AUM — Vol. 1, No. 1, January 27, 1974

University lectures

Realisation, revelation and perfection1

With your kind permission I wish to say that this is my fourth visit to Harvard University. In 1969 I spoke on The Vedanta Philosophy; in 1971 on The Upanishads: The Crown of India’s Soul; last year on The Glowing Consciousness of Vedic Truth; and now my fourth talk will be on Realisation, Revelation and Perfection. Since I am a spiritual seeker, a seeker of the highest transcendental Truth, the subject of today’s talk is one with which my heart and soul are intimately familiar.

Realisation, revelation and perfection. The animal in us has realised that destruction is perfection. The human in us has realised that partition or separation is perfection. The divine in us has realised that transformation of our human nature is perfection. The Supreme in us has realised that manifestation of our inner divinity and reality is perfection.

Destruction is power. Separation or partition is power. Transformation is power. Manifestation is power. Destruction-power is the animal revelation. Separation-power is the human revelation. Transformation-power is the divine revelation. And manifestation-power is the supreme revelation.

As we advance in our spiritual life we come to realise that destruction-power is abominable and separation-power is deplorable; but transformation-power is admirable and manifestation-power, the divine manifestation-power, is most adorable.

A sincere and genuine seeker goes deep within and discovers the truth that animal life is sheer futility; human life, if it does not aspire, is stark stupidity; divine life is immediate necessity; and spiritual life is our deathless and birthless immortality.

For God-realisation we need aspiration-cry.

For God-revelation we need dedication-smile.

For God-manifestation we need patience-wisdom.

Aspiration is a perfect stranger to rejection. It accepts everything within and without. Then the things that have to be transformed it transforms on the strength of its climbing cry.

Dedication is a perfect stranger to calculation. When a sincere seeker dedicates himself to the right cause, to the inner goal, he forgets how to calculate. He goes far beyond the domain of calculation. His dedication is self-giving, soulful giving, unconditional giving of what he has and what he is.

Patience is a perfect stranger to imperfection. When aspiration and dedication loom large in our spiritual life, patience, our third friend, plays its role most satisfactorily. Patience and God’s infinite Compassion play together and dance together. At that time we see that our teeming imperfections are ready to be transformed into perfect Perfection.

God-realisation is like climbing up a tree. God-revelation is climbing up and down the tree time and again at God’s choice Hour. Perfection is offering the fruits of the tree to the world at large.

Love, always love. When we love soulfully, realisation does not and cannot remain a far cry. When we serve and serve devotedly, revelation cannot remain a far cry. When we unconditionally become the transcendental Truth and Reality, God-manifestation does not and cannot remain a far cry.

Sri Krishna realised God, the absolute Supreme. After he had realised the Lord Supreme he became God the eternal Lover and God the eternal Beloved. The Christ realised God the transcendental Father. On the strength of his supreme realisation he declared, “I and my Father are one.” The Christ became the universal brother. We too, if we are humble and sincere seekers, can realise God the absolute Supreme. After realising God the Supreme Pilot we can become universal servers of Truth and Light.

Realisation tells us who God is. Revelation tells us what we can do for God. Manifestation and perfection tell us what God does for us and what we do for God.

Who is God? God is our inner cry and God is our outer smile. He cries with us and for us on earth. He smiles with us and at us in Heaven. God is at once our heart’s eternal Lover and our soul’s Supreme Beloved.

What can we do for God? We can do one thing and that is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a chimerical mist. It is a reality within us trying to come to the fore and reveal itself for God-manifestation on earth.

What God does for us is simple, spontaneous, illumining and fulfilling. He liberates us from our teeming imperfections with His unconditional and transcendental Compassion. And what we can do for God is equally simple, spontaneous, illumining and fulfilling. On the strength of our heart’s constant inner mounting cry we can try to make Him smile, smile with joy at His creation vast.


AUM 1085. Paine Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 9 January, 1974

Thought-waves2

From the spiritual point of view each thought carries a special weight in our mind. Each thought has a special signification. In our ordinary life we all know what a thought is. We create thought. We cherish thought. There is nobody who does not know how to think — ordinary thinking, that is. If someone does not know how to think, we call him a fool. But if one who has a developed mind stops thinking, if he has learned the art of stopping the mind, he makes tremendous progress in the spiritual life. When a thought enters into the aspiring mind, it is like meeting an enemy in the battlefield. The more one can silence the mind, the sooner one realises the goal.

The human mind feels that thought is the ultimate power and light. Unfortunately, this is a deplorable mistake. The aspiring heart constantly receives the supreme message from the soul. Only by silencing the mind can one receive this message and reach the highest absolute Supreme.

The Lord Buddha silenced his mind and entered into Nirvana, the bliss unfathomable of the Transcendental Height. The Christ opened his heart and embraced all of humanity on the strength of his universal oneness with his Father, the ultimate Goal. Either by silencing the mind or by opening the heart, today’s man can become tomorrow’s God, tomorrow’s divinity. And embodied divinity soon becomes revealed immortality.

Desire and aspiration are two simple words, but they embody tremendous power. Desire embodies power, which very often ends in frustration. This frustration gives birth to destruction and annihilation. Aspiration each human being has; he embodies aspiration. And this aspiration in him builds up the tower of Truth, Light and Bliss. Finally, he not only realises but also manifests the Kingdom of Heaven in his inner being.

Aspiration consciously follows the road of light, whereas desire consciously or unconsciously follows the path of darkness. Darkness means satisfaction in limitation. Our desire wants to grab and possess, but before it possesses, it is possessed. While being possessed, while enjoying consciously or unconsciously the role of subjugation and imperfection, desire is to some extent satisfied. But aspiration is never satisfied with imperfection. It climbs up high, higher, highest. At each moment the mounting flame in us, while climbing toward the highest, illumines the obscure, impure, unaspiring elements of our gross physical.

Desire is the product of our thought-waves. Aspiration is the product of our soul’s will. The soul’s will we can possess and claim as our very own only when we consciously surrender what we have and what we are to the Supreme. What we have is an inner longing for Truth, Light and Bliss. We have to offer this longing unconditionally to the Supreme, our Inner Pilot. What we are is ignorance, unfathomable ignorance. This ignorance, too, we can and we must offer to the Supreme consciously, devotedly and unconditionally. Instead, we wallow in the pleasures of ignorance and, what is worse, we often do it consciously and deliberately. The desire in us demands that the physical in us rest eternally in the sea of ignorance. The aspiration within us warns us that once we go to sleep it will be extremely difficult for us to awaken our consciousness and get up. The realisation in us, our soul’s realisation, tells us that we are already fast asleep in the domain of ignorance and that we have been sleeping there for millennia.

A sincere seeker of the highest Transcendental Truth can transform and purify the desire-life with the life of aspiration. In order to do this he must know what desire has done for him. Desire has offered him a sense of dissatisfaction. Even after the fulfilment of his desire he is dissatisfied. The seeker sees that in the depth of his desire and in the very fulfilment of his desire, there looms large a sense of complete dissatisfaction. Why does this happen? It happens because desire is not the ultimate truth. Desire cannot offer us the ultimate Truth, which is all-satisfying. But when we follow the path of aspiration, even an iota of Light satisfies us. Although we know perfectly well that an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss cannot quench our eternal inner thirst, each iota of divine Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss carries tremendous satisfaction for us. And gradually, on the strength of our aspiration, each tiny drop of divinity grows into a vast ocean of fulfilment.

Aspiration embodies satisfaction. Desire embodies dissatisfaction. Each human being has the right to stay either in the desire-world or in the aspiration-world. Here we are all seekers of the truth. For us, aspiration is the road. We shall walk joyfully along the road of aspiration. Today the very thing that we call aspiration, tomorrow we call realisation. The day after, we call the same thing revelation. And the following day we call it manifestation, our manifestation of divinity.

A sincere seeker is blessed with inner vision when he has free access to the Source. He continually and constantly depends on his inner vision. Once he has established his connection with the Source, his life becomes the perfection-message of God, the realisation-message of God, the illumination-message of God. And in the course of time, in either the near or the distant future, in the process of evolution, humanity is bound to accept these messages. What is the essence of these messages? Love, Love divine, which is the song of universal oneness. If we silence our thought-waves and listen to our heart-waves, we can spread the love-message of the Supreme. We can offer this love-message to the world at large and we can sing the song universal to kindle the flame of aspiration in each individual.

We are now conscious of the supreme tree. We are climbing up the tree. Eventually we can grow into the cosmic tree and then we can watch the multimillion leaves which are our brothers and sisters grow and unfold. It is we, the seekers of the ultimate Truth, who can feed the inner hunger of these leaves of the supreme tree.


AUM 1086. Manning Hall, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 9 January, 1974

Stories by Mano Ranjan Ghose

AUM 1087-1088. Translated from the original Bengali by his younger brother, Chinmoy.

The Buddha's silence wins

One day the Lord Buddha was meditating. An elderly man came in and started abusing the Buddha most ruthlessly. The Buddha remained absolutely silent.

How long could he continue his abuse? After a while he stopped and was about to leave the place. But the Buddha said, “Just wait, please. I have something to ask you. Tell me, when you offer gifts to a person, if he does not accept your gifts, what do you do?

“I just take them back.”

The Buddha said, “Well, you have been trying to offer me the gifts that you brought with you. Since I have not accepted your gifts, you are taking them back with you.”

The man felt sad and ashamed of his conduct. He begged forgiveness of the Buddha. The Buddha forgave him and eventually he became a close disciple of the Buddha.

Mirabai and the sannyasin

Mirabai was a Princess of Rajasthan. She was a woman of immense beauty and virtue.

In the course of time Mirabai was married to a Prince. In his family everyone was a worshipper of the Mother-Power. Mirabai was the only worshipper of Sri Krishna. Because of this, a sad dispute arose every day.

There came a time when, utterly dejected and frustrated, Mirabai left her husband’s palace and went to Brindavan to live. It happened that a Bengali sannyasin, who was also a great worshipper of Sri Krishna, went to Brindavan at the same time.

Mirabai expressed a deep desire to visit this Bengali sannyasin, but the sannyasin would not condescend to see her. She was told that the sannyasin lived a life of austerity and penance, hence it was impossible for him to see and speak to a woman. Mirabai was deeply hurt.

A few days later, without securing the sannyasin’s permission, Mirabai went to visit him. She said, “I have always known that in Brindavan there is only one man and that man is Lord Krishna. The rest are all women, his devotees. How dare you claim to be another man? For me there is only one man, Krishna, here in Brindavan.”

The sannyasin recognised his mistake. His pride was smashed by Mirabai’s soulful wisdom-light. He spoke to Mirabai and Mirabai became his disciple.

Poetry selections

Please address me

```

My sweet Lord,

Please address my inner eye.

I shall immediately awake.

My sweet Lord,

Please address my inner ear.

I shall immediately respond.

My sweet Lord,

Please address my inner mind.

I shall immediately receive.

My sweet Lord,

Please address my inner heart.

I shall immediately achieve.

My sweet Lord,

Please address my inner life.

I shall immediately surrender.

```

Come in, my friends

```

Who is around my house?

Come in, my dear friend, Inspiration.

Who is at my window?

Come in, my bosom friend, Aspiration.

Who is at my door?

Come in, my eternal friend, Realisation.

Who is in my living room?

Sit down, my beloved friend, Perfection. ```

When I surrendered myself

```

When I surrendered myself

To the morning light,

God’s Eyes of Beauty

Blessed me.

When I surrendered myself

To the midday light,

God’s Heart of Beauty

Blessed me.

When I surrendered myself

To the evening light,

God’s Hands of Beauty

Blessed me.

When I surrendered myself

To the inner light,

God the Eternal Beauty

Blessed me,

Embraced me,

Claimed me. ```

Short story — Money, too, can serve God: give the money a chance

There was a spiritual Master with a few hundred disciples who, fortunately or unfortunately, had peculiar ideas about material wealth. He was of the opinion that money-power and God-love could never go together. Therefore, he made it a point not to accept any money from anyone. He felt that money was the worst possible evil on earth.

This Master’s disciples were extremely fond of him and extremely proud of his inner peace, light, bliss and power. They respected his ideas about money and supplied all his material needs, which were very few, without making him deal with money himself. In addition, most of them soulfully embraced their Master’s opinions and had as little to do with money as they possibly could.

Luva, a very close disciple of the Master, always liked to be exceptional at every time, in every case. He exploited the Master’s loving compassion quite often. The Master had repeatedly told everyone that he would not accept money for the interviews that he gave to disciples, seekers and admirers. He would accept no money for his spiritual discourses, either. But at the end of each interview with the Master, Luva used to plead with him to accept some money as a love-offering. The Master considered Luva a spoiled child and quite reluctantly he would accept money from him.

Because of this special preference for Luva, the Master became a victim to merciless criticism from some of his disciples and this was quite painful for him. But the Master thought that since Luva had many good qualities which others badly lacked, he could condone his dear disciple’s unfounded and persistent demand. Fortunately, there were also some disciples who were extremely devoted to the Master, and who felt that there was a special reason why the Master dealt with Luva in this way. For them the Master’s way of dealing with any disciple or any seeker or anybody on earth was simply perfect.

Luva’s exploitation of the Master in the matter of money lasted for three long years. Finally the Master changed his mind. One day he said to Luva, “Luva, from now on I shall no longer accept money from you after I give you an interview. Every week, as usual, I shall grant you an interview, but the fulfilment of my advice in your life of aspiration will most adequately serve the purpose of a fee or a love-offering.” Luva was astounded. But he felt that this time the Master was using his adamantine will. He felt that it would be no use arguing or pleading with the Master, because this time the Master would not surrender to his emotional demands. Nevertheless, Luva was reluctant to give up all at once the idea of offering money to his Master.

A few days later the Master said to Luva, “Come tomorrow morning for an interview. But remember, don’t bring any money with you.” The next morning the Master gave Luva a most significant interview. At the end of the interview he asked, “Well, Luva, have you brought any money with you?” Luva hesitated for a moment and then handed the Master a hundred-dollar bill.

Sadly the Master took the money. Then he became furious. He said to Luva, “Now my hands are itching, my palms are burning! I have told you people many times that I cannot touch money. Money is a hostile force. Now I have to wash my hands thoroughly with soap and water.” Luva was sad and happy. He was sad because he had created such discomfort for the Master, but happy because the Master had accepted his money once again. Still he could claim to be exceptional.

The following week the Master granted Luva another interview. At the end of the interview the Master asked him whether he had brought any money with him. In a trembling voice Luva replied, “Yes, I have.”

“Where is it?” the Master asked.

“It is inside my pocket.”

The Master cut off all the pockets of Luva’s shirt and said, “From now on when I give you interviews you will wear only this shirt which has no pockets, so that you will not be able to bring money with you. I am totally disgusted with you. You are constantly violating my law. And furthermore, it deeply pains me to tell you that you are polluting the spiritual atmosphere of my house by carrying money into my meditation room. Therefore, I shall not grant you any more interviews in my house. You are welcome to come inside to meditate, but each week when I give you an interview it will be outside my house, in the garden.”

The following week the Master and Luva were having a most soulful discussion under a mango tree in the garden. During this interview Luva had a solid and concrete experience of light and delight in his heart. He was overwhelmed with joy and again and again he offered his soulful gratitude to his Master.

When the interview was over, the Master, as usual, asked Luva whether he had brought any money with him. But before Luva could answer, a huge branch suddenly broke off the mango tree over them and fell right on the Master. The Master, being an old man, had not been able to move away in time, but in the twinkling of an eye, Luva had been able to escape. Immediately the disciple went back to help his Master. Seeing that the Master was severely injured and had lost consciousness, Luva was extremely frightened and upset. He ran to call the best possible doctor for his beloved Master.

When the doctor arrived he soon discovered that the Master’s case was extremely serious. His head was badly wounded. The doctor was very famous and also very expensive because of his unsurpassed capacity in medicine. In two months’ time he was able to cure the Master completely. Luva paid all the doctor’s fees.

After his recovery, the Master said to Luva, “Son, your money-power has saved my life this time, not my inner light and my spiritual power. But I wish to tell you that mere money-power cannot elevate human consciousness even an inch and if human consciousness is not elevated and transformed into divine consciousness, man will always remain undivine and half-animal. But at last the realisation has dawned on me that when money-power is needed to serve spiritual power — which is love-power and oneness-power, the power that enables today’s man to grow into tomorrow’s God — money-power should be accepted with loving and blessingful gratitude.”

Song — Sundara Hate

(English Translation)

```

You are beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful,

Beauty unparalleled in the Garden of Eden.

Day and night may Thy Image abide in the very depths of my heart.

Without You my eyes have no vision;

Everything is an illusion, everything is barren.

All around me, within and without,

The melody of tenebrous pangs I hear.

My world is filled with excruciating pangs.

O Lord, O my beautiful Lord,

O my Lord of Beauty, in this lifetime, even for a fleeting second,

May I be blessed with the boon to see Thy Face.

```

(Bengali Transliteration)

/Sundara hate sundara tumi/

/Nandana bana majhe/

/Nishidin jena an tare mor/

/Tomari murati raje/

/Tumi chhara mor nayan andhar/

/Sakali mithya sakali asar/

/Chaudike mor bishwa bhubane/

/Bedanar sur baje/

/Pabokigo dekha nimesher tare/

/Ei jibaner majhe/

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol. 1, No. 1, January 27, 1974, AUM Centre Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/aum_80