Question: Can anyone surpass God's Consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: Chandra is the youngest member at our Connecticut Centre. She is fourteen years old. So she will answer this question. Let us see. Chandra, can anybody surpass God’s Consciousness?

Chandra: I don’t think so.

Sri Chinmoy: Very good. That is true, but now you can elaborate it. We are all fools, so we have to know it more convincingly. “Yes” or “no” we can say, but why it is “yes”, or why it is “no” — that we have to know from you. You have said that nobody can surpass God’s Consciousness; now you justify this.

Chandra: No one can surpass God because who created us? God. He is our Creator. So who can surpass the Creator’s Consciousness? He is the Highest.

Sri Chinmoy: Absolutely true. You get a hundred out of a hundred. One hundred out of a hundred you get. You have told us the supreme philosophy in a few words.

Now, I wish to tell you from my monkey consciousness another supreme philosophy. Vivekananda used to say, as well as all other spiritual Masters, something that you will one day say: “Who is God if not you yourself?” Tomorrow when you realise God, you will see that you are God, your mother is God, your father is God, I am God, everybody is God. Before we realise God we can doubt Him. We can be atheists and say, “There is no God, there is no God.” But when we realise God, we then believe that there is no one or no thing which is not God.

Before realisation we may have the audacity to deny God. Then when we make a little progress we say, “Oh, Guru has realised God, he is divine. And I have not realised God, I am undivine.” Then gradually, gradually when aspiration grows, we will say, “Oh, if he has the capacity to realise God, what is wrong with me? If he can do it, why can’t I do it? If he has done it, then I can do it.” So this is how aspiration grows and how our capacity grows.

Now, a few minutes ago I said that when we realise God we see that everybody is God. You are God, I am God, everybody is God. The philosophy of God is self-transcendence. He cherishes an eternal hunger for self-transcendence.

Who can transcend himself? Vilupti has asked the question, so Vilupti, who embodies God, who is God in terms of the supreme philosophy, naturally will transcend herself. What Chandra said is one hundred per cent true; we can’t deny it. But if we examine the question from another angle — what God has and what God is — then we will know that all is sufficient for Him. But at the same time He says that this sufficiency is not pleasing Him. He wants always to transcend Himself.

It is like somebody who has many millions of dollars and somebody who has one dollar. The person with one dollar says, “Oh, if I could only have two dollars.” Although he knows that his capacity is to have only one dollar, he is trying to have one more. And again, the multimillionaire tries to have a little more as well. So God is infinite, but still He wants to grow. With the mind, we can’t fathom Him, but with the heart we feel Him, we become one. He is static, and He is dynamic. God is the highest Height. He does not grow. And at the same time He grows. It is said correctly in our Indian philosophy that God moves and He moves not; that He is far and He is also near. Now, how will the mind be able to recognise two things at the same time? If something is moving, the mind will say, “Yes, it is moving.” But the mind will not be able to say at the same time, “No, it is standing still.”

But in God’s case, He is standing still and moving everywhere. This is His Goal. If you use the third eye you see that He is at once nowhere and everywhere. God means self-transcendence. Constant self-transcendence is God.

Now let us take Chandra. You as God are constantly transcending yourself. This is from the highest spiritual point of view. But what you have said, from one point of view, is also absolutely true. God, our Creator, is Absolute; how can we transcend Him? It is impossible! How can we transcend Him when we are two separate individuals? When God is one and you are somebody else, how can you transcend Him? Because He has created you, you are the creation and He is the Creator. Now how can the creation surpass the Creator? It is only the Creator who will constantly create. If you are an artist, you constantly create. If you are an artist, constantly you will go on creating something. It is you who have the capacity, not the creation, not the piece of paper or pencil with which you create. This is the truth.

But if the creation becomes devotedly and soulfully one with the Creator, if the consciousness of the creation becomes one with the Creator, then it can transcend Him.

Now, your parents are here. You are their creation. Now, in terms of their knowledge and wisdom, you are nowhere. Your father and mother know much more than you. But if you become inseparably one with them, with your boundless love, then whatever they have is yours. You become one with them.

Your father is sincere, so naturally he will see tremendous progress in comparison to what he was ten years ago. That progress is his transcendence, self-transcendence. So you see, God, who is our eternal Father and our eternal Mother, also makes progress, which means He is constantly going high, higher, highest. There is no end to His Progress. Since He is progressing, we too are progressing, because we are one with Him. We are all the time with Him, inside Him; we are part and parcel of His existence. As He is climbing we are climbing automatically. In His case, there is constant satisfaction and this satisfaction is in transcending. In our case, the vision of transcendence comes into being in our self-giving. And today’s self-giving is nothing short of tomorrow’s God-becoming.