Don't suffer!

Don’t suffer! O my body, O my vital, O my mind, O my heart, do not suffer. Do not cherish suffering. Don’t act like a fool. Don’t think that your suffering is going to accelerate your spiritual progress. Don’t think that your suffering will bring God closer to you sooner than at once. Don’t think that your suffering is the only way, the sure way, for you to make progress. Never!

Look at the plus and minus factors of your suffering. The plus factors: Your suffering adds to your fear, your uncontrollable fear. Your suffering adds to your disproportionate rebellious attitude in the long run. Your suffering adds to your poisonous frustration. Your suffering adds to your slow and steady destruction. The minus factors: O body, vital, mind and heart of mine, your suffering takes away all that your Beloved Lord Supreme has granted you. Out of His infinite Bounty He has given you joy, He has given you His Concern, He has given you His Compassion, He has given you His Oneness. But you cherished and treasured suffering; therefore, all His gifts have been stolen. By whom? By your own suffering. So suffering is not the way. It takes away from you all the precious gifts that God has given you. One by one the suffering-thief robs you of the most precious, most coveted gifts that God has given you: His own Peace, His own Love, His own Bliss, His own Concern, His own Oneness.

From now on, try to catch the suffering-thief red-handed and bring the thief to your Beloved Supreme. Once the thief is caught, once you have offered the thief to the right person, once the right person, the Beloved Supreme, knows that you do not want to be robbed by anyone either in your inner family or in your outer family, once He knows that you do not want to be robbed either by the members of your own inner existence or by the members of the outer world, at that time your Beloved Supreme grants you once again, out of His infinite Bounty, His Concern, His Love, His Joy, His Oneness, His Compassion and His Pride in boundless measure.

So, O seeker, in body, vital, mind and heart, do not cherish suffering even for a fleeting second. Suffering is not the answer; suffering is only a question mark which will never be satisfied with any answer we give. Suffering is the question mark that defies all answers. Even if God answers the question, even then the mind will not accept the answer as the correct one.

Suffering is not the right way. From now on, only grow in joy and self-confidence. This self-confidence comes from your surrendered oneness-will with your Beloved Supreme. You want confidence and you will get confidence the moment your surrendered oneness with the Will of the Supreme is perfect. Before that, there is no confidence; there can be no confidence in you or in anything else.

So, O seeker, with your body, vital, mind and heart, accept the divine gifts; cherish them, treasure them, increase them. How will you increase them? Through conscious self-giving with utmost gratitude to your Beloved Supreme. If you can smile soulfully, all the divine gifts that you have got from the Supreme are bound to increase. If you can sing in silence soulfully, all the divine gifts that you have already received from the Supreme are bound to increase. If you can dance devotedly and soulfully inside your gratitude-heart, then all the divine gifts that you have received so far are bound to increase. Something more: you will not only get blessingful gifts, fruitful gifts from Him, but you will also get the Creator and the Possessor of the gifts, the Supreme Himself. He who created the gifts for you, He who possessed the gifts for you, will be more than ready and eager to be possessed by you. He wants you to claim His possessions as your own, very own. Then, once you have claimed His possessions as your own, He will come and stand in front of you and say, “My child, you have accepted My gifts, which are My creations. I am so pleased with you. Now accept Me. I am all yours.” So claim all the divine gifts that you have been offered by the Supreme. Claim them individually and collectively as your own, very own. Then the real owner of the gifts will come to you and offer Himself to you to be claimed by you constantly and eternally.


EA 38. 14 July 1977, 5:45 p.m — Sri Chinmoy Centre, Jamaica, New York.