Vision-Reality his soul has.
Reality-Vision his heart is. — photo by Peter NeumannFood has life. God is life.
Food has reality. God is reality.
Food has sound-success. God is sound-success.
Food has silence-progress. God is silence-progress.
I eat. I eat to survive. From my very birth I have been seeking nourishment. Food saves my life from starvation. Food saves my life from extinction.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to think soulfully.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to act selflessly.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to pray to God constantly.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to meditate spontaneously.
Mine is the hunger that does not permit me to love God unconditionally.
I know my food-hunger is reasonable and inevitable. But my power-hunger is unreasonable and unpardonable. Finally, my God-hunger is incomparable and insurmountable.
To my great sorrow, poverty attacks plenty. To my widest astonishment, plenty invades poverty. One of the lofty principles of the United Nations is: “Poverty anywhere in the world is a threat to prosperity everywhere.” Indeed, this is a heart-unifying and life-fulfilling message. The United Nations was founded upon the vision-hunger for world peace. I am sure there shall come a time when that vision will be transformed into reality in spite of today’s teeming, threatening and frightening clouds over the firmament of the United Nations.
O body, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Shortage is poverty.”
O vital, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Rivalry is poverty.”
O mind, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Doubt is poverty.”
O heart, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Insecurity is poverty.”
O life, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Impurity is poverty.”
O truth-seeker, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Disobedience is poverty.”
O God-lover, I tell you a supreme secret:
“Ingratitude is poverty.”
I eat. I eat to live. Indeed, this is my wisdom-light. I live to eat. Indeed, this is my ignorance-night.
God says to my desire-life: “Love to live.”
God says to my aspiration-life: “Live to love.”
God says to my realisation-life: “Love to become a oneness-heart. Live to be a perfection-life.”
United Nations 1 February 1980↩
Self-examination:
What is it?Preparation of my mind.
Self-examination:
What is it?Determination of my vital.
Self-examination:
What is it?Purification of my body.
Self-examination:
What is it?Divinisation of my nature.
Self-examination:
What is it?Perfection of my life.
Self-examination:
What is it?Consecration of my heart.
Self-examination:
What is it?Vision universal of my soul.
Self-examination:
What is it?Satisfaction transcendental of my Beloved Supreme.
```Examination. The human in me wants to examine the world without examining itself. The human in me wants to judge the world without judging itself. The human in me wants to change the world without changing itself.
The divine in me loves the world. The divine in me cries with the world. The divine in me tries to console the world. The divine in me tries to fulfil the world.
Self-examination is another name for conscious and permanent separation from the ignorance-chain of birth and death. Self-examination has many more names: doubt-destruction, faith-invocation, surrender-perfection and gratitude-satisfaction.
Self-examination is for my immediate God-need and not for my disproportionate devil-greed.
Self-examination is the confident success-walk in my outer world. Self-examination is the transcendent progress-march in my inner world. Readiness is the secret of my success. Selflessness is the secret of my progress.
Examination, examination, examination. I examine God to see if He has Compassion-Shower, Forgiveness-Tower and Realisation-Hour for me. God examines me to see if I have a small grain of sincerity in my life, a tiny flame of purity in my heart and an atom of receptivity in my entire being.
Now let me tell you, my seeker-friends, what actually happens when I examine God and when He examines me. When God examines me, my old friend fear advises me to hide immediately, and my old friend anger advises me to fight dauntlessly. When I examine God, He immediately, lovingly and unreservedly quenches my heart’s thirst, and immediately, compassionately and unconditionally feeds my life’s hunger.Office of the Mayor
City of New YorkCity Hall
New York 10007December 19, 1979
Dear Guru:
Thank you so much for your book and for the kind personal inscription. It is unbelievable that anyone could be so prodigious as to be the author of 400 books as you are. I shall read your thoughts.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Edward I. Koch
MayorSri Chinmoy
85-45 149th Street Jamaica, New York 11432Two aimless eyes
Are torturing me.One senseless mind
Is destroying me.Yet I love to stay on earth —
I know not why,I know not why.
```Because
You nurse no extravagant hopesFrustration-night will always fail
To arrive at your heart’s door.Because
You nurse no extravagant hopesA life of satisfaction-bliss
Shall feed your lofty inner heights. ```To brave the sound-life
I sit at God’s Protection-Feet.To brave the silence-life
I drink in God’s Perfection-Smile. ```The mouth of my wild desires
I shall boldly seal.The heart of my high aspiration
I shall sleeplessly unseal. ```My life-flute
Invites all.My death-gong
Rejects all.My God-silence
Satisfies all. ```Sail
Beyond the sunrise sky.Reach
The Pinnacle-GoalBefore the sunset cry.
```When Babar tried to return to his kingdom, his whole army fought against him. They wouldn’t allow Babar to come back. But Babar had quite a few followers outside his kingdom, and they helped him to fight against his own people. Babar was so great, so powerful, that eventually he won the battle.
And then what happened? Babar went and knelt down before his step-grandmother. He said to her very kindly, very politely, “I don’t hold anything against you. If a mother likes one of her sons more than another son, what can the other son do? He should not feel miserable. It is up to the mother to love equally, which the mother should do. But if the mother does not love all her children equally, the ones that are not in favour must not feel sorry. They should still have the same love for their mother as the ones who stand high in her favour. So I don’t hold anything against you’ You have done the right thing according to your light. Now let me have peace of mind.” So he placed his head on her lap, and fell asleep.
A few hours later Babar woke up and he saw in front of him the main culprit, his cousin. He had been arrested and was brought to Babar by Babar’s loyal followers. But Babar again very kindly and politely showed his heart’s magnanimity.
He said to his cousin, “You are at perfect liberty either to stay with me the rest of your life or to leave my kingdom. If you leave my kingdom, if you want to live elsewhere, I will meet with your expenses. If you want to stay here as before, you can freely stay. I feel no ill will towards you at all.”Now it happened that there was a young man who cherished tremendous jealousy toward Babar because everybody appreciated him, admired him, adored him and extolled him to the skies for his bravery, kindness, nobility and other divine qualities. This young man had long been harbouring a desire to kill Babar. He had heard from people that from time to time the Emperor walked in the city all by himself. So he was waiting for an opportunity to kill Babar, hoping that someday he would meet the Emperor alone. The young man always carried a sword.
One afternoon as Babar was walking along the street he saw a mad elephant. People were all shouting and running away as the elephant came down the street. All the neighbours were panicking. But there was one little child who was helpless. He could not run fast enough to get out of the way. The elephant was about to trample the little child when the Emperor, who was incognito, came running at top speed and snatched the child out of the way. Babar saved the child, but as he was running away with the child, his turban fell to the ground.
When the mad elephant had passed by, some spectators ran to pick up the turban of the brave man who had saved the small child. When they saw the inside, they realised that it was actually the crown of their Emperor, Babar. The young man who wanted to kill Babar was one of the spectators when Babar saved the life of the child. He himself had run away, afraid of the elephant. When he realised what had happened, he fell at Babar’s feet and said, “Forgive me.”
Babar said, “What have you done?”
The man said, “I have been cherishing the desire to kill you for many years, because I was terribly jealous of the admiration you receive. Now I see that you truly deserve it. You are the most precious of us all, but you were ready to give your own life to save an ordinary human being. What I have learned from you is that it is infinitely better to give life than to take. This is what you have taught me. So now, instead of taking your life, I am giving you my life. Please take my life.” And he offered Babar the sword with which he had planned to kill him.
Babar took the sword and said, “I taught you how to give life, but now I am going to take your life. You come with me. From now on you will be one of my bodyguards. I am sure you will be a faithful one.” So Babar took the man’s life only to make it into a useful and fruitful one. Instead of killing him, instead of punishing him, Babar made his would-be killer one of his personal bodyguards.A cheerful self-giving founded upon oneness is always ignorant of sacrifice.
[To be continued]Question: But what is this supposed to do for you?
Sri Chinmoy: If you are aware of it, it is just like receiving candy. If a mother gives her child some candy once or twice, and the child likes it, then he starts asking for it. He himself goes to his mother and says, “Please give me some of that candy.” These spiritual experiences are like that. They are the first reward, or you could call them the first spiritual temptation. They are not a temptation in the undesirable sense, but a temptation to pursue the inner life for the joy of the experiences one gets. First the experiences come of their own accord, but then you have to earn them. You have to work for them, pray for them. You have to meditate to get them. But at the beginning, they may come of their own accord to inspire the spiritual aspirant. These experiences are the beginning of his spiritual wealth.First, there is the physical mind, which gives the individual the capacity to deal mentally, in a concrete way, with the material world around him. Above that is the intellectual mind, which gives the ability to deal with ideas and concepts as such. The intellectual mind can function on an abstract level. Next is the intuitive mind. The intuitive mind often functions with pure intuition. It sees the inner truth of something immediately and directly, without the use of the human intelligence. It has the Eye of Truth, and it touches the inner truth of things with no intermediate help. Above the intuitive mind is the illumined mind. This mind is permeated by the soul’s light, and is a very illumined and spiritual form of mind. Above this is what is termed the overmind. At this stage, the mind as we know it is not used at all. This is a plane of consciousness on which the cosmic gods live and function. Beyond that is the supermind, where the golden light which you saw came from. In the Vedas, the supermind is known as the Vijnana Loka.
After the supermind there are only three planes of consciousness. These are Sat, Chit and Ananda. These three states of consciousness are interrelated, and at a certain point they merge. Creation itself starts with Sat-Chit-Ananda. Immediately below this is the supermind. The golden colour like a disc or a sun comes from the supermind. You had a very high experience, and it came from that plane. It did not touch the physical plane or your physical body, although you saw it with your physical eyes.
When the light of the supermind actually touches the earth plane, it changes its colour and is suffused with a reddish hue, which is the colour of the material world. Then you see the combination of the golden and the reddish as a luminous golden-red.The devas or cosmic gods are not evolving beings. Human beings evolve and evolve and evolve. We are constantly growing beyond ourselves. Our very humanity will be transcended ultimately. The gods, however, are not evolving. They do not want our ultimate Goal; they are satisfied with the consciousness that they have. They are divine, full of divine Light and Delight; they are very pure and very luminous. They are divine instruments of Knowledge and Power. Right now, needless to say, they have more than we have, but, believe it or not, a day will come when we will become fully realised and remain constantly in union with the Supreme. At that time, we will actually have gone beyond them, and will not need their help, and they will not be able to affect us or influence us.
Right now the cosmic gods help man with their love, their concern and their joy. But you may be surprised to hear that a time comes when the cosmic gods actually stand in our way. When we no longer need their help and have the capacity to go to the Highest, to the Absolute Supreme, they do not want us to go beyond them. It is like a father and son: the father helps the son who is a student. The boy studies and studies. When the father sees that the son is going beyond him, if the father is narrow-minded or jealous, he may find some reason to stop giving the son money to continue his studies. But if the father is large-hearted, he says, “I did not achieve what my son can achieve. I do not have the education that he is going to have. But let him have it. Let him go beyond me. Let him surpass me.” If the father is noble, he feels this and does this.
Some of the cosmic gods, unfortunately, stand in our way at the last moment before our self-realisation, at the last milestone of our journey. At the beginning of our journey they push us and pull us, saying, “Go, go towards the Goal!” But when we are about to reach the Goal and we no longer need their help, they stand in our way. In the beginning, though, they do help us considerably in our spiritual life.
Here I am telling you the absolute truth. Otherwise, people will be under the impression that the cosmic gods help us all the time. No, they help us for many, many incarnations, for hundreds of incarnations. But when we are about to merge into the Highest, they do not help. Why? They do not like us to go beyond their jurisdiction. Every conscious being in this whole universe and beyond it, except the Supreme, cherishes his own sovereignty, and guards his own realm. Every authority on earth and in Heaven is gratified by the devotion of his subjects, and does not like to see them go to another authority. It is, on a very subtle level, the old problem of separativity, or we could even say “ego”, but on a very high level. Still, it is there. That is why we have to forgive the cosmic gods. First of all, very few souls ever do get as far as their plane of consciousness. And if they stand in the way at that very high realm, it is only because they fear to lose the worship of that great seeker. It is like a parent who does not want his child to leave home because the parent will lose his influence over the child whom he loves, to whom he is attached.
But as I said, the cosmic gods are not evolving. They want to remain where they are, and they prefer to have their devotees remain where they are. But they do help us for hundreds of lives, and many, many souls would be nowhere if it were not for the compassion of the cosmic gods. They save human beings from disaster, ruin and many, many catastrophes, including death. They are responsible for most of the higher ideas and ideals that human beings get in their inspired moments. In their own way they are great and divine instruments of the Supreme.In the pictures we see four arms, each performing a different action. With the arm wielding the scimitar, Kali is striking the hostile forces. The second arm holds the trident which is the weapon and also the emblem of her consort, Lord Shiva. This weapon symbolises his power. So this second arm is shown holding and using Shiva’s power. With the third arm she is holding aloft the head of the greatest demon, Mahasura, whom she has conquered and killed. And with the fourth arm she holds the vessel which is catching the blood pouring from his severed head.
But this is all the pure imagination of the artist. In India we have a set of sacred books called the Puranas. They are not as well known in the West as the Gita, but in India they are very well known and well loved. They are full of simple, colourful stories about the great Indian deities. In those books you will read about Kali and all her battles in the inner worlds. It is Mother Kali who represents the transforming power of the Supreme, and takes the aspirant as quickly as possible to the Highest. In this aspect she kills the hostile forces in our human nature. She does not kill the human being; she kills only the imperfection and obscurity in our human lives.
I could tell you many, many stories about Kali from the Puranas, but I cannot do it today. But about the four arms, I can tell you categorically that they do not exist in the higher worlds, in the highest world. The Puranic stories about Kali speak about her possessing four arms, and the books had to be justified by the artists, who also added a great deal of their own. In the stories she had four arms, so the artists, with their artistic imagination, enter into the vital worlds and feel that the warrior-goddess must look like that: with four arms, a garland of skulls, a long tongue sticking out, a skirt of severed arms, and so on.When danger is approaching, at that time if you repeat ‘Supreme’ quickly and intensely, there is nothing wrong in it. It is an expression of the soul asking for immediate safety and for immediate intervention of the divine Protection.
One has to know, when one is pronouncing the Supreme’s name, what is the purpose. At the time of meditation or at the time of the disciple’s inner spiritual discipline, he has to say it slowly and soulfully. But in an emergency, when danger is threatening, if it comes from the depths of the heart like an intense cry, then it is also most soulful, although it is fast.But you have to know one thing: whether that man is basically good or not. If basically he is not good, then I do not want you to spend even five minutes on him. Let him, at God’s hour, through the process of evolution, come to some basic understanding of the truth of this kind of behaviour towards God. If basically he is very low, then you don’t have to waste any time, because it will not do him any good. But if he is basically good, you can offer five minutes of your prayer to the Supreme to change his attitude towards God. He is, after all, God’s child, and God Himself is hearing him. As God is hearing your prayers and observing your meditation, so also God is listening to his curses. God has enough strength to bear his insults.
But before you try to help him, you have to see whether he is a good man or if he is basically bad. If he is bad by nature, then forget about him. If he has many good qualities, but he has developed this bad habit of cursing, then offer your prayers to the Supreme for five minutes to change his way of speaking and thinking.```
O Father Supreme,Strike me!
Strike me hard, very hard.With all my heart I am begging You
For the dawn of a new life./Param pita aghat karo/
/Aghat karo aghat//Paran bhore jachi ami/
/Nutan alor prabhat/ ```From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-6, No. 2, February 1980, Vishma Press, 1980
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