AUM — Vol. 7, No. 8, 27 Mar. 1972

Four faults: jealousy, doubt, fear, pride. They are gone

Now, on Father’s Day, the spiritual Master, whom they regarded as their Father, invited all the spiritual children to visit him. They brought most expensive gifts for their spiritual Father, but he was not satisfied with their gifts. He said to them sternly, “What shall I do with your gifts when I do not get any inner satisfaction from you people?”

The disciples were shocked and sad that even on Father’s Day they could not please their Master. A father should forgive his children on Father’s Day, but this Father, being very strict and stern, could not forgive them. He pointed out four disciples and asked them to come before him.

To the first of them he said, “Your name is Jealousy.” To the second one he said, “Your name is Doubt.” To the third disciple, he said, “Your name is Fear.” And to the fourth, “Your name is Pride.”

Then he said, “Here I have about four hundred spiritual children and there is not one who is free from jealousy, doubt, fear and pride. But these four I have selected unfortunately have these particular qualities in profuse measure. They have these undivine qualities in much greater abundance than the rest of the disciples.”

Then he turned abruptly to the one whom he had given the name jealousy and asked, “Do you want to get rid of your jealousy?”

The disciple said bravely, “O Master, you know how sincerely I want to get rid of my jealousy. They think that you have embarrassed me today by pointing out that I am the most jealous of all, but I am glad that you have done it. Out of your infinite bounty, you have brought me right in front of you and I am sure today you can and will put an end to all my jealousy.”

The Master wore a broad smile as he said, “I shall help you get rid of your jealousy. I shall teach you a trick to help conquer it. If you see someone who is better than you in something, say someone sings better than you and you are jealous of him, then think seven times in your mind, ‘I am a better singer than he is. I am a far better singer than he is. I am far, far better than he is as a singer, only I do not sing. I do not care for singing.’ If you see someone who is a better athlete than you are, then you simply say, ‘O, I am a far better athlete, but I don’t care for it. If I want to run, I can easily beat him, I am far, far better.’ Seven times you say this. You make comparisons. When you feel somebody is superior to you in anything, you say, either inwardly or outwardly, ‘I am far, far better than he is, only I don’t do it.’ Always try to make yourself superior to that particular person in your imagination.

“It is he who feels inferior to someone else who becomes a victim to jealousy. Very often we see that we are inferior to some particular human being and we become jealous. If we had patience, perseverance, sincerity and aspiration enough, we could have his capacities. But, since we do not have these qualities, we try to destroy his capacities with our inner jealousy. We cannot and must not destroy them. On the other hand, with our imagination we can easily say and feel, ‘I am far superior, far superior to him.’ To conquer jealousy with aspiration is absolutely the most correct way. But since there are people who do not have aspiration enough and they want to get rid of jealousy for temporary joy, for relief, they should aggrandise their own power consciously and deliberately through their imagination. Then they will get some relief and satisfaction.

“At times it happens that in spite of being superior, in spite of being the best singer, or best dancer, or best aspirant, one feels jealous of the inferior one. One feels, 'O, he has just started but he will surpass me, he will go beyond me. What am I going to do?’ So what do we do? We speak ill of the one who has some potentiality, we try to throw cold water on his aspiration. In spite of being himself the best singer or aspirant right now, such a person tries to belittle the potentiality of the one who is making rapid progress. What should one do at that time? One should feel instantly that whatever feeling he cherishes towards his inferior, his inferior has every right to cherish the same feeling towards him. He cherishes the jealousy and he has to feel that his inferior has also the capacity to pull him down to his level, through his own undivine jealousy-power. As the superior is using his undivine jealousy power to crush the possibilities of the inferior, so also the inferior has the capacity to pull down, to break down the topmost bough of the superior-tree.”

Then the Master spoke to the man whom he had named Doubt. He asked, “Whom do you doubt?”

The disciple was ashamed of himself, but he said honestly, “I doubt God. I doubt you, Master. I doubt mankind and I even doubt myself. My doubt starts with God and it ends in my own life. But Master, I want so much to be free, totally free from doubt. If you save me today, I shall be eternally grateful to you.”

The Master said, “When you doubt God, just use the word ‘helpless’. ‘Helpless’, write down on your heart — ‘helpless’. When you doubt me, write down the word ‘meaningless’ on your heart — ‘meaningless'. When you doubt humanity, you write down the word ‘hopeless’. Then, when you doubt yourself, write down the word ‘useless’ on the tablet of your heart.”

Then the Master explained more fully, “You say you doubt God and you are right. By doubting God, can you get any joy? Can you get any peace of mind? Can you get anything that you want? By doubting God you get nothing. That is why you have to feel that you are ‘helpless’.

“You have entered into the spiritual life. You have to see that when you doubt me, you are cutting down the very tree that you are trying to climb up. You are chopping down the tree, while your real aim is to climb to the topmost branch of it. Is it not something ‘meaningless’, what you are doing? Like a stupid man you are doing something absolutely meaningless. You are destroying your own objective.

“Now when you start doubting humanity, your spiritual brothers and sisters, you are hopeless. You know that when you want something in your life, you need the help of others. If you start doubting their capacity, believing that they cannot help you, or that they cannot do a thing which you cannot do, then you are already lost. You are really hopeless. There are many things you do not know how to do; but you have faith in someone, some member of your family or someone else and you go to him for help. But if, before asking the person, you are in doubt about his potentiality or capacity, then what happens? Your very doubt destroys your eagerness to ask him for help. Here again your foolishness plays the role of hopelessness. You are truly hopeless. There is no hope of your security, of your fulfilment in life, because you have ruined all your hope in others. If you have faith in others, even if you do not have faith in yourself, they can be of some assistance to you; they can come to your rescue. But because you do not have faith in them, because you doubt them, all their capacities will be of no avail to you. So you are really ‘hopeless’.

“Now, if you doubt yourself, you are a really useless fellow. When you start doubting yourself, nobody will come to help you, saying, ‘No, no, no, don’t doubt yourself’. The world believes you. ‘O, he is right. If he doubts himself, that means he really is incapable. Only a useless fellow will doubt himself. Who wants him?’ Everybody, consciously or unconsciously, feels that he has something to offer. Even a child feels that he has something to offer to the world. He feels that if he has a piece of candy, he can bring this candy to somebody else. Everybody feels that he has something which someone else does not have. It is up to the person to give or not. But, if the person doubts his own capacity, he is really ‘useless’ to himself. When he doubts himself he cannot create anything in his life. At the same time he cannot bring anything to anybody, because in spite of having good qualities within him, when he doubts himself, he just throws poison into his system. He himself is killed, and when he is killed how can he help others? A dead man cannot help anybody. So we say only a useless fellow, an absolutely useless fellow, can doubt himself.”

The Master turned then to the one who was all fear and asked him sharply, “Whom are you afraid of?”

The disciple said miserably, “I am afraid of you, Master and I am afraid of myself.”

The Master said, “You are afraid of me? Why?”

“I am afraid of you because when I look at you I see a flood of light, power and delight.”

So the Master said, “Why should you be afraid of me when you see light, power and delight in me?”

He said, “'I do not know. When I see boundless light, power and delight in your eyes when you meditate, I am scared to death.”

The Master said, “If you feel that this light belongs to me only and not to you and that I have kept this light for my own use and not for your use, then you will always be afraid of this light, power and delight. Try to feel, even for one day, that this light, power and delight are all for you. The moment you feel that they are yours, you will not be afraid of them. You have accepted the spiritual life for light. Now you are afraid of light. Why? It is like seeing the ocean. You don’t want to jump in. But you have to know that inside the ocean is the pearl. The wealth is inside the infinite ocean. If you can feel that the entire ocean is yours, then only will you enter into the bosom of the ocean, where you can get the wealth. If you can feel me as your very own, there can be no fear.

“Now, why are you afraid of yourself?” he added.

“I am afraid of myself because I feel I am all darkness, all imperfection, all impurity,” said the disciple.

The Master then said, “Why do you come to me?”

“I come to you to transform my imperfections, limitations and impurity.”

The Master told him, “If you come for that purpose, then you have to know that I have more capacity than you have. If you were afraid that I would not be able to transform you, then you would have stopped right at the beginning. But it was with some hope, with some aspiration that you came to me. Now you are feeling that I will not be able to transform your ignorance-sea into wisdom-sea. But here you are making a mistake. The power of light is infinitely stronger than the power of darkness, because God is all Light. If you are afraid of your darkness, your imperfections, your undivine qualities and you feel that these things cannot be transformed, then you are mistaken. If the Master had thought that it was beyond his capacity to change and transform you, then he would have told you right from the beginning that you were not meant for him, saying, ‘I will not be able to perfect your nature.’ Since the Master accepted you, you should not have any fear of yourself. You must not be afraid of your Master and you must not be afraid of your own undivine qualities. If he has accepted you, he has the divine vision and illumination to transform your life.”

Then the Master spoke to the disciple who was all pride. He said, “Now you are proud, but your pride is about to disappear. You have the body. Do you think that you are the most beautiful person on earth?”

“O no! Never, Master!”

“Then do you think that you are the strongest man on earth?”

“O no, Master! There are many on earth who are infinitely stronger than I!”

Then the Master said, “In the physical we see and care for two things: beauty and power. You are neither the most beautiful person on earth nor the strongest person on earth. Since your beauty does not claim to make you the most beautiful person and since your power does not declare you the strongest man on earth, you must keep silent. Your pride in the physical is lost. You are not the most beautiful. You are not the strongest. Man’s pride is lost when he thinks that he is not the strongest. Woman’s pride goes when she sees that somebody else is more beautiful. In this way both men and women can conquer their pride in the physical.

“Then comes the vital pride, the dynamic pride. The dynamic vital wants to conquer the world, to shelter the world. In a bad sense, when aggression starts, the vital wants to destroy the world totally. Now ask yourself, ‘Does your vital have the capacity to hold the world in a divine, dynamic way?’ Immediately you have to say, ‘No, my vital does not have that capacity.’ Then you are defeated. ‘Does your vital have the capacity in an arrogant way to destroy the whole world?’ ‘No, it does not.’ You don’t have the capacity either to rule the world in a dynamic way or to destroy the world in an aggressive way. So how can you cherish pride in the vital?

“Now, there is pride in the mind. There are many intellectual giants on earth who can smash your mental pride in the twinkling of an eye. So how can you have pride in the mind?"

“Next there is pride in the heart. In the heart you cherish pride. Do you feel that you are the purest person on earth? No, there are many saints, many sages, many spiritual Masters on earth who were and are infinitely purer than you are. You are bound to feel that there are many people on earth who have purer hearts than you have. Where is your pride then? How can you cherish your heart as the purest heart? You cannot.”

Because it must

I sit

the fountain of tears.

My heart

with growing fears.

My life

with sighing years.

I take my food —

My life will live

The Upanishads — the beauty and duty of India's soul

This beauty is illumining.

This duty is God-ordained.

AUM

The Upanishads offer us self-knowledge, world-knowledge, God-knowledge. Self-knowledge is self-discovery. After self-discovery we have to feel that the world-knowledge is within us and we have to grow into the world-knowledge. Then comes a time when we know the possessor of world-knowledge and then we have God-Knowledge. We have to enter into God-Knowledge which is the possessor of the universe.

AUM

Neti, neti — not this, not this, or not this, not that. All of us here are seekers — seekers of the infinite Truth. A real seeker is not and cannot be satisfied with his individual life, individual achievements, world possessions. No. He can be satisfied only when he has achieved the Absolute. Now what is the Absolute? Brahman is the Absolute. The Seers of the hoary past offered this sublime knowledge: Brahman cannot be limited by anything, Brahman cannot be housed by anything, Brahman cannot be defined by anything. This was their positive assertion. But we feel that this is the negative way of seeing Brahman. Brahman is beyond and beyond. But there is a positive way and this positive way is this: Brahman is Eternal, Brahman is Infinite, Brahman is Immortal. This is the positive way. We, the seekers of the infinite Truth, will follow the positive way. If we follow the positive way in our life of aspiration, we can run the fastest and reach the ultimate Goal.

We have to see Brahman in the finite, as we wish to see Brahman in the Infinite. But during our meditation, if we can have the vision of Brahman as the Infinite Self, then it becomes easier for us to enter into the world of relativity where we see everything as finite. We see the world within us, we see the world without us. In the world within there is a being and in the world without there is also a being. These two beings are called non-being and being. From the non-being the being came into existence. This very idea baffles our minds. How can non-being create being? Non-being is supposed to be nothing. From nothing how can something come into existence? But you have to know that it is the mind which tells us that from non-being being cannot come into existence. We have to know that this “nothing” is something beyond the conception of the mind. “Nothing” is the life of the everlasting Beyond. Nothing is something that always remains beyond our mental conception. It exceeds, it transcends our limited consciousness. So when we think of the world or of being coming out of non-being, we have to feel that this Truth can be known and realised only on the strength of our inner aspiration, where the mind does not operate at all. It is intuition which grants us this boon of knowing that “Nothing” is the Song of the ever-transcending Beyond. Again, “Nothing” is the experience of the ever-fulfilling, ever-transcending and ever-manifesting existence.

AUM

The Upanishads and the essence of Prana are inseparable. Prana is a Sanskrit word. It can be translated into English in various ways. You can say “breath” or "energy”, or you can go to the extreme of saying “ether”. But Prana is life-energy. This life-energy is not material, it is not physical; it is something that maintains and sustains the physical body. The Source of this Prana is the Supreme. In the field of manifestation Prana is indispensable. Prana is the soul of the universe. In India the term Prana has a special significance of its own. Prana is not just breath. Daily we breathe in and out thousands of times and we do not pay any attention to it. But when we use the term Prana we think of the life-energy that is flowing from within, without.

Prana is divided into five parts: Prana, Apana, Samana, Vyana and Udana. The life-energy, life-force that is inside the physical eyes, nose and ears, we call Prana. When we see the life-energy in our organs of excretion and generation it is Apana. Samana is the Prana that governs our digestion and assimilation. In the lotus of the heart where the Self is located, where we see one hundred and one subtle spiritual nerves and in each nerve one hundred nerve branches and from each nerve branch seventy- two thousand nerve branches, there the Prana that moves is called Vyana. Through the centre of the spine, life-energy flows. When it goes upward it reaches the highest and when it goes downward it reaches the lowest. When a seeker of the infinite Truth leaves the body, his Prana rises towards the highest and when a sinful person leaves the body, his Prana goes downward. This Prana which flows through the centre of the spine is called Udana.

When we are in a position to enter the Cosmos with the help of our life-force, we feel that Beyond is not in our imagination, it is not a chimerous mist, it is a reality that is growing within us and for us. God was one. He wanted to be many. Why? He felt the necessity of enjoying Himself, divinely and supremely in infinite forms. Ekam Bahusyam — One desiring to be many. When the Supreme projected Himself, projected His Life-Force, He saw two creatures immediately. One was male, the other female. Prana, the life-force, is the male and the female is Rayi. Prana is the Sun. Rayi is the Moon. From Prana and Rayi we all came into existence. Again, Prana is the Spirit and Rayi is Matter. Spirit and Matter must go together. Spirit needs Matter for its self-manifestation and Matter needs Spirit for its self-realisation.

Very often the Vedic Seers, Upanishadic Seers, used two words: Nama, Rupa. Nama is the name; Rupa is the form. In our outer world we deal with name and form. In the inner world we deal with the nameless and the formless. The name and the nameless are not rivals. The form and the formless are not rivals. The name embodies the capacity of the outer body. The nameless reveals the immortality of the soul. In the form the cosmic Consciousness manifests itself by circumscribing itself. In the formless the cosmic Consciousness transcends itself by expanding and enlarging itself.

In the spiritual life the term sacrifice is often used. The Vedic Seers spoke elaborately on sacrifice. According to them, the horse sacrifice, Ashwamedha sacrifice was most important. The Brihadaranyaka starts with the sacrificial horse. Usha va Ashwasya Medhyasya shirah...

Why do the Upanishadic Seers, the Vedic Seers, speak of the horse as the symbol of sacrifice and not any other animal? They realised the speed of the horse, the dynamism of the horse, the faithfulness and devoted qualities of the horse. Speed is necessary, dynamism is necessary, faithfulness and devotedness are necessary to realise and reveal the Absolute. That is why they chose the horse for the religious rites and for their inner awakening. Now by just sacrificing a horse we cannot gain any divine merit. Far from it. We must meditate on the horse, on the qualities of the horse and invoke these divine qualities to enter into us from above. The Vedic and Upanishadic Seers did this. They succeeded in getting the divine qualities of the horse and the result was that they entered into Brahmaloka, the highest heaven. But even in the highest heaven, the delight we get is not everlasting Delight; we have to enter into Brahman on the strength of our inner cry. When we have the inner cry we can eventually enter into the Brahman and there get everlasting Delight. To come back to the horse, one has not to make a horse sacrifice in this age. But one has to see the qualities of the horse and inwardly meditate on the divinely fulfilling qualities of the horse. It is from one’s own concentration and meditation that one will get the qualities which the horse offers or represents. Very often people misunderstand, especially Westerners. They think that if they just kill a horse they can gain divine merit and they decide to kill as many as they can. But sacrifice is not merely killing a horse. Sacrifice is in becoming one with the consciousness of the horse and only then can we get the divine wealth from above.

To be sure, there can be no sacrifice without aspiration. At every moment aspiration is necessary. But this aspiration has to be genuine and has to come from the very depth of the heart. It cannot give us realisation if it is not genuine. Aspiration does not know how to pull or push. Restlessness and aspiration can never go together. Very often beginners think that if they aspire they have to be very dynamic. This is true. But we do not see dynamism in their aspiration. What we see is restlessness. They want to realise God overnight. If we take this restlessness as determination or dynamism, then we are totally mistaken.

May I report an oft-quoted story? A seeker went to a spiritual Master. He was properly initiated and in a few days time this seeker, the disciple, said to the Master: “Master, now that you have initiated me, please give me God-realisation.” The Master said. “You have to practice meditation for a long time.” After a few days the disciple again said, “Master, Master, give me realisation.” He bothered the Master for a long time. One day the Master asked him to follow him. The Master went to the Ganges for a dip and invited the disciple also to enter into the water. When the disciple was neck-deep in water, the Master pushed the disciple’s head under water and held it there. After some time the Master let him come up, then the Master asked him, “How did you feel when you were underwater?” The disciple replied, “O Master, I felt that I would die if I did not get a breath of air,” The Master said, “You will realise God on the day that you feel you are dying and He alone can give you new life. If you can die for God, if you can cry for Him in that way, then you are bound to realise Him.”

The Master offered this message — the truth. Unfortunately we very often see that when a Master offers the truth, the disciples misunderstand. They understand it according to their limited light, or they feel that the message the Master has given is totally wrong. Now if the truth that is offered by the Master is not properly understood and used, then in the field of manifestation the disciple, the seeker, will never be fulfilled. The highest Truth will always remain a far cry for him.

In the Upanishads, Indra and Virochana came to Prajapati for the highest Knowledge. Indra represented the Gods and Virochana represented the demons. When Prajapati offered them the Knowledge of the Brahman, Indra again and again came back to verify the knowledge and he finally did realise the highest Knowledge. But Virochana understood the truth in his own way and he did not feel the necessity to come back again and again to realise the highest Truth.

Mediation and meditation¹

Two conflicting parties; one party declares might is right; the other party prefers right is might. We observe in the Mahabharata, India’s greatest epic, that the Kauravas were all out for might is right and the Pandavas maintained the light of conscience that right is might. We all know the Pandavas won the battle.

The animal in us instigates us by roaring around that might is right. The human in us inspires us by going deep within that right is might. The divine in us illumines us by offering the supreme Truth that it is God alone who has all Might and who is all Right.

When we look at the unlit consciousness on the human level we see something quite disappointing and damaging. We see that this unlit consciousness is very often unthinking, unaspiring and possessing. Here at this point we have to invoke the Grace of God. It is the divine Grace that can transform the unthinking into thinking, the unaspiring into aspiring, the possessing into renouncing, consciousness.

Mediation is a temporary mental relief, a pause, a rest, in the life of the vital and a clever compromise. To expect abiding peace and illumining fulfilment from mediation is simply absurd. Here on earth everything is omniscient therefore mediation has its great value. But since everything is fleeting, if we can derive a little joy, a little peace, a little harmony from mediation, our mental wisdom, we should be proud of our achievement. But the lasting peace we cannot expect from mediation. Also we must not expect illumining fulfilment forever from mediation. For that we need meditation. Again, as I said before, at a certain stage in human development, when most of the people are not aspiring to be perfect, mediation, the role of mediation, is of great importance. Therefore we must pay our attention, our reverential attention, to mediation.

We are now at the United Nations. The United Nations is the mediator unmatched and unparalleled in today’s world.

"The Secretary-General and his special representatives have assisted in finding solutions to problems in a number of areas. The Secretary-General’s efforts assisted the Government of the Soviet Union and the United States to avert a serious threat to the peace which arose at the end of 1963 in the Caribbean. In the Dominican Republic crisis in 1965 a representative of the Secretary-General, appointed at the request of the Security Council, helped in securing a ceasefire. The fighting between Israel and the Arab States that followed the eruptions of the Palestine partition — the partition plan in the establishment of the State of Israel — was halted by a United Nations cease-fire. Then following negotiations carried out with a United Nations mediator, armistice agreements were signed in 1949. Peace corps observers have been in the area ever since, supervising the armistice agreements.”

These achievements are unique in the physical world, in the vital world, in the mental world and in the psychic world. Unfortunately these achievements may not, or do not, or cannot, last. We have seen the first world war, the second world war; there should not be, at least for God’s sake, a third world war.

Very often animal aggression gives birth to human expansion. This human expansion is chased by bitter frustration. Then later on human expansion is devoured by utter destruction.

In the spiritual life, in our inner life, again we see two conflicting parties: fear and doubt on one side and inner courage and faith on the other side. Meditation plays three distinctive roles in the inner life. Meditation is the medicine, meditation is the doctor, meditation is the cure, the ultimate cure. Meditation cures our fear, it transforms our fear into strength, adamantine will; it transforms our doubt into constant, unmistakable, inevitable certainty. Again, we see meditation is the road, meditation is the guide and meditation is the Goal. He who is surcharged with inner courage and faith will get constant help and illumination from meditation. Further, let us not forget that meditation is the only road, the only guide and the only Goal.

The blind human body needs constant mediation. The wild human vital needs striking mediation. The unclear human mind needs illumining mediation. The weak human heart needs lasting mediation. That is in the outer world.

In the inner world, the fleeting, unaspiring human body needs constant meditation. The running, struggling vital needs striking meditation. The searching and climbing human mind needs illumining meditation. The crying and aspiring human heart needs everlasting meditation.

In the outer world, in this world of turmoil, mediation is necessary. In the inner world, in the world of frustration, despair, meditation is necessary. If we can bring to the fore the result of meditation, mediation shall have a life, a different life, a new life which will be flooded with everlasting peace, light and bliss.

In the fleeting, in the finite, we shall hear the message of the Eternal and the Infinite.

AUM

I wish all of us to stand up and pray to God most sincerely and soulfully for our dear Secretary-General U Thant’s quickest recovery.

[Everybody stood up and meditated with Sri Chinmoy for five minutes.]

Destruction's rod

O North, O South!

I have no cry,

O ceaseless fall,

A fearful sigh,

A living hush,

Without, within,

Meditations

1.

2.

3.

So is mysticism.

4.