Question: When we meditate, to what extent do we represent and are we responsible for humanity and the world?

Sri Chinmoy: We are all seekers here, but unfortunately our level of consciousness is not the same. Each one has his own level of consciousness. If someone’s consciousness is large and illumined, then he feels that he is representing a large section of humanity. If someone has a very vast and fully illumined consciousness, he feels that he alone represents the whole of humanity, and not only earth-consciousness, but also Heaven-Blessing. He feels that he is the supremely chosen instrument of God and has to be fully responsible for earth-transformation and earth-perfection. The higher one goes, the more responsible he is, or feels he is, for the upliftment of human consciousness. God is responsible for everything and we are just His instruments. But if we become conscious and chosen instruments, then He can act in and through us most perfectly.

Each seeker has to feel how high he has gone, how deep he has gone and how illumined or how fulfilling his consciousness is. If he feels that he has already achieved an all-embracing consciousness, then he feels that he is entirely responsible for the total change and transformation of human consciousness. He is like a mother; when her child does something wrong, the mother sincerely feels that she is responsible for the child’s misdeeds. And when the child does something good, the mother feels in the inmost recesses of her heart that the child was able to achieve this success because he is her own creation.

If we can claim the length and the breadth of the world as our very own — not with our vital ego, but with our heart’s feeling of oneness — if we have accepted the world with a feeling of inseparable oneness, then we are absolute representatives of earth and, at the same time, absolute representatives of God as well. In our oneness with earth we feel that we are embodying earth’s aspiration and in our oneness with Heaven we feel that we are embodying God’s Compassion and God’s Light. We ascend with our aspiration and we descend with God’s Compassion and Light. So, we are not only representatives of both Heaven and earth, but also we are the connecting link between Heaven’s Light and earth’s aspiration. When do we become the connecting link? We become the connecting link when we feel that we are working unconditionally for both earth and Heaven — when we feel that it is our bounden duty to please Heaven, but do not expect anything from Heaven in return, and when we feel it is our bounden duty to please earth, but do not expect anything in return from earth.

It is we who have to unify both earth and Heaven; this is our task. We have seen something in Heaven and we feel that this very thing is what earth needs; therefore, we have to offer that thing to earth. Again, we have seen something on earth which we feel is precisely what Heaven needs. So earth’s achievement we offer to Heaven and Heaven’s achievement we offer to earth. How do we do it? On the strength of our inseparable oneness with the one from whom we are receiving and with the one to whom we are offering the wealth. So, according to the extent of our oneness, we are representing humanity and divinity.

The moment we identify ourselves with something or someone, we become that particular thing or person. If we identify ourselves with the universal Consciousness or the Absolute Supreme, we will feel inside them both earth and Heaven. When Christ said, “I and my Father are one,” he became totally one with his Father. As an individual, I say, “I and my body are one.” The necessity of the body, the consciousness of the body, the physical consciousness, I feel as my own. I identify myself with my hunger, with my earthly need, with earthly name and fame. But when I am illumined I do not say, “I and my body are one.” I say, “I and my Inner Pilot are one.” I am the instrument and my Inner Pilot is directing and guiding me. I and my Pilot are one; I am His vehicle and channel. It is through me, out of His infinite Bounty, that He is fulfilling His own Dream.