Imagination

We try to build castles in the air. We don't meditate for one month and then we try to imagine what is happening in the inner worlds. That is sheer stupidity. If we want to imagine something divine without meditating, it is useless; our imagination will all be false. But if we meditate with eagerness and then start imagining a little, at that time God will show us His Compassion and bring down Light for us. But even if we meditate first and then use our imagination, we should not use our imagination for longer than five or ten minutes. We should not use it for hours and hours. Also, early in the morning is the best time for us to exercise our imagination. In the beginning of our spiritual journey, imagination is good. Through imagination we can increase our inspiration. In our imagination we want to become something or we want to achieve something. Then, with the inspiration from our imagination, we can go a step further to aspiration; we can aspire to do what we have imagined. Then from aspiration we go a step further; we go to self-sacrifice. What are we sacrificing? We are sacrificing our limited consciousness — not to a stranger, not to someone else, but to our own highest consciousness. When we have sacrificed ourselves to our own highest consciousness, we enter into that consciousness and become one with our Inner Pilot. When we sacrifice ourselves entirely, we get a sense of Self-identification; and in Self-identification, in our oneness with the Highest, there abides our realisation. When we are in the ordinary consciousness, we always see familiar faces. From day to day there is no change; everything is monotonous. But once we have realisation, we find that at each moment we are seeing the world in a different way. We see in our divine consciousness that the world is at every second having a new birth. So we can start our journey with imagination and then progress to inspiration, aspiration, self-sacrifice and finally realisation.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Illumination-Fruits, Agni Press, 1974
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