My aspiration-heart and my dedication-life sleeplessly need three invaluable realities: concentration, meditation and contemplation.
Concentration is power. Meditation is peace. Contemplation is bliss.
There are various ways to acquire concentration-power, meditation-peace and contemplation-bliss. But there are three easy ways to acquire these in measureless measure.
If I want to acquire power, then I shall concentrate on a very tiny reality. I shall focus all my attention on a little flame and I shall, without fail, acquire concentration-power.
If I want to have peace, then I shall meditate on a very large reality. I shall meditate on the vast sky and the vastness of the sky will inundate my inner being with peace.
And if I want to have bliss, then I shall contemplate on the sweetest, dearest and most intimate Oneness-Reality here on earth and there in Heaven— my Beloved Supreme.
Contemplation has and is the message of union—the conscious union of the finite with the Infinite, the conscious union of the seeker-lover in us with our Beloved Supreme. It is only by virtue of contemplation that the divine lover eventually grows into his Beloved Supreme.
The Beloved Supreme and the divine lover enjoy playing a divine game together. Their game has neither a beginning nor an end. It is a birthless and deathless game. When this game is far advanced, something unimaginable happens. The Beloved Supreme says to the divine lover, “Let us exchange our respective roles. Let Me become the divine lover and you become the Beloved Supreme.” The seeker-lover naturally obeys, and they start enjoying a new game, a completely unprecedented game, and this continues for a long time.
When they want to add more joy to their game, the original Beloved Supreme says to the divine lover, “Let us assume once more our previous roles and let us now play a new game. Let us enjoy hide-and-seek. I shall hide, and you shall seek Me out. You will get boundless joy when you find Me again. Once you are successful and I am discovered, we shall reverse the course of the game. You shall hide and I shall seek you out.”
Since God’s Vision-Dawn, this hide-and-seek game has been in progress. It is the game of Eternity, Infinity and Immortality. Here Eternity is eternal Peace and eternal Silence. Infinity is infinite Beauty, infinite Grace and infinite Light. Immortality is immortal Delight, Nectar-Delight.
Contemplation is an art, a supreme art. This art is not for a beginner. It is only an advanced seeker who can contemplate. Who is an advanced seeker? An advanced seeker is he who has either renounced or is on the verge of renouncing his long-cherished ignorance-night totally and permanently. An advanced seeker is he who breathlessly cries for God’s sleepless Smile. An advanced seeker is he who is shaping and moulding within himself an unconditional love for God. An advanced seeker is he who longs to be unconditionally surrendered to the Will of God. An advanced seeker is he who wants nothing short of God’s Satisfaction in God’s own Way.
An advanced seeker constantly listens to his conscience. His conscience is his code of life. His conscience is his art. His conscience is his religion. When he does something good, he feels that he is following his code of life. When he does something bad, he feels that he has swerved from the path of Truth and that he is no longer faithful to his code of life, his art, his religion.
President Lincoln was criticised mercilessly by his adversaries. Some even went to the length of doubting his religious beliefs. His firm statement was, “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. This is my religion.”
An advanced seeker gives paramount importance to regularity and punctuality. Regularity and punctuality everyone needs, in every walk of life. Not only an ordinary seeker, a beginning seeker, needs regularity and punctuality. No, even an advanced seeker needs regularity and punctuality. Every day he has to discover deep within himself God’s choice Hour. And when God’s choice Hour strikes, he has to be ready for his contemplation-art.
A pianist was once asked by his admirers, “How is it that you have to practice six to seven hours a day? You are already an accomplished musician.”
The pianist said, “If I do not practise for a day, I will notice it. If I do not practise for two days, my critics will notice it. If I do not practise for three days, the audience will notice it.”
Here what do we learn? We learn the message of perfection. In contemplation the finite becomes the Infinite and the Infinite plays in and through the finite. This is perfection.
The seeker himself, his Inner Pilot, the world-critics and the world-audience all want to observe one thing: perfection. If the advanced seeker does not contemplate regularly, he will notice it. And somebody else, his Inner Pilot, will, without fail, notice it. His Inner Pilot wants perfection from him. Out of His boundless Concern, his Inner Pilot wants perfection from his choice instrument. And the instrument, the advanced seeker, also wants to be perfect. When an advanced seeker regularly contemplates devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally, he feels that he is growing into a perfect instrument of the Supreme Artist, his Beloved Supreme.
The world-critics do not actually care whether the seeker has achieved perfection; they just want to criticise him. And the rest of the world is only curious. The world-audience does not actually care about the seeker’s individual progress. It just wants to see if he is really aiming at perfection or if he is simply fooling himself or trying to fool the world. Even if the advanced seeker has not attained perfection in contemplation, the audience will perhaps be equally happy, as long as its curiosity is satisfied.
If you are a seeker and you want to learn the art of contemplation, you need three important things: sweetness, fondness and oneness. Sweetness-capacity, fondness-capacity and oneness-capacity you have to develop. In order to achieve the quality of sweetness, try to visualise right in front of you a lovely child—a beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful child—and feel that all the qualities of the child are entering into you.
For the quality of fondness, you have to imagine the fondness of a mother for her child, or of a child for its mother. If you can achieve the fondness-capacity of a mother or a child, then you can rest assured that your heart has made tremendous progress.
To develop oneness, you have to visualise or imagine Heaven and earth at the same time. Try to recollect the Saviour Christ’s supremely powerful oneness-message: “I and my Father are one.” Here the Heavenly Father and the earthly son are inseparably one, and their oneness is nothing short of perfection and satisfaction. So, sweetness, fondness and oneness are the three supreme qualities an advanced seeker who wants to contemplate must develop.
Contemplation is for the seeker. Contemplation is for the knower. Contemplation is for the lover. Contemplation is a knowledge-plant. This is what a seeker realises. Contemplation is a wisdom-tree. This is what a knower realises. Contemplation is a satisfaction-fruit. This is what a lover realises. Here we are all God-seekers. We are consciously, soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally longing to be God-knowers and eventually God-lovers. When we become true God-lovers, we will become perfect artists in contemplation-art.
92. Columbia University; New York, New York, USA, 1 April 1981↩
From:Sri Chinmoy,The oneness of the Eastern heart and the Western mind, part 3, Agni Press, 2004
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/oeh_3