Question: What is the relationship between the spiritual heart and the kundalini power in terms of relative importance?

Sri Chinmoy: Kundalini power, you can say, is on the surface, absolutely on the surface of the spiritual heart. It is this way. On the surface of the sea are waves and all kinds of movement. When a child sees the waves of the ocean, he is so fascinated. But an adult will try to go deep within the ocean to where there is quiet and calm, absolute tranquillity, for there he will get the greatest joy. The adult cares for the silent and eternal depths.

All the miracles that you may see from kundalini power are like the play of children in a garden. A child has the capacity to pick a flower or to pinch someone or to show how much strength he has by throwing a brick and doing all kinds of mischief. The Cosmic Mother observes the games of her children. Like an ordinary Mother, she enjoys having her children playing around her. "My children can jump, they can run, they can throw," she says. "Let us enjoy the game, the cosmic Game." But the Father feels that the children cannot go on playing all the time. They have to study sometimes or they will remain fools.

When a child is playing he is getting joy, physical joy. But when he studies he gets another kind of joy, a joy which is deeper and more fulfilling. On the physical plane, when somebody achieves something we appreciate him. If somebody does something great on the mental plane, we appreciate that person more. When somebody achieves something on the psychic plane, those who are in a position to appreciate him, appreciate him even more. And when somebody achieves something on the soul's plane, God's plane, those who know of it appreciate him most of all. Sri Ramana Maharshi did not care for study; Sri Ramakrishna did not care for study. There are many spiritual Masters who did not care for study. But all the scholars of the Western world should go and touch the feet of these illiterate men of infinite Wisdom. The higher, the deeper we go, the more convincing, the more illumining, the more worthwhile the wisdom we get. In the spiritual realm, kundalini power is like the achievement on the physical plane.

A mother feels that even if her son is sixty years old, he is still her young child, her baby. But when a father sees that his son is thirteen or fourteen years old, he immediately tries to give the son all his wisdom. He says, "You cannot call yourself a child any more. Tomorrow I may die and you will have to replace me and take full responsibility for all my jobs." The mother says, "No! No! No! I want my child to remain here with me." Now, I am not saying a word against the Mother. Only it is the Mother's nature to regard her sons as her eternal children. The Father says, "You are eternal children, true; but you have to work for Me. You have to take the responsibility of the entire universe. Showing off and doing all these things is good for five years, ten years, twenty years, but it cannot last forever."

The same Mother, the same Cosmic Mother who holds all the Kundalini Power, who is the Kundalini Power, is far, far beyond it. With Her aspect of the ever-transcending Beyond, She is mixing with Her consort, Purusha, Shiva, or the Absolute. With Her ever-transcending Consciousness, She is one with the Absolute. Again, with Her playful consciousness, She is playing with Her children in Her cosmic Game.

The Father tells the child to go beyond the cosmic Game, for it is only when one goes beyond the cosmic Game that one will attain infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. The Father says, "You have to go beyond the Kundalini into a higher state of consciousness. First enter into the sushupti, the state of deep sleep. Then go into swapna, the dreaming state; then into jagriti, the waking state; and finally enter into turiya, the transcendental Consciousness. And, my children, you can even go beyond that and remain in sahaja samadhi, a constant, spontaneous and dynamic oneness with Me on all planes of Reality."

The son of God, Jesus Christ, was on earth for thirty-three years. Only during the last three years of his life did he perform miracles. But do you think the world still adores and worships him just because he could walk on water or resurrect a dead man? No, it is not because of his miracles that he is still worshipped, but because he brought down the eternal Consciousness, the infinite Consciousness. Sri Ramakrishna performed practically no miracles and there were many, many other spiritual Masters who did not do miracles. They felt that performing miracles on the physical plane would be childlike in comparison to what they were capable of doing on the spiritual plane, in the heart's region, where infinite Peace, Light and Bliss abide.

Kundalini power and all the miraculous powers on earth are fleeting, for they are earth-bound powers. But the Power of the Self is infinite; the Power of the transcendental Self is infinite and immortal. The most important thing on earth for a spiritual seeker is the awakening of the consciousness and the realisation of the Self, for this is eternal. If somebody comes here and performs some miracles, we will be fascinated. But the moment we go home there will be nothing to sustain our faith in what he has done. It seems to be all magic and trickery. And how long can we cherish the magician inside us or before us? But when somebody lifts up our consciousness even for a second, or if we ourselves do it on the strength of our intense aspiration, then our faith in that experience lasts, because it is our own inner experience. Anything that lasts forever we need. It is Immortality, inner Immortality that we need; and this comes through the awakening and elevation of our consciousness.