. When you have dedication in the outer life and aspiration in the inner life, you go faster than the fastest.
After Ravi Shankar and his party had left, Sri Chinmoy remarked:
Instead of calling it rain, torrential rain, let us call it the tears of Mother Earth for Father Heaven to descend. Ravi Shankar represented Heaven, and here Mother Earth cried and cried and cried for Heaven to descend. This rain is nothing but the tears of Mother Earth for Heaven to descend. Heaven descended in response to the ceaseless tears of Mother Earth.
