Aspiration-Ground: A Place of Pilgrimage

Sri Aurobindo once said that if people live in the vicinity where fireworks are made and tested, then they do not appreciate the fireworks. Every day they see them. But we see them once a year on the 4th of July. We go to the Hudson River in a boat and appreciate them. For us, it is only once a year. But people see fireworks every day if they live near those who make them and practise with them. So, they cannot appreciate them because it has become such an ordinary thing, an everyday affair. Then there are others who appreciate them so much because they do not see them very often.

Similarly, this Aspiration-Ground is inundated with our aspiration, and we have reached a very high state. It is like a tree, a life-tree. On the strength of our aspiration, we have climbed up to a very high height. But just because most of us are at that height, and we live at that height day in and day out, we cannot appreciate the height that we have already reached. We are living that reality, but for our guests who do not belong to any spiritual group, or do not have a spiritual Master, for them it is something absolutely new, because they do not get this kind of atmosphere often.

Some musicians of the highest order will get thousands and thousands of people. Some will smoke. Some will drink. Some will talk about “kings and cabbages.”³¹ There are thousands of people, but when it comes to inner cries, they do not bring their own inner cries and they do not appreciate the inner cries, the inner depth of the musicians, even musicians of the highest order. Some do not even listen. Then when people start clapping, they clap. Then they start smoking and say, “Oh, he sang. He is great.”

But from the spiritual point of view, most do not get even two percent of the spiritual light, delight or other divine qualities. Only a few hundred from the audience will get inner light from the singer. Even if two percent they get, that two percent also they lose on their way back home.

But again, at Aspiration-Ground, in my physical presence, and even in my physical absence, you can see, feel and grow into my consciousness according to your receptivity. I tell you, there is such a difference between when you come here and when you go to a public school or some other outside venue. When there is no way to meet here, an outside venue is our last resort. It can be a village market consciousness. The atmosphere, the building, the halls, are not aspiring, whereas here everything is aspiring.

Here, if you dive deep within, you will feel that the place where you are sitting is aspiring. The collective aspiration that you have brought into the heart of Aspiration-Ground can never be erased from your inner spiritual memories. Not only the Master, but also the disciples have contributed so much to the ever-heightening aspiration of this playground.

Here Ranjana deserves my boundless, boundless gratitude and gratitude, for what she has offered, by creating this temple, to the beauty and fragrance of Aspiration-Ground. She deserves my endless appreciation and gratitude for the beauty and fragrance of this place. Again, if we come every day, every hour, sometimes we cannot appreciate it. We appreciate it only when we are away. When we come back, we appreciate the beauty, fragrance and inner wealth of this Aspiration-Ground.

Each one has something unique to offer to the world at large. In some cases it is quite visible, that somebody has a unique capacity or quality to offer to the world. Today Pandit Jasraj has performed. He is a musician of the highest order, of Himalayan height. He has proved this in his own way. But again, each individual is, by God’s Grace, offering something in God’s Heart-Garden. Pandit Jasraj is the most beautiful rose. There can be a very tiny, tiny, tiny flower with no fragrance, but the flower has some beauty. Anything that God has created has some beauty in it. There can be little, little plants or there can be little flowers that are not as striking or as significant as a rose, but they are definitely adding to the beauty and to the purity of the Heart-Garden of our Lord Beloved Supreme.

We must appreciate this Aspiration-Ground because God’s Grace has descended from high Above in boundless measure; and with our own aspiration, with our love of God, we have created here something beautiful, something soulful, something really fruitful. After 50 or 60 or 100 or 200 years or even 300 years, if you are in Heaven, you will see clearly, more clearly, most clearly, what the present Jamaica, or what you call Briarwood, will look like when we all pass behind the curtain of Eternity.

Either from Heaven, if we are in Heaven, or if we are on earth, we shall see it is like Sri Krishna’s Brindaban. Most of you have not been there, but as soon as you hear Brindaban, you get a thrill, an inner thrill. Again, people who were born at the time, who were living at the time of Lord Sri Krishna, feel immense delight the moment they hear the word Brindaban. And those who are devotees and votaries of Sri Krishna, the moment they hear the word Brindaban, their hearts are elevated sooner than at once.

A day will come – it may not be in the immediate future, but definitely in the remote future – when this particular part of Queens will be a place of pilgrimage. We have our Pilgrim-Museum, but Aspiration-Ground will also be a most significant place for the seekers of Light and Truth. This whole area, Briarwood, will be known all over the world, specially for the seekers of God, Light, Truth and Delight. This is not my idle talk. I can clearly envision the future of this Aspiration-Ground, Briarwood, plus Queens and of course New York.

The aspiration of this place will definitely cover the length and breadth of the world. It is only a matter of time. At God’s choice Hour, this particular Aspiration-Ground will be able to spread its inner beauty, inner light, inner delight to the four corners of the globe. People who visit this place for the first time, if they have an iota of aspiration, do feel that we are doing something most significant here.

18 September 2002 Aspiration-Ground, New York