Sri Chinmoy and Alo Devi give a farewell talk to the disciples⁷

Sri Chinmoy: Dear children, we shall be leaving for New York tomorrow. We have been here for about a month. Each day we have felt your joy, your love, your concern, your dedication, your devotion and your surrender. Each day you have strengthened our hope. Each day you have given us the opportunity to dream the golden dreams in you and through you. Each disciple of ours has pleased us with his heart's aspiration.

We shall be leaving tomorrow. Our physical will leave, but not the spiritual in us. The spiritual presence we shall leave behind. We are carrying with us your aspiration, your dedication and your concern.

The difference between an ordinary, unaspiring person and an aspiring person is vast. The deeper you go, the clearer it will be for you to realise how close you are to the Inner Pilot. During your meditation, you are feeding the inner Child. During your aspiration you are also feeding the inner Child. During your dedication-service you are likewise feeding the inner Child. Meditation, aspiration and dedication must go together. Most of you do not need to be told this, for you have realised it and are actually revealing it. It is now a truth in your inner lives.

At times, unfortunately, I scold you people. I scold you, if you can call it scolding at all, just because I feel that you, our disciples, are totally one with us. On the strength of our oneness I feel that my scolding is not scolding; it is only the recognition of our true oneness. In our oneness, if there is any limitation, imperfection or unwillingness, even unconsciously, then we must open to the Light. I feel that at every moment I have to make you aware of your highest Goal. So actually, my scolding is my loving concern for you, to make you aware, constantly, of your highest Goal.

This Centre happens to be the Mother of all AUM Centres. We are most proud when we announce this fact, that the Centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the Mother Centre of all the AUM Centres that now exist and that are going to exist. The responsibility of this Centre is enormous. Here in this Centre, our spiritual mission, the Mission of the Supreme, started. Here we have to establish ourselves adequately, fully, divinely and supremely.

Each disciple, as I said a few minutes ago, has to please both Alo and me. At the same time, we feel that each disciple can offer his inner as well as his outer help a little more, if he or she really wants to. This is no complaint. This is no scolding. Only we feel that each disciple has the capacity to offer a little more of his dedicated service. Dedicated service can be of various types, as you all know. Right now the particular kind of dedicated service that we need most is to bring to the Centre more sincere and aspiring souls. If each disciple of ours consciously and gladly takes up the challenge, this divine challenge of bringing a new, sincere, aspiring person to the Centre, one who is really crying for a better life, a higher life, a more luminous life, then I shall be most soulfully happy and grateful to you.

We don't want to increase the numbers in the Centre just for the sake of numbers. That is contrary to our Goal. But we do feel that there are many aspiring souls around you who are crying for Joy, Peace and Light, and since you have the capacity, I want you to exercise that capacity.

This does not mean that you should go into the street, beating a drum and saying, "Oh, our Centre is a wonderful place! Come, come, everyone!" That will not solve any problem. It will also not help the persons you are trying to bring. But if you go deep, deep within yourselves, you are bound to see in your vicinity, in your area, people who are really crying for spiritual Light. The Supreme wants us to spread His Message, the Message of Light.

Each disciple has the right to spread the Message of the Supreme according to his own capacity, according to his understanding, his receptivity and his willingness to serve the Supreme.

It seems that, very often, the one thing that bothers the new seekers is the fee, the contribution of $5.00 per month. As you know, we need contributions for the rent and maintenance of the Centre. I feel that this $5.00 is not too much. However, I wish to tell you that the newcomers who would like to come here are under no obligation to be members of the Centre all at once. They may come to the Centre for days and months, even for years, and they are under no obligation to be members of the Centre. Just because they have aspiration and they want to lead a better life, a spiritual life, we welcome them. Later if they feel that they want to become part and parcel of the Centre, they are most welcome at that time to be members. But there should be no pushing and no influencing, on our part, to make more members.

We need and we want aspirants, and the Supreme feels that His Message of Light has to be spread all over. So I wish to make it very clear to each disciple, when he approaches a true, sincere seeker, that he should not tell his friend about any fee, donation, contribution, etc. His part will be only to inspire a newcomer. That newcomer will get Peace, Light and Blessings if he offers his own aspiration; his own aspiration will be his real fee. Those who have already become members, real members of our spiritual family, and are contributing this small amount lovingly, cheerfully, regularly, faithfully and devotedly are our true joy and our true pride. You people know the responsibility you have to our inner family and that gives us abundant joy. I have gone through our books, and as far as monthly contributions are concerned, practically everyone has been faithful and devoted. Again I wish to say that if amongst those who are contributing regularly, there are people who cannot contribute on a particular month, they should not feel miserable. If circumstances do not permit you to offer your contribution on a particular month, please do not feel embarrassed. What I need from you is your attendance, your regularity. That will satisfy me. In your regularity, we shall see your true aspiration. Money comes and money goes, but if once our aspiration deserts us, then we are totally lost. So we must be, all the time, conscious of our aspiration. Those who have already accepted this Centre as their very own must feel our deepest joy and our blessingful gratitude in their hearts. It is you who are supporting the Centre. It is you who feel the necessity to grow into a spiritual family together. We are extremely pleased with what you have been doing for us, dearest disciples. We feel only that you have the capacity to do a little more. Both Alo and I are positive that by the time we come back, either at the end of October or the beginning of November, we shall see some very remarkable progress and success that you will achieve for the Centre and for the Supreme.

When we speak about this Centre in New York, we speak with our highest pride and our mightiest joy. Each disciple must feel that the AUM Centre in Puerto Rico is his Centre, is her Centre. It is his spiritual family; it is her spiritual family. Each one should feel equally important in fulfilling the mission.

This time both Alo and I have observed something with the deepest joy: that all of you, without exception, have most divinely collaborated with Sudha in the undertaking of the Centre activities. This is something that gives us enormous joy and pride because it means that you know how to work together, how to work with your Centre President. Each person has to feel that this Centre is his spiritual, living breath. This place is the living, inner breath of the aspirant. Those who have launched into this path can rest assured that the Golden Beyond can never remain a far cry. Their Goal is destined. They are most fortunate precisely because they have been chosen by the Highest, by the Supreme. The Supreme is utilising them and the Supreme will fulfil Himself in and through each selected child of His.

In the Name of the Supreme, both Alo and I bless you. In the Name of the Supreme, we offer our deepest, blessingful gratitude and soulful concern to each of you present here.

[Sri Chinmoy chants A-U-M.]

Alo Devi: Guru is very close to our inner consciousness. When he gives the disciples work to do, he knows how they carry it out, even though he is not here physically. On the strength of his inner identification with each one of us, Guru feels and sees and understands inwardly how we are doing. So he wants each disciple to know that his or her work is appreciated and understood. It is not only in Sudha's absence but all the time, even when she is here, that Guru sees inwardly what each person is doing.

Sri Chinmoy: Each disciple is indispensable. I wish to say that each disciple should feel that he is indispensable, and at the same time — it is a paradox — nobody is indispensable.

When humility and devotion come to the fore, I wish to say that each disciple is more than indispensable. But when our human pride, arrogance and ignorance come in, nobody is indispensable.

So I wish all of you to feel our immediate appreciation and our very soul. Whenever you do anything for us, when you even bring a flower, I may not be physically here, but while you are bringing the flower, immediately my soul appreciates and blesses you. I may not be physically here, but spiritually I am here, and immediately my soul's deepest gratitude goes towards the person who is offering his selfless service to us. Outwardly you do not have to convince me of what you are doing or what you are bringing, because my inner recognition is operating. My inner recognition is immediate and my inner appreciation is also immediate.

I wish to make you feel that my soul is overjoyed and full of gratitude the moment you do something. So outwardly it is not necessary to convince me, because my soul gets the immediate message and sends you my Blessings.

Outer activities must be done always with love, devotion, surrender and the feeling of oneness. When one speaks out, that person has to feel that he is also listening to himself in the heart of somebody else. If I feel that I am saying something and you people are all ignorant — if I have that idea — then I am defeating my own purpose. When I give a talk, I feel that I am listening to you inside your own hearts. It is I who am learning something again in a better way.

So whenever you do anything, please feel three essential things: it is you who are acting; it is you who are seeing the results of the act; it is you who become the result of the act. So please try to be the doer and the action and the soulful and devoted result.

And as Alo said, even if you think one divine thought (let us say about God), my soul immediately records it. I have never told you, but I have thousands of pages written in my heart about each disciple. Early in the morning, every day, my inner being gives me the report of every disciple. It is not necessary to tell you outwardly. My business is to take you towards God and not to show you how much I know about you. My work is to make you feel that I really love you, really want you and really need each one of you.

The other day Frank (Nadeshwar) asked me something that touched me so deeply. He said, "How can we love you the way you love us?" When he was saying this, my whole heart was shedding tears of gratitude. This should be the attitude of each disciple, what Frank asked about. Whoever accepts me as his Guru should feel that I love him much more than he loves himself and more than he loves me.

A few weeks ago in New York, a disciple of mine told me, "The moment I think of you, I feel that you have been thinking of me all that time. But when I don't think of you, what will happen?"

I replied, "When you don't think of me, at that time, also have the feeling that I do think of you. The moment you think of me, feel that I think of you all the time. But if you don't think of me, nevertheless have the feeling that I am constantly thinking of you, because although you can live without thinking of me, I cannot live without thinking of you."

So what Frank said deeply touched my heart. I am constantly like a beggar, loving, loving you. Each of you is a most precious jewel, and that is why I love you. To be frank with you, I adore all your divine qualities. At the same time, when I see undivine qualities, my heart bleeds because sooner or later I have to be identified with those undivine qualities; I have to be in them, within them, in order to transform them into divine qualities. Let us, therefore, try to cooperate, the disciple and the Guru. Let us try to be good partners, divine partners.

When I place my hands on your head, I bless both the physical and the spiritual; that is to say, the soul inside the body. The soul came into this world in earthly form. On a particular day, it took the earthly form which is the body. That is the most important day in your life because the soul came into the world to fulfil a particular mission.

And you know that the main thing in life is to start the journey. If you don't start anything, how can you ever succeed in anything? The soul started its journey on a particular day here on earth, and in your case, I was trying to enter into the particular day when your journey started. I wanted to see how much promise, how much capacity and how much ability the soul had when it came into the world. Then I wanted to know about the hour of birth. In the West, when they note the hour of birth, they often make mistakes. In India, in the villages, the hour of birth is noted very specifically. Here in the West, I find that the hour given is actually the wrong hour, with differences of quite a few minutes. For example, Alo was born in the Western Hospital in Toronto on 18 August 1927. They told Alo's mother that she was born at 5:00 pm, "just in time for supper." But I see clearly that she was born at exactly 6:09 pm. That is a big difference.

In your case, it became a little more complicated because even your day of birth, your birthday, is wrong! You were born actually one day earlier than they say. But there is no harm; one day earlier or one day later — only it is difficult for the astrologers to cast your horoscope. But I am not going to cast your horoscope. I am only trying to keep track of the actual start of your soul's journey, because my purpose is to take you to your Goal.

Always try to observe all of your birthdays — not necessarily in offering cakes, not in preparing Indian meals, but in trying, on that special day, to think of God as much as you can and to think of me also as much as you can.

That is the best thing to do because, on that day, the soul has to renew its mission again, and each individual has to begin a new life, a new goal.

Each birthday is most important for the individual seeker. In the life of the seeker, the birthday is the most important day. But you should also know that in the case of a spiritual person, the spiritual birthday can be observed at every moment, because at every moment he will want to make an improvement in his life, he will want to reach something deeper, higher and more valuable. An ordinary person recognises his birthday only once a year, but a spiritual person is very wise. He says, "No, at each moment we are taking a new life, a new incarnation."

If you pray to God devotedly and meditate on God soulfully and regularly, your meditation will bring down into your day-to-day existence, into your thoughts and into your actions, the Wisdom and Knowledge of God. When you use that Knowledge in the form of speech and in the form of action, you will enter into others' consciousness. They will understand you, and you will understand them. At the present time, since you are only at the beginning of the spiritual path, people are misunderstanding you and you are not understanding them.

We want only inner Light. We want those who are the possessors of the inner Light; not the outer friends, not even the husband, the wife or the children. No, they do not possess that inner Light. He who possesses the inner Light and lives in this inner Light is in a position to bring down Peace for the seekers. He can also bring down Peace for the man who is suffering, the man who is disturbed or the man who is about to be destroyed.

Now, supposing that one does not have that kind of faith in the spiritual life or the inner life, or even the spiritual individual: then what are we going to do? The case may seem hopeless at that time, but it is not absolutely hopeless because that person has a soul. Each person has a soul. His mind may refuse to accept the truth that you want to offer. It is his mind and not his soul that refuses. However, that person's own soul will always try to awaken the person, the sufferer, so that he can get additional help from the spiritual person. A real spiritual person has the capacity to establish his oneness with the soul of that individual.

How does he do this? What he does is that he sends his own soul to the sufferer. The two souls become one and then they both enter into the physical mind of the sufferer. Then the two souls go into the person's vital and then into the physical. The soul that is already in the sufferer is not powerful enough to illumine the person, but if it has the help of someone else's mighty soul, and that person is a real spiritual man who invokes the Supreme to help the soul of the sufferer, we then have one soul, two souls and now three souls coming to fight against the ignorance of this sufferer, or the hostile forces that have attacked the person. These are the means that can be utilised in order to help a person who is suffering and even one who is on the verge of destruction.